How Much God is Too Much God?

My mind started to race as I chewed over the comment.

So many things have come into my mind that it is almost impossible to list them here but the most important one is:-

What will happen when we get to Heaven one day - Will there be a bit too much God there for us?

Take  a little time to reflect back on the emotions you experienced the past couple of days!

Did you feel anxious, or out of control, perhaps a lttle despondent or even depressed. Did you maybe feel like you were getting nowhere or were negative about something around you. Perhaps you felt not pretty enough or even that you were overweight. Maybe you were even scared or fearful.

If you felt even just one of these feelings from a very shortened list of emotions, then the chances are that the devil has been working on your mind a little. These are all feelings that stem from the pits of hell and not from the word of God.

Taking control of yourself.

The most important thing that you need to come to grips with is the function of the devil. His sole purpose is to rob, steal and destroy that which God has prepared for you. If he can steal your joy or rob you of the promises of God, then he has succeeded in his mission.

Your sole purpose in life is to live the life that God has planned for you and to take up the power and authority that is yours in the name of Jesus. Jesus has already overcome satan and has given that same victory over to you, if you would only receive it.

The devil is prowling 24/7 trying to destroy you and everytime that you experienced one of the emotions discussed above is an indication that he succeeded in his purpose.

How to overcome.

Spend time in the word so that you know what is rightfully yours. If you do not what God has promised to you, how can you ever receive it.

Use the power that you have received through the name of Jesus. Unless you use the weapons given to you, how can you defeat the enemy. If the weapons were not necessary for you to succeed then Jesus would never have bothered giving them to you.

Take control of your mind and renew your mind to Godly thinking. There is simply so much power in the renewing of your mind that you can not even begin to comprehend it. There is amongst other things, a christian weight loss program based around this scripture and which has helped thousands to lose massive amounts of weight without dieting, without exercise and without diet supplements - just the power of Gods word.

You can overcome depression, sickness, disease and any other problem simply by changing the way that you think, or rather by casting out the thought patterns that satan has placed in your mind, and replacing them with godly thinking.

Romans 12:2 " and do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may  prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God."

My personal translation:- " Do not allow the world to control and shape you, but change your thinking to God's thinking and you will take on a new shape (Figure, Appearance). Test God in this so that you can see how good and perfect His plan is for you."

It is important that this is one of only two scriptures in the bible that God says that you can test (prove) Him.

Renew your mind to a new you with Gods word.

The Blessings of Children

Today I was blessed as I started to explore some faces on facebook. No it was not just any faces but rather faces from some of the youth from years ago that attended our local church.

In particular, I took a look at some of the youth that grew up at the same time as my daughter and who were on fire for God and some of those who were considered to be rebels.

To my surprise, the local group of friends, are all still in touch with each other through facebook, and although they have been scattered around South Africa and even the world, all are still on fire for the Lord, even those who were rebels!

Godly parents bring up Godly children who will succeed in all that they do. It may often be the case that the child will stray from the Word for a short time and may get caught up in some worldly activities, but they soon return to the place that they know and find comfort in - The Love of Jesus.

I remember a study that took place years ago where they studied the genealogy of two families, one a Godly man and another that was an atheist. The Godly man was followed by a host of successful children and grandchildren who all had good standing in the world - Doctors, professors and pastors - while the Atheist was followed by a row of Drunkards, bankruptcies, crime etc.

Parents, the best gift that you can ever pass on to your children is the gift of Jesus.  Show them the love of Jesus in your life and bring them up in the ways of the Lord, and they will in return bring to you such joy and happiness, especially on a day in years time, when you meet them at the pearly gates and they are accepted to live in heaven with you.

Remember  that the only thing that you can ever take to heaven with you is those people around you. Giving your children the opportunity to experience eternity in Heaven with you one day is the best thing that you can ever do for them.

For years the church has been involved in helping and feeding those that are starving, but the church has been slow to address the other side of the scale - those that are tipping the scales right over.

America is the world leader in obesity with figures of some 33% of people being classified as obese, Mexico follows closely and then the UK follows behind them. The term obesity refers to those who are grossly overweight and excludes the amount of people who are just a little overweight.

Fat is unhealthy

Our bodies are the Temple of God and we are called to look after our bodies and keep them in shape. Being overweight causes a taxing on your system and can lead to a whole host of sicknesses including heart disease, diabetes and even cancer.

