Texts: James 1:21; Romans 12:1-2. God wants His Word engrafted in us, so that we become one with the Word for the saving of our soul. We present ourselves to God. We are not to be conformed to the world, but we are to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. How does this happen? The world forms a framework of how we look at things, but we can change that by becoming Word-minded. You can change your thinking by thinking, responding, seeing, and reacting as God thinks, responds, sees, and reacts by desiring and meditating on the Word (Psalm 1:1-3). If you want change, get into things that will change you. Everyone meditates, either positively or negatively (worrying). How do you see things? What’s your mindset toward reading and memorizing the Bible? You can create your own desires by renewing your mind. How can you create a desire or control your desires? One way you can control your desire is by perceptions (Proverbs 18:1). Before you can desire something, you must know about it. Your perception could be negative or positive. Run to the Bible and find out what will set you free. Secondly, pay attention to your desire and study the positive. Instead of studying about cancer, study the Scriptures about healing. Thirdly, conception takes place when you change your thinking and do not even remember the way you used to think. For example, instead of thinking poverty thoughts, you think according to prosperity. You must delight in the Word (Psalm 1:2).

Text: John 12:20-21. The Greeks were coming to worship at the feast, but they had to stand outside, so they talked to Philip as a connection saying, “We would see Jesus.” We can ask the Holy Spirit to open your loved ones’ eyes that they may see Jesus (Psalm 119:18). The gospel is hidden to the lost (2 Corinthians 4:3-6). Why can’t people receive the gospel? Satan, the god of this age has blinded their eyes, and the gospel is veiled to them. Satan is the god of this worldly system and of those under his rule. Jesus is the ruler of the earth. There are only two groups: the children of light and the children of darkness. Satan has representatives on earth. Jesus never lacked power over the devil. If He would have wiped out the devil, He would also have wiped out all of Satan’s people. Jesus wants the harvest. Let’s turn on the light. People need to be exposed to the light, so that they can make a choice. Saul saw Jesus, and Jesus told him that he was to be a witness to open they eyes of the lost, to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God,that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Jesus (Acts 26:13-18). How can you pray for your unsaved loved ones? Pray that they would see and for God to open their eyes. Pray that the devil wouldn’t blind their eyes. We are witnesses to open the eyes of the lost. Satan tries to make people think that God is against them, or that there is not a God. People are already forgiven (2 Corinthians 5:19), but Satan blinds people so they can’t receive. Why don’t people receive their inheritance (verse 18)? Again, it’s because the devil has blinded their eyes. He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son (Colossians 1:9-13). You have a purpose in life. God can restore you to His purposes in an instant. He redeems the time.

Text: 1 Corinthians 12:1, 7, 11; 1 Corinthians 14. Today’s problem in the church is not a lack of knowledge about the gifts of the Spirit but the absence of the them. The Holy Spirit distributes to each one as He wills. Just because He used you one way one time, don’t limit Him to only using you in that gift. We should desire to prophesy, because prophecy edifies the whole church. All of the gifts should be done, decently and in order. Prophesying is a commandment (14:1). Your brothers and sisters in the body of Christ are your “safety net” for prophesying. They will help teach and affirm you. Just as hearing and hearing the Word is the only way to get faith, prophesying is the only way to edify the church. We are to covet the best gift, which is the gift that you need at the time. When we gather for a church service, we should come in full, so that God can use us. Churches need an interpreter, who is like a moderator. Learn to allow the Holy Spirit to use you, but be humble enough to understand that He may use someone else instead of you. Desire the prophetic anointing.

Paul says in Galatians 3:26-28 that we are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus and that there is neither male nor female, for we are all one in Christ Jesus. This is a supernatural unity, Greek and Jew, slave and free, male and female. (Pastor Dale shares of how a woman song writer, Janny Grein, impacted his life and how he gave a place for her to preach. That church experienced 16 weeks of revival. During that time, God supernaturally communicated with him when he was in Kiev, and Janny was ministering in his church in Titusville.) Acts 2:16 quotes Joel which says that your sons and daughters shall prophesy and that God’s Spirit would be poured out on your menservants and maidservants. Women do have a place in ministry. The book of First Corinthians was a letter written in response to a letter the church had written to Paul. Paul’s letter refers to what they wrote previously, as seen in 1 Corinthians 7:1. Chapter 11:2-5 and 16 says that the women can pray and prophesy but that there is a flow of authority. Chapter 14:31 says that you can all prophesy. Verses 34 and 35 were not Paul’s comments, but comments he was responding to from the Corinthian church. How do we know? He just said that women may prophesy, and the law doesn’t say that women can’t prophesy anyway. It is in the Jewish commentary, not the law. Paul’s response is in verse 36-40 where he says, “Did you write the word of God?” In Acts 2:4-11 all spoke aloud in tongues. Go back to Acts 1:13-14 and see that those who were part of the 120 people werewomen, Jesus’ disciples, Mary the mother of Jesus, and Jesus’ brothers. Mary and the other women spoke in tongues on the Day of Pentecost.

