So, We’re Doing This Now - Purity 798

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 sunset on Seneca Lake spied through a window of trees comes to us from my sister-in-law, Kat, who recently shared this pic on social media encouraging her friends to check out the facilities at Seneca Lake Resorts in Romulus, New York. Well, the sun has set on the month of July 2022, and there is no going back. But rather than lament about, uh, July's passing, I'm here to encourage all my friends to rejoice over the possibility of new beginnings. As I have often said in the past, scripture repeatedly indicates that we are to be forward-thinking, and when it comes— when it comes to our faith walk through life Although I am happy to report that I managed to go to 4 new spots for swimming in the month of July, I am looking forward to doing more with the month of August than just relaxing in the sun. The great thing about our lives is that when we realize that we have wandered off course a bit in our focus and direction with our goals, we can stop and start again. The Holy Spirit lives in us, and if we are sensitive to his leadings, he will lead us into all truth. But sometimes the truth hurts. Sometimes the Holy Spirit reveals to us that we have ceased to move forward into what he has for us, and because of our lack of attention or self-indulgences, we have sabotaged our progress by seeking comfort, purpose, or entertainment from the things of this world rather than the things of God. We can go on in our own way and ignore his quiet in a still, quiet voice, but the further we go, the more we will tend to suffer the consequences until we realize that although we haven't gone far off course, we stopped making progress with the things we are moving towards because we were distracted or because the going got a little tough and we decided to give ourselves a break. We may have even decided that we were happy with where we had made it to and decided it was good enough. And we would just stay put where we were. Unfortunately, the world, the flesh, and the devil will come against us in subtle ways, and as time goes on, we start to slip and we fail to maintain our position that was good enough and lose the progress that we have made. As Christians, we are in a battle. Um, the Lord has a purpose for us, and the world system, the spiritual forces of darkness, and our flesh all oppose it because the Lord's purpose involves us humbling ourselves before God and serving Him and others rather than exclusively pleasing ourselves. The world, the enemy, and our flesh work on us to consider the question, "What about me?" and encourages us to set aside the abundant life of meaning and purpose that the Lord has for us for a life of idleness and selfishness that the world system promotes. The problem with the "what about me" answers to happiness is is that they fail to satisfy, satisfy us and go against the counsel of the Word of God. The insidious nature of the world, the flesh, and the devil is that they constantly tempt us to seek satisfaction independent of God with substances, relationships, or methods that have been proven to fail, but they continue to push them anyway. Christ came He came to give us rest, but did state that His burden was light. The world, the flesh, and the devil say that even a light burden is too heavy and advocate for selfishness and no burdens, but the answers they push are bondage and are even more burdensome than the Lord's, who simply asks us to abide in the peace that He has for us and to rely on His wisdom and ways to guide us. So our Christian walk can tend to be a continual pattern of making progress and realizing the joy and peace of the Lord in the simplicity of being obedient to his ways. But then the three-headed monster tries to deceive us and tempt us to go back to the world's ways that are easy and offer immediate gratification. The beginning of our walk with God, this can be a sinning and confessing cycle. But if we are diligent in returning to the Lord and, and go to Him for strength and guidance, we can break that cycle and have victory over those besetting sins and experience our freedom in Christ. But even if we have experienced our freedom in Christ, that doesn't mean that the enemy, the world system, or the flesh are done trying to prevent our realizing our purpose in Christ. Uh, with the, with the Lord, nothing is impossible. But the enemy will lie to us and tell us that there is a limit on what we can do, that we are only human, or that others can do those things but we can't accomplish that, or it's just too hard. The enemy, the flesh, and the world system, which can include our friend, family, and friends, will tell us that we have done enough that we are too busy and we should rest. These influences will actually lie to us and tell us that we are doing well or looking good when we're actually losing ground. When we stop or take a rest, at best we are no longer making progress, at worst we are going in the wrong direction. So what do you do? You stop and you make a new beginning. What better day to make a new start than the first day of a new month. I don't know about you, but I want to leave August in a better place than where I started. I have decided to repent and to remember that the Lord's ways are sufficient, and that everything the world, the flesh, and the devil would choose for me to do would result in something less than what the Lord wants for me. The world's entertainments leave you empty. The flesh is ignorant, and satisfying its lust leads to pain. The devil seeks to destroy us. So let's begin again. Although we have been walking and talking with God, let's walk in the direction that leads to