Purpose and choose

Our purpose on this earth is to ...

1.  Know Jesus?
2. Worship Him only?
3. Live for only ourselves?
4. listen to false gods?
5. love others?
6. Glorify the Trinity?
7. die trying?
8. go to church but never change our ways?
9. go to church and learn how to live as Christ Jesus?
10. grow in knowledge, love, learn scriptures, love others and myself, help others?

Which one fits you?  And how's that working out for you?  I, mean, really?  List three things you are grateful for and then look at how your life is going. 

Is it going the way you want it to?  Or is it going the way the Lord wants it to for you?

Do you play in the dirt with the devil?  Or do you play in the field with the Lord? 

Has there been hurts in the past you can walk through and over?  Or have you been stuck in unforgiveness and you keep a packed bag/trunk with hurts in them and you store them away for another time to use them as weapons on someone else?  Did you know unforgiveness can cause major health problems?  It causes cancer, ulcers, migraines, learning problems, depression, anxiety, and more. 

We have basically locked ourselves up to hear the voice of God, the Holy Spirit to learn the things that are not of God and break the things and the generational curses that have taken our sight of walking with God fully. We haven't talked on the phone much to anyone, we haven't gone really anywhere except we have gone to the Revival, this has been incredible as we have learned how to pray off the yuck and become cleaner before the Almighty God, the Holy Spirit has spoken in us along with being healed. 

 Remember when Adam and Eve were in the garden?  When the snake tempted Eve and Adam with the apple.  Everyone blamed Eve, but Adam is the seed that carries forth through all generations, so the blame should have been on Adam for breaking the covenant with God and then hiding because they were naked.  They didn't know they were naked before the eaten apple, but after.

We started a new Bible class this January, it's from Wellspring Prayer Ministry in Alaska.  It's called Biblical Foundations of Freedom.  It is learning how to destroy Satan's lies with God's truths.  It has another component with it called In His Own Image. 

I Found Freedom book is about God's nature and satan's lies.  God's nature is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, kindness, faithfulness, and self control.  These are found in Galatians 5:22. 
Satan is the opposite of these fruits, his are rotten fruit with lots of flies around the fruits of hatred, envy, jealousy, unforgiveness, resentment, anger, murder, violence, rejection, fear, self-hatred, self-murder, bitterness, fornication, adultery, and the like. 

When we walk closely with God, our fruits are good and are shared to grow others, but when we don't walk with God, those fruits are rotten and can be shared but they stunt others growth.

BTW - God (Jehovah) is not Allah!  God had a son to save us from our sin, Allah did not have a son to save us.  God speaks life and according to the other- it is spreading hate.  God gave the Jewish people their land back after so much time, and Satan wants to push the Jewish people into the sea. 

"We have been given freewill and in that we are sovereign in our choices.  We are told to choose each day whom we will serve. Whomever we choose to serve, we become servant to him.  The evidence of whom we have chosen to serve is seen in our speech, because it is what come out of the heart of man that defiles him.  Our fruits are either of God, our Creator, or of the enemy, Satan.

Matthew 15:18 (New King James Version)

¹⁸ But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man.

James 1:7-8 (New King James Version)

⁷ For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; ⁸ he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

"In this life, the testing we go through is from the decisions we have made.  When we choose to obey God and to make quality decisions that honor or agree with God, we receive His blessings.  If we choose to serve God, we also choose to allow the Holy Spirit to manifest though us, and we show those fruits of the Spirit.  When we do this, we have peace that passes all understanding.
"If we choose to serve satan, the consequences is that his evil spirits, which represent his nature, will manifest through us.  God NEVER causes evil; it is our choice.  If we choose to disobey God and follow satan, we receive satan's blessings.  In our disobedience, God turns us over to our own devices, and allows us to go on our own way.  This is always of Satan, the devil, whom God calls "the enemy".  As a result we lose our peace and joy."

Exerpt taken from page 3 of Biblical Foundations of Freedom by Art Mathias.

There are many tactics that Satan uses and we have allowed to come into our life.  We may have opened doors and not really even known it.  The key is to find those open doors and find those hiding spirits and shine God's light on them! 
Here are some of those creepy spirits that sneak in and find a foothold and you won't even know it, they come in and hide and come out in the least expected times! 
Accusing spirits are ones that comes in ever so sneaky, it comes to steal, kill, and destroy in whatever capacity it can.  "Accusing spirits can operate in our life when we don't know what the real Spirit looks like.  Accusing spirits build on our ignorance of who we are in Christ.  They tempt us to misunderstand who other people really are. They confuse our thinking about God's true nature. Accusing spirits' goals are to bring us down, to bring others down, and to bring God down.  They seek to separate us from God, others and ourselves.  Satan uses an old military tactic of divide and conquer."

Accusing spirits accuse others, judge others, accuse God and accuse ourselves.
Here is a small list of these spirits...

