Thinking like God Thinks ~ Rabqa

This what God says in Matthew 24:35 Heaven and earth will disappear, but my words will never disappear? We find these incredible thoughts of God in His Word. What God thinks & what He says are exactly the same.

Jesus said His words would never disappear they are eternal. If Jesus was standing in front of you speaking, you would not get anything except the Word of God. Jesus & His Word are the same yesterday, today & forever.


We need to renew our minds to the Word of God. We do this by absorbing the Scriptures, so we get into us what God thinks about situations. What does He say about fear? About sickness? About lack? About the abundant life He wants us to live? When we hear what God says, we can start to say the same, & that brings our thoughts in line with His.


The Bible is the greatest faith book, the greatest health book, the greatest prosperity book, the greatest miracle book, ever written. Whatever we need it is there. It contains God’s answers for any problem we face~answers to fear, discouragement, depression, failure, inferiority & much, much more.

The apostle Paul says in Colossians 3:16 NKJ) Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly If you let the Word have its home in your heart & mind, it will give you insight & intelligence & wisdom. Let God’s Word dwell in you richly, then you will see the difference in your life!


We must give the Word first place in our lives, whether it is in our homes, our marriage or at work. Let God & His Word be our soul’s vital necessity.


When we get the Word of God into our mind, it starts to play on the T.V screen of our heart. It becomes real to us that the picture rises up on the inside to dominate the flesh & overtake our life. The Bible is the T.V guide we use to tune in to the channels where God’s answers for our needs are~our T.V guide for relationships, for healing, for finances, for marriage & family, for every area of
life. It is through the Word of God that we seek God’s face & know His ways.


God’s Words are living & powerful, but they don’t get into us automatically. We have to do something to take hold of them in Proverbs 4:20, a father gives his child some important advice: My child, pay attention to what I say. Listen carefully to my words.

This Father is passing on wisdom to his child, but the child has to do something to receive it. He has to listen & to pay attention to it.


God our heavenly Father says the same thing to us. He says listen to My words~don’t ignore them. Listen to them, take them in, agree with them, do them for verse 22 says for they bring life to those who find them, and healing to their whole body.


The best way to listen to the Word of God is to hear yourself say it that is to speak it out aloud. This is a fundamental principal of faith

Rom 10:17 So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. When we hear the word of life coming from our own mouths, the Holy Spirit will use them to reprogram our minds & reshape our heart.


Faith grows by hearing the Word of God constantly. The quickest way to grow in faith is to hear yourself saying the Word, meditating on it, muttering it & affirming it. Scriptural meditation is simply saying & thinking what God says. A bit like a cow chewing its cud, you go over it, ponder it, think about, it speak it, again & again...until it gets down into your spirit & The Holy Spirit gives you personal revelation of its truth.


James talks about the power of words, he says our tongue is like the rudder of a ship. And a small rudder makes a huge ship turn wherever the pilot chooses to go, even though the winds are strong. 5 In the same way, the tongue is a small thing that makes grand speeches. But a tiny spark can set a great forest on fire.


These verses teach us about the power of the tongue. There is power in the tongue indeed, for good or evil. We can bless ourselves or curse ourselves by the way we speak. When we bless, we speak well of; When we curse we speak evil of. By the words we are the pilots of our lives, & we have the power to direct our course by the things we say. We need to set our mouth in the right direction. What we say is the key that opens the door to our lives.


Our faith will be no higher than our words, what we speak is what we become. What we saturate ourselves with, whether words of life or words of death will shape what we become.

So say what God says about you. Not what the world is saying. Not what the television or the newspapers are saying. Not what your spouse or your bosses are saying. & not what your own subconscious habits are saying. Listen to God’s words, & give attention to your own words by speaking God’s words. Renewing your mind is not just about what you say, of course. It’s also about what you believe in your heart.


1 Cor 9:25 AMP)Now every athlete who goes into training conducts himself temperately and restricts himself in all things. They do it to win a wreath that will soon wither, but we [do it to receive a crown of eternal blessedness] that cannot wither.

Those of us who intend to run the race to win must conduct ourselves temperately & restrict ourselves in all things. We cannot expect someone else to make us do what is right. We must listen to the Holy Spirit & take action ourselves.


Paul said in verse 27 he buffeted his body. He means that he disciplined it because he did not want to preach to others, tell them what they should do & fail to do it himself. Paul was running the race to win! He knew he could not develop his potential without bringing his body, mind & emotions under control.


Self discipline is essential to the Christian life. Unless we discipline our minds, mouths & our emotions, we will live in ruin. Unless we learn to rule our tempers, we can never achieve the success that rightfully belongs to us.


God wants us to train our minds like athletes in training to be champions. Champions are not born; they are developed. It is hard work & it is not easy.


Renewing the mind involves disciplining both what we choose to say & what we choose to think. We discipline our mouths by refusing to speak negatively & instead speak the Word of God & things that line up with His Word. We discipline our minds by refusing to follow unhealthy thoughts patterns & focusing on the good things of God.

Like an athlete who trains consistently, our strength, skill & effectiveness increases as we go on. On the other hand, like an athlete who slackens off training & goes on a junk food binge, if we slacken off compromise this discipline, we will go backwards.


Our faith muscles need to be strong~we need to be fit in the spirit. It is no different to someone going to the gym to lift weights; they start out with small weights then add more & more. Each time they lift the weights there is repetition after repetition that is going over the same thing. Over time muscle develops.


It is just the same with speaking & thinking on the Word of God. You practise it, you train with it, you repeat it again & again, & over time the muscles of your mind & spirit become strong.

Dr Margaret Court gives an example from her own life: In the late 1970s she went through a serious depression. She had a torn heart valve & was wrecked with an inferiority & guilt; she was obsessed with examining her past for sins to confess. She had a busy life as a mum with four children under eight, & in addition they had significant financial problems.


The fear she felt was horrific. Morning would come & she wished it was night & visa Aversa She felt in her spirit she could see roaring lions & other vicious animals about to eat her.

As a result of this she suffered terrible insomnia. Every night she would climb into bed only to get up again to get a glass of wine & take a sleeping tablet. She was convinced she would never sleep without them. But there is a history of alcoholism in her family, & she was in serious danger. This war went on inside her night after night.