God is everywhere, even in hell, so how were Adam and Eve (Genesis 3:9-10) able to hide from God? There is an essential presence of God, which means that God is everywhere, but there is also an influential presence, such as our fellowshipping with Him, which can be covered up. We prepare God a habitation by our praise. Listening to praise and worship music is not preparing a habitation for God. Praise is aloud and loud. In Psalm 22:2-5, a Messianic psalm, it says that Moses and the Israelite fatherscried to the Lord. Luke 18:38-43 tells about the blind man crying out to Jesus for Him to heal him. He was annoyingly loud to the point that he was rebuked and told to be quiet. What did he do? He became louder! He was so loud that Jesus stood still and healed the man. Then, the other people started to praise Jesus, too.  We know Paul and Silas were loud in the prison, because the other prisoners heard them. Worship is for God, not to give you some emotion. Our praise is to Him, because He is holy. He is enthroned in the praises of His people. You don’t naturally want to praise God, and in fact, something in you inhibits your praising. When it says in Psalm 149:5-9, “Let them sing aloud on their beds”, it means that on the bed of sickness and affliction, we are to lift our praises to Him. [Pastor Dale shared the time he rescued a beaten-up missionary in Romania.] Praise binds difficulties, and sometimes that means that you have to praise in spite of heavy oppression. Praise Him until you get a note of victory. Heaven is a noisy place (Revelation 19:1). Salvation, glory, honor, and power belong to the Lord our God. Praise Him!

Jude 20 tells us to build ourselves up in our most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit. Some translations use Holy “Ghost”, meaning “Guest”, indicating the indwelling Spirit of God. Ephesians 6:18 says for us to pray in the Spirit with all prayer and supplication. We are to pursue love, desire spiritual gifts, prophesy, and to speak (pray) in tongues (an unknown language) (1 Corinthians 14:1-2, 4). Why are we to pray in tongues? It’s something only you can do for yourself, because it edifies you, and it’s speaking mysteries to God. Out of you will flow rivers of living water when you pray in the Holy Spirit. When you are praying in the Spirit, you can get the interpretation of what you are praying (1 Corinthians 14:13). If you give out a tongue in a group, there must be an interpreter. When you pray in the Holy Spirit (tongues), what you are praying is not coming from your mind but from His Spirit in you. Praying in the Spirit will greatly help you to know how to raise your children, what to say, actually everything you do, because He has prepared things for you. When you pray in tongues, you’re speaking mysteries (1 Corinthians 2:4-13). God had hidden these mysteries from the devil since before the beginning of the world, and He reveals them by His Spirit. Our minds and our emotions are not the Spirit. We receive the Spirit so that we might understand what has been freely given to us by God. God’s Spirit gives us the ability to speak the mysteries, the wisdom of God.

Ephesians 1:15-20 is a prayer that you can pray for yourself and your loved ones. Paul prayed this prayer with thanksgiving, not with worry and fear. If you pray that a) you might receive a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Jesus Christ and God, and that b) the eyes of your understanding (your spirit) would be enlightened, you will pray to know what is 1) the hope of His calling, 2) the riches of His glory, and 3) the exceeding greatness of His power toward you. Numbers 1)-3) do not happen if you don’t do a) and b). The hope of His calling means your purpose. You are sent. If you don’t have hope, you don’t know why you’re here. Walk in your purpose. Pray for the hopeless using this prayer. The riches of His glory refer to what belongs to you. As a child of the King, you have an inheritance. What belongs to you will come through prayer. Do you know the exceeding greatness of His power toward you, how powerful you are? The same power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead is at work in you. You have an assignment: Write and print out Ephesians 1:17-19 personalizing this prayer for yourself, and then post it somewhere you’ll see it. Then do the same thing inserting your loved ones’ names. Finally, pray these prayers for yourself and your loved ones.