1. Refusing fellowship with a person who has changed.
2. Holding people to their past behaviors
3. Keeping a record of wrongs
4. Bigotry
5. Competion, not feeling whole unless we win
6. Mistrust
7. Heaviness
8. Gossip and innuendo
9. Being easily offended. Easily offending others
10. Self-exaltation
11. Envy
12. Jealousing
13. Suicide
14. Not walking in or accepting forgiveness
15. Anger
16. Bitterness
17. Depression
18. Fear
19. Hate
20. Perfectionism
21. Worry
22. Vanity
23. Blaming others for problems

This list is much longer. 

But I want to share this prayer with you.  You can use this as well.  I will go through more. 

It is the Wellspring prayer

Part 1- Forgiving or Repenting
In obedience we choose to forgive or repent. Matt. 6:14-15, James 4:7, 1 John 1:9

Part 2- Canceling Satan's Authority
In the name of Jesus and by the power of His blood, I cancel Satan's power and authority over me in this issue of ________________________.  Eph. 4:27, James 4:7

Part 3 - Asking for Healing
We ask to be healed of a broken heart or a broken body - free from shame, anger, guild, rejection, bitterness, fear.  We seek the renewing of our mind or the purging of our conscience.  Ps. 103:3, Romans 12:1-2, Luke 4L18-19, Heb. 9:14

Part 4- Listening or Talking with God
Aks the Holy Spirit to tell you His Truth about the specific situation you are praying about.  The Holy Spirit talks to us in a quiet voice, dreams, visions, impressions, or just takes the pain and leaves His peace.  John 14:26

Forgiveness prayer:
Heavenly Father, I purpose and choose to forgive...(the person for what they did).  I release them and cancel their debt to me.  In the name of Jesus I cancel all of Satan's authority over me in this memory because it is forgiven.  Holy Spirit, heal my heart and tell me your truth about this situation.  Listen...

Repentance Prayer:
Heavenly Father, forgive me for... (specific sin). I purpose and choose to forgive myself.  In the name of Jesus I cancel all of Satan's authority over me in this sin- I am forgiven.  Holy Spirit, heal my heart and tell me Your Truth about this situation.  Listen...

This is taken from Wellspring prayer ministry, by Art Mathias.  http://www.akwellspring.com/  you can go here and take a peek at his ministry.

We also at times, each and every one of us also make vows.  Do you really know what a vow is?


What is a Vow?  We aren't talking wedding vows, but what is a vow, do you know? 

I am using the "Green Book- Wellspring School of Ministry, the Wellspring model.  How to Minister Workbook.  By Art and Patti Mathias

Have you ever said:  "I will never let a man (or woman) ever hurt me again?"
Or, "I will never put myself in that position again." "I can't trust anybody." "Nobody can do it right but me." "I will never be like my mother (or father)." "I will never be like that." "I will never share what I really feel, it is not safe."

Many men say this ab out their mothers, and then it transfers to their wives.  "Men (women) never do it right." "Don't share", etc.

Proverbs teaches us that as we think in our hearts, so we become (Proverbs 23:7a).  If we make these "vows", or statements, they are waiting to be fulfilled, and Satan will make sure they happen.  Many of these vows were said as children, yet they affect our lives as adults.  If you have ever made such statements, it is now time to go before the LORD, and repent and break the power of the curse that was placed on your life.

                                        
                                       Suggested Prayer

Heavenly Father, in the name of the LORD Jesus Christ, and as an act of my free will.  I confess, repent, and renounce the vow of (specific words) in my life and in all my generations, clean back to Adam.


I ask you, LORD, to forgive me and all my family members and all my past and future generations for involvement in this vow.  I release myself from the curse of this vow. 


In the name of the LORD Jesus Christ, and by the power of His blood, I cancel all of Satan's power and authority over me because of the vow of (specific words).


Holy Spirit, heal my heart and cleanse me from the effects of this vow.  Please speak your words of truth to me.

The following is a list of typical vows:  (condensed)

• I don't matter
• I'm not good enough
• What the use in trying? I'll never be good enough.
• I am an outcast.
• It's too complicated.
• I can't do it.
• I'll just suck it up and go on. 
• I'll just pretend it doesn't hurt and go on.
• Nobody will believe me.
• No one will hear my heart, or listen to me, or validate me, or acknowledge me.
• Emotions don't matter.
• It's my fault.
• I'm worthless.
• I'd better be perfect.
• Everyone else gets what he or she wants.  I never get what I want.  When is it going to be my turn.
• I'm defective.
• I don't have time for emotions.
• I'm a victim.
• I am unclean.
• Men have to be tough, or strong.
• You can't teach an old dog new tricks.
• I'll always find a way out; I will survive.
• I have to be good.
• I have bad blood.
• I'm going to carry my cross and the thorn in my flesh.
• I'm depressed.
• It's so hard.
• What's wrong with me, I just can't get my life together.

This list is so much longer, but I hope you get the point.  When we speak words over ourselves, they may come to fruition. 

When we give a foothold to the devil, he takes advantage of us because we have allowed it. 

Steve and I have been working though this and have found that our bodies are being healed as we let go. 

