Belief – The Key to Personal Revival - Purity 1566

Welcome to the MT for Christ 24/7 podcast. I am M.t. Clark, and this is today's photo. To see today's photo, go to mtforchrist.com or follow me, M.t. Clark, on Facebook or Twitter, or watch us on YouTube. Good morning. Today's photo of my canine pal Harley surveying the snow-covered expanses of the cornfield just off of Waite Road in Easton, New York, comes to us from yours truly as I captured this tranquil scene back on December 27th, 2024. Well, it's Monday and it's been about— it's been a month since I captured the scene on Waite Road. And as much as I am happy to report that I have made— I have experienced some progress in the realm of my physical health since then, I am also going to keep it real by reporting that even in the midst of great progress, we can discover that there is more room for improvement as some patterns of thinking and behaving are difficult to be free of. Luckily, I can recognize when some of my old patterns reemerge that cause me to do the things that I don't want to do anymore, like comfort eating, which seems to manifest when I'm either bored or when I start to think and feel negatively about myself or the situations in my life. It's an illogical response, of course. Eating excessively will not actually make me feel better or resolve the issues at hand, and giving into the temptation to eat my hopelessly only results in more negative thoughts and emotions, which itself can create a vicious cycle of automatic behavior, uh, that feeds itself until it drives us to despair and seeking help from the Lord and the wise counsel of other Christians who share their insights on the human condition before, and how our faith holds the key for our freedom and our ability to experience personal revival. I need some help. Like, uh, and, uh, this morning I was inspired by, uh, a quote from Dr. Neil Anderson's work, uh, in Victory Over the Darkness, which emphasizes how our beliefs, uh, beliefs about ourselves drive not only our perception of who we are but can influence how we behave and whether or not we can live the life God wants us to, uh, wants for us. Anderson, um, wrote, uh, or writes, um, understanding your identity in Christ is essential for living the Christian life. People cannot consistently behave in ways that are inconsistent with the way they perceive themselves. You don't change yourself by your perception. You change your perception of yourself by believing the truth. If you perceive yourself wrongly, you will live wrongly, because what you are believing is not true. If you think you are a no-good bum, you will probably live like a no-good bum. If, however, you see yourself as a child of God who is spiritually alive in Christ, you'll begin to live accordingly. Next to a knowledge of God, a knowledge of who you are is by far the most important truth you can possess— who you are in Christ. You know, he also writes, the major strategy of Satan is to distort the character of God and the truth of who we are. We— he can't change— he can't— Satan can't change God, and he can't do anything to change our identity and position in Christ. If, however, he can get us to believe a lie, we will live as though our identity in Christ isn't true. So we have to, you know, that was from Dr. Neil Anderson's Picture Over the Darkness. And so we have to know who we are in Christ, and we have to be diligent in renouncing the lies of the enemy that would lead us into temptation and cause our sense of identity and peace to be shaken. We have to let the word of God inform our thoughts and to guide our life. God's word and agreeing with its truth can launch us into a personal revival. Speaking of revival, the Turning Point with Dr. David Jeremiah devotion for today addresses the topic, and I'm sharing it on the blog to encourage us to let the word of God and the Spirit of God to light a fire of revival in our hearts. Dr. Jeremiah writes that where revival begins And he shares a verse from 2 Kings 23:25, which says, "Now before him there was no king like him who turned to the Lord with all his heart, with all his soul, and with all his might according to all the law of Moses, nor after him did any arise like him." And David Jeremiah writes, "Josiah was crowned king of Judah at age 8." He was 20 years old, he began instituting spiritual and religious reforms in Judah. Why? Because workers in the temples found a copy of the Book of the Law which had been ignored. Uh, Josiah called the people together and read the words of the covenant of God with Israel and called on the people to renew their obedience. He set about to remove all the centers of idol worship in the land and remove the priests who had served false gods. When Josiah was 26 years old, He declared that Passover should be celebrated, a feast that had been ignored for years. No king before or after Josiah did as much to revive faithfulness to God in Judah, and it all began with the discovery and application of the word of God. Whether a nation or an individual, revival begins with reading and applying the word of God. That's from David Jeremiah. And he also shares a quote from Arthur Skevington Wood, who said, "It may be said that revival— revivals thrive on the word, and the word is exalted in revivals." Amen. As we seek, you know, to have a happy New Year each year, we often walk into January with the best intentions of making positive changes in our lives. New diets, workout routines, or developing new habits are