In 1982 she started attending Bible College & encountered teaching about the power of God’s Word & started to say scriptures like 2 Tim 1:7 For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline. & Rom 5:17 For the sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and his gift of righteousness, for all who receive it will live in triumph over sin and death through this one man, Jesus Christ.
We learn in 2 Tim 1:7 that timidity is the same as fear, which is not from God & that God gives us power, love & self discipline, a calm & well balanced mind.


I am going to tell you a little secret fear will never stop coming against us. We must learn to do what God tells us to do whether we feel fear or not. We must do it afraid if necessary, but that is what courage does; it feels the fear & does it any way!


I always used to think if I felt fear I was a coward, but I have learnt when God told Joshua repeatedly to fear not (Jos 1:9; 10:8), He let him know that fear was going to attack him, but that he must walk in obedience to what God spoke.


We are not cowards if we feel fear. We are cowards only if we let fear rule our decisions.

Fear is a spirit that produces physical & emotional systems. When fear attacks us, we may feel shaky & weak or find ourselves sweating. It may take everything we can muster just to speak or move. None of that means we are cowards. The Word of God does not say “sweat not, shake not or tremble not: The Word says many times “fear not.”The way to conquer fear is to press on through it & get to
the other side of it~the side of freedom, which is the side of power.



What do you believe about yourself? Do you believe you must have approval from others in order to be happy? If so you will never be happy when anyone disapproves of you. Do you believe you are always wrong? If you do you will continue to produce wrong behaviour. Your life will bear fruit on the outside of what you believe about yourself on the inside.


God wants us to behave correctly, so He gives us what we need in order to that. God never requires us to do something without giving us what we need to do it. God gives us the gift of righteousness so we can become righteous in what we think, say & do! Although we sin, God’s free gift of righteousness cannot even be compared to our sin. Our sin is great but His free gift of righteousness is greater. Our sin is swallowed up in His righteousness. Our righteousness is not found in what people think of us, it is found in Christ.


Let that truth sink into your heart & mind. Jesus Christ is your righteousness. You are righteous in Him, & because of that God is pleased with you.

Make declarations based on Scripture, such as I am delivered from all evils & lust of the world; they have no hold over me. Alcohol, you have no hold over my life. Margaret (Court) said the temptation to drink to help her to sleep continued for about two months. Then it was like a light bulb went off inside of her. The Word became revelation, & one day she went to get a drink & it tasted dreadful. It had no hold anymore. & she hasn’t had a drink since that day.

2 Cor 4:18 so we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.

When you face difficult times, tell yourself that it cannot last forever, this too shall pass.

You can probably look back at your life & see many difficult times you endured even though you thought at the time I can’t stand this for another day. The devil probably tempted you every five minutes to believe the trial was going to last forever.


As you consider how many times you have already made it to the other side of pain, you can be
confident you will make it again through Christ who strengthens you (Phil 4:13). & on the other side of trials, you will see how God turned those experiences into good for your life (Rom 8:28).

If you have had a problem for more than six months, you probably feel as though your problem has lasted for an eternity. But our years on earth are only a little drop of nothing compared to forever. Paul said in 2 Cor 4:17-18 that the season of trials pass, but Paul learnt to keep his eyes on the prize of heaven & trusted God to prepare him so that God’s glory was revealed through his life.

When you are tempted to become discontented, remember: “This too shall pass” Your afflictions are light & momentary from the perspective of eternity. No matter how bad your current situation may look. God loves you. Never let go of the truth that God loves you, no matter what happens in your life. You can trust that everything will work out because of His great love for you.


You may be wondering why does the Word of God have this kind of power, it is because the Word applied by the Holy Spirit to your life, brings your natural life into line with the spiritual realm. By speaking it & attending to it you are connecting with the spiritual realm & calling things from that
realm into your natural life. In other words you bring the seen into the unseen.


The spiritual is more real than the natural. In the spiritual side of us that is connected with God. The flesh dominates most people, but not the child of God who is walking by the Spirit. God wants our soul to line up with our new spirit, & when soul & spirit line up, it keeps the flesh in line.

In the Garden of Eden, Adam & Eve rebelled against God. At that point the human spirit died & the mind took charge. But your spirit was always ordained to rule over your mind & body. When you gave your heart to Jesus, He brought life back to your spirit man. Now, as coheirs with Christ, seated with Him in heavenly places (Eph 2:6), we are able to realign our life with the spiritual realm.

The supernatural flows through us when we take time to meditate on the Word of God & build ourselves up in the Holy Spirit by prayer. We are supernatural people. We are just passing through this earth. Through the Word of God we bring our Words & thoughts into alignment with our identity as God’s children. As our words frame this new reality, they ignite within us & drive out the things that have hold on us.


In other words we bring the unseen into the seen. According to 2 Corinthians 4:18, the realities of the world that we can see are temporal that is they are temporary & subject to change. The things we can’t see, the realities of God & the spiritual realm, are eternal & unchanging. When you renew your mind to the Word of God, you can start to draw those unseen eternal realities into the seen.

Our faith doesn’t move God. It realigns us with the Word of God & the Spirit of God to receive from the things of the Spirit.


Imagine a catamaran sailing on the water, which is an extremely stable kind of boat because of its two hulls. It does not heel over in the wind, & even if it lifts up on one side, the captain has control of the rudder, pushing the boat through the winds & the water.


The words of our mouth & the thoughts of our minds are like the two hulls of the catamaran. As we bring them both into line with the Word of God they stabilise our life.


You are the captain of your boat: the master of your mouth, your thoughts & your heart. As long as you control what you allow onto your vessel & as long as you keep control of the rudder~what you
say & what you think~ Philippians 4:7 says Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus
Prayer & peace are closely connected. One who entrusts cares to Christ instead of fretting over them will experience the peace of God to guard him from nagging anxiety.


In difficulties & problems, whether it is in relationships, health, character, attitude or anything else, many people will turn to drugs alcohol, cigarettes & all sorts of other things because they think it will bring stability or soundness to their life. They look for peace in all the wrong places~New Age practices, Eastern meditation, fortune telling & palm reading. They listen to all kinds of false prophets’ hoping they will pick up clues about the meaning of their lives & the shape of their future.

