Deeper Walking and Talking With God - Purity 1398

To see today's photo, go to mt4christ.com or follow me, M.t. Clark, on Facebook or Twitter. Good morning. Today's photo of a two-lane gravel country road surrounded by lush green forest that winds into the unknown comes to us from Fred Dimmick, who shared this scene on social media yesterday with the following prose: Of all the pleasures ever knowed, ain't nothing like a country road. I'm not sure if that is a Fred Dimmock original composition, but I appreciated simple truth, uh, that is often somewhere along the path, uh, that it is often somewhere along the path where we find joy and peace that we're looking for. And my personal search for truth, I found God, or I should say he found me, because it was only because of his doing that I ever would have seen the truth of the Gospel in Jesus Christ. And it was only because of the Holy Spirit within me calling me to keep going that I would ever come to the place where I am today— that I am today. Uh, and where is that exactly? Well, the latest announcement shared briefly on the blog yesterday is that I received word yesterday that, um, that the Deeper Walk School of Prayer Ministries leadership extended the title upon yours truly, the title of Deeper Walk Prayer Minister. As I shared in my statement yesterday, I am honored to be awarded the title of Certified Deeper Walk Prayer Minister and will endeavor to use what I have learned through my school of ministry experience to help the body of Christ, uh, experience healing, freedom, and the abundant life that God makes available to all who humbly seek his help. My deepest thanks and appreciation go out to the School of Ministry leadership and my colleagues who helped me along the way to this accomplishment. So what does that mean exactly? It means that I've been blessed to be equipped by faithful men and women of God to minister to others who, with different forms of prayer ministry such as the Steps to Freedom in Christ, Emmanuel Prayer, and Real Prayer,, that are designed to help others to experience emotional, mental, and spiritual healing as I assist them to connect with God in prayer to help them resolve their personal and spiritual conflicts and process traumas of the past. Um, those familiar with the vlog or podcast, uh, know that I haven't only received training in the area of prayer ministry but have received healing and freedom in Christ through these various forms of prayer ministry. My transformed life from addict and secular recluse to someone who is pure, clean, and sober, and who preaches and teaches the benefits of a Christian— a Christ-centered life, uh, bears witness to the power of faith in Jesus Christ, and prayer ministry to help someone to overcome one's personal pain and darkness of the past. Uh, Deeper Walk School of Prayer Ministry is an intensive program of hands-on study and prayer, uh, and practice of prayer ministry that will challenge you and even required me, who had experience with discipleship, recovery, and freedom prayer ministry, to dig deep into one's faith and to trust and to depend on God and to be compassionate to those we are honored to minister to. My journey to certification was intense and required more than I thought it would, as I was asked to further develop my relational skills to be a better, more effective, and more mature prayer minister. It's one thing to know, and it's another thing to grow. Um, and I have to thank my colleague, friend, mentor, and fellow Deeper Walk certified prayer minister Julaine Camrath for training and teaching me earlier this year to help me to be certified and to grow in areas I needed to mature in. Today I'll be using those skills to minister to one of my life coaching clients who has come to an impasse in their walk of faith, and we will be taking him before the Lord in prayer this evening to resolve the mental, emotional, and spiritual baggage he has been holding on to, or that has accumulated in the week since his initial freedom appointment. Some of us are onions, me included, and will need to keep going to the Lord in prayer to be progressively unburdened of our hurts or habits, as the Lord is gentle and will only take us, uh, will lead us to where we want to—

where we're ready to go.

And will give us only what we ask for.

Uh, and, you know, so there we go.

Uh, I have asked and I have received, and I am in a place where I wish to continually grow and be used by the Lord to help others to know him more and to receive the things he has for them to receive. I'm still a work in progress in the area of food addiction, but we are winning that battle and increasingly realize that God always has more peace, more joy, and more love to experience when we keep on walking and talking with him. So let's go get it.

Um, let's see.

And today, well, let's see, today's Bible verses come to us from the Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling by John G. Cruis. This morning's meditation verses come from the section on false prophets and teachers, and today's verses are Jeremiah 23:1-4. And the word of God says, woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture, says the Lord. Therefore, thus says the Lord God of Israel against these shepherds who feed my people, you have scattered my flock, driven them away, and not attended to them. Behold, I will attend to you for the evil of your doings, says the Lord. But I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all countries where I have driven them. Bring them back to their folds, and they shall be fruitful and increase. I will set up shepherds over them who will feed them, and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, nor shall they be lacking, says the Lord. Today's verses fall under the third point of our Counseling Reference Guides resource section on false prophets and teachers, and that third point is: God warns against the false shepherds who destroy and Gather the flock. Today's verses are God's warning to false prophets of old and a prophetic promise of future glory, but could easily be seen to speak, uh, to be speaking to us today as several recent scandals regarding church leaders have come to light, causing them to step down, at least temporarily, uh, from their leadership roles.

I'm not a pastor, and there are reasons why.

