Good morning everyone from our home base in Hilo, Hawaii, to all points of the world, Welcome to The Church Ministries 72nd Sunday service we will be counting our third and I hope our finale three part series on spiritual warfare. As you know, last week I was trying to write and my neighbor and his weed whacker was going at it at 7:50 in the pouring rain, I never could figure that out, and was hurting my concentration, it got so bad I went into the bathroom and closed the door, so of course the same thing is happening today, this morning at 7:00. The funny thing is the man is unemployed and he can work on his lawn any time, but it seems Saturday morning is the only time he will work on it. Last week, it was raining so hard and I thought he would give up but he keep on going, now today I said to myself not again but no way, he came out and went to work on it for his usual two or so hours right at my front door again. Last week the phone kept ringing and hanging up before I could get to it and it happened 5 times before I could get through the fourth page. The same thing happened this week but I lost count. Talk about spiritual warfare, I can only take so much, the truck getting destroyed, over two weeks being stranded, not being able to go anywhere, no grocery store, so therefore no food and loosing more weight. I had one hope for a ride to town with a friend and you would not believe what happened to him. First he was ticketed for expired tags and other things he knew nothing about, and that put him out of commission and then the next day he was side swiped and his car was totaled sending him to the hospital, he is all right and I was more worried about him then anything else, but of course I am still stranded. Then the next day when I got the truck back and it was sitting in the driveway, a lady backed up into it and, hit and ran, doing damage to the front bumper guard, which has to be fixed, and at least I had the foresight to copy the driver license down and when I reported it to the police they said they would be out and they have yet to show up! I can go on and on but I will not because one thing I do have, is the Lord, and the Lord is the only real thing to rely on. Prayer changes things and I must stay in prayer and not be concerned about all this ridiculous worldly stuff! Satan keeps trying to keep my mind occupied on these immaterial things, to waste my time instead of doing good and praying, meaning we have another episode of Spiritual Warfare, big-time!
Dear Heavenly Father, I want this prayer for the church to touch Your heart Father. We have so many people that rely on this church and I have know idea how many people read this Sunday sermon and at all different times and even days, but in any event we all love You with more love than I can ever explain. We love Your Son Jesus more than just a child loving His brother or His God and we love You more than a child loving their Father. I am a sinner Father, and I ask for Your forgiveness. I beg for Your mercy I plead with my heart that what ever my sins are I understand I need to repent and make a complete turn around so You can forgive me. Please Lord understand the suffering I am going through, please help and forgive me of any ill thoughts as I get hurt through this process by so many. Please forgive me for judging anyone who has hurt me. They do not know what they are doing. So Lord I understand you are testing me, and have been most of my life. I do not know how I ended up in this situation. I am the Pastor of this Church and I wanted everyone to learn and be blessed with it. Dear God, I ask that you please put your arm around all the people that are present and the entire congregation and please bless all of them this day. We are gathering together at all different times and we need Your mercy and love upon us all. We are all trying to worship You in pure spirit and with truth that is our main goal, to become one with one another to be a group that loves the whole trinity and wants to be at one with You, Jesus and The Holy Spirit. We want this gathering today, to be remembered and a blessing of time, a time of worship and praise and thankfulness, this and my words is all I have to Sheppard everyone and this whole flock. Father I need Your help, Please, just stop the attacks for just today so I can finish this sermon.
Please Lord, let the pencils stop breaking and the pens stop running out of ink, please give me the strength and keep me awake God, these may be small things, but God they are so important to me and to others. Please let me put this sermon up. Please do not let the computer crash again, please let the words flow through the Holy Spirit, and please cast out any fears that any of us may have. Please bless anyone who contributes to the church and please help me to find the words to enter into each and everyone’s heart. Please let this sermon stand in truth with edification, purification, and sanctification, with holiness of heart and love from our inner souls. Let us all raise our hands to you Father and praise Your Name. Please let us all be anointed and baptized in The Holy Spirit, let us all feel the tears and warmth from the moving of the Spirit. We all gather today to thank Your Son Jesus Christ of Nazareth for what He has done and all the suffering He had to bear so we could just talk to You. He made it all possible by splitting the veil and opening the door to Your thrown of grace. We at the church, love you all, and deeply want to express this love through worship and thanksgiving. In the powerful Name of Jesus, Amen.
