Food for Your Faith January 26, 2012
Posted by Bishop McDuffie | Posted in default | Posted on 26-01-2012
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Treasure In…Treasure Out! By Billy Joe Daugherty
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. (Romans 12:2)
When you accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, the life of God comes into your heart, or spirit being, and you become a new creature in Christ. (2 Cor. 5:17.) Your head, however, is still full of the same old thoughts you had before giving your life to Christ.
When you think the wrong, or sinful, thoughts, your body will follow in that direction. To continue living in sin when your heart is filled with the life of God only brings guilt, condemnation, and frustration.
Unfortunately, this is where many Christians are today. They know what is right, but their unrenewed thinking leads them in a wrong direction.
The mind is a battlefield for many. Whatever you think about constantly will eventually be acted out in your life. You cannot put garbage in your mind and expect something good to come out. If you want a different output, then you have to change the input.
If the life you are experiencing is not what you want, then you must increase the amount of time you spend reading, hearing, studying, and meditating on God’s Word. The light of God’s Word will drive darkness out of your life.
Some people try to quit sinning—lying, stealing, lusting, and getting angry, to name a few areas of challenge of the old nature. Sometimes they ask their pastor to pray their old sinful nature out of them, but no amount of praying will work. If their minds aren’t renewed with God’s Word, they’ll still think wrong thoughts and act out what they are thinking. It’s only by putting so much of the Word inside of you that sin will quit you. This is the only way to overcome your old, sinful nature.
DECLARATION OF FAITH
I am filling myself up with the Word of God so sin will quit me. The light of God’s Word is driving all darkness out of me. I put God’s Word in my eyes, ears, mind, and heart and speak it from my lips. Anger, fear, loneliness, and all of my old nature are all removed by the power of Jesus inside of me.
Thank you for sharing Pastor!
We must be renewed daily!
If you think about it, you cannot even start on your road to spiritual growth and spiritual maturity until you have a whole new mindset. You must renew your mind.
Remember that your mind is the thing that has control over every single one of your actions. You mind controls your thoughts. Your mind tells your body exactly what to do. It tells your mouth what words to speak. It tells your eyes what to look at. It tells your ears what things to pay attention to and what things to tune out. It tells your brain what to think about. It tells your entire being how to respond in every single situation.
So until you renew and change your mind, the world and your flesh are still going to control you because your mind is being so greatly influenced by the flesh and by the world.
Until you are willing to put your born again experience into daily, minute by minute practice by changing the way your mind looks at everything, you will see improvement in your physical and spiritual life!
When you were born again you made the conscious effort to surrender your entire life over to Jesus Christ. That means giving to Jesus complete control over your body, heart, soul, and mind. And in order to do that you must stay in contact with Jesus Christ 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
God will definitely talk to you. He will talk to your heart and mind. He will talk to your moral fiber. He will talk to your character. He will talk to that part of you that wants to lead a Godly life. He will talk very loud and very clearly to everything that goes into making you a child of God.
You have to keep on doing this until your mind no longer wants your body to commit that sin. Renew your mind and fill yourself with the word of God daily! It is a life changing experience! Amen!
God’s Word is only good! When we fill ourselves up with it, the evidence is sure to show. You really are what you eat in every way. In saying that, I regard this Scripture, “everything done in “darkness” will come to the light”. When nobody is watching you…what are you doing? You don’t have to answer that. Everybody will know because time will tell. Mark my word!
God cannot be mocked. Whatsoever a man soweth, that will he also reap.
NOW…
Having a poor appetite for the Word of God is the root cause of many of our problems if not all of them. Through practice, our minds are so developed in eating of everything BUT God that we don’t even think to reference Him. We reference the donut or the telephone or whatever; NOT for The Word but for something that can’t even satisfy us and that gets us “bad” results. And if the results are “good”, they’re only temporary. That’s still bad. We want that which is everlasting and IF it is of God, so it will be. And then we’re shocked, amazed, and surprised when “bad” things come out. I mentioned before that GOD is only good. Why are you eating anything else? Why are you turning to the enchilada? Okay – but seriously – why are you turning to your own intellect or that of some other human being?
I submit to you that it is because your appetite is bigger for those things than it is for God.
The more you indulge in anything, the bigger your appetite gets for it. So, what do I propose?
STARVE THE APPETITE!!! STARVVVEEEE THE APPETITE!
That means: DON’T even feed it a little bit.
I have learned that in order to get rid of an appetite and develop a new one, I have to completely starve the old one and only eat of the new one. I have to fast from my old ways FOREVER and choose to eat of THE way FOREVER. It has to become my dominant appetite! The goal is to have it be my ONLY appetite! And then from there, I will have more desirable results.
Jesus refers to Himself as the Bread of Life…He said in John 4:34 “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work”. And then in John 17:18 As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. 19 For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.
Sounds like we’re expected to be like Jesus.
And of course man cannot live by bread alone but by EVERY Word that proceeds from the mouth of God and you know that that “EVERY Word” is Jesus who is the Bread of Life.
Glory to God!!! As I was meditating on John 4:34 today, I got a revelation steaming from the awesome Word that went forth last night connecting growth and increase to a legacy of obedience (specifically that left by father Abraham). In the message, I came to understand once again that without obedience, I cannot even begin to grow and increase. Increase requires a certain level of trustworthiness (determined/measured by God). Growth requires a certain level of obedience determined by me (the individual). And oh by the way, there’s only two “certain” levels of obedience. Either you are “certainly” obedient or you’re “certainly” not. If God can’t trust me to do what He says when He says it, then He also cannot ENtrust me with more. Remember that he who is faithful over little will also be faithful in much.
If I am not growing and increasing, chances are I’m not doing the last thing He told me to do, HOW He told me to do it, AND OR for as long as HE has told me to do it. That’s another message in itself.
So, the revelation I got is this: Jesus was saying to His disciples in John 4:34 “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work”. In other words, “Dear students, the food that I eat is obedience! It is to completely obey my Father until I finish my race. That’s how I keep getting all these results.” And remember now, we are supposed to imitate God. Ephesians 5:1. Yeh, yeh – the Bible says no man has ever seen God. You’re right! It does say that. But, the Bible also says in John 5:19
“…the Son can do nothing by [or of] himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing…” [my emphasis]. Man has seen Jesus. This is why it’s so important to believe that He came. If you can’t believe that then you can’t believe anything else that I have said.
So, what does any of that have to do with “Treasure in – Treasure Out”? Obedience is a decision that you (the individual) have to make! Nobody else can make it for you; not AA, not Bishop, not your spouse, not Jesus. Nobody can MAKE you willing. Growth and Increase doesn’t “just happen” automatically like it seems to when you take part in some of your devious acts. And you have to have the right attitude. You have to be willing. One day, you will have formed such a habit of obedience that it won’t seem so tedious.