The Steps To Freedom  - Spiritual Experiences Real or Counterfeit - Purity 1463

Welcome to the MT for Christ 24/7 podcast. I'm 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 with his nose to the ground under ethereal blue skies with Flowing streams of clouds comes to us from yours truly, um, and as I captured the scene yesterday afternoon when I discovered that the gray and overcast skies over Waite Road didn't tell the sky's whole story, as the atmosphere over Freedom Road toward the north was absolutely heavenly. Well, it is Saturday, and while I start the morning at my countryside home, I will be heading back to my place down by the river in a few hours to meet with client on Zoom to lead him through the Steps to Freedom in Christ, where he will call on the Lord in prayer to help him— yeah, to help him to be free of any spiritual or personal conflicts he is carrying so he can experience his freedom in Christ. The Steps to Freedom in Christ is a prayerful repentance process developed by Dr. Neil Anderson that has been scientifically proven to help people experience improvements in the areas of depression, anxiety, fear, tormenting thoughts, negative habits, anger, and self-worth. It's healing prayer— it's, it's healing prayer ministry, but it's, it's not the steps that help to set the captives free and heal the brokenhearted. The healing power comes from God, and it operates through the faith of the one coming to him in prayer to ask him for help. Jesus said, 'Your faith has made you well,' to many of the people that he healed. And because God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, um, we can— God still brings— God still brings healing and freedom to those who ask him for help according to their faith and his will. God's ways are higher than our ways, of course. So while I never know what will ha— of what he will do in a Freedom appointment beforehand, I have seen enough to encourage everyone to become a disciple of Jesus and to go through the Steps to Freedom in Christ to pursue their freedom. If freedom in Christ is available, you may wonder why aren't more Christians reflecting the wonders of a transformed life? Unfortunately, we don't live in a spiritual vacuum, and besides the doubt, unbelief, and rebellion and sin that an individual could have that will prevent them from experiencing the fruit of the Spirit in their lives. There are also the spiritual forces of darkness, demons, that will use these failings as permissions to tempt, uh, torment, deceive, and deceive Christians into believing the lie that they can't be free. So the Steps to Freedom— and the steps lead, lead the participant through a process of renouncing their personal sins, pride, and rebellion, affirming the truth about themselves in Christ, forgiving others who have harmed them, and renouncing the sins of their ancestors, and renouncing any experiences with the occult, the occult or false religions. When we go to God in prayer to repent of all these things, command any evil spirits to leave, and commit ourselves to follow Jesus only, God can deliver us from bondage and welcome us into the abundant life that he wants us to live.

Um, I have seen, uh, I've seen him, I've seen him work, um, through the process, and I am looking forward to seeing what he will do, uh, with my client today.

Ironically, today's In Touch devotion In Touch with Dr. Charles Stanley devotional examines whether our experience—

spiritual experiences are real or counterfeit.

And so I'm compelled to share it on the blog today to provide its excellent teaching that warns us to examine the signs and wonders that we experience to know whether they are from the Lord or from the pit of hell. Um, Dr. Charles Stanley writes Spiritual experiences, real or counterfeit. If you want to know God deeply and personally, personally listen to him. God sometimes gives us an amazing spiritual experience, and when he does, it's to reveal truth about himself. That's what happened at the Mount of Transfiguration as Peter, James, and John stood in the presence of Jesus, God in human flesh. They suddenly saw his divine majesty. Observing him there with Moses and Elijah, two Old Testament prophets revered by the nation of Israel, they heard a voice from heaven and fell down— fell face down in worship. What about us? If we have a spiritual experience, how do we know whether it's authentic? One way is to realize that the Lord's purpose for such things is to focus our thoughts on him. Any spiritual event that magnifies itself or some other activity but does not direct our attention to God more like— more than likely is counterfeit. Why does God sometimes allow these special glimpses of spiritual reality? He might be motivating us for his purposes or strengthening us to resist future doubt. Or perhaps he is correcting a misperception, such as the idea that he is somewhere far away from us. God wants to unveil himself to his people. And commune intimately through his Holy Spirit.

If you listen to him, he will, says Charles Stanley.

And I say amen. The Steps to Freedom in Christ is, uh, listening, uh, listening prayer. And it is a process of where we renounce all counterfeit spiritual experiences and align ourselves with the one true God who wants us to experience his healing and to walk in his presence all the days of our lives. When we repent, obey the Lord, and surrender ourselves to his will for our lives, we will see the fruit of the Spirit grow in our lives, and we will be able to bear witness to the very real spiritual experience of having peace with God. So see, today's, uh, well, let's see, no Um, this morning's meditation and today's Bible verses come to us from the Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling by John G. Crews. This morning's meditation verses come from the section on forgiving others. Today's, uh, verse is Matthew 6:12, which says, and forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors. Today's verses fall on, uh, verse falls under the first point of our Counseling Reference Guide's resource section on the forgiveness of sins.— or on forgiving others, sorry.

Um, today's, today's, um, and, and that first point is, uh, we must forgive our debtors.

