Stir Up Our Minds

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THURSDAY, JUNE 20, 2013

STIR UP OUR MINDS
by David Wilkerson
[May 19, 1931 – April 27, 2011]

“This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you; in both which I stir up
your pure minds by way of remembrance” (2 Peter 3:1). Peter’s message about
the end of the present world and the beginning of the new earth is meant to
stir up a hope in us and keep us from being anchored to this world.

This is the truth meant to “stir up our minds”: “Seeing then that all these
things shall be dissolved” (2 Peter 3: 11). All that people hold precious, all
that they labor a lifetime to keep and enjoy, is going to dissolve in a sudden
burning!

Try to imagine it: All Wall Street firms, all corporate offices, all banks, all
computer headquarters—gone! The United Nations will vanish. State and federal
capitol buildings will burn to oblivion. Fort Knox and all its gold will
disappear. There will not be any more manufacturing plants, skyscrapers,
bridges, tunnels, airplanes, trains. There will not even be any ashes left!
God‘s Word clearly says that all these things “shall be burned up . . .
dissolved” (verses 10-11).

The Greek word for dissolved here means “to loosen, break up and melt down.” In
other words, God is going to break up the party! He will pry people loose from
everything they lust after and then melt it all in intense heat!

I want to share with you a truth that will help you understand why the secular
workplace will never fully accept you if you are devoted to Jesus. It doesn’t
matter where you work—at a bank, in a school, cleaning the streets,
wherever—you probably experience much rejection, condescension and
misunderstanding. You receive little or no credit for what you do. You are
persecuted, ridiculed, talked about behind your back. And you realize you will
never be “one of the guys” or “one of the girls.” So you never feel comfortable
or truly secure. Why is this so?

It is all the Lord’s doing! He permits it so you will not become hooked on this
transient, passing world. Many Christians get too comfortable in this world and
end up turning away from the Lord. Prosperity, acceptance and recognition
capture their hearts and minds.

Read this devotion online: http://www.worldchallenge.org/en/node/23260?src=devo-email

Related articles

• The Fiery Trial (pttyann2.wordpress.com)
• The Spirit Of Discouragement (pttyann2.wordpress.com)

Jesus Calms The Storm

 

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8 things to Remember during the Storms of Life… 1. God is in full control of the timing and intensity of your trial and will not allow it to go beyond His boundaries. 2. He has a specific purpose for your suffering which you may not understand until it is over. 3. This trial will prove to be profitable if you submit to God and trust Him through it. 4. Trying situations are opportunities for faith to prove genuine and grow stronger. 5. When you endure extreme pressure with unexplainable peace and joy, the Lord will demonstrate His sustaining power to a watching world. 6. Your difficulties are used by the Father to produce Christ-like character. 7. God will walk with you through all trials. 8. The Holy Spirit will enable you not only to survive but also to come out a conqueror.

This is so good and encouraging!

 

Delivered Unto Death

By David Wilkerson
[May 19, 1931 – April 27, 2011]

The apostle Paul writes, “We which live are always delivered unto death for
Jesus sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal
flesh” (2 Corinthians 4:11).

When Paul says, “We which live,” he is echoing Jesus’ words from Revelation
1:18: “I am he that liveth.” Paul is speaking here of Christians, those who
trust in Christ and have His life abiding in them. Yet, Paul actually is telling
us we also have been handed over to death.

That’s right, just as the Father handed His Son over to death, He likewise
hands over all who are in Christ. God leads each of us by the hand to the very
gates of death and says, “Here, death, take this one too. Do what you will
with him!” And at that point, God’s hand is no longer one of protection.
Rather, it ushers us into the very jaws of death.

You ask why God would do this. He does it for the same reason He gave over His
own Son to death. He knows that death, pain and sorrow can no longer swallow us
up or destroy us because we have within us the life of Christ Himself!

God knows there is no risk for us, just as there wasn’t for Jesus. And He has a
plan of victory for us, just as He had for His own Son but this victory can only
be accomplished in us through death.

Paul warns, “If you have the resurrection life of Christ in you, God is going
to plunge you into death every day of your life!”

The apostle adds, “As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day
long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter” (Romans 8:36). The Greek
meaning here is, “Every day we are handed over to death.” In short, Paul is
saying, “Every day I face a new death situation.”

