“So for the sake of Christ, I am well pleased and take pleasure in infirmities, insults, hardships, persecutions, perplexities and distresses; for when I am weak [in human strength], then am I [truly] strong (able, powerful in divine strength).” Those times when we feel we just can’t go on, it’s when your physical, and mental state is telling you, no more, pull away and stop. Those are the moments we can tap into the Lord’s strength. God is more able to give us the energy and where with all, to continue our tasks when we get our minds and energetic bodies out of the way. Our weakness is fertile ground for God’s strength to be made perfect in. His strength is transmitted from His Spirit to ours. Our connection to God is only possible by faith. It’s like a bluetooth connection. Our bluetooth switch must be turned on so the connection is complete. The switch is our knowledge of God’s word and strong faith in believing He’s there. Once your faith filled confession of what you’re hoping for has left your mouth, it fortifies the bluetooth connection and God can release his strength in us. He overshadowed Mary, the mother of Jesus making her pregnant, He can easily give you the strength you need to carry out your God given purpose. If people would just get with the Lord, He will get with you and take you on the ride of a lifetime.

“NOW FAITH is the assurance (the confirmation, the title deed) of the things [we] hope for, being the proof of things [we] do not see and the conviction of their reality [faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses].” Let’s look at the phrase “…… faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses.” If we could just imagine the word faith as an entity of proof without oracular approval. Faith is faith, and our feelings or senses are just that, two completely different ways to understand our two different realities. Faith operates from the spiritual realm where God is, and our senses operate based on what is physically tangible. If our faith is strong, our connection to the supernatural is also. Faith always deals with the unseen and is satisfied knowing God works and orchestrates the operations of it as the confession of our faith leaves our mouths. We can’t be in strong faith after praying to the Lord for something important in our life, and then your next words are, “I don’t know what I’m going to do.” If you’ve prayed to The One and True God, you must trust that in His time He’ll come through for you. Through faith and patience we obtain the promises. Business people are in faith when they dish out tons of money with no guarantee the investment will produce the desired results. Your gut feeling is faith scratching you, trying to get your attention to go the unproven way. If your gut feeling is saying jump, don’t look back, jump, God will catch you. He’s trusting you, to trust Him.

“And those who belong to Christ Jesus (the Messiah) have crucified the flesh (the godless human nature) with its passions and appetites and desires.” Those who are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God. If we’re being led by our new recreated human spirits, then we will not fulfill the desires of the flesh, your body. The body has not been saved from corruption like our spirits (the control center of our make-up) has. Even our minds must be renewed by the word of God. But our bodies still have the sin nature in it, because it hasn’t been changed from the new birth experience. So if we truly belong to Christ Jesus, we have nailed the passions and desires of the sinful nature to the cross. The human body has been created to only function on planet earth, whereas our human spirit is eternal and won’t ever die. Whether your spirit goes up to heaven to be with God after death, or it is sent to hell for judgment, the real you will endure. Once we’ve gotten a handle on our flesh, the appetites of the body, then we can be led, directed by our spirits, (which is where God speaks to us), and become free from the dictates of our inordinate desires. The work is real to keep our flesh under control, but the Lord helps us if we ask Him to. He only needs our willingness to step in and help us do the work with His guidance. Get your flesh under control, you can do it.

“Iron sharpens iron; so a man sharpens the countenance of his friend………..” Iron sharpens iron in the scriptures usually refers to one christian building up or edifying another through the life experiences and the trails they’ve successfully gone through. This builds, reassures our faith that the Lord will not leave us hanging but will bring us through anything, and everything as long as we don’t give up under pressure. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Sharing our revelation knowledge from the scriptures and the very challenges we deal with everyday girds up our belief system about God’s faithfulness. It’s never a matter of if God will help us, or if He can, but a matter of us believing He will and can for me. Each of us has a unique blueprint in our make-up like no one else’s. Every person has a unique purpose from God that can only be carried out by that person. We need the Lord, but He needs us to help complete His overall plan, which is the plan of reconciliation, harvesting as many ripe souls for the Kingdom of God as possible. It takes certain people to get to certain other people. You’re the answer to connecting, and helping to manifest prayer requests from others believing the Lord for help. Speaking freely and openly about the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ will release a special grace and favor in your life, and your plans. Talk about what God did for you, it helps in every way, and on every level unto victorious living.

“Little children, you are of God [you belong to Him] and have [already] defeated and overcome them [the agents of the antichrist], because He Who lives in you is greater (mightier) than he who is in the world.” The greater One lives in those of us who are in Christ, born again. The Lord is the greater One, and the force behind evil (Satan) is the one referred to as in the world. The bible says resist the devil and he will flee. But before that verse in the bible it says, we must first submit ourselves to God. The power in us, is of God, which only gets released by our strong faith in the Lord. To try resisting the devil and you’re not submitted to God, Satan knows and he’d just hug you a little tighter because you without God can’t win over evil. Since you belong to God, His power is at your disposal. He can only trust His more mature children with more power. Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. To submit to God, is to submit to His teachings and precepts, allowing the hell we deal with to have its full course in developing us. No pain, no gain is a thing here. Sometimes God needs to burn in us a crisis, storm, or deficit of health, to create deep roots of trusting Him, and it could take days, weeks, months, or years depending on the magnitude of your calling or purpose in life. Some of us will do world changing things for the Lord, but your foundation must have deep roots so you can handle it. Fighting evil apart from God, is suicide, but with Him, sooner or later you will win.

