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Monthly Archives: November 2009

God Is Able

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Greetings and God Bless. Today, I want to take a few minutes with the opportunity that I have been given and talk about what God has put on my heart recently.

In the world that we live in today, I am learning and observing new things as I continue to get older. I have learned that as you move from the transition in your life from a child to an adult, that there are many changes that take place through that time, and many decisions that have to be made during that course. And in most of the cases that I have found, we feel like we have no one to really help us answer the questions of what to do in the toughest situations and what direction to go when life throws you hard turns.

I wish that I could sit here and begin to tell everyone under the sound of my voice that life is going to be perfect for you from this day forward, and that you are never going to face anything that is going to be of any hardship, but that is something I cannot do. I wish that I could say that you are never going to have to face hard times financially, or face issues at home, or even at your work place. I wish that I could say that everything in your life was going to be easy street, and all you had to do was enjoy it.

One of the tougher lessons that I have learned about the life that we live is that you cannot change the trials ahead, nor can we predict what tomorrow holds. If we could, life would be a much easier thing to manage.

There are many of you out there today, who need God to move in a big way for your loved ones, whether it be to save them for the first time, or to save them from deaths door, to deliver them from the chains of bondage, or to free them from the perils of sin. Whatever the case may be, I’m here to tell you that you are not alone. I want you to know today that there are people that are still out there in this world, that are still praying for God to save, to heal, to set free, to do all the things that we need God to do in their lives.

My message to all of you out there today is that God is able to move for you, regardless of what you are going through, if you are willing to step up and put all that it takes behind it.

Matthew 21:18-22 Speaks of Jesus in Bethany

[18] Now in the morning as he returned into the city, he hungered.
[19] And when he saw a fig tree in the way, he came to it, and found nothing thereon, but leaves only, and said unto it, Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward forever. And presently the fig tree withered away.
[20] And when the disciples saw it, they marvelled, saying, How soon is the fig tree withered away!
[21] Jesus answered and said unto them, Verily I say unto you, If ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do this which is done to the fig tree, but also if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done.
[22] And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.

If I could say anything to you that could be of some encouragement, it would be to get yourself out of the mind of the popular opinion; the belief that would make you say that there is no hope for them, the belief that would make you say that they are never going to change, the belief that would make you say that things will never be any different.

Things changed for you, right? God moved in your life to get you where you are today, right?

God delivered you from a great measure of things, things that you are aware of, and countless things that haven’t even crossed your mind.

I know what God has brought me through, and every time I count the cost that my Savior sacrificed for me, it’s enough to remind me to continue to believe that there is hope for anyone out there who needs it, who needs that great miracle. It CAN happen. It IS POSSIBLE.

Don’t give up on your cause to see these things through. If anything, get even stronger in the fight. Take even more time to call out their names in prayer. Make the extra effort to invite them to church face-to-face, and not just through a phone call. Go above and beyond the call of duty, and truly show them how bad you want them there, and show God how bad that you want this mountain moved out of their way.

We at Heart of Grace are praying for all of you to go forward and not backward in your walk with God that all churches in this community, regardless of your denomination or your belief, start realizing the true need that is surrounding us. It doesn’t matter what sign you have on your door; get out there and show people the love of God in your heart, and lead them to Christ. Help them to find the strength and refuge that they truly need. It’s not about what we think is best anymore, it’s about what the people need, they are out there empty handed and empty hearted, and they need a Savior.

And we have a Savior that is more than able. We serve a God that is more than able to move in these things. We have a God that is all-powerful, and can move in their situations, and start changing their lives, and saving them once and for all. Join us in getting out there, and truly becoming fishers of men. God is able!

Through The Fire

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Everyone seems to be going through some sort of trial in their life. Whether it be from sickness, finances, marriage struggles, or addictions, people are all facing serious issues or know someone who is going through it.