We try to live in such a way that no one will be hindered from finding the Lord by the way we act, and so no one can find fault with our ministry. In everything we do we try to show that we are true ministers of God. We patiently endure troubles and hardships and calamities of every kind. We have been beaten, been put in jail, faced angry mobs, worked to exhaustion, endured sleepless nights, and gone without food. We have proved ourselves by our purity, our understanding, our patience, our kindness, our sincere love, and the power of the Holy Spirit. We have faithfully preached the truth. God's power has been working in us. We have righteousness as our weapon, both to attack and to defend ourselves. We serve God whether people honor us or despise us, whether they slander us or praise us. We are honest, but they call us impostors. We are well known, but we are treated as unknown. We live close to death, but here we are, still alive. We have been beaten within an inch of our lives. Our hearts ache, but we always have joy. We are poor, but we give spiritual riches to others. We own nothing, and yet we have everything. (2Cor.6:3-10) We know we are in the end times, and even though I have been going through the hardest attack on my life we all have to understand that we are not the simple Christians, we are the chosen ones that are going to minister and help others as the times grow even harder and darker, so we are being molded and disciplined for this future honor. “All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness. Therefore, strengthen the hands that are weak and the knees that are feeble, and make straight paths for your feet, so that the limb which is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed.” (Heb. 12:11-13) I memorized this scripture when I was working in a mission almost two decades ago, and I know the Lord has to use large hammers and chisels and all kinds of different large tools to shape a rough piece of heavy marble to make a sculpture of beauty. We know God can not just use a manicure set. We must also realize that the discipline works hand in hand with the attacks from the devil, in other words God uses the devil to train educate and to purify and strengthen our faith. All this time the devil thinks he is getting his jollies through hurting us simple humans, but the Lord laughs at all his efforts and is complete control in the first place, and the devil does not have any idea that he is doing exactly what God wants him to do. I am suffering greatly with my health, but through suffering we gain a better understanding, a closer relationship, and to join hands with the sufferings of Christ. We all need the mind of Christ deep within our hearts. In other words the greater the future for increasing an individual's faith, the greater the weight and value of suffering that a person should expect. So we in turn are getting our faith strengthened, we become closer in an established relationship with the Father and the Son through constant prayer, and we are getting purified through suffering. “In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith–of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire–may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” (1Pet. 1:6-9) It may seem like a never ending maze of darkness, and sometimes we do cry out to the Lord and ask for it to stop, just for a moment or a day, I have shed many tears not only for myself but all the people on my prayer list, which changes daily. I just went to the doctor again yesterday and she read the report from about the 10th specialist and we still are both in the dark. I still match up with the criteria of RSD but I can’t get anyone to confirm it. This gets frustrating after a while. “Be strong and take heart, all you who hope in the LORD.” (Psalm 31:24) My life is a lot like the book of Job but I am a simple educated pastor that has become very poor in this past 17 months, but the Lord has supplied everything I have ever needed. (Phil. 4:19) We find in the book of Job the most incredible accounts of suffering in scripture. We know that Job was a wealthy man, and we also know that a real true Christian is happy and content just to have a bible, because all wealth comes from God anyway and can be placed in our hands at any time. The relationship we have with the Lord is the most important thing to us. That is my feelings, but in the beginning of the book, Job knew that the Lord really loved him because of all he had and was blessed with. “There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job; and that man was blameless, upright, fearing God and turning away from evil. Seven sons and three daughters were born to him. His possessions also were 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, 500 female donkeys, and very many servants; and that man was the greatest of all the men of the east.” (Job 1:1-3) Now here we have a man that is blameless, upright fearing God and always turned from evil. You see Job new everything came from God and he knew that God loved him. God doesn’t care about our own plans or ideas, don’t forget we are already dead in Christ. "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me. (Gal 2:20) We have to look at God’s plan not our own, so as we analyze this situation by God’s principles Job was the perfect person for testing and I mean severe testing. We also have to understand Job loved God out of pure motives not what he could get from God, he just loved Him. Now how many Christians can say that with truth, I