Pastor Kris Belfils

www.HopeFellowshipSpokane.com

March 24, 2014 by Pastor Kris Belfils

Breakthrough the Threshold of the Open Door

God spoke to my heart back in August of 2013 that He wanted me to preach on Doors this new year. Since January I have written and preached message after message on Open Doors for 2014. In doing so, I believe I made myself a target of the devil as I have experienced attack after attack not only in my own life with my health, but in my family, and church as well. At one point I felt I was doing something wrong and even felt like giving up. But, that was not the answer. Far too many times when we are right at the threshold of our breakthrough, right at the doorway of an open door, we will experience the attack of the enemy.

Satan does not want us to take any ground from him. When we rise up and make a stance for God and taking the land for Him, it angers the enemy. Then we experience difficult circumstances and our faith weakens.

Crossing Over the Threshold of Open Doors

As I was going through the attacks of the enemy I didn’t see it as attacks. All I saw was the struggle and the hardship I had to walk through. Maybe this is you too. I pray this message ministers to you as the content ministered to me and allowed me to see more clearly what was really happening. The following is taken from Sandie Freed as well as my own writings.

Are you having to go through what you might refer to as a difficult time right now? And, even though it has been prophesied that this is a year of open doors and experiencing double blessings and breakthrough, do you feel as if your faith is weakened and that it is difficult for you to hold on to finish the race?

If you are contending for your new levels of increase and breakthrough, please allow me to give some insight as to how to properly respond to the new level of spiritual warfare needed for this season. And, let me assure you that you are not alone in this. Many Believers are experiencing difficulty crossing over into their promises in this season.

Opposition At The Threshold Of Open Doors

Sandi Freed writes: Recently I was in Katy, Texas, to minister at Wanda Roberson Ministries’ conference entitled “Stepping Through Open Doors.” When I travel, it is not unusual for me to have a dream from the Lord which exposes territorial strongholds and plans of the enemy. I love the faithfulness of God to expose any area of opposition that attempts to enslave His children! The night before I spoke at the conference, I had a dream of a threshold with an open door. At the threshold, there was a python snake that attempted to wrap itself around God’s children as they were going through the door. (More on the python spirit in a bit.) This evil spirit would attempt to weaken its victim by squeezing the life and breath out of its body. Also, there was a strong spirit of fear attached to this python spirit, and just the fear alone kept people from being empowered to cross over into enlargement and increase.

There was much contending at this threshold as the enemy would lash out with false accusations, fear, anxiety, and cause weakness (both physically and spiritually) in its attempts to hold on to each of us. Satan’s desire is to keep us from getting past our past. Saints of God, listen up – the enemy does not want you to believe God for your breakthrough. He desires to weaken your faith by creating circumstances in your life that are completely opposite of what God has promised you. Bottom line – your land of promise, your open door, awaits your arrival and crossing over, but the enemy does not like the fact that you are at a threshold of great, great breakthrough.

I read this prophecy from Marsha Burn on March 12, 2014:
“I have opened a door to the season ahead of you. It will be a time when you will be able to see and understand spiritual truth with greater clarity–a season of freedom from bondage and past difficulties that will bring refreshment to your soul. You stand at the very threshold of a new beginning, []but you must first put the past firmly behind before you can move ahead. Let go of everything that is holding you back, says the Lord.”

Perilous Times

So, why are we being promised open doors, double blessings, and many of God’s “suddenlies” if we are also experiencing such difficulties? Well, I believe that we are living in what 2 Timothy 3:1 refers to as perilous times.

2 Timothy 3:1 NKJV
“But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come:”

The word “perilous” is a Greek word chalepos (pronounced kahl-ep-os’) and it is translated as meaning “difficult, i.e. dangerous or (by implication) furious.”

I can relate to this translation as I have also been experiencing some difficult times. And, I certainly believe that satan is furious that each of us is determined to cross over into increase!

Interestingly, another interpretation of perilous is “reduction in strength.”

I can relate to feeling weak – both physically and spiritually. How so? Well, the enemy would like to squeeze the life out of me and weaken my faith; plus, I am struggling with physical strength at the same time.

And, a further study concerning perilous times reveal that it is linked to another Greek word which means “to let down, strike, and to lower (as into a void.)” Translations take this even one step further by explaining that during perilous times we even experience “chasms.” (See Strong’s Concordance #5467, #5465, and #5490.)

Did you see that? Let me make it clear. Satan desires to cause us to believe that we are not seated in heavenly places in authority over him! He desires to deceive us into believing we have a lower position! He is attacking our belief systems at the threshold of open doors.

And now, get this: He wants to “void” our promises by deception. He desires to create a chasm between us and our promises. How can he deceive us? Again, by creating situations in our life that seem to oppose our promises. Satan desires to weaken our strength, weaken our faith, and strike out with opposition at the threshold. However, we need to remember this important fact as we contend against satan and the python spirit – Jesus Christ has already won the victory. His Blood was shed so that you are empowered with grace to cross over into your Promised Land! Our minds must be renewed to that truth as we defeat every enemy that attempts to oppose us. Let me encourage you with this thought – IT IS NOT AS IT APPEARS! This truly IS your season to access the unseen!

The Python Spirit

In Greek, the term used for divination and witchcraft is “python.” It is connected to a word meaning “to twist.” A python is a large and muscular snake that will “twist” itself around its prey and kill it by squeezing or constricting until it suffocates.

“The python spirit is loosed whenever Jezebel is in the midst. It squeezes life out of hope, breakthroughs, finances, and lives. It ‘constricts’ us to the point that we are unable to move forward into our future. As the python constricts with every squeeze, we feel the restraints and therefore are contained in old patterns of behavior and hopelessness.” ~ Sandi Freed

It is very clear that a Jezebel spirit and python work together to weaken the hands of God’s children as we build His Kingdom.

Back To Perilous Times

Let’s get back to more on “perilous times.” A careful study on 2 Timothy 3:1-9 describes what is experienced during this season. Mankind will witness a season where they “love themselves,” boast in themselves, are “disobedient to parents,” ungrateful,” “loving money,” and “unholy.” It goes on to describe mankind as “unforgiving,” “without love,” “loving pleasure more than God,” and “having a form of godliness but denying its power.”

Traditions of man have robbed us of demonstrating God’s power, being unthankful and ungrateful – and how these areas rob us from experiencing freedom in Christ. For the sake of time, I will only discuss just one of these manifestations that we might be experiencing during such troubled times, because I believe it is very significant. We simply must return to our first love. Love is a powerful weapon against our enemy.

Love Is a Weapon

There is no doubt that we are in a new season of contention. We are instructed in 2 Corinthians 10:4 that our weapons of warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. However, did we really ever consider the fact that love is a weapon?

Think about this: God is love, right? And because He loved the world, He sent His Son. Yes – because He loved – the Father sent Jesus. Jesus came to earth with a purpose.
1 John 3:8 tells us that Jesus came with the purpose of destroying the works of the devil! And because Jesus also loved, He laid down His life as the ultimate sacrifice for our sins. Because of love – satan was defeated.

As New Covenant Believers, we are no longer under the Law. In fact, Jesus said that the greatest commandments were to “…love the Lord with all your heart, mind, and soul, and to love your neighbor as yourself” (Mark 12:30-31, paraphrased). Those two commandments are centered on love. Love is the greatest gift, and also the greatest tool in warfare.

Restore Your Love and Passion

It’s possible to lose our passion when we experience hard times. Yet, there is another reason we lose passion – I call it spiritual burn out. How does this occur? Well, when we are believing that what we “do” for God is more important to us than who we already “are” in God, we get completely caught up in “works.” “Works” will weaken us, wear us out, and cause us to lose passion for God. I know this from first-hand experience.

When we are burned out, our fiery passion leaves. What we need are two things in order for us to experience restored love and passion for God: The fire of God to touch us and, secondly, repentance.

To experience His fire, we simply need to lay our lives on the altar. It’s not a difficult thing, really. We have a tendency to make this action difficult. Think about this: In the Old Testament, when a sacrifice was laid upon the altar, the fire of God came to consume it! If you want God to consume you, and I believe you do – simply lay down your will and surrender to His perfect will for your life. Think about it as “total abandonment” in Him. Remember, one of the manifestations during perilous times is being “lovers of ourselves,” and the lack of love for God.

Now, let’s talk about repentance. Many believe that God is just waiting for us to mess up so that He can smack us with a big stick! I believed that for years; and a belief system like that sends us running away from God rather than to Him. Repentance is all about changing the way you think. In other words, we need to change the way we think about God and also about ourselves. If we press into the love of God, running to Him in times of trouble and difficulty, we will be empowered with grace to cross over our thresholds!
His love for us will become our weapon against any python, Jezebel, or witchcraft stronghold! And, when we are empowered with the love of God, we are also empowered to love our neighbor and ourselves! This is important because we need each other. Unity releases life (see Psalm 133)! Unity will destroy the destructive power of python that attempts to steal life from us!

Christ died to give us salvation. The Greek word for salvation is the word sozo, which basically means that His love and sacrifice provided salvation, healing, deliverance, protection, and all that Heaven has to give us! Aren’t you thankful for the love of God today? I know you are. Your threshold awaits your crossing over – today!

Breakthrough

Who doesn’t want or need a breakthrough in their life? Everyone is wanting it. Maybe you have struggled and gone through some hard times and you still are persevering? This would be a good time for a breakthrough in your life.

Lately in my life I have been praying for and believing for BREAKTHROUGHS! Breakthrough in relationships, breakthrough in my spiritual life, breakthrough in our church, and so much more. It has been something that I have brought to the Lord often.

God is working on your behalf even if we don’t see the results we are looking for. Don’t give up!

How do you press through in prayer when when it’s 11:59 p.m.—almost midnight—in your life?

Imagine this: You’re heading for destiny, moving with confidence in the right direction. Suddenly, you’re distracted by something demanding your attention. But when you stop to attend to the matter, your path is altered forever.

Such was the case with Paul and Silas in Acts chapter 16. En route to a prayer meeting, they met a fortuneteller who was rebuked by Paul because of her mockery of him and Silas as men of God. Paul commanded the evil spirit to come out of her, and the girl was set free.

She was a slave, however and because her masters were no longer able to profit from her psychic powers, they had Paul and Silas thrown in jail. The ministry duo was suddenly thrust from prayer to prison.

Think about that. On your way to what God has for you, there’s a detour in your well-constructed plan. Although painful, such times are common in the life of every believer. But what do you do when you’re passing from one season in life to another, when it’s 11:59 p.m.—almost midnight—in your life?