There is so much more we will talk/teach about another day.  Today, I would love it if you asked the Holy Spirit to show you and tell you where you have made those vows.  Sometimes it takes just a quiet moment to bring up something that caused a hurt. 

Let me share with you what happened one night.  Steve and I are talking in bed, this is very usual for us. 
The Holy Spirit reminded me of running hard.  I looked at their were two girls behind me.  Those two girls spent about 3 years tormenting me, chasing me home and if I stopped they beat me up!  One day, a knock on the door and it was one of the girls who told my mom that I said she could use my roller skates.  I didn't.  I was beat up again.  It wasn't until we moved out to our country home that it all ended.  I forgave this girl and the other one and forgave myself for holding on to all that yuk. 
I thought I had let it go, but I remembered how scared I was and that's what brought it forward. 
There are many more for another time.

For today, work on shining the light into the dark places.  Next time we will cover a few new things.  Our hope is you grow and let go and shine that light into the dark places so you can shine your light before men and you radiate with His Love all over you.  ZERO Debts!

You know, many times the devil comes into kill, steal, and destroy.  In this, he will speak those words ever so softly, ever so sneaky and when you fight it off, he will use a machine gun approach.  So, you have to PRAY this off, over and over and over again until you can take him down and you start really walking God's way so that you are so covered by the Blood of Jesus. 

Along our journey, we have walked so many miles and drove way, way more.  But I still have this dream. 

"I have a dream of having a church, not like any other church, it won't have traditional stuff, it won't have parents and children split- they will be family taught.  It won't be just about singing but really worshipping Jesus and singing in our spirits to Him.  Healing will take place and praying for each other will be the norm, it will be a huge place that reaches the unreached and the unlovely.  It will be a place that is completely similar to the Acts church and Thessalonian church.  The teachings will be God's word and questions answered.  Bible studies will be offered for more than just an hour or two.  It will be a time to learn and to honor Jesus."

I have been pondering this even more...

One of my strengths is as a Pioneer. I walk way ahead of many to find the gems and jewels in the land.  I look at the history from where we have been and what to look for in the trail ahead. 
I plan way ahead but submit to God and listen for His ever-increasing plan.  He knows where we are to go, He knows what His desire for us is.  Just like when Joshua and Caleb and 10 others went to spy out the land of Canaan and they found huge grapes but they also found a woman named Rahab who hid the spies and saved them, then God saved her family.  Story found in the book of Numbers 13. 

So the reason this is an update is we are not sure if God is ready for us to settle down just yet, there are a lot of wonderful people that need Jesus outside the walls of the church.  In fact, for us to settle down we would become "settlers" and not Pioneers.  I love being a pioneer.  I love relying fully on God to show us where he desires us to grow and go.

I love planning, preparing, doing and believing much in others.  There is a time when I believe we have to take hands off and watch them grow without our constant watching.

  So, are you a settler or a pioneer?  Nothing is wrong with a settler but what are you settling for?  Are you involved in many areas to make a difference outside your settlement?  Have you taught your children to be settlers or pioneers? 

Pioneers have to take risks. This means you have to try things that may not work. You may upset customers, lose money, fail…but failing forward allows us to find the small nuances of marketing that define us and to define the market place differently than others around us.

 

The settler lets others define best practices and just follows behind, keeps their head down and grows slowly. This mentality is fine for a lot of business people because with low risk tolerance. I have found that these companies are not innovators or leaders, but rather followers and gatherers. Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against these people, I just don’t want to be one. I guess I never really liked playing by other people’s rules. ( the last two paragraphs are from Brandon Dempsey.com website)

 

This is part of a sermon from Sermon Central.

We’ve all heard stories about the westward expansion of the United States. Leading the way were the pioneers. They were the forerunners who preceded all others exploring the uncharted territories. Their ambition was to investigate every valley, climb every mountain, traverse every desert, cross every river, and face every foe as they explored the land of opportunity that lay before them. They were adventurers, ready to face danger and quite possibly even death in their quest to conquer the new frontier.
After the pioneers came the people we call settlers. When a pathway was created and territories mapped out, caravans of horse drawn wagons took colonists on a westbound trek looking for a place to establish a community and raise a family. When such a place was discovered the settlers pitch tents and then erected homes. Then they built towns, stake out farmlands, and began settlements. Though willing to face danger if it came their way, they had no desire to go out and place themselves in harm’s way. They had no desire to explore the next valley or climb the next peak. They were more interested in safety and security then with adventure and excitement.
That’s the difference between pioneers and settlers. Pioneers are explorers, seeking to go where no one had gone before. Settlers are different. They seek safety. They avoid risking life and limb preferring the shelter and security of the settlement to the adventurous danger of uncharted territories.
I. Pioneers Versus Settlers
A fellow pastor recently made an interesting observation about pioneers and settlers. He said: “It use to be the settlers who were assured of safety. It was the life of a pioneer that was fraught with danger. In today’s world this has changed. It is no longer the settlers who are safe, but the pioneers. The settlers are dying. The pioneers—those who are willing to venture forth and take risks—they are ones who are truly safe because they are the ones who have the potential to grow and experience new life.”