Renewing of the Mind

RENEWING OF THE MIND

2 Timothy 1:7   For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

We are spirit, we live in a body, and we have a soul.

Our soul is made up of three parts, our mind, our will and our emotion.

Your mind is what you think with

Your will is what you want

Your emotions are what you act on.

Matthew 22: 37   Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.

This is what the mind does; it is supposed to make the right choices to love the Lord with all your heart.

However, your mind can only do what it is trained or renewed to do.

However we still have a will and emotions to deal with.

Your will, doing what you want it to do, is called the desires of the mind.

Then comes the emotions, your emotions can really make your day

They are a state of feeling… happy, anger or fear.

Romans 8:15    For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.

Fear will put you under bondage, anger causes toxins, or poisons to be released into your body.

Eph 4:31   Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice:

1 Corinthians 6: 19-20   ¹⁹ What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?²⁰ For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.

Let us talk about our mind: our mind is what we think. Did you ever hear the expression “I gave her or him a peace of my mind?”

Or I think I am loosing my mind:

Or my mind isn’t what it used to be

It is just mind over matter. I don’t mind and it don’t matter.

That is bad lingo in any language.

Eph. 4:23   And be renewed in the spirit of your mind;

We need to renew our minds daily, so the enemy can not deceive us. the way we renew our minds is to read and study the Word of God. The enemy is very cunning and very smart.

Take heed to your selves, that your heart be not deceived. the best way not to be deceived is to know the Word.

Our life is not in the mind, our life is in the spirit, our mind is carnal, and sometimes carnal is not good.

Eph 2:5   ⁵ Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)

Open your mind and receive the inspired word of God. I challenge you to read five minutes five days a week. I know that just reading five minutes a day five days a week will change your life, make it better, happier, fuller.

Receive this anointing and power from reading and discerning of His word

Let the word quicken your mind with the life force that makes our spirit alive beyond natural thinking.

If you will let Gods presence in your life, the Holy Spirit will give you insight to put Gods word into action.

Romans 12: 2    And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

It is not about your will. It is about the will of God and the renewing of your mind.

RICHES OF GOD’S GRACE

RICHES OF GOD’S GRACE

Eph. 2:4-9   ⁴ But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,⁵ Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved ;)⁶ And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:⁷ That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.⁸ For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:⁹ Not of works, lest any man should boast.

The fact that all people without exception commit sin proves that without Christ we have a sinful nature.

Before Christ Jesus and the cross, we were dead… forever doomed because of Sin…We were just like the rest of the world, following the passions and desires of our evil nature.

But God is so rich in mercy and he loves us so much… even while we were dead because of our sin. Through his mercy, he gave us life when he raised Jesus from the dead.

It is only by Gods special favor that we have been saved… we became Christians through Gods unmerited favor in our lives. Not as a result of any effort or service on our part.

No actions or works we do can help us obtain salvation. We are not saved merely for our own benefit, but to serve Christ and build up the church.

We are Gods masterpiece, His divine work of art. Our salvation is something only God can give. It is His powerful creativity at work in us. If God considers us His masterpieces, we dare not treat ourselves or others with disrespect or as His inferior work.

By Gods grace you are saved by faith and raised up together. He made us to sit together in Heavenly places in Christ Jesus. This is Gods free gift to us. We could not do this ourselves. Gods grace, his unmerited favor delivered us from the judgment of sin, now we have hope and are partakers of Christ Jesus.

Eph 1:3-5   ³ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:⁴ According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:⁵ Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,

Blessed us with all spiritual blessings in Heavenly places in Christ… Or, spiritual blessings in the Heavenly Realms, because we belong to Christ Jesus.

Because of Christ in us, we are empowered by His divine power to receive all spiritual blessings…according as he hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world.

Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Christ Jesus to Himself. We have redemption through His blood and forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace.

Philemon vs 6   ⁶ That the communication of thy faith may become effectual by the acknowledging of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus.

That your faith will become effective by realizing or acknowledging the good things which is in you in Christ.

We must start acknowledging what God is trying to tell us. We do that by acknowledging every good thing that is in us.

Grace provides everything that is available… faith is the vehicle by which you get it.

Keep in the Word,
Brother Andy

The Power of Binding and Loosening

The Power of Binding and Loosening

I have taught about binding and loosening several times. However I have not taught on just how important binding and loosening is to your walk with the Lord.