Offering message: Isaiah 1:19 tells us to be both willing and obedient. We are givers, not takers. Our willingness is important. God wants us to change nations. Sermon message: You received salvation by confessing with your mouth the Lord Jesus, (which means saying aloud), and believing in your heart, (that’s faith) that God has raised Him from the dead. The same way you received salvation, you receive all the spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus, such as healing, righteousness, freedom from fear, and provision. Because you know that God has already provided for these spiritual blessings, you can hold onto them by confessing them as your own, thanking and praising Him for the victory. Confessing is acknowledging every good thing that is in you in Christ Jesus. You can abound, which means having more than you can contain, because you have fellowship (communication, free flow, interchange, koinonia) with God and Jesus, who are alive. Jesus is in the heavens, which is not referring to distance, but is the realm of the Spirit and access, a place of control of the universe. For example, the instant you die physically, you are with Him. There’s no time or space lapse. Use your faith by confessing the spiritual blessings that are in you through Christ Jesus. (Pastor Dale tells of using his confession of faith to get the victory over asthma.) [Texts: Philemon 6, Colossians 2:6-7; Romans 10:9-10; Hebrews4:14; Ephesians 1:3]

God blots out your transgression for His sake and tells you to put Him in remembrance (Isaiah 43:25-26). This is covenant and legal language, pointing to a contract made together. What does He forget? He forgets our sins. What is to be remembered? We are to call on God to remember His promises to us. Remembering is a covenant word to make a claim on a promise that was given. God does not count our sins against us, because He put them on Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:15-19). We are to declare the Word of His covenant. We can plead our case for righteousness together with the Holy Spirit. We say God’s Word promise, and the Holy Spirit pleads with us. We declare our innocence that we may be justified. Keep your own word (Psalm 15:1-5). What God says, He will do. We insult and offend God when we dishonor or disbelieve what He says. God’s Word will come to pass, if you listen to His voice to observe and to do it (Deuteronomy 28:1). Jacob pleaded with God (Genesis 32:9). You can plead with God by saying, “Lord, You said …” Put God I remembrance of His promises, plead together with the Holy Spirit, and make a declaration.

Text: Mark 4:14-20 (The Parable of the Sower and the Seed). God’s Word is the seed. The ground (soil) is a person’s heart. The seed’s (the Word’s) growth and fruitfulness depend on the ground that the seed lands on. If the soil (a person’s heart) is good, it doesn’t take much for the seed to grow and produce fruit, like the woman who was healed of the issue of blood. Immediately after you receive the Word, Satan will try to steal it out of your life, because he hates the Word in you more than he hates you. Don’t let Satan take the Word out of you! Tribulation and persecution arise for the Word’s sake, and people get offended at it. Maybe it’s a Word about giving or healing. Keep a good heart. We have three main enemies or weeds in our heart. They are: the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts for other things. These “weeds” choke the Word and cause the Word to become unfruitful. Keep the weeds out of your garden. Your heart must be receptive. For example, before ministering to a person with cancer, you have to get the fear out of his/her heart. Pluck out the lust of the flesh, of the eyes, and the pride of life (1 John 2:15-16). Get your heart right before God, and bear fruit- thirty fold, sixty, or a hundred.

Text: Psalm 27:1; Proverbs 18:20-21. Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit. You are satisfied by what comes out of your mouth, and by saying and confessing aloud the Word of God, you activate this spiritual principle. You get what you ask for. What is abundant in your heart (Matthew 12:34)? If what’s in your heart in abundance isn’t good, don’t hide it, but curse it and say what you want and need, and don’t drop your commitment to what you’re saying. In other words, speak death to what you don’t want and speak life to what you want. Your tongue is a powerful rudder, and your words are producing- life or death. When you are quoting Scripture into a situation, you’re not lying if that’s not what is in the natural. In Mark 4:35-41 Jesus said, “Let us cross over to the other side.” He sowed Word seed. Jesus used His words exactly and precisely. The disciples spoke care and worry. Jesus spoke death when He rebuked the wind and spoke life when He spoke to the sea, “Peace, be still.” Speak your desires and end results by speaking the Word.