know I can, Job was blameless and he turned away from evil. I am a simple preacher I don’t consider myself blameless but I do turn from evil, but we all sin, we all drift and make even the simplest things a foothold for sin. So God submitted Job to suffer. We know that God let Satan to test Job and God let him do what he pleased because God knew how strong Jobs faith was because God himself even clarified it, “The LORD said to Satan, "Have you considered My servant Job? For there is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, fearing God and turning away from evil." (Job 1:8) Those simple words explain it. Have you considered my servant Job? So you see God does the same more or less depending on the person, to other Christians, and when God knows that their faith is strong we know Satan is going to snicker and say yea let us see how much they really love You after I get a hold of them, and God already said to Satan well look at this child of God, that person really loves Me. As each time the testing begins God does permit Satan to work on only certain boundaries. But we know God is in control and He will not allow Job, or you, or I, being tested more than we are able to withstand or endure. Don’t forget the greater He loves us the more discipline we may receive. Job doesn’t know why all of this is happening to him and that is the main purpose, we are to live one day at a time and just totally trust God and do not give up or give in. We can not know the answers to or the explanations for, this way our faith will fully develop. “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and he will make your paths straight.”(Pro.3:5-6) In this all-out match against sin, others have suffered far worse than you, to say nothing of what Jesus went through--all that bloodshed! So don't feel sorry for yourselves. Or have you forgotten how good parents treat children, and that God regards you as his children? My dear child, don't shrug off God's discipline, but don't be crushed by it either. It's the child he loves that he disciplines; the child he embraces, he also corrects." (Heb 12:4-6)
"You will be hated by all because of My name, but it is the one who has endured to the end who will be saved. Matt. 10:22 NASB
Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed. John 6:27 KJV
Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. 1Cor.13:7 KJV
Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him. James 1:12KJV
Enduring to the end is really not the way to be saved, but Jesus does say this. We have to commit totally to Christ and when you fight and go through the struggles, the attacks, you have to be strong, but when you are already weak, how do you even climb out of the hole? I am willing to climb out of the hole and I want to endure but my hands and fingers are already raw, my feet are raw from climbing before and for me to climb out I need someone to through me a rope and say, Paul, I am here to help you. Please Father, send me someone to give me that rope, the attacks are getting so numerous and now it is like I do not feel that I am going to make it through another Sunday, my devotion is there, but will happen next?
You know Father I just want to cry and cry some more, I am not worthy Father. You choose me, I can endure, I can make it, but the pain is so bad I am back to just eating out of the blender and loosing more weight, if I do not get some teeth in my mouth I am afraid I will starve to death. I was told by my surgeon, before my hernia surgery that I was suffering from malnutrition. I must keep going (John 6:27) and other scripture for everlasting life to endure. We still maintain life everlasting by faith and total submission to Jesus Christ with love (1 Cor. 13:7)
I love everyone, any race, color or creed and the church prayer ministry is very active. My love is directed always for others and I do not feel I ever could direct it to myself. We are Christians, saint’s ambassadors, a royal priesthood wanting to help many others never considering anything for ourselves. God gave me a gift marked down, it was a ten tape series of the Bible and I wanted to get it for the past three years and here it sits, by itself in one of those discount stores. This was a pure gift from God, telling me that I am here Paul and here is something you always wanted! I have not forgotten you, I love you! This is the message I received from The Lord. James 1:12 NLT
So, I get many of these little niceties from time to time and then while I am working on my sermon or sending prayers to my friends in villages out in India, I look up and see a huge spider on top of my computer, huge, like a Tarantula, which there is none in this state! I am deathly afraid of spiders. This happened after all the fiasco with my transportation. Things like this just keep going on and on. If you sat in my church office/ house for one day, you would not believe it. If you did you would see it.
The crown of life is like the other three crowns but each one is different, one of the crowns in the bible that when you go through so much testing and temptation we have to endure no matter what and that is just what I am doing! Praise God!
I have been hit with all the guns of the devil and I can not believe I have gotten this far. When the office and house was filed with gas and was almost blown up, I had to step back and think, we can not ask the Lord why, we can only be good soldiers of Jesus and thank Him for all the suffering He has chosen to give us. We are blessed for this suffering on earth.