Transition occurs because God is altering His plans for us. There is a three-step process during such times: burden, birthing and breakthrough.

First comes the burden. On their way to jail, Paul and Silas were dragged into the marketplace to face the authorities. Even the crowds participated in their humiliation. They were beaten and stripped, and then thrown into prison. But they were not alone.
Life’s transitions may leave you feeling attacked. You may feel beaten and stripped of your spiritual and personal dreams. It may seem as though layers of divine protection have disappeared. This stripping simply means God is taking off the old and exposing you to new life and new assignments.

Then comes the birthing. To be beaten means God is molding us into His image. Jeremiah 18:6 says: “‘O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter?’ says the Lord. ‘Look, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so you are in My hand, O house of Israel'” (NKJV).

Think of a muscle. Have you ever had a really good workout, but the next morning felt sore? Your muscles were in a breakdown stage, which is critical. Without it, the muscles can’t rebuild themselves.

It was humiliating enough for Paul and Silas to suffer, but why did the crowd have to participate? Our transitions are often similar. It’s not enough to suffer in silence or privacy; it seems as though God chooses those broken moments to put us on display.
Paul and Silas were confined to prison, but at about midnight—perhaps it was 11:59 p.m.—their confinement birthed their true assignment: prayer and praise. In the midst of confinement, they blessed the Lord.

Lasting change is birthed out of pain and often filled with isolation. But there’s no better time to feel God’s presence than during your “spiritual 11:59 p.m.” During these times, praise God for who He is. Recall past victories, and in spite of how you feel or what you see, praise Him for His promises. Your worship will promote stability and assurance.
Then you’re ready for the breakthrough. Paul and Silas’ prayer and praise caused tremors in the realms of darkness. Suddenly, a violent earthquake shook the building, and the doors were opened.

Explosive breakthroughs will come in your life as you continue to lift up the name of Jesus. Breakthroughs bring the favor of God on your life, which releases His plans for you.

Soon, your doors will swing open, chains will fall off, and those standing by will marvel at your life. When we become a testimony of God’s faithfulness during painful transitions, not only are we blessed, but others will observe our breakthroughs and will be touched by our release. Desperation will prompt them to ask, as the jailer did, “What must I do to be saved?”

The passage in Acts concludes with the jailer restoring Paul and Silas as the magistrate sent word to release them. Likewise, God can cause the same people or situation that imprisoned you to bless you.

When your clock strikes 11:59 p.m., know that it’s time to rejoice. Whether you are in a period of burden or birthing, remember that explosive breakthroughs are born around midnight. So, let the celebration begin.

Your land of promise, your open door, awaits your arrival and crossing over, but the enemy does not like the fact that you are at a threshold of great, great breakthrough. We are in perilous times right now ,… Like it says in the book of Timothy!! We are crossing over to our promise land this year. The faint hearted wont make it,… God does not want you to shrink back!! Its time to do warfare and take it to the enemy. The devil does not want you to go into your promise land this year. He will fight you with every thing he has. I am putting you on notice,.. this is for real!!! Its time to pray,…. “church”,….. and take authority over the devil. Remember,… as long as you show up for battle you will win!! But you have to show up everyday. Bind that devil in Jesus name !

Let us pray:
Father God, today we are believing for Your empowerment of grace as we come to Your throne. We repent for settling for religious works rather than pressing into Your desire for relationship. Forgive us for losing our passion for You. We turn from dead works today. We surrender our will to Your perfect will today. Consume us with Your holy fire and restore passion. Thank You that Your love is a weapon against our enemy during these troubled times. Thank You that love has already defeated satan’s plans and that I am now empowered to enter into my future. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

I will be believing with you that you will breakthrough the threshold to your open door today!

Your sister,

Pastor Kris Belfils

www.KrisBelfils.com

www.KrisBelfils.Wordpress.com

Content of this article is from Sandi Freed, Pastor Kris Belfils, and Charismamag.org.

March 18, 2014 by Pastor Kris Belfils

Overcoming Door Phobia (Dealing With Fear)

Fear, we all have to deal with it, sometimes everyday, in our life. Fear can paralyze us if we allow it too. Fear does serve a useful purpose in that it is a vital response to physical and emotional danger—if we didn’t feel it, we couldn’t protect ourselves from legitimate threats. But if we allow it to rule above our faith, and what God wants us to do for His Kingdom, the devil wins. Remember that the devil is full of fear.

I’ve heard the saying, “Fear is nothing more then faith in the devil.” Ouch! I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to ever have faith in the devil! We are serving the enemy when we fear and pull away when God wants us to push forward and persevere and expect a breakthrough.

Everyone struggles with fear! Fear is a spirit!

2 Timothy 1:7 NKJV
“For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”

The word “fear” in this text is translated in the Greek as “timidity.” God doesn’t want us to be timid. We get timid and pull away instead of pressing forward and taking the land.

Fears is something that causes feelings of dread or apprehension, a distressing emotion aroused by impending danger, evil, pain whether the threat is real or imagined!

What fear can cause

Fear can cause us to reduce the size of God and elevate the size and opinion of man.
Fear can cause us to reduce the size of God and elevate the size of your problem.
Fear can cause us to lead people in the wrong direction.
Fear causes us to stay quiet when we should clearly speak up.
Fear causes us to be passive about an issue that The Lord has clearly brought to our attention.
Fear causes us to seek consensus rather than really seeking the voice of The Lord.
Fear causes us to not engage the broken, the hurting, the misfits and the neglected.
Fear causes us to refuse to embrace change. (Fear of the unknown)
Fear causes us to try and control things and take matters into our own hands rather than trusting The Lord and trusting others.
Fear causes us to conceal sin and shame in our lives when God’s Word is so clear that we should ask others for help.
Fear causes us to seek the easy decision, what’s comfortable rather than seeking the right one.
Fear makes us choose wrong choices.

This fear phobia is America’s number two-health problem. It makes us tense and can cause depression. Many diseases have their roots in fear and depression. According to medical experts, stress, induce by fear, can easily lead to peptic ulcers, kidney disorders, high blood pressure, indigestion, liver disorders, etc. Fear is the most destructive force in the world today. “Fear, worry and depression have killed more people than all the wars combined; have brought about more health problems than all the germs put together and have been responsible for more failures than those caused by economic imbalances.” (christian-faith.com)

So what do we do with our fear? I don’t know how you have dealt with fear in your past, but it is my heart to help you overcome any fear, especially if it is a phobia to walk through an open door of opportunity.

How to overcome fear

1. Overcome fear with faith.

Fear is the opposite of faith.

A.W. Tozer said, “Fear is of the flesh and panic is of the Devil.”

It seems when we entertain thoughts of fear, and allow it to settle in our spirit, panic will set in. Many people have had panic attacks in their life all due to fear. Most of the time the fear is something we think will happen and not a factual outcome.

Example:
These past few weeks have been pretty trying on me because of having a gallbladder attack and then having surgery to remove my gallbladder. I was taken to the ER twice during this process. On the second time I was experiencing chest pains and shortness of breath. It was after the surgery and my fear was that I might be having a heart attack or a blood clot. The more the pain increased, the more my fear grew, and the less able I was to breath. It zapped me of any strength and my teen daughters had to get me into my car and then drive me to the ER. Thank God someone was walking into the ER as my daughter drove up to the ER doors and they helped me get into a wheel chair and then into the ER. Now, you have to know something about my mother’s health history to really understand my fears. My mother had a stent put into her heart in November of 1995 and then a week later I had to drive her to the ER with shortness of breath and chest pains. She did have a blood clot and they had to do open heart surgery on her and she never came off the Heart and Lung machine and died. So my fear on this day I was taken to the ER was that I was going to die just like my Mother did almost twenty years previous. All the signs were there, and the more I was in ER over this the more my fears grew. I couldn’t make my breathing calm down and even after they gave me some pain medicine through the IV, I still felt the pain and my breathing was still poor. Friends came into my room and I really thought I was seeing them for the last time. My husband came in and I wept and could hardly breathe because my emotions were getting the better of me all because my symptoms were manifesting outwardly and it became fact to me. Ultimately they did some tests and I found out I had a hernia from the Gallbladder surgery and the hernia will bring on chest pains and shortness of breath.

All this said, I was thinking I was going to die because it had all the signs of what happened to my mother, but the factual outcome was that I had a hernia. Knowledge is power and it eased my mind after I was home and experienced these same symptoms again. I knew it was the hernia but to be truthful it really felt like a slight heart attack. My faith was low and fear was supreme in my thoughts. We act on our fears. There is no question about that. When I experience that pain again, I have to start talking to myself and telling myself that “I will live a long life!” That “God is not finished with me yet!” That “there is more work for me to do with my family and ministry.” I say even out loud that “No weapon formed against me shall prosper.” and that “God is healing this hernia, and the Gallbladder surgery. This helps my faith to grow and fear leaves.

The Bible says, that Satan is like a roaring lion (1 Peter 5:8). He roars that he might make us afraid. The roar of a lion can actually paralyze its prey causing it to be its easy target. If Satan can create fear in us, we become an easier prey for him to destroy.

God offers us faith as Romans 12:3 says, “For by the grace (unmerited favor of God) given to me I warn everyone among you not to estimate and think of himself more highly than he ought [not to have an exaggerated opinion of his own importance], but to rate his ability with sober judgment, each according to the degree of faith apportioned by God to him.”

Everyone is given the measure of faith as a born again Christian. You have faith, you don’t need to pray for it. I don’t need to pray for faith, I just need to use the faith that I have. The more I use the faith that I have, the stronger it will get. Faith can grow and the only way it grows is if you use it. Faith is a powerful force that resides on the inside of our spirit. When it is released tremendous things can happen.

We have to have faith to get up in the morning. We have to have faith to raise our children, or drive in traffic, or get married and stay married. So also we need faith to overcome our fears. Faith is a decision we make about where we are going to put our trust. Our trust has to be in God and His Word. He is for you and not against you. He has great plans for you. He brings opportunities for you to walk in and wants you to walk in them fearlessly.

There are times I feel anointed to preach the Word of God, then there are times. I may be fearful or don’t sense God’s anointing that I have to step into it by faith and God always meets me and helps me to get to where I need to be.

We can release our faith in three different ways: by praying, by saying, and by doing. Stop saying how you feel or think and start saying what God says about your situation. Allow your faith to arise in times of being afraid. The shield of faith is your best weapon to overcome the lies and roars of the enemy.