The sins of my past, the state of my family, familial relationships— my kids don't follow the Lord— my marital status of divorced and remarried, and my discipleship temperament are just a few reasons my life and the qualifications of 1 Timothy 3:1-7 aren't a perfect match. So although my heart wants to be a servant in the house of God, I recognize that I'm not qualified or called to be a pastor and can still have a robust life of service to God's kingdom as a prayer minister, life coach, recovery/discipleship ministry leader, or a teacher. Today's verses show us, you know, God's attitude towards false teachers and his hope and promise that we will be ministered to by good shepherds who will feed them. So let's beware of the false prophets or teachers who may be popular and promise riches or spiritual blessings, but whose iniquity will be exposed and end up scattering the sheep. Um, as always, I invite all to go to mtforchrist.com, where I always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk. Today we, uh, continue sharing from According to Your Word: Morning and Evening Through the New Testament, um, which is a devotional, uh, uh, study by Stephen F. Alford. And In his, in his devotional, he prompts us to read a chapter of scripture. Today's chapter is 2 Corinthians 8, and from that chapter he shares a portion of verse 8:15, which says, he who gathered much has nothing left over, and he who gathered little had no lack. And Stephen Alford writes, the apostle illustrates his teaching on giving by quoting this Old Testament scripture. The point he seeks to establish emphasize is that of equality among the people of— is that of equality among the people of God. How little is known of this in the church today. In the early chapters of Acts, we read of, of the disciples having all things in common. Acts 2:44: They had possessions handed them to the apostles, and the apostles to them who served tables that they should distribute to all who were in need. And then it goes on to say, in other words, God never intends his children to hoard. Thus the force of the above verse can be readily seen. He that gathered much had nothing. It turned into corruption. He that gathered little had no lack. Paul could say from experience, I have learned in whatever state I am to be content.

Philippians 4:11.

And Stephen Alford ends by praying, Lord, all that I have comes from you and is yours even now. Direct me in how you would have me to use it. Amen.

Amen. And, um, yeah, today's graphic is, have you fully surrendered to God?

Well, go to m.t. forchrist.com and we can, we can help you to do that. We share teachings, our blog posts, and, uh these messages, um, there.

Um, so, um, anyway, um, the, the, the injunction from Stephen Alpert not to hoard is, uh, is, is a big one for our society in America, as we have storage, storage units and, you know, houses full of stuff and We're materially possessed.

You know, if there's anything that possesses us, we might disagree on whether or not demons can oppress or, you know, possess us, but we can certainly make a case for being possessed by materialism, uh, in our country, as, uh, our stuff is bursting at the seams in some cases.

Um, sometimes we have more than one house, we have storage units to keep the things we don't have. Whereas, and myself included, whoa, I have more than I need, especially books. But we're working on that. And so we have to be, you know, we'll try to be more spiritually aware of that and, you know, share our resources. Don't spend them so much on things that just accumulate and try to become spiritually rich instead of materially rich. I'm convicted, so I don't know if you are, but we're not here to— we're not here to condemn anyone, but we are here to encourage, um, encourage one another to keep walking and talking with God, to enter into what he has for you. Um, as I said, we invite you to go to mtforchrist.com.

Some other points of ministry basically for me is the Celebrate Freedom support group, uh, will be started— start meetings at Starpoint Church on July 24th. The meetings will be at 6:30, uh, on Wednesday evenings, and they are for men and women.

Uh, we, we teach from Celebrate Recovery and, um, you know, try to teach people to change their story and to experience joy and peace, uh, by, by, through their faith, uh, by trusting God and developing a new lifestyle of faith.

Also, our Freedom in Christ Online men's course begins on Tuesdays starting on September 3rd. Registration is open now, and we direct any men who are interested in becoming free in Christ to sign up. And we'll be on— like I said, we're the Tuesday night group.

Our—

the link to sign up is on the blog.

It was there previously from a couple days ago.. And, um, we invite you to go to ficm.org, uh, and look up courses to find, uh, the link to sign up for our Freedom in Christ course.

Um, that's it. Um, you know, I, I appreciate the patience as I learn how to do this vlog thing. I decided to up the production value by using a PowerPoint in the background. I'm a little disconcerted by it because I'm looking one way and it's going the other, but, you know, uh, we're gonna learn, I guess. The hard way. And maybe I'll get some glasses that don't reflect my computer screen so much.

I don't know, we'll see about that. Anyway, we do have our secular day job to go to, so we should pray and do that.

Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Lord, we thank you so much for all that you've done for us and setting us free.

We thank you for being approved by Deeper Walk to be a Deeper Walk certified prayer minister. Lord, we just pray for you to add this new honor to, uh, to draw people to us, uh, that we can help, um, to experience their freedom in Christ and to receive the healing that you have for them. Lord, we pray for anyone who's listening or reading today's message, that you'd bless them and come alongside their prayer request and their walk of faith. And Lord, as always, we pray for you to go before us today, uh, lead us in the way we should go, uh, because all we want to do is represent you in your kingdom. Lord, we definitely need your help with that. Lord, we thank you, we praise you, and we love you. And we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus.

All right, um, if you haven't fully surrendered for God, you just have to empty yourself for Christ.

So, uh, thank you all. You have a good day.