Spirit Life Walk

Does anyone like change out there, raise your hand! Yes, it's rather quiet right now. Well, indeed we don't line up for opportunities for change unless you're worn out in your present situation maybe, or a bit fried, or even depressed. Despite how we feel, though, we should recognize that the Harvest is the Lord's priority. And while a natural harvest is going on here in Illinois, a spiritual harvest is also going on. Not just people passing from life to death and going on to heaven...or to hell if they denied Christ :(. But also a spiritual harvest of those things dying in our lives to make way for the new--death to our flesh--youthful lusts aka all the things or pursuits we think are worth our investment of time, money and "love." Amazing enough, we can have a collection of good looking things to other Christians--all the things we give to others in the name of Christ--so that others looking at us think we are a "good person." These too can become traps believe it or not. But more than anything, I believe we are in a new season with the Lord and there is a clearing away of the old to now birth a new, just like these old dried up corn stalks and bean fields are being removed and stored away to be sold for a price, to make room for the future, but also to provide us a clear view for what's next. God has a plan, but we must align ourselves with His Way and His Truth with the help of the Holy Spirit in order to experience His Life in this next season (John 14:6). We don't have to be completely clueless in our walk with Him, did you know that? Jesus said that He would share with His "friends" what His future plans were, if we were doing what He commanded us to (John 15:15). He said that "if" we love Him, we keep His commandments--not just because we say we're a Christian (John 14:15). He's looking for those who are willing AND obedient...these will be those who will eat good of the land (Isaiah 1:19). God bless you!Support the show

"Life and Life more abundantly," is not just a phrase for our benefit. Jesus's LIFE inside of us is for giving out to others. If we seek to grow in the responsibilities that Christ wants to give us, we have to first know Him, as we have no life apart from Him and we can't do anything without Him. We may be able to walk in ignorant fashion for a time and may be able to perform pretty good for the eyes of others. But eventually we will all be held in account. Therefore we need to make Jesus and the Holy Spirit a priority daily in our reading of His Word and in praying in the Spirit. This is how we not only get built up, but stay strong when the storms come against us. Jesus is our foundation and we can build on Him however we like--in regards no to open choice to do as we wish and He's okay with it--no. We can choose to be like that story of the three little piggies--yes I know, but its what comes to my mind. Two out of three chose the cheap and quick way to make their habitation. They chose what was popular. They chose what people recommended to them, when they knew better. The wolf comes along and trashes those two cheaply built houses but cannot withstand the one built solidly--of which the other two have taken refuge in now with the wise one. If we are faithful to stay close to Jesus and filled with the Spirit, we indeed will be conduits for the Lord's river of His Life. And this closeness will mean that we will be able to direct that flow toward anyone who needs a refreshing from the Lord. Sometimes that River involves giving a scripture or encouraging word/exhortation. Sometimes its healing or deliverance or prophecy. But remember, operating in the gifts comes because of time with Jesus and the Holy Spirit. And there are some things that can be manufactured to look legit--so don't mess around because the moment satan comes around to test you, if you've built your structure from things that just look good to others, it will be obliterated with next to nothing from an attack he initiates. However, if we make the right decisions, and repent when we haven't been doing right, and get right with the Lord and trust Him to guide us through the GUIDE He gave us--our friend the Holy Spirit--then we will be okay. Draw near to Jesus today, abide in Him, rest in Him. He said we can let Him help carry it--and He'll take the heaviest part! What a wonderful Savior we have that longs to help make things easier for us as we obey Him. Submit to God, Resist the devil--and he will flee! God bless you!Support the show

The phrase "life and life more abundantly" can be defined a lot of ways. Beyond blessings in this life of ours that are a result of our Father's kindness and mercy toward us, we receive greater blessings through our obedience to the Lord Jesus. That means obeying His Word which keeps us in His Way. The Holy Spirit is our Helper who guides us into all Truth. We cannot have Truth apart from Jesus, otherwise we are actually not in His Way, we're in the ditch! You don't get very far if you run your car into the ditch. Jesus is looking for believers who will choose to obey him in these great time of compromise. Jesus said this phrase in the middle of his teaching about himself being the Door of salvation. In John 10:10, "The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly." This "life" that Jesus promised was Himself.  We must know His Word and His Spirit to be able to love and obey Him. In John 14:15 Jesus says, “If you love Me, keep My commandments."  Short and to the point. If we love Him then we will want to obey Him, to please Him! In Matthew 7:21-23, Jesus defines the seriousness of choosing not to truly know Him, "Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’" We don't take it very seriously that the Lord is looking for us to love Him and depart from evil. He doesn't give us permission to mess with His Words to come up with a meaning that discounts what He just got done saying. That would send us into destruction, and He's hoping we don't choose that route. Lastly, John 15: 5-8, Jesus clarifies the  “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples." Do you want to be His disciple? Abide in Jesus, Abide in the Way, Abide in the Truth and have His life.-------I had mentioned a couple of references in the podcast today for two different things, Andrew Wommack's ministry podcast can be found here. Jay Sekulow's website concerning their amazing legal work in the fight for life can be found here.Support the show