2. Confront your fear.

What we cannot perceive, predict, understand or explain, creates in us an unknown fear. That is why children are afraid of the dark and cautious of strangers over which they have no control. We need to learn how to confront our fears. Again, “Knowledge is power.” Once we understand what the core issue is, it decreases its hold on our life and the fear subsides.

Sometimes when we go through fearful experiences, we fail to analyze it. Understanding what was previously unknown can go a long way to dispelling fear. Understanding a problem is 90% of the solution.

Be determined to overcome and confront what is making you fearful. You can never overcome anything you don’t confront! We can fear our past, or fear of natural disasters, fear of relationships, or fear of a new job or opportunity. When we choose not to confront, the fear controls you and your decisions.

Confrontation is not usually pleasant or comfortable. Most people don’t want to confront issues in their life. They would rather live with it, allowing it to rule them, instead of overcoming and pressing forward with out the bondage of it all. But when someone has confronted issues in their life, and overcome them once and for all, they look back and ask themselves, “Why didn’t I do this a long time ago.” You see now they are walking in freedom instead of the bondage the fear or their flesh had on them.

It is a night and day difference of being paralyzed by your issues and trying to live your life from day to day in struggle and misery, then to confront the issues and decide you want to change, (and be determined to change) and walking out the other side as an overcomer in liberty and power. It’s your choice: Fear and bondage vs. Freedom and power!

3. Be courageous.

Courage is not the absence of fear, but courage is actually forward motion in the presence of fear.

God wants us to be strong and courageous. He spoke this to Joshua many times before he crossed over the water to possess the promised land.

Joshua 1:6 – 7 Amplified Bible
“Be strong (confident) and of good courage, for you shall cause this people to inherit the land which I swore to their fathers to give them. Only you be strong and very courageous, that you may do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you. Turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may prosper wherever you go.”

Joshua was just getting ready to face the giants in the land and to possess the promises God gave Moses forty years earlier. He needed courage to be encouraged to go even in the face of any fears he may have experienced.

Hebrews 13:6 Amplified Bible
“So we take comfort and are encouraged and confidently and boldly say, The Lord is my Helper; I will not be seized with alarm [I will not fear or dread or be terrified]. What can man do to me?”

What can man do to me? Our flesh screams daily for being comfortable. Our spirit should be tenuous to overcome our flesh and to press forward with the new God has waiting for us.

The Webster dictionary speaks of being encouraged as: “to inspire with courage, spirit, or hope.” This is what we need to do for ourselves. We need to encourage ourself in the Lord. I have written on this in my article, “How To Encourage Yourself In The Lord.” It is the number one article on my Blog. Daily I have people reading that article and they found it by searching the internet on “How To Encourage Yourself.” Everyone of us need to be encouraged daily. If we lose our courage, we have lost the war.

Courageous is “possessing or characterized by courage; brave” (dictionary.com). We need to have brave hearts in this journey of life. Anyone can give up and retreat. It takes a courageous person to press on in the midst of fear or discouragement.

4. Ask for God’s peace to reign supreme.

John 14:27 Amplified Bible
“Peace I leave with you; My [own] peace I now give and bequeath to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. [Stop allowing yourselves to be agitated and disturbed; and do not permit yourselves to be fearful and intimidated and cowardly and unsettled.]”

God has given us His peace. It is one of the fruit of the the Spirit. We already have it. Allow it to grow in your life. “Stop allowing yourselves to be agitated and disturbed; and do not permit yourselves to be fearful and intimidated and cowardly and unsettled.”

There are times it comes right down to our choices. Do we choose to be fearful and intimidated, or do we choose to walk in God’s peace and assurance that He never leaves us and will take care of us. If he takes care of the sparrow, surely He watches over you and I!

Luke 12:6 – 7 Amplified Bible
“Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And [yet] not one of them is forgotten or uncared for in the presence of God. But [even] the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not be struck with fear or seized with alarm; you are of greater worth than many [flocks] of sparrows.”

God doesn’t want us to walk in intimidation. He wants us to walk in boldness and to have our spirits be at peace.

Philippians 4:6 – 7 Amplified Bible
“Do not fret or have any anxiety about anything, but in every circumstance and in everything, by prayer and petition (definite requests), with thanksgiving, continue to make your wants known to God. And God’s peace [shall be yours, that tranquil state of a soul assured of its salvation through Christ, and so fearing nothing from God and being content with its earthly lot of whatever sort that is, that peace] which transcends all understanding shall garrison and mount guard over your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.”

5. Confront the devil and cast him out!

Never let fear fool you into thinking there is nothing you could do about it. Sometimes by the grace of God, with a little effort you can put an end to that danger. You must have an active engagement with the problem, or in other words take precautionary measure. If you fear that your children may catch polio, then get them vaccinated.

Don’t allow anything, or anybody to rob you of your God-given peace! There is a gospel song that sings; “Shake shake shake, shake the devil off. Shake shake shake, shake the devil off. Shake shake shake, shake the devil off. In the name of Jesus, shake the devil off.” This is what we need to do when troubled by the enemy. He can’t do anything to us, only if we let him. His biggest weapon he uses against us is our own mind and what we think. So he will fill your mind with doom and gloom. He will tell you that there is no hope. These are the times we confront the devil and cast him out, and shake him off! Amen!

In order to overcome fear brought about by Satan you must have a bold confrontation with him. Jesus did this many times when dealing with and casting out evil spirits.

Col. 2:15 Amplified Bible
“[God] disarmed the principalities and powers that were ranged against us and made a bold display and public example of them, in triumphing over them in Him and in it [the cross].”

You must realize the fact that Satan is real, but a defeated foe. We will overcome when we take our authority in the name of Jesus. For greater is He that is in us then he that is in the world (1 John 4:4).

You must read and know what the Bible teaches about Satan and his evil devices and also about the authority of the believer over Satan. Believers, united with the Lord Jesus Christ, have the same authority to claim and use which our Lord used against wicked spirits.

Some Devices the enemy uses:

a. He blinds us.

2 Corinthians 4:3 – 4 NKJV
“But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.”

The enemy wants to blind the unsaved and the saved from the Truth of God’s word and who He is.

b. Gets people hooked on the “Things in/of the world.”

1 John 2:15 – 17 NKJV
“Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.”

When it comes to the world we are tempted in three areas: The lust of the flesh, The lust of the eyes, and The Pride of Life. There are many examples in the Bible that show exactly this. Eve was tempted in Genesis 3:6 and it shows all three of these devices the enemy used on her:

Genesis 3:6 NKJV

“So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.”

Eve saw that the fruit was good, pleasant to the eyes, and desirable to make one wise,” this is the lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. Our flesh is constantly saying, “Feed me, give me what I want!” In this case, Eve looked and saw that the fruit was good and pleasant and desirable to the point of disobeying God and pursuing action to satisfy those thoughts. This is how the devil tempts us with the things of the world. Everyday those temptations are clamoring for our attention. Be determined to seek God over the matter and walk in the Spirit instead of satisfying the flesh.

Jesus is another example. In Matthew 4:1 – 11 we read how Jesus was “…led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.” He had fasted for forty days and nights and was very hungry. His flesh longed for food and then the tempter came onto the scene. I believe this is in the Bible to show us how even Jesus, the Son of God, was tempted in all three areas the enemy uses but in this case, Jesus didn’t fall for his devices.

Today the devil uses these tactics through Immorality (lust of the flesh), materialism (lust of the eyes), and arrogance (pride of life) that’s why we need to be in the Word of God and in prayer to stay close to God. Even the strongest Christian can fall. Don’t be deceived into thinking you are strong and would never fall away. This is pride in itself. Always have a humble heart that wants to please God instead of your flesh!

Jesus came against these devices of the enemy but first he spent time in prayer and fasting. Shouldn’t we at least spend time in prayer and reading God’s word, and fasting if need be, to overcome these things in our own life. It is a fight for you soul. Who is going to win?

c. Persecute those who are trying to do right.

Wow, seems we are damned if we do and damned if we don’t, right? Wrong! We should count it all joy when we experience trials and persecution. We are a threat against the enemy! I would rather be a threat to the enemy then to be fearful and passive and live a mediocre life.

1 Peter 5:8 – 9 NKJV
“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world.”

We can defend against this by encouraging one another and building each other up. Don’t isolate yourself and think you will overcome, no that is a trap of the enemy too. Be determined to fellowship with other believers and go to church. Keep on keeping on and growing in Christ. Yield to God’s Holy Spirit and be willing to change. Don’t grow weary in doing good. Don’t give up!

d. Get believers to enjoy evil company.

1 Cor. 15:33 NKJV
“Do not be deceived: “Evil company corrupts good habits.”

There is one thing to try and win an unbeliever to Christ, and another to just hang around them and eventually enjoy doing what they do and becoming what they are. They will corrupt you. You will feel pressure to do what they are doing. It takes a strong fish to swim against the current. Take a look around you. Are most of your friends non-believers? Chances are you will follow and enjoy their company more then following Christ. Be aware of this device.

e. Discourage believers through unChristlike Christians.

Is there such a thing? Yes there is. Today we call them “worldly Christians.” These are those who believe in Christ but fail to follow after Him. They would rather take on the behavior of the world then to die to their flesh and live for Jesus.

You know you are a worldly Christian if you consistently miss several Sunday services on a given month. You are a worldly Christian if you swear a lot and take the Lord’s name in vain. You are a worldly Christian if you don’t want to come to church drunk. You are a worldly Christian when the world does contrary to the Word of God and it doesn’t bother you.

There is even another name for worldly Christians. They are called, “Backsliders.” If you have missed a few Sunday services and then attend one, then miss three and then attend one, and miss a month, and then attend one service, you are a backslider. I am sure I have offended many already by stating such. I really don’t care. Your comfort is not my priority. Your salvation is!

You see we deceive ourselves when we think we are okay and don’t have to read our Bible, pray, or attend church on a regular basis. God has placed these things in His Word to warn us for a reason. I know I will self-destruct if I rely on my own understanding and following the ways of the world. I will lead my self astray, but I will think I am totally okay and can handle it. Is that you? Have you said those words? If so, you can change and correct this immediately by making a decision in your heart to stay close to Jesus and hunger after Him. When we do, we will hunger to read His Word, we will hunger to pray and fellowship with God, we will hunger and desire to attend church on a more regular basis. We will hunger to live a life pleasing to God, Amen!

I have seen too many “worldly Christians” come and go from churches and lose out on the best God has for them, all because they have chosen poorly and chose the ways of the world and not the ways of God’s Kingdom.