Offering Message: Even after we are saved from our sins, we still need to make a choice for what God has provided for us, such as life, prosperity, and healing. Pastor Sydney shares a strong testimony of choosing healing over sickness and death and choosing provision over lack. Jesus doesn’t like lack. He provided for fishermen who weren’t catching fish, food for the multitudes, and possible increase for the rich young ruler. Sermon Message: Colossians 3:13 tells us to forebear and forgive one another. This goes beyond tolerating one another to loving and understanding. If you quarrel, forgive it out. We are to owe others our love for them, because we are in a debt to one another as a result of Christ’s forgiveness of our sins (Romans 13:8). Jesus is all about forgiveness (Ephesians 4:31-32). The effectiveness of our speaking to the mountains in our lives depends not only on our believing, but also in our forgiving others (Mark 11:23-26). The “Lord’s Prayer” is a prayer template or pattern. If you notice how often “we, us, our” is mentioned in this prayer, you will realize it is not for yourself, but for His whole Body (Matthew 6:7-13; Luke 11:1-4). Some translations use the words, “debts” and debtors”, which carry the importance of forgiveness. The disciples knew the mechanics of prayer, because they were trained in the Jewish prayers. You have to learn the mechanics of prayer before you get into the “art”, passion and fire behind it. As an artist takes care of his tools, you will get into the tools of prayer- the name of Jesus, praying in the Spirit, etc. Challenge: Use the Lord’s Prayer to “kick start” your day and prayer time. Each time you pray it, forgive whoever comes to mind. Be quick to give, forgive, and forget. Get rid of the bitterness rejection, and pride, including that of spiritual pride. The sin of omission separates the goats from the sheep. Repentance should be ongoing. If you’ve forgiven someone once, and that person keeps coming back in your thoughts, keep repenting and forgiving. Consciously and deliberately work forgiveness into your praying. Forgive and ask life for a brother and even for our nation (1 John 5:16).

Jesus’ public ministry ended when He died, but His private ministry began with His disciples after He rose from the dead. In Acts 1:1-8 Jesus was giving His disciples leadership training. He told them that they would receive power (dunamis) after the Holy Spirit would come upon them. Jesus told the Pharisees that if He cast out demons by the Spirit of God that the kingdom of God had come upon them (Matthew 12:25-29). In the Lord’s Prayer it says, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven”. The kingdom of God comes after the devil’s kingdom is destroyed (Luke 11:14-22). When His kingdom comes, the atmosphere and culture change. (Pastor Dale tells of the kingdom of God coming into the life of a co-worker.) The kingdom is in our lives. Acts 1:8 and 10:38 tell us that we will receive power after the Holy Spirit has come upon us. That means both proximity and progression. It’s our receiving the kingdom personally. Power is progressive. Jesus conquered the devil in the wilderness, after He was full of the power of the Holy Spirit (Luke 3:21-22; 4:1). Personal battles need to be won before you can minister to others. It is your personal victories that put you in a place of power. (Pastor Dale’s personal victory over asthma put him in a place to destroy that sickness in others.) Every personal victory causes an increase of power in your life so that you can possess the kingdom of God. After your personal victory, you’re in a position to bind the strongman (Luke 11:20). Challenge: Pray for God’s kingdom to come in the area that you need victory. Personal victory over the devil separates little children from men (1 John2:12). Be strong in God and His Word and bring the kingdom of God into your life. After the Holy Spirit has come upon you, each day should bring you greater power.

Our words work for or against us, bringing either life or death (Proverbs 18:20-21). Pastor Dale told of Janny and Bill Grein giving all that they had in obedience and then God’s blessing them by having Pat Boone sing twice one of her songs on the Tonight Show. Use your mouth to speak life, blessings, and joy. Pastor Dale told of being in Tulsa and having a car that “died”. He kept speaking to the car to be sold. Within a short time of being towed by his employer’s company, a man bought it and had it towed. You aren’t going to have what you believe, but what you say (Mark 11:23). Speak the Word, and then faith will come. It has to get into a place of abundance. The third experience Pastor Dale shared was when he was sickened by some food in Moscow and was left with a bad rash after a week of fever and delirium. He kept cursing the rash that it would leave. When he was in Istanbul, Turkey, he ministered to a Muslim man who had been scalded by boiling water. The man was instantly healed. Later Pastor Dale found that his own rash had disappeared, and that he was healed, too. The increase of your lips will satisfy you. Your words will work for you.