Are you a golfer? I have only been just a handful of times, literally. But I distinctly remember getting my golf ball into the "rough" or the sand pit or the tall grass more than it ever got on the green! I CAN say that I have made an eagle once to the surprise of my dad and my brother! That was the only time we golfed together, or rather the only time I got invited probably due to my former stated issues. But yes, overall, I would easily admit I'm not a good golfer. One of my sister-in-laws, who is a true golfer and spends daily time on the course has encouraged me, saying I would probably be a great golfer with practice. My knees currently disagree with her. My knees and the weeds. If the weeds were gone, if the rough was gone, if the sand pits were absent, if I had control of having them removed, well then yes, I would have less trouble for sure. Maybe these are put in a golf course to develop our patience and even our endurance in the game? I'm not sure. I actually found more joy in finding random golf balls in the grass, much like an Easter egg hunt, than I did from pounding away in the sand lol. So, though I don't talk about golf at all in this podcast, I do talk about wrestling with the weeds in my yard. Weeds in our life are really NOT God's will, did you know that? He does NOT like weeds in His fields in Heaven, and if its His Will On Earth As It Is In Heaven--which is the prayer that the Lord Jesus instructed us to pray, because obviously, without our cooperation in prayer and in obedience to His Word, we cannot experience His Will--and the benefits of it!!--in our personal life or family, much less in the earth, if we are not working with Him. Wow, that was quite a run-on wasn't it. But it's so true! But what is wonderful, especially when you feel overtaken by your weeds, which the Bible defines as the "cares of this world" or the "lust for other things" or the "deceitfulness of riches"---these crowd out God's blessings for you and His ability to use you to impact others. Just look at what Jesus says about it in Mark 4:3-9, "Listen to this! Behold, the sower went out to sow; as he was sowing, some seed fell beside the road, and the birds came and ate it up. Other seed fell on the rocky ground where it did not have much soil; and immediately it sprang up because it had no depth of soil. And when the sun had risen, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away. Other seed fell among the thorns, and the thorns came up and choked it, and it yielded no crop. Other seeds fell into the good soil, and as they grew up and increased, they yielded a crop and produced thirty, sixty, and a hundred times as much.” And He was saying, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” And we need to hear, we need our ears open to the HELPER who is our wonderful Holy Spirit. He can help us with the weed removal that we are overwhelmed with. He can help heal us below the root line so that they don't come back again!! Listen to this episode for how to address these things. There is hope for greater freedom through the Word of God and with our Friend, the Holy Spirit!Support the show

I don't watch the news very much. I am however inundated with headlines in my email inbox from a news outlet and I get several emails daily and weekly from non-profits keeping me up to date on the sheer chaos that's going on in our world. My heart is to keep aware of these things but I never want them to take my focus or my peace. We have to keep our hands on the plow lest we make a mess of our field. We cannot afford to let the cares of the world or the lust for other things invade our space in Christ. These come in and seek to fill our field with weeds and tangle us up in brambles. Chaos ensues. There is a way however to stay ABOVE all the craziness--stay IN Christ Jesus! Stay IN Him through staying in church AND staying in reading and obeying God's Word, the Bible AND here's a big one friend, keep your lamps full of oil by praying in the Spirit. The Holy Spirit is our Guide into All Truth and helps us stay on track. His Word wielded by our tongue keeps our head from steering us off track--this is where we get renewed. This is how experience a transformation where we reflect the life and Light of the Lord Jesus to others. Then and only then can we do the works of Christ the way He prefers them done. So, we either buckle up and say, "okay, I know the storm is coming, but I am founded on the Rock of the Lord Jesus Christ, and I know I will be okay if I stay close to Him!" or we try to keep ourselves looking good and presentable to others while crumbling internally because we fail to put Jesus first in our private life. The devil likes that. He likes to make us a whole lot of something when inside we are all bound up, so that when we get big, we are really a hollow tree, rotted from within. Don't allow yourself to be a Christian in name only. Today is the day to get right with Jesus, to repent and forgive yourself, AND to forgive others. When it comes down to the tough times, it is really the litmus test as they say for whether or not we really love Jesus. I've you're listening, you're still on track! You still want to walk with Jesus and get to know the Holy Spirit. If this really is the season where more persecution comes, we may even see more tests to see how much we really love Him. Will we follow Jesus if we lose everything through our allegiance to Him? It comes down to a decision on our part. So when the going gets tough, the tough get going--meaning, we don't give up, we press in, we dig in and fight back and overcome through the Blood of Jesus and the Name of Jesus and our Testimony. We overcome because we refuse to do anything apart from the direction of the Lord Jesus. We overcome as a BODY of Christ, not a wandering sheep that jumps from church to church or stays home to "have church" by watching TV and self-isolating. Don't be hiding out. We've got work to do for Jesus. It's all hands on deck! #overcomersinChrist #JesusisKing #AbundantLife #SpiritGuide Support the show

