Encouraging Word

What label do you wear…..is it Tommy Hilfiger, Nike, Hollister, or some other brand? I think it is kind of funny that we buy clothes and then we advertise the brand for the company we just bought our clothes from…..you’d think they’d pay us for that!!!! Labels come in different ways, and often we take a label that was put on us even in childhood and wear it all through our life. I want you to assess how you think about yourself and determine if the label describes who you really are. Don’t let words that were spoken over you override the words that God speaks over you in His Word. Make a determination every time the thought comes to you about “your old label” to grab a hold of it, and replace it with God’s thoughts about you…… He loves you, approves of you, and smiles when He thinks of you. You are his child! My prayer for you is that you can change your negative label to the words that God says about you. Make this Prayer and Confession with me: Father, I believe that what you say about me is what I should speak over my own life. I believe the truth of your Word and make it my goal to only speak your Word over my own life. Thank you for believing in me, and covering me with your mercy, grace and forgiveness. I can do all things through Christ who gives me the strength! I will speak peace to my soul, and rest to my heart. I determine to let my own words build me up, and bring life instead of death. Sounds like your label is changing! That encourages me!

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We can make a determination to think and speak the truth about ourselves. We can live out the truth – by saying what God says about you and believing it! Instead of believing what we used to believe was the truth about ourselves, we can make living in God’s truth a lifestyle that not only changes our thought life, but changes what we say. We have listened to the alternate reality for way to long. There may have been a fraction of truth in what we have believed, but often we take it to the nth degree. We blow it way out of proportion, or to the worst end of the extreme. So what does the Word says about you – who are you really? Which truth will you believe? Is what you have believed – the truth, or is it a lie masquerading as the truth? Sometimes it can be hard to distinguish, especially if you have believed something about yourself for so long. Now is the time to change your label. If the label on your life said ugly, stupid, loser, or whatever, God has a different label for you! It is time for you to be labeled with the truth! The greatest illustration I can think of regarding changing your label is when Jesus says, Let the weak say….I am strong, Let the poor say…..I am rich, Let the sick say…..I am healed. The reality is I feel weak, I feel poor, or I feel sick. But Jesus says that what you feel isn’t as powerful as what the truth is about your situation! Even if you feel weak, God says I will give you strength. So I can say, God is strengthening me, and I AM STRONG. Even if you feel poor, God says I have given you all things, so I am blessed beyond measure, and I am rich. If I feel sick, Jesus paid the price for our healing on the cross, by His stripes we are healed, so I can say, my body is receiving the healing of the Lord, and I am healed. That is the kind of truth we can speak to ourselves that calls those things which be not, as though they were, so circumstances and even emotions and thoughts, and then our words and actions can change. That is encouraging!

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When we speak truth to your soul – we are demonstrating self control over our emotions. This week we are talking about the words we speak to ourselves. The things we think about become the things we say and act upon. If we want to say and do something different than we are no experiencing, it takes discipline, but if we change the input, we will get a different output. What comes in through our thoughts, is what goes out through our words and actions. So is what we are saying the truth? If not, what we are thinking isn’t the truth either! When we know the truth, the truth will set us free! Knowing the truth will bring us freedom, but often we think it works for everybody but ourselves! We give everyone else grace for mistakes, and give ourselves none. We believe the best about others, and the worst about ourselves. We think God will answer everyone else’s prayers, but He’s not that concerned about me. Or we have spoken to ourselves what we heard others say about us in childhood…..like an echo from the past that won’t go away. I like to picture God with a big blackboard in heaven erasing all the negative words that have been written over our lives. When the thought comes up that we’re stupid, or will never amount to much, or what a failure or disappointment we are, God’s big eraser, removes those words from the black board. He writes over us – over comer, victorious, worthy, and righteous son or daughter of God. He calls us righteous, and because of Jesus, we are now the righteousness of God in Christ! What was wrong becomes right through Calvary. So today…remember God’s words about you. The enemies lies, or even the words of unthinking people in your past don’t have power over you any longer…..The Truth has set you free.

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One thing I’ve noticed about human nature is that we get committed to something when it directly affects us. For example, when sickness attacks our body, we begin reading healing scriptures. When we have a financial shortage, we read get serious about tithing and reading the Word about finances. If we really want to be Spirit led believers, we should spend time, attention and energy on the importance of understanding the operation of the Spirit of God. We want to be attentive listeners. God wants us to check our heart, and then let Him flow through us. If we seriously want to live the abundant life, it takes discipline and diligence. It takes reprioritizing our life. It takes simplifying our life. It takes saying no to the good, so you can say yes to the best. What is most important? If we want to be Mary’s who choose what is right and most important, we have to say no to some things that really don’t matter. Living above natural human existence, living in the presence of God, living a life that is led by the spirit of God, what could be better than that! Effective prayer can take us there. That is living your best life.

