Christmas

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Sword of the Spirit

Sword of the SpiritWe are all in a constant battle. This battle is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of darkness, against spiritual hosts of wickedness (Eph. 6:10 – 18). 

It is Spiritual Warfare. You can’t punch the devil in the face. You can’t shoot him with a gun, or knock his teeth out. He is an evil spirit and you have to fight him in the spirit.

God has given us armor and weapons to fight. With weapons we go after the enemy, and with armor we are protected from the enemy. We need to know how to use our weapons and make sure we are wearing our armor on a regular basis.

Spiritual warfare for spiritual people. How many of you have had it with the enemy and you are ready to win the war? Maybe you have been living in offensive mode. It is time we live on the defense and pray for strategies against the devil through prayer to overcome and attack our enemy. Our biggest defense weapon we have is the Sword of the Spirit.

Eph. 6:17b Amplified Bible

“And take… the sword that the Spirit wields, which is the Word of God.” (furnished by the Spirit, Who inspired the writers of the Word of God.)

Sword of the Spirit

1.  Speak The Word With Power? 

2 Cor. 10:3 – 5 Amplified Bible

“For though we walk (live) in the flesh, we are not carrying on our warfare according to the flesh and using mere human weapons. For the weapons of our warfare are not physical [weapons of flesh and blood], but they are mighty before God for the overthrow and destruction of strongholds, [Inasmuch as we] refute arguments and theories and reasonings and every proud and lofty thing that sets itself up against the [true] knowledge of God; and we lead every thought and purpose away captive into the obedience of Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One).”

“For the overthrow and destruction of strongholds.” This verse shows that strongholds start in our thought life. Use the Word and resist theories, imaginations, and reasonings.

The NKJV states that verse:

“Casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, (II Corinthians 10:5 NKJV)”

We are to cast down any thought, argument or anything that tries to rise above who Christ is in your life! Using Your mouth as a weapon. Your words against the enemy are powerful because Jesus lives inside of each one of us. Jesus spoke with authority and power.

Luke 4:32 Amp

“And they were amazed at His teaching, for His word was with authority and ability and weight and power.”

The Word was in Jesus. He was the Word. He knew the authority He had and wasn’t afraid to use it. Far too often we as Christians are afraid to use our authority. We pull back when it comes to Spiritual warfare.

Listen, we have more power and authority in our little pinky then the devil thinks he has with all his legions of demons. We are the ones who give the enemy power and authority over us when we get fearful. Fear is a big factor in all of us. I know, because I struggle with it from time to time.

Don’t think of yourself as puny or unable to fight. We all can fight. We have to get the mindset that we are “In it to win it!” Retreat or giving up is not an option! Oh, the enemy speaks thoughts like, “You should just give up because you are not going to win.” We have to refuse to listen to his lies. It is a smoke screen. He is trying to give you all this drama of how things will unfold and he doesn’t even know because he is not God. He is not omnipresent. If he was, then he would be like God and he isn’t anything close to being like our Creator.

Wield your sword and speak God’s Word with power in you life. God’s word is powerful!

Hebrews 4:12  KJV

“For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”

The comparison of the Word of God to a sword is designed to show its power of penetrating the heart.

For the Word that God speaks is alive and full of power [making it active, operative, energizing, and effective]; it is sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating to the dividing line of the breath of life (soul) and [the immortal] spirit, and of joints and marrow [of the deepest parts of our nature], exposing and sifting and analyzing and judging the very thoughts and purposes of the heart. (Hebrews 4:12 AMP)

Ecc. 12:11 GNT

“The sayings of the wise are like the sharp sticks that shepherds use to guide sheep, and collected proverbs are as lasting as firmly driven nails. They have been given by God, the one Shepherd of us all.” 

Isaiah prophesied that God has called Jesus from the womb and that God has made Christ’s mouth like a sharp sword and a polished shaft.

Isaiah 49:1 – 2 GNT

“Listen to Me, distant nations, you people who live far away! Before I was born, the LORD chose Me and appointed Me to be his servant. He made my words as sharp as a sword. With his own hand he protected Me. He made Me like an arrow, sharp and ready for use.”

We can also see this in many other verses in Revelations.

Rev. 1:16 NKJV

“He had in His right hand seven stars, out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength.” 

Rev. 2:12 NKJV

“…These things says He who has the sharp two-edged sword.”

Rev. 2:16 NKJV

“Repent, or else I will come to you quickly and will fight against them with the sword of My mouth.”

Rev. 19:15 NKJV

“Now out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations…”

The idea is that of piercing, or penetrating; and the meaning here is, that the Word of God reaches the “heart” – the very center of action, and lays open the motives and feelings of the person.

It was common among the ancients to have a sword with two edges. The Roman sword was commonly made in this manner. The fact that it had two edges made it more easy to penetrate, as well as to cut with every way and direction.

Ever hear the saying, “Tongue lashing?” It expresses how the tongue can rebuke and hurt. The tongue is powerful. Who can tame the tongue? But in this case, the Sword of the Spirit is our tongue declaring the Word of God, which is empowered by the Holy Spirit, to cut like a two-edged sword to pierce deep and hard against the enemy.

2.  Fight against fear.

Fear is the devil’s biggest weapon he uses against us. If he can place fear in our hearts through thoughts in our mind, he knows it will paralyze us or even make us turn in retreat, or worse, give up all together.

Are you fearful? Are you afraid of failure? Afraid of what people think of you? Afraid of not measuring up? Afraid that you won’t have enough money to pay bills? Afraid of getting in trouble? We all have fears but we must remember fear ONLY comes from the devil.

2 Tim. 1:7 NKJV

“For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”

This verse tells us that fear is a spirit and that God doesn’t give this spirit of fear to us. What does God give to us? He gives power and love and a sound mind. These are all good things God gives us and much more. Fear can paralyze us if we let it.

Some fears or sources of our fear:

-Anxiety

-Burdens

-Heaviness

-Horror movies

-Superstition

-Irrational concerns

-Phobias

-Worry

Fear: “a distressing emotion aroused by impending danger, evil, pain, etc., whether the threat is real or imagined; the feeling or condition of being afraid” (dictionary.com).

Courage: “the quality of mind or spirit that enables a person to face difficulty, danger, pain, etc., without fear; bravery.”

Fear is eliminated when we wield our sword of the Spirit! Use your weapons against the enemy because those weapons are constantly available for our use daily.

Fear is often False Evidence Appearing Real. Sometimes it is Real evidence appearing real. Either way we can’t be shaken by our fears. We have a Mighty Warrior fighting for us in this battle. We will do our part and He will for sure do His. Our part is to stand firm in the face of our fears and press forward. Learn how to encourage yourself in God and conquer your fears. Sometimes we do things afraid, but in essence we are conquering our fears and overcoming them!

3. Weapons of our warfare.

Along with the Sword of the Spirit we have many more weapons we can use agains the enemy. I want to list them quickly and briefly talk about each one.

Some Weapons of our Warfare

Sword of the Spirit – Word of God (Luke 4:1 – 13)

Praise – Silences the enemy (Psalm 8:2)

Blood of Jesus (Rev. 12:3)

Prayer – to not pray is to surrender to satan (James 5:6)

Your Testimony (Rev. 12:13)

Power of the Holy Spirit expressed through His gifts (Eph. 5:18, 1 Cor. 12:8 – 10)

a. Discernment of gifts

b. Word of knowledge

c. Word of wisdom

d. Faith

e. Miracles

f. Healings

g. Tongues

7. The name of Jesus (John 14:13 – 14, 1 Cor. 6:11, Acts 4:30)

8. Fasting (Mark 9:28-29, Matthew 17: 21)

9. Walking in love (1 Cor. 13, Prov. 10:12, 17:9, 1 Peter 4:8)

10. Forgiveness (Matt. 6:14-15,  Matt. 18:18-35, Matt. 20:28,  Matt. 26:28,  John 20:23, Eph. 1:7,  Col. 1:14, 1 Peter 1:19-23, 1 John 1:9)

4. Arsenal or Ammo to use against the devil.

This is the fun part; sharing some powerful Scriptures that will help in overcoming the devil and living a victorious life! I will put them in categories to help you at a quick glance.

Authority over the Enemy:

Isaiah 54:17 NKJV

“No weapon formed against you shall prosper, And every tongue which rises against you in judgment you shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, And their righteousness is from Me, Says the Lord.”

Isaiah 55:11 NKJV

“So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.”

Isaiah 59:19 NKJV

“So shall they fear the name of the Lord from the west, And His glory from the rising of the sun; When the enemy comes in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard against him.”

Matthew 10:8 NKJV

“Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give.”

Matthew 16:19 NKJV

“And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”

Mark 6:7 NKJV

“And He called the twelve to Himself, and began to send them out two by two, and gave them power over unclean spirits.”

Luke 10:19 NKJV

“Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you.”

Eph. 1:19 – 21 NKJV

“And what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come.”

Eph. 6:10 – 18 (Armor of God)

Colossians 2:15 NKJV

“Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.”

Rev. 1:18 NKJV

“I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death.”

For Strength and declaration of victory:

1 Sam. 17:45 NKJV

“Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword, with a spear, and with a javelin. But I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.’”

2 Sam. 22:33, 35,  and 40 NKJV

“God is my strength and power, and He makes my way perfect. He teaches my hands to make war, so that my arms can bend a bow of bronze. For You have armed me with strength for the battle; You have subdued under me those who rose against me.”

2 Kings 6:16 – 17 NKJV

“So he answered, “Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” And Elisha prayed, and said, “Lord, I pray, open his eyes that he may see.” Then the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw. And behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.”

Psalm 18:29 NKJV

“For by You I can run against a troop, by my God I can leap over a wall.”

Psalm 149:6 – 9 NKJV

“Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, and a two-edged sword in their hand, To execute vengeance on the nations, and punishments on the peoples; To bind their kings with chains, and their nobles with fetters of iron; To execute on them the written judgment—This honor have all His saints.”

Isaiah 41:15 NKJV

“Behold, I will make you into a new threshing sledge with sharp teeth; You shall thresh the mountains and beat them small, and make the hills like chaff.”

Isaiah 50:7 NKJV

“For the Lord God will help Me; therefore I will not be disgraced; therefore I have set My face like a flint, and I know that I will not be ashamed.”

Jeremiah 23:29 NKJV

“Is not My word like a fire?” says the Lord, “And like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?”