If you've every worked for any corporate employer, you will receive a boatload of paperwork upon your first day or first week of work. Included in that will be the company policy overview which will include that company's code of conduct. Each company has its own idea of what their employees should and should not be doing, how they should and should not be dressing, what they should prioritize in their speech and what they should nix. This goes beyond all the harassment training and so on. Let's simplify it, Websters dictionary didn't even have the phrase, which I find comical. But here the Cambridge Dictionary had it and here is their definition:  "a set of rules that members of an organization or people with a particular job or position must follow." And if you don't follow the rules of your organization, if you start to go against the "code of conduct" you might get by for a time with a light infringement, especially if you are the low man on the totem pole as they say--where you might go unnoticed. But you see, in God's Kingdom, its the little things that matter. The little moments of disobedience where we are doing things in direct opposition of God's Word, but we are justifying it because no one sees us. But God does. So the Divine Power that He gives us, and the Life He gives us is from Him and through Him as 2 Peter 1 details. But we are not to fail to KNOW Him when we are walking out the activities of DOING the gospel. Just because we receive proof or signs of the power of God at work, doesn't mean that we are in obedience to Him. Jesus addressed this in Matthew 7:21, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven." It's that latter part that people miss. It's not the image of godliness that God cares about. It's the obedience. Jesus said to this bunch addressing Him that they didn't know Him and that they were "practicing lawlessness".  That's pretty heavy! The fact is, God has a code of conduct called His Word and His Spirit. We have to abide in Christ Jesus (John 15), the Word, in order to be able to do anything, for apart from Him we can do NOTHING. Jesus gave us the Holy Spirit to be our Comforter, but also to GUIDE us into All TRUTH. Jesus is the Way, the Life, and the Truth. IN Him we have life and have it more abundantly. Zoe is the Greek word for Life. It's Divine Life, not just I have a happy prosperous life with flowers and kittens. No, its the Life of the Lord Jesus flowing through us to Do our Father's Will in the earth--the WAY HE wants it done. His Kingdom, His Code. Period. Support the show

Just wanted to share a story from my time overseas and how the Holy Spirit helped me walk through a challenging transfer between countries. We don't know what's ahead for us in this world's system. It is important that though we see the world flailing, or the statue tumbling as I like to call it, we must stay rooted and grounded in our faith. That means learning how to rely on the Lord Jesus through instruction and guidance by our Helper, and member of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. The world's religions want to give you a "spirit guide" or they ask you to reach out and seek after such guidance, and if you adhere to these directives, you will not meet with the Spirit of the Lord God, the Holy Spirit, but you will meet up with something parading itself as Jesus that is not. How do you discern the difference? Well, first you should not be seeking a guide apart from the Lord Jesus and His Holy Spirit. If you get a visit as a believer, or you are "seeking an encounter" or "seeking to contact" a dead relative, etc, or you think you might've had a visit from one. This is very dangerous if you continue to "commune" with this familiar spirit. The Bible is very clear about this: “For satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works.” (2 Corinthians 11:14). That's saying that satan and his angels--who are really demonic spirits--can play the game of pretend. After all, satan is the mother and father of all liars and will take anyone down the road of darkness who is seeking something more apart from seeking the Truth of Jesus and His Word. “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, BUT TEST THE SPIRITS, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world.” (1 John 4:1-4). If you get a spirit visiting you, test them with the above verse! We are to NOT seek out an experience with ghosts, as is so popular now to go visit a haunted this or that, or go seek the dead, etc. You are playing with fire if you do that and that is how people get demon possessed frankly. I've seen demon possessed people on the field and its not a pretty sight! Jesus has come that we can be FREE from all forms of demonic bondage! We have authority over satan and demonic presences through the Blood of Jesus and the Word of our Testimony of how we received Jesus as our Savior and who God is in our lives. We cannot overcome without the Lord. We can do nothing apart from Him (John 15).DO seek the Lord! DO cry out to Jesus, Repent of your sins and ASK Jesus to come into your heart and He will protect you from any foul spirit! You CAN ask the Lord Jesus to fill you with His Holy Spirit---but note, the Holy Spirit infilling and baptism with evidence of tongues cannot be received by someone who has rejected Jesus as their Savior! Start with square one, accept Jesus and the Holy Spirit of God will fill you and comfort and guide you into ALL TRUTH! Support the show

