jesus

If I were to ask you to make a list of a hundred things you need to do to please the Lord today, you could do it, couldn’t you? In fact, you probably have so many spiritual “dos” and “don’ts” cluttering up your mind that you’d hardly know where to start.

But you can relax. I’m not going to suggest you make a list of them. Instead, I’m going to help you simplify things by giving you only one: Abide in Jesus.

The one thing you’re truly responsible for is your union with Him. If you keep your union and fellowship with Him intact, everything else will be taken care of.

The company you keep has such an influence on your spiritual life. Fellowshiping with godly people will help speed you on to victory, while fellowshiping with those who are ungodly will drag you down to defeat.

That’s why the Bible has some things to say about your friends. That’s why it tells you to separate yourself from the world. Because evil companions will corrupt you.

Now, I’m not talking about ministry. Jesus Himself ministered to sinners. You have to mix with them to preach to them and pray for them. What I’m talking about here are the people you choose for friends.

Whenever things around you get dark and you feel the devil is about to overpower you, remember this: You have the Light of the world in you, and try as they may, all the forces of hell can’t put it out!

Even when you’re at your weakest, even when you feel like the light within you is small, the devil’s darkness is no match for you.

Someone’s done you wrong! Sooner or later it happens to all of us. Somewhere along the way, we all get hurt or cheated or lied to or abused.

It’s as predictable as it is painful. Yet when it happens most of us find ourselves strangely unprepared. In our outrage, we often cry out to God against the one who wronged us. We ask for justice, or even vengeance, and end up making things tougher on everyone involved—including ourselves.

If that’s been true of you, it’s time you found out how you can put the power of God to work for you the next time someone does you wrong.

This is the key to holding on to the blessings of God. When pressure comes, when troubles and trials are bearing down on you, remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead!

Remember that when Jesus arose, you arose. When He came out of hell and defeated the enemy, you came out of hell and defeated the enemy. His victory is your victory because you’re in Him.

Under the circumstances….  Have you ever caught yourself using that phrase?

“I suppose I’m doing pretty well under the circumstances.”

If you’ve ever said something like that, I want you to kick those words out of your vocabulary right now. Because you, as a victorious child of God, don’t have any business living your life “under” your circumstances. You don’t have any business letting problems and situations rule over you.

In Luke 6:47-48, Jesus said: “Whosoever cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them, I will show you to whom he is like: He is like a man which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock.”

That’s probably a familiar scripture to you. But today I want you to do something new with it. I want you to put it together with what Jesus said in John 15:17: “These things I command you, that ye love one another.”

That verse is clear, isn’t it? The instruction is plain. Yet even in these tumultuous days when our nation is so desperately in need of God’s guidance, most of God’s people don’t do what that verse commands.

Why not?

I believe it’s because most of us are overwhelmed by the problems we see around us. How could my prayers make a dent in the national debt? we think. How could my faith affect foreign policy?

In other words, we fail to pray because we fail to realize just how powerfully our prayers can affect this country.

Courage comes from trusting God. It can’t be mentally drummed up. It comes from believing what God says regardless of what the circumstances look like. Courage comes from faith!

Where does discouragement come from? From fear and unbelief. It comes when you listen to the devil’s lies about what God is not going to do for you.

Do you need a miracle? Then believe it, confess it and receive it!

"Oh Gloria, I just don't know if I can do that."

Yes, you can! You've already done it once. When you made Jesus the Lord of your life, you believed, confessed and received the greatest miracle in the universe, the miracle of a reborn spirit! Every other miracle you receive will come in exactly the same way.

You start by simply believing what God's Word says concerning your area of need, by letting that Word change your heart and mind.

Thousands of years ago, God told the children of Israel to go up and occupy the land that He had given them. He told them to take it, by force and without fear, from the ungodly ones who were dwelling there.

He's still saying that today. God is still trying to get us, as His people, to take the good land He's given us. He's still trying to get us to use the power He's given us to run the wicked one out.

Spiritual bumps and bruises. Inner aches and pains that just don't seem to go away. Most all of us know what it's like to suffer from them but too few of us know just what to do about them.

We limp along, hoping somehow those hidden wounds will magically stop hurting, thinking that maybe (with a little extra sleep or an extra helping of dessert) that nagging sense of depression will finally disappear.

But does it ever happen that way? No!

I know. I've been there.

How would you like to be so full of the glory of God that it's unmistakable to those around you? How would you like for people to be able to know just by looking at you that you'd been with Jesus? It's entirely possible if you are born again and filled with the Holy Spirit. The same mighty power that changed you inwardly when you were saved can so revolutionize you outwardly that even strangers on the street will be able to see Jesus in you.

Have you ever been afraid to give yourself totally to the Lord because you think you might be deprived of some pleasure in this life? Chances are, you have. That's because Satan is working overtime to convince you that he can really make your life worth living. But don't believe him for a minute. The real truth is, yielding completely to the Lord won't cost you anything that's worth having. It will only cause you to live life to its fullest!

The Pharisees had a heart condition that grieved Jesus. Their hearts were hard and insensitive. If you'll look in Mark 3, you'll see what I'm talking about.

God was right there in their midst, and they, of all people, should have realized it. They knew the Scriptures backward and forward, and Jesus fit every messianic prophecy written there. But the insensitivity of their hearts literally blinded them to who He was.

The hearts of the Pharisees were also hardened to the needs of the people around them.

That very same thing is still happening today.

Is the devil giving you fits today? Is he causing trouble for you at every turn?

If so, turn the table on him. Start making him miserable for a change. You have the power to do it, you know. You have the power residing in you to destroy his works, to heal, to deliver, to set the captives free. You have so much power in you that every time your alarm clock goes off, the devil should wail, "Oh no! That troublemaker is up again!"

Many of us, even though we're believers, have seen grief and sorrow as such a natural part of life that we haven't even questioned them. In fact, if we're honest, we'd have to admit there are times when we actually want to feel sad and sorry for ourselves.

Why would we choose to feel sorrow? Because sorrow has an emotional kick to it. It offers a surge of feeling that, in the beginning stages, is almost intoxicating.

Are all your needs met today? If not, why not?

According to the Word of God, it's either because you're not praying about them at all or because when you do pray, you're praying wrong.

What does it mean to pray wrong? In many cases it simply means to pray without expecting results. Many believers do that, you know. They use prayer as a kind of spiritual wishbone. They just play around with it. This probably won't do much good, they think, but who knows? It won't hurt to give it a try.

Love your enemies...turn the other cheek...to most people that sounds like a pretty weak way to handle someone who's causing them trouble. But, the truth is, it's the most powerful way there is. It's the way Jesus did it—and His way never fails.

I’ve often heard people say, “It’s not whether you win or lose, it’s how you play the game.” That’s nonsense. If you play the game right, you’ll win!

Any coach will tell you that part of playing the game right is having a winning attitude. That’s what God wants us, as believers, to have. He wants us to have so much faith in Him that we expect to whip any obstacle the devil brings our way. He wants us to expect to win at the game of life.