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(Transcribed by TurboScribe. Go Unlimited to remove this message.) And a very good day, this is Pastor Marc Whelan with Touch of God.
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And this week we're going to be talking about distractions and focusing on the Lord and reducing and cutting out the distractions that keep us from spending quality time with our Lord.
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So the question we had to ask ourselves today is, do you desire to walk a straight path with the Lord with the fewest bumps in the road, the fewest challenges in life, the fewest distractions to keep your focus on the Lord? Colossians chapter 3 verses 1 to 7, it says, If then you have been raised with Christ to a new life, thus sharing his resurrection from the dead, aim and seek the rich eternal treasures that are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. So before we go to verse 2, it is obvious here that it is not automatic that we are focused on the Lord with no distractions. We have to actually aim at and seek the rich eternal treasures that are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. So it's not automatic. We have to apply ourselves. We have to be disciplined. If we are wanting to improve our relationship with the Lord, deepen it with him and find out and walk in the things of the Lord, to abide in him, John chapter 15, abiding in him, seeking him, praying to the Lord, having conversation with him, worshiping him, walking with him. Verse 2, And set your minds and keep them set on what is above, the higher things, not on the things that are on the earth.
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And that's a key verse as well. Our minds have so many things available to analyze every day with our phones, our televisions, our computers, other people that are in our lives.
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Time is precious, and we have to be disciplined and make a decision on what we want to let in our life every hour of every day. What is getting in the way of our time with Jesus? Verse 3, For as far as this world is concerned, you have died, and your new real life is hidden with Christ in God. Verse 4, When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with him in the splendor of his glory. Verse 5, So kill, deaden, deprive of power, the evil desire lurking in your members, those animal impulses, and all that is earthly in you that is employed in sin, sexual vice, impurity, sensual appetites, unholy desires, and all greed and covetousness, for that is idolatry, the defying of self, and other created things instead of God.
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So we have the ability to kill, deaden, and deprive of power, the evil desire lurking in our members, but it's not automatically dead. We have to apply ourselves and be on the watch for things that creep up on us and things that we slip and look at that turn into something bigger if we are not careful. So it is important what we look at, what we listen to, and we will be looking at these things in today's program. Verse 6, It is on account of these very sins that the holy anger of God is ever coming upon the sons of disobedience, those who are obstinately opposed to the divine will, among whom you also once walked when you were living in and addicted to such practices. So we will understand these things today because we once walked in these habitual sin desires and were trying to satisfy the urges of our members of our body, but we now becoming born again, we are a new creation in Christ, we are hidden in Christ, we have been freed from the law of sin and of death because the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set us free from that, and therefore there should be no bondage with us anymore. There should be no captivity. We may be baited and tempted by sin, but we should turn away and make a decision not to take part in that temptation, and God's grace is sufficient to get us through, and the Bible says in 1 Corinthians chapter 10 that Jesus has given us a way of escape out of every temptation that the enemy presents to us. There is power in the blood of Jesus, and the power in the name of Jesus has the ability to help you say no to things that you are tempted to do that are not holy. You have a free will to choose yes or no every day. Yes or no to Jesus, yes or no to sin, but your ability to say no is more powerful than the strength of the temptation, and that's also what 1 Corinthians chapter 10 talks about. But we should not be deceived today in thinking that we are like the world, that we are like everybody else who is not born again, who is tempted by the enemy, whether it's lust or whether it's addictions, whatever it is. We are a different species now, a new creature altogether according to 2 Corinthians chapter 5 17. We are born again. We no longer have the old spirit we once had in our carnal sinful nature, and now we are renewing our mind so that it is no longer carnal, but it is now renewed to the Word of God so that we no longer think the way we used to think. We no longer have a temptation to sin like we used to. We have a new Father now. He's our Heavenly Father, the great Yahweh, the great Jehovah. We are no longer children of the devil. Hallelujah. So today we will be looking at some of the things that can keep our mind focused on the things down here on the earth instead of the things above. So Ephesians chapter 4 verse 10 to 13. We're going to go there next. Ephesians chapter 4 verse 10. It says, He who descended is the very same as he who also has ascended high above all the heavens that he his presence might fill all things the