We have the greatest prophet living inside of us that is the Spirit of Jesus. It is knowledge of Him that we experience peace.


2 Peter 1:2 May God give you more and more grace and peace as you grow in your knowledge of God and Jesus our Lord.

The opening phrase matches the greeting in 1 Peter 1:2. Knowledge is an important term in this letter (See 1:3,8; 2:20) The strengthened form of the Greek word epignosis indicates religious or moral insight, as used in the New Testament for other uses of knowledge gnosis (See 1:5,6; 3:18). The frequent references maybe an effort to combat a form of Gnosticism, an esoteric religious philosophy, which stressed knowledge as the way to God. Peter’s message is that true knowledge is found in God of Christ & the scriptures.


Allow the Word of God to be the stabiliser in your life. It will take you through whatever you are going through by the power of the Holy Spirit

Acknowledgments: Dr Margaret Court

The problem with Gomer. ~ Ganeida

Sow for yourselves righteousness,
       reap the fruit of unfailing love,
       and break up your unplowed ground;
       for it is time to seek the Lord,
       until he comes and showers righteousness on you. Hosea 10:12

Gomer.  Mention Gomer & you probably immediately think, "Oh yes, Hosea's harlot."  And everybody is so busy knowing all about Hosea acting out Israel's apostasy in his marriage they completely miss the point. I mean, it's a great story, isn't it?  We all know it ~ or think we do; the man of God allying himself to a strumpet & thundering at Israel.  And we leave it at the church door with the biscuit crumbs & used tea bags. But the story of Gomer & Hosea is more than an old testament story that has no relevance for us because all of scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness [2Timothy3:15~17]

Now I guess you know where I'm going to start.  Sorry people but this really needs to be put in context because without the context you may miss the slow slide into apostasy that brought about Israel's downfall & which has such frightening parallels for our own age.  Besides I do so love history!

Hosea ministered to the Northern Kingdom of Israel in the last decades of its existence during the 8th century, somewhere between 750 BC & 722 BC, Israel having divided into 2 kingdoms after the death of Solomon under the rule of his son Rehoboam.  Rehoboam ruled the old kingdom of Judah.  Jeroboam ruled the new kingdom of Israel but there was a problem.  Jerusalem lay in the old kingdom & the Israelites were obligated to go  down to Jerusalem for the great feasts.  You can imagine, I'm sure, Jeroboam's paranoia & insecurity at having most of his subjects packing up to trek down to Jerusalem several times a year, so Jeroboam devised a solution ~ & not one that pleased God .  Enter in the worship of Baal ~ again!

Now under Jeroboam's rule Israel flourished.  It was a powerful military state with considerable wealth [remember the Queen of Sheba travelled to see Solomon in all his glory & marvelled at it & Israel was still experiencing God's favour].  It influenced International affairs.  However it was in internal disorder & with Jeroboam's death in 746 BC it erupted into civil war.  Over the next 10 years Israel was ruled by 5 different kings with tenuous claims to the throne.  Some only ruled for a matter of weeks, some for a few months, each successive ruler slaying the one who preceded him.  Utter chaos.  This was Hosea's world ~ & Amos' ~ & Jeremiah & Micah's!

Into this fevered political mix add Tiglath~Pileser III, who became ruler of Assyria in 745 BC with the stated purpose of restoring the Assyrian Empire!

This was also Gomer's world & the thing to note, because it is easy to miss in translation, is that the word for prostitute is also the word for one who has offered herself to Baal in worship.  That is, she was a temple prostitute, or perhaps, more likely, an ordinary Israelite matron who had partaken of the sexual aspects of worshipping Baal ~ as so many others did.  She was not an anomaly.  She was a perfectly ordinary Israelite woman of her time who saw nothing wrong with what she was doing.  Now, having waded through a series of commentators, I know that is not everyone's viewpoint but it is mine & I will tell you why. When we come to Daniel we run up against exactly the same thing & remember I am an English major, not a theologian!  God is absolutely consistent with His symbols!  Idolatry is a particular beef of His, starting with the commandment to have no other gods but Him, working it's way to forbidding David from building the temple because not only was he a man of war, but for his sexual sin with Bathsheba, all the way into the New Testament where He declares our bodies are temples for the Holy Spirit & not to defile them!  Absolutely consistent.  If she was just a prostitute that is one thing, & she should have been stoned to death for it.  If she was a temple prostitute or one who has partaken of Baal's fertility rites, that is something else, something different & it implies far more than just the selling of her body.  It implies that she has sold herself to another god.

Now the thing with immorality is that it coarsens our sensibilities.   Abuse of love diminishes the ability to love deeply.  Over time many gentler attributes are lost & people become brazen & proud ~ & so we see with Gomer.  She is used to a variety of sexual partners & the novelty that would heighten her sexual experiences ~ & you see it all about you today.  Sex sells ~ everything from toothpaste to luxury apartments, deodorant to porches.  You see it in the trampy clothes the girls wear that are too short & too tight & highlight all their selling points ~ & make no mistake, whether they know it or not they are selling themselves in the sexual market.  You see it in the way the boys talk to the girls.  There is no respect.  Our world is very like that of 8th century Israel.  The political climate is uncertain. War lurks on the horizon. In so many churches Christianity has been compromised.  The whole face of Europe is likely to change in the next 30 years & it will become part of the wider Islamic territories.  How have we come to such a pass?  The answer is in Hosea.

As Christians, as a people who have been grafted into the root & branch of  the people of God through faith in Jesus Christ, we are in a peculiar position.  Much of what was originally directed to the Hebrew tribes also pertains to us because God does not change & His expectations & directives to His particular people are the same yesterday, today & forever.  So what Hosea has to say pertains to us, to our nations, to our churches, to our personal walks with God.

"Well", you say, "I'm not into worshipping idols".  Really?  Are you sure?  I am going to highlight some of the main themes that run through Hosea because we need to be vigilant & make sure that we ourselves are not on the wide road to destruction.

Firstly I want to point out the nature of the man who originally made these claims against Israel.  His nature tells us whether his testimony is trustworthy or not.  Hosea was a man whose walk with God was so intimate that he not only heard but clearly understood what God was saying to him.  Having heard he obeyed!  I imagine that was no easy thing given what he was asked to do.  He was asked to obey by his actions before he was called to speak out so God could speak through Hosea's life.                