For those in Authority:

Psalm 37:23

Proverbs 21:1

1 Timothy 1:1, 2

For the nations:

Joshua 1:3

Psalms 2:8, 68:32 – 35, 108:1 – 5

Jeremiah 1:10, 15:19 – 21, 51:21

Daniel 12:3

Micah 4:13

For Guidance:

Psalms 34:19, 37:23 – 24, 123:1 – 2

Proverbs 3:5 – 6

Isaiah 30:21

2 Cor. 5:7

For Peace of mind:

Duet. 33:27

Psalm 31:24

Isaiah 26:3

John 14:27

1 Cor. 2:16b

2 Cor. 10:5

Eph. 2:14 – 15

Phil. 4:7 – 9

For protection:

Duet. 28:6 – 7

Isaiah 54:17

Psalm 5:11, 17:7 – 9, 91:1 – 7, 10

Proverbs 2:8

For restoration and security:

Joel 2:18 – 32

Psalms 31:8, 32:7

Proverbs 10:30, 12:3, 21,  18:10

For healing:

Exodus 15:26

Psalms 103:3

Proverbs 3:7 – 8, 4:20 – 22

Isaiah 53:5

Matthew 4:23, 9:28 – 29, 15:26 – 28

Luke 9:11

1 Peter 2:24

1 John 3:8

3 John 2

For dealing with an abusive husband:

Leviticus 26:3 – 13

Duet. 8:7 – 10

2 Chron. 15:7

Psalms 31:20 – 21, 32:7, 91, 144:11, 145:18

Ezekiel 28:24 – 26

For Sleeplessness:

Matthew 11:28 – 30

Job 11:18 – 19

Psalms 4:8, 127:2

Proverbs 3:24

Mark 4:37 – 39

For provision and finances:

Duet. 8:18

1 Kings 17:2 – 4, 8 – 9

2 Chron. 32:8

Prov. 3:2, 10:3, 11:23 and 25, 12:12, 13:21, 22, 25

Isaiah 54:5

Malachi 3:10 – 11

Matthew 6:25, 32

Luke 6:38

For a new job:

Deut. 28:3 – 14, 31:8

Joshua 1:3, 5 – 9

2 Chron. 15:7

Psalms 1:3

For weariness and depression:

Palms 28:7 – 9, 30:11 – 12, 42:5, 55:18

Isaiah 40:28 – 32, 41:10, 43:4, 18 – 19, 45:2 – 3

For children:

1 Kings 4:29

Psalms 127:3 – 5, 144:12

Isaiah 11:2, 43:5, 49:25, 54:13, 59:21

Jeremiah 29:11 – 14, 31:16 – 17

Daniel 1:9, 20

Eph. 1:17, 6:4

Phil. 4:19

Col. 1:9 – 12

James 1:2

For wayward family members:

Psalm 140:1 – 2, 4, 8

Isaiah 59:1

Jeremiah 33:26

2 Cor. 4:3 – 4

2 Tim. 2:25b – 26

To receive Jesus as Lord:

John 3:7 – 8, 16; 6:37, 10:10b, 14:6

Romans 3:23, 10:9 – 13

1 John 1:9

There are so many more scriptures for arsenal and weapons. One thing is for sure we, as the Army of God, are equipped, powerful, and well able to take the enemy because of Who we are in Christ.

Don’t be afraid to wield your sword. Be aggressive at the enemy. He is out to destroy you so don’t hesitate to use your weapons on him.

Your fellow comrade,

Pastor Kris Belfils

www.KrisBelfils.com

www.HopeFellowshipSpokane.com

www.krisbelfils.wordpress.com

by

Fruit of the Spirit – Peace

Fruit of the spirit - Peace (blank)Gal. 5:22 NKJV

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.”

In this message we are going to look at the fruit of peace in our life. In today’s world, it is easy to not have peace. We can be in turmoil over so many things: Economy, our health, finances, people, jobs, family, church, relationships, and so much more.

The devil wants us to lose our peace and be in turmoil all the time. We have to fight for our peace. God wants us to be in His perfect peace 24/7.

Isaiah 26:3 Amplified Bible

“You will guard him and keep him in perfect and constant peace whose mind [both its inclination and its character] is stayed on You, because he commits himself to You, leans on You, and hopes confidently in You.”

The past few weeks God has been placing things in my path that either I can get upset about, and lose my peace, or I can react or deal with the situations in a calm manner and not lose my peace.

I was at the airport heading leaving for a speaking engagement. We arrived thinking we had a lot of time, but there was an extremely long line to check in and we had to weigh and check in our luggage. Even then, we needed to get into another long line to have our carryon bags x-rayed. Often I travel with my guitar equipment of cables, peddles, and my wireless microphone. I made the mistake of placing all that in one of the carryon bags. We were running late already, and they had to take the carryon with all my equipment and physically look it over, check for bomb residue, and re-Xray it again. I wish I could say I had peace and reacted well, but I was frustrated and edgy. I lost my peace until we finally got to the gate to wait to board our plane.

Many times on my trip it seemed an over abundance of circumstances would come up for me to get possibly get upset and lose my peace. Time and again, I would say out loud, “I will not lose my peace over this!” and would choose to relax instead of being in turmoil. I chose to keep my mind on the good instead of the bad when it was happening.

We have a choice to acquire peace and remain in it. Peace is one of the Fruit of the Spirit. It is already in us when we asked Jesus Christ into our hearts as our personal Lord and Savior. We need to allow the Fruit of the Spirit to develop in us daily.

It is not our circumstances that upset us, it is how we respond to them that can bring strife. We have to respond in the proper way. Let’s look at Isaiah again to get a better insight as to what to do to keep our peace.

Isaiah 26:3 Amplified Bible

“You will guard him and keep him in perfect and constant peace whose mind [both its inclination and its character] is stayed on You, because he commits himself to You, leans on You, and hopes confidently in You.”

One morning I woke up with this verse being spoken in my ear. I knew immediately God was speaking to me that I am losing my own peace just because I didn’t keep my mind and thoughts on Him. I started to think of the last few days of how stressed I was and I realized it was my fault because I allowed my mind to turn from God and onto my circumstances and I started to worry. Throughout the day I noticed how my thoughts would bring me to turmoil and I would have no peace, but this time, I was reminded of this verse God whispered in my ear that morning and it helped me to hold my peace instead of losing it.

We can live in perfect peace

Taking Isaiah 26:3 and breaking it down, we can learn a lot about how to live in perfect peace.

1.  Keep your mind stayed on God

a. How we think

We can put ourselves in turmoil just by the way we think. We have peace and then something comes up, either a circumstance or a thought in our mind, and we turn our focus totally on it instead of who God is in the situation.

Circumstances come and go, but God, and His faithfulness and goodness remains. We can choose to react in peace or turmoil.

There are times I have to say out loud about a thought; “That is not true!” or “That is a lie!” I would find that if I immediately say the opposite of what I am thinking in a Godly perspective, the thought had no power. “God has a plan and He is taking care of this!” “I can trust You Lord that you will provide.” “I leave this in Your hands God and believe good things will happen.”

How do you respond when things don’t go your way? Do you lose your peace over it? God wants us to have patience and self-control (I will be speaking on these fruit in the next few weeks). Far too often we lose our peace because we don’t control our reactions and we get all upset over something that we can’t change anyhow.

Worrying over something doesn’t bring change, it only loses our peace. I know because I have done this in my life, and still struggle in this area from time to time. A negative thought comes to your mind and you start to dwell on it and think about it and believe it will happen. Then you stress over it and talk about it to others.

b.  How we react

Our reaction to problems can bring strife and stress. Too often our reaction makes the problem worse. We can create a problem just by our reaction to circumstances. Choose your battles. When a situation comes up, think before you react or speak. Keep your big mouth shut! At least that is what I tell myself when I experience something that bothers me.

I was in Wal-Mart recently and my daughter and I were looking at and smelling the special lotions they had to possibly buy one. We were having a good time enjoying the smells when a Wal-Mart employee came up to us shaking her head and harshly said, “You can’t do that!” “You can’t smell the lotions because it might bother other customers.” I asked, “But how are we to know if we like one so we can buy it?” She said, “I think you can go to the pharmacy and they should have samples to smell.” Then she proceeded to explain in more and more detail why we were not allowed to smell the lotions. I could feel my flesh rising up within me and I wanted to tell her what I thought of her and her “policy.” I felt my peace leaving me, so instead of giving this clerk a piece of my mind, I chose to remain in my peace and said, “Okay, thank you.” and the clerk stopped talking and left. My daughter and I walked away and we talked about it. It was a good feeling to react in a peaceful way in front of her. I kept my peace and I taught by example how to react. If I reacted in the flesh, and allowed my emotions to run wild the Wal-Mart employee would have stayed with us and the situation would have gotten worse. I’ve seen people being escorted out of the store due to their bad behavior and I didn’t want that to be me. (What a thought of being kicked out of Wal-Mart of all stores!)

We can decide to change our behavior in a split second. We can choose our battles. We don’t have to react negatively to situations. Choose to keep your peace and keep your mind stayed on good things.

2.  Commit yourself to God

When we ask Christ into our hearts to forgive us of all the wrong that we have done, and to allow Him to have control, we have made a commitment. We are saying, “You have control of the steering wheel of my life now and I will follow and obey you.” It is a good thing to give God control. It brings peace. When we fight having our own way we will have turmoil.

Psalm 37:5 NLT

“Commit everything you do to the LORD. Trust him, and he will help you.”

We show we commit ourselves to the Lord by saying, “I don’t understand all that I am going through right now, but I know You are with me, and You will give me wisdom and help when needed.” I might understand everything, and my questions might not be all answered, but in my heart I know God is for me and has a plan. I can trust God in all situations that He will work it out for my good because I am His and I have committed my life to Him.

Committing your life to God means that you will obey His Word and His promptings. Obedience brings blessing. In this case the blessing is peace of mind, heart, and spirit.

3.  Lean on God and hope confidently in Him

Proverbs 3:5 – 6 Amplified Bible

“Lean on, trust in, and be confident in the Lord with all your heart and mind and do not rely on your own insight or understanding. In all your ways know, recognize, and acknowledge Him, and He will direct and make straight and plain your paths.”