considered and attempted to be implemented. However, only a small, a very small percent of New Year's resolutions ever turn into lasting change. Why? There can be several reasons, I suppose, but I believe that the problem most of us run into has to do with changing what we believe and how the ways we think are deeply ingrained. Our old programming has to be replaced on a deep and fundamental level for a new life to begin. In terms of adopting new beliefs, logic and reason can cause us to wake up, but unless we allow our new knowledge to inform our hearts, our attempts at change may be short-lived as we revert back to thoughts and patterns of what we really believe about life and ourselves. That is why as Christians we want to go to the word of God for wisdom and to rely on God to help us to live new lives. Just like Josiah, we can experience a personal revival when we seek to lean on the Lord and do what's right according to him. With our faith as our basis for our identities and with God as our constant companion, we can be empowered to have a revival in our lives when we make a change as an expression of our faith and our relationship with the Lord, we can overcome the habits of old and truly, and truly live a new life. Although we may have to renew our minds on a continual basis to keep on believing and living according to Christ's way. So don't be discouraged about the failures of the past. Instead, live a new way of life based on the truth and righteousness of Scripture and aided by the power of God in us. When we trust in God and his wisdom, um, or his word, which is his wisdom, and abide in his presence, revival can come pouring into our lives and help us to experience more of the abundant life that Christ came to give to us. Today's Bible verse comes to us from the Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling by John G. Cruis. This morning's meditation verse comes from the section on humility and pride. And, um, let's see, they reference Luke 18:9-14, the parable of the proud self-righteous Pharisee and the humble tax collector, but they only share, uh, verse 14, which says, I tell you— or Jesus said, I tell you, this man went to his house justified rather than the other. Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted. Today's verse falls, uh, falls under the 18th, 19th point of our Counseling Reference Guide's resource section on humility. And that 19th point is: The proud, unrepentant, self-righteous person will not be forgiven by God. Only those who humbly confess their sins and seek forgiveness through the Lord Jesus Christ will be saved. Today's Bible verse tells us about what is really important to God when it comes to our justification. Which is the humility to know that we are spiritually poor and in desperate need of forgiveness. The Pharisee listed his good deeds and expected to be exalted, but they weren't. The tax collector could only hope for mercy in God's grace, and because he earnestly and humbly sought the Lord, he received it. God is the one who forgives. He is not impressed with our personal righteousness. He is moved by our repentance and reliance on him, and it is by his mercy and grace alone that those who turn to him can ever be accepted and exalted in his kingdom. As always, we encourage everyone to go to mtforchrist.com, where we always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist our brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk. Today we continue sharing from Day by Day Along the Way by J.E. Adams. It's a 365-day devotional, and we're on day 65, where Adams shares Proverbs 13:15a, which says, good sense wins favor, but the way of transgressors is hard. And J.E. Adams writes, good sense wins favor both with men and with God. Transgression, on the other hand, wins disfavor. Thus making one's way difficult. Where does good sense come from? From minds marinated in scripture daily. We soak up ideas, attitudes, and concepts from the sinful world in which we live. Mostly we're unaware that it is happening. It is only when we soak our minds in God's truth that we become savvy enough to detect and reflect— replace these adverse influences. And your unconscious activities day by day. You act according to your mindset. When your mind is filled with scripture, then you will learn to act differently. You will learn to exercise good sense only when your mind is saturated with God's truth. So what should you do? Obviously, acquire and use the truth. Replace error and transgression with truth and holiness. This means time alone spent studying, not merely reading God's word. Good sense is making decisions that accord with his word. Amen. And yeah, it's good sense, and it's also, as we, as we try to indicate, it's also part of our identity that, um, you know, when I when I feel rejected or I feel unloved, or if I feel, you know, things are out of control and I forget to remind myself of who I am in Christ and I just focus on, you know, the problems at hand, I'll tend to, you know, seek comfort from food. Oh my God, give me something to eat. Um, it's sort of an automatic response from the you know, my old patterns of behavior, and we're trying to, you know, dismantle them. And, um, you know, being engrossed in good sense is, is, is a good way to do that. Well, I shouldn't do that because it's not going to lead to, you know, to a good result. It's good, but it's even better when we lean on the Lord and receive comfort from him, you know, remind ourselves of who we