Please understand that Paul is not speaking of physical death here but of a
kind of death that happens to us daily in our walk with Christ. When he
testifies, “I die daily” (1 Corinthians 15:31), he is referring to tribulation,
distress, persecution, peril, trouble of all kinds.

Paul is saying, in essence, “We who have the Christ-life in us are constantly
being given over to one death situation after another. Every day, some new test
is thrust upon us. But we have the life of God’s Son within us!”

Read this devotion online: http://sermons.worldchallenge.org/en/node/25323?src=devo-email

Isaiah 41:10 NKJV – God is with us

very good and encouraging!!

Christ In The Storm

 

Here’s Today’s Devotional from The Vine…

 

He awoke, and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” The wind ceased, and there was a great calm. – Mark 4:39

 

Jesus spoke to the storm and to the raging sea as if they were intelligent creatures – just as a boss would speak to his employees. The truth we learn here is that Jesus is Lord of nature – that the elements recognize His voice and obey Him even in their wildest moods. If we fully believe this, it would bring a great deal of peace to our lives. No storm ever breaks free from the control of the one who is our Lord and Redeemer. No wave can roll beyond the point that He permits. There is nothing in this world that is beyond the control of the hands that were nailed to the cross.

There is an old story of a Christian army officer at sea with his family in a storm. There was great panic amongst the passengers, but the officer was calm. His wife however, was not calm and criticized her husband, saying that at a time like this he should at least be concerned for her and the children. He made no reply, but soon came to her with his sword drawn, and with a serious look on his face pointed it at her heart and asked,“Are you not afraid when a drawn sword is at your chest?” “No,” she replied, “not when I know it is in the hands of one that loves me.” He replied, “So why would you expect me to be afraid of this storm when I know it’s in the hands of my heavenly Father, who loves me?”

Even when the forces of nature are at their worst, we should be at peace since our Savior is Lord of nature. Someone tells of being at sea in another storm, and of seeing a little bird fly down and rest on the crest of a wave, where it sat as quietly as if it had been perching on a tree branch in a quiet forest. In the same way, we who place our faith and trust in Christ should find the same confidence in the middle of life’s storms.

The Lord’s Plan For Us

By David Wilkerson
[May 19, 1931 – April 27, 2011]

The Lord’s plan for us has always been simple. He has said, “You don’t have
to fear any power that comes against you. I’ll act as your defender at all
times. If you will simply trust My sworn promises, casting yourself into My
care by faith, I will be almighty God to you. I will conquer all your enemies
and cast them down before you. You’ll be victorious, more than a
conqueror—living out your days in peace, with no fear!”

I ask you: Are you living out your days without fear—with a calm spirit and a
peaceful mind? Most of us do not live even a fraction of our time that way. We
go in and out of our moments of peace, but we do not fully enter into God’s
rest.

If you are troubled, perplexed, distressed over a besetting sin, you have to
understand that God is not mad at you! He does not want to discipline or judge
you. On the contrary, He yearns to infuse you with His omnipotent power!

God says essentially the same thing in all of His covenants: “I’m looking for
a people who will believe I will deliver them from all their enemies!” “The
covenant that I have made with you ye shall not forget; neither shall ye fear
other gods. But the Lord your God ye shall fear; and he shall deliver you out
of the hand of all your enemies” (2 Kings 17:38-39).

In the Old Testament, those enemies were heathen nations—Philistines,
Moabites, Hittites, Jebusites, Canaanites. All these evil powers sought to
destroy God’s people and place them back in bondage.

Today our enemies exist in the spiritual realm—demonic powers, fleshly lusts,
evil desires. And in the New Testament, God repeats His pledge to His people:

“I am going to be God to you and you are going to be My son, My daughter. In
fact, you will be My child from now through all eternity. Therefore, remember
the covenant I have made with you. You shall not fear any man or power, but
only Me. I will deliver you out of the hands of all your enemies, including
demonic harassment, clinging lusts, dominating habits, all besetting sins”
(see Hebrews 8:10).