Pastor Dale shared about a Mennonite missionary to Ethiopia who found out that miracles are for today and is writing a book about the miracles in Ethiopia. Pastor Dale told about talking to a Baptist pastor near Pittsburgh who told him that he doesn’t believe in speaking in tongues and being charismatic, but this pastor told of being in Africa in a crisis and how he and the Africans didn’t understand each other, but all of a sudden this language came out of his mouth, and they understood him. The pastor said he still doesn’t believe in tongues. Sermon: Just like you are a sibling in your family, and you don’t have a choice about it, you can try to be depressed, defeated, or sick, but you’re blessed. God has blessed you! Isaac, even through deceit and deception, couldn’t take back his blessing. God has commanded the blessing on us. You are blessed! “Happy” is not the same as “blessing”. God has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places in Christ (Ephesians 1:3). God’s blessing rests on you. You are blessed in heavenly places, which is the spiritual realm where angels and demons are. The spirit realm birthed us. You are blessed in Christ. Being born-again or saved is Christ in us. Colossians 1:27 says Christ in us, the hope of glory. Jesus Christ has come in my flesh (1 John 4:2). We are also in Christ. That’s where the blessings are. What does it mean to be in Christ? In Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive (1 Corinthians 15:22). What are the effects of being in Adam? (Romans 5:12) Adam opened the door to sin and as a result suffering, wars, corruption, and death came. Does sickness come because of a person’s sin? In some cases it does. All sickness does come from sin, at least from Adam’s sin. If you have sinned and have sickness, run to the cross and the blood of Jesus takes care of it. Apply faith to the grace that has been given to you. The Old Testament priesthood was replaced by Christ as our High Priest. Abraham tithed, and when you tithe you are really giving to God, testifying that Jesus is alive (Hebrews 7:8-). Levi paid tithes through Abraham, but Levi was born 430 years after Abraham. How could he have paid tithes to Abraham? Abraham paid tithes to Melchizadek, the Priest of the Most High God, a type of Christ, obligating Levi to come underneath what Abraham did. You are the result of those who have gone before you. One act affects lineage. (Pastor Dale told of his German cousin, Johnny, and his meeting with his grandfather years later. He found out that he was the recipient of one act of mercy.) In Abraham, you can be blessed. (Pastor Dale gave a demonstration of lineage: God, Adam, Cain. When Adam sinned, there was a breach, and the blessings couldn’t pass down the line.) We all were in Adam. Jesus’ lineage is in Luke 3:23-38, tracing all the way to Adam, who was the son of God. In Adam all die. In Abraham there can be blessing because he tithed. In Christ, He took His blood and went to heaven to the mercy seat, breaching the gulf with His sacrifice. As long as you put faith in the blood of Jesus Christ, the lineage doesn’t stop at Adam, but goes back to God. We were grafted into the root. Being born is how we inherited all the sin and sickness and death, but being in Christ is to have all the righteousness, wisdom, redemption, peace, joy, love that comes to us through Christ Himself. We have to receive by putting faith in the grace of God. If you are in Christ, you are a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17). It’s your birthright to be blessed. You are born blessed and healed. We are in Christ, blessed and redeemed.

Speaking God’s Word satisfies you (Proverbs 18:20-21). Your words carry the power of life or death. The people who love His Word will eat its fruit. Pastor Dale told of how he loved football practice, whereas others on the team didn’t but only wanted the lights and action of the Friday night games. We have to love “practice”, the daily time with the Father, His Word, and the confession of it. We “see” by what we hear, because words carry visual images (Mark 4:21-26). Sin brings darkness, and darkness is a lack of the Word; the Word is light. Love the process of meditation on the Word. There is power in it. Meditating on the Word is like sowing seed, like the practice for the football games. It’s a process of life. Blessed (favored by God) is the man who doesn’t walk, sit, or stand where he shouldn’t (Psalm 1:1-3). Sometimes you are blessed by what you don’t do. Don’t walk in ungodly counsel. Good is not necessarily God. Correct your course, or you’ll get in a place where you’ll have to justify your course. Love the Word and love meditating on it. Take heed how and what you hear. Start where you are. It’s a process of planting (Psalm 1:3). If you love the process, you’ll love the harvest. Meditate on the Word for the Word’s sake, not to get some result and apply kingdom principles first.

Text: John 21:15-17. Jesus affirmed Peter by asking him three times if he loved Him and then He told him to feed His sheep and lambs. Jesus must be more important to you than anything else. The phileo (responsive love) that Jesus and Peter talked about required the action of Peter’s feeding His lambs and sheep. Here “feed” means to pastor. He was saying, “If you love Me, take your place.” People get out of their place, and then they get into trouble. David was supposed to be going to war, but instead he saw a woman and gave into temptation. One of the roles of a pastor is to feed his sheep. The second role is to protect the sheep. Peter wasn’t a pastor, but he was an apostle. In other words, he was an apostle, pastoring. Don’t put church roles into a box. Pastor/Apostle Dale shares about being an apostle and a pastor. An apostle needs to keep his feet in the local church and his hands in the world. He shared that Sydney Ropp will be the CWI pastor, so that Apostle Dale can fulfill the apostolic role in CWI. What happens to Ukraine is happening to us, because of our connections. Pastor Demeke’s church will be joining CWI. Gene English is reaching to Washington, D. C. Our sister church is in Colorado.

