Do you want to be made well? Choosing to Believe the Truth Purity 841

To see today's photo, go to mt4christ.org or follow me, M.t. Clark, on Facebook or Twitter. Good morning. Today's photo of a large heron standing in the surf of the Gulf of Mexico comes to us from the Church at the Well in Coleman, Alabama, who recently organized a ladies' beach trip and shared over 80 photos of their adventures to Orange Beach. How do I know the Church at the Well in Coleman, Alabama, being a Yankee amongst the frozen chosen in upstate New York? Well, last fall I participated in a training conference that Freedom in Christ Ministries put on in Latham, where the conference attendees were introduced to Pastor Mike and Char, um, uh, Rester, who gave their testimony of how Char had suffered from bizarre medical symptoms and seizures that defiled— defied medical explanation, and how she was healed after going through the steps to freedom in Christ. I will always remember Pastor Mike's emphatic and passionate plea to the conference attendees to complete their training as Community Freedom Ministry Associates and to help others to receive healing and resolution of spiritual conflicts, and to let the world know of the reality of the spiritual forces of darkness that can oppress even those in the body of Christ. Pastor Mike had seen the enemy face to face, and it was clear that he would never forget how his family suffered because of the supernatural enemy that seeks to destroy us. His voice rang out through the conference room as he concluded his statements by saying, there are demons and we have to fight the enemy. While I enjoy this morning's photo, I am reminded that as beautiful as this world can be at times, there is an unseen enemy that seeks to deceive, tempt, condemn, and accuse us, and to lead mankind away from the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the Kingdom of God. Tonight I host the third session of the Men's Freedom in Christ discipleship course that I facilitate on Zoom for Freedom in Christ Ministries, and I have been— I have already received reports from one of the group that he believes that he is under spiritual attack with negative thoughts and temptations that have been on the increase since he started the course. Tonight's lesson is on choosing to believe the truth, and in my short stint in this latest ministry role, I know this is the week that the enemy likes to afflict people as my past two sessions had participants report difficulties in their spiritual walk or who ended up having to miss the session unexpectedly. Um, the enemy doesn't want people to know who they are in Christ and that our freedom and victory as Christians is not the product of some magical blessing as much as it is driven by our choice to believe what God's word says. To live according to it, and to continue to walk in faith and in the power of the Holy Spirit. Tonight's lesson reveals that we have a role to play in our relationship with God, and that the reception of our healing and victory comes from making the decision to believe and to follow the Lord. Unfortunately, some Christians still believe the fallacy that faith is some magical characteristic that God imparts to some and not to others. I only wish I could have faith like so-and-so. You can! Choose to believe God's word. Choose to apply his wisdom to your life by changing the way you live to match up with his ways, and keep choosing to do that. If you don't know what the Bible says, read it. If you want a better prayer life, set time aside and pray. Our part to seek the Lord and keep— our part is to seek the Lord and keep on seeking him. And when we do that, our faith grows as our minds are renewed by his word and our lives are changed by the positive, uh, positive— are changed by the positive experiences we encounter when we start walking in God's ways. So if you are one of those Christians that are wishing for God to give you great faith, start walking towards him by taking action to know what his word says and apply it to your life. The spiritual forces of darkness will attempt to distract you with temptations in this world to stay away from the things of God, and they will condemn you that you aren't good enough to have faith. But the truth is that you can choose to have a deeper walk with God. You can overcome the things that keep you stuck, but you have to choose it. John 5:6 tells us about the healing of a man that was unable to walk for 38 years. Um, the verse says, when Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been in that condition a long time, He said to him, "Do you want to be made well?" So, do you want to be made well? Christ asked the question to make the man choose whether he would stay where he was or to rise up and walk into a new life. It is the same with us. Do you want to be well? If so, you have to choose to believe the truth and keep walking and talking with God until you see that the old has been made new. The further you go, you'll see and experience the fact that you have been set free the moment you said yes to Christ, and it was only a matter of choosing to get up and follow him to know it. As always, I am— uh, well, no. Today's Bible verse comes to us from the New Living Translation Bible Promise Book for Men. This morning's meditation verse is Hosea 14:9. Um, and it says, who is wise, let him understand these things. Who is prudent, let him know them. For the ways of the Lord are right, the righteous walk in them, but transgressors stumble in them. Today's Bible verse speaks of the fact that the Lord's ways are right and that the righteous walk in them because they are wise and prudent. We all want to