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How to Hear God in a Crisis

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How to Hear God in a Crisis

Do you want to know how to hear God when it's hard to hear God? Here’s how; if you know what he said, you'll know what he is saying. You don't need a NEW word; you need a LIVING word.

What Is God's Word?

The word "word" is the Greek word, logos. It's where we get the word logic. Logos also refers to the character of the speaker of that word. God's logos is how he thinks, how he treats people, and how he organizes everything he does. It's his way. God has a way about him; that way is his logos.

The logos of God manifests in different ways. We have the written word, which is God’s commandments, instructions, poetry, doctrine and history. The written word reflects the logic and character of his being. The written word can be used to keep us grounded when we feel like we receive a fresh spoken word from God.

Another aspect of the logos of God is Jesus. Jesus is the Logos of God, made flesh. If you could squeeze God's way of thinking, how he behaves, and how he lives his life through time into a human being, that's Jesus.

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The Truth About Suffering and Tribulation

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The Truth About Suffering and Tribulation

You might suffer, even to the point of losing your life, for preaching the Gospel. In that situation, God promises that he'll comfort you. Paul teaches us that if we find ourselves under religious persecution, we can turn to God and be strengthened. As we're strengthened, it helps us persevere, and we come out with hope and patience. But you can not say that God will mess around with your life's circumstances, to make you suffer, to teach you patience.

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You Don't Have to Prove Anything to Anyone But Yourself

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You Don't Have to Prove Anything to Anyone But Yourself

You don’t have to prove anything to anyone except yourself. People will place all kinds of expectations on you if you let them. They will tell you what they think you should do based on their own lives. Much of the time, we think about what someone else will think when we’re making our decisions.

We live with an underlying sense of expectation from our parents, spouses, our friends, our boss, and our coworkers. We worry about what our political affiliates will think. We worry about what our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ will think. We worry about what our pastors will think.

But none of those people are living your life. You alone have to process your thoughts and emotions when you lay your head on your pillow night. You are the one who has to determine whether you’re following God or not.

You are the only one you have to prove anything to. You know what you’ve done, you know what you need to do, and it doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks, they can’t live out the results of your choices for you.

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Viral Love: The Church Can Spread Love Through Unity in the Midst of Uncertainty and Fear

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Viral Love: The Church Can Spread Love Through Unity in the Midst of Uncertainty and Fear

The world is freaking out, and we have the solution! When we allow God to love us we are made whole. From that wholeness we will trust God deeply. When we trust him, we walk in his promises and experience His provision, even during a pandemic. The world needs this kind of wholeness, the world needs peace. How will the world know this love that makes us whole? Through a united church.

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When You Pray, Believe That You Have Received and it Will Be Yours

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When You Pray, Believe That You Have Received and it Will Be Yours

Jesus said “all things are possible for those who believe,” and “believe that you HAVE RECEIVED and it WILL BE yours.” We can either take him at his word or come up with all kinds of explanations and rationalizations about why he didn’t really mean those things. Folks will bring up theological points like context and audience but the bottom line is, he said them.

Let Me Pray For You - Join Me As I Walk You Through A Psalm 91 Prayer and Meditation

“His Faithful Promises Are Your Armor and Protection
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— Psalm 91:4

In these uncertain times, we can turn to the spirit and Word of God. We pray you experience strength in your inner man as we pray and meditate through Psalm 91.

Ephesians 3:14 When I think of all this, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, 15 the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth. 16 I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. 17 Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. 18 And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. 19 May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God. 20 Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. 21 Glory to him in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever! Amen.

Personalize this Psalm, take it as a word from God for you and your family. Don’t just read the words, use your imagination and see yourself experiencing these promises. Get your heart involved and feel these promises as true for you and your family.