progress, into new victories, or to the goals that we were hoping for but somehow stopped actively pursuing somewhere along the way. Let's do something new. Let's pick one thing or one area in our lives that we can accomplish or make progress in over the next 31 days. And let's go after it with intensity and purpose. Let's pick one thing and get her done, and either get her done or bring us closer to getting her done. God doesn't want us to stagnate in life and, and say that's a— that's good enough. God wants us to grow and progress, uh, in progress personally, and to show and share his love with others. The adage "Nobody's perfect" is often used to excuse our lack of progress. But instead of wallowing in our imperfections, let us rejoice over them because they provide us with lots of things that we can progress in. We will never be perfect like Jesus, but let us follow Him and lean on the Lord's strength and guidance to leave where we are behind for better things. So pick something, anything, and make a plan that you can start working on today. Let the Lord know that you need His help to accomplish it. God is faithful, and He will lead us into new things when we trust in Him. Tell the world, the flesh, and the devil that you are going to make a change in your life and that you have had enough of their lies, and declare with the Lord, "So be it." We are doing this now and, uh, start walking in it. Um, today's Bible verse comes to us from the New Living Translation Bible, Promise Book for Men. This morning's meditation verse is Philippians 4:13, and it says, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Today's verse is the truth for all Christians and only needs to be applied and pursued to be realized in our walk. In Christ, we have been given victory over sin and death. We are new creations in Christ, and so, as today's verse confirms, we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. Context is king when we look at the Bible, of course, so I want to keep it real and remind us all that the Apostle Paul referred to both enduring through suffering and accomplishing mighty things for the kingdom of God through Christ who strengthens us. He kept it real. He knew what it was like to be abased and what it was like to abound, to abound, I guess. So this is good news. No matter what we are facing, we can make it. We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. That means remaining faithful to our cause and to living according to the Lord, to God's wisdom and ways. In Christ we can do all things, and what that is exactly depends on your walk with the Lord and where he has put you. So follow him and see where this month takes you, and see what you can accomplish when you walk with him. As always, I invite all to go to mtforchrist.org, where I always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk. Today we continue sharing from Clinton Arnold's Powers of Darkness, and today's section is from chapter 10, and the topic is the connection of false teachings with the powers. And that's referring to— without reading it, uh, it's referring how, you know, anything that would lead us astray, uh, a false teaching about God or Christ or what we're supposed to do with our Christian walk is demonically, uh, inspired. Um, so, so those spiritual forces of darkness are real. Demons, Satan, are out there to actually influence us, and how they work is very deceptive. So we really don't know if it's the world, the flesh, or the devil at times. But when we're tempted to do something that would lead us astray lead us into pain, keep us locked in bondage, keep our mental faculties in a depressed state of fear or anger or anxiety. Um, we know that's not the way the Lord would want us to go. The Lord wants us to walk in peace and joy. That's the fruit of the Spirit. And if we're experiencing anything else than that, we really have to examine our lives and see what's going on. Are we mistreating our bodies? Are we following the Lord? Are we studying his word? Are we trying to apply his wisdom to our lives? Are we forgiving people? Are we working towards solutions? Are we just wallowing, hoping that God will supernaturally deliver us? God's given us the ability to overcome. You know, I can do all things through Christ. There's an I in that. Christ is there. He's going to provide the wisdom and the guidance and the strength to get you through. But there's an 'I' in that 'I can do all things.' So guess what? That 'I' has to do something. And so as we begin a new month, I just want to encourage anyone who's listening, because this is not written in the blog, um, it's for you and you alone. It's a word from me. And if it's speaks to you, maybe it's the Holy Spirit working through me to reach you, um, to tell you that there's some— there's something we can accomplish this month, whether it's cleaning out your closet literally, or cleaning up your house, or organizing things, or, or reading a book, or, you know, reading a book in the Bible, um, watching, you know, Christian teaching, you know, something, you know, to edify you, to build you up, to organize your life, that the Lord wants you to go after it. He wants you to accomplish it. You know, he makes all things new, and he wants new things in your life. And sometimes new things in your life means we have to get rid of the old things. And we have to walk away from what we've known into something different. And when we walk into new opportunities, um, you know, when we're walking with him, we can know that he's with us and that he'll guide us. And if we live according to the Lord's ways, um, we'll never have any regrets because we're going to be trying to walk in love and compassion