whole universe from the lowest to the highest. Now he here is talking about Jesus because Jesus is the one that descended into hell and then ascended into heaven. Verse 11. And his gifts were varied he himself appointed and gave men to us some to be apostles special messengers some prophets inspired preachers and expounders some evangelists preachers of the gospel traveling missionaries and some pastors shepherds of his flock and teachers his intention was the perfecting and the full equipping of the saints his consecrated people that they should do the work of ministering toward building up Christ's body the church. Verse 13. That it might develop until we all attain oneness in the faith and in the comprehension of the full and accurate knowledge of the son of God that we might arrive at really mature manhood the completeness of personality which is nothing less than the standard height of Christ's own perfection the measure of the stature of the fullness of the Christ and the completeness found in him. This is what we have to be disciplined to focus on. There is the five-fold ministry in the body of Christ that is there to help build us up equip us as saints so we become more like Christ and are equipped to do the work of ministry. Let's go back to verse 12 though. His intention was the perfecting and the full equipping of the saints his consecrated people. So saints according to the amplified classic edition of the bible means his consecrated people and we need to understand that we are consecrated so we shouldn't act as though we are no different than we were before we gave our life to Jesus. We are not like the world. We are not like the people that we need to be ministering to to lead them to the Lord. They are still lost unfortunately. We need to go to them to tell them about Jesus, to show them the way, to show them the truth, to show them the life that is Christ Jesus himself. They are not yet consecrated but we pray that they shall be when they give their life to Christ. But we are already blessed to be consecrated and we need to be focused on the Lord in such a way that we are no longer leading a life of sin and succumb to the wiles of the devil and the temptations of the world. We have to be careful what we see. For example, whenever you watch the world news on television or listen to it on the radio, you're believing that perhaps there is nothing you can do about the atrocities going on across the world, all the destruction, all the murders, all the bondage that the world is suffering from because you believe because the situation is so grave that there's nothing in your power that you can do. But we know that in Christ we are supposed to be able to do all things through him. So we can speak to a mountain and tell it to go into the sea and if we don't doubt, it will be done for us according to Mark 11 chapter 23. So if enough faith is applied towards any situation, that mountain will be moved for us. It doesn't matter how big it looks. God is bigger. The equal measure of faith God has given to each of us needs to be directed at situations in the world that we hear about on the news such that these situations will be divinely changed to match heaven's will. And again, you might say, but I don't think my little prayer can cause one country to make friends with another.
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Well, God depends on us as saints, his consecrated people, to rise up and decree and declare God's will over the earth because no one else is. And God wants to have his word be spoken through your vocal cords, through your heart, through your renewed mind, such that his word would have an effect, a positive effect on a bad situation, no matter how big the problem is. God's word is bigger than that problem, but God's word cannot achieve much when it's sitting on the bookshelf gathering dust. It has to be in our hearts, chapter 1, verse 2 of Psalms, and we need to be meditating and reading this word of God, chewing on it, and speaking it forth over situations, because in Christ you can do all things. Every believer can do all things through Christ, but the believer cannot just simply go to a building once a week and listen to the pastor.
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The believer has to take what they learn, go out onto the streets, go into the prayer closet, and speak over situations going on in the local government, perhaps. You can pray for your leadership. The scriptures even tell us we must pray for leaders. Regardless of if you like the leader that's in power right now over your area or over your country, that's all the more reason to pray for them. The Lord will be able to improve the situation based on your prayer and the prayer of many other people. But you see, if we get tangled up with the world news and just accept foolishly that there's nothing that can be done with our prayers, and it's not even worth praying about because the situation is so grave, then nobody would ever pray. And so the situation that's already grave will just continue to get worse because evil has gained the upper hand, because the church has either fallen asleep or it's apathetic, and it doesn't want to get engaged in a battle that it believes it cannot win. And so the enemy has won the battle of the mind.
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And in that situation, we're not doing what the Lord has called us to do, which is to subdue the earth. So you see, when you watch the news, it's important that you have this mindset that you can do something about it, even if it doesn't mean physically going to that country. But you can be in your prayer closet, in your home, and you could be affecting something around the world.
