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Date Posted: 07:15:18 02/10/17 Fri
Author: c
Subject: Notebook notes 2

Notebook notes 2


In Lamentations 3:21-24, after sharing his bitter feelings, Jeremiah wrote, “Yet hope returns when I remember this one thing: The Lord's unfailing love and mercy still continue, fresh as the morning, as sure as the sunrise. The Lord is all I have, and so in Him I put my hope” (GNT).

In the midst of a terrible situation, Jeremiah changed his perspective. It’s healthy and good for us to be honest with God about our feelings, but you have to eventually change your perspective. As long as our minds are on our pain, we won’t solve anything.


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Get Ready for a Surprise. Have you got God figured out? Get ready, you may be in for a surprise.


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Sanctification process – Charles Stanley

On our own, we would place too much emphasis on conduct and get caught up following rules and rituals that look Christian but do not actually reflect Christ. God, however, has given each believer His Spirit as a teacher and guide. The Holy Spirit’s work is to transform our minds and hearts so our character is markedly different from that of our unsaved peers. Only when we are under the Spirit’s control can we speak and act according to who we truly are: God’s sons and daughters.


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1 Corinthians 10:12 Wherefore let him who thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall

When a saint is sure he or she is:
- Humble
- Patient
- Long-suffering
- Forgiving
- Good at self-encouragement
- Good at speaking life
- Effective in praying
- Resilient
- Self-controlled
- Hopeful
- Good at avoiding temptation
- Good at resisting temptation
- Diligent
- Peaceful

- Etc.

That’s probably when he or she is prone to overlook something important regarding truly operating with these characteristics.

Not easy to be an accurate judge of whether we are truly strong in these attributes.


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Dealing with closed doors the right way - intouch.org

Godly responses start with waiting and trusting. When the Lord blocks our way, we are to have faith in Him, taking time to assess the situation, and praying for guidance. By asking the Spirit to increase our sensitivity to the events around us, we will be able to notice any open doors. Even if we find none, we are to live with hope, anticipating other doors of opportunity in His perfect time. Thanking God for His work on our behalf is essential, even at times when we lack understanding. Finally, remaining faithful to what the Lord has called us to do is an important part of our wait.

Wait. Trust. Pray. Obey. This is God’s prescription for handling closed doors.


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Charles Stanley – intouch.org radio 11/15/12 (Moment with Charles Stanely)

When we are in a situation where only the Heavenly Father can help us, we usually don’t like that but those trying situations make us pay attention to the Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ’s ways and learn and grow accordingly. We become constantly aware of the Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and rely more and more on the Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ in these tough situations.


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One of the dangers of succeeding in ministry is that you can end up loving crowds but not really caring for individuals. Or wanting contributors, but not wanting to spend time meeting people’s individual needs. Years ago a man decided to visit the churches of two well-known television ministers he liked. After hearing the first, he asked if he could say hello to him. But the minister’s “handlers” said no, suggesting he call for an appointment. Disappointed, he went to hear the other minister, and was invited to lunch with him following the service. Feeling valued, he handed the minister a check for - four million dollars. (This is a true story.) You must always be approachable, available, and affirming. You must keep the personal touch. True, you can’t personally minister to all who are sick and counsel all who are hurting. As a pastor, having quality time to prepare sermons and Bible studies must be a top priority. But Jesus was “touched with the feeling of our infirmities” (Heb 4:15) because He mixed and mingled with us. Only as you stay in touch with people’s needs, can God use you to meet those needs in real time. The saying goes, “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” So, do you care?


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“People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” So, do you care?


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“Until they come home” by Carol Barnier, In Touch magazine January 2013 p 15

4. Relate to the whole person.
…..Connect with the entire person, or you may lose authentic opportunities to talk about matters of the heart.


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intouch.org Radio 9/25/13

Prayer (fellowship with the Holy Heavenly Father), regularly relying on the Holy Spirit and trusting in the Holy Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ gives a saint energy, power, refreshment and renewing to live obediently to the Holy Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ


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intouch.org radio 8/31/13 (Moment with Charles Stanley)

When a saint goes through hard times, a saint should acknowledge the difficulty and yet still trust that the Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ will make something good come out of the situation.


