Guard Your Heart - - Build Your Faith

 

Jude 1:20, 21

20. But you, beloved, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, 

21. keep yourselves in the love of God as you await the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you eternal life.

*Strong's Ex. Conc. No. 2026

Building: to build upon

From the Greek word 'epoikodomeó' (pronounced ep-oy-kod-om-eh'-o): to build up, to edify; to follow a plan with pre-designed specifications; to make progress in building up (from one level to another).

UNWAVERING FAITH

~PRAYING IN THE SPIRIT~

Hebrews 10:23

Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for He is faithful that promised;)

James 1:6

But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavers is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.

    If we have our doubts when we pray, then we are praying in doubt, not in faith; our prayers will neither be received nor heard. We must pray expecting to receive, with confidence and absolute trust in God's perfect will. But only if we pray according to His will. 

    Praying in The Holy Spirit, The Holy Ghost, is praying according to God's Word: the Word we are being led to and through when we listen to The Spirit of God. If we pray our desires, then it is doubtful we will receive the answer we want. But when we pray God's Word over every situation, then God's Will will prevail. 

    Praying in The Spirit does not mean we have to pray in tongues (although that will happen sometimes with the person who is filled with The Holy Spirit), but that we need to be working with The Spirit of God throughout our daily lives: fervently (urgently), consistently (constantly) and in faith (believing that it will be so). James 5:16; Ephesians 6:18; James 1:6; 1 Timothy 2:1.

    Unwavering faith sees its sins forgiven, its bodies healed, its minds delivered, prisoners freed. Not just then, but even today. Unwavering faith desires to please God: doing what makes God happy. 

BUILDING ON THE FOUNDATION

~HONOR~

    Knowing that our Foundation is Jesus Christ, we need to be careful how we are building on that Foundation. For God built His Foundation with Justice and Righteousness (Isaiah 28:16, 17). 

    Reading 1 Corinthians 3:10 "We must be careful how we build on that Foundation". Throughout this past year we have been learning what it means to be born again. We are still learning. Each monthly series this year I have still listed under the main heading of Being Born Again. (if you don't see some of it on this site, check Facebook).

    1 Peter 2:1 tells us to "Rid yourselves, therefore, of all malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander." These items do not make good building blocks. Malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy and slander fall under the commandments of what not to do, how not to behave with one another: Thou shall not bear false witness (malice, deceit, hypocrisy, slander). Thou shall not covet (envy).   They are hindrances to the building. Our natural desires war against our spiritual desires (1 Peter 2:11) but conducting ourselves with honor is a desirable building block of faith (1 Peter 2:12).

~MERCY~

    In Matthew 25:35-40 Jesus is speaking on the faithful servant, the one who will enter into the joy of the Lord. "For I was hungry and you gave Me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave Me something to drink, I was a stranger and you took Me in, I was naked and you clothed Me, I was sick and you looked after Me, I was in prison and you visited Me.’

    Not everyone is called to be a missionary, but we are all called to pray for one another. In prayer I pray that needs are met. That the hungry are fed, the thirsty receive clean water, the sick are ministered to: their wounds bound, their diseases healed, their dead raised to life. 

I pray for the captives, in prison and out of prison, to be delivered and set free. I pray that their needs also are met. When I pray for those who serve on the front lines of ministry, I pray for each of these things on them as well. This is mercy.

~GRACE~FORGIVENESS~

    Saving grace is what God extended through Jesus Christ to us. (Acts 15:11). It is only by grace we are saved at all (Ephesians 2:5, 8). Grace is an extension of God's love. It is having and showing compassion; it is forgiveness multiplied beyond number (Matthew 18:21,22). Because if we are counting how many times you have "forgiven" a person or persons, then we are not really forgiving them at all: we're tallying up offenses and holding grudges. Not ideal building blocks at all to lay on the Foundation of our faith.