Trying to reason everything out will take your peace away. We will have unanswered questions. We need to be aware that trying to reason everything out by ourselves is a problem. It is a serious matter that we need to deal with, just as Jesus dealt with it in the hearts of those who followed Him. Ask God to help you stop reasoning and being to live by faith, leaning on and trusting in Him and not on your own understanding.

There is a place with God that we have to be like a little child. Children, who are raised in a secure environment, will feel safe and often don’t understand everything, yet they know their parents love them and are watching out for them. They trust their parents. They don’t have to figure everything out, that is the parents job. This is true with our Heavenly Father. He is the one who figures things out. In fact, He already has and knows what we need. Committing ourselves to God and confidently hoping in Him brings peace. It is a faith thing, not a fact thing. Facts may scream at you that there is no hope, but faith arises in us and shouts “With God all things are possible!”

Peace, when your in the Kingdom, is not the absence of conflict, rather its the assurance that in the midst of conflict, the father has things under control.

Stop trying to figure everything out.

There is nothing in the Bible that says we are suppose to know everything. The more we try to figure things out the more confused we can get.

Get comfortable with saying, “I don’t know.” I don’t know, and if God wants me to know He will tell me, and until then, it is enough that He knows.

All this said

Everyday the enemy works to steal our peace. Because when we lose our peace, we start getting into emotions, and then we start making bad decisions, and say things we shouldn’t say. Then it goes from bad to worse. Follow peace.

Peace should rule like an umpire.

Col. 3:15 Amplified Bible

“And let the peace (soul harmony which comes) from Christ rule (act as umpire continually) in your hearts [deciding and settling with finality all questions that arise in your minds, in that peaceful state] to which as [members of Christ’s] one body you were also called [to live].  And be thankful (appreciative), [giving praise to God always].”

The umpire in a ball game decides if a player is “in” or “out.” Peace is to be the umpire that decides if something in your life should be in or out.

Let the peace of God rule like an umpire deciding with finality every question that arises. If any decision is not peaceful, chances are it is not God’s will.

1 Peter 3:10 – 11 Amplified Bible

“For let him who wants to enjoy life and see good days [good – whether apparent or not] keep his tongue free from evil and his lips from guile (treachery, deceit). Let him turn away from wickedness and shun it, and let him do right. Let him search for peace (harmony; undisturbedness from fears, agitating passions, and moral conflicts) and seek it eagerly. [Do not merely desire peaceful relations with God, with your fellowmen, and with yourself, but pursue, go after them!]”

Learn how to zip your lip. Don’t let every feeling you have fly out of your mouth. Self-control. No fruit of the spirit is called others-control. We can’t control others, only ourselves.

Search, seek for peace. Refuse to live without peace.

You want peace, but you have not done anything to get it. You blame your circumstances and people. Stop allowing this to happen. Remember it is a choice to be at peace.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to be around somebody that every time things don’t go their way they get mad, or the only way they have a smile on their face is if things go their way. Selfishness is a peace robber.

Peace With Yourself

Another peace robber is the lack of peace with yourself.

A lot of the problems with people is that they just don’t like themselves. They have a private war going on within themselves everyday.

If you ever want to enjoy peace in life you have to have peace with God and peace with others and with yourself (1 Peter 3:11).

You don’t like this about you and you don’t like that about you. This is personal war within.

How can you have more peace with yourself?

-Don’t always take an inventory of everything that is wrong with you.

-Face your faults, but don’t focus on them. (even your own faults and failures will distract you from growing in God.) Learn to talk back to the devil. He talks to you.

-Stop comparing yourself with others.

-Stop putting your confidence in outward things. Position. Work. Family. The creator of the universe loves you! If people don’t like you, maybe they have the problem and not you. If they don’t like you they miss out on a great relationship.

-Stop letting other people run your life and start being lead by the Spirit. You will never have peace with your heart and be bold enough to be lead by the Holy Spirit.

-Listen to what God says about you in His Word and not what people say about you.

-Let go of the past and press towards the future.

You can’t be at peace with people until you are at peace with yourself. How can you get along with others if you don’t get along with you?

You can’t give away what we don’t have. Jesus was full of peace and could speak to the storm. You can’t speak peace to the storms in your life if you are filled with turmoil. When you have peace then you can bring peace to situations everywhere you go. There is no greater witness to your children then to be peaceful in circumstances that are not peaceful.

Do you live in turmoil, anxiety, or strife? Learn to cast your cares on God and let him take care of it.

You can be peaceful in situations where you have no reason to be peaceful. Where common sense says you should be upset. We can do this over and over in our life.

There is hope for everybody to have the fruit of the spirit manifest in our life.

The Holy Spirit wants to teach us a brand new way to live

Do you want peace in your life?

The world is hard and bad, and likely to get worse. It is not our circumstances that upset us, it is how to respond to them in the proper way.

Have a goal to be peaceful everyday, even when the enemy tries to upset you.

No Peace = No Power

Pastor Kris Belfils

www.krisbelfils.com

www.krisbelfils.wordpress.com

www.hopefellowshipspokane.com

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Fruit of the Spirit – Love

LoveThere are many Christians who want to love with God’s love, but in many cases, they don’t know how.

The entire Bible is a love story. From the creation of the world, through love, for the protection of the Israelites because of love, to the sending of a Saviour out of love, for Jesus sacrifice in love, the Bible is a book that is trying to send us a simple but powerful message. Love God and love each other as He loves us. The greatest commandment.

If you get nothing else out of the Bible and what it means to be a Christian, it needs to be this.

The word “love” gets thrown around so much that in many ways we have lost its meaning. Fortunately the Bible helps us get it back. We’re talking here about “Agape” love which is a divine affection, as opposed to “Phileo” which is more a friendship type of love and “Eros”, which is a romantic, or sensual love.

Love as a fruit of the Spirit is a verb. It’s not a feeling, and much like faith, if only expressed in words, it’s essentially meaningless. Though we like to hear the words “I love you” they mean nothing if not accompanied by loving action. Remember actions speak louder then words. Show you love people with your actions.

Agape love 

I. Love is Sacred

1 Jn 4:7 – 8, 16

“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. … So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.”

This simplifies the idea of abiding if we see it as abiding in love because God is love. Love is from God, we don’t have this kind of love if we don’t know God and have his Spirit in us. If we are abiding in love, keeping it always in the forefront of all our interactions and choices, we are abiding in God.

Remember the love of God towards you is a special gift he gives each of us.

So really this message is to let Christians know that if they are not loving, they are not in God, they do not know God, they are not allowing His nature to abide in them, even if they profess belief in Jesus Christ.

II. Love is Selfless 

Php 2:1-3

“So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.”

Eph 3:18 – 19

“That you being rooted in love may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”

Paul says this love is difficult to comprehend and surpasses all knowledge. Yes it is. We come out of the womb entirely self absorbed, egocentric, existing to get our needs met. You know what, we don’t change much, we just find ways to make it look like getting our needs met is actually helping someone else. Until we understand this kind of love and allow it to work in our lives, it is impossible to consider others more significant than ourselves.

Perhaps another word for selfless here is humble, to show the difference from sacrificial which is coming next. Besides the sacrifice on the cross, how did Christ love us? By always acting, and teaching that others are more important than ourselves.

Until we know that survival is not our primary purpose in life, our behaviour will be motivated primarily by self-preservation. This selfless, humble love that washes feet, seeks to build others up, is foreign to the human nature and our culture, but by the example of Christ we can practice this kind of love, and through the power of the Holy Spirit we can achieve this kind of love.

So, love is selfless and humble,

III. Love is also Sacrificial

Yes these are related, but here we are specifically talking about behaviour. We can consider others more significant than ourselves, but if we don’t show it in our behaviour, it’s lost.

Eph 5: 25

“Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.”

Ro 5: 8

“But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

John 15:13 

“Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for a friend.”

Love always requires sacrifice, whether it be giving up our time, interests, or to the far extreme, our lives or at least some organs. If you say you love someone, but have never given up something for them, chances are it’s not real love.

But there is another aspect to this that the church should feel very guilty about. That being loving those people who are hard to love. This may be the biggest sacrifice. It’s easy to love those who are attractive and likeable, who are on our side, but what about our enemies, the poor, the uneducated, the handicapped and mentally ill. How many of these people are in our churches. Why do you think that is? Maybe we need to sacrifice our comfort and our attitudes to make these people feel loved. It’s not easy, and only the Spirit can make it happen. Only agape love can love the unlovely.

IV. Love is Supportive

2 Cor 8: 1 – 8

“We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia, for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own accord, begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints— and this, not as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us. [] Accordingly, we urged Titus that as he had started, so he should complete among you this act of grace. But as you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in all earnestness, and in our love for you— see that you excel in this act of grace also.  I say this not as a command, but to prove by the earnestness of others that your love also is genuine.”

Grace for others is an outcome of your agape love towards people.

James 2: 15 – 16

“If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?”

Love is always alert to the needs of others. Agape love always gives. I said earlier that love without deeds is the same as faith without deeds as James indicates, so the words faith and love could be interchanged in that passage of James. Not only is love alert to needs, it does whatever it can to selflessly and sacrificially meet those real needs.

V. Love is Soothing

1 Cor 4: 21

“What do you wish? Shall I come to you with a rod, or with love in a spirit of gentleness?”

1 Cor. 13: 4 

“Love is patient and kind…”

This is the character of God. Patient and kind. Life is hard and we all need a place where we can lick our wounds, be ourselves, rest, and feel safe and cared for. That is what love is supposed to do. Love makes us feel safe and soothed rather than pressured to perform, or live up to some standard. Love comforts us when we are struggling. Jesus said he will give us rest and peace. We all need to ask ourselves, do the people I love feel soothed by me? Can my loved ones completely let down their guard around me? Are they emotionally safe?

If we all treated each other this way we wouldn’t have to worry about not getting it back from others. We do it with babies, but I will suggest that there is never a time in our lives when we don’t need that kind of soothing, where we can just surrender and be completely exposed in the presence of another person without fear.

In my opinion, the opposite of this love is judgment. When someone says something out of turn, makes a mistake, does something that we get angry about, and we judge them, we are coming with the rod. We need to learn to let people be who they are. Not that they can do whatever they want if it is sinful, but that they can be themselves. Accept people in the middle of their mistakes. God did that with you!