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YouTube and TV is another distraction. Are we watching solid biblically-based teachings on YouTube, like a Christian movie, a Christian film, or something like The Chosen, which is an excellent program that you can get on your phone? You can download an app called The Chosen, and it is an excellent biblically-based series. So are we watching solid biblically-based teachings, or are we watching something else on YouTube that is actually pulling us back towards conformity to the world? Because Romans chapter 12, verse 2, the apostle Paul is saying, do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
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Well, renewing the mind is reading the Word of God, and accepting it as true, and acting who you now are in Christ, based on your understanding of your identity in Christ, and your abiding in the Lord, relationship with the Lord, John chapter 15. Just being transformed just by focusing on the Lord, and understanding who you now are, reading the Word, getting the truth, and discarding what you understood before to be the case. But if you do not read the Word, it's almost like gravity is pulling you back to the way you used to be, being re-conformed to the world, because you're not doing anything in the direction of the Lord. So that's why distractions that are not biblically-based distractions are a problem, and something that can keep you from a greater walk with the Lord, and your growth in the Lord will be stifled. It will be stymied. It will be delayed and postponed.
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And that's exactly what the enemy wants. The enemy doesn't want us to find out who we are in Christ.
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He doesn't want us to speak good things and God's Word over a dictatorship in a country.
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The enemy doesn't want us to pray for the sick, or those in poverty, because the enemy wants to keep them there. He wants to keep the people in bondage. He hates anybody who's created in the image of God, and that's all of us. Computers and smartphones, we can get pulled away for hours because there is an endless supply of worldly content on the internet that is dulling down our thinking. Again, it's trying to pull us back to where we came from, the world. And just because you become born again doesn't mean that you cannot slip back to your old ways, because your mind needs to be renewed. You need to be transformed reading the Word of God. If you just go to the altar and say the prayer, you can believe that you are born again, but your mind has not changed. You have switched fathers. You now have a heavenly father. You're now going to get convicted by the Holy Spirit to stop things that are bad for you, bad habits. But you will never really change in your thinking, because you're not feeding yourself the truth of the Word of God. And the more we look at things like the computer and the smartphones and all the different social media, if those things are not training you in the way of the Lord, equipping you, teaching you Scripture from qualified, honorable teachers and scholars of the Word, then you're getting a misunderstanding. You're being led back to the world, even though you are technically born again in your spirit. So we have to watch things that are dulling us down, making us less sharp. Time on the computer and the smartphone could be well spent instead in the Word, which would allow us to become more like Christ even quicker in the knowledge of Him. Other distractions are what we hear, secular music that includes worldly opinions and words. It doesn't have to just be a song that has bad words in it, curse words, swear words. If the author of the lyrics in the Christian song doesn't understand the Word, doesn't understand the truth of the new believer's identity in Christ, then they're going to put together a song with lyrics that mislead you into thinking something that is not accurate about who you are now. So even Christian music can be bad if the lyrics are not accurate and they don't line up with the Word. But then you also have the secular music, which is obviously not holy, and you also then have people that can be speaking negative things to you or about you. According to Proverbs chapter 18 verse 21, it says, death and life are in the power of the tongue, and they who indulge in it shall eat the fruit of it for death or life. It is less likely that people speak negative things over you when you keep your life more private, so they don't know what you are up to. Refrain from making updates about your life on social media. Do a check on who is in your circle of friends. Are these friends born again and wanting to fellowship with you and sharpen iron with you? If there are people in your life who are not born again, are you telling them about Jesus? Otherwise they can become a distraction and use up valuable time that you could be using for time with the Lord and in the Word, praising God and even talking to people who want to talk about the Lord so that you become sharpened. Iron sharpens iron. Again, we have to check ourselves. Are we keeping God first? Is your desire to have a deeper relationship with Jesus? What about keeping His commands to abide in Him? John chapter 15, without which you can do nothing to carry out the Lord's great commission, as explained in Mark chapter 16 and Matthew chapter 28. Going out, preaching the gospel, laying hands on the sick, casting out demons and raising the dead. The distractions are using up valuable time in our lives. Since birth until the time we started to renew our mind to the Word of God, we were in a constant pattern of reinforcing our understanding of the world, learning, behaving and conforming to our old fallen nature. We were 100% carnal with no knowledge of the truth.
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We may have just known John chapter 3 verse 16, but that was being pushed down the road for another time that we would come to Christ. We had so far rejected it and were perishing according to Hosea chapter 4 verse 6, which says, My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge, because you, the priestly nation, have rejected knowledge. I will also reject you, that you shall be no priest to me. Seeing you have forgotten the law of your God, I will also forget your children. Well, here we see that the Lord is telling His people, the children of Israel, that they are destroyed because there is knowledge, but they haven't bothered to read it and accept it as true and abide by it and keep the Lord's commandments. This doesn't just apply to those who have yet to give their life to Christ.
