Speaking from my Heart

I am constantly amazed at the greatness of God's love and His desire to inform me of His will and direction for my life. I must allow the Spirit to develop my spiritual sensitivity to a higher level. I must allow the Spirit to have full sway over my life and I do this by making the decision to listen, follow, and obey the direction of God in my life. Each one of us in the family of God must make the decision to invite God into our lives and I mean each area of our lives. Is it possible that we have kept some of the compartments of our life off limits to God? We do not want Him revealing what is hidden in those compartments. Those compartments may contain sin, hurts, injuries, and all sorts of failures. But we must remember that the Spirit not only reveals those problem areas of our lives He also has the "healing balm" that can bring relief and deliverance to each one of us. Will you allow Him to search every compartment of your life today so that you can fully reach the potential that God has deposited in you? The Lord also dealt with me concerning the process of decisions in our lives. Each of us face our own set of daunting circumstances but we must make the decision to follow Christ regardless of the circumstances. Politicians use the term "waffling" when their opponent does not stay committed to a previous position on a certain issue. We must not be guilty of "waffling" when it comes to our decision to follow Christ. We must choose to follow after Christ and His will for our lives regardless of the cost. I was praying with someone last night who was asking God for freedom in certain areas of their life. I began to join with this person in crying out to God for their "deliverance." I truly believe that we made progress during the time of intercession for that individual but this morning I was awakened to this thought in my spirit. It is only through the process of "decision" that we are able to invite Christ not only into our hearts but into our lives. We can not avoid the decision; I believe that Christ will only deliver us from those things which we have decided to place in His hands. Do not be afraid to make the decision to follow Christ will all of your heart. Do not "waffle" in your decision to place Christ as the leader of your life; as I have said before, "God will guide and lead if we will decide to follow." Will you make the decision today to follow God regardless of the road of life that you may have to travel? God has promised to accompany us down the road of life regardless of how bumpy, treacherous, or challenging the road may become. Decide to follow Him today without any reservation in your heart! You and I will be blessed and encouraged by the strength that God will provide as me make that decision in our hearts.

Weekend Services

Sunday found me in service with Pastor Neal and Neva Wright in Acworth, GA. It is always a blessing to be with the Wright family and the people of the Acworth church. I have been privileged to serve this congregation as Evangelist on other occasions and it is a special privilege to be invited back into the the fellowship of the local church. Acworth is located north of Atlanta for those of you who many not know the location of the local church. Sunday's services were awesome and anointed. I firmly believe that the anointing makes the difference. The modern day church must fully realize that the secret of our success will be found in paying the price to have the anointing of the Spirit upon our lives as well as upon the services. The anointing of the Spirit will break the shackles and bonds of the enemy. Many people who enter the doors of our local churches are facing great struggles with the enemy; we must fully understand that we are living in a time of spiritual warfare. The enemy is after my soul and your soul but we must remember that God is fighting for us and not against us. God has provided for and planned for your victory; Jesus Christ died on the cross that we might overcome the enemy of our soul. I am encouraging people to walk in the liberty of the victory that was won at Calvary when Jesus triumphed over the power of darkness and sin. We do have FREEDOM in Christ and we must walk in that FREEDOM! The altar services were powerfully anointed as people were delivered from oppression, the spirits of people were refreshed through the unction of the Holy Ghost, people claimed the promises that God has declared over them through His Word, strength and courage was deposited in the lives of many people, and I could give other testimonies about the moving of the Spirit. I write these things to encourage you to keep reaching for your miracle; God is not dead and God is still in charge of YOUR life. He is in charge of your life no matter what you are facing; God has not forgotten you or forsaken you. He is prepared to intervene on your behalf; the release of our faith opens the door for spiritual activity in our lives. The devil does not want the modern day believer releasing their faith. The enemy is completely satisfied if he can keep us locked away in the room of doubt and fear. But many of us are coming to the conclusion that we will not remain behind those closed doors of doubt and fear; the Deliverer has arrived and He is bringing us into our spiritual destiny. The old hymn declares, "Trust and obey, for their is no other way..." Trust Him and be willing to follow Him into your day of victory.