God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. (Psalm 46:1) “Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because He cares for you.” (1Pet 5:6-7) “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” (John 14:27) How is it possible to share the greatness of God’s glory and at the same time the world and the forces of darkness, is trying to crush my heart. Well we must talk positive things, we can never talk negative. We must rely on the Holy Spirit to bring us peace; we can’t get it any other way. We cannot get peace from the world; most of the explained peace of the world is an absence of any conflict. And in this world as the light of the world grows dim, we as Christians have to be that light, we have to let the Spirit of God flow through us, and getting out from underneath that bowl or basket, we have to reveal the blessings, not all the conflict. I have gone off in so many different directions in some of my prayers for others, because I am so hurt inside, from the world and the darkness of this world. Yesterday I worked on a prayer about my conflict and the comparison with the book of Job, but there has been so many blessings that came up during the course of the day, you tend to not see them. It is very simple, and I have cried to the Lord many times because of doubt. I understand the doubt comes from the world, mostly from the evil one and his agents, and we have been fighting countless days and hours. For instance, I live in Hawaii, and I don’t live where you see clips on T.V., of the beaches and hotels, it is a quiet place on a beautiful coast line with mountains that jut out to the shore, which is so magnificent. The scenic drive, which is so beautiful, I can walk to and see from my window, and people come from all over the world to see this 6-7 mile stretch, but when you are fighting a life of pain, you just don’t see the beauty. I mean God would not send me to a place to build a mission /church where it wasn’t beautiful, God knows I have been and lived everywhere. So he planted me here in a quiet rainforest, where there is not a lot of tourism, but there is enough of new people coming into town so I can strive to save more souls, which to me, this is a perfect place. So when the small gifts arrive, and everything falls into place just like He planed it in the first place, you look back and say to yourself why did I even dwell on all that negativity? God took care of it just like He takes care of everything else. He is our provider, our healer and our Father. It just amazes me that here I am a preacher and I am wasting my energy about bills. That to me is sin, we have to rely on Him, in the book of Philippians 4:19 “And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” Very simple scripture and a lot of people use it, and if I wasn’t being attacked from so many angles, constantly and persistently from by the evil one, I would have time to think and look at all the beauty that surrounds me. We know the battle field is in the mind, so we can not listen to his lies, we know God does not lie and He has provided me with blessing after blessing, and today and from now on as always if I get any negative thought that even passes or even starts to linger in my mind, I will fall into the arms of Jesus and let Him rebuke all of the deception. I am in the arms of truth, and I feel safe, a lot of times when I pray I picture my head on His feet, that is where I find peace, security, contentment, and love, at times it can even take away the pain. It doesn’t matter what else the world is doing or what is happening, I am at peace. "You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. "Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven. (Matt. 5:14-26) So we are a light that can not be hidden, and we should not hide ourselves we should get out on the rooftops and declare what the Lord has done for all of us, remember we are not the source only the reflectors or let us a say a mirror, the true light is Christ and when the light goes in us from Him and the Spirit, we reveal the light to others. As I look back before all of this heath problem happened, my teacher came up to me one day and said that I just glowed. I need to get that back despite my health, and re-formulate myself and realize again that the Lord is truth, and not to let the darkness slip in and dim my light. So no matter what happeneds any more, we are always living for Christ, and we need to speak up for the truth, help others where it is needed, and pray for others as needed, we should never even listen to the lies of Satan not even for a second, because if any of us lets it go, we in turn are falling into sin, by not trusting or having that doubt in God. Remember what Jesus has told us, "Therefore I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they will be granted you. (Mark 11:24) "Again I say to you, that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is in heaven.”(Matt. 18:19) So I am asking in prayer to release any burden or any type of stronghold for whoever is suffering and reads this prayer, and I ask deeply for you to come to a complete agreement with me, and it shall be done, we have to walk in the fruit of the Spirit, and believe in our hearts things change, and people do get healed, and anything we truly need is given to us. We all believe that Jesus was raised from the dead, then with just two scriptures of truth we should believe also through prayer, for anything we ask. “But when the Holy Spirit controls our lives, he will produce this kind of fruit in us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Here there is no conflict with the law.”(Gal.5:22-23) So we are right back to the beginning of our prayer for you, we need to be the light of the world but not believe in the darkness or evilness of this world, “The old sinful nature loves to do evil, which is just opposite from what the Holy Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are opposite from what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, and your choices are never free from this conflict.” (Gal. 5:17) Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. (2Cor.5:17) I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus, that in everything you were enriched in Him, in all speech and all knowledge, even as the testimony concerning Christ was confirmed in you, so that you are not lacking in any gift, awaiting eagerly the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will also confirm you to the end, blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. (1Cor. 1: 4-8)
Let us go over everything at a glance so we know where to go from here. Tactics by Satan, our mind that is the most part of the battlefield in which we covered two weeks ago. Next would be lies and Satan will tell unbelievers to lie to you and of cause more havoc in your life, like me stuffing plastic bags into my truck hood so it does not get wet inside the engine again , and hope I don't have to replace the computer again until we get this mess settled one way or the other. I actually went to the Ford dealership to ask them what part should have been put on the truck and he kindly looked it up and made a copy of the page showing me what the body parts people left out that caused all the expense and misery in my life on top of all the other suffering. At least I can take this to court or pursue some kind of action to get my money back. We know Christians are not supposed to go to court we are supposed to rely on God’s judgment and I am going to wait on the Lord for this one, I know He will help me, there is know reason for all this lying. All I wanted to do since I have moved here build a mission and I am constantly being prohibited from doing good deeds time and time again, but with Christ in me I will not give up.