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This also applies to Christians who are not reading the Word. Christians can easily be destroyed for lack of knowledge if they keep the Bible on the shelf or they just use the Bible to memorize Scripture but never decree and declare it, never speak it of themselves, never speak it over their friends and their family and their spouses, to never speak it over areas of the world that badly need prayer for it to be subdued as God told Adam and Eve to do so in Genesis chapter 1.
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See, the Word of God is truth and it is the knowledge spoken of in this verse. Jesus is the Word, so when we do not read the Word, are we not also rejecting the person of Jesus?
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There is a similarity here between Hosea chapter 4 verse 6 and Matthew chapter 7 verse 23.
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Let us read Matthew chapter 7 from verse 21 to 27. Here is Matthew recording what Jesus has spoken.
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Verse 21. Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name and driven out demons in your name and done many mighty works in your name?
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And then I will say to them openly, publicly, I never knew you. Depart from me, you who act wickedly, disregarding my commands. That means that we are acting wickedly if we are not obeying and performing the Lord's commands. Verse 24. So everyone who hears these words of mine and acts upon them, obeying them will be like a sensible, prudent, practical, wise man who built his house upon the rock. And the rain fell and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, yet it did not fall because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a stupid, foolish man who built his house upon the sand. And the rain fell and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great and complete was the fall of it. The word of God is the only thing that can validate where we are and point us and keep us on the right path. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. So he is the word, and the word points you in the right direction.
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We know this because of Psalm chapter 119 verse 105. Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. Romans chapter 8 verse 6. It says, Now the mind of the flesh, which is sense and reason without the Holy Spirit, is death, death that comprises all the miseries arising from sin, both here and hereafter. But the mind of the Holy Spirit is life and soul peace, both now and forever. That is because the mind of the flesh, with its carnal thoughts and purposes, is hostile to God, for it does not submit itself to God's law. Indeed, it cannot. So here we see that our carnal thoughts are hostile to God. This hostility, this enmity with God continues even now while we are saved. This is because God doesn't renew or update our mind so that it knows and understands the entire Bible when we become saved. No, he recreates, regenerates our spirit, but he doesn't alter our mind. It remains carnal until we discipline ourselves and pick up the word of God and meditate and contemplate it every day. So we need to pick up the word of God every day because we need to be transformed. We have to be transformed because we no longer want to be like who we used to be. We don't like that old person. That old person died when we gave our life to Christ. But there is a risk if we are not disciplined because of the distractions that our old man can be resurrected. And that's when you feel like you're slipping back into the way you used to be, in the ways that you think and act. And the Lord deserves better from us. He wants us to have a relationship with him. He paid so preciously for it. The Lord has set you free, but do you know it? Or have we become so entangled with distractions of different kinds that we never really got around to finding out exactly what happened when we gave our life to Christ?
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So I encourage you today, do a check in your life of what you are focusing on every day.
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Is there anything that's not that important that you can cancel off your daily schedule and put Jesus in first? Because when you put God first, all these things will be added unto you.
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All the things that you need, all the things that you need to take care of and get done, all the important things, God is going to make time for you. He's literally going to create time when you put him first. But when you put him last or never, that's when your life is in disarray. And I think we've all gone through both sides of that situation and noticed a difference. So I pray for you today that you would seek the Lord with all of your heart and ask the Holy Spirit to help order your day better and better from now on. In the name of Jesus. Amen. All right. I'm also going to pray very quickly for your health. So I speak the life of Jesus from the top of your head to the soles of your feet. In Jesus name, be healed. Be whole.
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Pain be gone. Cancer be gone. Aches be gone. Blindness, glaucoma be gone. Blood disorders be gone. Organs be healed. Joints be healed. Back be aligned in Jesus name. Amen. All right.
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If you would like to become a partner, our website is tog.world, touchofgod.world. You can also submit a prayer request there and you can also get in touch with us. We'd love to hear from you and tell us about your testimonies. So until next week, you have a blessed week. Amen.