Sydney Ropp had the offering message. Dale’s message, Text: Psalm 1:1-4. You can be blessed by what you don’t do: NOT walking in the counsel of the ungodly, NOT standing in the path of sinners, and NOT sitting in the seat of the scornful. Watch your desires. The Word and God’s promises do not change, so keep your eyes on them. Meditating takes time, just like planting by the rivers of water and then prospering (the harvest of meditating). Meditation is greater than crisis. In Psalm 119:1-2 the Word is called “His testimonies”. A testimony is a landmark in your life. It is something you can obey and keep, because it should change your life forever. For instance, Pastor Syd and Jen can keep the testimony of their daughter’s miraculous birth. There is a law of gratitude for all that God has done in your life. Meditation is seeing God in the Word making a change. Make the New Testament biographical by reading it and putting yourself as the character in the account. Do not let your testimony slip. In Genesis 15:5-6 God gave Abram an image to help him see and believe what He was saying to him about being the father of many descendants. What is the image you have of yourself? Get the right image and then you will have it. Meditation is your way out of wherever you are. Joshua 1:8 tells us to keep the Word coming out of our mouths and we will see things differently. Action comes out of meditation and prosperity comes out of the action. The problem of your problem is that it demands your attention. Meditate on the Word, not your problem. Light comes out of darkness (Psalm 112:4).

Text: Mark 4:26-29. The kingdom of God is as if a man should plant seed. Be seed-minded. Planting seed takes time, but keep planting seeds. It does not always mean giving money. Rule your life by divine appointments. Apostle Dale sowed seed by helping a man get out his car out of a ditch. Forget your own deliberate plans and honor God’s divine appointments. When you realize what you’ve done, you will have to say, “I don’t know how that happened. It was the Lord!” Peter did everything he needed to do as a fisherman, but Jesus, a carpenter, told him what to do to prosper. His obedience brought a boatload of blessing. Let go and leave it up to the Lord. Be immediate in your obedience to do what God tells you to do (thrusting in the sickle). Apostle Dale tells of blessing missionaries to Russia and how that impacted them and him. Whenever inspiration comes, act on it. 

Psalm 19:7-10 tells us that God’s Word is the law, a testimony, statutes, the commandment of the Lord, the fear of the Lord, and the judgments of the Lord. The Word should be more valued than your paycheck. In keeping God’s Word is great reward. The Word is not qualified by the sower, and the sower does not determine the Word. It is the Word that is important. We are experience-oriented, but purifying your soul is  not an experience, but a process by obeying the truth through the Spirit. (1 Peter 1:22-23) God wants our hearts red-hot for Him. Love others and reach out to them, even those who are different. God’s Word is eternal. When we work the Word, we will be blessed. (James 1:25) The Word of God can convert your soul. It is a process of renewing your mind by it. Your desires rule you, and you can choose your desires. (Psalm 19:10) What you focus on long enough, you will desire. Get your desires on the Word. Read the Word for yourself and value it.

The angel told Mary that she would conceive and have a Son named Jesus, and He would be great. (Luke 1:26-32) Keep Jesus at the focus and center of your life. Colossians 1:12-23 tells us that God has delivered us from the power of darkness and translated us into the Jesus’ kingdom. Jesus is the head of the body, the church. Make sure Jesus always has pre-eminence and keep Him first in your life. He reconciled all to Himself having made peace through the blood of His cross, and we are now reconciled to Father God. We were alienated, and we were enemies in our mind by wicked (twisted) works. Our thoughts can be alienated from God. The blood and His body died on the cross to present us (me) holy, unblamable, and unreprovable in His sight. How does God see you? He sees you holy. He sees you without blame or fault. He sees that nothing is needed to be added or fixed about you. The alienation and enmity are in our minds, not in God. What He sees is more important than what you think about yourself. He sees you always victorious, having more than enough, finding opportunities, and full of love, joy, and peace. God sees the answer. God can’t answer a prayer when it is for something He has already given us. Luke 1:13-15 is the account of the angel telling Zacharias that Elizabeth was going to have a son named John and that he would great in the sight of the Lord. Even though John the Baptist would be great, in fact greater than Adam, Abraham, and Daniel, Jesus said that whoever is the least in the kingdom of God is greater than John. That is who we are. Most of us do not see the greatness God sees. If we would see ourselves as God sees us, we would be translated from darkness to light in a moment. Knowing that you are holy, unblamable, and unreprovable in His sight will destroy past memories and make every day new. God sees what He has fashioned for Himself.