This is not just with our close loved ones by the way. Christians are to display this love to all people including our enemies. You know the best way to “get” someone who hurts you? Love the part of them that hurts so much that they have to ooze that pain out to others. Why not try to sooth that part of them and help them heal as a way to get them to stop, rather than hurting them back? Be a person who others feel soothed by, and seek out those who are able to sooth you when you need it. Ideally that would be everyone in the church.

VI. Love is Sincere 

Rom 12: 9 

“Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.”

1 Pet 1: 22

“Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart.”

In these verses we see the purity of love. Hate evil (or as we learned, worthless or hurtful things), and hold fast to what is good. Purify your soul through obedience, and love from a pure heart. Purify your soul through obedience. Interesting.

Sounds like abiding again to me. We are being told that we can only love in a genuine, earnest way when we allow only goodness into our hearts and minds, and obey the truth (Jesus is the truth). The love that only comes from God as a fruit of the Spirit cannot be manifest when our minds are focused on sin or impure thoughts.

For instance, is it a sincere and pure love if you tell your wife you love her when she goes to bed, then go to the computer and surf porn sites? Are you loving your husband when you speak in a derogatory way about him to your girlfriends? Are you loving Jesus if you are not obeying his words?

VII. Love is Stubborn

1 Cor 13: 7 

“Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”

Psalm 118:1 – 4, 29 

“Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever! Let Israel say, “His steadfast love endures forever.” Let the house of Aaron say, “His steadfast love endures forever.” Let those who fear the LORD say, “His steadfast love endures forever.” Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever!”

The love that is from God never ends. Could you imagine if it did? Humans would have been obliterated eons ago. God bears with us, he believes in us, he hopes with us, and he endures our constant disobedience and wandering away from him. We are the prodigals.

This love is not dependent on other’s behavior, it is unconditional for the person, but may not be accepting of sinful behavior. Unconditional love means you love the person, but still confront the behavior. That is why God’s love sometimes looks harsh, but the motive is always for our good.

I always shake my head when I hear couples split up because they are not in love anymore. What does that have to do with anything? What does “in love” mean? I think in today’s world it means; “My selfish desires are getting met.” When we fall out of love it means we’re bored with the person. That’s not love, real love cannot be shaken, you cannot stop loving if it is real agape love, the essential nature of this love is that it is endless.

Basically love never gives up on anybody, no matter what they do, no matter what we feel. … And finally,

VIII. Love is Supreme 

1 Cor 13:1 – 3 

“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.”

Matt 22:37 – 38

“And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment.”

There it is. Nothing is more important to God than love. But as we have seen, it is not the cultural romantic notion of love, or the feeling of love. It is the sacrificial, humble, persevering love that he has shown throughout the history of humanity. It is the love that confronts and disciplines so that the person being loved will not stray and end up in hell.

Tough love is often looked at as harsh, but in reality it is the strongest form of love because it is given to help pull someone out of their bad behavior. Tough love is Agape love. If you truly love someone you will want them to change bad behavior for their own sake so that they can grow in Christ and live a better life. 

Pastor Kris Belfils

Vernon McGee calls Love the “energy of the Spiritual gifts,” because Paul makes it very clear that any gifts without love are useless. It is the first fruit of the Spirit because it is the only one that is absolutely required.

But let’s return to the great and first commandment in Matthew 22 for a minute. “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. The second is like it, to love your neighbors.” When God says something is first, it is first. Love is the first or supreme fruit, and loving God is the first or supreme commandment.

He means that without this first foundational commandment, the others are unattainable, and in these first two depend all the Law and the prophets.

First of all notice it says, “the Lord your God,” emphasizing the lordship he has over us and the obedience that is our way to love him. Then it says, “with all your heart,” which is the feeling center of our being, “with all our soul,” which is the seat of our will, and “with all our mind,” the thinking part of us.

This is said in this way to represent the whole of our being. We are to love God with our feelings, our will, and our rational mind, and let me suggest that if even one of these is missing, the others are probably lacking as well. This is especially true of the soul or will. It is only by surrendering our will to the Lord that we experience Him fully.

We can love him with our mind by reading all the great things he has done for us, we can have warm loving feelings toward him because of these things, and may I suggest that this is where many Christians are stuck. The part that is lacking is an experience of Him that makes the thoughts and feelings about Him real.

Often people will only allow God so far into their heart and then no more. Is this you? If so, you have a lot of head knowledge about God and His love, but no heart knowledge, or experience. I can see how this prevents a personal relationship with God. If we did this with people we love in our lives our relationships would be shallow and cold.

Has God forgiven you of much? Do you believe that God exists? Do you love the Lord your God with all your heart, and soul, and mind? Now I know it’s easy to say yes, but if your entire life was on video tape, would anyone be able to tell that this is true?

Sometimes Christians try very hard to love other people, but their love for God is weak, and Paul says this gains us nothing. You can’t make up for not loving God by trying to love others more. You will pay an emotional price for this because you are not tapped into the source. When you drink the juice and eat the bread during communion are you really communing with Him?

You might be saying, that it’s an awfully tall order to love like this, and you would be right. It is not only the first and most important of the spiritual fruit, but it’s also the hardest to do through human will. That is why it is a spiritual fruit and not an inherent human character trait, and why we are commanded to do it so often. It is not in our nature.

The love we require in order to love God, and others like this, comes from God (It’s a bit of a dilemma, I am asked to love God but I can’t unless I get the love from him, which requires me to love him. But I remind you again that loving him is defined by obedience to his commands, something we can in our souls, will ourselves to do with the help of the Holy Spirit), so the other question is, do you have a deep intimate, obedient relationship with the Lord that allows this fruit to be manifest in your life?

Again I will suggest that if you do not love God like the commandment says, and as John tells us, you don’t really know Him, you haven’t really experienced Him, and that is why the church should exist, to help you build that relationship. God wants us to be that church, and I want us to be that church.

Are you growing in Christ and changing, or just going to church, going through the motions, smiling at people, listening to sermons, but never applying what you have heard? Truthfully, what a waste of time then! We should be growing, changing, and becoming more like Christ everyday. We should be seeing areas in our lives that need change and be determined for change to come. How can we reach out to our community when we are too self-observed and unwilling to change?  We can’t!

Open your heart to more love, Agape love, in your life. Hunger for the Fruit of the Spirit to be manifested in your life!

This is just small look at the fruit of love. Research in God’s word for yourself what all that fruit looks like, tastes like, and share it with others!

Your Sister,

Pastor Kris Belfils

http://www.krisbelfils.com

http://www.hopefellowshipspokane.com

http://www.krisbelfils.wordpress.com

(My blog is usually my own writings, in this case this sermon was based off of Sean Harder’s message: “Fruit of the Spirit – Love”)

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iLove

iLoveHope Fellowship is a family. We have a foundation of God’s love. All we do here is based on God’s love.

Video:  “Love Life”

Love. This is a word that in today’s world has more meaning than probably any other word. You can love your family. You can love your church. You can love sports. You can love food. You can love Diet Pepsi, Starbucks Skinny decaf Grande with sugar free vanilla, even chocolate.

And the definition of love has been so marginalized that many times we really don’t understand what love really is. We use the word so often and in so many ways, we tend to lose focus of what it really means to LOVE someone.

Christ understands the word LOVE. He knows what that word means, He knows the value of this word. He knows how to love. And we as Christians must do what we can to also understand this word…in the way Christ understands this word.

Until we understand love from God’s perspective, we will have an extremely difficult time reaching this world for Christ. Because people don’t really care about what you have to say if they don’t know that you care about them…that you love them.

Over the last few weeks we have been looking at the word; “encouragement.” We have learned how to encourage ourselves and others. Today, I want to look at the word; “love” and focus on how love can encourage one another.

1. HOW DO WE LOVE?

We love according to God’s definition of love. The Bible teaches us that loving people with God’s love should be first and foremost in our minds and hearts. Next Sunday we will be looking at loving people to transformation. Love is powerful!

Prov. 3:1 – 4 (NIV)
“My son, do not forget my teaching, but keep my commands in your heart, for they will prolong your life many years and bring you prosperity. Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart. Then you will win favor and a good name in the sight of God and man.”

a.) Like Jesus did.

His entire earthly life consisted of loving the unlovely. He loved everyone he met, even those who crucified Him. The Example of Love gave us a commandment to live by:

John 13:34
“And now I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.”

This isn’t a suggestion, but a new commandment. If you are one who likes to follow the rules, which we all should be doing, this rule was given by God to love one another. It has to become a part of our everyday life. You can see this same command in many scriptures in the New Testament: John 13:35, John 15:12, John 15:17, Romans 12:10, Romans 13:8, Hebrews 10:24, 1 Peter 1:22.

Rom 12:10
“Love one another warmly as Christians, and be eager to show respect for one another.”

Rom 13:8
“Be under obligation to no one—the only obligation you have is to love one another. Whoever does this has obeyed the Law.”

Heb 10:24
“Let us be concerned for one another, to help one another to show love and to do good.”

1Pe 1:22
“Now that by your obedience to the truth you have purified yourselves and have come to have a sincere love for other believers, love one another earnestly with all your heart.”

There are so many more verses that express how we are to love one another. To me, seeing all these verses tells me that God really wants to get this point across to us! Don’t neglect others and loving them.

b)  With our words

EPH 4:29
“Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.”

What we say to people:  Encourage them! This is one of the highest forms of love in action. Encouragement goes a long way. I can do just about anything with the right encouragement.

What we say about people:  Watch what you say about others to your  family/friends/c-workers – Don’t gossip

What we say for people:  Supporting and standing up for others

c)  With our actions (deeds)

Matthew 5:14 – 16
“You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.”

We have to invest in each other! Love is time spent with another. Words often don’t cut it when it comes to love. We have to spend time with others. Spending time with someone shows you care and that you are interested in their life.

Be kind to everybody. Remember love is kind (1 Cor. 13). We will be discussing 1 Corinthians 13 in more detail next Sunday. There is no reward in being mean to others. It only shows your character, and it hurts others. Would you like to be treated by the way you treat others?

2. WHOM DO WE LOVE?

a. Let’s answer this by looking at what Christ said about it when He was asked this same question?

Matt. 22:34 – 36
“But when the Pharisees heard that He had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?”

Matt. 22:37 – 40
“Jesus said to him, “ ‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”

What is so interesting about the lawyer’s question is what leads up to this question. You see, throughout the years leading up to Jesus ministry, the Pharisees had been grappling with a problem among themselves.