    The grace, the forgiveness, we offer to each other must be sincere and offered in love, the true love of God which lives in the born again believer. If we keep coming back to the original offense we received from the one we think we forgave, then we never offered them love and grace in the first place. Our hearts need to be right with God, aligned in His Justice and Righteousness, that we may freely give grace to one another.

KEEP IN THE LOVE OF GOD & HIS MERCY

 1 Thessalonians 5:9-11

9. For God has not appointed us to suffer wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.

10. He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with Him.

11. Therefore encourage and build one another up, just as you are already doing.

Romans 14:8

If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.

2 Timothy 2:11

This is a trustworthy saying: If we died with Him, we will also live with Him.

    The only way to Keep in the Love of God and His Mercy is to remain in God's love, in God's testimony, in God's Son Jesus Christ. To remain in God's love is to live (dwell, take up residence) in God's love. 

    How do we conduct ourselves in our everyday living when we interact with family, when we are working with colleagues, when we sit in waiting rooms? Are we living in the love of God when we get angry, frustrated, upset? Are we living to the Lord by our actions and our words? These are questions only we can ask ourselves and only we can answer. If our answers are not in keeping with God's definition of Christian conduct, then we need to take the matter before Him in prayer and ask that He keep changing us, molding us into the people He wants us to be. 

    Have you ever thought about how the clay might feel on the potter's wheel? Being poked here, prodded there; smoothed away in some areas, broken off in others. Yet there the lump of clay sat, waiting for the potter to create in them what the potter had in mind to create. 

    We are lumps of clay being perfected on the Potter's wheel. Perhaps we, too, should wait without argument while our Potter finishes working on us; while He builds us into Himself. 

    We know we are saved. We both know and hope for our resurrection into eternal life. For it is in Christ that we have the Resurrection and the Life. Let us therefore live in God as He lives in us: with grace, with integrity, with mercy. 

2 Peter 3:13, 14

13. But in keeping with God’s promise, we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells.

14. Therefore, beloved, as you anticipate these things, make every effort to be found at peace—spotless and blameless in His sight.

I BUILT MY HOUSE ON A STONE by Jason Upton

HOUSE OF PRAYER by Eddie James, Jayna Cullens

POUR ME OUT by Brandon Lake

FILL MY WAY by Iris DeMent

TREMBLE by I AM THEY

I WON'T LEAVE YOU HERE by Southern Raised Bluegrass

    

    

    

    

    

Guard Your Heart - - Walk (t)His Way

 

Deuteronomy 5:33

You shall walk in all the ways which the LORD your God has commanded you, that you may live and that it may be well with you, and that you may prolong your days in the land which you shall possess. 

*Strong's Ex. Conc. No. 3212

Walk:   again, away, bear, bring, carry away, come away, depart, flow,

From the Hebrew word yalak' (pronounced yaw-lak'), which comes from the word 'halak' (haw-lak') which means go, come, proceed.

There are a lot of defining words and phrases for the word "walk", but I'm only giving the definition herein intended in this verse.

Whether we are going (to a place) or coming (into a place), we are moving forward, for our face looks in the direction our steps will take us. We walk through a doorway to either enter a room or exit a room, still we move ahead. While not necessarily a going ahead in positive terms, whatever direction we are facing that is the direction we are going. 

    If we our eyes are turned one way and our feet move another, we are destined to fall. You know what I'm talking about; we've all done it. Someone is talking to us, grabbing our attention; our feet keep moving forward, but now now our head is turned back trying to hear what is being said. This is not a good way to walk. 

    

WALK BLAMELESS 

1 Thessalonians 3:12, 13

12. And may the Lord cause you to increase and overflow with love for one another and for everyone else, just as our love for you overflows, 

13. so that He may establish your hearts in blamelessness and holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all His saints. Amen.

Philippians 2:14-16

14. Do everything without complaining or arguing,

15. so that you may be blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and perverse generation, in which you shine as lights in the world

16. as you hold forth the word of life, in order that I may boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor in vain.