Hosea is an anthology, a collection of sayings gathered together but orbiting around 2 main themes: the judgement of God & the love of God.  There are approximately 150 statements concerning Israel's sin & more than half of those deal with her idolatry though she is also upbraided for lying, murder, insincerity, ingratitude & covetousness.  The judgement of God moves inexorably from a condemnation of the Royal household, who instigated the Baal worship , to the religious leaders of the time who have failed in their responsibility as teachers, who have encouraged the apostasy & profited from it & practised the false & syncretistic rites of their times & seduced the people into the same, to the nation as a whole. 

There are consequences to this sorry state of affairs.  Hosea's first born son is named Jezreel.  Jezreel was the place recorded in 2 Kings 9~10 where the Royal House of Omi was exterminated by the House of Jehu.  It is a pronouncement of judgement on the Royal household of Israel, a warning of what is to come.  Hosea's second child, a daughter named Ruhamah [not pitied]  is a warning that God has run out of patience with His stubborn people, to the point that by the third child, Lo~Ammi [not my people] God has rejected them. 

Through Hosea God makes a pronouncement that has held true down through the ages:  My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.[4:6]  Wherever a nation has backslidden [ 4:16]  & the priests blame others while no longer being concerned with God's work [4:4] the people have become like a dove, easy to fool & stupid. [7:11]  It is frighteningly simple.  If the teachers do not teach the people become lazy & spiritually weak & flabby, unable to resist temptation when it arises, unable to tell right from wrong, unable to discern the truth, mistaking wrong for right, each doing what seems good in their own eyes.  Where there is a lack of the knowledge of God in the land a lack of faithfulness, kindness & social order follow.  Look around you today; tell me what you see.

The problem with Gomer is that she's not the point.  She never was.  We have Hosea, as the prophets tend to, ranting & raving about the people's sin & warning of the judgement to come.  If that was all then we are all without hope but there is a wonderful image in Hosea 13.  God is still telling Israel what is about to befall them & says I will meet them like a bear deprived of her cubs.  Remember God is a jealous God.  If we say we are His He has a particular & vested interest in our well being & He has all the protective instincts of an enraged mother bear who finds her cubs gone from her.  

  However harsh the pronouncements they are always done out of a spirit of love to bring God's people back into alignment with the will of God.    Yes, God loves us but His is not an easy wishy~washy love of the sort Hollywood is so good at dishing up for God is also Holy;  God is just ; God is righteous.  God loves us enough to want to grow us up, to develop our spiritual backbone & moral fibre.  He loves us enough to tell us the harsh truths. What we do with the truth is up to us.   

The Problem with Gomer ~ & it is a problem that defines so much of the church~ is that she forgot a basic biblical principle.

Proverbs 4:23 Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.

Jesus Himself warned about this: But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these things defile a man. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, and slander. Matthew 15:18~19

We have talked a good deal recently about our thoughts, about renewing our minds, about putting on the mind of Christ because the consequences of disobedience are subtle but sure.  We either allow God to determine our thoughts or our culture will.  Wherever we take our world view from will determine what our world view will be. Our actions will follow where our thoughts have dictated.

Scripture is a very realistic look @ fallen humanity.  It understands The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is? Jeremiah 17:9

The good news is we have been freed from the clutches of sin ~ but ~ we must grasp hold of that freedom & apply it or it will do us no good at all! In this we are far better of than Gomer for we have the unmerited help of the Holy Spirit to guide us & He will guide us into all truth. [John 16:13].  In a world where truth has become *relative*, the Scriptures still stand as our guide because John says [17:17] Thy word is truth ~ Make them holy by your truth; teach them your word, which is truth.

I’ve said it before, I will say it again ~ & again: if you want to know the will of God, know His word.  It is never irrelevant.  It is never outdated. All of it is useful for teaching & correcting us in what is right & moral & how to relate to a world that, like Gomer, has followed after the lusts & desires of its own heart rather than seeking the things of God. 

Jesus promised us the abundant life that is found in Him: a life that is not in bondage to the things of this world, a life that walks in joy & freedom despite the heartbreak of a fallen world that does not wish to acknowledge how desperately they need its saviour!

Giving it Away...Ganeida

In Acts 3 we have the story of the lame beggar who sat outside the Beautiful Gate of the temple to beg from those going into worship.  It was a good place to choose because almsgiving is commanded in the Torah & guilting people into doing what they should is as old as time. I expect he did pretty well out of it.

On this particular day Peter & John were heading towards the temple for the 3 o’clock prayers when this lame man called out to them, asking for money ~ you know the story.  We sang it in Sunday school as children because Peter answers him:

Silver & gold have I none

But such as I have give I thee

In the name of Jesus Christ,

Of Nazareth, Rise up & walk…

And he went walking…

Great story! But I want you to stop & think for a moment about two things in this story.  The 1^st is something that Peter didn’t do.  The 2^nd is what he gave away. 

Peter did not *pray for the sick*.  He did not *pray for healing*. Rather he gave something away. Hold that thought for a moment because we have been talking in bible study about how we outreach; how we share the gospel; what that looks like, but all of that begins with understanding what we have been sent to do.

Well, you say, Matthew 28 ~ the Great Commission: make disciples, baptise people... or Matthew 10: heal the sick, raise the dead, cure leprosy, caste out demons. Or Luke 4:18 "The Spirit of the LORD is upon me, for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor. He has

sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free… And that is true.  Mostly we ignore all of it.  Either we don’t believe what Jesus commanded us or we don’t understand the how.

I am going to assume it is the later & address that because the how is what Peter & John understood & why they were able to heal the sick, caste out demons, raise the dead & cure leprosy. Both the good & the bad news is we are commanded to do the same.

You see the Great Commission comes @ the end of a number of commands Jesus gave His disciples about what they were to do once they were on their own. We are not meant to start @ the end because we cannot give away what we do not ourselves possess.  Nor can we give away that which we do not know we have.

