Every day we are faced with thousands of decisions to make, some are trivial, such as, should I have Corn Flakes for breakfast, or Cheerios.  Others are much more important, such as, should I stay at this job, or go find another?  We know that if you are a child of God, He wants to help us make wise choices so we can live peaceable lives and be blessed.  But you know man’s heart; people want to do what they want to do, when they want to do it.  And that often leads to some very bad consequences. The Bible says in James 1:5-8, Continue Reading »

There are a lot of people who seem to think God puts sickness on us to “teach us a lesson”. Or they say, “Well, God ALLOWS it, doesn’t He?”  That would be like a wife saying, “My house got broke into because my husband allowed it”.  No, there is a thief out there, and the crime needs to be laid upon the thief, not the homeowner.  Christ Jesus said in John 10:10, The thief cometh not but for to kill, and to steal, and to destroy; but I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.  Jesus made sure to tell us the difference between Himself and the devil.  And yet today, most Christians can’t tell the difference between the works of God, and the works of the devil.  And that’s how the devil likes it. Continue Reading »

Many people hear a personal prophecy and get all excited and think God is going to just drop everything in their lap, and most of the times, that just isn’t the case.  You see, God requires obedience and action from us.  It is said, If you are a farmer and you ask God for an abundant harvest, you’d better have a hoe in your hand as you pray. Continue Reading »

It’s normal to hesitate when you don’t know for sure what to do, but when you know that you know, then it becomes easier, even if it’s something very difficult to do that you don’t really want to have to deal with. It’s almost like dealing with someone with an addiction; you know that person needs help, but they don’t want it, and you don’t want to be the one to force that change. That’s the kind of difficulty I’m comparing it to. Continue Reading »

With so much bad stuff going on in the world today, it is more important than ever before that we be led by the Holy Spirit of God.  The Apostle Paul wrote a lot about that, and we need to pay attention, because there is another spirit out there leading people, and it is NOT the Holy Spirit. Continue Reading »

There is a group of people I deal with that seems to gravitate toward the Old Testament and not so much toward the New.  And they’re very sincere in their beliefs, and adhere to them.  So today I’d like to just scratch the surface of “old versus new”.  You can’t cover a lot in just a few pages, nor do I intend to, but just enough to show you a difference between how God was
“then”, and how He is “now”.  And before you say “God never changes”, like that particular group says, then maybe we’d better reconsider that.  Or, HAS He changed? Continue Reading »

Few things affect our lives as much as what is in our heart and what comes out of our mouth.  Jesus said unto the disciples in Matthew 15:16-18 a very revealing thing:

16  And Jesus said, Are ye also yet without understanding?

 17  Do not ye yet understand, that whatsoever entereth in at the mouth goeth into the belly, and is cast out into the draught?

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

            Lots of religious people think we must observe to do this or that, or must eat according to a certain diet, while they fail to understand what REALLY shapes their life.  In this passage, Jesus warned us to beware of what is in our heart, because it will come out of our mouth and defile us.

Back in the days when Jesus was ministering on earth, the Jews had contrived all kinds of “doctrines of men” that affected the daily lives of all their followers, and yet, they were not commanded to be observed by God.  And so it is yet today, there are so many thousands of doctrines of men that endure, yet Jesus had said in Matthew 15:8, This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.

            In other words, what they were doing was a complete waste of their time, because God wasn’t in it.  I find that to be just as true today as it was back then.  We see churches going to great expense to have the best coffee bar, or the best light show, or something spectacular to draw crowds, and yet God is not in it.  Why?  Because it’s an extension of “doctrines of men”, just in another form.  What we REALLY need to do is address the issues of our heart and change them to surrender to God.

I recently saw an article on facebook from some church inviting people who were living in adultery or some other sin, or doing drugs, or shacking up, to come to church.  And that’s a good thing.  But they weren’t calling those people to repent and turn away from their sins.  The very heart of salvation is for a person to be sorry enough for their sins to TURN AWAY from them, and to receive Christ Jesus as Lord and Savior of their life.  It isn’t “come to church and continue living in sin, because we have grace”.