Maybe you have tried to lose weight before but have always been unsuccessful in your efforts, finding that instead of losing weight and the weight remaining lost, the weight always seems to find you again and brings some of its friends back with them, causing you to get even bigger.

As a result of the Yo-Yo weight loss that you have experienced through the years when you tried to control your weight, you have now resigned yourself to the fact that you are a big person and that you can not really do anything about it.

Have you ever tried losing weight with Christian weight Loss!

Weight loss God's Way.

Attempting to lose weight without God's help is really just as ineffective as trying to do anything without God's help.

When you bring the word into your weight loss efforts, God takes control of your weight and suddenly weight loss becomes easy and soon you will find that the weight starts to disappear without you even really making an effort to lose weight. Even better than this is the fact that once you lose the weight it never returns!

Lose weight permanently

Weight Loss God's Way is the most incredible christian weight loss program ever. In fact it is in my eyes, the most incredible weight loss program that has ever been produced.

Not only will Weight Loss God's Way get you losing weight effortlessly and permanently, but the program will also reach deep into your personal life and your relationship with God, strengthening and deepening your relationship and causing you to become a far stronger christian, while increasing your self esteem as well.

Once you start to read the material provided in this course by Dr Frank Smoot, you will find that many of your weight loss problems and even your self esteem problems, simply start to disappear. You become a more confident person, stronger in God and of course, as soon as the weight starts to disappear, you start to learn how to love yourself again.

Change your life forever and become a stronger and more healthy and confident person by with Weight loss God's Way. 

The course is a digital download that has a very small cost of around $39-95 once off, and is available to you immediately upon payment. That $39-95 will change your life forever - It changed my families life.

I remember a statement that was once issued from the pulpit in the charismatic church that I attended.

"We want to start some communities in the church. A support group for gays and lesbians. Sorry, let me change that. A support group for ex gays and ex lesbians. Practising gays are not welcome."

I still remember thinking, " How can you ever become a ex gay without Jesus, through the church, to help you."

So many churches that I know of reject the gays, lesbians and other sinners right out of their close and select little communities. "They are sinners you know, and they are going straight to the pits of hell. I want nothing to do with them."

Years ago, in the same church mentioned above, a guest preacher was invited to preach at a yearly conference. The preacher, whose name I will not mention,  was one of the most down to earth and incredible preachers that I have ever heard preaching.

He spoke on how his own spirit filled church was filled with gays, lesbians, and sinners of every class, and how every single person was welcomed into his church without criticism or judgement and each and every soul was loved regardless of what they were involved in.

Now is that not how you would picture Jesus to be. Jesus rejected the upright and "righteous" people of the time and chose instead to spend his time in the company of tax collectors and other sinners.

Needless to say, that preacher was almost run out of town and every word that he preached was rejected by the church. Where was Jesus.

If you are expected to be washed and cleansed of all sin before you enter a church, how will anyone ever get to enter a church and meet with Jesus. If you expect a gay person to repent and give up his ways before he can come into your church to meet the living Jesus, then chances are he will never get to meet Jesus and accept Jesus into his life.

Were you free from all sin in your life before you first entered into your church and met Jesus? No  - I did not think so.

Are you free from all sin in your life now - even though you have already been a christian for a long time? Again No!

Well if you are not free from sin, why do you expect a Gay or Lesbian or any other sinner to be free from their sin before they can enter your community? Is it perhaps that you consider that their sin is worse than your sin? As far as I am concerned  sin is sin and there is no variation between sins. There is no single sin that is better than another sin. Sin is sin and in order to cleanse yourself of sin you have to go before Jesus, repent and be washed clean by His Blood.

Jesus does the changing .

Jesus loves you enough to accept you as you are, but loves you too much to leave you as you are.

When you come to Jesus and give your life to Him, crying Jesus help me please, Jesus opens his arms out to you and embraces you. He accepts you as you are, forgives you and washes you clean with His Blood. Slowly but surely He begins the process of changing you, your life and your passions. It is not an overnight or instant process. It takes time. He is the potter and you are the clay. Slowly you are molded into what He wants you to be.

In the case of gays and lesbians who are often some of the most hurting people in the world and who need the loving embrace of Jesus more than most, why do we reject them further and cast them out, expecting them to remove the sin from their lives immediately whilst we readily accept the fact that Jesus is still working in our own lives and has not yet completed the task of removing all the sin in our own life.

Take the log out of your own eye before you remove the splinter from your neighbours eye.