Acts 10:38 informs us that God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit. John describes the moment that happened: I saw the Holy Spirit descending like a dove from heaven & resting upon Him…[John 1:32] John then goes on to tell us [v33]

that Jesus is the one who will baptise with the Holy Spirit. What Jesus received from the Father He gave away.  There is an impartation.  Without that impartation we are going to founder, trying to do, in our flesh & by our own strength, that which can only be accomplished through the empowerment of the Holy Spirit.

You will find this impartation in John 20:21 … As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you." Then he breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit…

The commissioning came first, but they were not sent out until they had received the empowerment of the Holy Spirit.

Now we have a problem, don’t we, because when we turn to Acts Jesus instructs His disciples not to leave Jerusalem until the gift of the Holy Spirit has been sent to them. They are to wait until He comes ~ but by then Jesus has already returned to the Father.

What we need to understand is that the Holy Spirit is not one dimensional.  He has a number of different characteristics   & a number of different jobs. One of His first jobs is to seal us unto the day of redemption… [Ephesians 4:30]

They don’t do it anymore, but when I was a little girl, if you went to the movies, or the theatre or the ballet, you would give an usher your jacket, umbrella, bags etc & they would give you a ticket so that when you came out you could redeem your belongings.

The Holy Spirit in us is Jesus way of saying: This belongs to me! All the spirit world can see that mark & they know to whom we belong but belonging is not the same as power & authority. 

See all authority has been given to Jesus ~ Matthew 28:18 & we can access that power & authority because we have His Holy Spirit residing in us. He has not given us a spirit of fear but of power, & of love & of a sound mind. [2Timothy 1:7]

Power comes before love; Power, dynamis, as in dynamite, because, much as I love the Holy Spirit, He is not given for my enjoyment & *feelies*.  He is given so that I can do that which the Lord has called me to do: heal the sick, raise the dead, preach the word, cast out demons.

You don’t ever need to ask what does God want you to do, because on this matter He is very clear: heal the sick, raise the dead, preach the word, caste out demons…

So why is the church, most spectacularly, NOT doing this?

I suggest to you there are 2 main reasons. The first is fairly straightforward.  Johnathon Cahn puts it this way: if you want an Acts 2 church, expect Acts 2 persecution! The early church was strong because it was a persecuted church.  You weren’t a Christian because it gave you wealth & status.  You were a Christian because you

had repented of your sins & the Holy Spirit indwelt in you.  The lukewarm, the fence~sitters, the uncommitted did not last very long because the cost was too high ~ just like it is today in Pakistan or India or Iraq or Saudi Arabia. These are places where the church does not understand divisions amongst believers. They can’t afford the wishy~washy.

However the 2^nd thing is even more important because it reveals something in us that I am going to call sin: a lack of discipline ~ & no! I am not talking about the 613 mitzvot [commands] in Torah. I am talking about what Brother Lawrence called *Practising the Presence of God* ~ by which he meant, being as much aware as possible of the presence & guidance of the Holy Spirit.  And yes, it is a discipline.

Remember John 1:32.  John says the spirit descended upon Jesus like a dove. See there is the Spirit within & there is the Spirit upon. The Spirit within is the New Creation, what turns this fleshly house into a temple of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit upon is the anointing.  The Spirit within gives us courage but it is the anointing that empowers us. When the Spirit came as a wind in Acts 2 He empowered the disciples.

The thing though is, the anointing is like a dove.  Doves are timid birds without natural defences against predators & easily put to flight. If we aren’t paying attention, if we are letting our flesh rule over our spirit we are never going to walk in the fullness of our power & authority.

John 3:34 informs us that Jesus had the spirit without measure ~ & we marvel at that but it is not so surprising.  Jesus only did what He saw the Father do.  He only said what He heard the Father say.[John 5:19~20]

We cannot say the same. We are not that disciplined.  We are not that focused.  We let other things get in the way & because of it we do not constantly walk in the anointing the way that Jesus did ~ because if we did we would be seeing more of the miraculous than we do.

This is what we see with Peter & John. They gave away what they had.  They didn’t have anything in the way of silver or gold ~ but they did have Jesus.  They had His Spirit.  They had His power & they had His authority & they used it to do exactly the same things that Jesus did: to heal the sick, to raise the dead, to preach the word, to cast out demons.

This is the ongoing challenge to the church.  Jesus tells us to pick up our cross & follow Him.  Where does the cross take us? To the place of crucifixion. And What happens @ the place of crucifixion?  We die to ourselves.  Jesus has done all the rest for us but we have to let go of self & die to our self~interests, our pleasures, our loves, our secret sin & let the Holy Spirit do that deep work in us so that we will have credibility in the eyes of the world & move in the anointing of the Holy Spirit to heal, to preach, to cast out & raise up!  Because, you see, everywhere we go, every person we see, should be impacted by Christ in us & that can only happen when Christ is, indeed, in us!

The Mind, Our Control Tower. ~ Rabqa

Have you ever been to an international airport? The crowds

jostle, suitcase are piled high, long queues snake away from the check-in counters. Maybe you have stood on a viewing deck & watched the activity outside on the tarmac; planes being fueled, food being loaded, bib trailers ferrying luggage to & off & landing, one after the other another all day & most of the night.


It has been estimated that at any given moment up to 13,000 planes are in the air around the world! & all of them have to land & take off safely & not only that but on time.


This all works so efficiently by the control centre which I may add is the most important part of an international airport. It is where the air traffic controllers work. They track hundreds of plane flights, giving them take off & landing instructions, & they also coordinate their movements on the ground. The control center synchronizes planes coming in going out. If it didn’t do its job, there would be chaos.


Your mind is the air traffic control centre of your life, & you are the air traffic controller. You have to control what comes in to your life & what goes out. Whatever you allow into your mind gets down into your heart & shapes your life.


God wants you to take control of what comes in & what goes out of your life. Nobody else can do it for you. Only you can decide what you are going to think on (what goes in) & what you are going to speak & do (what goes out).


Pro 23:7 NKJ) For as he thinks in his heart, so is he. “Eat and drink!” he says to you, But his heart is not with you

This verse teaches us that we become what we think, & I certainly learned this truth over the years. “Where the mind goes the man follows”. One of the first principals believers must learn if we intend to walk in real victory is that our mind must be renewed according to the Word of God. We must learn to think like God.


