Battlefield of the Mind - Week 5/Part 2 of Chapter 3

This week we actually made it through the last couple pages of Chapter 3 and Chapter 4.  I will first discuss the last part of Chapter 3.  Chapter 4 will be discussed later this week.  So, please check back.

Let's start by looking at Deuteronomy 1:6-8:

The Lord our God said to us in Horeb, You have dwelt long enough on this mountain. Turn and take up your journey and go to the hill country of the Amorites, and to all their neighbors in the Arabah, in the hill country, in the lowland, in the South, and on the coast, the land of the Canaanites, and Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river Euphrates. Behold, I have set the land before you; go in and take possession of the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give to them and to their descendants after them.

If you recall the journey to Canaan for the Israelites was only suppose to take 11 days.  What was suppose to be 11 days took the Israelites 40 years.   The Lord told the Israelites, they had dwelt long enough on this mountain, it was time to move and take possession of their promise! 

Based upon the scripture, Joyce ask these two powerful questions: Have you dwelt long enough on the same mountain?  Have you spent 40 years trying to make an eleven-day trip? 

She goes on to say that she woke up and realized that she was going nowhere.  That she was a Christian without victory! She had many wrong mindsets and mental strongholds that had been built up over the years. 

Personally, I can see myself in this scripture and in Joyce's testimony.  Sometimes life's obstacles can keep us in the wilderness and dwelling on the same mountain.  For some it is debt and for others it can be a relationship or sickness.  It doesn't matter the issue, what matters is that you recognize it!  Once you recognize it, you can go into battle!  It is time to come down from the mountain and enter into the Promiseland!  It is time to let go of poisonous mindsets and strongholds that are meant to keep us from God's promises.  Keeping a wilderness mentality can keep us in bondage.  Scripture tells us that God came to set us free! God is willing to break every curse, chain, and stronghold off of our life!  But, we have to be a willing vessel!

Are you willing?  Are you like the Children of Israel still dwelling on that same mountain?  What will it take for you to really stand and believe God for his promises? 

 

The Spirit Spot: Battlefield of the Mind-Week 4

The Spirit Spot: Battlefield of the Mind-Week 4

Battlefield of the Mind-Week 4

Sunday School Review, Battlefield of the Mind -Chapter 3-Part 1

This Sunday we read and discussed Chapter 3, pages 25-26.  The discussion was so deep we only made it through a couple pages.  The first scripture up for discussion was Galatians 6:9: And let us not lose heart and grow weary and faint in acting nobly and doing right, for in due time and at the appointed season we shall reap, if we do not loosen and relax our courage and faint.

The title of this Chapter says it all, Don’t Give up!  In life we are faced with many challenges, situations, and temptations.  In class, we discussed how we have to stay focused on God.  We can’t allow our situation to become larger than God.  I heard a Pastor once say, “Stop focusing on how big the problem is, but focus on how BIG our God is!”  God is so much bigger than our situations.  We have to maintain our courage and try not to grow faint.  As Joyce Meyers states, “No matter how bad the condition of your mind, don’t give up! Don’t have that old “give-up” spirit. God is looking for people who will go all the way through with Him.” 

Isaiah 43:2 states: When you pass through the waters, I will be with you, and through the rivers, they will not overwhelm you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned or scorched, nor will the flame kindle upon you.  This brings to mind the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, the three Hebrew boys that had incredible faith in God!  They did not give into fear.  Imagine being threaten with a burning death and still not budging in your belief.  Their story shows how God can protect us from death.  How God is with us in the fire!

Our fleshly mind will often demand us to go in the wrong direction with the attempt to persuade us to doubt God.   We have to combat those thoughts with the Word of God!  We had to have Radical Faith! Radical Faith comes with reading and believing the whole Word of God.  Isaiah 43:2 simply states that God will be with us; we will not be harmed or overtaken in our tough times.   Joyce says, “It’s easy to quit; it takes faith to go through.”  You have to be willing to go through the Fire. Then, TRUST that you will not be burned!

In the same way, there is always a dark tunnel, but there is also light at the end of it! 

Are you ready to face tomorrow? Do you have that Radical Faith like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego?   If not, what changes are you willing to make?

Battlefield of the Mind -Sunday School Week 3

Matthew 12:33- Either make the tree sound (healthy and good), and its fruit sound (healthy and good), or make the tree rotten (diseased and bad); for the tree is known and recognized and judged by its fruit. 

Our Sunday school class really enjoyed this particular discussion.  This scripture allowed us to see the importance of our actions, attitude, and thoughts as it pertains to our life and how we are perceived.  A tree is known by its fruit, what kind of fruit are you producing?   Good fruit or bad fruit? 

As a child of God, we should display the Fruits of the Spirit: love, joy, kindness, self-control, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, peace, and faithfulness.  All these fruit are visible spiritual attributes that our Christian life should display.  If we can practice the Fruits of the Spirit we will be representing God in a wonderful way. 