Next plan is suffering, Satan wants to control everything around you so you will suffer even more, there is all kinds of suffering and some of it can come from Satan and some may come from God and discipline. We understand the book of Job, God loves us at all times and is in control of Satan. We know about the suffering of Job, but wealso have Paul’s thorn in the flesh and all the suffering Paul suffered. So we all must and always submit to God.
But whatever anyone else dares to boast of I am speaking as a fool I also dare to boast of that. Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they offspring of Abraham? So am I. Are they servants of Christ? I am a better one I am talking like a madman with far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless beatings, and often near death. Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches. Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to fall, and I am not indignant? If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness. The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, he who is blessed forever, knows that I am not lying. 2Cor.11:21b-31 ESV
I must go on boasting. Though there is nothing to be gained by it, I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord. I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows. And I know that this man was caught up into paradise whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows and he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter. On behalf of this man I will boast, but on my own behalf I will not boast, except of my weaknesses. Though if I should wish to boast, I would not be a fool, for I would be speaking the truth. But I refrain from it, so that no one may think more of me than he sees in me or hears from me. So to keep me from being too elated by the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from being too elated. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. 2Cor. 12:1-10 ESV
The next thing today, is the spirit of slumber. What a great attack this time, here I am falling asleep with two cups of green tea in me and some other herb tea and just another attack so I cannot let the world know how tricky the devil really is and so I pulled out the coffee pot the first time in a year or more and it had one coffee filter in it, what an attack this time, I have never been this tired, this is a new one. I have a group of pencils when I just picked them up last week and they are all breaking, every time I sharpen one the hole tip comes out, not just breaks, and these are the only pencils I can use for the bible, they don’t have regular bible pencils on this island, so I had to improvise, then last week the bible I use the most fell apart in my hands so bad that the it could not be used, I have never seen anything like it, I was in shock and I was hurt, you can’t believe how that would effect me and everyone I preach to. I have a bible I have had for two decades and it is a bit worn and some pages are coming out, but this one it split in almost half and is fairly new, so I could not use it at all, plus all the work I put into it, all the notes I put in all the margins and all the lines and colors, now it is start all over again. But I thank God that the store gave me a new one, so praise the Lord. I prayed so heavily on this exchange, God assisted me. Thank you Father
How can someone be strong through grace? We know that grace is Gods unmerited favor that He goes to each one of us. Eph.2:8-9 The trusting in the Lord will bring you all the things that you need look back at your life. Christ has come always for you and you have seen the glory of God prevail every time. We cannot do it on our own. We need Christ’s power to accomplish anything.