Sadly, we believe many things that simply are not true. For example, some people believe they have no worth & value because people have said they do not or have treated them in a way that made them feel worthless & devalued.


However the Bible makes it clear that we are so valuable to God that He sent His only Son Jesus Christ to die & suffer in our place in order that we may redeemed from our sins & have an intimate relationship with God.


As we learn to think as God thinks, we exchange depression & hopelessness for joyful expectation. We believe God has a wonderful future planed for us, no matter what our past has been like. We believe God wants to bless us.


When we have negative thoughts, we end up with negative results. But positive thoughts open the door for God to work in our lives. If we think we are unable to do certain things, we will be rendered unable even though God’s Word says that we can do anything God asks us to do because of His
ability in us (Phil 4:13)

Our thoughts are that powerful.


We must all change our way of thinking before our lives will change Rom 12:2 says we are not to conform to the world & its ways, but we are to completely renew our minds by the Word of God, so we can prove for ourselves the good & perfect will of God.

In other words God has good plans for us, but we will not experience them if we cling to our old way of thinking.

We must cast down wrong thinking & replace it with thinking that God approves of. The mind is a battlefield on which our war with satan is won or lost. Satan is a liar & a deceiver. His lies become our reality only when we believe them. Stop allowing your mind to be a garbage dump for satan’s trash & instead, make it available for God’s ideas. Then you will enjoy a life worth living & have the testimony of being good fruit for God’s glory.


The mind is the gateway to the heart. What goes into your heart gets into your mind & what is in your heart determines the kind of person you are.


God looks at the heart & we see this in 1Samuel 16:7 NL But the Lord said to Samuel, “Don’t judge by his appearance or height, for I have rejected him. The Lord doesn’t see things the way you see them. People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”


Know that God looks at the heart. Not the outward appearance. Do not judge based upon what you see. Wisdom is in large measure understanding the principals by which God governs the moral universe. To gain wisdom means to learn to God’s thoughts after Him, esteeming the things He esteems & despising the things He despises. Learning wisdom is gaining the perspective that results from adopting God’s values & rejecting the values of the world.


We learn from Jesus that our hearts are like trees & our outward behaviour is like fruit. The quality of the tree determines the quality of the fruit. Matt 7:17-18 NLT) A good tree produces good fruit, and a bad tree produces bad fruit. 18A good tree can’t produce bad fruit, and a bad tree can’t produce good fruit

If the tree in your heart is good, then the fruit in your life will be good. On the other hand if the tree of your heart is evil, the fruit of your life will be rotten. What determines the condition of your is what you put into your mind~what you allow to land at your airport. The things you take in & speak about & meditate on are what shape your heart.


It can be said that your heart is like a T.V screen. What shows on the screen depends on the signal coming in. What are you turning on in your life? What are you giving attention to? What are you think about? What are you speaking about?


If it is what God says to tune into~what is good & pure & true & life-giving then that’s what will show on your screen. But if you are tuning in to negative signals like fear, resentment, anxiety & sin, then that’s what will show on your screen.

Pro 4:23 NLT) Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.


Guard your heart means to value & protect your mind, emotions & will with all vigilance,. Practically, that means that we need to examine our attitudes & our thoughts on a regular basis & make adjustments as needed.


Many people are deceived into believing that they cannot help what they think, but we can choose our thoughts. We need to think about what we have been thinking about. When we do that, It doesn’t take very long to discover the root cause of a bad attitude.


Satan will always try & fill our minds with wrong thinking, but we do not have to receive anything he tries to give us. Let me put it this way: I would not take a spoonful of poison just because someone gave it to me, & neither would you. If we are smart enough not to swallow poison, we should also be smart enough not to allow satan to poison our minds, attitudes & ultimately our lives.


Guard your heart aggressively. Let your thoughts be good thoughts. Think about things that are honourable & true (Phil 4:8) & watch your heart & attitude change.


The more you speak about something the more you will embrace it. & the more you embrace it the more it will affect your emotions & reactions. The state of your mind will affect the condition of your body. What you allow into your heart through your mind, good or bad, will overtake your life.


Many things want to gain entry to our minds. Some come from outside us~what influence us such as what we listen to, what we watch on T.V & what we access on the internet. While others come from ourselves come from the choices we make & the words we speak, which profoundly shape what we think & believe.


Words are particularly important. The Bible says (Pro 18:21.(NLT) The tongue can bring death or life; those who love to talk will reap the consequences.


A person’s life largely reflects the fruit of the tongue. To speak life is to speak God’s perspective on any issue of life; to speak death is to declare life’s negatives, to declare defeat or complain constantly.


We cannot overestimate the importance of our words, because they truly can make a difference between life & death. Determine today to use the power of your words to speak life everywhere you go!


This verse I have known for years & am very familiar with it, But I am blessed every time I read it. I do not think we can read to often, know it too well or apply it to much. As you can tell by reading this verse, it teaches us that death & life are in the power of tongue, & those who indulge in it eat its fruit, either life or death.


Basically, the writer is saying every time you open your mouth, you a ministering life or death, & whatever you dish out is what you are going to eat.


We have all heard the phrase” you are going to eat your words” & proverbs 18:21 confirms this truth. The words we speak are going to influence our lives. In fact right now you may be eating your words & that may why you are not happy with your life. Your mouth maybe getting you into trouble with yourself.

This verse teaches us that words are containers for power; they either carry a life-giving force or a destructive force.


If you are desperately looking for an answer to what is happening in your life. Do you believe that it is even remotely possible that your answer could be found in changing the way you talk? Go ahead & try it I know the truth of Proverbs 18:21 & have experienced it many times in my own life. I believe if you will begin to speak positive, encouraging words of life & blessing, you will see blessing in your life!

The Bible tells us in Romans 21:2 NLT)

Don’t copy the behaviour and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.

Let God's Word & His Holy Spirit radically transform your way of thinking. Renew your mind to know & do the will of God. giving your body a living sacrifice. This verse informs us that God has a plan for us. His will towards us is good, acceptable & perfect, before we will ever experience the good things that God has planned, we need to renew our minds & get new attitudes& ideas by studying God's Word. Because His Word is truth (John 17:17).