I put this title on this message because my pastor regularly brings up how people make this comment to him as a sort of way to deal with the bad things they are seeing happening in the earth. And he gives them an answer back, something like, "NO, you and I have this." Because WE, who call ourselves Christians and apart of the Body of Christ are responsible for the things going on in the body, in our churches, and even in our nation! We have responsibility to pray in the authority of the Name of Jesus Christ and plead the Blood of Jesus in engagement with the demonic realm around us--and put it under our feet. You know I could've said that to you five years ago and you might've balked at me. Now we have people who want to identify as cats. I met someone who said they were just in Portland and witnessed someone dressed like a dog and barking on a street corner. This bit of weirdness is not too surprising to me as on the mission field, I've seen devils manifest through people and make those people do some pretty weird things. No matter what happens, we are supposed to be the ones who are making an impact on the world for Jesus! Jesus said "occupy til I come" in a parable He was telling regarding  ten servants who were given instructions and money by their new King to carry out His business until He returned. He said "occupy" or do business or do the thing I've told you to do, basically, and see how you can make a gain of it.  God expects us to not just do something with our physical money, but greater---the great unsearchable riches of the Lord Jesus---He expects us to share Him with others! We are called to bring the Truth of God's Word, not some watered down version to people. A grace not corrupted by compromise but one that enables the prodigal to REPENT and RETURN to be ACCEPTED by our Father God! In Luke 19 is also found where Jesus gets a dinner invitation to the home of a despised, and rather short, tax collector named Zaccheus. And Jesus's love and witness impacted Zaccheus to such a point that this happened in verse 8, "And Zacchaeus stood, and said unto the Lord: Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken any thing from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold." He was CONVICTED in the Lord's presence enough to repent and do something about his past wrongs. The religious only saw Zaccheus "the sinner" but Jesus saw His prodigal son.  Return to Jesus, friend! Jesus is calling you to repent and come back to Him. His mercy is new every morning and time is growing short. Get back into church. Get back right with the Lord and forgive others. We have all fallen short. We all need the Blood of Jesus to cleanse us of unrighteous and unholy behavior. Whether you are a "religious" leader who appears to all to be doing right when in fact you are privately disobeying the Lord. Or maybe you're the one whose sin is out in the open for all to see. Everyone needs Jesus for NO ONE is worthy to enter the gates of Heaven without Jesus's BLOOD covering us in atonement---if we repent and confess Him as our only Lord and Savior. God bless you and keep going...whether its your first day with Jesus or you 10,000th, whether you've fallen once or a dozen times, get back up, repent and ask God to forgive you. Get back on track and let the Holy Spirit guide you and keep you in step with Jesus! #SalvationinJesus #JesusLovesYouSupport the show

There is such a trend being pushed today for a form of transformation that can only be achieved through forced medical procedures and indoctrination of an ideology, and that transformation is indeed forced. Not just forcing others to accept those who take this route, but it is even a forcing by those individuals who choose that route for their own selves. It is a forcing of the flesh through the forcing of a mind until that mind is so forced, it becomes "seared with a hot iron." Paul addressed what apostasy--or "departing from the faith"-- looked like and how to identify fallacies--in the Body of Christ, not just the world--in his letter to Timothy. Paul's intention was to help Timothy minister a pure gospel and he couldn't minister it to others if he was walking in error himself. So, Paul guided Timothy to listen to the counsel of the Holy Spirit--who always guides you into the Truth of what the Bible says and will never guide you elsewhere! In 1 Timothy 4:1-2, Paul writes, "Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith" and why did they depart? Paul goes on to say that they departed because they gave "heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons" and the only reason this happens is when pure doctrine is not being taught or when you choose to reject it. This is "iniquity" or willful or even ignorant choices to sin that Jesus defines when dividing out the faithful from the liars, is found in Matthew 7:21-23, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness [iniquity]!’" When you pervert the Truth of God's Word and you seek a form of tranformation to meet a feeling or an emotion, an ache or hunger, a desire or lust, or even trying to answer a question that seems to fill you with distress on the inside. Know this, you will never find that answer without Jesus Christ. When we come to Jesus Christ and repent of our sins that the Bible so clearly defines, He begins His process of transformation by renewing our spirit and then comes to live within us through the Holy Spirit who abides in us and is with us. The key to TRUE transformation and the HEALING that comes to a battered soul or mind comes only through time spent with the Holy Spirit and the Word of God. Only then can we experience LASTING transformation and not a fly by night feeling! God is so gracious and kind, so merciful and always ready to receive us back into His waiting arms! Come to Him today and let Him restore your soul, let Him heal your heart, and bind your wounds! Let Him transform you into the image of Jesus Christ through this process of submission to His Guidance. God Bless!Support the show