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As we close out this week, I want us to say the same thing over our families and our finances. The word confession means just that, saying the same thing, and what better things to say than confession directly from scripture.
For your family: My family is walking in the path that God has for them. All my children are taught of the Lord, and great is their peace. My family is part of God’s family and are God’s sheep and they know His voice. They will not follow the voice of a stranger. They make good decisions, based on the Word of God. They are bought by the blood of Jesus and a part of God’s family. We live an operate in unity and harmony. Our lives are an example of the unity within the Trinity. My mate and I are walking in harmony, and we demonstrate love to each other and to God. We are a living epistle before our family and friends of the blessing of living in God’s divine will. We are building a legacy of faith in our family.

For your finances: My God supplies all of my need according to His riches in Glory. He is my Jehovah Jireh, and the God of more than enough. We use wisdom and discretion in our spending, and we are liberal and generous in our giving. We live to give and we love to give. We sow our finances into God’s kingdom where we know it will produce for us, not only for now, but for eternity. We are blessed coming in and going out.

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Many Christians live way beneath their privileges as believers. They live a purely natural human existence, day by day, moment by moment. They live average lives, bumping along, often from disaster to disaster, or from trial to trial, without doing anything about it. They don’t really read the Word, they don’t really pray – they might pray before they eat, or before they go to bed at night, but their existence is purely on a natural level. It can happen to any of us – actually, I’m repenting, I’ve done that before! We are called out of darkness to live in the light! We can experience so much more when we are following after God and being led by the Spirit. The Bible tells us to draw nigh to God, and He will draw night to us. If I reach out to God, He’ll reach out to me. If I talk to God, He will fellowship with me. If I seek Him, then I will be found in Him. If I call on Him, He will show me great and mighty things. Those are things we can begin expecting! We make the first step. So Regardless of the size of the storm, keep going! You’ll have a much better chance of making it to shore. Jesus was asleep on a pillow during a storm on the lake with the disciples. They were distraught and Jesus was resting. I think that could probably be what would be said about us when storms of life are pressing in on us. We get distraught, but Jesus is still telling us to rest. Let’s be prepared, and live above this natural life. Let’s live the higher life God is calling us to!

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Sports are a great learning tool for life. The lessons we learn include not giving up, perfecting our skills, having a good attitude in the midst of a down turn, and even smiling in the face of adversity. Whatever the sport is, the object is to continue getting better. If it is baseball, you keep swinging till you get it right and make contact with the ball. In this big game of life, we know who the final winner is. Sometimes we may feel like we’ve lost the inning, but we don’t stop at three outs. We keep on going. In fact, I love what I heard one minister say once. “My bat, my ball, my yard and my win.” I love that kind of tenacity. Sometimes there are set backs. They happen. Sometimes we strike out. Sometimes we can’t get on the field because it is raining, or snowing, or windy. But we don’t let the win slip from our hands. In the midst of the journey, it is important to continue loving the game. Everyday we need to enjoy the journey. Keep on looking for jewels that God places in your path. Keep on finding joy in the small moments of life. The greatest win of all is coming…..eternity in heaven. But remember, Jesus said that His desire was the God’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Let’s bring a little of that heaven into our sphere of influence today.

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Stages of life come and go, and we pass on to the next phase before you know it.  Seasons and environment change.  Things don’t always turn out the way you expect. It is easy to get disillusioned and loose hope, in the midst of negative circumstances.  I hope that you never experience that.  If you happen to be there right now, I hope soon you can be enjoying the abundant life that Jesus came to give us.  I hope you can once again see life as wonderful! The future is bright, and God is not finished with you yet! Look for God moments and begin to let even small things bring a joy filled moment to your day.  Here is a poem from several years ago, that is applicable every day….the best is yet to come!

The Best is Yet to Come!

No matter what it looks like, no matter how you feel

The circumstances that you’re in are not what’s really real

The future up ahead is bright, the days ahead will bring

A freshness in your spirit, and a song of joy tosing

You are full and you are rich with what is worth the most

It’s not a product of the world, it’s from the Holy Ghost

Rejoice and be extremely glad, this work I have begun

So sing and shout and dance for joy, the best is yet to come!

 

God has a destiny and a purpose for your life.  If you knew what was beyond the mountain in your life, you would keep walking!  If you knew your provision was around the corner, you would keep going.  Don’t stop, don’t give up….your best is yet to come!

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