Matthew 24:12 NKJV
“And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold.”

Has your love grown cold for God and His ways? Chances are you started to be influenced by the world. Don’t allow your love for God to grow cold. Nurture it daily. When worldly Christians or unChristlike Christians come up to an on fire Christian, they usually try and speak down about attending church, or give lame excuses why they weren’t at church. You might say, “Pastor Kris, aren’t you being a little to harsh? No! I have a passion to see you come back to the Lord. Don’t ever think you are immune from backsliding. We all can fall from being close to Jesus just by turning and walking down a wrong road. God is a gentleman and will give you free choice. He wants you to live for and serve Him out of love, not out of obligation. We stay close to God because we love Him and we realize staying close to Him eliminates most of our problems. We have trials, but at least they won’t be because of some stupid choice we did relying on our own understanding instead of leaning on and relying on God!

Why would I talk about backsliding and being a worldly Christian when I am talking about our fears and overcoming them? Far too often people will be fearful and think they cannot overcome and then turn slowly away from God and the things of God. Don’t let this be you! Be determined to be strong and courageous and face your fears. Often we have to do things afraid. It doesn’t mean we don’t have courage, quite the opposite, it means we do have courage in spite of our fears.

Do you think the children of Israel, when possessing the promise land with Joshua, had many fears even though there was a huge door of opportunity in front of them? Of course they did, but this time, compared to the first time with Moses, they had a leader who was obedient and listened to the Lord for every step they were to take.

I want to share with you that that is my heart: to be a leader who walks in obedience and listens to what the Lord tells me for every step. I may not be perfect, and you may not be either, but we are in this journey together overcoming our fears and possessing the land God directs us to!

From one courageous determined believer to another,

Pastor Kris Belfils

www.KrisBelfils.com
www.HopeFellowshipSpokane.com
www.KrisBelfils.WordPress.com

February 11, 2014 by Pastor Kris Belfils

Keys to Open Doors

Doors are all around us. You have a door to get into your house, to go from one room to another, to get into your car, to get into the store, and even the bathroom. I am sure if we took a pole of how many doors we walk in and out of each day we would be surprised at the number.

2014 is the Year of the Open Door. This is the fifth sermon in my Doors Series God placed on my heart back in August of 2013. There will be many doors that will be placed before you this year and beyond. What will you do with that open door? Many will get discouraged because they either don’t see the door or they will walk away from it because it seems too hard to open. Don’t let this be you!

God is growing us numerically, spiritually, prophetically, and in all directions by His Holy Spirit.

God has been speaking to my heart about His anointing of His Holy Spirit that will draw people to Him. Often churches don’t talk much about the Holy Spirit. They are either afraid, uneducated, or have decided it was for the Book of Acts but not for today. I am here today to tell you that the Holy Spirit longs for a living breathing relationship with everyone of us. He has gifts to give that will fall right in line with our natural gifts and talents to unlock doors for you this year.

Listen, if you had the key to open a vast treasury wouldn’t you use it? That is the same with learning the keys to open the right doors in our life. To me, using the key, is the same as God opening the door. He has given us keys to unlock and open doors, our job is to learn what those keys are and to us them for God’s glory.

Keys To Open Doors

1. Manifestation (Gifts) of the Holy Spirit.

God has blessed us already with some natural gifts and talents. Maybe you like to serve, or work with people or children. Maybe you like to teach or be a leader. Maybe you like to help others or like to have people over to your house and love on them. There are so many natural strengths we have. Most of the time we are told to focus on our weaknesses and work on them. But to me that is wasted energy. The Holy Spirit is helping us with our weaknesses and brings change as we yield to Him. Truly God cannot be strong in our life if we don’t have weaknesses (2 Cor. 12:9 – 11). Let’s develop and focus on our strengths and allow God to launch us through any door He has set up for us.

Take a look at your strengths and see what you are good at in the natural, then you can look at the Spiritual gifts and even the Fruit and combine them to be a useful and effective person for God.

Let’s look at the Manifestation of the Spirit, or Spiritual Gifts, and the fruit of the Spirit.

1 Cor. 12:7 – 10 NKJV

“But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all: for to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healings by the same Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues.”

Gal. 5:22 – 23 NLT

“But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!

I wrote down some of the natural abilities I and others see in me and then combined them with the manifestation of the Spirit I see God using me in. (I share these things not to boast, but to give an example to look at. All of this is for the glory of God and to edify the body of Christ.) Then, I added all the fruit of the Spirit, and you can see how they work together to edify the body of Christ, grow the Kingdom of God, and to open doors. We may not have all the gifts of the Spirit, but we do have all the fruit in us, they just need to grow.

Natural Gifts	Gifts of the Spirit	Fruit of the Spirit
Teacher	Word of Wisdom, Word of Knowledge, Discerning of Spirits, Interpretation of tongues	Love, Joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control
Caring, Compassionate, Encourager	Word of Wisdom, Word of Knowledge, Faith, Healings	Love, Joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control
Creative/Dreamer of Dreams(Music, Writing, Graphic Design)	Faith, working of miracles, Interpretation of tongues, wisdom, knowledge	Love, Joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control
Leadership	Word of Wisdom, Word of Knowledge, Faith, Prophecy, Discerning of Spirits	Love, Joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control
Visionary	Word of Wisdom, Word of Knowledge, Faith, Prophecy, Discerning of Spirits, Interpretation of tongues	Love, Joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control
Tenacious, endurance, perseverance, Determined, Committed	Word of Wisdom, Word of Knowledge, Faith, Prophecy, Discerning of Spirits	Love, Joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control
Faithfulness, loyal, trustworthy, honest, integrity	Word of Wisdom, Word of Knowledge, Faith, Prophecy, Discerning of Spirits	Love, Joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control
Patient, Merciful	Healings (Spiritually, Emotionally), Word of Wisdom, Word of Knowledge	Love, Joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control
Self-Starter and Finisher	Word of Wisdom, Word of Knowledge, Faith, Prophecy	Love, Joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control
Out Spoken, Bold, Not afraid of Confrontation	Prophecy, Faith, Discerning of Spirits	Love, Joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control

You see it is when we walk in obedience, and practice His gifts, we will edify the body of Christ and do mighty things for God. What natural gifts and talents has God given you? What gifts of His Spirit has God given you? It is time we use them in the body and to help each other grow in Christ.

It is amazing how God uses our natural God-given abilities, with His gifts of His Spirit, to create the very key to open doors.

The apostle Paul assures us that each of us within the Body of Christ have different gifts that are a response to God’s grace.

Romans 12:6

“Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly…”

And Peter reminded his readers that they were on earth to glorify God through the use of their gifts.

1 Peter 4:10 – 11

“As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. Whoever speaks, is to do so as one who is speaking the utterances of God; whoever serves is to do so as one who is serving by the strength which God supplies; so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.”

Proverbs 18:16 promises us, “A man’s gift makes room for him and brings him before great men.”

The manifestations of the Holy Spirit + our natural gifts + Fruit of the Spirit = Keys to open doors.

2. Commitment

“Too many Christians have a commitment of convenience. They’ll stay faithful as long as it’s safe and doesn’t involve risk, rejection, or criticism. Instead of standing alone in the face of challenge or temptation, they check to see which way their friends are going.”

Charles Stanley

There is a lack of commitment in the world, and in the church. Are you a great starter but not so good at finishing things? It is probably because you are not committed. Commitment will keep you when you want to give up.

The word Commit means: “to give trust or charge, to pledge or engage oneself, to bind or obligate, to entrust.” So commitment means: “the act of committing, pledging, or engaging oneself, a pledge or promise” (dictionary.com).

Psalm 37:5 – 6 NLT

“Commit everything you do to the Lord. Trust him, and he will help you. He will make your innocence radiate like the dawn, and the justice of your cause will shine like the noonday sun.”

We see in this verse when we commit everything, all our ways, to the Lord and trust Him, He will help us. He will make us shine radiantly. Constantly committed to God. This brings success.

As the Israelites committed to obey the commands the Lord gave them, they were prosperous and succeeded. But when they broke their commitment and disobeyed, they were in bondage.

Where is your commitment level? It takes commitment after you walk through the open door God gives you to fulfill what that open door contains. It is easy to give up. Most people take the easy road when things get tough. When things don’t turn out how you expected do you decide to quit or find something else to do?

Laziness is an enemy of commitment. Letting your flesh win is not walking in the Spirit. Our flesh always takes the easy, lazy, most comfortable road. But that road never produces good results. When our flesh wins, we lose!

I saw an advertisement on the television the other day that shocked me. I actually thought it was a joke and was waiting for the punch line but it never came. This commercial was advertising a website about buying divorce insurance. This website states and I quote: “Over 50% of marriages will end in divorce. Insure that you are protected and lawyer bills are paid.” It also has a picture of a red paper heart with a woman ripping it in two. I couldn’t believe it. You are buying insurance saying, “I will get a divorce some day.” Where is the commitment in your marriage with that mindset? What is that?

Commitment! There is lack of commitment in marriages, church, jobs, friendships, family, beliefs and so much more. What happen to the days when people, even Christians, were faithful to their word? Where they showed up when they said they would? When they are committed even when it costs them something? This is integrity and it gives God a good name instead of a bad one.

When it comes to the work of God, your commitment will determine your promotion! God can not give you more when your commitment level where you are at is low. Don’t be deceived. When you are faithful with the little God has given you, He will then give you more. We don’t get a promotion when we are slackers. We get promoted because we show we are committed, faithful, good work ethics, responsible, and trustworthy. Is that you? If not, be determined to change and learn how to commit.

There was a time when my commitment level was low in many areas of my life. I would bolt when I didn’t like my circumstances. I would leave places when I felt I was treated unfairly. If I got tired of working at one place, I would look for another. When my friends didn’t agree with me I would stop being their friend. God showed me this and it grieved my heart. I saw my lack of commitment and also saw the consequences of it. Instead of believing everyone else was wrong, I had to look at truth and that I was wrong. Now, my commitment level has skyrocketed. Very seldom will you see me out sick or leave some place due to being upset. God showed me how to have a “bull-dog” grip on the things He wanted me to stick with. I am determined to stay committed and receive the promotion God has for me. I am determined to stay in agreement and reap the fruit of my long-suffering and endurance.

What about you? Where is your commitment level? If you leave or don’t finish what you started it is time you restart. Don’t decide to stop your participation all because it isn’t convenient or not fun any more. Decide you will finish what you started. Decide you are not a quitter. See where God takes you.