Proverbs 24:10 says that if you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small. When we are weak, we can rely more on God’s strength. If you get weary in a time and in a land of peace, how will you handle the really bad times? (Jeremiah 12:5) We need to get strong in the Lord. MAKE SURE YOU ARE IN CONTACT WITH THE LIVING JESUS! Rather than wondering what others think, want God’s approval. Get right with God by repenting. Drop those sins, even those that seem small. Put on the whole armor of God. (Ephesians 6:10-18) Ask yourself if you are missing a part of the armor, because if you are, you can’t stand against the devil. Where the devil attacks you shows you where you are weak. The devil hates you and wants to kill you. There is a real devil, who has strategies against you in a real war. Be careful to notice the subtle way the devil steals your time away from God. STAND and don’t waver. We stand against the wiles of the devil. We don’t wrestle against people. Some seasons in your life are darker than others. You don’t need to be afraid of the evil day, if you have your armor on. Run to the Word and stand on God’s promises. Your faith should put out the enemy’s darts. Paul’s expansion on the armor of God is really from Isaiah’s teaching in Isaiah 59:14-17. Intercession was tied in with all the pieces of armor. Satan tries to take you out of the role of intercessor. He is afraid you will get into the Spirit. When things go wrong, PRAY MORE. LEAN ON AND FOLLOW THE SPIRIT. TAKE THE SWORD OF THE SPIRIT, PRAYING.

We can be strong in the Lord and stand against the wiles of the devil. Isaiah 54:17 tells us that there will be weapons against us but that they will not prosper. Satan seeks whom he can devour. We can get “captured” by ourselves by not listening to and obeying the Holy Spirit. Learn to dodge the next weapon. Every tongue that rises against you, you shall condemn. (Isaiah 54:17) Oppose, not tolerate, negative talk against you. You may have to condemn the words that even loved ones speak or have spoken against you. You have a heritage to break everything built up against you. You can say “NO!” and not let self-judgment cause you to back off. In Luke 13:11-17 a woman had a “spirit of infirmity” assigned against her. A “spirit” is a personality, entity, being. It is alive. She didn’t glorify God when she was crippled over but when she was healed. She was loosed (like a donkey is untied) from the spirit of infirmity which came from Satan. You can know the devil’s there, and still not get paranoid. Don’t look for reasons why something bad is happening to you, but if there’s sin in your life, repent and look to the blood. Then, when God looks at you, He sees the blood. If you stand against the enemy, you need the breastplate of righteousness on you. Romans 8:1 says that there is now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. You empower Satan when you say, “What’s wrong with me?” What’s the devil’s “revival”? War. God is for you! You must condemn condemnation. The weapons formed against you are words. There is power in the Word of God. Sin no more. Get the living Jesus in your heart.

The church’s beginning is in Genesis 1:26-28 when God created man (mankind is plural) and He created them male and female. Real unity with two or three is more powerful than the idea of unity in a large group. In 1 Peter 3:6-7 God tells about husbands and wives and the marriage covenant. Prayer between a husband and wife is powerful. In Ephesians 3:14-15 Paul prayed for the whole family of Christ to have a revelation of the love of God. Ephesians 5:21-30 tells the husband to love his wife as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for her. Jesus laid down His life for the church. Are we decreasing in our love for the church? Today there is as much disregard for the church as there is for the family. No matter what your brother does, he is still your brother. Love the church. Make your family better. Christ sanctifies and cleanses the church with the washing of the water by the word. He nourishes and cherishes the church. A husband and wife become one like Christ and God are one. The Christians in the early church ran to their own company (Acts 4:18). We are to make disciples, which is work. Influence others. We are all one family. 

The church’s beginning is in Genesis 1:26-28 when God created man (mankind is plural) and He created them male and female. Real unity with two or three is more powerful than the idea of unity in a large group. In 1 Peter 3:6-7 God tells about husbands and wives and the marriage covenant. Prayer between a husband and wife is powerful. In Ephesians 3:14-15 Paul prayed for the whole family of Christ to have a revelation of the love of God. Ephesians 5:21-30 tells the husband to love his wife as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for her. Jesus laid down His life for the church. Are we decreasing in our love for the church? Today there is as much disregard for the church as there is for the family. No matter what your brother does, he is still your brother. Love the church. Make your family better. Christ sanctifies and cleanses the church with the washing of the water by the word. He nourishes and cherishes the church. A husband and wife become one like Christ and God are one. The Christians in the early church ran to their own company (Acts 4:18). We are to make disciples, which is work. Influence others. We are all one family. 