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(Transcribed by TurboScribe. Go Unlimited to remove this message.) And a very good day, this is Pastor Marc Whelan with Touch of God.
00:00:26.469 --> 00:00:38.649
And this week we're going to be talking about distractions and focusing on the Lord and reducing and cutting out the distractions that keep us from spending quality time with our Lord.
00:00:39.789 --> 00:02:15.669
So the question we had to ask ourselves today is, do you desire to walk a straight path with the Lord with the fewest bumps in the road, the fewest challenges in life, the fewest distractions to keep your focus on the Lord? Colossians chapter 3 verses 1 to 7, it says, If then you have been raised with Christ to a new life, thus sharing his resurrection from the dead, aim and seek the rich eternal treasures that are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. So before we go to verse 2, it is obvious here that it is not automatic that we are focused on the Lord with no distractions. We have to actually aim at and seek the rich eternal treasures that are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. So it's not automatic. We have to apply ourselves. We have to be disciplined. If we are wanting to improve our relationship with the Lord, deepen it with him and find out and walk in the things of the Lord, to abide in him, John chapter 15, abiding in him, seeking him, praying to the Lord, having conversation with him, worshiping him, walking with him. Verse 2, And set your minds and keep them set on what is above, the higher things, not on the things that are on the earth.
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And that's a key verse as well. Our minds have so many things available to analyze every day with our phones, our televisions, our computers, other people that are in our lives.
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Time is precious, and we have to be disciplined and make a decision on what we want to let in our life every hour of every day. What is getting in the way of our time with Jesus? Verse 3, For as far as this world is concerned, you have died, and your new real life is hidden with Christ in God. Verse 4, When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with him in the splendor of his glory. Verse 5, So kill, deaden, deprive of power, the evil desire lurking in your members, those animal impulses, and all that is earthly in you that is employed in sin, sexual vice, impurity, sensual appetites, unholy desires, and all greed and covetousness, for that is idolatry, the defying of self, and other created things instead of God.
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So we have the ability to kill, deaden, and deprive of power, the evil desire lurking in our members, but it's not automatically dead. We have to apply ourselves and be on the watch for things that creep up on us and things that we slip and look at that turn into something bigger if we are not careful. So it is important what we look at, what we listen to, and we will be looking at these things in today's program. Verse 6, It is on account of these very sins that the holy anger of God is ever coming upon the sons of disobedience, those who are obstinately opposed to the divine will, among whom you also once walked when you were living in and addicted to such practices. So we will understand these things today because we once walked in these habitual sin desires and were trying to satisfy the urges of our members of our body, but we now becoming born again, we are a new creation in Christ, we are hidden in Christ, we have been freed from the law of sin and of death because the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set us free from that, and therefore there should be no bondage with us anymore. There should be no captivity. We may be baited and tempted by sin, but we should turn away and make a decision not to take part in that temptation, and God's grace is sufficient to get us through, and the Bible says in 1 Corinthians chapter 10 that Jesus has given us a way of escape out of every temptation that the enemy presents to us. There is power in the blood of Jesus, and the power in the name of Jesus has the ability to help you say no to things that you are tempted to do that are not holy. You have a free will to choose yes or no every day. Yes or no to Jesus, yes or no to sin, but your ability to say no is more powerful than the strength of the temptation, and that's also what 1 Corinthians chapter 10 talks about. But we should not be deceived today in thinking that we are like the world, that we are like everybody else who is not born again, who is tempted by the enemy, whether it's lust or whether it's addictions, whatever it is. We are a different species now, a new creature altogether according to 2 Corinthians chapter 5 17. We are born again. We no longer have the old spirit we once had in our carnal sinful nature, and now we are renewing our mind so that it is no longer carnal, but it is now renewed to the Word of God so that we no longer think the way we used to think. We no longer have a temptation to sin like we used to. We have a new Father now. He's our Heavenly Father, the great Yahweh, the great Jehovah. We are no longer children of the devil. Hallelujah. So today we will be looking at some of the things that can keep our mind focused on the things down here on the earth instead of the things above. So Ephesians chapter 4 verse 10 to 13. We're going to go there next. Ephesians chapter 4 verse 10. It says, He who descended is the very same as he who also has ascended high above all the heavens that he his presence might fill all things the whole universe from the