3. Be Trustworthy.

Trustworthy means: “able to be relied on as honest or truthful.” Some synonyms are: reliable, dependable, honest, honorable, upright, truthful, ethical, virtuous, and unimpeachable.” An antonym is: “unreliable.”

Being trustworthy is so important. This effects your family, job, church, finances, reputation, and so much more. If you have in the past been a person who is not trustworthy it takes a while to build that trust in others again, especially if it was your behavior for many years.

Being trustworthy will keep and maintain you after you have walked through the open door. Don’t be a person that decides they are good after walking through the open door and then think you have arrived. No, that is just the beginning.

Remember my message of “What’s behind door #1, #2, or #103?” Many are called and few are chosen. Many are called to do great things but few will do great things, Why? Because few will take responsibility for the call. It doesn’t end with a call, that’s where the work starts. First comes the call, then comes the work, then comes the sacrifice, then comes the never giving up, and then comes the “going all the way through.” This requires commitment and being trustworthy.

Proverbs 11:13 ESV

“Whoever goes about slandering reveals secrets, but he who is trustworthy in spirit keeps a thing covered.”

Colossians 3:9-10 ESV

“Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.”

Slandering someone is not being trustworthy. Lying about anything is not being trustworthy.

Did you know that saying you will be somewhere and then not show up is a lie? You may not even give it a second thought but it is sin. This is a hard one because we can justify our actions away thinking it is no big deal if we don’t do what we said we would do. But in really it is a lie and we are expecting others to be okay with it. It shows your lack of integrity and character.

Colossians tells us to not lie to one another. This is the old self before you knew Christ. We have put on the new because we are new creations after the image of our Creator. Is God trustworthy? Yes! Does He lie? No! Then that is what we should be doing as well. Be people of integrity and do what you say you will do and be where you say you will be.

Get ready for an exciting new year in 2014. There is no limit to what God will do in and through you. Be open! Be ready! Be trustworthy and committed!

4. Be Faithful.

Being faithful is being loyal, constant, and steadfast. Commitment, Trustworthy, and being faithful all go hand in hand. Do you see a theme here? This is what it takes to staying constant in your life and to keep on keeping on with what God has opened before you.

Faithfulness is doing the right thing when you are the only one doing the right thing! It doesn’t matter if someone else is unfaithful. Our job is to remain faithful in what God has given to us. Be faithful in your relationship with God. Don’t be an off and on again Christian. What a slap in the face of God to have a relationship with you when things are going well, but when things are tough, you close your heart and do your own thing.

If you see that you are an unfaithful person thank God for the people who have put up with you. It will take some time to build trust back in them once you decide you will stay faithful. It is okay. Be determined to remain faithful when you are trying to show others you are faithful.

During testing and trying times be determined to be faithful. Don’t give up on things. Don’t quit!

You may say, “Pastor Kris it is just too hard.” “I don’t understand why I have to go through this?” You need these hard years so you will grow. They are specifically designed for you because God is developing character. You only develop character when you refuse to run! We develop good character in the trials and uncomfortable places. Be determined to get your blessing out of what God is trying to teach you. You are in the Holy Ghost cooker! Get ready for the beautiful aroma of God’s character to shine in you as you yield to God’s Holy Spirit’s promptings to change.

You may say, “I just don’t have any joy so I think I will go somewhere else.” You cant run away from something and still not have any joy. You won’t have joy where you decide you want to bolt too. In other words, you are the common denominator in both places. Allow God to change you from the inside out. Give God your worries. Obey His word! A lot of our turmoil in our life is all because we don’t want to obey God’s word. Obedience brings blessing. There is joy in obedience. You will find peace when you obey God.

We all go through silent years of growth before God brings us to the open door of promotion. After Jesus’ birth, we don’t hear anything about Him until He was twelve years old. Then we don’t hear anything until he was thirty. Scriptures just tells us, “And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men” (Luke 2:52) during those years.

Be faithful now and don’t give up!

Gal 6:9 NKJV

“And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.”

Keep on keeping on! Tell yourself, “I will never give up!” Press through those testing and trying times! Everyone on the face of the earth has to learn this lesson.

Heb 6:11 NKJV

“And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end.”

5. Be humble.

Being humble means to not be proud, not thinking of yourself as better than other people. Once we walk through our open door, and we start advancing, pride can come to our heart. We start thinking we have gotten to where we are by ourself. We start having a twisted view of ourself.

Pride goes before a fall, and usually some character building times too. There are reasons why God doesn’t share everything that will happen in our life. He wants us to rely on Him when we make mistakes, and see our humanity compared to His deity. We are nothing without Him.

Why do you do what you do? What are your motives? We need to get our motives right. Do you do what you do to be seen by people? We have to have the mindset that if God isn’t in it, then we shouldn’t do it.You will flow with ease and with a smile, and you will have success if you will change your mindset.

You have no idea what God will do when your heart is purified of pride. Did you know that believing your success is all your doing is really “works of the flesh?” Thinking it was your bright idea instead of God’s. We can reason things out and think, “If I do this, this will happen.” Then we do exactly what we thought, succeed, and start to think we are better then someone who is struggling just to pay their bills each month.

I wonder how much we give up and miss all because we try to get some attention to ourselves? We miss out on what God would love to do for us if we would only trust Him and stay humble.

We have to remind ourselves daily that we are nothing without God! This helps us to not get full of ourselves. If we do, it is over. We will fall from that prideful throne.

Here are some scriptures on being humble:

2 Chronicles 7:14 NKJV

“If my people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn form their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”

Did you notice the “If – Then” statement? If we humble ourselves, then God will move. God will not move on our behalf if we are full of pride, full our ourselves. But if we humble our selves, God will always move. A broken and contrite heart God will never despise. He will never turn away from brokenness. Thank God for that!

So what does humility have to do with opening and walking through an open door? Humility will help you maintain your place in that new open door. Humility will sustain you and help you to handle success in the right way. Amen!

6. Be Bold.

What? You just told us to be humble, now you are telling us to be bold? Yes I am. We can maintain humility and still be bold at the same time. The key is to be bold in Jesus and who you are in Christ! Realizing you are nothing without Him, but you are everything with Him.

We can have a zeal for God and meekness or humility for self. Jesus was humble but when it came to God and the things of God, He was bold like a lion.

Being bold in the face of fears is what we need. We need to be bold and strong knowing God is always with us. Don’t allow your fear of the open door prevent you from walking through it and keeping it. We are children of the King! We are King’s kids. We take the land that is before us for God’s glory and for His Kingdom!

Walk in the boldness of the Spirit. Walk in the gifts God has given you. As they unlock the door, you boldly do what God has called you to do. If we are timid instead of being bold at this point, we will give the land back to the enemy. We will not be victorious. We will give up.

Ask God to help see yourself through His eyes and not your own. He sees a mighty warrior! He sees the battle won. He sees a successful son or daughter following His Word and His example.

2 Corinthians 3:12 ESV

“Since we have such a hope, we are very bold,”

Having hope gives you boldness. We have the best hope ever as a Christian. Stand strong in your belief. Now is the time to tell others of Jesus’ saving power. Today is the day of salvation, Amen!

God’s Holy Spirit gives us boldness!

Acts 4:31 ESV

“And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.”

We are a Spirit-Filled church! Ask the Holy Spirit to fill you to overflowing to empower you to walk in boldness. The Holy Spirit takes our timidity away and infuses us with His presence and power. Let’s walk in this boldness everyday! Don’t be intimidated by the enemy. Sometimes we have to get out of our own way and allow God’s presence to abide in us. Once we do, we will see things from a different perspective. We will see things from God’s view. We will want to advance His Kingdom and speak forth His Word with boldness.

Allow His presence to infill you and walk in God’s boldness to open the doors and walk in the new God has for you. You were designed to communicate the Word of God to your world! Life and death are in the power of the tongue. Speak life with the boldness God wants you to walk in.

7. Be Tenacious

Tenacious: “tending to keep a firm hold of something; clinging or adhering closely.” (Webster Dictionary) Another word to describe tenacious is relentless.

We have to be tenacious with our faith and believing for good things. If God has told you of a promise and it hasn’t come to pass yet, be tenacious and keep believing. Don’t get robbed of a blessing by letting go of your dreams God gave you.

There are several examples in the Bible of tenacious people and the reward of their tenacity.

Elisha was determined to receive a double portion from Elijah. He was promised if he sees him being taken up he will be given a double portion of Elijah’s spirit to be upon him. Many times Elijah told Elisha to stay while he would go further, but Elisha would not. He was tenacious to receive the double portion anointing and he did (2 Kings 2:1 – 15).

In Matthew 15:21-28, we read of a mother who begged Jesus for help. Initially, He refuses her, yet she continues pleading for her daughter.

Matthew 15:21 – 28 NIV

“Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is suffering terribly from demon-possession.” Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to him and urged him, “Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us.” He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.” The woman came and knelt before him. “Lord, help me!” she said. He replied, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to their dogs.” “Yes, Lord,” she said, “but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.”

Then Jesus answered, “Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.” And her daughter was healed from that very hour.”

Her tenacious faith turned Christ’s heart toward her and her child, granting what the woman requested.

The parable of the persistent widow’s story as accounted in Luke 18:1-5 illustrates how we are to be tenacious.

Luke 18:1 – 5 NLT

“One day Jesus told his disciples a story to show that they should always pray and never give up. “There was a judge in a certain city,” he said, “who neither feared God nor cared about people. A widow of that city came to him repeatedly, saying, ‘Give me justice in this dispute with my enemy.’ The judge ignored her for a while, but finally he said to himself, ‘I don’t fear God or care about people, but this woman is driving me crazy. I’m going to see that she gets justice, because she is wearing me out with her constant requests!’”

Even as the authority (the judge) stood against her, she never let go of her hope. Be tenacious.

Samuel’s mother Hannah probably couldn’t have guessed that she’d bear a child, let alone one of the more influential prophets of the day. The despair she felt because of her physical barrenness could have crippled her faith. But, she continued to weep and pray for her miracle.

I Samuel 1:11-17 NIV

“And she made a vow, saying, “O LORD Almighty, if you will only look upon your servant’s misery and remember me, and not forget your servant but give her a son, then I will give him to the LORD for all the days of his life, and no razor will ever be used on his head.” As she kept on praying to the LORD, Eli observed her mouth. Hannah was praying in her heart, and her lips were moving but her voice was not heard. Eli thought she was drunk and said to her, “How long will you keep on getting drunk? Get rid of your wine.” “Not so, my lord,” Hannah replied, “I am a woman who is deeply troubled. I have not been drinking wine or beer; I was pouring out my soul to the LORD. Do not take your servant for a wicked woman; I have been praying here out of my great anguish and grief.” Eli answered, “Go in peace, and may the God of Israel grant you what you have asked of him.”