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intouch.org radio and 10/22/13 (Moment with Charles Stanley)

To live above our circumstances, christians must focus on:

- Jesus Christ - not the circumstances
- the sovereignty of the Heavenly Father - not the will of man
- The positive potential – not personal pain
(this is explored throughout the whole message on intouch.org radio 3/14/14)

To get our focus right, christians must understand our oneness with Jesus Christ.

Understand our position from the Heavenly Father’s viewpoint.


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intouch.org radio 6/16/13

A christian must see Jesus in every circumstance.


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intouch.org radio 12/5/13

Maintain contentment steps

Contentment is based on a decisions – not circumstances

1. Decide to see all situations as coming from the Heavenly Father. The Heavenly Father allows the bad situations to reach us.

2. Make a decision to submit to the Heavenly Father in this situation. Be honest about your feelings to the Heavenly Father-don’t put up a front. Say “I don’t like this..." However moments of fretting should cause us to back off and say: “Heavenly Father, I thank You for reminding me that You are in control and I trust You are engineering my circumstances”.

3. Decision to trust that the Heavenly Father knows what’s best for me.

4. We have to learn to draw from Jesus. Confessions based on Gospel of John 7:38 He that believeth on Me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.

Paul learned to be content. Philippians 4:11 Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.

Paul learned contentment by going through frustration and discontentment.

Paul understood what it meant to live in Christ Jesus and for Christ to live in him. Paul knew he was a child of the Heavenly Father. Paul knew how to draw from Jesus Christ by faith. That’s what Galatians 5:22-26 is about.

Every time we go off course, we must come back claim, affirm, trust and reaffirm and draw and learn contentment. This has to be done over and over throughout our lifetime.


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intouch.org radio 12/18/13 Moment with Charles Stanley

The attitude of christians should be (every morning): I thank the Heavenly Father that He saved me and today, I choose to walk holy and live a sanctified life. I’m trusting the Holy Spirit for help and divine guidance in all ways (thoughts, speaking, feelings).

Once you’re saved, the christian life is meant to be a journey that matures a Christian into the likeness of Jesus Christ.


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TD Jakes - Lord give me a praying spirit (youtube) 7:15

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xo1CesyK4fA

Mark 11:24, Ps 37:4
He is saying that He will put the desires in your heart...He will put in you a passion for certain things..... If you're a born again believer, you know that things that you used to desire, He has taken away from you, and He has put new desires in you that you didn't have before. Those new desires are the potency that you need to operate in your prayer life. God has given you, born again believer, the desires that are in your heart. 1 Corinthians 2:9,10.....Romans 8:16 The Holy Spirit has shown you things that God has in store for you. The Holy Spirit is showing you things to come. You get the desire to go after it.....Joshua gets the desire to take it because God has shown it to him. Joshua 8:1 ...Those commercials give you godly desires Ps 37:4. Not for carnal christians....He hasn't purged your desires enough to give you that kind of power. This is for somebody who has been walking with the Spirit close enough that the Spirit has been able to extract some of your carnal desires and implant some divine desires, and now God can trust you with this power Mark 11:24 One translation says: "whatsoever ye desire, this pray". Don't even pray for it if you don't have a passion for it....Your passion is an indication that the Holy Spirit has shown it to you....Your ability to believe you have received is what makes you able to have it. Actually, you get it before you got it. It's yours before it's yours.


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In Touch magazine March 2015

The Word Within

Transparency

Honest to God

By Jen Pollock Michel

p 13,14


Because the God of Israel is loving and faithful, His people pray differently. They feel no need to whitewash their words. For example, they don’t placate God with empty flatteries. Rather, they freely express anger toward God, speaking accusingly of His seeming absence:…Neither do they pretend to be nice…..Moreover, for a book that is purportedly about praise and thanksgiving, the psalmists offer up more laments than any other type of prayer. They revere God, yet – strangely and surprisingly – their reverence grants latitude for honesty.

