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Who Will Lead the End-Time Church #15

Posted on 11/13/2023 | Comments Off on Who Will Lead the End-Time Church #15

Restoring Order to Christ’s Body

          As Christians, we are called to community. In every community, everyone has a different role to play, a specific function, and a unique contribution that is needed for that community to thrive. If individuals are not fully functioning in their roles and in proper relationships with those around them, the entire community suffers.

Some of the most important relationships we have are with the five-fold ministry gifts. Every ministry gift teaches but has a different expression, function, and assignment. Still, they all have the same purpose: Equipping the saints for the work of ministry. When we do not have healthy relationships with the ministry gifts of Christ, we are hindered from being adequately equipped for God’s work.

As stated before, all believers have within them a measure of the five-fold ministry gifts. Our relationship with other believers allows us to benefit from those giftings and is one source for equipping us. However, there are those among us whom God has ordained to stand in the “office” of the five-fold ministry. These leaders in the body of Christ are uniquely anointed to equip us in ways that others cannot. These leaders are the gifts that Christ has given to the Church to prepare us, strengthen us, and equip us for spiritual warfare and the work of the ministry. We need some level of relationship with all five of these anointed gifts.

One of the reasons we don’t see the level of signs and wonders we see in the early Church is that we have moved away from God’s ordained community structure. When God’s community is out of order, and we don’t have much-needed exposure to apostles, prophets, and evangelists, we become well-equipped to teach and pastor but ill-equipped to function in kingdom authority. Without a relationship with all these five gifts, we will likely not be well equipped to represent the kingdom of God with demonstration and power.

Ephesians 4:11-16 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, 13 till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; 14 that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, 15 but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— 16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.

          Notice in verse 14 that one of the reasons we need exposure to all five gifts is to keep us from being tricked and deceived children tossed about by every doctrine that blows through the congregation. We need exposure to all five gifts to grow up into the full measure of Christ’s body.

If you are hungry for God, you know in your heart there is so much more power available to us than we are experiencing. The Church has been ill-equipped and powerless for centuries. Could this be from not understanding the function and importance of our relationships? Could this result from not understanding God’s plans for community and not holding to His original design? We must be exposed to all five ministry gifts because they equip us differently. 

It is no accident that many denominations no longer recognize the ministry of the apostle and prophet. Apostles and prophets help equip the church with power and prepare her for what is coming. The last thing the enemy wants is for his plans to be exposed in advance and for the Church to be equipped to foresee those plans and empowered to destroy his works.

Satan deceives the Church with denominational preferences, racial divisions, political differences, and doctrinal disagreements to keep us weak, ill-equipped, and ineffective. He attacks the body of Christ to damage the joints, straining and breaking relationships to cut off our supply of the Spirit. The unity of the faith is what the devil is trying to prevent. (Ephesians 4:13)

All relationships are meaningful, even the ones that challenge us. Every relationship is a gift, a garden, and an opportunity to sow into and reap from.

Question: What will it take to restore God’s ideal community?

Question: What is your role in the community?

Question: Can you identify some roles that are not filled in your community?

Question: What can we do as leaders to build and maintain a healthy community?

Thank you for visiting Truth Pressure Ministries. Please share and help reach more people with the truth.

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Who Will Lead the End-Time Church #13

Posted on 11/11/2023 | Comments Off on Who Will Lead the End-Time Church #13

Be Mindful of What You Reproduce

All Christians should eventually be making disciples. Disciples are made when people willingly follow us and our living example. We must always be mindful of what kind of example we are setting.  

As leaders, we should often ask ourselves: What kind of disciples am I making? What am I reproducing? Do we really need two or more like me?

Our priority should be a growing relationship with the Father. We should be cautious of having followers if there are other priorities above that. What can we reproduce if we make disciples apart from intimacy with God?

A leader can easily get distracted from spending intimate time with the Lord. A common trap is to replace being alone with God and pursuing intimacy with Him with the busyness of religious activity. Another pitfall is to allow our devotion time” with the Lord to become lifeless, where we go through the motions and never connect with God on an intimate level. We can read a daily chapter or two in our Bible, run through our laundry list of prayer requests, and never be quiet and listen to the one we are talking to. I have been guilty of this myself. It is tragic to become religious in our devotion to God and call it a relationship.

We can learn a lot about God from reading and studying the Bible, but to honestly know Him, we must spend time with Him, commune with Him, and listen to Him.

Jesus set a remarkable example. He only did what He saw the Father do. This mindset demands a lifestyle of watching and praying. It’s not always convenient or comfortable, but it is necessary to be a disciple of Christ.