Joyce Meyers pointed out that our thoughts bear fruit.  If we think good thoughts, the fruit of our life will be good.  Think bad thoughts, and the fruit in our life will be bad.  It’s like the old saying, “Where your thoughts go your actions will soon follow.”  So we have to be careful about what we allow to occupy our mind; because we want to produce good fruit and the right actions. 

If you want to have the victory over your situation, keep thinking positive victorious thoughts.  Our thoughts will produce a certain fruit whether it is good or bad. 

This particular verse serves as a reminder that we have a right to judge each other’s fruit and if you are producing bad fruit expect to hear about it.  Take and receive the truth.  The truth will set us free.  When we receive correction it may hurt, but it also places us in position to get right with God.  It gives us the opportunity to change and to make God proud.  Our goal as Christians is to be a light unto the world by imitating Christ, so we can bring unbelievers to Christ.  Why would an unbeliever want to come to Christ?  My answer is the fruit that we bear.  

Valentine's Day Ideas

Valentine’s Day is set aside to show that special someone how much we love them! Couples expect romance on this day.  Even singles go out and snatch up a mate just to celebrate this one day out of the year.  After years of celebrating Valentine’s Day and Anniversaries ideas and gifts can get difficult to come up with, especially if you want to surprise your mate or be creative.  Women as well as men get tired of receiving the same old teddy bear, candy, flowers, and card.  So, I decided to give you a list of creative things that have worked for me and a lot of them are inexpensive!  Be sure to read all the ideas, one might just catch your attention!

1.       If your mate like nuts go to Wal-Mart buy several types of nuts in different containers.  Put them in a basket along with a cute teddy bear or whatever their interest maybe, such as video games, golf balls, etc.  Then, wrap it and attach a cute note, “I’m Nuts About You!”  My husband absolutely loved this one and he ate all the nuts!

2.       Make a snack pack! Get Doritos, Pepsi or Coke, M&M’s, Nuts, Fruit or whatever their favorite snack maybe, put it in a basket.  Wrap it; put a bow and a sweet note on it! I promise guys really like these, because it saves them a trip to the store and they can watch t.v. and snack.

3.       Love Coupons are really good! Make up different things you are willing to do, like give a massage, take out trash, let him choose, photo shoot, etc.  They even have free templates online. 

4.       Picnics are nice and if you have a fireplace that is even better.  Picnics are better when your mate doesn’t know about them.  Make sure you have pillows and good conversation.

5.       Candlelight dinner make sure you fix your significant other’s favorite food! The table should be set, jazz music to establish the mood, and make sure you are looking hot! Ladies pumps will always work!

6.       This is for the sexy couples! Blindfold your mate and feed them chocolate covered fruit.  Turn it into a game let them try to guess which fruit it was.  You may also use whip cream instead of the chocolate.   Light music would also be good for this idea as well. 

7.       Lingerie is awesome! Women love it when their mate go and pick them out something special.  Sometimes, this is uncomfortable for men, but hey women love it! Also, ladies some satin boxers would be nice for your man as well!

8.       For the Sports Fans, you can buy them a ticket to see their favorite team play.  I brought Carl a trip to Arizona to see the Redskins play.  Of course, he loved it. 

9.       Try something different! Ballroom dancing is always nice, fun, and exciting! If you haven’t been, I suggest you try it!

10.   Lastly, buy them The Love Dare from a Christian Bookstore or I love my wife tee-shirt or mug! We personally loved them! But, it is all according to how you really feel about your significant other!

I hope these ideas bring a lot of happiness into your relationship.  Remember adding spice is always nice! Don’t stress yourself out! Always have fun in whatever you do!  

How to Be Successful! by Tyler Perry

This is a message by Tyler Perry! I thought this was awesome!  What stood out to me is the part about "seeds" and water one at a time!! If you can't watch the video, you can read his message below:

There’s only one answer for that and I say this all the time in the press but people cut it out of articles or they don’t want to print it or they don’t want to say it. The truth be told, it was nothing but the grace of God. Nothing But The Grace of God.

You can plant seeds all day long; you can go around giving your business cards to people. You can go around knocking on doors and auditioning; you can do all of that every day of your life and for most people nothing happens. When a seed is planted in the ground all you can do it water it. You can not control the sunshine. You can not control the weather and you can not control what the locus will come and try to destroy. All you can do is plant your seed in the ground, water it and believe. That is what allowed me to be in this position right now.

I would not stop believing. I planted my seed; I worked really hard. I had one idea and that was to do a play and all that other stuff came. My only focus was to do one play and I knew if I could get that to work, everything else would come to pass. There are so many people who go into so many directions. This week they’re doing this and next week they’re doing that. Then the next week they’re they’re going to be in Real-Estate and the next week they’re going to open a salon. Those kinds of people are all over the place and I usually try to get them to focus. Focus on one thing –one area. Put all of your energy into watering one area. If you spread the water across many, many seeds you don’t have as much water for one seed. So focus on one thing, make it your priority and stick with it no matter what.