As a collection of prayers and praise, the book of Psalms is also an anthology of complaints, curses, and confusion. Which is to say, the human experience has made its way into the holy canon, proving that God isn’t ever shocked by us. In Getting Involved With God: Rediscovering the Old Testament, Ellen F. Davis contrasts the Psalms with the other Biblical books. She says, “All the rest of the Bible represents God’s speaking to us….Only the Psalms are formulated as prayer, as human words to God. Yet because they are part of the Bible, we understand them also as God’s Word to us – or better, the psalms are God’s Word in us.” As such, the psalms illustrate the appropriateness, even the necessity, of entering God’s presence with our unedited prayers, including our desires:…God is not troubled by our humanness. In fact, it seems the holy-holy-holy God prefers anything to pretense….

Can we trust ourselves to pray what we want? But maybe it’s not our job to figure out how to pray before we pray. Rather, as the psalms model for us, perhaps we pray honestly and then trust that the desires with which we enter prayer will not always be the ones with which we leave. “Delight yourself in the LORD;” David says, “and He will give you the desires of your heart” (37:4)

Bringing our desires before God is one way to be needy and vulnerable. We leave off trusting that our cleverness and hard work can provide what we lack. Instead, we place our bets squarely on the surety of God’s provision….God helps the helpless, and we must be the needy in order to become the blessed. To want from God can be a faithful act of dependence, and in freely admitting to Him our needs and longings, perplexities and pain, we form the habit of finding Him reliable. And desire, honestly expressed and transformed by the Spirit, clears the way for praise.

Summoning the Courage for Honest Prayer

Nice, safe prayers never test the resilience of our theology. Brave prayers do that.


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Ecclesiastes 5:2 Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before God: for God is in Heaven, and thou upon earth: therefore let thy words be few.


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Preacher at Greater Allen Cathedral 6/24/12 11:15 am service

2 Kinds of trouble:


1. Trouble that you bring on yourself – you have to deal with it to make things right

2. Trouble that Job from the Bible experienced – you have to praise your way through it - Job 13:15 “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him."


3 types of problems


1. Storms – you have to pass through this type of problem

2. Thorns – these types of problems could last indefinitely because they cause development (the Heavenly Father wants this development to occur).

3. Crosses – something you choose to do that helps you advance the goal of serving Jesus even if it causes pain.


John 5:14 “sin no more lest a worse thing come unto thee.” Similar to quitting antibiotics before the infection has been cured, getting off of the remedy for the problem too soon can cause the problem to come back.


Patience is needed to receive a blessing.

Patience is delayed gratification


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Bishop TD Jakes “Process to progress” 2/8/15

“I’ve never seen a mess that didn’t turn into progress if I was tough enough to survive it.”


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Bishop TD Jakes


Exodus 32:26 Then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, who is on the LORD'S side? Let him come unto me. And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together unto him.


Levi was once criticized and seemingly wasn't in a very favorable position (Genesis 49:5 - 7). Things were not looking well for Levi and his children at that point.

However, when an opportunity presented itself (Exodus 32:26), the descendants of Levi seized upon the opportunity. This decision caused the tribe of Levi to obtain an admirable status in Israel.

A saint similarly should also keep an expectant and hopeful eye out for opportunities even after serious setbacks. After a person has been down for a while, that person should be hungry for an opportunity and ready to decisively make the most of any seemingly profitable opening.


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Bishop TD Jakes 7/12/2015 "I didn't say it would be easy"


(summarized points of a sermon)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRMenLvy810


We believe in agreement - Like a peaceful situation - example: a harmonious church service/congregation that encourages a saint to look for a job or embark on starting a business.

We receive in disagreement - Like getting a job in an environment with not-so-nice competitors or starting a successful business in an environment full of intense rivals.


Many saints are great at having encouragement in church but later falter when all the disagreement of the world confronts many saints.


- This is why to receive a blessing, toughness is required. Saints have to be like Joshua combating the inhabitants of the promised land for the cause of Israel.


Psalms 126:5 They that sow in tears, shall reap in joy.

Isaiah 12:3 Therefore with joy shall ye draw waters out of the wells of salvation.

The only way to create things of value and reap is in a state of joy.

- that's why when a saint is about to receive blessings, the evil one tries to cause that saint heartache and trouble. The sadness of that ordeal is supposed to stop the joy that creates the right environment/mentality for a saint to create, reap and/or conquer like Joshua.


