Controlling Our Tongues

The following is a message from Pastor Zac Poonen called, "Controlling Our Tongues".

I appreciate Pastor Poonen because God has anointed him to teach the Scriptures plainly, but with great spiritual conviction.  I know that this is an area God still works with me on; to resist the temptation to respond "in kind" to others or to give folks a "piece of my mind" because of how they interact with me.  Sometimes people say to me, "Oh, you are so patient in how you respond to others."  Yet they don't know the inner battle which can sometimes occur between what "I" really want to say and what the Holy Spirit will not let me say.  LOL

If it were not for the Holy Spirit, surely a different "me" would be seen.  And while I am so grateful for the work of the Spirit in this way, I also know that this inner struggle is merely evidence that the old man is not as dead as he should be.  There is still a little too much life left in the flesh, which must be further crucified.  I look to the day when the Holy Spirit no longer has to muzzle me in such instances because even the urge to justify or defend "self" is gone.  That is my prayer.

Anyway, I hope this message is a blessing to you!

• We must to glory in the small things while ignoring the weightier things of God.
• The way you know that you are walking in the light is that you get personal light or revelation on your own spiritual condition.
• The word being a two-edged sword means it cuts me (applies to me) before it cuts others (before it can be applied by me to others).
• Many professing Christians still do not have control over their tongue.

The Right Attitude To Money

The following is a message from Pastor Zac Poonen on, "The Right Attitude to Money."

• People used to think that all wholehearted Christians must be poor.  Now there is the teaching that wholehearted Christians must be rich.  Both are unscriptural extremes.
• The two masters Jesus tells us we cannot serve (we must hate one and love the other) are God and mammon (which is money).
• If money rules over you, you cannot serve God.
• If you are not faithful in unrighteous mammon, how will God trust you with the true riches of Heaven: revelation from God's word, transformation into Christ's character, and anointing for the ministry.
• To be devoted to God is to despise money.  You must come to the place where if you gain money it doesn't excite you, and if you lose money it doesn't depress you.

The Right Attitude To Correction

In a recent conversation with fellow believers, we spoke of how many are unable to take Godly correction.  I am not speaking of the type of soulish control that others may try to wield over you as so-called "correction", but that discipline which through conviction, the Holy Spirit confirms is from the Lord.

The following is a message from Pastor Zac Poonen on "The Right Attitude to Correction."  The wrong attitude can make the difference between those who are sons of God and those who are not.

• There was no good thing Jesus could say about the Church at Laodecia.  Yet Jesus says that He still loved them (Revelation 3:19).
• Rebuke & discipline from the Lord is a sign of His love so that we zealously repent.  It is the proof that we are not bastards, but one of His children (Hebrews 12:6-8).
• God gives you little warnings to save you from head on collisions (spiritually) later in life; do not be offended by them.
• The Lord is so interested in making us perfect that He is not happy with just 99.9%.
• You have to be very high-minded to tell God that He must correct you directly and not through any of His servants.

Shedding of Innocent Blood

"That innocent blood be not shed in thy land, which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance, and so blood be upon thee." Deuteronomy 19:10 

Congress singing "God Bless America" in the U.S. Capital steps
as part of a 9/11 tribute.

I post this, not in some insensitivity to the tragic shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, but for us to take an honest look at the spiritual condition of our land...and our hearts. No one could look at the loss of life in that shooting and not be touched by the sheer senselessness of it.

Surely the type of mourning being experienced as a result is heavy - especially for the life loss of little children.  We should keep the families affected in our prayers, for God's healing, comfort, and grace.

However, was this just an anomaly or have we allowed a spirit of murder to be released in this country by our own actions...and inaction?  If we do not recognize the spiritual underpinnings of what we see in the natural, then how will we ever be empowered to overcome it?

Getting Your House in Order

The below message is audio from the second part of a sermon from Pastor Voddie Baucham on "Legacy" where he discusses the discipleship of our children.

• The most important tool used in the discipleship of our children - in terms of establishing and passing on multi-generational legacy - is the home.
• Like Israel going into the Promised Land, Christians are called to be a distinct people in the midst of a culture of opposition; otherwise, they would be completely absorbed into the culture and no longer bear their distinction.
• God had to raise up a Joshua generation to claim the promises after allowing the faithless generation of Israel to die off in the wilderness.
• The Promised Land was not simply a blessing for that generation, but was to make it possible for them to pass on to their children and their children's children the fear and knowledge of the Lord.
  
• To a born again Christian, the most important thing in their world is knowing & serving Jesus Christ; as such, the most important thing we can do is teach those with whom we have been entrusted by God to know & serve the Lord.

Receiving the Fire of the Holy Spirit

"But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren." Luke 22:32

We have talked about doing the works of the ministry, but in order to do that we need to be continually filled with the Holy Spirit.  Many are attempting to follow Christ, to live a Christian life, but are not availing themselves of the power of God: His Holy Spirit.  It is all just the flesh...or the workings of "another spirit" (II Corinthians 11:4). Now more than ever we need to seek God to be filled and for power to stand against the wickedness of the time in which we now live.

"But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth." Acts 1:8

Take a moment to listen to this message from brother Emmanuel K. on "Receiving the Fire of the Holy Spirit".

"For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call." Acts2:39