It is written in Proverbs 18:21, Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.

            Now, keep in mind, that which is in our heart is what eventually comes out of our mouth.  In other words, death and life lurk in our heart, and try as we may, we cannot forever hide what is in our heart, it has to come out and be revealed.  So when a person is still in the world, living like the world, going to church, refusing to repent of their sins, they are abiding in death, and even if they “talk the talk” of being born again, their heart will eventually betray them.

On the other hand, if one repents from sin and turns from it, and gets to studying God’s Word, it is like a seed planted.  No seed sprouts to a fully grown plant instantly, it is a growing process.  And as that seed grows in the heart, it displaces worldly thoughts, and a conversion starts taking place.  Things of the world become not so appealing, then they eventually become distasteful altogether, and as the heart changes, so does what you say changes.

There are so many wonderful promises of God in His Word, and as we study and learn of them, and get them down into our heart, well, you may find yourself in a situation, and without even thinking about it, God’s Word will come gushing out.  And when we believe God’s Word in our heart, and speak it with our mouth, things start changing.  Like I said, it’s a process, a seed growing.

For those suffering sickness, there are many healing scriptures, and any one of them has the power to bring forth healing and health.  But if we continue declaring, “I’m sick”, then what we’re doing is looking for a crop of healing, while digging up the healing seeds and discarding them, and planting sickness seeds with our words.  And those sickness seeds come from the heart, and they bring forth after their own kind, because a seed of any kind can only do that.

Corn seeds cannot bring forth watermelons, and watermelon seeds cannot bring forth green beans.  It is written in Genesis 1:11-12,

11  And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so. 

 12  And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

            And so our heart brings forth seed after what is in it.  If the world is in our heart, we will speak as the world speaks.  If God is in our heart, we will speak as He speaks.  And that fruit of that which we speak will manifest and remain, be it death or life for us.  Why?  Because God made it so at the creation.  So don’t think you’re going to continue putting the world in your heart and get God out of your mouth, because it just isn’t going to happen.  When the chips are down, you’ll say what’s in your heart, be it death or life.

So what’s the cure?  Put GOD in your heart in abundance, and the words of your mouth will be of God.  And when that happens, things have to change.  They don’t have any choice.  The junk the devil tries to put on you won’t be able to stick for long, but will shrivel up and fall off, and only the Word of God will remain.  So there you have it.  As it is written in Proverbs 18:21, Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.

If you love life, then speak life.  If you love death, then just keep on speaking death.  Sooner or later, it will catch up to you.  It always does.  But let me tell you, LIFE IS BETTER.  Therefore, put the seed of God’s Word in you, so that seed may bring forth after its own kind and bring you life!

So often when people need healing, they get the mistaken idea that it is something that they need to talk God into doing for them.  And some even try to “bargain” with God, that if He heals them, they will do such-and-such to give Him glory. And when nothing happens, then of course the “religious” people will tell them, “Maybe it isn’t God’s will to heal you…”  or perhaps, “You must have sin in your life, therefore God cannot (or will not) heal you.”  I tell you, there is no end of reasons people get talked out of their healing.  And NONE of them are aligned with the Word of God. Continue Reading »

When I read about all the healings that Christ Jesus did, I have to ask myself a question:  Which came first, the healing, or the believing? Continue Reading »

            Years ago I bought a nice Lincoln, and drove it for about a year, and I took real good care of it, often waxing it each week.  My wife and I were at her mother’s house in Joplin, Mo, when a fellow minister came to see me.  We had never met before.  I was in Mom’s driveway detailing the Lincoln when this ratty, smoking car drove up.  I remember it had a vinyl roof that had partly detached and was flapping in the wind.  The driver stopped and turned the car off, and it smoked, chugged, backfired a couple times and finally died.  It was almost funny.  Continue Reading »