Dara Maclean Petty has been writing songs since she was 7. Raised in a household of faith, her parents had always encouraged her to seek God’s will for her life. At 22, when her life seemed to have stalled, she wondered where she had gone wrong. When she pressed in to her heavenly Father, He was faithful to give her the wisdom she desired and her life began to change.
There are times when life on this earth is hard and uncomfortable...and even downright painful. When those times come, you deeply need the comfort that only the Holy Spirit can bring.
How do you receive that kind of comfort?
By doing just what the believers in Acts did. By “walking in the fear of the Lord.”
We can take a lesson from the church at Corinth. Because of strife and division, Paul had to write to them, “When I was with you I couldn’t talk to you as I would to spiritual people. I had to talk as though you belonged to this world or as though you were infants in the Christian life” (1 Corinthians 3:1).
You are not alone in that battle. As children of God, none of us want to be guilty of fulfilling what Scripture calls “the lust of the flesh.” In our society, lust is most often thought of in connection with sexual immorality. But lust means “strong desire.” The lust of the flesh is simply the strong desire to follow after the ways of the world rather than God, in any area of our lives.
If you’re looking for a home church where you can be rooted and planted according to Psalm 92:13, you probably already know that church shopping can be quite a process. As you prayerfully consider where to plant your family, be sure to seek the leading of the Holy Spirit. Only He knows where He intends for you to be planted. In the meantime, the following are good guidelines to use in choosing a good church.
The right church will:
1. Preach the whole Word of God. Including healing, deliverance, abundance and victory.
True Christianity is not a religion. It is a relationship with God.
Religion is any system of attitudes, beliefs or practices to honor or appease a god or supernatural force regarded as creator and governor of the universe. The number of religions and belief systems in the world today is in the thousands. God is not interested in religion. He is interested in our hearts. He wants to have a relationship with us because He loves us.
One night after a worship service a friend of mine and I stepped outside and were suddenly awed by the beauty around us. It was one of those crisp, clear winter nights when the brilliance of the moon and stars nearly takes your breath away. I said to my friend, "Tommy, will you look at that!" Then he looked up with one of those Holy Ghost whole-face smiles and with a voice full of tenderness said, "My Daddy made that!"
"My Daddy...." I'll never forget the way he said that.
Have you ever looked around at your own life or the life of the Church and wondered why it's taking the Lord so long to get things in order?
If so, let me tell you something I learned a few years ago. He's not the One who's slow. We are!
It's not God's fault that the Church still has spots and wrinkles. It's not His fault that we're not living in total victory. He's always ready. He's the great "I AM." We're the ones who fall short.
Christmas is a very important time of year. It's a time of year when the whole world is hearing the message of the birth of Jesus. It's a time when people are tenderhearted...the perfect time to plant seeds of love in the lives of those you meet.
Sometimes those seeds may just take the form of a kind word in the middle of rush-hour shopping. Other times, you may get the opportunity to pray and minister to someone. But whatever the situation, keep a sharp eye out for even the smallest chance to assist people.
Whenever Ken and I talk about living by faith, I know there are some people who think, Oh, that's easy for you. You're preachers. You have it made! And, in some ways, we do. We have it made because our calling demands that we give God our attention, and giving God your attention always brings success.
There's an old Full Gospel tradition that says God gets glory from the wonderful way His children bear pain and agony and that the world is impressed by that. What a lie! That's simply a tool of the devil to keep God's children in bondage.
People of the world already have all the pain and agony they want. They aren't looking for a way into it. They are looking for a way out. They don't care what you preach. It's the religious people who get worried about that. The world, the sinners, are smarter than that. All they care about are the results.
Do you want to know why the Body of Christ has been in such a mess over the past few years? Do you want to know why the devil has been able to make a public display of our weaknesses? Do you want to know why, instead of being unified and strong, we've often been torn apart by division and criticisms that come not from without but within?
It is because, as the Lord said in Hebrews, the people of God have need of milk and not of strong meat. They're babies! The people of God for the most part don't know His ways.
When you're up against the wall, don't start begging God to break through it for you. That's not the way He works. He'll give you the plan. He'll give you the power. And He'll guarantee the victory. But your hand, not His own, is the instrument He's going to use to get the job done. You're going to have to stretch forth your hand by speaking and acting on the Word, even when circumstances are against you.
Do you ever have trouble hearing from God? Do you find yourself caught in confusing circumstances needing guidance, and yet even after praying and reading the Word—you're still not sure what God wants you to do?
I've had that experience. I knew His written Word and acting on it changed my life. But I was uncertain when I had to make decisions about things the Word didn't specifically address. Things like whether to move to one city or another, for example.
Do you know why so many believers are losing the battles in their lives?
They're fighting the wrong enemy!
They've been deceived into believing that just because a person said or did something to hurt them, that person is the one they need to fight. But they're wrong.
You see, the Bible says we don't wrestle with flesh and blood. And since people are definitely flesh and blood, they're never the source of our problem.
"But, Brother Copeland, you just don't know what So-and-so did to me!"
Did you know that the force of faith has the power to rejuvenate your physical body? It's true. You can see that in the life of Sarah. Most people don't understand the full extent of what God did in her life. All they know is that He enabled her to have a child in her old age.
But if you'll look closer, you'll see that there was more to it than that. When Sarah laid hold of the promise of God by faith, it began to restore her physically to such an extent that when King Abimelech saw her, he wanted her for his wife.
I used to wonder why we believers didn't see more of the power of God operating among us than we do. With what we know about faith and the Word, it seemed to me signs and wonders and miracles should be happening all the time.
So, one day I asked, "Lord, why isn't the power of God turned up to a higher volume in the Church?"
Do you know what He said? He told me we weren't walking in enough love yet.