And today's Bible verse, uh, is part of the Lord's Prayer, and it spells out a fundamental aspect of our faith that should define us: forgiveness. As Christians, we are forgiven all our sins the moment we put our faith in Christ. However, the prayer Jesus gave us to pray causes us to see the need to continually to go to the Lord to ask for his forgiveness and to remind us to forgive those who sin against us. While Jesus's atoning work on the cross and our faith in him settles the penalty for our sins, our relationship with God and our freedom in Christ can be negatively affected by any unconfessed sin in our life. When we sin, we are not acting like the people God created us to be. When we are brought into God's kingdom of light, we are not supposed to live in darkness. So when we sin, we should turn from it and turn to God and ask him for his forgiveness and his help to assist us from turning from it for good. God wants us to live in his freedom, and we need to be dependent on him to experience it. We also need to pass along the blessing of forgiveness that we have experienced to those who sin against us. Because we have received mercy, we should show mercy and also remove any bitterness in us by forgiving those who sin against us. When we seek God's forgiveness and forgive others, we can be set free. As always, we encourage everyone to go to mtforchrist.com, uh, 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 According According to Your Word by Morning by Stephen F. Alford. And, uh, in Alford's devotional, he prompts us to read a chapter of scripture. Today's chapter is James 5.

From James 5, he shares from verse 10. It says, my brethren, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord as an example of suffering and patience. And Stephen Alford writes, was it not Hudson Taylor who told a young candidate for the mission field that there were three very important lessons to learn in God's work.

The first was patience, the second was patience, and the third was patience. Paul says that tribulation works patience.

This was undoubtedly true in Job's case. He certainly suffered affliction, and so did many prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. And Alfred ends by praying, Lord, if I should have to pass by way of tribulation I do pray that I may learn the lessons of patience. Amen. Amen. And, uh, yeah, we, we, you know, don't pray for patience, pray for the Lord's help, because the trials and his help and enduring will, will develop patience in your life. Um, yeah, the tribulations that come when we decide to follow the Lord will teach us patience. If you're, if you're, you know, we make— my wife and I joke that when we pray for patience, the Lord will give us a trial. So, um, be careful what you pray for. Um, but he does give you— he does grow you when you follow him. And, uh, the afflictions and sufferings that we, that we experience here on earth are a light affliction. Don't compare to the glory that we'll know when we're in God's kingdom. And, uh, you know, the growing of patience definitely matures us in our faith. Yeah, so you should take it.

Um, and but so we, we always ask the question, are you fully surrendered to God?

Um, when you do, you'll learn patience. Um, and, uh, you'll also learn how to walk this walk in the Spirit, and that'll lead you to the fruit of the Spirit of peace, joy, goodness, kindness, love, um, patience, and self-control. And we've discovered— we've discovered the fruit of the Spirit in increasing measure over the years as we decided to surrender our lives and follow the Lord. And so we, we recommend that. That's why we do the podcast. Um, and when you, when you surrender, God gives you a purpose.

Part of my purpose is to, uh, the thing I've been blessed with is, uh, my, well, my Christian coaching practice.

And I get to, uh, lead, um, a Christian discipleship and recovery group at my local church called Celebrate Freedom. It's, uh, in Clifton Park. Uh, and we have our meetings on Wednesday night at 6:30. So anybody in the upstate New York who can get the Clifton Park on a Wednesday night, we welcome you to join us, um, so you can learn how to walk in the spirit and be free of any hurts, habits, and hangups you have, and to experience your freedom in Christ.

Um, but if you're not in Upstate New York, we believe you can still find your—

find or increase your freedom in Christ by, um, you know, trusting the Lord in prayer and, uh, maybe studying a podcast class that we have on Neil Anderson's Bondage Breaker: Victory Over the Darkness, the Freedom in Christ We also offer our Celebrate Freedom Discipleship course that we developed because we, we've learned a measure of freedom and wanted to, you know, point people in the right direction. So we invite you to check those out on our YouTube channel. There's a playlist for each, each title there. And, and we've heard positive feedback, so we encourage you to check them out.

Well, um, today is Saturday, and I ask the question, are you empty for Christ too?

Um, that being empty for Christ just means that we're surrendered to the Lord and waiting, you know, we're asking him to fill us with his Holy Spirit and to, you know, give us a direction for our lives. So we get filled, we empty ourselves of our stuff, get filled with the Lord's stuff, and, uh it leads to amazing things. And so, uh, if you are empty for Christ, we say great, keep on walking and talking with God. If not, we recommend to pray, uh, to the Lord to make Jesus your Lord and Savior and to, uh, to follow him into the life he has for you. And, uh, you know, we connect with the Lord through prayer, and that's why we do that this every day. And like right now, Lord God, Heavenly Father, thank you for another day in your kingdom. Lord, thank you for anyone who's reading or listening or watching today's message. We pray for you to bless them and their prayer requests and their walk of faith. Lord, we all need your help, and apparently I really need your help today as I stammered and stumbled through this, this podcast. Lord, we know that, um, you're still with us. And, uh, we pray for you to be with us today as we lead our clients through the steps to freedom in Christ, Lord, because I, I can't heal anyone, and, um, they, Lord, haven't been able to heal themselves. And so we're, we're going to go before your throne of grace, Lord, and ask you to help, uh, to reveal the truth and to lead them into, uh, freedom, Lord. So we pray for you to set Set this captive free today. And Lord, as always, we pray for you to go before us, open our eyes to the things you want us to see, lead us in the way we should go. So help us, Lord. Lord, we thank you, we praise you, we love you, and we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.