This is the year of the Open Door. Be determined to unlock and walk through any door God brings before you by using your natural gifts with the manifestations and the fruit of the Spirit. Be committed, trustworthy, and faithful all the days of your life. Stay humble as you experience success in this open door and be bold in your faith and tenacious to never give up. You will fulfill your destiny as you lean and trust in the Lord every step of the way.

Your sister in Christ,

Pastor Kris Belfils

www.KrisBelfils.com

www.HopeFellowshipSpokane.com

www.KrisBelfils.wordpress.com

January 6, 2014 by Pastor Kris Belfils

Doors

Doors! We all have them. We all have walked through them or we have shut them. In this new year God has given, we will be given open doors of opportunity. What will we do with them? I am amazed at how people can look at a door of opportunity and see it as a negativity. There are times when an open door can be beneficial for our life and then there are other times when an open door may take us in the wrong direction. How does one know if the open door is good or bad? When do we walk through the open door or when do we walk away from it?

Many questions right? In this new series of “Doors” I want to explore all these possibilities and more. God has been speaking to my heart about doors. How they give us access into places we may never have walked before, and how to discern what God’s will is regarding different doors.

Doors give us access. They take us from one area or realm to another. Doors are much like gates in the Bible.

Door (Pethach – H6607) in the Hebrew means: “any gateway marking an entrance or exit from one place or state to another. (H6605 – Pathach) “A primitive root; to open wide; specifically to loosen, begin, plough, carve, appear, break forth, draw out, let go free, engraven, loose, opening, put off, ungird, unstop, have vent.” Strongs Hebrew and Greek Definitions

I love this Hebrew definition and bringing it down to the primitive root because it gives such a bigger enlightenment on the word “door.” Most of the time we think of it as an opening, entrance, or exit as the first Hebrew meaning has stated. But looking further we see such a bigger picture.

Looking at the primitive root we see that it is a wide open door and that it loosens and becomes a plough (cutting furrows in the soil and turning it over to prepare for the planting of seeds). The open door allows one to break forth and let go and be free with no one or thing stopping them. In other words, When God opens a door for you it opens up such big possibilities in so many directions and no man, nothing will close it.

In the book of Revelation Paul writes about the Faithful Church that when God opens a door no one will shut and when he shuts a door no man will open.

Revelation 3:8 NKJV

“I know your works. See, I have set before you an open door, and no one can shut it; for you have a little strength, have kept My word, and have not denied My name.”

We can see that God is all powerful and when He opens a door before you, and you walk through it, no one will take it from you. It doesn’t matter if man approves of this door or not, it was given by God and designated for you. This is shouting ground because knowing God has birthed 2014 for you to walk in and has much prepared for you. Things that are beyond your comprehension. Things that will blow your mind.

The definition of the word door in dictionary.com means: “a movable, usually solid, barrier for opening and closing an entranceway, cupboard, cabinet, or the like, commonly turning on hinges or sliding in grooves, a doorway, any means of approach, admittance, or access, any gateway marking an entrance or exit from one place or state to another.”

Doors usually block entrances until they are opened. Have you been praying for open doors? I saw a picture on Facebook that read: “Until God opens the next door, praise Him in the hallway!” We praise God when we are waiting, and we praise God when the door is open and we can take action and walk through the threshold.

Doors cannot do us any good if we stay back and don’t walk through them. We can stand at the doorway and never enter into our promised land. We can stand at the doorway of the church and never enter, and therefore we would never receive what God has for us.

Abraham walked through the doorway of his tent and received a promise of a son being born to Sarah.

Read Genesis 18:1 – 3

Looking at verse one we see that Abraham was sitting in the doorway of his tent probably to get shade as the tent itself was too hot and sultry at noonday. The shaded open front is often resorted to for the air that may be stirring.

Genesis 18:1 NKJV

“Then the Lord appeared to him by the terebinth trees of Mamre, as he was sitting in the tent door in the heat of the day.”

He was at the threshold of his tent and the outside. The men who were passing by were outside. If Abraham would have stayed at the doorway I believe he would not have received the blessing that was about to be given him.

How often is that how we function today? We see and believe for a breakthrough yet we don’t take the extra effort to walk through the threshold of the open door. Maybe our spirit is willing but our flesh is weak?

This was an important decision for Abraham. He could have retreated back into his tent in fear for his safety. Three of them and only one of him. Fear, doubt, and disbelief can creep into our spirit and we miss out on what God has for us. Believe it or not we can create a door of fear just by believing the worse will happen. This stifles us and we retreat thinking the worse will happen.

Listen, God wouldn’t bring you to the threshold of your promise only to dash all hope in the bondage of fear. He wouldn’t cause defeat at this moment. That is not His way. But we have to do our part and walk through the open door!

Remember sitting in the doorway doesn’t get you to your promise land. No! Believing the land will come to you is not the answer either. I know because God spoke to me about a promise land He had for me. For years I would wait daily to see this promise land come to me. It doesn’t happen in the natural and it defiantly doesn’t happen in the spiritual either. We have to take action as we seek and pray for God’s direction.

Doorways, gates, thresholds, and passageways all have something in common: they give access from one realm to another, from one place to another.

Faith-filled people of God take bold action, which opens a gate and releases spiritual power. In other words, our boldness of faith in action will release and open the doors or gates God has for us this year!

Being bold is not being arrogant. It is taking risks and stepping out beyond what you know. It is allowing your faith to arise and walking in it!

I would rather be a water walker then a boat talker.

When we step through the open door God brings provision. Your faith is a catalos for God to move on your behalf. Faith pleases God. It will be credited to you as righteousness (Romans 4:3).

We can’t have the new when we are timid and fearful of it. Don’t be intimidated by the enemy (satan). Be bold as a lion and fearless as a lioness. Be ready to take action and this will open up the doors of opportunity in your life.

If a vision or promise is attainable by our own power it is usually not from God because we can do it in our own strength and wisdom. God gives bold, outrageous dreams to His people and it usually brings them to the threshold again and again. It is at the door or gate that our faith is tested. This is the place where either spiritual abortion or spiritual birthing happens. I know because I have experienced both.

I remember a time in my life when I had pretty much given up on my promise land. I was willing to give it up if that was what God wanted. Many times I tried to make it happen in my own strength and wisdom and spiritual abortion occurred. When I finally gave up what I thought should happen and was willing to do what ever God wanted me to do, that is when the breakthrough came. But it came in a form I was not ready for. The breakthrough came with pain and rejection from others. It came with letting go of what I knew and participated in for years. It was my comfort zone. When I came to the threshold of the new, not knowing what the future held, I decided to fight for it. When I did, I was rejected by many people. I stood up for what I believed for and never in my wildest dreams imagined I would be standing alone. But it was that very event that catapulted me through the doorway I came at many times before.

This crossing over required me to give up what was precious to me; my security and comfort, friends, family, and more. It was what I was holding onto and it was the very thing that was preventing me from crossing over to the other side. Crossing over can mean to let go of that which does not fit through the door with us. Are you willing to give up things or even people for what God has for you? Don’t get me wrong, I am not suggesting for you to divorce your spouse or quit your job. What I am saying is simply are you willing to let go of what you think you need for what God has for you?

It is at the door or threshold that we win or lose. We must break through intimidation, doubts, fears, discouragement, loneliness, or whatever else that is trying to prevent us from walking through the open door before us. The awesome thing we need to know is that God meets us when we step out in faith.

Jesus met Peter when he stepped out of the boat and He will meet us too as we step out. You see it is actually our stepping out that brings God’s provision. God gives us the grace to endure the moment we step and leap forward. His supernatural provision comes the moment we step out in faith.

This year be a person who is not intimidated of the unknown. If you are feeling depressed or uncertain know that it is all part of being at the threshold. It is decision time. Indecision can bring depression and stress. If we decide to stay where we are it is actually a decision to go backward and that is why depression comes. We feel trapped and hopeless. Be determined to step out and keep walking into the new open door that God has waiting for you.

2014 is a brand new year. Did you know that the number four means Door? Four is the value of the Hebrew letter dalet: ד.Dalet means door.

“The letter Dalet is the fourth letter in the Hebrew alphabet. The letter Dalet is actually the source of the Greek letter Delta, as you can see by the similarities in the two letters’ names. The English letter “D” is derived from Dalet, as well. While the specific reason for the letter being named Dalet is not known, many believe it is because one of the letter’s predecessors (in even more ancient languages than the Hebrew language) looked like a door. In the Hebrew language, the word for “door” is “delet”.” (hebrewtoday.com)

Wow, what confirmation that 2014 will be the year of doors! To be honest I didn’t know that when I felt impressed to preach a new series on the word, “Door.” I just felt in my spirit that that is what God wanted for the first few months of January 2014. This is a God-ordained time. Let’s be wiling to walk through the doors God sets in front of us throughout this year. I am sure we all will be surprised at what lies in store.

“Be careful not to shut your soul’s door through doubt, when God has just opened it by His grace.”

John Bunyan

I like that saying by John Bunyan. Don’t waist God’s open door by doubting yourself away from it.

There are many doors that we will be looking at during this series.

Door Series Titles:

Door of Fear

Door of Discouragement

Trap doors

Open doors

Behind closed doors

Door of Hope

Door of disobedience

Unexpected Doors

Miracle Doors

Knock and it will be opened

Miracle at your door

Sin At your door

Door of Hope

Closed Doors (What to do when faced with a closed door?)

Open Door of Opportunity

Open Door Church

Shut De Door Keep Out De Devil

Check Your Attitude at the Door

Beyond the Open Door

Unexpected Doors

These are possibilities of upcoming sermon messages. Things may change but get ready for some powerful words that will transform your life. Invite your friends so they don’t miss this open door of opportunity in their life too!

“For I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it?”

(Isaiah 43:19, NLT)

“It’s a new year, and God has something new in store for you! His plan for your life is not for you to reach one level and get stuck and stay there for 30 or 40 years. His plan is to increase you, open new doors before you, and take you places that you’ve never imagined. He has something big in your future, and He has something big in store for this year! He’s already planned out big breaks, big opportunities, and big ideas for you. You may have seen God’s goodness in the past, but you have not touched the surface of what God has for you in 2014! He is doing a new thing!”