lowest to the highest. Now he here is talking about Jesus because Jesus is the one that descended into hell and then ascended into heaven. Verse 11. And his gifts were varied he himself appointed and gave men to us some to be apostles special messengers some prophets inspired preachers and expounders some evangelists preachers of the gospel traveling missionaries and some pastors shepherds of his flock and teachers his intention was the perfecting and the full equipping of the saints his consecrated people that they should do the work of ministering toward building up Christ's body the church. Verse 13. That it might develop until we all attain oneness in the faith and in the comprehension of the full and accurate knowledge of the son of God that we might arrive at really mature manhood the completeness of personality which is nothing less than the standard height of Christ's own perfection the measure of the stature of the fullness of the Christ and the completeness found in him. This is what we have to be disciplined to focus on. There is the five-fold ministry in the body of Christ that is there to help build us up equip us as saints so we become more like Christ and are equipped to do the work of ministry. Let's go back to verse 12 though. His intention was the perfecting and the full equipping of the saints his consecrated people. So saints according to the amplified classic edition of the bible means his consecrated people and we need to understand that we are consecrated so we shouldn't act as though we are no different than we were before we gave our life to Jesus. We are not like the world. We are not like the people that we need to be ministering to to lead them to the Lord. They are still lost unfortunately. We need to go to them to tell them about Jesus, to show them the way, to show them the truth, to show them the life that is Christ Jesus himself. They are not yet consecrated but we pray that they shall be when they give their life to Christ. But we are already blessed to be consecrated and we need to be focused on the Lord in such a way that we are no longer leading a life of sin and succumb to the wiles of the devil and the temptations of the world. We have to be careful what we see. For example, whenever you watch the world news on television or listen to it on the radio, you're believing that perhaps there is nothing you can do about the atrocities going on across the world, all the destruction, all the murders, all the bondage that the world is suffering from because you believe because the situation is so grave that there's nothing in your power that you can do. But we know that in Christ we are supposed to be able to do all things through him. So we can speak to a mountain and tell it to go into the sea and if we don't doubt, it will be done for us according to Mark 11 chapter 23. So if enough faith is applied towards any situation, that mountain will be moved for us. It doesn't matter how big it looks. God is bigger. The equal measure of faith God has given to each of us needs to be directed at situations in the world that we hear about on the news such that these situations will be divinely changed to match heaven's will. And again, you might say, but I don't think my little prayer can cause one country to make friends with another.
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Well, God depends on us as saints, his consecrated people, to rise up and decree and declare God's will over the earth because no one else is. And God wants to have his word be spoken through your vocal cords, through your heart, through your renewed mind, such that his word would have an effect, a positive effect on a bad situation, no matter how big the problem is. God's word is bigger than that problem, but God's word cannot achieve much when it's sitting on the bookshelf gathering dust. It has to be in our hearts, chapter 1, verse 2 of Psalms, and we need to be meditating and reading this word of God, chewing on it, and speaking it forth over situations, because in Christ you can do all things. Every believer can do all things through Christ, but the believer cannot just simply go to a building once a week and listen to the pastor.
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The believer has to take what they learn, go out onto the streets, go into the prayer closet, and speak over situations going on in the local government, perhaps. You can pray for your leadership. The scriptures even tell us we must pray for leaders. Regardless of if you like the leader that's in power right now over your area or over your country, that's all the more reason to pray for them. The Lord will be able to improve the situation based on your prayer and the prayer of many other people. But you see, if we get tangled up with the world news and just accept foolishly that there's nothing that can be done with our prayers, and it's not even worth praying about because the situation is so grave, then nobody would ever pray. And so the situation that's already grave will just continue to get worse because evil has gained the upper hand, because the church has either fallen asleep or it's apathetic, and it doesn't want to get engaged in a battle that it believes it cannot win. And so the enemy has won the battle of the mind.
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And in that situation, we're not doing what the Lord has called us to do, which is to subdue the earth. So you see, when you watch the news, it's important that you have this mindset that you can do something about it, even if it doesn't mean physically going to that country. But you can be in your prayer closet, in your home, and you could be affecting something around the world.
