The Almighty One



When I am weak
When I am tired
When I am weary
When I am worn
You are a pillar of strength
You are the foundation
A Rock
You make the mountains that I can’t climb;
the rivers that rage that I can’t cross.
You rise and set the sun, placing it where you like.
You allow the moon to share the spotlight.
You sprinkled the stars in the sky like fireworks captured.
You fluff the clouds to veil the sun.
You breathe the wind as softly or swiftly as you like.
You calm the same seas that bring about tsunamis.
You command the hurricanes, volcanoes, and earth to quake.
You are God alone: Maker, Creator, Healer, Guardian, Protector, Father, Almighty and Glorious.
AMEN

~Pamela Whitehead~

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Burden my heart and give me passion to pray
Beyond a need to breathe,
Beyond a want for things;
On my heart, the pain of others lay
That I might be provoked and stirred to a tremble
Beyond these walls,
Beyond it all;
May Your Spirit reside in this temple.
Make me into the instrument that You need
Beyond my mind
Beyond the enemy’s line
Show me how to bleed
Break my body; break my spirit to travail
Past the daylight
Past the night
Make me feel the ache of the nails

~Pamela Whitehead~

Prayer, repentance, and faith: What's the condition of YOUR heart today?

· Preaching affects time; prayer affects eternity. ~ Leonard Ravenhill
· The secret of praying is praying in secret.
· A sinning man will stop praying and a praying man will stop sinning.
· He who kneels before God will stand in ANY situation.

Sometimes our light shines so brightly that it begins to expose the darkness in the lives of others and they feel threatened or offended. Darkness and light can not coexist; good and evil are not partners, but enemies. Once you turn the light on in a dark room, the darkness is consumed by the light and exists no more. So they try to snuff out your light and put you “in the dark”. How do we keep our lamp burning? How do we keep our vessel full? Fill it with oil (FAITH) daily and ask for a refill when necessary.

· Short, powerful public prayers are the outcome of long secret intercession. ~ E.M. Bounds

It requires NO FAITH on our part to do what is possible, and only a mustard seed of faith is required for God to work the impossible to miraculous.

O, Lord let my actions speak loudly and let my words be few. I pray that others who don’t know Jesus can see His love and light in me and like a magnet be drawn to it. Help me to spread the Message. Help me to draw others to You. This salvation is not for me, Lord. I long to see the lost come to You, to love You, to praise You, to worship You longingly, fervently, and without ceasing. I pray for revival that draws out the roots and shakes off that filth, where repentance is to the point of death – fleshy deaths where we want to RISE only when the Spirit of the Lord is breathed into us. Help us, O God, to walk and speak and worship you in Spirit and in Truth. Help us to fight these principalities. Impart FAITH and courage to us, O God, that we can be soldiers in the fight and restore lives, reconciling Your people to You. In Jesus’ Name, AMEN

If we are truly born-again and are made to multiply the glory of God to the ends of the earth, then each of us regenerated should be birthing disciples. Everything that has Life brings forth a likeness of itself. We are made to reproduce that which is in us…

The thing that keeps us from being BOLD in our prayers is our heart ♥. Knowing that He shed His blood for us, what will He withhold? If we are not pure of heart in coming to Him (repentant), we will not ask boldly – for we know the response…

· If, according to Oliver Wendall Holmes, a man’s mind, stretched with a new idea, can never go back to its original dimensions, then what shall we say of a soul that has heard the whisper of the Eternal Voice? ~ Leonard Ravenhill

Our battleaxe: THE WORD
Our strength: FAITH in that WORD

“The Spirit alone gives eternal life. Human effort accomplishes nothing. And the very words I have spoken to you are spirit and life.” ~ JESUS (John 6:63)

“I cried out to you, O Lord. I begged the Lord for mercy…You have turned my mourning into joyful dancing…” ~Psalm 30:8,11

Are we praying that we might DANCE when we have yet to MOURN? There shall be great sorrow for our sins…godly sorrow that brings freedom, not human sorrow that brings bondage…

“For the kind of sorrow God wants us to experience leads us away from sin and results in salvation. There’s no regret for that kind of sorrow. But worldly sorrow, which lacks repentance, results in spiritual death. Just see what this godly sorrow produced in you! Such earnestness, such concern to clear yourselves, such indignation, such alarm, such longing to see me, such zeal, and such a readiness to punish wrong. You showed that you have done everything necessary to make things right.”
~ 2 Corinthians 7:10-11

X-CHANGE ...it's not what u think

X change
(EXCHANGE)

X = MULTIPLY

MULTIPLY CHANGE

This happens when we give…we are exchanging our time, talent, and treasure…we are multiplying change.