Text: Philippians 4:6-9. Be anxious for nothing, but by prayer and supplication and with thanksgiving, pray to God and His peace will keep (guard) your heart and mind through Christ Jesus. The screening process for our minds is to think on the noble, just, pure, lovely, good report, virtue, and praise-worthy things. Those are the things that you are to do and then you’ll have peace and prosperity. Get rid of the apathy in your life. We are told in Joshua 1:5-8 to be strong and very courageous. Be strong to do what He has already told you to do. The love of God is unconditional, but His blessings are not. Do according to the law (the moral law) and then you make your way prosperous. Courage is tied to prosperity. Deuteronomy 28:1-2 admonishes us to listen to the voice of the Lord, and then we must be strong and courageous to obey it. Find out what God has told you to do and do it! Apostle Dale shared the wondrous things God did in the meetings he had in the Ukraine as he listened to God’s voice and then acted in obedience. The root of faith is obedience. The blessings overtake you when diligently obey the voice of the Lord. Tithing and giving are just part of prosperity. The other part of prosperity is obedience to do what God has told you to do. 

(This sermon dovetails to Saturday evening’s.) Texts: Philippians 4:6-9; Joshua 1:5-9; Deuteronomy 28:1-2. You do not know how much stress you carry, because it accumulates. Stress spiritually produces “static” making it hard to hear God. Get worry out of your life, letting every care be turned into a prayer request with praise and thanksgiving. It stops Satan’s firing worry at you. Live in the peace of God keeping your heart and mind. To get rid of bad thoughts replace them with greater thoughts. Think on the good things and then do them. No peace? Are you thinking the good things? Are you doing the good things? Stir yourself up to be strong and of good courage and then do what He tells you to do. Actions can be scary, but let faith get you up and doing. Prosperity is linked to action. The reason you meditate is so you know what to do. What is your part in prosperity? Listen to God’s voice for what He has told you to do, observe and do it (obey), walk in holiness, and obey His moral commandments. You will make your way prosperous. What is God’s part? It shall come to pass that blessings shall overtake you, and you will have good success. 

Ephesians 6:10-19 tells us to be strong in the Lord and in the power of Hismight. The weakest person can be as strong as God is, but apart from Him, we can do nothing. Do not be afraid of the weak and hard times. Enemies are meant for you to defeat in the strength of the Lord. Who would David have been without a Goliath? Teach your enemies a lesson. When you cannot make it, He can. The devil is evil and tricky. God and the devil NEVER agree. God will bring good things around, but He does not cause the bad. Be a person who looks for good. Put on the armor of God so that you can stand against the tricks and strategies of the devil. Do not wrestle against people, but leave the door open for them to come to you after they repent. Dealing with principalities and power in prayer and spiritual warfare is  dealing on a higher level than with earthly authorities. Stand against the devil, so you can withstand in the evil day. Standing is warning the devil, “You will NOT take this away!” Do not chase after what Jesus already purchased, but just stand in it. The devil is defeated, so we do not have to wrestle with him. When we stand girded and equipped, we have the sword of the Spirit, praying always with all prayer and supplication. The two-edged sword coming out of His mouth is the Word of God prayed. The Scripture can be applied to your life. Apostle Dale tells of the Spirit using Scripture that he had in him to pray for their son, Ethen. He also shared about the Spirit waking him up at 3 AM to pray Psalm 75. He later found out that that was when Pastor Demidovich had been captured and later released. Pray in the Spirit and let the Spirit lead you to Scriptures to pray. Obey the voice of the Lord (Deuteronomy 28:1). Let the Spirit tell you what to do, and if you obey Him, He will set you high above the nations of the world. If the voice you hear tells you to do anything that violates His commandments, it is not God’s voice you are hearing! (Apostle Dale also shared about upcoming personal changes.)  Other Scriptures: Psalm 2:1-8; Acts 4:23-31.

(Apostle Dale shared about some things happening in Russia and Ukraine.) Romans 8:26states that the Spirit makes intercession for us. Your prayers pave the road you walk on and put signs on the road of your life. Have a prayer life and follow the Holy Spirit to guide you. Jude 20-21 tells us to build ourselves up in faith by praying in the Holy Spirit. We build ourselves up, but it is in God’s strength, not our own (Ephesians 6:10-18). Realize that you cannot do it and rely on His strength. The battle is the Lord’s, and the victory is ours. Even if you are struggling in your life, God is still Lord. It is a finished work. You are expected to defeat the enemy and your problems, not to be afraid of them. Pray in tongues and pray the Scriptures. The only part of the armor (Ephesians 6) that is offensive and brings external changes is the sword of the Spirit prayed (the Scripture prayed). Apostle Dale shares about a man who fell a couple stories and broke his back. When Apostle Dale yelled at the man screaming in pain to speak out a Scripture, he started quoting the 23rd Psalm. After a confrontation three times with the doctor, the man started repenting to his wife. He was admitted on Saturday with a broken back and went home on Monday without a broken back! Praise God! THE SWORD OF THE SPIRIT IS THE SCRIPTURE YOU SPEAK AND PRAY!