Read this devotion online: http://sermons.worldchallenge.org/en/node/25157?src=devo-email

Strength Out Of Weakness

 

Here’s Today’s Devotional from The Vine…

 

but I prayed for you, that your faith wouldn’t fail. You, when once you have turned again, establish your brothers.” – Luke 22:32

 

Peter was not to be lost in the terrible experience through which he was to pass. Christ had made intercession for him, and he would come again from the trial humbled, bruised, defeated, but saved, and a better man. Our Lord tells him here that after his restoration he should turn his experience to account in helping other souls. “Do thou, when once thou hast turned again, stablish thy brethren.” He would be able then to warn others of the dangers in which he had suffered so terribly. We can imagine Peter in after days counselling Christians against self-confidence and the other false steps which led to his own fall, and thus strengthening or stablishing them in safe ways. Then there is no doubt that his experience of penitence, and of the grace and love of Christ in that experience, enabled him to be a wise and safe guide to many another disciple who had fallen into sin and was seeking to be restored.

The lesson is important. All the lessons that God teaches us we should teach others. When we are helped it is that we may then help others. When God comforts us in any sorrow, He thereby ordains us to go forth to comfort others with the comfort wherewith we ourselves have been comforted of God. When we fall in temptation, and God lifts us up and restores us, He wants us to use our experience in helping other weak ones in their temptations.

O lead me, Lord, that I may lead
The wandering and the wavering feet;
O feed me, Lord, that I may feed
Thy hungering ones with manna sweet.

O strengthen me, that while I stand
Firm on the rock, and strong in thee,
I may stretch out a loving hand
To wrestlers with the troubled sea.

Ahbah’s Covenant With The World

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2013

By David Wilkerson
[May 19, 1931 – April 27, 2011]

At one time Ahab did repent at the preaching of Elijah: “And the word of the
Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite saying, Seest thou how Ahab humbleth himself
before me?” (1 Kings 21:29). From that day on he could look back and say,
“Repentance? Yes, under the preaching of that great prophet of God, Elijah.”
But to Ahab it was a one-time experience, not a daily walk. The problem was
that he had become a friend and brother to the world. Brother, meaning
“affinity, one just like me, one I respect.” He was in covenant with what God
had cursed. Ahab claimed to love the truth, but deep inside he hated reproof.

Many today say, “We want only the truth. Preach it like it is!” But in
their hearts they are saying, “Too much gloom, it’s too hard. I can’t stand
anymore of this.”

Ahab was blind to the terrible fact that he was being guided by a lying spirit.
This lying spirit caused Zedekiah, a false prophet, to boast that the Spirit of
God was upon him (see 1 Kings 22:24). Ahab was now fully persuaded he was
hearing God’s voice and that he would come back victorious.

Christians bound by the Jezebel doctrine are 100 percent sure they are right.
They cannot see the deception. Ahab did not go up thinking, “The four hundred
are false; they have no word from God.” No, he went up fully
convinced—fully deceived—totally seduced.

Why do some Christians fall into deception? “Behold, ye trust in lying words,
that cannot profit. Will ye steal, murder and commit adultery, and swear
falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods whom ye know
not; and come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name,
and say, We are delivered to do all these abominations?” (Jeremiah 7:8-10).
There is the answer. A clinging to some pet sin, some secret idol in the heart.
A justifying of sin, a brotherhood with the world. Then they come to God’s house
boasting, “I’m not convicted.” This is an open invitation to lying spirits.

Read this devotion online: http://sermons.worldchallenge.org/en/node/25110?src=devo-email

SWALLOWED BY THE DARKNESS

Very good encouragement!! Enjoy!

God's Promises Are Real

IfI say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night“.

(Psalm 139:11)

These days of evil are growing worse as the light of truth is nowhere to be found.  So many people are caught up in the deception as they become lovers of themselves and of the gold of this world.  The laws of God are disregarded by those who have given in to the lies.  Sin has been dressed up and labeled as choice and tolerance.  Abominable acts are not only accepted by this generation, they are now encouraged.  And darkness swallows the truth!

As most continue on the wide path to destruction, those who work to stay in the race for the Kingdom of Christ are finding themselves suffering trials and heartache.  It is difficult  to understand.

We are living in ending times, dear friends.  God is allowing believers to be shaken beyond their own strength to…

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