Christian Walk

Years ago, I decided I was going to walk by the Word of God. I told God that, as far as I was concerned, His Word was final and I’d confess it the rest of my life no matter what. That was the most important decision I’ve ever made.

Not too long after that, I decided that no matter what happened, whether I felt like it or not, I’d walk in love. Because the Bible clearly says “faith worketh by love.” It won’t work any other way.

Those two decisions—to operate by faith in the Word of God and to walk in love—are the two most important decisions I’ve ever made in my life.

The more you fellowship with God around His Word, the more you’ll know the “power outflowing from His resurrection.” You’ll develop joy. You’ll develop faith. You’ll start developing God’s own characteristics...just by fellowshiping with Him. You’ll begin to understand who you really are in Jesus.

I remember one day I was reading the story of the woman with the issue of blood who touched the hem of Jesus’ garment and was healed.

How do you give to the Lord?

Do you just drop some money in the plate at church without much thought? Or do you just write a check to God at the first of every month and pay Him like you pay all your other bills?

You need to think about that because how you give is a matter of deep concern to God. He’s particular about how offerings are given. He won’t receive just any old thing however you feel like giving it.

If you want your deeds to be blessed, if you want to see supernatural results in your life, you’ll have to do more than simply read the Word of God. You’ll have to put it into action.

That’s what I did. Years ago when I realized that God was the One who had the answers to all my problems, that He was the One who could supply all my needs, I committed myself to do everything His Word told me to do. I made a quality decision to step out in faith on every command I saw there.

When you’re facing a problem, the very first thing you should ask God for is wisdom. Not money. Not power. Not even healing. But wisdom.

God’s wisdom is the key that will unlock every door in your life. It will turn your every failure into success. So, stop wasting your prayer power begging God for things you think you need and spend some time instead listening to what He has to say about your situation.

If you’ve never tried that before, practically speaking, here’s what you need to do:

God is not full of surprises. He’s not an unpredictable being who likes to keep you guessing. Countless believers, however, have the idea He is.

“You just never know what God is going to do,” they say. They base that idea on 1 Corinthians 2:9 which says, “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.” They interpret that scripture to mean that God is keeping secrets from His people.

But, praise God, He isn’t!

We often praise God for His faithfulness. We’re thankful that we can always count on Him to be there for us. But we rarely consider the fact that He needs us to be faithful too.

It’s true. God needs people He can count on. He needs faithful and wise stewards He can trust over His household. In this final hour, He needs faithful believers to team up with, so He can manifest Himself in the earth more than ever before.

“Oh Gloria, God doesn’t need me!”

When an athlete goes into training, he practices to improve his skills. He works hard, repeating the same motions over and over until they become what we’d call “second nature” to him.

Most of us understand how crucial that kind of training is in the physical realm. We know that you simply can’t be a winner without it. But did you know we can train ourselves that same way where spiritual things are concerned?

Do you ever have seasons in your life when it seems like every time you go to church and every time you spend time in prayer and every time you open the Bible, you receive a revelation from God? I do. Spiritually, everything will be going great. I’ll be higher than a Georgia pine. Then, suddenly, something starts to happen. I start drying up in spiritual things.

It seems like it doesn’t make any difference what I pray or how much I read the Word, I can’t get anywhere spiritually. I’m so dry my spirit’s creaking!

If you’ve been crying and asking God to run the devil out of your life, stop! The Bible says you’re the one who’s supposed to overcome the devil.

How? By resisting him. By rebelling against him when he tells you to do something and doing what God says instead! When Satan tells you some lie, contradict him with the Word of God. Oppose him. This verse says when you do that, he’ll flee from you. He’ll “run as in terror.”

That means everywhere you go, as you walk in faith and oppose the devil, darkness is pushed back.

In this day and time, trouble seems to surround us on every side. If it’s not a failing economy, it’s a failing business, a failing marriage or failing health. Yet, in the midst of seemingly overwhelming problems, God has promised to deliver us.

Whenever you find yourself stumbling into failure or sin, check your love life. Sit down with the Lord and ask Him to show you if you’re in strife with anyone or if you’ve taken offense. If you have, the devil can come in and trip you up.

As a preacher, I’ve seen that happen countless times. I’ll be preaching about something and some believer will get upset with me about it. He’ll decide I’m wrong and go off in a huff—and first thing you know, he’s in trouble.

There is nothing—absolutely nothing—that is more important than learning to love. In fact, how accurately you perfect the love walk will determine how much of the perfect will of God you accomplish. That’s because every other spiritual force derives its action from love. For example, the Bible teaches us that faith works by love. And answered prayer is almost an impossibility when a believer steps outside of love and refuses to forgive or is in strife with his brother.

Most of us would never dream this verse could apply to us. After all, we’re believers! We’d never say that there is no God.

But maybe we should think again. It’s true that with our mouths we would never say something like that...but don’t we sometimes say it with our actions?

We say it by sinning just a little here and there and thinking it won’t matter. We’ll go to an immoral movie or have a gossip session about the pastor, ignoring God’s command to the contrary.

With our actions we’re saying, “There is no God.”

One area of our lives we believers have particularly neglected is the area of our relationships. We simply haven’t heeded the Word of God where they’re concerned. We’ve fussed with one another and criticized one another so much that we’ve hindered the forces that God has given us to make us successful in this world. That’s right! Strife causes trouble in the spirit realm.

It opens the door to the devil. It keeps our prayers from being answered. It even keeps our angels from moving on our behalf!

If you know how to listen to the voice of God, you can hear Him calling throughout the Body of Christ today. He is calling for unity. He is calling us to lay down our disagreements and come together in preparation for Jesus' return.

Just the thought of that scares some believers. "How can I unify with someone from another denomination?" they say. "I'm not going to give up my doctrines and agree with theirs just for unity's sake!"

What they don't realize is this: scriptural unity isn't based on doctrine.

Most believers don't know anything about true humility. If you tell them they're the righteousness of God, they'll fight to keep from believing it. You can give them scripture references to prove it, and they'll still argue.

"Oh no," they'll say, "I'm not righteous. I'm just an old sinner saved by grace." They're making a sincere attempt to be humble. But they're sincerely wrong. They're so afraid of being exalted by pride that they've let Satan trick them into falling right into it.

If you give the devil place, he will take it. You have to stay alert and keep your shield of faith high because if you don't, he'll turn around and steal back from you the ground you just took.

There have been people who have received their healing and have fallen back into their old thinking patterns of sickness. They let their faith down and gave the devil an opening. When he came along with an old symptom, they weren't ready for him. They fell victim to his counterattack.

Self-consciousness is a major problem in the Body of Christ today. It keeps us from doing the things God tells us to do. Instead of simply obeying Him, it makes us start to wonder, Now what will people think of me if I do that? What if I command that person to get out of the wheelchair and he doesn't get up? What if I start believing for prosperity and go broke? What about that, God? I won't look too good, will I?

Too often we ask God to fix the problems around us when what He really wants to do is solve the problem within us. I did that myself for years where my weight was concerned. I prayed and prayed for God to help me lose weight. Yet I experienced repeated failure. I lost literally hundreds of pounds, only to gain them right back again.

Finally one day, I made a firm decision. I told God, "I am not going one step further until I find out what to do about this!" Then I went on a fast, shut myself away from everyone, and determined to hear from God.