Today, I’d like to offer a message of hope and encouragement to everyone who is finding themselves in this place.  Even those who seem to have everything going for them, it could be tomorrow that even you face something of this magnitude.  We are never ‘ready’ per say to face these things, but I want to give you some of God’s Word so that maybe in your moments of despair, you can draw strength from God’s promises and know that He can take you through the fire.

As God’s Children, we know that if we just depend on him to help us through our troubles, that He will be a very present help, and will, indeed, see us through the fire.  I am reminded of three Hebrew boys that were thrown into a fiery furnace.  They literally went into the fire.  They believed that God would take care of them and that the outcome would be victory because they had God on their side.  Sure enough, they found themselves in the middle of a hot fiery furnace, and who do you think was there with them?  Only the three of them had been thrown in, but yet, there was a fourth man walking with them in the fire.  Praise the Lord!  Jesus was there walking with them right in the middle of their trial!  And when the King called for them to come out of the fire, they walked right out without any evidence of being burned.  Their hairs were not singed.  Their garments were unchanged.  They didn’t even smell of smoke.  So, God literally took them through the fire!

Isaiah 43:1-3 says, “But now, this is what the LORD says— he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze. For I am the LORD, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.

So God’s promises tell us that not only will He take us through the fire, but no matter what circumstances are in front of us, that He will bring us through them victoriously.  His power is so mighty that he can even bring us through our troubles without any evidence that we even went through them!  We do not have to be tainted by the things we’ve been through.  God’s love, grace, and mercy is more than enough to wash us white as snow and make us new once again!

His word says that His children have an expected end.  Jeremiah 29:11 says, “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

Praise God!  If we can just keep the faith and trust in God, He will see us to a time of victory in our lives! Psalm 9:10 says, “And they that know thy name will put their trust in thee: for thou, Lord, hast not forsaken them that seek thee.”

I know it is easier said than done, but don’t be afraid to face your trials if you’ve got God on your side. He is faithful and true.

David said in Psalm 23: 4, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.” Deuteronomy 31:6 says for us to “Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the Lord thy God, He that doth go with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.”

And remember, that we as believers always have people watching us as we go through our trials.  People who are lost and desperate; they are looking to us to see how we handle our troubles.  Do we put our faith in God?  Do we really let Him work in our lives?  In our circumstances?  Does God really give His people victory?  Does our lives show victory and God’s Glory or do we show defeat?

It is important for others to see us believing that God will take us through the fire.  They may not be able to physically see God’s presence in our lives like the King saw Jesus walking with the three Hebrew boys in the furnace, but they will see the effects of God’s presence!  They will see victory.  They will see us brought through the fire without being burnt!  Do you know that the King believed that day on the true living God after seeing Jesus in the fire with the Hebrew boys? In today’s society, people are so desperate to find something that will help them cope with their daily struggles.  Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could just live our lives in a way that people could see the victory even in the fire!?

We know that we all have our own problems and God didn’t say that we wouldn’t have them.  But I encourage you to just remember, that He said He would bear our burdens and give us the help and victory that we need!  He is an ever present help in a time of trouble.  Don’t try to go through the fire without Him!

Breaking Addictions

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Today I want to talk to you about something that is a topic that I feel is very close to home, especially to our local community. I hope that as I begin to talk about this that you help us in starting to change the outlook of the people of God.

An addiction is defined as being abnormally tolerant to and dependent on something that is psychologically or physically habit-forming. When considering the various amounts of things that are in our world today that people can find addicting, it’s brings me to a state of fear. I couldn’t even begin to tell you how many things come to mind when I think about what we could come dependent on. Rather than talking to you about the things that I do not know anything about, I’ll speak on the things that are close to my heart and try to relate my battle with my former addictions to convey the message that is on my heart today.

For several years, I had addictions that were a physical and psychological dependence on drugs. Not only that, but the friends and environments that were surrounded with it also. I’m not going to sit here and talk about all my party stories or tell you how awesome life was on the wild side. I’m going to tell you about the reality of the situation.