No matter how many people told me no. No matter how many people lied to me. No matter how many times I put the show up and nobody came. I remember when I tried my very first show, I worked my butt off and saved $12,000 tax returns through H & R Block money. I worked hard and saved it myself. I rented 14^th Street Play House; put that show up and thought that 1200 people would come over that weekend and 30 showed up and I knew everyone of them. But I didn’t stop; that didn’t deter me. That was in 1992. In 93’ the same thing happened -94’, 95’, 96’, 97’ up until 1998 the same devastation of nobody showing up in the audience. It was still one show a year working with promoters trying to get the show up and nobody showed up but I didn’t stop.

What I say to you now, looking at me here, I am a human being; there is no difference between my humanist and your humanist. The only thing is if you’re trying to get there you can not stop believing in any way. No matter what anybody says, no matter what anybody tells you, you have to know it beyond knowing it. When something is for you, there is a feeling that is deep down inside of you that will not allow you to let it go. It will keep you going when you can’t keep even keep yourself going. That’s why the mantra here at Tyler Perry Studios is a place where even dreams believe because there comes a time in your life where you’ve worked and you’ve stressed and you tried to get there and you couldn’t on your own but you have a dream and that dream has to take on the belief for you because you can’t do it by yourself. So what I would tell you is this, don’t stop; narrow your focus to one idea –[only] one and make it work. That will give birth to all the others. All you can do is plant the seed and water it. God himself has to give the increase. Only God can make the sunshine. Only God can make it rain but if you planted the seed then you’ve done your part.

I wish you so much success in 2012. Anything you want is possible. God knows I’m a living witness. Please feel me. Please hear this from my heart. Anything you want is possible. If I didn’t believe it I wouldn’t take the time to send this message to you. Take care of yourself.

So, what you think? Do you think this is great information or just devine favor on Tyler's behalf? 

CHANGES

Changes

This is the time of the year that some of us decide to make major changes in our lives.  But, do we really like change?  Although, we want it, do we actually like it?  We make goals to lose weight, stop drinking, find a better job, and the list goes on.  In reality, do we truly want the lifestyle transformation?  We all know that it is very expensive to change our eating habits to something healthier.  In the beginning of each year our church goes on a Daniel fast and I recall saying to Carl, “I never knew fruit and vegetables could be so expensive.”  You see I was ignorant to the reality of the full alteration that needed to be made.  The reality was that I had decided to start eating vegetables and fruit 3 times a day and bags of fruit were vanishing like clock work in our household.  It got very expensive. 

I also want to shed light on gym memberships that cost up to $60.00 per month?  Only to go for 2 months and they continue to withdraw the monies from your bank account for another year.  Fitness facilities do automatic withdrawal for that sole purpose of collecting extra money from folks who have gotten lazy or discouraged.  There is nothing wrong with wanting a change in your lifestyle or to lose weight.  My advice is to sit down and write out how these changes will affect your life.  This may help you put things in proper prospective, such as time, cost and how it will assist you in the future.  Who doesn’t want better health, fitness, and eating habits? 

As a wife, I realize my husband’s goals and resolutions affect me and visa versa.  So, if you want to set a goal for yourself or your spouse take into consideration how this modification is going to affect you both before making it.  A lot of times there is sacrifice involved on both sides.  If I want to lose weight, that means better eating habits for me and my family.  Everybody is going to be eating vegetables.  I’m not sure how my son, Zion will feel about that considering he doesn’t like veggies.  This means I would need to come up with ideas and plans to include him as well.

If you desire a change for your spouse, you have to be willing to take part in that sacrifice.  Meaning if you want your husband to stop drinking, you have to stop drinking.  You may have to put down that one glass of wine that you occasionally want.  A lot of times you have to change the people you hang with.  I know you may not be the one with the issue, but the issue and the transformation still affect you.  We have to be there to encourage and motivate.   If you desire your husband to lose weight, stop fixing unhealthy food, make better selections at the grocery store and fix something healthier! It requires change in the atmosphere, meaning lifestyle change for the whole family.  However, these things can be turned into fun, such as learning new recipes and cooking them together.  You can also go for walks, which can eventually turn into races, at least for our family it does. 

My advice is to start small and write everything out.  Make simple changes and then make bigger changes.  For instance instead of the gym membership and losing money, try taking family walks.  This saves money and allows for family time.  Instead of abruptly changing eating habits, work them in.  Start with fruit for breakfast and baking more foods.  Then, each month progress and eventually you may have a gym membership.   Change usually last longer when it is done gradually and consistently.  Try not to be hard on yourself, because everyone changes, nobody stays the same.  But, hopefully the “Change is For the Good!”