Whenever I hear the phrase "he made the cut" or "making the cut" I think of players on some sort of sports team or something where they had to go through a great testing period before they were considered acceptable enough to move on up to the final action, or be drafted. I tried to look that phrase or idiom up and apparently it is used a lot in golf lol. I couldn't seem to find the phrase origin but in my mind, I also thought of the early origin of the film industry when the editors physically cut out parts of a film and if your performance wasn't good enough, you might, as they say, "end up on the cutting room floor" and possibly even cut out of the movie's end credits! The fact is, that none of us want to be cut out of the action. None of us want to be cut out of the winnings and rewards that come from participating in the action either! And do you know that the Lord doesn't want to cut us out? But WE are the ones who are making a decision day by day as to whether we are IN Christ or OUT of Christ. That is a choice WE make. And John 15 goes over this and describes the results of not "abiding" in Christ. Disobedience to the Word of God is one way to not abide. Loving our idols and the things that take our heart or service away from Him is not abiding. Accepting the principles of this world and making them our truths and placing them above the stated Word of God is not abiding in Him. When we choose to sin. When we choose to not forgive. When we're "too busy" to go to church or to do something God has directed us to do. When we spiritualize disobedience, meaning, we say that "the Holy Spirit told me" to do this or that which is in direct contradiction to a command so clearly defined in the Bible but looks good to others when you say it. No that is called a slap in the Lord's face. What is it then? Is it through works that we make the cut then? Jesus spoke of having a confrontation in the future with these so-called "Christian" believers who were doing some pretty convincing works, signs as you might say of a believer: "Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity." (Matthew 7: 22-23) May God have mercy on us! Today is the day of salvation! Today is the day that we make a choice to repent and turn back toward the Lord, to KNOW HIM is to KNOW HIS WORD AND OBEY IT. "Working iniquity" is actively choosing to disobey God's Word or even claiming ignorance to it! We can break the law here on earth and still be fined despite claiming ignorance to it! How much more does God consider His Law holy?? We cannot plead the Blood of Jesus or come under His Wings of protection if we are actively disobeying Him. And we can only learn how to obey Him and do His Works with His help, with the Helper He gave us, the Holy Spirit. It is He who guides us into all Truth (John 16:13), and who is the Truth? Jesus said "I am the Way, the Life and the Truth" (John 14:6) and we know in John 15--apart from Jesus WE CAN DO NOTHING (John 15:5)! And the opposite is true!  With faith in God and obedience to His Word, we can do the impossible things that the Father tells us to do and that is the difference (Hebrews 11:6)! That is why we need His Word AND the Guide, His Holy Spirit. For when we choose to not "abide" in Him as John 15 describes, we are shriveled branches of the Vine --yikes!--and the Bible says that "men" will gather those branches up to be "burned". We may look good to others even as we walk in disobedience and the Bible warns us NOT to be those or associate with those who have chosen the religious "form of godliness but deny the power thereof" in 2 Timothy 3:5. Persecution does come to believers butSupport the show

When we choose to obey the Holy Spirit, we become a fountain of the Life of the Lord Jesus into the earth. This fountain can turn into a great river if we submit to Him! Jesus said, "He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being [our Spirit man] will flow rivers of living water" (John 7:38). When we choose to believe in Jesus, we are choosing to be in agreement with Jesus, who is the Word . Therefore, agreement with Jesus is agreement with what the Bible says--and vice versa. Most of us focus on the agreement but fail to realize what happens with disagreement. Whenever we permit sin in an area of our life, we have allowed the devil to place an impediment in our river of the Life of God flowing out of us. The more we engage with darkness, the muckier our water gets, and soon we are down to a trickle of the life of God coming out of our walk because we are effectively constipated by the rocks. There should only be one Rock in our river and that's the Lord Jesus, and the water flows from Him and through Him. But when we permit unforgiveness, lying, fornication, and even when we reject areas of the Bible or try to twist it to the world's thinking--which is basically perverting the Truth. Then we come into dangerous waters, as the saying goes. Just look at the Aral Sea in central Asia. It used to be the world's 4th largest inland sea but due to water being rerouted from it, it has nearly dried up completely. Dams work the same way. I saw the effect of this very thing overseas in Nepal. A great river was utterly dried up with only a modest trickle in places, all because of people greedily taking its flow for themselves instead of managing it better for all to enjoy. That's what can happen to us when permit ourselves to make choices without submission to God's Word or the guidance of the Holy Spirit. All sin is based in selfishness and when we demand our own way, we are not heading onward in His Way but in the broad way that leads us into more destruction and hell. We are to go on to life and life more abundantly, as Jesus says in John 10:10, and that comes with choosing His Way of doing things on a day to day basis. Then and only then, with our Helper the Holy Spirit, can we address the rocks in our river---or even better, let a gusher Holy Ghost river bust through all the impediments in our way as we spend time praying in the Spirit. God bless you friend!Support the show

Teaching out of Colossians this morning! The Lord wants us to know He desires that we come after Him with the help of the Holy Spirit so that we can truly discover the "riches" of His presence!We work so hard for a paycheck in this life. Then we buy up treasures, store them, lock them up, label them for others to see, take pictures and share them on Facebook, buy houses or barns to put them. And if you do all of that and sit back and feel safe and comfortable because we have so much, or we've done so well for ourselves...Jesus tells us we must beware of this attitude and action. Not only did Jesus talk about this and the TRUE riches we should be seeking in Luke 12:13 and onward, James also warns about the danger of storing up treasures for our own pleasure and comfort versus giving ourselves over to God's service in James 5. There's truly a fine line to walk and all of us must make a choice how we're going to behave in this life, and ultimately who the Master is in our life--ourselves or God? Jesus wants us to receive rewards. He wants us to be blessed now and in Heaven for all eternity. But that blessing should never be our goal, its mainly a result of obedience to God's WAY, His Word and Way of doing things. God bless you and Have a great week!Support the show