~ Joel Osteen

Let me leave you with this verse:

John 10:9 AMP

“I am the Door; anyone who enters in through Me will be saved (will live). He will come in and he will go out [freely], and will find pasture.”

Jesus is the Door or portal to be saved, delivered, and rescued. Walk through His open door and you will find green pastures and be fed spiritually, physically, financially, emotionally, and so much more. He is more than enough for any need you have.

Your sister in Christ,

Pastor Kris Belfils

www.KrisBelfils.com

www.HopeFellowshipSpokane.com

www.KrisBelfils.WordPress.com

September 11, 2013 by Pastor Kris Belfils

Fruit of the Spirit – RECAP

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.”

What fruit are you producing? Fruit that looks good on the outside but is really bad on the inside? Fruit that is immature or not ripe? Fruit that is good? People will come and “pick” your fruit.

Immature (not ripe) fruit is thinking you are a wonderful person when in reality you walk immaturely in Christ and expect others to like your fruit. Immature fruit is walking around ignoring issues in your life and expecting good results. It is thinking everyone else is wrong and you are right.

We can really do a world of hurt for others if we don’t take care of any issues in our own life. Issues like; pride, complaining, gossip, un-forgiveness, and so much more, if not dealt with, will produce bitter, unripe, even toxic fruit.

If you want to live like Christ, and have given your heart to Him, there will be times of correction and rebuking. If you are like me, you know in your “knower” that you need to be corrected so that you produce the fruit of the spirit.

God chose us before we were even born. He had a purpose for our lives and that is to bear good fruit.

John 15:16 NASB

“You did not choose Me, but I chose you, and appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain.”

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 your love to people with your actions.

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. If we are abiding in love, keeping it always in the forefront of all our interactions and choices, we are abiding in God.

All that Jesus did was motivated by love. His love for the Father, and His love for others.

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.

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?

There will be times to love those who are hard to love. Loving people with the love God has given us makes it easy to love others.

1 Cor 13: 7

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

God bears with us, he believes in us, he hopes with us, and he endures our constant disobedience and wandering away from him.

Has God forgiven you of much? Then you should love Him much, and in turn, we should love others much. It is hard to produce any of the fruit of the spirit without love. Love binds all the fruit together.

Joy

Joy is deeper then happiness. Happiness deals with what is happening. Happiness depends on circumstance. Genuine joy, on the other hand does not depend on what’s happening. Joy is an inner sense of well-being that has nothing to do with circumstance. Joy is an inside Job.

God wants to produce the fruit of joy in all of us. Often it comes with trials and struggles. James says to “count it all joy” when we experience trials. Jesus went to the cross with joy. Joy is an inner strength. It is a knowing that God is with you and you can walk through anything that you face because you are not alone.

Too often people try to find false joy. They acquire things thinking that will give them joy (Ron’s uncle). Sometimes people think they have joy when their surroundings and needs are all met. Our surroundings change daily. Other times people place their joy in relationships. This is a big false joy. People will come and go. They will let you down. They are unstable, but God is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

There are so many lasting things that bring true joy; our salvation, having a grateful heart, and trusting in God are just a few things.

Church remember: Pain, sorrow, trials, and tribulations, are temporary, but Joy is ETERNAL. Happiness is Outside, But Joy is Inside

Allow the fruit of Joy to grow inside of you. Walk in this promise daily. The Joy of the Lord is your strength! (Nehemiah 8:10)

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.”

This is how to keep yourself in perfect peace:

Keep your mind stayed on God
Commit yourself to God
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. Ask God to help you stop reasoning and begin to live by faith, leaning on and trusting in Him and not on your own understanding.

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. Learn to have peace with people and peace with yourself.

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!]”

Patience

Patience is not an ability to wait. Patience is a fruit of the Spirit that manifests while we are waiting. If patience doesn’t manifest in times of waiting, then we see the fruit of impatience.

It doesn’t matter why you are impatient. What matters is how you deal with it. Impatience is a counterfeit fruit. It can look like it is productive, but in reality, it only produces stress and turmoil for you and others. Impatience is very selfish. It only cares about itself.

James 1:4 Amplified Bible

“But let endurance and steadfastness and patience have full play and do a thorough work, so that you may be [people] perfectly and fully developed [with no defects], lacking in nothing.”

We should rejoice in difficult situations, knowing that through them God tests our faith to bring out patience. Trials do eventually produce patience, but first they bring all kinds of junk to the surface such as pride, anger, rebellion, self-pity, and complaining. We need to face and deal with these ungodly traits before patience can come forth.

Waiting destroys pride. If God gave us everything the minute we wanted it, we would be so proud and haughty, we’d think it was us. We would expect our way always. God makes us wait because He is testing us.

Colossians 3:12 NASB tells us to “put on patience.” That tells me that patience is something that I have to do on purpose. Just because I don’t feel patient doesn’t mean I have to be impatient. We must put on patience.

We can’t expect our clothes to come on our bodies all by themselves. We have to put them on. Likewise, it is the same with patience. We have to choose, to purpose to walk with patience everyday.

Kindness

Kindness is the quality of being kind. Kindness is being friendly and warm-hearted. It is truly caring about others. It is treating fellow human beings with respect and being beneficial or an asset in someone’s life.

~Pastor Kris Belfils

Kindness goes a long way! People respond positively to kindness. You will win people over with kindness. Love and kindness always go together. Love and Kindness is the opposite of selfishness.

Jesus was motivated by love and kindness. He had compassion on people and moved to heal them. Jesus always receives us and he never rejects us. This character trait is something we need to have in our life. When we show kindness people see we are real and approachable. Kindness builds the Kingdom of God.

Proverbs 20:28 CEB

“Kindness and faithfulness protect the king; he supports his throne by kindness.”

This shows that if we allow kindness and faithfulness into our lives we will be protected and supported. It is a good foundation to stand on instead of building on a weak foundation of sandy efforts, works, and manipulation.

We are fortified when we are friendly and generous. When we are approachable instead of being an island unto ourselves. People will be strengthened around you and feel secure.

Listen to people. Hear about their life. Don’t be so quick to interrupt and share your needs or something about yourself. People want to know you care about them. Listening is showing kindness.

Kindness costs us something. It costs us our flesh. We die to what we might want to say and change it to be what God wants us to say. We realize what we are thinking will possibly hurt or hinder someone and let it go, and in turn, we say things that build up. This is kindness.

1 Thess. 5:15 Amplified Bible

“See that none of you repays another with evil for evil, but always aim to show kindness and seek to do good to one another and to everybody.”

Goodness

The Greek meaning for goodness is: “Uprightness of heart and life, goodness, kindness” (Thayer Greek Definitions).

Goodness is the action that kindness brings. Goodness is what God is. God is Good. God can’t be anything else but good. Because He is good, he is waiting and looking for people to be good too.

Isaiah 30:18a Amplified Bible

“And therefore the Lord [earnestly] waits [expecting, looking, and longing] to be gracious to you; and therefore He lifts Himself up, that He may have mercy on you and show loving-kindness to you.”

Being gracious is being good. This is what God is constantly doing everyday.

Psalm 23:6 NKJV

“Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.”

Only goodness and mercy shall follow you all the days of your life. Only! Nothing bad, nothing negative.

Exodus 33:18 – 19 Amplified Bible

“And Moses said, I beseech You, show me Your glory. And God said, I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim My name, The Lord, before you; for I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy and loving-kindness on whom I will show mercy and loving-kindness.”

Moses asked to see God’s glory. God said he will make all His goodness pass before him. God’s glory is His goodness. That is such an awesome thought that Moses saw all of God’s goodness pass before him. God’s goodness, His glory, goes before us. When we show goodness we literally are showing God’s glory. We shine when we are good.

Each time you have an opportunity; be good to somebody. Don’t let one occasion pass you by to be good to somebody. If you want to be good to somebody, all you’ve got to do is listen to them.

Forgiving someone is being good to them, and yourself. Forgive people when they don’t deserve it. Before someone stops offending you, you can forgive them.

Remember whenever you are good to someone you shine God’s glory everywhere you go. This takes the pride out of us. We realize we are doing it for God and not our own glory. Shine for the King wherever you go by being good to others.

Faithfulness

A faithful person knows what God has put in their heart, and even though many times they feel like quitting, they don’t give up.

A faithful person is committed to doing whatever God tells them to do no matter what it costs them personally. If you start something, finish it!

A faithful person sees something all the way through to the end. There are so many divorces and so much job-hopping and church-hopping in society today because many people don’t understand what commitment means.

A faithful person understands that no matter where they may go to church they won’t like everything that happens. Stay where God has placed you. The way we grow is to stay planted in one place.

A faithful person arrives at their commitments early or at least on time. A foolish person is constantly late.

A faithful person is someone we can depend on – someone who shows up where they say they will be at the time they say they will be there, someone whom you can count on to do something they say they will do for you. Be a faithful person! Your reputation depends on it!

Too often we start out to do the right thing and then when we don’t get the right response we change and backtrack and do something else.

Galatians 6:9 KJV

“And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.”

Your faithfulness and stability benefits others. It helps build the Kingdom of God. It brings security in the hearts who are close to you. They know they can count on you.

God never gives up on us, and we should never give up. We especially shouldn’t be the kind of people that give up on something because it is hard.

Don’t expect to be promoted if you are unfaithful. Don’t expect to be promoted if you do what you want to do and not what you committed to do. Bosses, Pastors, Authority figures are looking for faithful people. Being faithful is doing the right thing over and over and over and over and over again.

Gentleness (Humility and meekness)

The word “Gentle” in the Noah Webster’s 1828 American Dictionary of the English Language: “Mild; meek; soft; bland; not rough, harsh or severe; as a gentle nature, temper or disposition; a tame; peaceable, not wild, turbulent or refractory, soothing, treating with mildness, not violent.”

Are you a gentle person? How do you respond when someone rubs you the wrong way? Are you rough, harsh, or wild in your response or are you meek, humble, and peaceable?

Phil. 4:5 NIV

“Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near.”

This fruit of gentleness should be seen by the world, Christian and non-Christians alike should see you as a gentle person. Gentleness preserves us and brings peace.

Meekness is not weakness. Meekness requires great strength. What about Jesus? Scripture tells us that he was “led as a lamb to the slaughter” yet cleansed the temple with a whip! Jesus didn’t have to go to the cross. He said, “Don’t you know I can call on a legion of angles and they would deliver me.” But He humbled Himself under the mighty hand of God because He knew that was what God wanted Him to do and what was going to be best for everybody else.