If you read a person’s biography, you can learn much about them, but you can’t honestly say you know them. You may “feel like you know them,” but to honestly know someone, you must meet with them, ask them questions, listen to their responses, and spend time with them. It is the same with God. Apart from intimacy, we will never reproduce the fruit of who He is.

Reading the Bible takes on new dimensions when intimacy becomes a lifestyle. The word of God bears much more fruit in our lives. We begin to view His written word through the lens of His divine nature; we see it with an unveiled face and a heart of love that makes us more sensitive to His spoken word.

As leaders, we must understand that spiritual gifts are free, but maturity is expensive.

If we are to reproduce mature leaders, we must first make sure that we are maturing. Most disciples will never rise above the level of those mentoring them.

Exposing the Deception of Itchy Ears

Matthew 23:9-10 Do not call anyone on earth your father; for One is your Father, He who is in heaven. 10 And do not be called teachers; for One is your Teacher, the Christ. 

That may seem contradictory since the Lord Jesus gave us teachers through the “five-fold ministry gifts” mentioned in Ephesians 4, but it is not. All the five-fold ministry gifts have one purpose: to equip the saints for the work of ministry. All five gifts teach differently, but their purpose is primarily to equip the saints for the work of ministry. We must filter those teachings through the anointing and our relationship with God and His written word.

1 John 2:26-27 These things I have written to you concerning those who try to deceive you. 27 But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him.

Suppose we abide by false doctrine out of ignorance. Regardless of our intention or our ignorance, we partner with the adversary, building strongholds of wrong thinking and wrong believing in our hearts and minds. We assist Satan in his deceptions by helping him make the strongholds that bind us. Unfortunately, it’s an evil deception that most of us fall for at one time or another.

These strongholds are not only reinforced belief systems but encampments in our minds that the enemy hides behind to ensure we stay trapped in wrong thinking and believing. 

One of the ways he does this is to keep us running in the same circle of believers, hearing the same false doctrines taught repeatedly and despising believers in other denominations. Denominational divisions were never God’s plan, and now they are an effective tool the enemy uses against us.

To be truly free, we must be very selective about what we are hearing and beholding, who we are listening to, and how much we are doing it. Without the filter of a robust relationship with God and His Word, we cannot skillfully discern wrong doctrine. Truth becomes obscured with the leaven of religious doctrine that appeases the carnal mind and satisfies our selfish desires. Self is the very thing we need to be set free from. Freedom from self will not come until we renew our minds to the truth of God’s word.

Again, are we abiding in His word or just reading the latest books and listening to the latest sermons? Do we desire the sincere milk of the word, or do we lust for the leaven of a self-serving gospel that doesn’t challenge or strengthen us for trials and testing?

Our tendency to have itchy ears and the lust for leavened bread binds us and closes our eyes to the truth. There is a reason the apostle James wrote, “My brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment.” (James 3:1)

If we are bound by false doctrines and doctrines of devils, that is what we will reproduce in others. When discipling others, we should do it in the fear of the Lord—encouraging them to seek God for themselves and acknowledging that we don’t know it all.

If we abide in His word, seek Him diligently when no one is looking, and cultivate a hunger for the sincere milk of God’s word, we will become everything the blood of Christ has paid for us to be. Others will follow our example, and they will be true disciples of Christ.

Be Mindful of What You Teach Others

2 Timothy 3:16-17 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

All scripture is profitable for reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness, but not necessarily our interpretation or delivery of it. Handling the word of life without humility and the fear of the Lord will not only result in teaching false doctrine, but the effects of those teachings can result in people being cut, hurt, offended, and deceived. It brings a reproach on Christ, discrediting His name, harming the Church, and devaluing His Word.

The Bible says in James 3:1 My brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment. And yet, the world is full of Bible teachers who do not rightly divide the Word of truth. We should all realize that teachers of the word of God are held to a high level of accountability—a stricter judgment. Teachers should teach from the overflow of their intimate relationship with the Lord, for these are the only things they truly know. Accumulating knowledge about the Word of God is not the same as knowing the Word. A true teacher is not only anointed to teach but also anointed to learn. We must all lean on the anointing to learn more than the need to be heard.

In the age of abundant information that we live in, it is easy to accumulate knowledge about God and reduce ourselves to just relaying information. Unless we put that knowledge into practice, we don’t know the truth we are trying to share. The common practice of merely sharing information results in teaching and preaching that lacks spiritual authority with demonstration and power. Many try to compensate for this lack of authority and power by being funny and entertaining or dramatic and forceful in their delivery. These are poor substitutes.