Thoughts on Worship

Last night during worship service in Radcliff the Lord began to deal with my heart concerning the offering of worship that I was presenting to God. I could sense these questions rising in my heart. Was I serious in what I was singing to God? Was I concentrating on the words that I was expressing or were they just words coming out of my mouth? Did I truly believe what I was singing or was I just doing the "religious thing" in front of my peers? Was the worship coming from my heart or was it just coming from my intellectual ability to speak words and phrases to God? As you can sense, I felt strong Holy Spirit conviction in my spirit as I participated in worship service. Each one of us need to take some time and examine our own motives when it comes to offering praise and worship to God. Can you imagine the presence of God that would be in the church across America if we took our time of worship seriously and that we truly concentrated on what we were saying to the Lord God Almighty? Can you imagine the release of grace and love that would be present when we truly began to magnify Christ and exalt His name above everything that is going on around us as well as in us? I firmly believe that God is calling us to focus our attention on Him and let Him know that our words and actions are based on a heartfelt response to the "love that He has shed abroad in our lives through the Holy Ghost." God is good and He is worthy of our praise and adoration. Let me close with this quote from Adrian Rogers; "We have a God who is simply presented in all of creation; we should recognize Him. We have a God who is sovereignly powerful; we should respect Him. We have a God who is surely purposeful; we should reverence Him. We have a God who is savingly personal; we should receive Him." Turn your focus and attention to God in a purposeful way the next time you are involved in a time of worship whether the time is private or public. You might be pleasantly surprised at the response of God when we approach Him in a serious, respectful, and sincere manner. Blessings on you and your journey with God!

Doubt, Part 2

This post is to remind us that we are all faced with the daunting task of trusting God when all of the information speaks otherwise. I sincerely feel that God understands and responds to our humanity and He is prepared to strengthen our faith at those difficult moments. We must not allow those moments of doubt to drive us away from God but we can turn those moments into opportunities to develop a deeper relationship with God. I am convinced that God is ALWAYS interested in the development of our relationship with Him. Moments of challenge and concern become the "soil of opportunity" which can either drive us away from God or drive us toward God in a heartfelt pursuit of His presence. We can use our doubt as a moment to develop a fresh and new conversation (some my say prayer) with God. These moments of conversation (prayer) can offer us fresh insights to the greatness of God as well as the concern that God has for us. These moments of conversation (prayer) allows us the opportunity to see a fresh revelation of God's love for us as individuals. I can not overstate the passion and fervency of God's love for fallen humanity. His great love is revealed in the sacrificial death of Christ on the cross and the desire that God has to redeem fallen humanity. We must rejoice in the fact that God's love is real and that he will not forsake us during the times of doubt and difficulty. These moments of conversation (prayer) also reveal to us how we can relate to God and this deeper understanding brings us to the point of trusting Him more. We must remember that we can ask God for help during these difficult challenges that life will bring to all of us. Remember the promise that God has spoken to us, "God has said, I will never leave you, I will never abandon you. " Hebrews 13:5, (NKJV). Always remember that we can walk in the strength of the promises of God!

Doubt

Each one of us at various times face certain struggles that can create doubt in our lives. Does this doubt mean that our faith isn't real or does it mean that we are not trusting God? Let us look at some examples from the Bible. Abram faced the challenge of believing the promises of God because of his age and the age of his wife (Genesis 15:8). John the Baptist asked this question of Christ as he sat in a prison cell; "John the Baptist...sent his disciples to ask Jesus, Are you the Messiah we've been expecting, or should we keep looking for someone else?" (Matthew 11:2-3, NKJV). Does it mean that these men doubted when they asked these questions or does it simply reveal their humanity as they look at the daunting situation they were facing? As we look at these examples we can understand that even these "pillars of the faith" had moments when their circumstances seemed larger than their faith. I don't believe they felt that the circumstances were larger than their God; rather I believe they could have felt that the circumstances were larger than their faith. Their faith was being challenged in a new way; they were entering territory where they had never traveled before. Each one of us have to be careful and not allow the enemy to place the seeds of doubt in our lives; he will create the strategy to defeat or overthrow our faith. Each one of us will face these new "territories" of faith; but it is in these places in which we see God reveal His character to us. We learn to recognize the provision of the ability of God in ways in which we have never seen Him act. We see God in a fresh and new way in our lives and these circumstances begin to produce an even stronger faith as we see God at work in our circumstances. Many of us are facing some of these challenges of our faith; do not let the enemy work his strategy against you. Maintain your trust in God and offer your praise to God for all of those times in which He divinely intervened in your circumstances and you were able to see His hand of provision. October 8: I would like to remind you of a weekly service that is taking place in Radcliff, KY. We are meeting to worship God, preach the Word, and intercede for the needs of our nation. You are welcome to join us at the Woodland Elementary School (cafeteria) at 7:00 PM. Due to the seeting arrangements feel free to bring your own chair. The school is located at 6000 S. Woodland Drive in Radcliff. Feel free to share this information with family or friends who may live in Radcliff or one of the surrounding communities. Radcliff is located adjacent to Ft. Knox if you have family or friends stationed at that base.