Jesus didn’t use His power to get out of something but humbled Himself to go through something that He thought God wanted Him to go through. It would be like if somebody really did me dirty and it made me mad and I knew I had the ability to get them back but I refused to do that because I knew it wasn’t what God wanted me to do. That’s meekness. When you have the ability to do something but you won’t do it because you don’t believe that is what God wants you to do. Amen!

If you have the authority or ability to get even or hurt the other person who spoke badly about you this is what you need to do: Forgive, pray, and bless (FPB) and allow God to take care of the situation.

Self-Control

1 Timothy 1:7 Amplified Bible

“For God did not give us a spirit of timidity (of cowardice, of craven and cringing and fawning fear), but [He has given us a spirit] of power and of love and of calm and well-balanced mind and discipline and self-control.”

The Holy Spirit is not going to ZAP you with self-control, no, it has to be worked out in us. We have to learn to take it as our own and walk in it. It is virtually impossible to show forth the other eight fruit of the Spirit unless we walk in self-control.

How can we remain peaceful in the middle of an upsetting situation unless we exercise self-control?

Self-control allows us to be patient when we feel impatient. You don’t wait to feel patience, but choose to be patient.

How about faithfulness? People commit to do something when they’re in the height of emotions, and then when all the emotional stuff is over, they don’t feel like doing what they said they would do.

How about humility? How can I exercise humility without self-control? You can’t. Remember the “50 Fruits of Pride” we looked at when we were looking at Gentleness?

It takes a willing heart and courage to look at ourselves and see the areas we need to change in, but it is so worth the change. God can trust us with more. Our lives are more organized and blessed. We are not being lead by our emotions.

As we abide in the Vine, we will produce much fruit.

I challenge you to decide right now that you will live the remainder of your life giving glory to God in everything you do. As you make that decision and carry it out in your life, you will find your life to be exceptional beyond anything you could ever have imagined.

Love, joy, peace, faithfulness, kindness, patience, goodness, gentleness, and self-control are the elements that make our lives exceptional; they are a reward in themselves. We were born to display them, and we will never be like Christ or be fulfilled without them.

Pastor Kris Belfils

July 8, 2013 by Pastor Kris Belfils

Fruit of the Spirit – Peace

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

May 6, 2013 by Pastor Kris Belfils

The Hope Series – “Hope Against Hope!”

There will be times in our life when we have to hope and believe God will do what He said He will do, even when our circumstances scream at us contrary. This is Hoping Against Hope.

What do you do when…

►There is not enough money to pay your bills, let alone by groceries, and it is only the 5th of the month?

►You were just fired from your job and your spouse has been laid off for several months?

►Your car just broke down and you have no money to get it towed, let alone get it repaired?

►You just received news you have cancer?

►You found out your Mother just died and she was your rock you leaned on.

►God spoke to you years ago that you would do great things, but you are at home changing diapers?

►God promised you a promised land but all you can see is rejection, brokenness, and shame?

Paul tells us that Abraham Hoped Against Hope!

Romans 4:18 NASB

“In hope against hope he believed, so that he might become a father of many nations according to that which had been spoken, “SO SHALL YOUR DESCENDANTS BE.”

Hope against hope. What does that mean? It means “To have hope even when the situation appears to be hopeless.” “To Hope very strongly that something will happen, although you know it is not very likely” (www.idioms.thefreedictionary.com).

Why would anyone in their right mind believe hope against hope? Logic tells you otherwise. It is easy to take the comfortable road of logic. It is the road most traveled. Logic fights with faith every minute of the day. It is logical and understandable to look at the facts and base your decision on what you know. God asks us to step out in faith and believe.

Just like Peter stepping out of the boat, it defied logic, yet it happened. Logic would have told him to stay in the boat. But [] staying in the boat means you are a boat talker and not a water walker.

In Reginald T. Steele’s book, “Get Out Of The Boat” he states: “A boat mentality is a mental condition that only functions in logic. A person who has a “boat mentality” always wants to play it safe; rarely taking a risk that is beyond their own comprehension. They want to remain in the boat, because the level of risk is comfortable. Rarely do people with a “boat mentality” remain in uncomfortable situations; they would rather stay in the boat and be a “boat talker,” but never a water walker.”

Are you a water walker or a boat talker?

If you Believe that God is real you maybe a water walker. If you Believe God sent His Son, you maybe a water walker. If you Believe your sins are forgiven and that God has great plans and a purpose for you, you may be a water walker. All this is based on hope and willing to believe in the unthinkable. But if you are a person who doesn’t believe in God, or maybe you believe, but you are unwilling to step out in faith for what God is calling you to do, you are a boat talker. Playing it safe seems right and comfortable, but often will never get you anywhere.

Paul tells us that Abraham’s faith was “Accredited to him as righteousness.”

Romans 4:19 – 24 NASB

“Without becoming weak in faith he contemplated his own body, now as good as dead since he was about a hundred years old, and the deadness of Sarah’s womb; yet, with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully assured that what God had promised, He was able also to perform. Therefore it was also credited to him as righteousness. Now not for his sake only was it written that it was credited to him, but for our sake also, to whom it will be credited, as those who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.”

Everything around him, and in him, said there was no reason to believe what was promised (and what he desperately wanted) would take place. Yet Abraham went on in faith believing the promises would be fulfilled.

At age 75 God first promised Abraham he would be a father of many nations. At age 86 Ismael was born from Hagar. Sarah made Hagar, her maid-servant, sleep with her husband to bring an offspring. This was not God’s plan or promise. It wasn’t until Abraham was 99 years old when Sarah finally conceived, and a year later bore a son, Isaac. Abraham was 100 years old when Isaac was born. 25 years from when the promise was spoken until it’s fulfillment.

Have you been waiting for a promise from God to be fulfilled?

Abraham was very old and much time had passed since God first told him he would be the Father of many nations. Sarah’s whom was dead. No life all these years ever came from her.

But God said they will have a son. Against all hope, Abraham believed that God would give him a son! This is faith!

Romans 4 tells us Abraham’s living hope, his hope against hope, for the future he looked for was based on his conviction that God could call things into existence which did not exist and He could bring throbbing life out of death.

Now that is fact! God brings life out of the dead. God brought life to Adam from the dust of the earth. It happened with Jesus being raised from the dead. It happened when Lazarus was raised from the dead and it can and will happen to you as you stand in faith believing, in spite of your circumstances or what your logic is telling you.

In hope, against all human hope,

Self-desperate, I believe; . . .

Faith, mighty faith, the promise sees,

And looks to that alone;

Laughs at impossibilities,

And cries: It shall be done!

Charles Wesley

It shall be done! I love that. This is what God can and will do for you to! Sometimes we “hope against hope” in our own lives. We have to. If we don’t, we will fall into despair and hopelessness.

It is easy to struggle with what God promised and what the facts are before you. Struggling with God’s promises is not doubt, just as temptation to sin is not itself sin.

Hope refuses to doubt and trusts in God’s promises, even when no way of fulfillment is humanly imaginable.

Abraham’s hope was shown because he was fully persuaded that God’s promise was certain and His power sufficient, because he was, as Paul states in Romans 4:21, fully convinced/assured that God was able to do what He had promised.

Trusting in a person’s promises requires believing they not only have the power to keep them, but also the will to do so.

Behind all promises lies the character of the person who makes them. Do you keep your promises? Be trustworthy and do what you say you will do!

Pastor Kris Belfils

God keeps His promises with you, shouldn’t you keep your promises you make to others? Absolutely!

You may know of someone who makes empty promises? They promise they will do something and they don’t show up. They promise to help and then cancels at the last minute. They are unreliable. This is not the case with God.

God has proven Himself over and over again. We see him prove Himself in the lives of others. We see Him prove Himself in our own life. He is trustworthy.

The question is: how big is your God? The answer to that question will determine how big your hope is. Is your god only the god of the everyday, simply maintaining the status quo? Or is your God, the sovereign God of the universe who delights to show people that everyday He accomplishes the humanly impossible to show that with Him, all things are possible (Matt 19:26)?

Abraham had a definite word from God about his future. He knew what God had promised, but he had no indication about when the promise would be fulfilled. The same is often true for us. While we are waiting for our manifestation to come forth–waiting for a breakthrough–we may grow frustrated or impatient. Sitting in the waiting room of life is not always easy!

You may possibly have lost hope in your situation, but you have to understand that one Word from God will change the situation for your good, for when everything else fails [] God’s Word cannot fail, for God watches over His word to perform it, and His Word is forever settled in heaven.

Hope against hope! One Word from Your all powerful God is all it takes! His time frame and ours are two different things. You tell yourself; “It’s not over!” You speak to your spirit and say, “God has a plan!” Tell yourself, “God sees me!” He is working things out for my behalf.

What is the word you need? Abraham waited and it was finally his season to receive the blessing promised. He stood on it daily. He spoke to God about it. This is what we need to do.

Stir yourself up! Don’t allow yourself to fall into self pity! Don’t allow discouragement to set in your spirit. Hope against all natural hope and push into the supernatural of God’s Living Hope that He will bring a break though in your life. Do you believe it? Do you trust Him?

Weak faith results from giving consideration or meditation to the circumstances that you are faced with. In order to have strong faith you must stay focused on God’s Word as the final judge for all life’s situations.

Unbelief is at the bottom of our staggering at the promises of God. This is being double minded and unstable in your heart. Strong faith is born as you stay focused on God’s promises without wavering with a fervent persuasion that God is able to do exceedingly, abundantly, above all that we ask or think according to the power that works in us.

God’s Word brings hope to the hopeless in spite of the circumstance as the Word is received and acted upon.

Tell yourself: “I may be down, but God is lifting me up!”

Tell the enemy; “You thought you had me. You thought I was giving up, but God is setting me up for my victory!”

It may seem hopeless, but put your hope in God and He will bring the answer!

Circumstances may be screaming at you, but God is BIGGER! How big is your God? Remember this determines the size of your hope.

Speak to your circumstances and tell them they have to line up with God’s word.

His word says that ALL THINGS WORK TOGETHER FOR OUR GOOD!

His word states; “ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE THROUGH CHRIST WHO STRENGTHENS ME!”

HE IS GOD AND DOES NOT LIE!

It is your time and your season of change in Jesus’ name!

Be willing to step out in faith and risk possibly all that you know for something you have been longing for. The worse that could happen is NOTHING! So what do you have to lose?

Your sister in Christ,

Pastor Kris Belfils