For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. Eph. 2:8-9 NASB
As an example, brethren, of suffering and patience, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. We count those blessed who endured You have heard of the endurance of Job and have seen the outcome of the Lord's dealings, that the Lord is full of compassion and is merciful. James 5:10-11 NASB
Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, Col. 2:6 NASB
Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. Rom.12:1-2 NASB
Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry. Col 3:5 NASB
Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Gal 5:24 NASB
So humble yourselves before God. Resist the Devil, and he will flee from you. Draw close to God, and God will draw close to you. Wash your hands, you sinners; purify your hearts, you hypocrites. Let there be tears for the wrong things you have done. Let there be sorrow and deep grief. Let there be sadness instead of laughter, and gloom instead of joy. When you bow down before the Lord and admit your dependence on him, he will lift you up and give you honor. James 4:7-10 NLT
How do we get close to God? In this scriptures James tells us there are more than a few ways, first we have to humble ourselves before the Lord we can not be proud to any extent. We have to yield to his authority and to His will, and we have to commit our lives to him and to His complete control, we cannot let the world influence us, I just was broken hearted over pride and I have been in tears all day, if I am all ready dead nothing should bother me.
"I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me. Gal. 2:20 NASB
So if we are all ready dead in Christ nothing of this world should bother us. And I mean nothing. We are children of God we don’t have to please anyone but Him. Our next example of getting close to God is being willing to follow Him, and in all things that means carrying your cross as far as you have to even if you fall get up again and keep walking.
“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters–yes, even his own life–he cannot be my disciple. And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. Luke 14:26-27 NIV
Do you see in this scripture yes you have to hate your own life, that is the life of ambition or possessions or accomplishments they mean nothing, we are dead in Christ Christians, non of this worldly stuff should effect us, remember Satan runs the world (2Cor. 4:4) we don’t have to be worrying about our jobs either God will take care of all of his children, didn’t he feed the 5000 and then again the 4000 so read this scripture:
It is vain for you to rise up early, To retire late, To eat the bread of painful labors; For He gives to His beloved even in his sleep. Psalm 127:2 NASB
So my friends we have to trust God, it does not mean we should not work but we should not be out there killing ourselves just to put bread on the table, this takes away from our family, remember Phil 4:19 these scriptures are written for us to trust in the Lord not just to think sometimes these things will come into effect, the word of God is truth and everlasting and eternal.
And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus. Phil. 4:19 NASB
The next part of these scriptures in James 4:7-10 is to resist the devil and that means don’t think about him or even talk to him think about him he is nothing, laugh at him and totally ignore Him. We should not allow any temptation to come our way that means anything when people are being used by the devil and they hurt you can’t blame the person or judge them or call them names remember have your yes be yes and your no , no anything else is from the evil one.
"But I tell you that every careless word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for it in the day of judgment.”For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned." Matt. 12:36-37 NASB
Next is to wash your hands that may contain sin or any ambition from the world, plus if we only concentrate on the Lord and the Kingdom we will have pure hearts, we still might have to confess sin because we live in this evil world and we are surrounded by so much pain and hurt, and you can expect some of this world to rub off on you. We are always seeking to be cleansed from sin, and many times we do feel deep grief for our sins and that is healthy, here I am in tears and in complete prayer and my heart is crushed and I still have to stand firm against the devil and his evilness.
Finally, let the mighty strength of the Lord make you strong. Put on all the armor that God gives, so you can defend yourself against the devil's tricks. We are not fighting against humans. We are fighting against forces and authorities and against rulers of darkness and powers in the spiritual world. So put on all the armor that God gives. Then when that evil day comes, you will be able to defend yourself. And when the battle is over, you will still be standing firm. Eph. 6:10-13 CEV
Don’t forget to be totally up front with God and tell Him exactly how you feel about everything, go into your prayer closet and pray to your Father in secret and He will reward you. Remember it doesn’t have to be a closet it could be anywhere, even in the shower, some other countries consider a bathroom a bad place to pray but in America it is a good as place as any, sometimes that is the only place you can be alone, just think if you have a large family that might be the only place there is to be alone. Plus our last and finale thing which leads us to 1 Peter, we must humble ourselves before the Lord and the Lord will lift you up with honor.
