Through God onlyWritten by Terry Dashner
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 strength of Jesus Christ in me. The Bible tells me that I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. Yet I can’t do “all things.” I can’t write speeches like Winston Churchill or Abraham Lincoln. I can’t write plays like William Shakespeare. There are many things I can’t do because I don’t have ability or intellectual capacity or even desire. So, what does it mean for me to do all things through Christ Jesus? It means that I am able to do everything and anything in spite of my human limitations when God calls me to do it because He will do it through me. God gave me a purpose and a plan for my life. I can say one of two things about my calling before Lord. I can say, “God, what you want me to do is impossible.” Or I can say, “God, what you want done is impossible in my own strength and power, but I know that in you I can do it. And I can do it well!” At that time, I surrender to God my willpower and ask Him for His, to complete task. Immediately, a burden of defeat lifts from my shoulders. My mind becomes peaceful. My heart fills with God-like faith. God begins to bring people across my path to help me. He gives me new insights, new ways of looking at old problems. And somehow God gets it done through me. That’s key. The strength to do it is not my own, and my arm extended in action is not mine--but HIS! For example, I might have a difficult time being friendly and caring to some knucklehead that just gets on my nerves. Try as hard as I might, I find myself powerless in resisting urge to punch him in belly. If I feed on that thought, BAPD may soon be arresting me for assault and battery. For a minister of Gospel, that’s a bad position to be in. Therefore, instead of feeding my mind with norm, I ask God to love difficult person through me. I begin to think upon scriptures in Genesis that talk about all people being created in God’s likeness. I think about Bible scripture that tells how Jesus loved all of us, even knuckleheads of world. Over time, I begin to notice a real difference in how I view that person. Here again, these simple and little things work wonders for me and bring me victory.And now that I have shared these tips, why don’t you try these simple things next time you get slammed? If you will consistently feed your spirit as actively as you feed your body, you will begin to take on a new attitude about life. If you will not drop out of race because you think something is wrong with you because you can’t seem to “live” Christian life but instead consider yourself normal and simply under attack by old nature, you will have more success putting down old nature than giving in to it. I can speak affirmatively in this regard. And also learn to let God work not only in you, but through you. Surrender yourself completely to Holy Spirit by saying often, “Holy Spirit I surrender my will to your leadership for my life. You know what’s best for me. Work through me now.” You see, we can’t love like we should because human love is self-centered. We can’t do caring things for others like we should because we mostly care about ourselves. We can’t do impossible that God calls us to do for His glory because we are too limited by our humanness. This is our dilemma. Thank God though that we don’t have to admit defeat in Him. As we live in Him, He love with His perfect love, loving through us (Romans5:5). He rescues unlovable through us. We provide willingness; He gets job done by His own power. Really, all we have to do as Christians is to provide work space for Jesus by allowing Him to live and rule in us, then He goes to work through us to get job done. He gets glory, and we get joy. Pastor T. Keep Faith! AND by all means stay course because Jesus is soon coming.
Pastors a small church in Broken Arrow, OK. Writes devotions for friends and church family. To sign up for the devotions, contact him at tdash0355atnetzerodotcom
| | Authority with PowerWritten by Terry Dashner
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There is one final word that you should know. Sometimes criminal, or criminals, I was sent to apprehend didn’t want to comply with my requests. In those situations I always called for a “backer.” At my request on radio, any number of my brothers and sisters would come from all directions to help me. And Tulsa has a good size department with Tulsa County Sheriff’s Office, and Oklahoma Highway Patrol to help when needed. This help was in addition to my police authority to apprehend unruly. It was POWER sent to help me. Here’s spiritual application: When circumstances seem overwhelming in your life you can get help. You don’t have to face it alone. The Holy Spirit has been sent from Father and Son to help saints of God, especially in prayer. The Bible says that Holy Spirit helps us when we don’t know how or what we should pray for. If you will call on Him, He will come to you with His POWER and lift you high above circumstances. You can’t lose with God! You have authority of Jesus’ name and power of Holy Spirit on request to help you. That is why Bible says that if God is for us, then who can be against us? Stand strong against your adversaries and unjust circumstances in life by authority of Jesus and power of Holy Spirit. Keep faith. Stay course. Pray always in Holy Spirit. And remember, JESUS IS COMING SOON!! Pastor T.
Pastors a small church in Broken Arrow, OK. Writes weekly devotions for friends and church family. You may sign up at tdash0355atnetzerodotcom.
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