Weekend Services

The blessings of the Lord were very evident in the services this past weekend. It is always a great honor and privilege to worship the Lord will fellow believers and to have the honor to share the Word of God. I never want to lose the "AWE" of being in the presence of God and the strength of sharing fellowship with my brothers and sisters in Christ! Saturday found Ann and I participating in a meeting of Pastors and Laity Leadership from around the state of Kentucky. We were able to fellowship with people that we have served with for over 30 years; we have been encouraged and strengthened by these men and women of God on many occasions and in many situations. I was given the great honor to minister to these leaders in the afternoon session of the Conference. State Bishop, Scott Gillum had assigned me the subject of "Encouragement." I was blessed as God began to deposit the Word in my heart during preparation time; I was equally blessed as God began to pour out His anointing during the delivery time of the Word. All of us need ENCOURAGEMENT from time to time on this journey through life; but we need to focus on giving encouragement as well as receiving encouragement. God will place people in our lives who are in need of a kind word fitly spoken. Will we allow the Spirit to awaken our sensitivity to these people or will we choose to remain in our own little world of self-preservation? I came out of that meeting with a renewed desire to be sensitive to the needs of those around me. I challenge you to develop that same desire with God. Let us look for those opportunities to share a Word of Encouragement with those we contact. Sunday found us ministering at the Willisburg, KY local church. We had the privilege and honor to serve that local church as Pastor for over eight years. Some of the best ministry years of our life were spent in the Willisburg community. Sunday allowed us the privilege to renew old friendships as well as begin the process of developing new relationships. It is always a blessing to interact with people who have maintained their faithful pursuit of God in the midst of various challenges that they face. As Pastor we were able to be with many of these people during difficult times yet they maintained their desire to be faithful to God and to His Word. I must maintain that desire in my heart; I must continue to strive to reach that place that NOTHING will move me away from my hope in Christ. We were given the privilege to pray with people whom we love with a deep love of appreciation and respect. I was reminded of that privilege as we drove home last night. It is a blessing to know that someone loves you and that they truly care about you and your family. I encourage you not to allow the enemy to move us away from that appreciation and recognition. We need each other in the family of God; our love must grow stronger and not weaker. This past weekend renewed my desire to be a blessing to the family of God. I want to come along side of people and help to encourage them on their walk through life. All of us know people that are facing their own set of challenges and they need someone to speak words of kindness and love to them. Will you allow God to use you to be that person TODAY? I truly thank God for all of those people whom He put in life at the time that I needed their encouragement.

Rejoicing

Due to my schedule I was unable to update the blog for a couple of days but I wanted to give you an overview of the past few services. Carbon Hill Revival: The altar meetings in the revival were powerful and anointed. The manifested presence of God was awesome; many needs were met as people sought after God with hungry hearts. One of the great blessings of the altar services was the diversity of the group of seekers. We were able to witness people of all ages crying out for more of God. The call of God that we sense and feel is for all generations; no one is excluded from this challenge of the Spirit. Each of us regardless of our age needs to seek to follow God with true passion and fervency. We do not need to be content with the "motions/activities" of church; we need the presence of God that is able to ALTER our lives so that we can please Him in all things. I was able to witness the blessing of Christian cooperation; Pastors brought people from various congregations in the community to participate in the services. Many of these brothers and sisters in Christ responded to the call to prayer and they were able to see their needs being met as we looked to God through the eyes of Christian unity. Radcliff: We were able to have our second service in the city of Radcliff. The presence of God was very near to those who attended this effort to reach out to the community with the message of the Gospel. God is prepared to change lives if we will submit to His leadership and direction. Feel free to contact me if you have friends or family that live in Radcliff or the surrounding communities. Radcliff is the city located nearest to Fort Knox; you may have family or friends stationed at Fort Knox. We would be glad to contact your family or friends if you feel led to share their names with us. We just have a desire to share the love of God with a hurting world; God is looking for people who will trust Him even during their moments of challenge and trial. I continue to ask for your prayer covering for this ministry effort. I realize and understand that without Christ "we can do nothing." I desire and want your prayer support and encouragement.