Here was their problem: The Pharisees were considered the most pious & holy and they were considered holy as much as they could humanly keep the 613+ Old Testament laws in their society. The problem is that they (obviously) could not humanly obey all theses laws. So, they decided to make amendments to the laws – called “Oral tradition.” They added their own “interpretation” (or “reinterpretation”) to the laws so that they would be able to keep all the laws.

After realizing that even this didn’t work out, they decided to settle on the position that each person should focus on just keeping the “Big 10”- The 10 Commandments. But after quickly realizing that the human heart is even incapable of keeping just 10 commandments, they collaborated and decided that one could be considered holy IF he could say that he has kept ONE commandment 100% of the time. So, there was a debate as to which ONE should be adopted as the ONE commandment everyone should keep.

…It must be the greatest commandment – one worthy and most notable of keeping.

It was at this point in the Pharisee’s debate that this lawyer’s question & conversation with Jesus takes place.

Matthew 22:37 Jesus said to him, “ ‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and great commandment.”

You see, the reason why you obey commandments is NOT just to obey commandments for holiness…obeying commands is ALWAYS out of a heart APPRECIATION for who God is and what He has done for us!

So, if you love God, you’ll obey him. If you don’t love God, you won’t love obeying his commandments.

THEN after he settled the debate amid the Pharisees…Jesus added a SECOND commandment that is an OUTGROWTH of the first. Meaning – Jesus was saying that IF you love God…it is a given that your heart will love people!!

Matthew 22:39

“And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’

If you want others to know that you truly love God…the sign will be that you love ALL people. And ALL people refers to far more than those who look like you, that talk like you, that live where you live and go to the same places as you do.

We must love ALL people. Meaning, even those who we’re not comfortable around. Those who the pious among us might think we shouldn’t even spend time with. Look what Jesus did and said…

Luke 15:1-2
“Then all the tax collectors and the sinners drew near to Him to hear Him. And the Pharisees and scribes complained, saying, “This Man receives sinners and eats with them.”

And in a parable Jesus said…

Luke 15:6b-7
‘…Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!’  I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance.”

You see Jesus loved them all. He didn’t care their background, He didn’t care what they looked like. He just loved them. And why wouldn’t He? He knew that it was for them He would die!

3. WHY SHOULD WE LOVE?

Revelation 2:1-3
“To the angel of the church of Ephesus write, ‘These things says He who holds the seven stars in His right hand, who walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands: I know your works, your labor, your patience, and that you cannot bear those who are evil. And you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars; and you have persevered and have patience, and have labored for My name’s sake and have not become weary.”

It all sounds good, right? Don’t we all love a doctrinally strong church? Isn’t that what every serious believer in Jesus Christ looks for in a church? So, what’s the problem?

Revelation 2:4

“Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love.”

This love refers to love for God and people!

You see, to the church of Ephesus, they were so concerned that people maintained the same theological standard (and this is good) but they forgot to love the person!

Why should we love in God’s definition of love? Because if we don’t Christ will hold this against us. And my friends, we must never allow ourselves to be in the position of Christ having something against us. We want Christ to be for us.

Rom. 8:31
“What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?”

We want to stand with Christ. To stand in His truth. To stand in His love. To stand with His power.

Rom. 5:8
“But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

God demonstrated His love by sending His son to die for us. God did something with His love. He sent His son. And today, we must also DO something with our love for others, for the lost, we must love people to JESUS!

We must share the love of Christ to this lost world. We must love people into transformation. We will be looking at this next week, but today, be determined to love people, even the not so lovely. How do we do this? With the love God has given us.

We can’t love with God’s love within our own strength. This is something I have been preaching in Hope Fellowship since it’s conception. We love others with God’s love.

God can and will teach us how to love others with His love if we ask Him. Once you do, your outlook on people will change. You will genuinely love others and might even be surprised at your heart and reaction or actions towards others.

God’s love is a magnet. People will be attracted to you because of the love of God in you. God’s favor will go before you and open more and more doors to share His love.

                                                       iLove
Let “iLove” be your motto in life! You might be hurt, and people might even reject you trying to love them, but still be Jesus’ hand extended in the flesh to others. “iLove” will bring down walls and melt the hardest heart. God’s love is powerful. Let’s utilize it for God’s glory and win our world for Christ. Be determined to choose and say “iLove” people no matter what they do, or who they are!

For those who do not know God:
If you have never really accepted Jesus as your personal Savior, would you do it right now? Do not delay or put it off. If you would like to receive Christ by faith, pray this simple prayer in your heart:

“Dear Lord, I acknowledge that I am a sinner. I believe Jesus died for my sins on the cross, and rose again the third day. I ask for Your forgiveness Lord of all the wrong I have done. By faith I receive the Lord Jesus as my Savior. You promised to save me, and I believe You, because You are God and cannot lie. I believe right now that the Lord Jesus is my personal Savior, and that I am forgiven through His precious blood. I thank You, dear Lord, for saving me. In Jesus’ name, Amen.”

If you prayed that prayer, God heard you and saved you. I personally want to welcome you to the family of God and rejoice with you!

Pastor Kris Belfils
www.krisbelfils.com
www.hopefellowshipspokane.com
www.krisbelfils.wordpress.com

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How To Put On New MIndsets – 2013 – A New Year For A New You – Part 4

2013 - A New Year For A New You (How To Put On New Mindsets - Part 4)
In Part 1, we learned how to “Demolish Old Mindsets.” We crushed those old mindsets which prevent us from walking in and obtaining the new. We learned to close our mind off from what we thought should happen and opened our heart and minds to the new God is doing, trusting God when things don’t go according to what we planned.

God’s intention is always superior to our expectation. What He intended for each one of us is far greater then any expectation we have had or could ever have on our own. God’s intentions are always good towards you. He sees our full potential, our vision is limited. This is why we need to demolish the old Mindsets so we can be open to what God intended us to be.

We also listen to God’s voice in everything we do and everywhere we go so we won’t miss His leading and direction. We let go of complacency and learned to not fight the new or any change we may be experiencing. Most importantly, we will never stop believing that God can and will do the impossible in our life. These were all choices that demolished the old mindsets we use to have.

Now, we are ready to put on the new God has for us. But, how do we do that? It is one thing to get rid of, and eradicate the old way of thinking, it is an entirely different thing to receive and put on a new way of thinking.

Always remember God has good things in store for you. Even though we may walk through trials, even though we may experience hardship, God is for us and wants us to live an abundant life. The biggest area we may struggle in is our way of thinking. It is time we break the mental bondage and walk in God’s freedom to be who we were created to be!

                                     How to put on New Mindsets:
1.  Open your mind and heart to new things.

God is doing new things!

Isaiah 43:19 (GNT)
“Watch for the new thing I am going to do. It is happening already – you can see it now! I will make a road through the wilderness and give you streams of water there.”

God is a God of the new. Yes, we need to remember history, and what has made us who we are today, but to progress, we have to be open to the new God is doing.

Change is the new. In other words, if you change something, it is different then what was there before. It is new. A new concept, or a new way of thinking has to come by changing what we thought before.

                                          Don’t hate change
If you hate change, you will become stagnate or complacent. We should always be growing in Christ. We shouldn’t be in the place with God now as we were last year. We should be climbing new heights! We should be ascending to deeper places with God. We should be more like Him daily.

If your spiritual life hasn’t changed in years, it is a sign you have lost your first love and become complacent. Then you have to ask yourself, “Am I hungry for God, and the things of God?” If your answer is no, then you desperately need change in your life. Chances are you have closed off your heart and mind to new things.

Matthew 9:16 – 17 (GNT)
“No one patches up an old coat with a piece of new cloth, for the new patch will shrink and make an even bigger hole in the coat. Nor does anyone pour new wine into used wineskins, for the skins will burst, the wine will pour out, and the skins will be ruined. Instead, new wine is poured into fresh wineskins, and both will keep in good condition.”

Allow the Holy Spirit to change you. Crave the things of God. Ask God for the “new” He has for you. Open your heart to more of His presence and more of His love. His love changes you. You can never be the same after you have experienced God’s love. Get rid of the old or fleshly wineskins and replace them with a pliable soft heart. Ask God to open your spiritual eyes and see all the new He is doing. Seriously, if you don’t, you will spiritually die. You will have no new life in you. You will be rotting and spiritually stagnate and become a stench to everyone. Do you want this?

2.  Yield to the promptings of correction from the Holy Spirit.

Correction is not fun. Correction says that your actions or way of thinking is wrong and you need to change. Correction shows God’s love as He prompts you to see the sin or the old mindsets in you and gently brings change if you are willing. We can fight God’s correction. I don’t advise you to do that though. Remember God has infinite wisdom, and we don’t. What seems to not make sense to us, like asking someone for forgiveness even when you thought you didn’t do anything wrong, is truly God’s kingdom on earth being manifested. Trust the Holy Spirit and His promptings. Don’t fight correction. We have to be broken so we will think differently and live differently.

Proverbs 13:18 (NKJV)
“Poverty and shame will come to him who disdains correction, But he who regards a rebuke will be honored.”

When we listen to and heed correction, it is honorable. A true sign of pride in someone’s life is when they get mad when you try to correct them. This reaction shows they are unteachable. Being unteachable is pride, arrogance, and just plane foolishness. We should always have a heart and mind to receive correction. A true friend will tell you if you are doing something that is not okay. They care, and are concerned for you. Don’t shun the correction of a friend.

Proverbs 13:24 (GNT)
“He who spares his rod hates his son, but he who loves him disciplines him promptly.”

God always corrects those He loves. Don’t think you have arrived and will never be corrected again. From the oldest to the youngest, we all need to be corrected from time to time. In God’s correction comes a new way of looking at things, and a new way of thinking. Our job is to yield under His correction.

You will soon see how circumstances or trails you go through turn out to be God’s discipline or correction. Not all are, but God will use them to help you look at the new. There are tons of scriptures which talk about God’s correction. Look some up and see what God tells you through them.

Here are just a few:

Proverbs 3:12


“For whom the Lord loves He corrects, Just as a father the son in whom he delights.”

Job 5:17, 1
8

“Behold, happy is the man whom God corrects; Therefore do not despise the chastening of the Almighty. For He bruises, but He binds up; He wounds, but His hands make whole.”

Hebrews 12:6, 7


“For whom the Lord loves He chastens, And scourges every son whom He receives. If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten?”

Hebrews 12:10, 11

“For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness. Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.”