It's amazing the number of comforts available to us in the Western world. I did not know just how many until I lived overseas in third and fourth world countries that had little to no comforts due to their poverty. And yet. It was always amazing how a family that had nothing, lived in a shack made out of reclaimed wood, somehow would manage to have a TV and a satellite dish with free programming. To think that they had worked so hard to buy that equipment and yet still struggled to feed and clothe their children! Maybe it was more obvious, less hidden, in these places compared to the States. I know the same goes on here only it looks a little like this: you say you can't pay your rent but you won't fail to have money to buy your cigarettes. Some of our "comforts" that we say we cannot live without are just plain sinful addictions, strongholds that need to be broken! Some of our comforts aren't that bad--that is if you eat just one lol. But when we eat them in excess to fill an emotional hole in our life, or to try to heal a hurt in our soul, then these simple items seem to direct our whole life, to where we are eating when we're not even hungry! Sometimes its just the body wanting more control, and then the mind chirps in. One or the other is usually in control of our decision making when we come to Christ. One or the other is the one driving our comfort decisions. It is only through the help of the Holy Spirit that we can come to discover the REAL Comforter is Him! And the real comfort is coming to know Him and letting Him heal us from the inside out through prayer, worship and the Word, fellowship with other Christians, and accountability with our church leaders. If we want to see greater liberty in our personal walk, we need to quit accepting the counterfeits comforts, and pursue the Holy Spirit who can lead us into all Truth--the real truth of Jesus found in His Word! And praying in the Spirit is so important! How else can we let Him help us in an area we're struggling in? Romans 8:26-17 says, "Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God." God bless you! Have a great week in your walk with the Holy Spirit!Support the show

"Wax on, Wax off." Do you remember that statement? Well, its something I remember as a kid growing up with the TV and movies of the 1980s. That was a statement that Pat Morita's character Miyagi, a karate master, said to his unlikely karate pupil Daniel, played by Ralph Macchio in the 1984 production The Karate Kid. Daniel wanted to learn karate, and Miyagi taught him but started him out with waxing his classic car, a  1948 Ford Super De Luxe. In fact, Daniel was given a lot of household duties by Miyagi and grumbled through a lot of them. We can be a lot like Daniel sometimes. We want to hurry to be a superhero of faith, but we don't want the simple exercises or positions that God is giving us now, whereby the faith muscles are grown. Faith muscles are grown by day to day application of His Word in action. A choice to commit our trust fully to Him without question, like Joseph had to trust God when moving his family from Bethlehem to, of all places, Egypt. Maturity comes through a series of continuing levels of commitment to the Lord and to His Way. His Way of doing things, saying things, thinking things and service to His Body. Remember, Jesus said what He considers to be the most important thing we can focus on in Matthew 22: 34-40: "But when the Pharisees heard that He had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying,  “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?” Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’  On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” What is it that everything, all the Law and what the Prophets said, what does it hang on? Loving the Lord in the Way He tells us is love--obedience to His commands, and loving our neighbor as ourself--which is a dying to self. This cannot be achieved overnight, just like Daniel wasn't a karate guy overnight. He had to submit to Miyagi and trust him, and do what he was told, and he got rewards for his obedience and trouble when he messed up. But the point is, plug yourself in somewhere in your church where you can start to learn the basics, not just a class to attend, but an area to serve in. Don't seek to lead in an area that you have no foundation in. Serve serve serve. 1 Peter 5 offers some additional reading on humbling ourselves. But remember, God does have a purpose and a plan for your life! And you may be in the middle of it right now! So embrace where you're at and do everything as unto the Lord, as He is our true Master and Commander and we answer to Him ultimately in ALL that we do and say. Let's embrace the character of the Lord Jesus today and allow Him to help us come into a greater level of Maturity IN Christ! God Bless!!Support the show