We should keep in mind that the Word is a person. When we share the Word with others, we are to share from our understanding of that person we have gained from the relationship, not the knowledge we have accumulated about God through academic efforts. If we are not practicing what we know, we cannot teach it with the authority and power it deserves.

Question: What does it mean to have itchy ears?

Question: What are some things that cause us to have itchy ears?

Question: On a scale of 1-10, How would you rate your fear of the Lord when teaching it to others?

Question: What are you reproducing?

Question: Who are you discipling?

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Who Will Lead the End-Time Church #11

Posted on 11/10/2023 | Comments Off on Who Will Lead the End-Time Church #11

Personal Devotion, the Key to All Ministry

          The level of our devotion will largely determine our impact and effectiveness as leaders. Our devotion is an expression of our love for God. If we love Him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, we will inspire others to do the same.

          Spiritual growth is like physical growth, with one exception. Physically, we are born as infants and progress through various stages of development until growth slows down in our late teens, and we eventually reach our physical prime around 30-35 years old. Then, because of the curse that is on the Earth, we begin to decline physically and sometimes mentally until we eventually die.

Spiritually, we should never slow down in our growth or reach a peak from which we begin to decline.

The greatest thing we can do for ourselves and others is to pursue God with all our heart and give ourselves entirely to our Spiritual progress and development. We should continually grow in Him, increasing in the knowledge of His word and cultivating a more intimate relationship with Him. Spiritual growth and progress must always remain our most important ministry. The closer we get to God, the more helpful we will be to others.

2 Peter 3:17b-18 …beware lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked; 18 but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Ephesians 4:11-16 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, 13till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; 14 that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, 15 but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— 16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.

Paul and Peter are telling us about the importance of growing in the grace and knowledge of God. However, there’s something else going on here too. In both passages, we see an effort to convince readers not to fall prey to false teachers and false doctrines so that their spiritual growth would not be hindered.

Believing a false doctrine will not only stunt our spiritual growth but cause us to grow in ways that create strongholds of wrong thinking and wrong believing that cause us harm, as well as those who follow our teachings.

To grow in our faith, we must discern and tune out any voices that add to or take away from the gospel of Jesus Christ. We can’t grow spiritually if we allow ourselves to be poisoned by false teachings and doctrines of men and devils. These days, false teachers and false doctrines are more numerous than ever. Steady spiritual growth will require us to be spiritually discerning, focused on truth, and guard our hearts from all evil influence. 

          The first and most crucial discipline we must have in place is putting God’s word first in our lives. If it seems that I am over-emphasizing this point, I am not. It is impossible to overemphasize the importance of God’s word.

1 Peter 2:1-3 Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, 2 as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby,

          Here, we see two more requirements for continued spiritual growth. Laying aside selfish and self-seeking behavior and desiring the sincere milk of the word.

          Selfishness is an anti-Christ spirit. This is why we are commanded to die to self. Envy, jealousy, selfish ambition, malicious thoughts and actions, evil speaking, and corrupt communication are all birthed from a self-centered wellspring. Look at what James has to say about this.

James 3:14-17 But if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth. 15 This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, demonic. 16 For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there. 17 But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. 

          When we engage in self-seeking behavior, we are feeding the carnal man. We then cause confusion and become a landing strip for demonic activity. In this environment, spiritual growth stops, and we become weakened and vulnerable to more demonic influence.

Face-to-Face with God

James 4:4 Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

Friendship with the world is spiritual adultery! Let that sink in.

Mark 8:38  For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the Son of Man also will be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.”

From the above passages, we see the mandate of God to separate from the world and die to our carnal nature with its selfish desires. We should never candy-coat this, not to our leadership team and not to our followers. We must wake up daily and present ourselves before the Lord, laying our lives on the altar.

God will not share space with anything unholy. God is very particular about where He abides. We can see this clearly from the Old Testament Temples and the tent of meeting.

However, God is gracious. He is patient and kind. He gives us time to die to ourselves and time to grow spiritually. He has given us the Holy Spirit to dwell in us and His word to help us remove everything in His temple that is not pleasing to Him. Thanks be to God!

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? 20 For you were bought at a price; therefore, glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which is God’s.

Romans 12:1-2 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. 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.

We find a valuable truth in Exodus to help us understand how we keep the old man crucified.

In Exodus 33:18, Moses said to God, “Please show me your glory.” This was God’s response:

Exodus 33:20 But He said, “You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me, and live.” 

Intimacy with God and exposure to His word is our carnal man’s face-to-face encounter with the Lord, and no man can see God’s face and live. Approaching God and His word daily with an unveiled face crucifies the old man while at the same time transforming us into His image from one degree of glory to the next.

2 Corinthians 3:18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.

Question: What is the greatest thing we can do for our family, friends, and those that follow us?