I would rather be corrected and be on the right path, then to do my own thing and be on the road to destruction. We need correction in our lives. Be open to it in what ever form God brings it to you.

3.  Look for the New!

The new can be right in front of you and you don’t even know it. It can be so obvious and yet eluding all at the same time. Be alert! Be fierce! Look around you and see what God is doing. Pray and ask God what new things He wants you to see and do. Be open to the unexpected. Don’t put God in a box. He is constantly talking to His people and doing new things. Be eager to dig and find new things.

Here is the main verse for this message again:

Isaiah 43:18 – 19 (CEV)
“Forget what happened long ago! Don’t think about the past. I am creating something new. There it is! Do you see it? I have put roads in the deserts, streams in thirsty lands.”

Do you see it? Anticipate that God is bringing new ways, new days, new life into every circumstance. Sometimes circumstances scream “There has to be a new way!”

A new circumstance, that you have never walked through before, calls for finding out how to deal with and overcome it. You are forced to look for the new.

2 Samuel 6 describes bringing the Ark of the Covenant back to the City of David from Obed-Edom’s home. This was a new circumstance. Previously David tried to move the Ark of the Covenant from Abinadab’s house but Uzzah died for trying to stabilize the Ark when the oxen stumbled. David was afraid and placed the Ark of the Covenant in Obed-Edom’s home. News spread that Obed-Edom’s home was being blessed and David longed to bring the Ark back to Israel. So he set out to try again, only this time he changed things up.

As they were bringing the Ark into the City of David, David danced before the LORD with all his might; and David was wearing a linen ephod. He was bringing in the Ark in a new way, and with much joy. Michal, Saul’s daughter, looked through a window and saw King David leaping and whirling before the LORD; and she despised him in her heart. As David worshipped and rejoiced that the presence of God was coming back to the City of David, Michal, who was not participating in the worship, but observed it all from a distance, despised it all in her heart. She rejected the new way of worship. She was critical of how David was dressed, and how he acted. This is so true for today and looking for the new. People can be critical of a new way of worshipping God or how people are responding as the presence of God is being manifested. Worshipping from a far and not participating and experiencing the new along with others, will make you critical. You can’t see it from their point of view as you are totally in a different place and see it from a different perspective. We have to change our perspective in order to experience the presence of God in a new way. This leads us to my next point.

4.  Don’t worry about getting your hair messed up!

2 Samuel 6:20 – 23
“Then David returned to bless his household. And Michal the daughter of Saul came out to meet David, and said, “How glorious was the king of Israel today, uncovering himself today in the eyes of the maids of his servants, as one of the base fellows shamelessly uncovers himself! So David said to Michal, ‘It was before the LORD, who chose me instead of your father and all his house, to appoint me ruler over the people of the LORD, over Israel. Therefore I will play music before the LORD. And I will be even more undignified than this, and will be humble in my own sight. But as for the maid servants of whom you have spoken, by them I will be held in honor.’ Therefore Michal, the daughter of Saul, had no children to the day of her death.”

“…And I will be even more undignified than this…” We need to learn to lose our dignity for His deity! If we get caught up in what people think we will be in bondage to man. If we care about what God thinks, we will be free to experience new things.

Sometimes putting on a new mindset will mess our hair. What I mean is; it might make you lose your dignity. It might force you to re-evaluate why have you done what you have done and for what reason. Tradition can set our mind in such a mode that makes it hard or difficult to even see the new. Once you have seen the new, your traditional mindset will fight you and express, “It hasn’t been done this way before!” I am sure you have heard the definition of insanity: “Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” We will never overcome or have a breakthrough if we keep doing the same thing over and over. We have to change direction. If we don’t, we will become stagnate and complacent.

5.  Wear the New Mindset well; be Strong and Courageous!

Walk in the authority of God as you wear your new mindset. Don’t be afraid or timid when God reveals new things to you. Share them. Take action. Be bold in your faith! He will reveal more of who He is and what He is doing. Don’t be intimidated by the enemy and what they may say or do.

2 Chronicles 32 talks about how king Sennacherib of Assyria came and entered Judah and camped against the fortified cities thinking to win them over to himself. Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib had come and his purpose was to make war against Jerusalem. He consulted with his leaders and commanders to stop the water from the springs which were outside the city; and they helped him. He strengthened himself and built up the walls that were broken, and built up another wall. He repaired the landfill in the City of David and made weapons and shields in abundance. He set military captains over the people, gathered them together to him in the open square of the city gate, and gave them encouragement:

2 Chronicles 32:7 – 8 (NKJV)
“‘Be strong and courageous; do not be afraid nor dismayed before the king of Assyria, nor before all the multitude that is with him; for there are more with us than with him. With him is an arm of flesh; but with us is the LORD our God, to help us and to fight our battles.’ And the people were strengthened by the words of Hezekiah king of Judah.”

This was a new situation for Hezekiah and the people of Judah. The enemy put up every hindrance. They even sent messages to try and scare the people and their faith.

2 Chronicles 32:21 (NKJV)
“Then the LORD sent an angel who cut down every mighty man of valor, leader, and captain in the camp of the king of Assyria. So he returned shamefaced to his own land. And when he had gone into the temple of his god, some of his own offspring struck him down with the sword there.”

God will send his breakthrough in your life this year! This is a year of walking in our authority in God and believing for great things. This is a year of promised blessings to be fulfilled.

I am believing that every hindrance the enemy is trying to make will be lifted from you and I break the power of delays in your life. This is a year of victory over the enemy! Walk in the new mindset God has available for you. Break the mental bondage and walk in God’s freedom to be who you were created to be in Jesus mighty name!

Pastor Kris Belfils
http://www.hopefellowshipspokane.com
http://www.krisbelfils.com
http://www.krisbelfils.wordpress.com

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Demolish Old Mindsets – 2013 – A New Year For A New You (Part 3)

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What kind of mindset are you bringing into your new year? We can be defeated just by having a bad mindset. God has more for your life then defeat! Our outlook on life, ourselves, and others can make or break a successful year. Sometimes we carry old mindsets that have no life. Do you have an old mindset?

Old Mindsets will say, “This is how we did it in the past and we have to do it this way now.” New Mindsets will “Forget what happened in the past, and do not dwell on events from long ago…” (Isaiah 43:18 GWT) It goes on to say, “I am going to do something new. It is already happening. Don’t you recognize it?” This verse tells us to forget what happened in the past. Forget how things were done. Forget any stigma connected with it. Embrace, and let it become a part of you, the new!

Constantly last year in 2012, and this new year of 2013, I have had to let go of some old mindsets I’ve been carrying because they just wouldn’t work with the new God was bringing me into. How I viewed things, especially myself and ministry, stifled me and put God in a box. After some major events that took place the beginning of last year, I found my old mindsets wouldn’t work in the new I was walking in.

This message has two parts. First, we will learn how to demolish any old mindset we may be living in, and then in Part 2, we will learn how to put on the new mind and new mindsets God has for us.

How do we demolish old mindsets?

1.  Close your mind off from what you think should happen.

If we are too focused on what has happened before and expecting the same thing to happen, we will miss the new God has for us. We might have a pre-conceived idea of how God works, but really, God works in mysterious ways. His ways are not our ways. We have to be open to new things.

Isaiah 43:18 – 19 (CEV) “Forget what happened long ago! Don’t think about the past. I am creating something new. There it is! Do you see it? I have put roads in the deserts, streams in thirsty lands.”

Roads in the deserts and streams in thirsty lands. In the natural, the desert is a wasteland. There are usually no streams, and hardly any roads. But this verse wants us to open our minds and thoughts to something that is not natural. Streams in the desert are opposites. They are two extreme things. Yet, This is what God is doing in our lives, ministry, finances, family, and much more.

We can limit God just by having an old mindset. I was given a plaque/picture for Christmas from a close friend. It is beautiful. It has a Zebra background (I collect Zebra items) and looked very African. There was a verse written on it that says:  “I can do all things through Christ Who strengthens me.” (Philippians 4:13) It was a reminder of what God has placed in my heart and the vision He has given me. Christ is Whom I do things through, and He gives me strength to accomplish what He has placed in my heart. My old mindset would have said, “Well, this is what I know, and I guess I will keep doing what I have been doing.” God wanted me to close my mind and thoughts on the old way of thinking, so I could put on the new mindset to pursue the new.

We have to abolish the old way of thinking. God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, yet He never does the same miracle the same way He did before. There is always a new way.

When the new way is coming forth, and you think it might not be of God, take a second look and ask God if it is from Him or not. He will show you if you are truly open to His answer. Check and see if you have closed off the new way of looking at things. Don’t be caught up in how things were, or how you think things should be. Get caught up in God and sensitive to His leading. Then, you won’t miss out on the new God is bringing.

2.  Relax if things don’t go according to plan.

Sometimes things don’t go according to plan. Often times this is God trying to show you there is a better or different way of doing things. We can get all stressed and frustrated over trying to accomplish something and find out the way to accomplish it, or even if you should accomplish it, didn’t work. God sees the whole picture, we don’t. Our finite minds will think something should go a certain way, but God’s infinite wisdom knows all and has a plan. God has used the most foolish things to confound the wise. Be willing to let go of your way of thinking in order to receive new revelation and insight in a situation.

I have seen people get all upset just because things don’t go according to what they thought should happen. Then, out of their frustration, they criticize what IS happening and not only miss out on what God is doing, they also cause strife and division in the body of Christ. Usually these people are very verbal with their criticisms. They are thinking they are “right,” when in reality they are totally wrong, and missing it.

Proverbs 3:5 – 6 “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.”

Our own understanding can often deceive us. What we “think” should happen. What we “reason” to happen. Yes, facts are facts, and if you are basing your understanding on that alone, you are limiting God. You see, God is a God of miracles. A place where facts alone can not explain. If we take the God-factor out of an equation, we will end up with less then what could really happen.

3.  Listen to God’s voice in everything you do, and everywhere you go.

Lately I have heard on the Radio or seen in print my favorite passage of scripture in the Bible, Proverbs 3:5 – 6. I know God is telling me to just trust Him and to not rely on the way I think or to get worried at what I see. God has a way of talking to us, we just need to be open to his voice. In this case, His voice was broadcast through the radio two different times in one day, with also reading the above passage in an article I read. It was also the “verse of the day” on my Bible app on my phone. Can God use modern technology to speak to His people? He sure can! He will use any and everything to help us with our every day life. In point 2 we looked Proverbs 3:5 – 6, now I want to look at in a different translation.