It's funny, I always refer to the Parable of the Sower as the Parable of the Soils lol (see Luke 8). I live in an area of the United States that is 98% farmland--loads of black dirt! I don't go out and farm any physical fields myself, but I am directly impacted by the activity of it around me. Right now it is May, and the farmers have been working the last several weeks on their fields, prepping them for their planting. They've turned over the hard soil after the winter thaw. They've also burnt off fields, getting the weeds off by setting them on fire. Recently, they've been running great sprayers to prep the fields with chemicals as a pre-planting action. And lately, I have seen  huge plastic crates full of seed or sacks of seed laid out on beds of trucks, parked alongside the fields.  The farmers roaming about in their great tractors hauling the planter apparatus behind them. It's amazing, they're already planting their corn and soybeans! There is so much activity everywhere! And just think about what is going on in the Spirit right now? You know, we are like that field and we have to take responsibility for it if we expect to bear a healthy crop. Over the years I have witnessed terrible fields of crops, not because of poor weather or an unhealthy lack of rain. No, poor because the one who managed the field did not tend to their crop. Mixture. Tares mixed in with the crop. Failure to prep the soil in the beginning, failure to purchase the healthy seeds, failure to manage their planting apparatus so the result is a mixed crop because of old seeds stuck in the machinery. Failure to manage the weeds or pests. Mismanagement. It all ends up with the ugliest final crop you have ever seen, if you could even call it a crop! I've seen more weeds than soybeans sometimes in a bean field!  And having seen these, I've always wondered how their end harvest looked in regards to profitability. Per my own investigation with some of my friends who are farmers, these mismanaged crop harvests would get rejected at the grain elevator when a farmer would try to turn them in for sale. Rejected by the elevator storage, lest they ruin the greater harvest. I have seen the inside of a grain elevator operations office. Before they'll ever take the seed into that greater elevator storage, they will sample it. They will send an arm down into the semi or wagon where the harvest has been placed, and draw out a sample. If its unsatisfactory, they will refuse it. If its so so, they will lower their buying price. Why do we think God is any less about His harvest? He wants us to bear fruit in keeping with His Ways. He has addressed in scripture how He feels about trees that don't bear fruit, both with Christ's cursing of the fig tree in Matthew 21, Luke 3 when a threat of taking an axe to a fruitless tree is given, Luke 6 when a tree laden with thorns or briars is rejecting the harvesters ability to gather its fruit, and Luke 13 when a landowner comes to inspect his vineyard and the tree that has failed to produce fruit. We must be tender toward the Lord. We must let Him prune us so that we can bear much fruit. He corrects those whom He calls His children, so if we want to walk with Him, we have to be open to His Word, and let it instruct us with the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Only then can we really experience a fruitfulness that will bless the Lord and allow Him to minister through us to help bring His healing to those hurting around us. God bless!!Support the show

Have you ever gone through a cleansing? I have had to take medicine in my time that has done a pretty good job of removing things from my system! I've even heard of people who have gone through detox sessions or have had to get special injections from doctors to get chemicals out of their system. Yikes! My personal thoughts regarding cleansing make me think about going through a fast. When you go through one, you begin to pull away from what you have made familiar to your taste buds through routine or comfort, and you take away everything but the basics, you know like you just drink water and eat fruits and veggies. The first couple of days are rather crazy. I've been flat out sick the first couple of days just getting sugar and junk out of my system. Now I kind of give myself a lead time with caffeine because that one on top of sugar, when you pull them both out of your system at once...wow. But about three days later...and it always seems like it takes 3 days--funny, a resurrection analogy--you feel so good!! I always start to sleep better by day three. I need to do another one of those sessions again soon...but my point is, there is also something even bigger about a fast than just denying yourself food delights, its about drawing near to the Lord. When we do, we effectively are getting cleansed, did you know that? If you have trouble in ANY area, when you come close to the Lord, it gets exposed. Then we have a choice, do we repent and let Him burn it out of us, or do we retreat back into darkness further. I don't know about you, but I would rather go on to greater liberty in Christ Jesus, and confront the ugly, rather than cover it up and act like everything is okay. Jesus's motive is always to heal us and move us forward, not strip and beat us and shove us behind. He is always looking to restore and even resurrect that which you thought could never be. How wonderful He is to us!Let us ALL draw closer to Jesus every day with the help of our friend, the Holy Spirit, who helps to guide us into more of Him, Jesus our Way, our Truth and our Life. God Bless!Support the show

Many times I think about the Old Testament when I meditate on the question of what ushers in the presence of God. I think of the worship that went on, the worshipers that went before the armies and how God's presence came in and took care of the enemy's armies before God's people even got to the battle! Worship itself is not what's incredible though, its not the powerhouse. And yet so much of worship music has become focused on the art of delivery and not on the Lord at all. I'm not against your smoke machines and laser lights in worship.  No, I'm just saying that its not worship that brings the greatest outpouring of the delivering power of God. It's repentance combined with worship. Just read some of the Psalms and you will see how much King David repented before he began to worship! You don't read about Job getting free from all of his struggles until he repents and acknowledges God's holiness and magnificence, and then he gets his breakthrough. We desire to experience God's power and deliverance in our situation in life, but yet we want it all without repentance. The Kingdom doesn't work that way. We have to be willing to let the Lord have His Way in us! Remember the prayer that Jesus directed us to pray in Matthew 6: 9-13, "‘Our Father, who is in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. (Worship) Your kingdom come.Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven. (Submission to His Will!)Give us this day our daily bread (Daily reading the Bible/Jesus the Bread of Life).And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. (Repent & Forgive)And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil.'" (Deliverance comes when the prior is done!) You see Jesus is showing us His Way through this prayer! And His Way is the way of Life and He desires for all of us to experience His fullness in our walk with Him. God bless you !Support the show