Before you judge and reject someone according to their "sin" and cast them out of your select community, simply ask yourself what Jesus would do if that person was standing in front of Him. Would He cast them out, or would He open His arms to them and love them. Sure I know that you are not Jesus, but then can you really claim to be a follower of Christ if you do not accept His ways and teachings.

Open your hearts and love someone today. Show them how the love of Jesus shines through you and help them to change their life simply by being accepted by someone like you. Your accepting someone for who they are could be the biggest thing that ever happened in their life and could make the real difference that will alter their lives forever.

God Bless

May God's Blessing be upon you

Blessings and curses are old testament matters that have no real relevance in today's times - WRONG!  Blessings and curses have as much power over your life today as they did in the old testament times.

If I had to stand before a packed church on a Sunday morning and ask the congregation if they are blessed, I am sure that at least 99% or more would put up their hands and say that they are blessed.

If I again ask the same congregation if curses exist in todays times, I would estimate from past experience that the huge majority would deny that curses even exist anymore and the rest would say that they have no power in todays times.

However, many Christians do not even understand the word "Blessed" and when asked exactly what it means to be blessed, you are likely to be met with blank stares and very confused faces. If you use the simple standards, as set out in Deuteronomy 28, to determine if you are blessed or cursed, you will find that at least 90% or more of the congregation that said that they were blessed, suddenly finds that they may not be walking in as many blessings as they thought that they were, and that it is indeed possible that they may in fact have a curse or two hanging over their life that they were totally unaware of.

Blessings.

The word "Blessed" is best defined as "To be Envied."  If you are not envied by all around you, then the chances are that you are not walking in God's full blessings. Let me say right now that blessings have nothing to do with being rich. I know many rich people with whom I would never ever trade places with and whom I do not envy at all.

Riches have never brought happines into anyones life. Mostly, new riches starts to breed greed and the desire for even more riches. Money becomes an obsession in life instead of  it being a means to obtain what you need in life. Money in itself is not evil, but the love of money is the root of all evil. When your love for money overtakes your love of God, you are in the clutches of the devil.

 The first section of Deuteronomy 28 gives us clear instruction on how to walk in the blessings of God and what they are :-

" Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today, that the Lord your God will set you high above all nations of the earth.

And these blessings will come upon you and overtake you because you obey the voice of the Lord your God."  Verses 3 to 14 continue to list the blessings. Take these verses, modify them to todays terms ( ie cattle increases refers to increases in your investments etc), and see if you have the full blessings of God in your life.

Although these are Old Testament scriptures, they stand true to today and unless you are walking in the commandments of God and in full and total obedience to Him, you can not receive the full blessings of God.

Curses.

There are many curses that exist in the Old Testament. These are curses that are directly from God and do not even involve satan or witchcraft or black magic.

Briefly, Malachi describes that you are cursed if you do not tithe. Zaccariah describes the curse that rests upon the liar and the thief. However, all of these sub - curses can be summarised by the main curse found in Deuteronomy 28:15

"But it shall come to pass, if you do not obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments and His statutes which I command you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you:"  Verses 16 to 68 continue to describe the curses that can come upon you if you are disobedient to God's word.

When reading these verses it is important to understand that times have changed dramatically and so you do need to modernise the scriptures slightly to adjust for modern times. There were no bank accounts and investments in those days so where it talks about your increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks, in modern times it would refer to the performance of your investments, etc.

Jesus came and set us free from the curse.

I have had many argue with me that curses have no relevance in todays world because Jesus took all curses upon himself when He hung on the tree. Jesus also took all sickness upon himself as well and yet many christians are dying daily from sickness.

Curses still have the ability to affect you today as much as they affected the Old Testament people in the past. If you are disobedient to God and do not obey His commandments, then you nullify the works of Jesus and the curses are able to rest on your life and affect you. As much as Jesus loves you and wants you to walk in total freedom from curses, the curses will remain in your life until you identify the curse and the cause of the curse, repent and turn back to obedience to God.

Are there other curses that can affect us?

Sure - there are many powerful curses that can affect your life today. Possibly the most powerful is the word curse.  A word curse is a something that is spoken into your life usually by someone who is in position of authority over you. This can be a parent, a teacher etc, who says something like " You are stupid". You then accept these words as factual in your life and go through life being controlled by these words and believing that you are stupid.

Parents and teachers, as well as bosses, have to be extremely careful with their words that they speak over those whom they have authority over. Take care to confess only positive things over those whom you have authority over, knowing that your words can impact into their lives in a good way, or a negative way that can virtually make or ruin the rest of their life.