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YouTube and TV is another distraction. Are we watching solid biblically-based teachings on YouTube, like a Christian movie, a Christian film, or something like The Chosen, which is an excellent program that you can get on your phone? You can download an app called The Chosen, and it is an excellent biblically-based series. So are we watching solid biblically-based teachings, or are we watching something else on YouTube that is actually pulling us back towards conformity to the world? Because Romans chapter 12, verse 2, the apostle Paul is saying, do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
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Well, renewing the mind is reading the Word of God, and accepting it as true, and acting who you now are in Christ, based on your understanding of your identity in Christ, and your abiding in the Lord, relationship with the Lord, John chapter 15. Just being transformed just by focusing on the Lord, and understanding who you now are, reading the Word, getting the truth, and discarding what you understood before to be the case. But if you do not read the Word, it's almost like gravity is pulling you back to the way you used to be, being re-conformed to the world, because you're not doing anything in the direction of the Lord. So that's why distractions that are not biblically-based distractions are a problem, and something that can keep you from a greater walk with the Lord, and your growth in the Lord will be stifled. It will be stymied. It will be delayed and postponed.
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And that's exactly what the enemy wants. The enemy doesn't want us to find out who we are in Christ.
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He doesn't want us to speak good things and God's Word over a dictatorship in a country.
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The enemy doesn't want us to pray for the sick, or those in poverty, because the enemy wants to keep them there. He wants to keep the people in bondage. He hates anybody who's created in the image of God, and that's all of us. Computers and smartphones, we can get pulled away for hours because there is an endless supply of worldly content on the internet that is dulling down our thinking. Again, it's trying to pull us back to where we came from, the world. And just because you become born again doesn't mean that you cannot slip back to your old ways, because your mind needs to be renewed. You need to be transformed reading the Word of God. If you just go to the altar and say the prayer, you can believe that you are born again, but your mind has not changed. You have switched fathers. You now have a heavenly father. You're now going to get convicted by the Holy Spirit to stop things that are bad for you, bad habits. But you will never really change in your thinking, because you're not feeding yourself the truth of the Word of God. And the more we look at things like the computer and the smartphones and all the different social media, if those things are not training you in the way of the Lord, equipping you, teaching you Scripture from qualified, honorable teachers and scholars of the Word, then you're getting a misunderstanding. You're being led back to the world, even though you are technically born again in your spirit. So we have to watch things that are dulling us down, making us less sharp. Time on the computer and the smartphone could be well spent instead in the Word, which would allow us to become more like Christ even quicker in the knowledge of Him. Other distractions are what we hear, secular music that includes worldly opinions and words. It doesn't have to just be a song that has bad words in it, curse words, swear words. If the author of the lyrics in the Christian song doesn't understand the Word, doesn't understand the truth of the new believer's identity in Christ, then they're going to put together a song with lyrics that mislead you into thinking something that is not accurate about who you are now. So even Christian music can be bad if the lyrics are not accurate and they don't line up with the Word. But then you also have the secular music, which is obviously not holy, and you also then have people that can be speaking negative things to you or about you. According to Proverbs chapter 18 verse 21, it says, death and life are in the power of the tongue, and they who indulge in it shall eat the fruit of it for death or life. It is less likely that people speak negative things over you when you keep your life more private, so they don't know what you are up to. Refrain from making updates about your life on social media. Do a check on who is in your circle of friends. Are these friends born again and wanting to fellowship with you and sharpen iron with you? If there are people in your life who are not born again, are you telling them about Jesus? Otherwise they can become a distraction and use up valuable time that you could be using for time with the Lord and in the Word, praising God and even talking to people who want to talk about the Lord so that you become sharpened. Iron sharpens iron. Again, we have to check ourselves. Are we keeping God first? Is your desire to have a deeper relationship with Jesus? What about keeping His commands to abide in Him? John chapter 15, without which you can do nothing to carry out the Lord's great commission, as explained in Mark chapter 16 and Matthew chapter 28. Going out, preaching the gospel, laying hands on the sick, casting out demons and raising the dead. The distractions are using up valuable time in our lives. Since birth until the time we started to renew our mind to the Word of God, we were in a constant pattern of reinforcing our understanding of the world, learning, behaving and conforming to our old fallen nature. We were 100% carnal with no knowledge of the truth.