I'm sure you've caught at least one home renovation TV show in your lifetime...or maybe you're in the midst of one in your home right now! We all know that there are things to evaluate beforehand, plans to look at, budgets to weigh and so forth. We take so much into doing a home renovation and for what reason? At least what I have witnessed, the reason people do them is for a joyful outcome...people renovate their homes to have a place that feels less chaotic, more comforting and a place that accommodates their pursuits--family and hobbies and careers and passions.  So much of a home renovation is similar to the renovation desires of the Lord Jesus where our mind is concerned. His, though, is much more of an Extreme Makeover, something we couldn't even imagine how good it could be! We can all quote, "I have the mind of Christ," from Galatians 2:20 and make it our meditation and indeed, we can see ourselves come into a transformation over time with the help of the Holy Spirit. But there are sometimes things that just don't want to budge. Doors we keep locked and have confrontations with the Lord when He asks about that area of our mind or heart. Avoidance is something we can get into trouble with, just as much as you would if you were renovating your home and came across a busted sewer line under the floor. You can be embarrassed and quickly try to hide it, secretly patch it up your own way and then later on down the line, your home experiences a rupture of this terrible sewer line and suddenly that beautiful and abundant "new" area is now a stinky mess. This is unfortunately what happens to us when we fail to do what the Holy Spirit directed us to do early on--repent and deal with it and let Him tear it out. It's not too late if you're still willing to let Him put His hands into the renovation of your mind. He's got some wonderful plans for us--He's the great carpenter after all, right?Support the show (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/bachtold)

Have you ever looked at that old couple who celebrate their 80th wedding anniversary and you marvel at their commitment, or you say, that's what I want to be some day! And yet, they had 80 years of being together.  And for all the sweet smiles, there were stormy days and sunny days, losses and gains, multiple deaths to their self will, deaths and sicknesses and financial collapses and children and all that comes with it! Let's see, that's 80 years, and 52 weeks a year is 4,160 weeks together. That's 29,200 days of commitment to one another. We don't know the ins and outs of it but they stayed together, right? Now most people see an old married couple and say ooh, aah, but go back to the way they are doing things right now in their own relationships and don't change anything they do daily to produce the long term outcome they want. That's the little foxes that spoil the vine, as the Bible says. Though this isn't a podcast on marriage counseling, this is a podcast on marriage counseling as we ARE married to the Lord Jesus when we ask Him to come into our hearts. If we expect to experience a long relationship with Him, a healthy and happy marriage full of the intimacy of knowing Him deeper as the years go by,  we have to be willing to let Him have His Way in us--aka, we lose OUR life to gain HIS life in us. That requires our submission to the Holy Spirit and His directives which initiate from our Father in Heaven. The Holy Spirit, our Guide into all Truth, can't guide us if we don't value His guidance to begin with; if we don't value the Word of God or submit ourselves to its direction and correction through the guidance of the Holy Spirit, then we come under fire from the world's system. John 15 details this with the directive from Jesus Christ, when He commanded us to "Abide" in Him, the "vine".  Those who didn't abide in Him dried up, and were plucked off the vine to be burned--yes burned. We cannot be transformed by the Lord, which means by definition: "given a completely different form or appearance" if we do not first abide in Jesus = The Word, and let the power of the Word Renew us or give us His NEW Life! Support the show

In the book of the prophet Isaiah, chapter 40:3-8, we read: "The voice of one crying in the wilderness: “Prepare the way of the Lord; Make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted and every mountain and hill brought low; The crooked places shall be made straight and the rough places smooth; The glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together; For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.” Of course, if you heard it then, you might not know what Isaiah was talking about. Prophets often proclaim what God tells them and that generation may never see it come to pass in their lifetime. We, however, have the amazing capability to travel to the past and examine this word and see its fulfillment in Matthews account of John the Baptist. Matthew 3:1-3 we read: "Now in those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, saying, “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.” For this is the one referred to by Isaiah the prophet when he said, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness, ‘Make ready the way of the Lord, Make His paths straight!’” What was John's job to proclaim? Who was he announcing? Why the coming of the Messiah, the Savior of Israel, who had been prophesied of for generations! In verse 11 he says, “As for me, I baptize you with water for repentance, but He (Jesus) who is coming after me is mightier than I, and I am not fit to remove His sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.  His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clear His threshing floor; and He will gather His wheat into the barn, but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”And then John baptized Jesus, "After being baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove and lighting on Him, and behold, a voice out of the heavens said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased.” And then yet another wilderness was entered into by Christ, one of testing in which satan would tempt him and Jesus would defeat him over and over again with the Word. There is the wilderness of testing that Jesus purposed to enter, fasted and walked through for 40 days. There is the wilderness that the Israelites passed through after separating from Egypts (the world's) system and learning to submit to God's ways--and those who disobeyed God and failed Him stayed walking around that desert for 40 years. Before we can go on to greater things in the Lord and more manifestations of His glory and power working through us, He's looking for our decision to submit to His leadership and to His Word and His Spirit. Apart from Jesus we can do nothing. But sometimes we forget that we need Him, that He's with us, and that He's victorious when faced with the wilderness tests. Don't give up! God has wonderful rewards for those who persevere and endure for the sake of Christ! Support the show