    We are to be trustworthy, living a life of integrity in the midst of a 'crooked and perverse generation' (Philippians 2:15). We are the bride of Christ and we are to be without blemish or stain "That He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, That He might present it to Himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish." (Ephesians 5:26,27). 

    There are two generations at work here: there is the generation of unrighteousness and the generation of righteousness. (Psalm 24:3-6). The generation of unrighteousness is even more clarified when God calls them perverse, crooked, blemishes and stains; wicked and violent. 

    The generation of righteousness walks in God's Word, God's Path (Proverbs 4:18). The generation of unrighteousness walks their own path, preferring their own company to the companionship which God offers to those who believe and follow His Word. 

 WALK THIS WAY

Job 23:10

But He knoweth the way that I take: when He hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.

    >Job walked in the old paths, the ancient ways of The Lord (Jeremiah 6:16 "ancient paths". I have read in my studies that The Book of Job is the oldest book of the Bible. Genesis is the first book because it gives us the first parts of our history, it is the Book of Beginnings. The Book of Revelations is last in the Bible because it details events not yet happened and warnings to be ready for Christ's second and third returns to this earth. <

Proverbs 16:17

The highway of the upright leads away from evil; he who guards his way protects his life.

Isaiah 35:8

And there will be a highway called the Way of Holiness. The unclean will not travel it--only those who walk in the Way--and fools will not stray onto it.

NOT THAT WAY

    The unrighteous generation cannot walk the Way of Holiness, for they are unholy, their hands are not clean, their hearts are not pure. They neither believe The Word of God nor do they walk in it. Be warned. There is no room in the presence of God for those whose hearts are perverted, whose lives are lived in opposition to the holy Word of God. God knows His own and the people who are not His will be revealed...eventually. (Proverbs 10:9; Matthew 10:26; 1 Timothy 5:25)

     Revelation 2o:15 "And if anyone was found whose name was not written in the Book of Life, he was thrown into the lake of fire."

    Revelation 21:8 "But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death."

    1 Corinthians 6:9, 10

9. Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who submit to or perform homosexual acts,

10. Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.

    We who believe are praying not only for the believers to remain strong in The Lord but for the ones who have not yet believed to become believers in and followers of The Lamb of God Which Takes Away The Sins of The World. 

    Jude 1:22, 23

22. And indeed, have mercy on those who doubt

23. and save others, snatching them out of the fire; and show mercy to others with fear, hating even the clothing having been stained by the flesh.

    We're praying for you, all of you. We, the church, stand together in the Spirit though we may never meet this side of life. We are strong in the Lord and in the power of His might, not just in our individual battles but even more so when we come together in prayer, in unity of The Spirit of God. 

    Luke 16:19-31 tells us of the rich man who died and went to hell. Read it and think about what you are reading, meditate on this Word and consider your ways. I meditate on the Word and I consider my ways.

    Our prayers are praying you out of the fire to which you are headed. We love you and we desire only God's best for you, His Word, His Way, His Will. 2 Corinthians 5:11 "Therefore, since we know what it means to fear the Lord, we try to persuade men. What we are is clear to God, and I hope it is clear to your conscience as well."

    As He says in  2 Corinthians 6:17 "“Therefore come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.” 

   Real Christians do not rejoice in the death of any unbelieving soul, for that soul is forever separated from God. There is no longer any opportunity to change one's mind, have one's soul saved. In death there is no chance to repent, to turn away from sin. It's too late. In death, as in life, the gap between righteousness and unrighteousness is immense. There is no cross over. It is impossible to pray for your souls after you die, for death is permanent for the unbeliever. 

 

OPEN THE EYES OF MY HEART by Paul Baloche (Lord, help me to see You)

LORD I GIVE YOU MY HEART by Planetshakers (cheerfully & willingly)

LAY IT ALL DOWN by Will Reagan (repent and receive)

THERE WILL BE A DAY by Jeremy Camp (entering His rest holding onto Hope)

FEAR IS NOT MY FUTURE by Maverick City Music (ready for a breakthrough)