Ezekiel 36:26 tells us that our soul, which is our mind, will & emotions, is not yet new. God has to start a new process to bring it into line with our new spirits. It is a process & we must cooperate with His Spirit who will work to reshape us but we have to do our part. Eph 6:12 NLT) For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.

This verse gives us insight into the spiritual war that all believers are in. Our enemies are not natural, but spiritual. We can never win our battles if we fight against the wrong source in a wrong way. We tend to think that people or circumstances are our problem, but the source of many of our troubles is satan & his demons. We cannot fight him with carnal (natural) weapons, but only with supernatural ones that God gives us for the destruction of satan's strongholds. We are in a spiritual war. God is Spirit (John 4:24), there are other spirits as well both
good & evil. Angels are good spirits who are God's servants. BUT there are also "rulers of the darkness of this age... spiritual hosts of wickedness in heavenly places" that are intent on waging war on the human race. Spiritual forces are at work behind every war in the world today. All human beings have a common enemy & it is not each other.

If you look at any nation where war is raging, on the surface you will see people fighting. But behind every conflict there are dark spirits that is what Paul calls "principalities & powers. The real war in the world is not natural warfare (terrible as that is) it is spiritual warfare. These dark forces work through men & women, including those in high places of authority. when people in high places make unrighteous decisions, nations start to slide. We see not only conflicts but collapsing moral standards & rise of social evils such as abortion & pornography.

This spiritual warfare isn't only raging in nations & societies, however, it rages around every human being, especially those who follow Jesus. Christians often discover they are in war when they first come into God's kingdom. It is like all hell breaks loose against them. This happened to me, I often found myself without money for food (I was on a pension because I did not want my children to come home with no one there). But those initial troubles are just the start. Over time we learn that there is an on going battle inside us, a tug of war between good & evil. Most people would rather not say about the spiritual side of their struggles, it's not fashionable, it seems a bit fanatical. In fact many Christians do not even acknowledge we have an enemy. But if we think about it, there's no spiritual war, we've already lost.

The fact is we do have an enemy. He has & his cohorts want nothing more then to ruin our lives in any way they can. He is intent on rendering us defeat & ineffective in our relationship with God. 1Peter 5:8 NLT) Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.

A hungry lion is one of the most fearsome sights in nature. It prowls around, angry & agitated, with only one thing on it's mind~finding food. The Bible compares satan to a hungry lion. Maintaining a balance in all things is so important we do not want to open the door to satan, who roams a round like a roaring lion. Ferocious & desperate, he continually stalking after prey with the goal of seizing it & devouring it.

The Amplified Bible translates 1Peter 5:8 graphically: Be well balanced (temperate, sober of mind), be vigilant and cautious at all times; for that enemy of yours, the devil, roams around like a lion roaring [in fierce hunger], seeking someone to seize upon and devour.

I want to share some thoughts with you that will help you stay balanced in one particular area of your life~your self esteem. Of course, there are many other aspects of life that need to be kept in balance as well, but I want to focus first on self image because it is such a foundational issue.

Satan is "roaring in fierce hunger", & his chosen prey is us. The devil wants your mind, your body & your very life. When Jesus described Himself as the good shepherd who was safe & a welcoming door for the sheep, He also spoke about the thief who breaks into the sheepfold: The thief does not come expect to steal & to kill & to destroy (John 10:10 a). That is a good description of satan. He only comes to steal, to kill & to destroy. Satan's goal is to create havoc in our life as children of God, he cannot touch our identity in Christ because nothing can separate us from God's love (Rom 8:38-39). But he can stop us walking in that identity. He fights to blind us from our inheritance in Jesus. He fights so that we won't live in victory over sin. He fights so that we won't prosper or walk in health. He fights to make us useless as ambassadors of God. Basically, he wants to take us out.

 In contrast, Jesus says He has come that they may have life, & that they may have more abundantly (John 10:10b). God wants us to have a rich & satisfying life~a joyous life. A faith-filled life. The word abundant means above the ordinary~a life of excellence. The enemy sets himself against all this. He comes to steal your divine possession, your joy & your faith. He will try to steal your assurance, your peace, your emotional well-being, your health, your marriage, your family, your business, & your finances.

In order to develop a balanced, healthy God~centred self image, incorporate these thoughts into the way you think about yourself.
1 I know God created me & He loves me.
2 I have faults & weaknesses, & I want to change. I believe God is working in me, in my life. He is changing me bit by bit, day by day. while He is working on me I can still enjoy my life & my self.
3 Everyone one has faults, so I am not a failure just because I am not perfect.
4 I am going to work with God to overcome my weaknesses, but I realise that I will always have something to deal with; therefore, I will not become discouraged when God convicts me of areas of my life that need improvement,.
5 I want to make people happy & have them like me, but my sense of worth is not dependent upon what others think of me. Jesus has already affirmed my value by His willingness to die for me.
6 I will not be controlled by what other people think, say or do, Even if they totally reject me. I will survive. God has promised never to reject or condemn me as long as I keep believing (John 6:29).
7 No matter how often I fail, I will not give up because God is with me to strengthen & sustain me. He has promised never to leave or forsake me Heb 13:5).
 8 I like myself. I do not like everything I do, & I want to change~but I refuse to reject
myself.
9 I am right with God through Jesus Christ.
10 God has a good plan for my life. I am going to fulfill my destiny & be all I can be for His glory. I have God given gifts & talents, & I intend to use them to help others.
11 I am nothing, & yet I am everything! in myself I am nothing, & yet in Jesus I am everything I need to be.
12 I can do all things God calls me to do, through his Son Jesus Christ Phil 4:13).

As I mentioned there are other areas where we should strive for balance. We should maintain balance of work & rest, eat a balanced diet, never spend more then we earn & enjoy people but also have solitude. Although we want to please people & have approval we must put God & His will first in our lives at all times. If we do not maintain balance in our lives, satan will take advantage of the door we have opened. Check your life & if you areas out of balance, ask God to help you make whatever adjustments are necessary.

Acknowledgements Dr. Margaret Court.

The God of Choices. ~ Ganeida

Mark 8:36~37And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul?

We have been looking @  2 things recently.  We have been looking @ how we are to bring every thought captive to Christ & we have been looking @ how we are to fight our spiritual battles.  We have discovered we need to align our thoughts & our actions with the Word of God that when we think, we think as God thinks, when we speak, we speak as God speaks & our actions are Christ within us, the hope of glory.