Question: What happens to us when we believe false doctrines?

Question: What is our most important ministry?

Question: What can we do to discern false teachings and doctrines of devils?

Question: How can we have a face-to-face encounter with God?

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Who Will Lead the End-Time Church #10

Posted on 11/09/2023 | Comments Off on Who Will Lead the End-Time Church #10

Why Leaders Struggle with Sin

          Most Christians are familiar with the phrase, “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” If this statement is accurate, and we know it is because it’s God’s holy written word, then why are so many Christians living in apparent bondage to sin? The problem is we don’t know the truth; we just know some things about it.

          Let’s look at that scripture in context.

John 8:31-32  Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. 32 And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

          The problem here is obvious. Those who struggle with sin do not abide in God’s written word. To abide means to remain constantly, to dwell continually. We are to live our Christian lives with constant exposure to and intake of the word of God. If we do not, according to the above scripture, we are not even considered a disciple, let alone be set free.

          It has been my observation for the last 35 years that most Christians do not understand the value or importance of reading and listening to the word for themselves. They may attend church faithfully, they may read many books and listen to many teachings about the Bible, they watch Christian television and listen to Christian radio, but only read a chapter or two of the Bible for themselves daily, if that.

          Spending only fifteen to thirty minutes a day in the Bible for ourselves will cause us to remain a baby Christian all our lives.

Other passages in the Bible tell us to keep the word before our eyes, meditate on it day and night, keep it in our mouths, attend unto God’s word, and keep it in the midst of our hearts.

Joshua 1:8 This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.

Proverbs 4:20-22 My son, give attention to my words; Incline your ear to my sayings. 21 Do not let them depart from your eyes; Keep them in the midst of your heart; 22 For they are life to those who find them, And health to all their flesh.

          It is the supernatural power in God’s word that sets us free. God’s word is alive! It imparts grace and truth to us in ways that we can’t begin to understand. Truth is the one unchangeable constant in the universe. It is the only thing in existence that can set us free and keep us free.

Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

          God’s word is a sharp, surgical instrument that can operate on our soul and spirit when we keep it before us. It will separate and remove anything that would keep us bound. Some surgeries take longer than others, but if we abide in God’s word, staying under the knife, so to speak, we will soon be free of the things that keep us chained.

Do we really love Him?

          In our minds, I think we all do. But what does Jesus have to say about it?

John 14:15 If you love Me, keep My commandments.

          That seems straightforward, doesn’t it?

John 14:21-24 He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.”

22 Judas (not Iscariot) said to Him, “Lord, how is it that You will manifest Yourself to us, and not to the world?”

23 Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. 24 He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father’s who sent Me.

          Loving and keeping God’s word is how we express love for God. Obedience is God’s love language. If we do not love God’s word enough to read it for ourselves and stay in it continually, then we cannot claim to love God according to scripture.

James 1:21-25 Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.

22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; 24 for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. 25 But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.

          In verse 21, we see the word “implanted.” Some translations read “engrafted.”

What does implanted or engrafted mean? The Greek word is “emphutos,” pronounced “em’-foo-tos,” and this word is only used once in the New Testament.

If you are familiar with a surgical implant, a skin graft, or a tree with a grafted branch, then you know what implanted means.

An implant takes living tissue and grafts it into another living tissue to make both one. If grafted properly, the thing being grafted becomes a living part of the thing it is grafted into.

Spiritually speaking, the living word of God is fastened or grafted into our spirit until the living word becomes a part of us and we become one. The word of God literally becomes flesh. Just like Jesus, the Word of God became flesh and dwelt among us. (John 1:14)

Why Jesus is Called the Word

John 1:1-2 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.

Words are powerful. The Bible is full of warnings and instructions on the use and misuse of words. Have you ever considered what a word is?

A word is a verbal or written expression that carries ideas and creates images in the one who hears it. The very nature of the word shapes the image that it produces. We can implant thoughts and create images in other people’s minds.

If I say, “Black Labrador Retriever with a red collar,” I just put a specific image in your head. You took what I said, you processed it through your memory and experience, and it produced a particular thought/picture in your mind.It created an image!

Jesus didn’t die for us to remain the same and someday go to Heaven. He died so that we could be transformed into His image and God’s original purpose for mankind could be restored in you.

The written Word helps us create and maintain the image of God in us.

James 1:23-25  For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; 24 for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. 25 But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.

If we read the Bible and keep it before our eyes and in our thoughts, we will have a good idea of what the image of God is because Jesus was the express image of God. Jesus is the Word made flesh. The Bible is Jesus in print, the thoughts, ideas, and images of God the Father.