Matthew 16:19    And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

Jesus said to Peter, I am giving you the keys to the kingdom of Heaven and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in Heaven… whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in Heaven.

By these words Jesus conferred on peter the most tremendous authority. Authority that is to be exercised on earth, but effective in Heaven.

The reason Jesus conferred this authority on peter is because Jesus knew it would be needed.

This encourages me to believe that if someone like Peter needed this knowledge, certainly the rest of us will need it too. Especially in this twisted world that we live in today.

Guess what? Jesus conferred the same power on us.

Matthew 18:18-20    Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.¹⁹ Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven.²⁰ For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.

         He repeats the same promise and extends it to all believers who meet the conditions.

He is saying, I can guarantee this truth, what ever you imprison God will imprison. Whatever you set free, God will set free.

I can guarantee again that if two of you agree on anything here on earth my father will accept it.

Where two of three have come together in my name, I am there among them.

The word agree in Greek is subpoena which gives us the English word symphony.

It doesn’t mean a mere intellectual agreement, it means musical harmony.

If two of you can harmonize in touching anything that you ask, it will be done.

This is a harmony in the spirit, not just a mental decision about an item on a prayer list.

Then Jesus goes on to say, where two or three are gathered together in my name.

I use the Word led together instead of gathered together because this action of coming together demands a leader, and the leader is the Holy Spirit.

Romans 8:14   ¹⁴ For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.

Jesus is speaking about believers brought together by the Holy Spirit around the focus of the person of Jesus Christ, represented by his name.

He is saying when you led together by my spirit in my name and you can harmonize, count on my presence.

There is where the authority is, the exercising of the authority depends upon the leading of the Holy Spirit and being so related to our fellow believers that we can harmonize with them.

You can only bind on earth what has already been bound in heaven, but it still places the responsibility upon us.

Why? Because until we pray the binding is not effective. It requires earth action to make Heavens decree effective.

We are given the responsibility for what goes on in Heaven. It is absolutely staggering that we so easily adopt the attitude that we are waiting for God to act. The truth is, God is waiting for us to act. In fact He has been waiting a very long time.

       We say Lord show me what you want done and I will go along with it… but the Lord is saying, on the contrary you tell me what you intend to do and I will go along  with that.

You can see that it is… what so ever you bind on earth that word ye is We… he is talking about us.

He is saying you make the decision and I will go along with it. This authority is only given to those who are in right fellowship with God. God has built a fence around his delegated authority, as long as you are not right in your personal relationship with God, there is no way in…

YOU ARE NOT UNDER THE LAW

YOU ARE NOT UNDER THE LAW

ROMAN 6:14   ¹⁴ For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.

If you are a believer you are not under the old covenant of the Mosaic Law. You are under the new covenant of grace. Therefore sin shall not have dominion over you.

You are to consider yourselves dead to sin. That means we should regard our old sinful nature dead and unresponsive to sin.

As we start this new life, under grace, the Holy Spirit will help us become all that Christ wants us to be.

Since we are no longer under the law but under grace, we can choose to obey God and receive his approval. When you have His approval, you have his favor, when you have his favor you will be blessed.

Under the law you had to be obedient for the Law to work.

Now that we are not under the law we are to be obedient to faith.

The law came by Moses; the obedience under grace came by Jesus Christ.

2^nd Corr. 12: 9   And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

Gods grace is sufficient for thee… the will of God will never lead you where the grace of God can not keep you.

The word sufficient means…as much as needed to adequately accomplish what is necessary at the time.

Grace made it available, faith makes it attainable… the grace of God is unmerited favor...

Saved means we were delivered from Judgment and made partakers of the righteousness of Christ Jesus.

Not because we earned it, or deserved it, or did anything worthy to attain it.

It all came because of the favor of God that we don’t deserve. We deserve the wages of our sin, but Jesus said we have been delivered from the judgment that should have been ours.

Jesus at the cross made us a partaker in spite of our sin. We are partakers of His righteousness and His favor.

Eph. 3:6   That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel:

Heb. 3:14   For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end;

Now that we are partakes what can we partake of?

Healing, prosperity, deliverance, peace of mind, every thing Christ finished at the cross. We can be partakers of all that grace has made available.

What has grace made available? Every thing you will ever need for this life. It has been made available for everyone in the world.