be wise, right? And today's verse indicates that it is wisdom to walk in the ways of the Lord. The verse assures us that God's way is the right way, and thus if we walk in them, we will be righteous. But transgressors, those, uh, those who ignore God's ways and choose their own worldly ways, are guaranteed to stumble through life. I know I got tired of falling down. And stumbling over the negative consequences of doing things my way. So the Lord shared his wisdom and understanding with me in the Word of God, and I realized that his word was true, and if I walked in his ways, I wouldn't stumble like I used to. You know, today's verse encourages us to follow the Lord's ways and to live a life that is right, and I encourage you to listen and follow the Lord's lead into a righteous life that is wise and prudent. As always, I invite all to go to mtforchrist.org where I always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and to assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk. Today we continue sharing from Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Discipleship, also known as The Cost of Discipleship, and we're continuing in chapter, um, 2, The Call to Discipleship, where Bonhoeffer shares a view on pastoral counseling and dealing with those difficult folks who say they want to believe but they can't, or say they want to obey the Word of God but say they can't. And so if you want the solution to those difficult situations, go to M.t. for Christ.org and read today's section. Because it really puts forth the whole believers obey and obey— those who, those who believe obey and those who obey believe. Only those who obey believe. It's not one or the other, it's both. And, you know, so, so if you want to see what Bonhoeffer has to say about that, go to mtforchrist.org to check it out. And while you're there, you can look at our page on the website, see our new logo, and to check out all those headings, topical headings, to, you know, to get some encouragement in whatever area you're looking to examine in your life. And as always, we share our teachings that we've done previously for Victory Over the Darkness, The Bondage Breaker, and Freedom in Christ. So if you can't get in, because apparently there's a waitlist, for the Freedom in Christ course of participants, even though nationwide our 6 classes have about 85 people currently in them. And, um, you know, so that's pretty good. You know, it's over 10 people per class. Um, and so even though we're helping all those people, we want to help more people. And, uh, so that's why I put my, uh, my teachings that I've done previously on on the blog, well, on the podcast and on YouTube, so you can listen to them. If you purchase the materials, the Participant's Guide for the Freedom in Christ course, for instance, you can follow right along and, you know, basically, you know, learn the material and walk through the steps to freedom in Christ individually to get set free. And if you needed you know, if you wanted to contact me about getting, um, a freedom appointment, um, you can contact me at mtforchrist247@gmail.com, and I would either arrange for you to go through the steps with me or to, uh, have another encourager, uh, walk you through the steps, um, because we want to help people get set free, and that's what we're here for. Well, so we believe in the word of God, as we pointed to the Bible today, as our standard of truth. We share our Bible study that we do once a week with Arthur and Susanna Sincotti. So if you wanted to be part of an informal Bible study, you can, you can check out our Bible studies that are on the podcast and our YouTube channel as well. You know, when we decide to follow the Lord, we're going to have to change some things, change the way we live a little bit to give time so we can seek the Lord, to know more, and to, uh, to you know, abide in him, as the word says. And when we abide in him, you know, we can do things we never thought possible, and we can have a peace that goes beyond all understanding. And so that's what we do here at mt4christ.org and the MT for Christ 247 podcast, is to encourage you to walk out your Christian life authentically by doing what the word says. And agreeing with what— choosing to believe the truth and applying it to your life. So we encourage that, and we, we always encourage prayer. So let's pray. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Lord, we thank you so much for the truth of your word and the decision we get to make to choose to believe what you say is true. And to live by it. And Lord, we just thank you for the power you give us when we put our faith in Christ, uh, to do that. Um, and when we, when we welcome Christ into our life as our Lord and Savior, the Holy Spirit comes to indwell us, and you make things happen, you make things change. But it does require our part to follow you. So Lord, we pray for your strength and guidance to follow you into all that you have for us. We pray for the people who might be listening today, or whenever, um, Lord, that they would, um, be blessed, um, but by your presence. And, uh, we pray for you to come alongside their prayer requests, to guide them in the way they should go. As always, Lord, we pray for you to go before all of us today, to open our eyes to the things you want us to see, and to lead our, our paths into the things you want us to do. Lord, help us to best represent you on the earth by giving us the encouragement and guidance we need. And let us hear your voice for you to do your will here on the earth. Lord, we thank you, we praise you, we love you, and we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.