My brother was highly intelligent and very good with figures, but right the way through his life he was told that he was  stupid with his hands. As a result, even though he was fully capable and able to tackle odd jobs around the house, he always believed that his efforts were useless and that he was never able to do anything good with his hands.

"What you believe with your heart and confess with your mouth shall come to pass." 

Is it possible to break free from a curse?

Absolutely. In order to break free from a curse, you do need to first identify the cause of the curse in your life. If your problems are as a result of a word that has been spoken over your life, you must begin to reject that word and cast it out.

"Lord, I do not accept that word that was spoken into my life. I cast it out of my life in the name of Jesus and it shall have no power over me or my family."

If you have been disobedient to the word of God :-

" Father, I come to you in the name of Jesus. Forgive me for my transgressions. I turn away from them today and choose to follow your commandments carefully from this day forward. I break the curse that has resulted in my life in the name of Jesus."

Should you not know Jesus as your Lord and Saviour, then simply say "God help me please".

The scripture above is well known by most that have a christian background. It is often, however quoted incorrectly by many who tend to leave the word "Also" out of the quote. The word "also" tends to change the meaning slightly in that the quote "Delight yourself in the Lord and He will.." means that this is the only condition necessary for you to meet the requirements that Jesus has to give you all the desires of your heart.

When the quote includes the word "also", the meaning changes and "Delight yourself also in the Lord..." becomes one of a number of requirements that need to be fulfilled first in order that Jesus gives you all the desires of your heart.

Psalm 37:3 " Trust in the Lord, and do good; Dwell in the Land and feed on His Faithfulness." These are some of the other requirements that are needed in order that you should receive the desires of your heart.

1) You need to trust in the Lord - with all your heart and mind.
2) You must do Good - to others as well as to the Lord
3) You must Dwell in the land - we all live in the land - so this means somthing else - you must live in the word of God.
4) Feed on His faithfulness - receive your sustenance from Him.

The world teaches us that we are to receive all that we can from others and often when we come to Jesus and accept Him as Lord and Saviour in our lives, many come with the attitude of  "what can I get from Jesus?". This attitude of GIMME GIMME does not work and when you come to Jesus purely to receive from Him, it is hardly likely that you will receive anything back from Jesus.

When you fall in Love with Jesus and your love for  Jesus becomes the centre of your existence, then you start to truly live to serve Jesus and then all the provisions of the scripture start to be fulfilled and Jesus, in return, starts to provide you with all the desires of your heart. 

In order to fully live in the love of Jesus, first invite Jesus into your life, then Draw near to God and he will draw near to you, and lastly live in the Law of Liberty that He has given you.

Does Jesus Love Me?

One of the most frequently asked and pondered questions asked is "Does Jesus love me?" Jesus is the same yesteray, today and tomorrow and He loved you the day that you were born. The love Jesus has for you is far greater than any sin that you can commit and the light of His love shines into the darkness of any sin in your life and destroys that sin within you, making you perfect. Jesus hates sin, but at the same time is true to forgive you of every sin in your life, if you just ask Him to.

What does Jesus expect in return for His Love?

What price does Jesus ask in return for the great love that He has for us? The only thing ever expected of you is that you love Jesus with all your heart, that you love God and live in constant relationship and fellowship with Him through prayer and quiet time. Jesus says that the greatest commandment is to love the lord your God with all your heart.

The second greatest commandment of Jesus is that you love your neighbour as you love yourself. If you love Jesus, you will automatically be filled with the love of Jesus, and this love will radiate out from within you and you will start to love all the people around you and be filled with compassion for those around you, for you have become bonded to Jesus in love and become like Jesus in this bonding, hence the name of christian - Christ like. The qualities of Jesus will begin to grow within you as the fruits of the Spirit.

I do not yet Love Jesus.

I know of Jesus and have heard a lot about Him, but I have never come into a realtionship with Him and so I do not yet love Jesus. If you have never yet had the opportunity to get to know Jesus and to love Jesus, do not fear for Jesus still loves you and has always loved you and will continue to love you. However, Jesus is waiting for the day that you will come to Him and invite him into your life, that he may be able to say to you, "My child, I love You."

If you have never invited Jesus into your heart, why not do it today, while you still have the opportunity. Merely say a little prayer to accept Jesus as your Lord and Saviour, and your life will be changed forever. You will experience fully the love of Jesus and your hardened heart will be turned to jelly as He fills you with His love and removes all sin away from you.