First and foremost, my life and my body has suffered greatly from the constant intake of all the poisons that I constantly put in it over time, and I feel like after the years that I’ve been clean now, that I finally feel normal. My family has also suffered from all the lying and all the taking from them through all the years of my needing to have the fix. They had to witness how bad it really was, seeing me go from a person who had a good heart, to a person who was heartless and wanted nothing but to feel high and just escape reality. Worst of all, the God who created me with such a special purpose in life, was there to help me all along and yet I refused to help when I chose to go my own way and to live the life that I chose with this lifestyle.

Listen, you can go and do the 12 step programs, the NA meetings, the self-help books, and go to the doctors if you wish. Try as you may. You can be as willing as you can to try and go and do all these things on your own. I even tried to beat my own addictions by myself too. At the end of the day, however, after you try all of that stuff, you are still stuck with the emptiness of knowing that you are still unhappy with your life, still unsatisfied, and still have no peace and no joy, which for most of us which was the reason that we started with drugs to begin with.

To all of you out there that are listening that need to hear this, I pray you hear this clearly. There is no better way to be free from your addictions than through deliverance by the spirit of God.

I’m here to tell you that it is a way that works, for I am here before you as one that is a tried and true believer of practicing what I preach. You don’t have to try and do this on your own, but there are some things that you have to try to do to make this kind of deliverance to come to pass. God sees the very moment in your mind and in your heart when you TRULY are ready to put it all down. It’s that moment when you finally are ready to be ABOVE your addiction, and not to let it rule your life any longer. When you are beneath it, it still controls you, and rules your thoughts, and makes you believe that you still have to have it, and makes you believe there is still some form of dependency.

1 Thessalonians 5:4-10

[4] But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.
[5] Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.
[6] Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.
[7] For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night.
[8] But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation.
[9] For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,
[10] Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him.

Do you understand where I’m coming from now? Do you know why my heart is so heavy? You see, there are legions of people out there, just waiting for the people of God to go, to use that power of prayer, the power and gifts and callings that you have inside of you, to make a difference in all of their lives. The saddest part of it all is that people’s lives aren’t being changed because we are at a standstill. We do nothing but talk about how bad that it is, talk about their problems, and never utter the first prayer to God. We’ll say, “There’s no hope for them” instead of “Lord I pray that you bring deliverance their lives, break the chains of addiction!” If you stay persistent in your fight for God to remove the holds that the enemy has on your loved ones, God will win the battle.

We put limits on God when we use terms like maybe, possibly, hopefully, and doubtful. God does not operate on our vocabulary. Words in the bible are words like SHALL BE, AND POSSIBLE, HEALED, FREE, SAVED, AND VICTORY, do you see where I am going? The world leads us to have an attitude of hopelessness; essentially to think that we have to give up on something based on the evidence that we see with our own eyes.

What if that would have been the case for me? It really pains me to wonder where I would be now if there wouldn’t have been that compassion and dedication for people to forgive me every day for what I was doing, and pray for me anyways, REGARDLESS of what they SAW or what they HEARD. If we put off the addictions we have and give them over to God, and truly surrender, and let the spirit have its way in our lives, God will set us free, so long as we are willing to believe! And in turn for all of the loneliness, emptiness, and despair that we feel, God will help us by filling us with love, joy, and peace!

Putting on the faith to believe you are free every day after that deliverance means you are one more day free than you were before, and helping you to finally be that person that God has always wanted you to be. You’ll begin to feel something build up inside of you, something in you that will want you to say no to temptation, to say no to your former friends, to say no to going to the places you use to go! Don’t let all the junk around you corrupt your life from bearing the good fruit. Even if you literally have to get rid of things, get rid of habits, lose some friends that are bad influences, or anything that would hinder you from being as fruitful as you can possibly be, it is well worth it. Cleansing your life from the things that would hinder you only brings you closer to God, which only unlocks even more blessings coming your way.

Be encouraged this day! Let’s take the chains off of our people that are in bondage! Use the power in your hands! Be above your addictions! You don’t have to live this way! You and God can run your life!