Conformity...(I don't wanna be like...)

From the beginning, God's plan has been to make us like His Son, Jesus.
" Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us..." ~ Genesis 1:26

Only human beings are made in God's image. We are special and selected for a purpose. He uses us and created us for His pleasure. We carry His attributes.
We are:
spiritual beings - (immortal)
intellectual beings - (think, reason, solve problems)
relational beings - (give and receive real love)
morally conscious - (we can discern right from wrong, which makes us accountable to God)

What does the full image and likeness of God look like to me? JESUS CHRIST

"Satan, who is the god of this world, has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe. They are unable to see the glorious light of the Good News. They don’t understand this message about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God." ~ 2 Corinthians 4:4

"Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation " ~Colossians 1:15

"The Son radiates God’s own glory and expresses the very character of God..."~ Hebrews 1:3

God wants US to bear His image and likeness, too! Christlikeness is all about being TRANSFORMED. It's not about changing your personality, but changing your CHARACTER.
Dr. Edwin Louis Cole stated, “You can pitch personality, but you must build character.”

God wants us to develop character like this:


“God blesses those who are poor and realize their need for him,
for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs. God blesses those who mourn,
for they will be comforted. God blesses those who are humble,
for they will inherit the whole earth. God blesses those who hunger and thirst for justice,
for they will be satisfied. God blesses those who are merciful,
for they will be shown mercy. God blesses those whose hearts are pure,
for they will see God. God blesses those who work for peace,
for they will be called the children of God. God blesses those who are persecuted for doing right, for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs. “God blesses you when people mock you and persecute you and lie about you and say all sorts of evil things against you because you are my followers. Be happy about it! Be very glad! For a great reward awaits you in heaven. And remember, the ancient prophets were persecuted in the same way. " ~Matthew 5:3-12
(The Beatitudes of Jesus)

But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things! ~Galatians 5:22-23 (The fruit of the Spirit)

1 Corinthians 13 (Paul's Chapter on Love)

In view of all this, make every effort to respond to God’s promises. Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone. The more you grow like this, the more productive and useful you will be in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. ~1 Peter 1:5-8
(Peter's list of characteristics for an effective and productive life)


Earth is not heaven and life is HARD. If it was easy, we would not rely on God's strong hand and His glory would not be multiplied, for we would be glorifying ourselves in our prosperity. We must cooperate with the Holy Spirit's work in our life. The moment we take a step forward in faith, the Holy Spirit releases power. Obedience unlocks the power of God. As we move ahead in our weakness and do what is right, God moves in His strengths and opens doors for us to walk through.
Each time he said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me. ~2 Corinthians 12:9

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There are 3 responsibilities that we have to becoming Christlike:

1. Let go of old ways. "throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception." ~Ephesians 4:22

2. Change the way we think. " Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes." ~Ephesians 4:23

3. Develop new, godly habits. "Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect." ~Romans 12:2
Just as in the metamorphosis of a butterfly, we are changed from the INSIDE out, becoming more beautiful.



How does God mold us to be who He wants us to be?

1. His Word ~ the Truth we need to grow. STUDY it and APPLY it.



2. People ~ Provide support we need to grow; connect regularly with other believers. God uses people. He wants us to grow together.



3. Circumstances ~ Provide the environment we need to PRACTICE Christlikeness. We learn to trust God most in difficult circumstances.

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Jesus did not die a tortured death on the Cross for me to "live comfortably, well adjusted to the world". He died that I may be RESTORED to the image of God for the purpose of magnifying His Glory to the ends of the earth.

Restoration requires some demolition, brokenness...PAIN. There is tearing down walls, laying new foundation, peeling away "old paint", some sanding - sounds painful when related to our everlasting soul. We are all in a process of metamorphosis...conformity and transformation. The question remains: who or what is transforming us: Jesus or the world? There's only one way to heaven...