Proverbs 3:5 – 6 (The Message) “Trust God from the bottom of your heart; don’t try to figure out everything on your own. Listen for GOD’S voice in everything you do, everywhere you go; he’s the one who will keep you on track.”

“Listen for God’s voice in everything you do, everywhere you go…” If we are constantly listening to Gods voice and direction, the new mindset will automatically be put on you. You won’t be surprised at the direction God is taking you. In fact, you will be so consumed in what God is doing you won’t be distracted by the old mindset. Listening to God’s constant voice demolishes old mindsets.

There have been times God will wake me up from a dream and as I am waking up I hear a phrase or a statement. I use to ignore these times, but I have learned to tune my spiritual ear into God’s frequency and be open to His voice in what every way He wants to bring it.

One way to really know it is God’s voice is to ask the question: “Does it line up with God’s Word?” If it doesn’t then quickly ignore it and move on in your life. If it does line up with His word, take head and look at what you just read or heard and ask God for discernment and direction. He will give it to us. He is good at this.

When we hear God’s voice we need to head it and not rebel. Usually God will confirm His word several times to let you know He is telling you something. Don’t be stubborn and ignore it or even do the opposite of what He is asking of you.

Hebrews 3:15 (GNT) “This is what the scripture says: ‘If you hear God’s voice today, do not be stubborn, as your ancestors were when they rebelled against God.”

Let us be a people who are quick to obey God and His word!

4.  Don’t fight change.

I am one who enjoys change. Actually, anything new I totally love. A new home, a new car, new clothes, new job, all of that is enjoyable to me. I rearrange my living room and my office at church often. When things seem to get stale, I have to change it. It fuels me. Staleness can cause you to become complacent. We get comfortable in our pursuit of God and what we do for Him. Contentment and complacency are two different things.

Contentment:  “a state of happiness and satisfaction” (Oxford American Dictionary)

Complacency: “self-satisfaction especially when accompanied by unawareness of actual dangers or deficiencies; a feeling of being satisfied with how things are and not wanting to try to make them better (Webster).”

We should all be content, yet, most people get confused and actually get complacent instead. Complacency is “Self-satisfaction” it is inward-satisfaction. We get satisfied with our efforts and stop pursuing God.

I have seen older people with the mindset, “I already did my time, now I can just relax!” This is an old mindset. As long as their is breath in you, pursue God and what He wants you to do in this life! Don’t allow inward-satisfaction to take the place of contentment.

Complacency shuts your eyes to the new God is doing. Complacency turns a blind eye to injustice. Complacency is extremely selfish. This is opposite of God’s character. God always gives his time and love to others. He never sleeps. He is older then time itself. If we want to be more like Him, then we have to up-root complacency from our lives. Don’t entertain thoughts of giving up, or retiring from God’s call.

I know of a wonderful lady who was the piano player of a church I was the Worship Pastor at. She was 65 years old but loved the contemporary Christian praise and worship. It fueled her. She couldn’t wait for me to place a new song in front of her so she could learn it. I have seen other piano players her same age fight me when I would pic a new song for them to learn. In fact, they couldn’t even play it as they had the old way of playing in their minds and it prevented them from even trying to play the piano in a new way. The lady who was open to change had a huge impact on the members of the worship team and they loved her dearly. She spoke into their lives often and they were eager to hear what she had to say. The lady who was not open to change, was often critical in most areas of life, and the worship team members literally hated it when she would be scheduled to play the piano. She didn’t speak into the lives of anyone, and often would be the first one to leave a practice.  Tell me, which one would you rather be?

I was reading a book, “Charged To Change,” by Pastor Abba Godwin (Abuja, Nigeria, Word Alive Revival Ministries). He states, “Tradition is a pothole in the highway of acceleration.” I believe it. Doing things the same way, and not looking for the new God is doing, will prevent you from arriving at your destiny. In Nigeria, the streets and roads are so bad. They have huge potholes, and sometimes the paved street is broken and gone all together. This is such an eye opener as to how tradition and religious mindsets can detour us from our prophetic destinations.

5.  Don’t stop believing.

The enemy wants you to give up on the dream God has placed in side of you. You  might have been waiting for this dream to come to pass twenty or more years ago. I am sure the dream is bigger then you. If it is, that is a true sign that it is from God. If it was the size of something you could fulfill on your own, then God wouldn’t get the glory, you would.

Don’t allow setback or hardship to prevent you from believing the God-given dream will be fulfilled. God has His time-frame. He knows everything. Again, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct your paths” (Prov. 3:5 – 6). This is a promise.

Bring the dream before God in prayer. Remind Him (although He always remembers) and remind yourself of the dream. Pour your heart out to God and express your desire and His dream He has placed in your heart. Ask Him for the grace to finish the race to see the fulfillment of that dream. Remind yourself, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13). Stir up faith in your spirit. Let faith arise in your heart again. Look back and remind yourself of all the things God has done in your life. He is faithful! Don’t allow the tool the devil uses; “Discouragement” to become a part of you. Shake it off and press onward! God has big plans for you.

It is up to us to demolish any old mindsets we may have. Ask God to show you them and be determined to get rid of them. Once we get rid of the old, there is room for the new.

Next week, Part 2: “How To Put On The New Mindset?” Get ready to be changed by the power of God! He has GREAT plans for you this year and beyond. Do you part and let go of any old thinking patterns that hinder you from reaching your full potential and all that God has for you.

Your sister in Christ,

Pastor Kris Belfils
http://www.hopefellowshipspokane.com
http://www.krisbelfils.com
http://www.krisbelfils.wordpress.com

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For Unto Us A Child is born

For Unto Us A Child Is Born (Christmas Even Service 2012)We have been given a special gift at Christmas. This gift we all know of and have heard about. Jesus came to the earth as a baby, grew in favor and wisdom, died on the cross for you and me, and rose again and sits at the right hand of the Father in heaven.

Jesus came to be a light in the darkness. The prophet saw in vision the darkness and gloom of the nation, and saw also the son that would be born to remove that darkness, and to enlighten the world.

Jesus is a gift from God. He was given to the world to save her from sin and eternal damnation and darkness. He was sent as a rich gift from God.

Act 4:12

Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.

John 3:16

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Eph 1:22-23

And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.

Of all the gifts you will receive this Christmas, the gift of Jesus Christ and His salvation he brought, is by far the most precious.

I want to look at a passage of scripture in the Old Testament to really see what we received in this precious gift from God.

Jesus: The purest gift ever given

Isaiah 9:6 (NKJV)

“For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”

“For unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given…” Jesus was given. Given to us as the purest gift we could ever receive.

There is power in a name. In the Bible, names, and their meanings were extremely important. Today, names have lost their meaning and people really don’t think about giving their child a name that reflects that child’s character or prophetically what they will accomplish.

Jesus’ name is the most powerful name on earth or in heaven. Let’s look at this passage in Isaiah and find out more about Jesus and His name, and what an awesome gift we really have.

Isaiah 9:6 (NKJV)

“For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”

“The government will be upon His shoulder…”This implies that the government, or authority will rest on Him. He shall rule. The government shall be vested in Him. He shall be a king. He will reign over all. His authority trumps all other authority.

When you think of the Child being “given” to us, and that His authority trumps all other, it gives you a sense of security, hope, and expectation because Jesus fights our battles and intercedes for us. The One who has all authority knows you inside and out. Not to condemn you, but to lift you up and win battles for you.

Romans 8:34 (NLT)

“Who then will condemn us? No one – for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and He is sitting in the place of honor at God’s right hand, pleading for us.”

 “And His name will be called…”

1.  “Wonderful…”His name, His attributes, who He is, and what He does, will be called “Wonderful.” It is separated from the ordinary. It is to excite amazement, wonder, and admiration, whether it be miraculous or not. wonderful in the dictionary means: “(adjective) inspiring delight, pleasure, or admiration; extremely good; marvelous.”

I love that definition! Jesus is extremely good! Not just kind of good, or occasionally good, but extremely good all the time! Jesus is wonderful. Some synonyms are (From http://thesaurus.com): “Admirable, amazing, astonishing, astounding, awe-inspiring, awesome, brilliant, cool, divine, dynamite, enjoyable, excellent, fabulous, fantastic, groovy, incredible, magnificent, marvelous, miraculous, outstanding, peachy, phenomenal, pleasant, pleasing, prime, remarkable, sensational, stupendous, super, surprising, terrific, too much, tremendous, and wondrous.” Jesus is all that and more!

Some manuscripts combine the word “wonderful” with the word, “counselor.” All those synonyms we can place infront of the word Counselor to describe who Jesus is.

2.  “Counselor…” expresses a distinct attribute, or quality. The name “counselor” here, is one of honorable rank; one who is suited to stand near princes and kings as their adviser. It is expressive of great wisdom, and of qualifications to guide and direct the human race. The Septuagint translates this phrase, ‘The angel of the mighty counsel.’ The Chaldee, ‘The God of wonderful counsel’ (Albert Barns notes on the Bible).

Jesus gives the best advise. He can bring about healing far better then any counselor on this earth. He can help us deal with any issue in our life and bring wholeness and completion. Jesus is our Wonderful Counselor!

3.  “Mighty God…”  Or God the mighty One. He is God the Son. Christ is God. Jesus is not a god who has no strength, no, He is a god who has all the power and might to deliver and rescue us from anything in this life. He is all powerful. There is no weakness in Him. There is nothing that is impossible with Him. He doesn’t know or ever experience defeat. He is the only true God, all other “gods” are not real and have no power. He and the Father are one. Mighty God refers to and implies both the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

4.  “Everlasting Father…”  How can Jesus be the Father and the Son? We have to remember that the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are separate and yet all One God.

There is but one Father in the Godhead, and that is the first Person; Christ and the Father are one, and the Father is in him, and he is in the Father, and he that has seen the one has seen the other.

John 14:9 (NIV)

“Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?”

Taking the word “Everlasting” and applying it to the word “Father” makes this name for Jesus even more powerful. Jesus is the Everlasting Father: He lasts for all time. He will never stop being who He is. He is all encompassing and all consuming. Jesus doesn’t know or experience the word; “Quit!” He never fails. From generation to generation God is always there and is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

Jesus supplies us with everlasting provisions, He clothes us with everlasting raiment, He gives us an everlasting portion, promotes us to everlasting honor, saves us with an everlasting salvation, and giving an everlasting love towards us always.