Hebrews 1:3 who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,

We see in this verse that Jesus was not only the express image of God, but He upheld all things by His word. This means that, among other things, the image of the Father was upheld in Him by the power of His words.

God’s image in you is upheld by receiving the implanted, engrafted word.

To receive the implanted word, we must be doers of the word. If we are not a doer of the word, we have not received it, nor do we believe it. We have only heard it.

The self-deception James talks about in the above verse is hearing the word and thinking we know it. Until we practice what we have heard, we don’t know it, and we don’t fully understand it. Many leaders make the mistake of teaching things they have only heard and not practiced, thinking they have learned something when they have not.

Abiding in God’s word gives us the strength, faith, and courage to obey His word.

Hunger for the Word like a Baby

1 Peter 2:1-3 Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, 2 as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, 3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious.

          Just so we all understand what abiding in God’s word looks like, let me expound on this passage.

          I have raised three children, and without fail, every child demanded to be fed eight to twelve times a day when they were newborns. It didn’t matter if it was the middle of the night; they would wake up crying for a meal.

          When was the last time you woke up in the middle of the night and just had to read God’s word, had to hear it, had to taste it? How many times a day do you visit the scriptures?

Spiritual hunger, unlike physical hunger, is stimulated by eating, not starving. The number one discipline Christians should establish in their lives is abiding in God’s word.

There is a reason God spent over 1500 years and used 40 different people who spoke three different languages, putting together this wonderful, recorded, historical, and anointed document called the Bible. It is our blueprint, our manual for life, our spiritual food. It is God’s thoughts, feelings, instructions, and ideas that He has made readily available to the children He so dearly loves. Let’s not take that for granted.

Leaders Can’t be Slaves

          Let’s finish this chapter with the rest of the passage we started with.

John 8:31-36 Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. 32 And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

33 They answered Him, “We are Abraham’s descendants, and have never been in bondage to anyone. How can You say, ‘You will be made free’?”

34 Jesus answered them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin. 35 And a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever. 36 Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.

          When a leader struggles with sin, confidence is diminished, and faith is compromised. Our conscience must be clear to operate in complete trust and dependency on God. Living with a violated conscience produces doublemindedness.

James 1:5-8 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. 6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. 7 For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; 8 he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

Constant engagement with God’s word is the only thing that will purge us of all unrighteousness and empower us to handle the responsibility of being a vessel of God’s power.

The Path to Freedom is Being Honest with Ourselves

          Are you struggling with sin? Do you stumble and fall in the same area repeatedly? Would you like to know why? Would you like to be free?

Psalm 119:9 How can a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to Your word.

Ephesians 5:26 tells us we are cleansed “with the washing of water by the word.” There are things in our minds, strongholds, things that deal with conduct, old habits, character, and attitude that are only cleansed by the water of the Word. Jesus IS living water. He is also the living Word.

Psalm 119:105 Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

          If you stumble continually in the same area, you need light to reveal what you are stumbling over. If you have ever walked barefoot in the dark and slammed your little toe into a piece of furniture or a child’s toy, you quickly learn to turn the light on.

          Why is it so hard to grasp our need for continuous light? We walk in a world of darkness, and WE are supposed to be the light of the world. How can we BE the light if we are not flooded with light?

          It takes less than 100 hours for a slow reader to read the Bible cover to cover and only 65-75 hours to listen to the entire Bible on an app like BibleGateway. That means if we would read or listen only one hour a day, we would be going through the Bible a minimum of 3-6 times a year. It reveals how little God’s people respect and value His Word. There will be no excuses when we stand before Him.

          Darkness cannot remain where the light is constantly shining. Freedom from sin will require us to walk in and stay in the light. How badly do we want freedom from sin?

1 John 1:7 But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.

1 John 5:18 We know that whoever is born of God does not sin; but he who has been born of God keeps himself, and the wicked one does not touch him.

          We can live in a place where the devil can’t touch us. The closer we are to God, the less influence the devil can have in our lives.

          Right now, you and I are as close to God as we desire to be. Almost no Christian agrees with that statement at first, but God draws close to us as we take the initiative to draw close to Him.

To be closer to God, be less of a target for the enemy, and struggle less with the carnal nature, we must take the first steps toward God. We do this by flooding ourselves with the light and life of God’s word until His very nature is engrafted into our being.

James 4:7-10 Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.

Question: What is the number one reason Christians struggle with sin?

Question: What does receiving the engrafted word look like?

Question: What does it mean to love God according to scripture?

Question: What does it mean to desire the sincere milk of the word like a newborn babe?

Question: How often do you listen to or read the Bible in a year, and can you increase that?

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