DO NOT GIVE UP

Don’t give up if you don’t want to go down.

Don’t relax if you don’t want to be released.

Don’t take it easy if you don’t want to be eased out.

Don’t slow down if you don’t want to end low.

Press on if you don’t  want to be pressed in.

Stand up if you don’t want to be pushed down.

Don’t rest too early if you don’t want to be laid to rest too early.

Move forward to maintain your position in the front. Mic.2:10

How do I face a marriage challenge?

Believers are not immune to marriage challenges. In fact, marriage—especially among believers—is a prime target for the enemy. The good news is that as believers we have a weapon that works every time against our enemy. It’s the same weapon that snatched us out of Satan’s grasp when we were born again. That weapon is the God kind of love.

The God kind of love tears down the walls Satan tries to build between husbands and wives. It completely obliterates strife, bitterness and hurt feelings.

First Corinthians 13:4-8 describes how the God kind of love behaves. It never fails! It goes beyond the capability of human love and straight to the root of the problem.

One of the greatest acts of love is intercession—prayer unselfishly offered for another person until there is a breakthrough. As you pray for your spouse, you make “tremendous power available—dynamic in its working” (James 5:16). The power of God removes the blinders and shines the light of the gospel into his or her heart!

Let the example of Jesus be your guide as you purpose to love your spouse as Jesus loves you. Lay down your own needs and desires in deference to your spouse. He or she will respond by loving you, even as the Bible says we respond to Jesus’ love. “We love him, because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19).

When you pray, see your spouse the way God sees them, and when you are in your spouse’s presence your heart will be soft toward him or her. You will operate in the God kind of love that “knows no limit to its endurance, no end to its trust, no fading of its hope; it can outlast anything” (1 Corinthians 13:7). This kind of love never fails!

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Hit Him With the Rock Kenneth Copeland

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.

Psalm 23:1-2

Have you ever thought about David and wondered how a shepherd boy could become a man after God's own heart—a man so strong in spirit that God chose him to be king of Israel? I have.

In fact, I asked God about it, and He showed me that revelation was what turned David into such a spiritual powerhouse—revelation that came to him through hours of thinking about the things of God. I imagine the day he wrote Psalm 23 he was just sitting and singing praises to God and meditating on His goodness. Just fellowshipping with Him when suddenly the anointing of the Lord came upon him and he said, "The Lord is my Shepherd!"

Suddenly he thought about the sheep he watched over as a boy, I faced death for those sheep. I led them where pastures were green and waters were cool, clean, deep, and peaceful. He kept on meditating on that until it started to thrill him. When the lion and the bear came, didn't He prepare a table before me in the presence of those enemies? He gave me victory. My God! My God will fight for me. The Lord is my Shepherd! I shall not want!

That revelation welled up in David so strong that the devil couldn't beat it out of him. So when Goliath tried to make a fool out of Israel, David went after him. Goliath was able to scare off everyone else, but he couldn't shake David because he had a revelation inside him that said, Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for my God is with me. That revelation enabled David to say, "I come against you in the name of the Lord of Hosts" and to send a rock sailing into that giant's brain.

Is the devil out to destroy you? Do what David did. Meditate on God and His Word. Sing praises to your King. Fellowship with Him until the revelation of who He is in you starts to thrill your soul. Then tell the devil, "You're not going to kill me. The Lord is my Shepherd!" Hit him with the rock of revelation knowledge, and you'll knock him flat every time.

Scripture Reading:

Psalm 23

© 1991 Eagle Mountain International Church, Inc. aka: Kenneth Copeland Publications    All rights reserved.

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Do I Already Have Faith?

As a born-again believer, you have residing within your spirit the faith of God. You have the life and nature of God. Ephesians 2:8 confirms that. It says, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God.” When we were saved, God gave each of us a measure of His own faith. We didn’t do anything to earn or deserve it. He gave it to us freely as a gift. We do, however, have the responsibility to develop it.

Your faith has the potential to produce the same results that Jesus produced in His earthly ministry (John 14:12). Believing God’s Word concerning any area of life and acting in line with that Word is faith. The force of faith is activated by hearing and believing God’s Word. It is a spiritual force produced by the abiding Word of God in the heart.

Faith must be in the unseen before it can be applied to the things you can see. It is cultivated through fellowship with the Father. Your relationship with Him is the most important aspect of your faith walk. He will reveal Himself to you through His Word, by the Holy Spirit. Faith that moves mountains is simply trusting God to keep His Word. You cannot trust God without knowing Him. Your fellowship with Him will develop trust and enhance your faith because you are giving Him the opportunity to reveal Himself to you.

You and I were created by God with the ability to choose. He gave us a will. So, when it comes to our relating to and interacting with God, we make choices to believe what He says or to disregard what He says. Certainly, you and I don’t have to believe what God says. But if we want to live healed, prosperous and blessed in every way, then we will have to believe what He says. That is faith! All we have to do is give Him an opening. All we have to do is believe what He says, instead of believing what we see, hear or feel.

- See more at: http://www.kcm.org/real-help/faith/learn/do-i-already-have-faith#sthash.oWcU4C1c.dpuf

Christ in You

"Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Col. 1:27). 

By the power of the Holy Spirit, Christ is dwelling in you. Is He any less Christ in you than He was when He was on the earth? 

No! He's the same Christ. He has all of His power! He has all of His ability! He has all of His glory! He has all of His miracle-working power! He has all of His enablements! 

And Christ is in you! You just have to know how to turn Him loose. Someone once said to Smith Wigglesworth, "You must be someone big; someone great." 

"No," Wigglesworth replied, "I just remember that the Scripture says, "Greater is He that is in me, than he that is in the world. I just know the Greater One is in me, and the Greater One does the work." 

How do you turn Christ loose in you? How do you put the Greater One to work? 

You do it by faith. 

Confession: Christ in me is the hope of glory. Christ is dwelling in me - with all His power, His ability, and His glory. Christ has already defeated all the power of the enemy, and He lives in me. I turn Him loose. I act like He's there. I allow Him to work by my faith. 

Source: Faith Food Devotions by Kenneth E. Hagin.
Excerpt permission granted by Faith Library Publications

God's Sovereignty

For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water: whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had.
(John 5:4)

God in His own right of divine sovereignty saw fit to send an angel down to trouble the waters. I don't know how often He did it, but he apparently didn't send the angel on any kind of a set schedule. 

If He had, there wouldn't have been any need for the sick people to be out there every day. They could have just gone on a certain day when they knew the angel would show up. But they were there all the time because the angel might come at any time. 

When an angel came down from Heaven and troubled the waters of this pool, the first person in got healed. No one else got healed until next time around. Why did God do it that way? The Scripture doesn't say why, but if God wanted to do it that way, He certainly could! 

Sometimes God moves this way as a sign. He initiates healings to attract attention to Himself and to His Word. The Bible said that there was a great multitude of sick folk waiting on five porches there, but only one person at a time was healed. 

However, under the New Covenant, God's Word will work for everyone! 

Confession

I'm so glad I don't have to wait for a sovereign move of God. I can believe what the Bible says. And according to First Peter 2:24, I am healed.

Source: Health Food Devotions by Kenneth E. Hagin.
Excerpt permission granted by Faith Library Publications