are in Christ, go to the Lord in prayer to receive comfort, and, uh, we won't need to seek it from a substance or you know, food or anything. And, you know, we're a work in progress. We've made great progress, basically. We did a fast, basically, and that sort of took care of a lot of the excess baggage we carried into 2025. But over the last couple of days, I've just sort of been undisciplined. The fast was over and, you know, basically found myself munching on snacks. And yesterday I went out and got a couple pizzas and it's like, so um, you know, sort of feeling the pain. But, uh, I'm not going to beat myself up. It's just, uh, you know, that's not how I want to do things. And, uh, we have— we want to be healthy and be a good steward of our body and our, and our emotions too, you know. I don't want to have to be going to food, um, for that stuff. Uh, we're all work in progress, but, uh, we believe, um, that, you know, you can make progress. God can help you to become, you know, be, be adept, be, you know, be an expert in who you are in Christ and to start living according to it. And that's why we always ask the question, have you fully surrendered to God? Have you, uh, said you believe? And are you following the Lord, uh, with the way you think and the way you behave? And, um, are you trying to use God's word to give yourself a personal revival? Um, we know it can happen. It's happened in our life before, and we're just trying to mop up the last vestiges of the, you know, the old nature, you know, my old man. Uh, you know, we go with the new man in Christ, the old man in the flesh. When you start to walk in the Spirit, things can change, and God will make improvements in your life, and they'll give you a purpose. Part of my purpose is to lead this Celebrate Freedom support group at Starpoint Church on Wednesday evenings. Anyone in Upstate New York can get to Clifton Park on a Wednesday night. We invite you to come out to join us for our Christian Recovery and Discipleship support group, where we teach you how to walk in the Spirit, agree with the word of God, and to watch your hurts, habits, and hangups go away as you, you know, more fully come into your faith. So we invite you to come out. If you're not in Upstate New York, though, and would love you know, some good Christian teaching, you know, basically on recovery, we're, we're doing a series called Christian Recovery Celebrate Freedom on YouTube currently, and we'll be recording a new episode tonight on the sanity lesson from Celebrate Recovery's program. So if you want to check that out, it'll be uploaded later this evening on our YouTube channel. You look for Christian Recovery and, uh, in our playlist list, and that'll be the, the one where you'll find it. Um, and, um, if you don't need recovery, uh, or interested in the teachings of Dr. Neil Anderson, or just good news, we did a few series on, on his work, um, Victory Over the Darkness, The Bondage Breaker, Freedom in Christ. And we've even done playlists on our own different series throughout the time, like, uh, the Celebrate Freedom Discipleship course. We provide these, uh, because, um, we believe that they can help you to find or increase your freedom in Christ. So check those out on YouTube or go to mtforchrist.com and our YouTube playlist page. You'll be able to find all of them, all the, all the different series we've done over the years. Um, and if those encourage you, we would love it. Uh, we— I would appreciate your support and donations, um, basically to support the work of the M.t. Clark Community Freedom Ministry, where I share the freedom message and try to help people, uh, to, uh, discover their freedom in Christ. Um, you can give at our donations page, um, or you can scan the QR codes for the Cash App or Venmo, uh, to give to us today. We'd appreciate your support. Um, beyond that, we always end by asking the question, are you empty for Christ too? All that means is, have you fully surrendered to God? Are you allowing the Holy Spirit to come into your life to empower you? To experience a personal revival where you can, you know, put old ways aside and walk in more into the newness of life that Christ has for you. Um, oh, we encourage you to try. And if you are walking in it, we say great, keep on walking and talking with God. And if not, we just encourage you to pray because we know prayer works and God will make a change when you humble yourself and you know, try to seek his will for your life. And, um, and so we believe in prayer. We know it works, and that's why we pray every day, like right now. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. We thank you so much for, you know, for the help you've given us and the encouragement to keep going and following you, Lord. And, um, we, we need it. We need your help. We need you to show us the things that we keep doing that we want to stop and how to get out of it. We need you to show us, um, the truth that'll set us free. And we're asking for your help today, Lord, to go before us, to show us the way we should go and to represent your kingdom. Um, Lord, we also pray for anyone listening or reading today's message, that you come along with them, beside them and their prayer request, and Pray for you to bless them too, because we all need your help, Lord, and we're asking for it. We know that you're good and faithful to, uh, to help us. So we thank you, we praise you, we love you, Lord, and we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.