wherever we go and according to his wisdom. So we're not going to do anything shady, um, as we go. So we won't have to worry about defending ourselves. We're going to try to do what's right and do what's good and to build other people up while we do it. That's the way we walk. And, you know, sometimes we don't want to progress, we don't want to keep going, um, you know, maybe we're working on several things at once, but, you know, another one area or two areas of our lives we left on the back burner. We're not working towards those things anymore because we're so busy doing everything else. You know, we have to be wise and discerning in terms of how we live our lives and, and, and, you know, and what we can do and what we can't do. But if we, if we're just sort of in a status quo state of existence where we're not working on new things or accomplishing things things, and just sort of living, doing work, taking care of the house, and general ways where we're not making progress, we gotta wonder, you know. And, you know, what's, what's the thing? Well, do you have peace and joy in your life? When that starts to dwindle, it might mean you're not making progress. It might mean you're just sort of resting on your laurels and just waiting. And not really living. So that's what we encourage. We encourage a walk forward into the things that God has for you, and it's really grounded in our purpose to, to grow and to make things better in our lives, and to, while we do it, to share the love of the Lord as we go. So that's what we're encouraging today for anybody new to the path. Or, you know, wants to encourage somebody else, we make our teachings on discipleship available. They're valuable, um, you know, they're transformative, um, and it's not because of me, it's because of the word of God, um, that's inherent in the teachings that are based on, uh, you know, they're based on the word of God. And it comes from Dr. Neil Anderson's work, um, where he's helped people in practice to overcome the flesh, the devil, and, you know, personal and spiritual conflicts. So it's not because of me, but I know it to be true because of my experience, and that I've overcome, you know, I've overcome many things, but I'm not done yet. So I'm going to work on other things. You know, some things we just, you know, after a while we stop pursuing because we get distracted or We get tired or whatever, but you know, that hope that the Lord puts in your heart for those new things was for something better, a different life, even better than what you have now. So it's not a bad thing to pick up, pick up the path and follow those goals once again so you can experience the joy of getting that. Many of the goals that we have have been accomplished by other people, so their example alone shows it's possible. And now, and we're walking with God, we know, you know, the scripture tells us that everything is possible with God and that we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. You know, I would ask the question from John 11: Do you believe this? If you do, let's walk after it. Let's go get it. Well, let's try. We'll enjoy the, you know, we try and fail, at least we tried. You know, let's go. Let's be purposeful in terms of going after the good things in life. And so I encourage you, like I said, it doesn't have to be complicated. You can just learn something new. That's something. Clean out the closet, clean out your drawers, you know, do something. I don't know. That's the overall advice, right? Do something. So do something, you know. Don't— especially if you're feeling down, do something new. Step out, meet new people, go to, you know, do something. You know, there's lots. Volunteer. You know, that's, that's today's message was, you know, so we're doing this now. Why? Because there's new things. You know, if you're doing the same thing again and again and you're never saying, so we're doing this now, nothing's happening in your life. There should be something happening in your life. If you don't have change in your life, I can't really relate because it seems, you know, since I've been following the Lord, one thing has changed to another and it's been a steady progress into the good. So let's keep going. No matter what, the Lord is with us. So let's pray. Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Lord, we thank you for, uh, faithful men and women who follow you. We thank you for, for you, uh, for, for opening our eyes to who Jesus Christ is and, and how if we simply live according to your wisdom and ways, we experience the fruit of the Spirit in our lives. And that's regardless of circumstances and regardless of blessings. But your grace is amazing, and when we follow you, we, we experience your divine favor, and we, we overcome things that we never thought we could. We, we get blessed in ways that we never could imagine. And Lord, we just want to thank you for that. Lord, we just pray for you to go before us today. We pray for the people listening, that you would come alongside their prayer requests, Lord, because we know you hear them. Um, and, uh We pray for they— them to listen to you, to follow your wisdom and ways and your guidance for the situations that they're facing. Lord, we pray for you to go before us, open our eyes to all the things you want us to see today, the beautiful things in the world and the things that we need to see in order to avoid trouble or to, you know, accomplish what you have for us to do. We pray for you to lead us into the things you want us to do today, Lord. Lord, because we want to represent you here on the earth. Lord, we thank you, we praise you, and we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.