What I want to look @ today is something that I hope will help you with both these things.  Far too often we know with our minds that God is good ~ & we even believe that God is good but what comes out of our mouths & our actions deny the Truth because we have believed a lie.

Everybody say: Satan is a liar.  Everybody say Jesus is the way, the Truth & the Life.  What did Jesus do on the cross?  He crushed satan’s head.  Who’s authority do we carry?  Jesus’! So we are also meant to crush satan’s head ~ but what happens? Satan gets us in a muddle & we fall for a lie!

Now I am going to give you a spiritual principle that is found in Deuteronomy 30:19

"Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. Now I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life, so that you and your descendants might live!

If you read through the account in Genesis 1& 2 you will find this principle laid down in the very foundation. God creates this garden in the east of Eden & He makes Adam the custodian of the garden. Adam has the legal authority to rule & govern this territory.  That’s what the Hebrew says.  Shomer is a legal term for someone who cares for another’s possession & that’s what Adam was to do. However ~ & you will see this principle again & again in scripture~ God is a God of choices.

You will hear people who are confused about who God is say things like: If God is good, why does He allow bad things to happen to good people?  If God is good why didn’t He stop the pedophile? The murderer? The earthquake?

The answer is in Genesis.  God gave Adam a choice ~ just as He gives every single human being the same choices!  Choose today: Life~Death; Blessing~Curses.

We are not automatons.  We are not robots.  We are free to choose the sort of world we live in & the conditions under which we operate.  The choice is ours.

Oh, you say!  That’s just not true!  People do things to me all the time that I have no control over! Yep ~ & they will continue to do things over which you have no control because they too have free will & are free to make their own choices.  However…your response is in your control.

This is how it works: I tell you God is good.  The Bible tells you God is good. Something happens in your life.  If it’s a good thing you say: God is good.  But what if it’s a bad thing? Is God still good?

Numbers 23:19

God is not a man, so he does not lie. He is not human, so he does not change his mind. Has he ever spoken and failed to act? Has he ever promised and not carried it through?

God doesn’t change.  He is the same yesterday, today & forever [Hebrews 13:8]  If He is good, then He is always good.  It is His very nature to be good.  It is man who is fickle.  It is man who changes.  We may get up in the morning & go: Whoa!  Soo good to be alive.  It’s going to be a great day.  Let us rejoice in the Lord! Or we may get up going: Ugh…another dreary day doing stuff I hate… Has God changed? Nope!

You see every moment of every day you are faced with a choice.  It is always the same choice but it will either bless you or curse you depending on how you decide.  Every moment you choose whether you believe & declare God is good & be blessed ~ or you believe the lies of the devil & bring a curse upon yourself. Every time you open your mouth you either declare God is good or you call him a liar.

Let’s look @ a recent example because you need to understand how this works practically.  We needed a mainland car.  We put in motion everything we needed to do to achieve that goal & God blessed us beyond our wildest expectations.   Within 2 weeks we had bought a car under budget but in better condition than expected & paid cash for it. How easy it was to say:  God is good.  He is indeed our provider! However our island car also needs replacing. Badly! We put in motion everything we needed to do ~ & watched as all our savings promptly walked out the door again as one emergency after another struck. Is God still good?  Is He still our provider?  YES!!!   

It’s important we don’t allow satan to get in there & whisper poisoned little lies~ drip, drip, drip~ into our ears. Why didn’t God… Why couldn’t He…I wish He’d done…

Now God doesn’t need any of us to be running round saying:  God is good; God is good all the time ~ but we need to be doing it for ourselves. 

Firstly it affirms our belief & trust in a good God but secondly it calls satan out as the liar he is.  We don’t ever want to be aligning ourselves with satan & coming into agreement with him!

It can be easier when it’s things because things can’t make choices ~ but what about when it’s people?   People can be a real problem.  People can really hurt us.  They let us down.  They say terrible things to us ~ or about us.  They are hurtful & vindictive & unfair & sometimes they are just plain nasty. They choose to make those choices ~ & they have that right.  We get to choose how we respond ~ & that’s where it can get icky.  Do we respond as Jesus?

The first choice all of us make is who is in control of us.  Is the Holy Spirit leading & guiding us or are we operating out of our own flesh. Ephesians 6:12 reminds us: For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places. It can be hard to remember because it is the people we see, & not what is controlling them, but it is never people we are @ war with.  If we believe God is good then we understand we get the choice to choose to respond out of the Holy Spirit within us or we can respond out of our flesh. Proverbs 3:5Trust in the LORD with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding.

The problem with relying on our own understanding is we see other people as the problem & so people become our enemy.  This leads to us allowing what other people say or do affecting how we feel about them & how we respond.  Our perception is off.

Our perception is off because we are meant to rule & reign in this life.  I say stuff like this & some people immediately think it’s all about them: what they can get out of God; the people they can control or money, work, a nice house ~ whatever but that is not it @ all.  God is good.  He wants good stuff for us.  He wants to bless us but we have to choose .  The ruling & reigning starts with ourselves, For what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul?   It starts with us. Matthew 6:33 instructs us: Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.

God is absolutely consistent.  Him first.  His righteousness.  As we walk in obedience, following the lead of the Holy Spirit, lining up our words & actions with the scriptures, we fulfil the requirement for having everything we need provided.  As Bill Johnson says, according to our level of righteousness, so our ability to rule & reign.

What holds us back, more often than not, is ourselves.  We can’t ditch our past; our guilt; our shame; our fear ~ none of which I have time to preach on this morning!  However I want to give you one picture.  When you believed in your heart & confessed with your mouth something happened.  God chose to make His home in you.  The King of Kings & Lord of Lords dwells in you ~ & He did not choose some shabby, run down hovel to dwell in.  He chose the New Creation.  He sees you as glorious.  As His Temple.  As Spirit filled, the marvellous work of His hands, fully equipped to do those good works He prepared beforehand for us to do.

Moment by moment as we move through this life Christ is empowering us & enabling us to make choices of Life, not death, choices that will bless us, not curse us, Choices that will give us a future & a hope ~ Jeremiah 29:11 so choose well.