Psalm 91:1 Those who live in the shelter of the Most High will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty. 2 This I declare about the LORD: He alone is my refuge, my place of safety; he is my God, and I trust him. 3 For he will rescue you from every trap and protect you from deadly disease. 4 He will cover you with his feathers. He will shelter you with his wings. His faithful promises are your armor and protection. 5 Do not be afraid of the terrors of the night, nor the arrow that flies in the day. 6 Do not dread the disease that stalks in darkness, nor the disaster that strikes at midday. 7 Though a thousand fall at your side, though ten thousand are dying around you, these evils will not touch you. 8 Just open your eyes, and see how the wicked are punished. 9 If you make the LORD your refuge, if you make the Most High your shelter, 10 no evil will conquer you; no plague will come near your home. 11 For he will order his angels to protect you wherever you go. 12 They will hold you up with their hands so you won’t even hurt your foot on a stone. 13 You will trample upon lions and cobras; you will crush fierce lions and serpents under your feet! 14 The LORD says, “I will rescue those who love me. I will protect those who trust in my name. 15 When they call on me, I will answer; I will be with them in trouble. I will rescue and honor them. 16 I will reward them with a long life and give them my salvation.”

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What Do We Know?

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What Do We Know?

The scientific world asks, “what do we know” when seeking to establish accurate results. The Law Enforcement community asks, “what do we know” when trying to examine evidence and find the truth. The same question can be asked when seeking to establish God’s Word in your heart.

“What do I know to be true about God” is an excellent question to ponder when you pray. Start with what you know is true, then pray about the things you need to pray.

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You Must Be Sanctified to Encounter the Presence of God

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You Must Be Sanctified to Encounter the Presence of God

You must be sanctified to encounter the presence of God

Coming in contact with the presence of God will kill you if you have not been appropriately sanctified. Sanctification means to be cleansed or purified in a specific way. Once something is consecrated, it is holy, or fit for use by God.

Under the Old Covenant, you sanctified yourself, under the New Covenant, Jesus is your sanctification. Under the OC, you cleansed your outer man. Under the NC, Jesus cleanses your inner man.

To be sanctified under the Old Covenant, you took a bath, washed your clothes, and abstained from sex for two days.

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I Am Free to Love You When I Set You Free from My Judgements

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I Am Free to Love You When I Set You Free from My Judgements

To Jesus, judgment is when you “look at the speck of sawdust in another person’s eye.” He says STOP IT! Don’t do that! When you look at the speck you no longer see that person, you only see the speck. The speck is whatever issue or behavior you are judging about that person.

His remedy is to remove the plank in your own eye so you can see clearly to help them remove the speck from their eye. The plank in your eye is your judgment of that person. Your judgment is clouding you from seeing the person apart from the speck, you only see the problem. Remove your judgment and you will see clearly to help them.

Notice he doesn’t say to ignore the speck. Jesus wants you to address the speck, if you see someone caught in sin you are to help restore them. But if you only see their problem, it will blind you from helping them in a healthy way.

God is not holding our sins against us, we should not hold people’s sins against them either. Love keeps no record of wrong. Does that mean they get away with it? No way, they’ll reap what they sow, but you’re not the judge, jury, and punisher.

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Listening to People Develops Trust and Open Communication in Our Relationships

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Listening to People Develops Trust and Open Communication in Our Relationships

Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply.

— Dr. Stephen Covey

Most people just want to get their point across. We often ignore the other person but pretend we're listening. We selectively hear what we want to respond to but often miss their meaning. Most people listen with the intent to reply, not to understand. We prepare in our mind what we're going to say while they’re still speaking. WE FILTER EVERYTHING THROUGH OURSELVES. Consequently, we decide prematurely what the other person means before he/she finishes communicating. This is called judgement, more on that next week.

God Listens to Us

Let’s look at a few passages and get some insight from God on how to listen. These are wonderful promises about the character and faithfulness of God but we can also learn some universal principles about communication from these passages.

I love the Lord, because he has heard my voice and my pleas for mercy. Because he inclined his ear to me, therefore I will call on him as long as I live. Psalm 116:1-2

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