5.  “Prince of peace…”  Jesus is the Prince among princes. He is supreme. Being a “prince” only happens with royalty. You can be the Prince of Whales, or one of the Princes of a country. Having the word “prince” in front of a name gives authority, special treatment, and honor.

Jesus, being the Prince of Peace means that He has all authority, honor, and power of peace. Jesus is the author of peace. Christ is a Prince.

Eze_34:24 (NKJV)

“And I, the LORD, will be their God, and My servant David a prince among them; I, the LORD, have spoken.”

He is so by birth, being the King’s Son, the Son of God, and by office, power, and authority. He is called the “Prince of peace”, because he is the author of peace; just as he is said to be the “Prince of life.”

Act 3:15 (NKJV)

“And killed the Prince of life, whom God raised from the dead, of which we are witnesses.”

Jesus is the one who brings peace between God and man. He is our mediator.

1 Tim. 2:5 (NLT)

“For there is only one God and one Mediator who can reconcile God and humanity–the man Christ Jesus.”

Jesus is our Peacemaker. He is our moderator in quarrels. If we look to Jesus when we are experiencing a hurt in a relationship, He will bring reconciliation if we swallow our pride. He is our vindicator and will bring justice.

He is the Prince of Peace in every situation. He has authority over all chaos. That is why He could calm the sea by just saying; “Peace be still.”

Mark 4:37 – 41 (NKJV)

“And a great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that it was already filling. But He was in the stern, asleep on a pillow. And they awoke Him and said to Him, “Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?” Then He arose and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace, be still!” and the wind ceased and there was a great calm. But He said to them, “Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith?” And they feared exceedingly, and said to one another, “Who can this be, that even the wind and the sea obey Him!”

This Christmas realize what you are really receiving in the gift of Jesus Christ coming as a baby. He is more then you think. As you unwrap this gift you will see more and more of all He has for you.

Luke 1:30 – 33 (CEV)

“Then the angel told Mary, “Don’t be afraid! God is pleased with you, and you will have a son. His name will be Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of God Most High. The Lord God will make him king, as his ancestor David was. He will rule the people of Israel forever, and his kingdom will never end.” 

Isa 7:14-16 (KJV)

“Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil, and choose the good. For before the child shall know to refuse the evil, and choose the good…” 

Immanuel, God with us. We are never alone. Having God with us is better then having the best, strongest, loyalist person on earth with you. Jesus never fails. Receive the gift of Jesus today. You will be forever changed by unwrapping this precious gift.

Blessings,

Pastor Kris Belfils

www.krisbelfils.com

www.hopefellowshipspokane.com

www.krisbelfils.wordpress.com

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We Are His Ornaments

We Are His OrnamentsI have so many different Christmas Ornaments that I put up on my Christmas tree every year. Some have been given to me, some I’ve bought, some my children have made, and one in particular that has been passed down from my Grandmother, to my mother, and then to me.

I’ve thought about throwing away the older one as you can hardly see my name on it any longer. It was written by my grandmother. A lot of the glitter has come off of it and the colors have faded. It looks rather dull to someone who has no connection with it. But I can’t bring myself to throw it away as it has value and meaning to me.

This reminds me of a time in my life when I felt like I wanted to throw away myself. My “glitter” had come off and I was looking dull and worthless.

I’ve always felt I had to be perfect to have people value me. As hard as I tried, I couldn’t keep up the perfectionism and my life crumbled. My self-worth was wrapped up in what I did and not in who I was in Christ. It took some time for me to see that my self-worth was in the cross and what Christ did for me. All the striving I did to obtain position or prestige was wasted energy. There was a time I wanted to throw away myself.

May be you feel the same way. You have searched throughout your life for significance and always end up feeling empty, worthless, with no glimmer or gladness. How do you view yourself? Do you see yourself as worthless, or hidden? Do you think people even notice you? Do you value yourself?

God wants us to see ourselves how He sees us. In other words, we have to get a hold of His perspective and see ourselves through His eyes. He sees us in a totally different way then we see ourselves. We can have a skewed image of ourselves and listen to the lies of the enemy and what he tells us we are, or we can take a look at what the word of God says.

Every since women were little girls, we have liked glimmery things. My daughters, especially my youngest, were attracted to things that sparkled. We named our dog “Sparkles.” You can tell two little girls had a say in that name.

Whenever we would go clothes shopping you can bet she will pick out a shirt or a pair of pants that have glimmer on it. She loved to play “dress up” when she was younger. Adorning herself with all kinds of accessories that shinned and looked fru fruish. We Would go to the dollar store when they were younger and what does my youngest buy? She bought a glimmery jewelry set and wore it to school the next day.

Our eyes are attracted to things that glimmer. We are attracted to light. This is how we are made. God knows this and wants us to be that glimmering light to others. Let’s look into the word of God and see all the glimmery things we are!

1. We are God’s Jewels

Mal. 3:17

“And they shall be mine, saith the LORD of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels (My special possession, My peculiar treasure); and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.”

It is not angels or heavenly hosts that are referred to as God’s jewels, but sinners saved by grace. The vilest sinner, once they have been forgiven by God’s grace and washed in the blood of Christ, is the most precious treasure to God.

How can one who has walked in sin turn into a precious jewel? This is a miracle, the miracle of the cross. We have to remember it is not what we have done or not done that makes us a precious jewel, it is what Christ did on the cross for us.

A precious diamond or gem is hidden deep within the ground and it takes much time and patience to seek and find them. We are those hidden treasures. We are those earthen vessels, that for some, are hidden and no one ever sees. But, we have to know that God sees us and knows where we are hiding. Soon we will be taken out of our hiddenness and placed in His Crown for all to see. God cultivates the unseen to eventually be seen for His glory. That’s why we sing praises to God. He has made each of us clean and white as snow. He has made us to shine.

We are His glory. We shine because of what He has done in our lives. He has made beauty from ashes. Not only do we shine, but we are His precious jewels. We are His ornaments to shine in a dark world.

Just like a precious stone is placed in a setting, which is what God is doing with each of us, He specifically places us where He wants us to be. Placing a stone in its proper setting takes precision and careful insight to know where that stone should be to beautify the ring.

2. We are his riches of His glory…

Eph. 1:18

“the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints,”

We are valuable. Just like money/riches are valuable, we are valuable to God. No one can take away your value. People may look at you or your past, but God sees you through His Son dying on the cross. Our past is forgiven, and we are a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17). The old has past and behold all things are new (and sparkly).

3. We are one pearl of great price…

The Lord Jesus likens His Church unto “one pearl of great price,” so that He “went and sold all that He had, and bought it”

Matthew 13:45 – 46

“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it.”

Arthur W. Pink states, “The value of a thing in the eyes of its possessor may be gauged by the price he was willing to pay for it. So valuable was the Church unto Christ that He gave Himself for it, and shed His “precious blood” to purchase it for Himself. Thus, the saints are likened unto “jewels” because of the great value which the Lord places upon them.“

4. We have the glory of the Lord risen upon us

God has placed His glory upon us to shine for Him.

Isaiah 60:1 – 2 (NKJV)

“Arise, shine; For your light has come! And the glory of the LORD is risen upon you. For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, And deep darkness the people; But the LORD will arise over you, and His glory will be seen upon you.”

Amplified Bible

“1 Arise [from the depression and prostration in which circumstances have kept you–rise to a new life]!, shine ; for thy light is come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon thee.
2 For, behold, the darkness (misery, destruction, death, ignorance, sorrow, wickedness) shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the LORD shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee.”

“Glory shall be seen upon thee…” God’s glory will be seen upon us. When we walk in what Christ did for us on the cross, and we enjoy the peace and joy of being a new creation, God’s glory shines from us, and we wear it well!

5. We are a crown of glory in the hand of our God

Isaiah 62:3 (NKJV)

“You shall also be a crown of glory in the hand of the LORD and a royal diadem in the hand of your God.”

Here are some definitions for the word, “glory:”

Glory:

tiph’arah: Beauty, splendour, finery (of garments, jewels), honour

Heder: Ornament, splendour, adornment

Kabad: To be heavy, be weighty, be rich, be honorable, be glorious, be made abundant, enjoy honour

Kabod: glory, honour, abundance, riches, splendour, dignity, reputation, reverence

6. We are given beauty for ashes 

Isaiah 61:3

“To console those who mourn in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified.”

Has God been beautifying you? Do you feel like you are all ruff around the edges and have a long ways to go to be a beautiful gem? Don’t lose heart. God has a plan and will not stop until that plan is fulfilled in you. Sometimes we don’t understand why life goes a certain way. We may have taken a turn for the worse and hate where we are. Yield to God’s craftiness of changing your beauty for ashes. He excels in making beauty in impossible places. A jewel is prized for its luster. It flashes with brilliance when the light hits it. Put it in a dark room and one will see nothing. This is how we are as God’s gems. We sparkle and shine when the light of His glory is on us. When we try and shine on our own, in this dark world of the flesh, we never shine and sparkle. We are beautiful only because of what God has done in and through us. He has done great things!

7. We are clothed and covered with ornaments and jewels 

Isaiah 61:10

“I will greatly rejoice in the LORD my soul shall be joyful in my God for He has clothed me with the garments of salvation, He has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.” 

This is the whole miracle of being a Christian. It is His salvation and righteousness that covers us and makes us shine. This is the power of the cross. God can make beauty for ashes. He has done it with all of us. We are His gems and we wear forgiveness like a crown. Here is one more definition of glory: hâlal: to shine (figuratively of God’s favour), to flash forth light, to praise, boast, be boastful. This Christmas, as we see lights twinkle and ornaments glimmer, let it be a reminder of who we are. We are His people who shine and sing His praises with our lives. We are a walking jewel placed there by God’s gentle hand. We are valuable!

May I suggest to you that we all walk with the knowledge that:

1. We are God’s Jewels

2. We are His riches of His glory

3. We are one pearl of great price

4. We have the glory of the Lord risen upon us

5. We are a crown of glory in the hand of our God

6. We are given beauty for ashes

7. We are clothed and covered with ornaments and Jewels

From one shinning ornament to another,

Pastor Kris Belfils

http://www.hopefellowshipspokane.com

http://www.krisbelfils.com