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We may have just known John chapter 3 verse 16, but that was being pushed down the road for another time that we would come to Christ. We had so far rejected it and were perishing according to Hosea chapter 4 verse 6, which says, My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge, because you, the priestly nation, have rejected knowledge. I will also reject you, that you shall be no priest to me. Seeing you have forgotten the law of your God, I will also forget your children. Well, here we see that the Lord is telling His people, the children of Israel, that they are destroyed because there is knowledge, but they haven't bothered to read it and accept it as true and abide by it and keep the Lord's commandments. This doesn't just apply to those who have yet to give their life to Christ.
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This also applies to Christians who are not reading the Word. Christians can easily be destroyed for lack of knowledge if they keep the Bible on the shelf or they just use the Bible to memorize Scripture but never decree and declare it, never speak it of themselves, never speak it over their friends and their family and their spouses, to never speak it over areas of the world that badly need prayer for it to be subdued as God told Adam and Eve to do so in Genesis chapter 1.
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See, the Word of God is truth and it is the knowledge spoken of in this verse. Jesus is the Word, so when we do not read the Word, are we not also rejecting the person of Jesus?
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There is a similarity here between Hosea chapter 4 verse 6 and Matthew chapter 7 verse 23.
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Let us read Matthew chapter 7 from verse 21 to 27. Here is Matthew recording what Jesus has spoken.
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Verse 21. Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name and driven out demons in your name and done many mighty works in your name?
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And then I will say to them openly, publicly, I never knew you. Depart from me, you who act wickedly, disregarding my commands. That means that we are acting wickedly if we are not obeying and performing the Lord's commands. Verse 24. So everyone who hears these words of mine and acts upon them, obeying them will be like a sensible, prudent, practical, wise man who built his house upon the rock. And the rain fell and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, yet it did not fall because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a stupid, foolish man who built his house upon the sand. And the rain fell and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great and complete was the fall of it. The word of God is the only thing that can validate where we are and point us and keep us on the right path. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. So he is the word, and the word points you in the right direction.
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We know this because of Psalm chapter 119 verse 105. Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. Romans chapter 8 verse 6. It says, Now the mind of the flesh, which is sense and reason without the Holy Spirit, is death, death that comprises all the miseries arising from sin, both here and hereafter. But the mind of the Holy Spirit is life and soul peace, both now and forever. That is because the mind of the flesh, with its carnal thoughts and purposes, is hostile to God, for it does not submit itself to God's law. Indeed, it cannot. So here we see that our carnal thoughts are hostile to God. This hostility, this enmity with God continues even now while we are saved. This is because God doesn't renew or update our mind so that it knows and understands the entire Bible when we become saved. No, he recreates, regenerates our spirit, but he doesn't alter our mind. It remains carnal until we discipline ourselves and pick up the word of God and meditate and contemplate it every day. So we need to pick up the word of God every day because we need to be transformed. We have to be transformed because we no longer want to be like who we used to be. We don't like that old person. That old person died when we gave our life to Christ. But there is a risk if we are not disciplined because of the distractions that our old man can be resurrected. And that's when you feel like you're slipping back into the way you used to be, in the ways that you think and act. And the Lord deserves better from us. He wants us to have a relationship with him. He paid so preciously for it. The Lord has set you free, but do you know it? Or have we become so entangled with distractions of different kinds that we never really got around to finding out exactly what happened when we gave our life to Christ?
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So I encourage you today, do a check in your life of what you are focusing on every day.
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Is there anything that's not that important that you can cancel off your daily schedule and put Jesus in first? Because when you put God first, all these things will be added unto you.
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All the things that you need, all the things that you need to take care of and get done, all the important things, God is going to make time for you. He's literally going to create time when you put him first. But when you put him last or never, that's when your life is in disarray. And I think we've all gone through both sides of that situation and noticed a difference. So I pray for you today that you would seek the Lord with all of your heart and ask the Holy Spirit to help order your day better and better from now on. In the name of Jesus. Amen. All right. I'm also going to pray very quickly for your health. So I speak the life of Jesus from the top of your head to the soles of your feet. In Jesus name, be healed. Be whole.
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Pain be gone. Cancer be gone. Aches be gone. Blindness, glaucoma be gone. Blood disorders be gone. Organs be healed. Joints be healed. Back be aligned in Jesus name. Amen. All right.
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If you would like to become a partner, our website is tog.world, touchofgod.world. You can also submit a prayer request there and you can also get in touch with us. We'd love to hear from you and tell us about your testimonies. So until next week, you have a blessed week. Amen.