Be humble in the presence of God's mighty power, and he will honor you when the time comes. God cares for you, so turn all your worries over to him. Be on your guard and stay awake. Your enemy, the devil, is like a roaring lion, sneaking around to find someone to attack. But you must resist the devil and stay strong in your faith. You know that all over the world the Lord's followers are suffering just as you are. But God shows undeserved kindness to everyone. That's why he appointed Christ Jesus to choose you to share in his eternal glory. You will suffer for a while, but God will make you complete, steady, strong, and firm. God will be in control forever! Amen. 1Peter 5:6-11 CEV
Back to the world again we must not look for human praise or want to be in the click of things all we have to do is make God happy, he is the one that we are to please not the boss or our co-workers, if we start carrying worries and different daily struggles with us or around us it shows we are not trusting in the Lord. God controls all our circumstances He controls our lives, everything we go through if we get hurt God will lift us up we have to give God all our anxieties, all our problems and if we try to carry them ourselves we are going to end up in tears everyday, the world is going to hate us and they are not going to like us, especially if we are true Christians, we know in real life the lion attacks others that are weak and sick and we know that Satan acts like a lion so we have to be on the ball no matter if we are going through a big turmoil we have to give everything to God if we don’t that means we don’t trust God to take care of us and that hurts God, He wants to protect us and care for us and he wants to love us, so live for the Lord and don’t even care what evil is even doing next, shake the dust off your feet and walk in the Spirit somewhere else, we have to keep our eyes on God and Christ then the devil will flee it is so written, so lean on the almighty God he is everything to us and if we have to suffer for a little while a little while compared to eternity is quite a short time, and with me I am suffering for 17 months and yes some people get cured right away, but if we don’t think that we will or we don’t believe in the word or don’t trust the Lord totally we could go on suffering, for tomorrow I could wake up and have no pain and if I don’t say it how will it ever happen, we have to have strong faith and keep it. We have the God who made the universe and don’t you think he can heal a simple little thing in good old Pastor Paul, I know He will and I believe he will, and I know He will give me back everything the devil stole from me and he will double everything I ever had, he could have me get into weight lifting competition and I could win the over 50 lightweight grandmasters championship for body building, 17 months ago I was waiting till I turned 50 to compete, and I had the training to back it, 23 years of training and ministering to everyone in all the gyms I was in, especially the Y, He gave Job back everything two fold, and I am looking for it now, I am not going to give up remember Phil 3
I have not yet reached my goal, and I am not perfect. But Christ has taken hold of me. So I keep on running and struggling to take hold of the prize. My friends, I don't feel that I have already arrived. But I forget what is behind, and I struggle for what is ahead. I run toward the goal, so that I can win the prize of being called to heaven. This is the prize that God offers because of what Christ Jesus has done. All of us who are mature should think in this same way. And if any of you think differently, God will make it clear to you. But we must keep going in the direction that we are now headed. Phil. 3:12-16 CEV
Wait till I start singing again and playing all the instruments for Him again, I miss the Christian orchestra, I then had a blessing of a time, maybe when God gives me the church/ mission we will be able to have the finest orchestras around. And we will do drama and do skits and bring people out of the lost state and bring them to Christ though live evangelism. You know I can’t wait, that is what I am looking forward to and The Church Ministries will be feeding people and we will have a staff and have clean beds and showers and it will be a blessing for a the homeless for the town of Hilo, Hawaii, He didn’t bring me here just to suffer and to shrivel up and die, there is so many homeless people we need a place, and I know God will provide, He just wanted me to see if I would keep my faith and trust in Him through all of this pain and suffering, I am not giving up and I know God will not, He loves me and this church, so my bothers and sisters I do love you all, and it took so many shocks and attacks to finally let me know that is all there is, is God and His Son Jesus, and of course our fellowship with the Holy Spirit.
Dear understanding Father. Thank You for another week, thank you for the strength to make it through and it is now and I wanted this day of worship to be a comfort to all the congregation, pastors, chaplains ministers and visitors and all others that hear this message on Sunday and I wanted it to be a comfort to You and Your Son Jesus. All I ever wanted was to heal people and if this is the only way I can do it, please Lord, heal all those with prayer requests and prayer responses and names of all the ones that need help that are listed on this church computer. Please Lord, heal all of them, forget about me, I just want to see them healed and all I need is a few answers telling me they made it through their struggle, or their cancer is in remission or the marriage is working, or for all the sons and daughters that broke away from the family unit at a young age and got into trouble, are safe at home now. Please Father I do not want to leave anyone out. I ask in the name of Jesus that all be healed and helped and educated for the whole realm of Christianity, In Jesus Name, Amen, and Amen.