Do not forget to go out into the world today and to tell someone about the love Jesus has for them.

Jesus loved His disciples, and He wished that they would continue to walk in His ways and to build His kingdom here on earth, just as Jesus loves you and is bonded to you in love and wishes for you to continue to build His Kingdom. These words were not only for the disciples but are as relevant to us today as they were to the disciples 2000 years ago.

Up until this stage, Jesus had done most of the praying. Jesus would often withdraw from the disciples and enter into relationship with the Father through prayer. It was the manner in which Jesus maintained relationship with the Father and in which Jesus drew His strength from the Father. In Luke 22:42 and 43 it describes how as Jesus was praying that an angel appeared and strengthened Him.

We are to draw near to God and have a perfect relationship with Him through Christ Jesus who loves us. We have been given the keys to Heaven through the name of Jesus and we are to enter into His prescence often through prayer and draw our strength for daily living. When you are in constant relationship through prayer, you are full of the light of His love, the devil can not come near you, for where there is light there can not be darkness. Greater is He that is inside of you than He that is in the world.

Temptation comes from the devil who will continually attempt to remove you from the narrow path to the kingdom of God and eternal life in heaven. Whenever temptation comes, it will always be at your moment of weakness and when you are vulnerable from not being in full relationship with God. As soon as you see temptation, recognise that it is from the evil one and enter into prayer, for in prayer you are in the Father's company, from which the devil will flee, and the temptation will be overcome. Resist the devil through prayer and by confessing that the Jesus that is inside of you, is the Christ, the Son of the Living God.

Most of all, remain in constant prayer and relationship with the Father through Jesus, that you may walk in the fullness of His love for you and that the devil will not be able to come near to you due to the prescence of the Father around you.

However as the years have passed, I have come to realise that in essence what the man said is in fact true and biblical. God does help those who help themselves. First God does not come to you or walk away from you. You have to come to Jesus first and accept Jesus into your life as your Lord and Saviour.   Jesus then comes and lives within your life. If you never take the first step of asking Jesus into your life then He can not come into your life. "Draw near to God and He will draw near to you."

 From that stage Jesus walks with you in perfect unity with you. He walks beside you, never in front of you and never behind you. When you take a step forward Jesus takes the step with you. If you do not take any steps then Jesus does not take any step. If you wish to be financially blessed then you have to take the first step and start learning to give. Once you give then He returns it to you, a good measure, pressed down and running over. When you tithe, you first have to tithe and then the blessings will come pouring out. God will not give to you bless you first so that you are in a position to give. You first have to give and then God will pour out his blessings. You first obey God and then He responds.

God says that never will He leave you or forsake you. God is not a lier and so He will never leave you. What does happen though is that we turn our backs on God and walk away from Him. Jeremiah 3:22 , "Return you backsliding children, And I will heal your backsliding". You first have to return to God and then he will forgive you and heal your backsliding."

God says that he will bless all that you put your hand to. Unless you put your hand to something, God can not bless it. I have encountered many who fail to grasp this concept. God always takes what you have and then blesses it. He takes what you are doing and blesses it. If you are doing nothing and are not giving God anything to work with, then how can God take it and bless it.

When Jesus fed the 5000, he first asked the disciples what they had. They had a few loaves of bread and some small fish which they gave to Him. He then blessed it and it fed the 5000. If the disciples had not given the bread that they had over to Jesus, Jesus would have had nothing with which to work with and therefore could not have done the miracle.  Take what you have before God and offer it over to Him that He may bless it and multiply it. If you never offer what you have to God then He can never multiply it.

Faith without works is dead. If you are believing God for something, then be diligent and  start taking the step and providing the way for God to supply it. If you need to be healed and are believing God for healing, unless you step out in faith, call upon the elders to annoint you with oil and pray for you, or take some other step that God can work through, the chances are that God will not heal you. You have to take the step of faith first. If you are looking for a wife or partner, you need to tell God what you are looking for, and then place yourself in a position whereby God can work and bring a partner to you or take you to the partner. Join a good online dating site like Cupid-Date and allow the Holy Spirit to guide you into finding the perfect partner. However if you never go out or join any sort of orginisation where you can meet people, then how can God ever introduce you to your perfect partner. If you need to lose weight but do not want to chandge your habits, then how can you ever lose weight.

Step out in faith and create a situation where God is able to come through for you and to give you the desires of your heart.