Therefore a saint has to get joy from worshipping (especially in harmonious church services that are a regular part of the life of a saint) and a saint must keep that joy to fight and reap like Joshua and the Israelites in the promised land.


Joshua had to go from physical strength when he was mainly a soldier under Moses' leadership to spiritual inner-strength when Joshua became the leader of the Israelites after Moses died.


Joshua 1:6 - 9 Be strong and of a good courage: for unto this people shalt thou divide for an inheritance the land, that I sware unto their fathers to give them. Only be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law, which Moses My servant commanded thee: turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest. This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the LORD thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.

Zechariah 4:6 Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the Word of the LORD unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the LORD of hosts.


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Dangerous Dissatisfaction! - Rev. Willie Dwayne Francois III

(summarized points of a sermon)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgA64HmIEyw


Numbers 21:4 - 10


The Heavenly Father might put a saint on a U-turn rather than allow a saint to go in a straight path in order to give a saint a better perspective on life. This builds maturity and teaches a saint lessons.

Learn how to be grateful for the everyday ordinary miracles (mercy, grace) and don't feel entitled to bigger miracles or get fixated on previously received extraordinary miracles. Start telling God "thank You" because what you think is "ordinary" is really impossible for you (as far as your actual abilities to keep yourself afloat and surviving is concerned).

The very thing you think that you are tired of - that may be the everyday blessing that God is trying to get you to be grateful for.

Instead of expecting to be delivered quickly out of some situations, God be teaching you how to survive through some situations so that you eventually come out with more joy, strength and power.

You have to learn to be satisfied with how God chooses to answer your prayers even though it might not be the answer you wanted. 2 Corinthians 12:7 - 10 the Apostle Paul was told "My grace is sufficient for thee" when Paul prayed 3 times for the thorn in his side to be removed.


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Pastor Reginald Wayne Sharpe

Greater Allen Cathedral 8/9/15

Psalms 23:4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for Thou art with me; Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me.


Walking through the valley instead of running through the valley allows a saint see things that running would have cause him or her to miss.

- Lessons

- there's some treasure in your trials.

- there are some sapphires in your struggle.


Walking through the valley allows a saint to perceive that some of the trouble in the valley is more of a "shadow" than serious trouble.

- a saint should not get upset about "shadows".

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intouch.org Daily devotion, Mar 18, 2015


Freedom From Self-Rejection

Read | Romans 5:5-8

We saw yesterday that many people struggle with a poor self-image and find it hard to accept themselves. Often, the thought patterns contributing to their perception have existed for years. How, then, can the cycle be broken?

The basis for a Christian’s acceptance is Jesus Christ’s death on the cross. But to eliminate wrong patterns of thought and behavior, it takes more than simply knowing why we are accepted—we must meditate on God’s truth. As we saturate our minds with His Word, the Holy Spirit will work in our subconscious to filter out erroneous thinking and develop a healthier outlook. For instance, the Scriptures tell us that believers should have a . . .

• Sense of belonging. Romans 8:15-17 says that Christians are members of the heavenly Father’s family. And God also assures us, “I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you” (Heb. 13:5).

• Sense of worth. Our value does not change with circumstances. Rather, it is based in God’s infinite and unchanging love, the proof of which is Christ’s sacrificial death on our behalf (Rom. 5:5-8).

• Sense of competence. Romans 8:11 teaches that the Holy Spirit is dwelling in us. We are unable to successfully live the Christian life on our own, but when we are obedient, the Spirit guides us and enables us to be victorious.

Rely on the truth, and appropriate feelings will eventually follow. Scripture says that if you believe in Jesus Christ, you belong, you are worthwhile, and you are competent in Him. Allow these three facts to permeate your being.

(explored in intouch.org radio 10/27/15, 10/28/15 "Why our needs remain unmet" part 1 and part 2 - also related: intouch.org radio 10/29/15, 10/30/15 "Where our needs are met" part 1 and part 2)


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The Heavenly Father is well able to keep our love fresh and vibrant.

Monroe Hochstetler. 8/25/13. Beside the Still Waters

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