Titus 2:11 says, for the grace of God that bringeth salvation, hath appeared to all men.

So why aren’t all men saved and changed?

 They wouldn’t partake of salvation. But you who are saved, everything you need has been made available; all you have to do is accept your identity as a partaker and start accepting everything God has made available to you for this life.

Going to church, singing a couple of songs and listening to twenty minutes of the word and going home is not all you need. Get excited about Gods word, God is real, His word is real, and grace through His favor is real.

Go to church, learn how Gods word works, and apply it to your life. Learning and understanding Gods word

is the most important thing to get in your life.

The bible says, in all you’re getting, get understanding. You must believe you are a partaker of the finished work of Christ Jesus.

What you speak is connected to what you believe, as you partake of the word, speak it. If you need healing in your life, say “I partake of the healing that grace has made available in Jesus name. If you don’t speak it with your mouth it’s not going to work.

So many Christians are unwilling to partake of what grace has made available.

If you see a Christian complaining how bad things are, you can feel assured they are not partaking.

People who don’t have the understanding of the Word of God don’t know how to be partakers and are not partakers of the things made available through grace.

Everything we Christians need is just waiting for us to speak it, expect it and receive it.

OBEDIENT TO THE FAITH

OBEDIENT TO THE FAITH

James 2:20-24   But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?²¹ Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar?²² Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect?²³ And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God.²⁴ Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only.

Romans 3:28   Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.

It sounds like Paul and James was contradicting one another, but this is not the case.
Faith works out of corresponding cooperative action. Not action born out of ourselves, but of faith and belief through expectation.
 What we believe in so much gives birth to the action… when we say “I believe” I am the righteousness of God, that alone will start to give birth to the right action.
If you want healing, prosperity or deliverance, believe it until it starts giving birth to everything you are believing for.
Believing by faith gives birth to the action that James is speaking of. If you want Gods reaction, add your faith and action.
I have so much faith in this congregation until I believe your going to start believing this, you are going to catch yourself doing and saying things you have never said and done before…
You will be saying it because you believe it, and it will give birth to an action in your life.

Romans 12:3   For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.

So what is the measure of faith in you? It is the same measure God used to raise Jesus from the dead.

Mathew 17:20   And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.

At the time of being born again, the full measure of faith is invested in you…
You can not build the measure by self effort; your faith is built on trusting Gods inspired word.
The word “if” is the key in this verse. “If” you have even a little faith you can move mountains. Nothing is impossible for the believer.
Under the law people did not have the options that we have under the new covenant of Grace.

Duet 28:1-3   And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the Lord thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth:² And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God.³ Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and blessed shalt thou be in the field.

Under the Law in order for them to be blessed they had to keep all the laws, all 600 of them, no one could keep all the law…
If you failed in one law you failed in all the law, only Jesus could keep all the law.

 Deut 28:15-17   But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day; that all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee:¹⁶ Cursed shalt thou be in the city, and cursed shalt thou be in the field.¹⁷ Cursed shall be thy basket and thy store.

Under the law, if you kept the law you got the blessing, if you didn’t keep the law you got the curse.
Everything was based upon you obeying the commandments of the law.
Under the covenant of grace, all the blessings are made available to all. Under the law it was all dependant upon them keeping the law…
Don’t keep going back trying to get something from God that has already been given freely.
Obedience to the faith is obedience to receive what grace has made available…
Let’s say you go to the doctor and he tells you something is very wrong with you.
The first thing people do is they go back to performance. They say I am going to start praying two hours a day and fast for a week.
Read the bible; look at what you are doing. You have gone back to the law, be good… get good.
You are making what Jesus did at the cross void. You should have responded, saying with your mouth, I receive my healing that has been provided for me by faith in Christ Jesus.
So many times we go back to the law, trying to do something to deserve the blessings. We are trying to make something happen by our actions.
Don’t come to church just to get God to do something for you. Come to church to praise Him for what has already been done.
Obedience to faith is responding in faith by receiving what Jesus has already done.
Sometimes Christians keep responding as if they are still living under the law.
The new covenant of grace is not about what you deserve. If it was we would all get to go to hell.
But because God sent his Son to be our savior we have been justified, sanctified and we are heirs to his great kingdom.

Be obedient to the faith and Gods favor will be on your life.