“For You did form my inward parts; You did knit me together in my mother’s womb. I will confess and praise You for You are fearful and wonderful and for the awful wonder of my birth! Wonderful are Your works, and that my inner self knows right well.” David is expressing his gratitude and amazement with how God made him. The scripture says, we are fearfully and wonderfully made. Our make up, our existence is mind boggling. All the parts of our body created to function in this world and to compliment our living experience. We are made in God’s image and likeness. The caveman was not made in God’s image and likeness, being mostly animal-like in behavior, and not created to receive spiritual down loads from God on how to live successfully like we can today. And to have this precious treasure in these earthen vessels called bodies, is nothing but God. His glory can live in us. And we can use the Lord’s power to fight the good fight of faith in today’s screwed up world. We have the power through Christ to change things once we understand how to use it. Man has come a long way in evolution and we have full access to the keys of victorious living.

“Beloved, do not imitate evil, but imitate good. He who does good is of God; he who does evil has not seen (discerned or experienced) God [has enjoyed no vision of Him and does not know Him at all].” We have a choice in this life to either serve good or evil. You may think you’re not serving evil, because in your eyes you don’t think it’s that bad, or that it’s not that big of a deal. Anything that goes against the will of God is a big deal, and either leads to evil or straight up is an evil situation. Evil is always present and so is the good in people. This world system is designed to be on the side of evil, being ultimately ruled by Satan. Oh, there are wolves in sheep clothing all around us, don’t sleep that. Even Satan’s crew disguises themselves as angels of the light, so it’s not so blatant. Over the years we see how TV has changed from no cursing, no nudity or any inappropriate stuff being allowed, to straight up soft porn on commercials now, and worse. We are shaped and moulded in this sin nature which gets passed down from generation to generation. But Jesus broke the cycle long ago. Advertisement for this is not on mainstream TV. The good in this world only comes from what Jesus accomplished years ago on the cross. He legally broke and destroyed the source of evil in this world, but you must make a decision to accept it, and then live life accordingly. Good or evil can be compared to life or death. Choose life my friend.

“Love bears up under anything and everything that comes, is ever ready to believe the best of every person, its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances, and it endures everything [without weakening].” To have the kind of love that bears up under anything and everything that comes, is to take on the character of Almighty God who is love by nature. This love believes the best of every person. No matter what the circumstances love keeps its hopes fadeless under pressure. This is the agape love of God put in our hearts by the Holy Spirit at the new birth. Our job under the command of the King of kings, is to allow it to grow. It comes in seed form that needs opposition, trouble, storms of life to grow and develop. Once we get over people as far as what they think about us or anyone, then we can position ourselves for God’s best in life. What others do to you should not take you off your love walk with God, but help stimulate the depth of character in you. We’re in a broken world full of broken people. Understanding this is helpful in dealing with difficult people. Love never fails, so board this love train and ride it until further notice.

“Be not wise in your own eyes; reverently fear and worship the Lord and turn [entirely] away from evil.” Thinking of ourselves more highly than we ought isn’t grounds for being wise in our own eyes. We should always prefer our brother or sister before ourselves. When we become wise in our own eyes, pride lurks beneath the surface fueling our self-righteous thoughts. As we learn to fear the Lord, that is to reference Him, pride begins to shrink in the statue. And yes we are to be as wise and cunning as wolves, but gentle as a lamb. It was pride and self righteousness that got Lucifer kicked out of heaven. A person that fears the Lord will be in a position to shun evil. In this position we are submitted to God, so Satan would have to flee from you, it is written. Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God, and He will exalt you in due season. Humble yourself or eventually you will be humbled by your circumstances. The law of reciprocity is always in operation, what goes around comes around, the good, the bad, and the ugly, whatever seed you plant from your behavior is always weighed, checked, and balanced by the hand of justice. Take the position of referencing the Lord, it’s a safe place to dwell.

“For everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord [invoking Him as Lord] will be saved.” Saved from what? Saved from spending eternity in hell. Justice must be satisfied concerning everyone’s individual sin. And everyone has fallen short of what God considers being right with Him. Once sin entered the world long ago mankind has become damaged goods. Mankind was created perfect in God’s sight in the beginning, having never gone against God’s commands until Adam and Eve obeyed the devil, and disobeyed God’s command to not eat the forbidden fruit, thereby causing the bad boy germ to flourish in us all, and Satan’s rulership of the world to this day. The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it, but Satan has the legal right to rule it temporarily. There’s a sense of the supernatural in us all that can be distorted by evil forces trying to direct us to the dark side. Keeping it pure would be to follow the supernatural by way of the bible and not satanic influence. The problem is because of our ignorance of the Bible and God’s ways, we don’t know any better but to choose the easier supernatural way, hosted by the devil and his crew. Call on the name of the Lord and you will be saved, no one can stop you from that happening but you. Repent of your sins, and ask The Lord Jesus to come into your heart and save you from the wrong you’ve done in your life. We all must come to God this way. It’s a personal relationship.