Fight to Follow

Written By: Kirk Peterson

Have you ever sat in the security of your home as you heard a thunderstorm outside?  Some storms are close to your shelter, and some storms are so severe that you can’t help but be anxious by its force and power.  My mind always journeys to thinking about the power of God in those times.  Last night during one of those storms, I pulled up the weather app and watched the storm in radar loop for a while.  Being able to zoom in and out of the world, seeing the weather change and shape in random patterns, made me realize that the weather--indeed the entire earth is alive!  God’s creation is truly something marvelous to behold.

God is Alive

Have you noticed how God is moving throughout His kingdom with the idea of all of us listening to His teachings more and really putting our faith into action in our lives?

Let us as Christians start to walk the walk of what it means to try our best to live like Christ!

And do not bring sorrow to God’s Holy Spirit by the way you live. Remember, he has identified you as his own, guaranteeing that you will be saved on the day of redemption. (Ephesians 4:30 NLT)

I believe God is calling His people RIGHT NOW to take His teachings to heart. Every one of us has evil desires when viewed by the standards of God, being saved does not change that! 

But, our God has shown me that when I am willing to sacrifice and choose not to sin, that the life on the other side is something worth fighting for.

The night is almost gone; the day of salvation will soon be here. So remove your dark deeds like dirty clothes, and put on the shining armor of right living. Because we belong to the day, we must live decent lives for all to see. (Romans 13:12-13 NLT)

Hope

I define hope as not losing out to despair, but instead being inspired in your very spirit at the promise of a greater tomorrow. 

My great hope is in the thought of Heaven.  Living a life without sorrow, or pain, or sin.  God’s glory is something I can’t even comprehend, but the Bible tells us that the Holy Spirit gives us a taste of things to come.  What great hope there is my friends in Christ Jesus and God’s eternal Kingdom of Heaven!

Choice

If you imagine putting both your palms out in front of you, on the left and on the right you have a choice. The life on the left secures your identity and self-worth in performance, status & accomplishments. The life on the right secures your identity and self-worth in God the Father, Son & Spirit.

One life tends to produce fruit that is focused on self, drowning in the storms of life, and hardship. While the other life tends to produce fruit of selflessness, weathering the storms of life, and a life of easy burdens.

You have a choice on the kind of life you can have for yourself...so choose wisely my friends!

Sin is a Weed

Have you ever pulled weeds?

Sin is the weed of your heart. Choking out the good growth, always deceiving those that the plant is good.

Go to God and pray for forgiveness. Call on His great hand to triumphantly pull the sin from the soil of your spirit and cultivate a new heart to produce in you a blessed harvest of right living!

Saved by Grace through Faith not Deeds

God has challenged me to put on the new life His Spirit breathed into me when I was saved.  He convicted me to give my best effort at living the way His Son Jesus taught and demonstrated in how to live. 

The only person who can live the perfect life is Christ Jesus.  Though I will fail each and every day, the Holy Spirit inside moves me to try again each and every day to live out my faith with actions, deeds, thoughts, with my body and enduring the temptations of my evil desires—to live in such a way that when I look to heaven above, my eternal Father might be happy with me.  I pray for God to keep my spirit strong and to not lose out to despair, for Christ has already bought my way into heaven with His sacrifice at the cross.  I am secure in Christ! 

Though the way of Christian life can be hard and challenging, the life God has for us in His Bible is the greatest way we can live until the glory of the Day of Salvation comes.  That great day when the redeemed will live in eternal glory with God the Father, Son & Holy Spirit!

21So just as sin ruled over all people and brought them to death, now God’s wonderful grace rules instead, giving us right standing with God and resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Sin’s Power Is Broken

1Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace? 2Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it? (Romans 5:21-6:1 NLT)

Simple Instructions

Paul gives us simple instructions on how to live a life like Christ.  I pray that God will help me take it to heart. Love.

8Owe nothing to anyone—except for your obligation to love one another. If you love your neighbor, you will fulfill the requirements of God’s law. 9For the commandments say, “You must not commit adultery. You must not murder. You must not steal. You must not covet.” These—and other such commandments—are summed up in this one commandment: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” 10Love does no wrong to others, so love fulfills the requirements of God’s law. (Romans 13:8-10 NLT)

May the peace of Christ guide us all into a brighter tomorrow!  Thank God that He is greater, may He be a shield and a fortress to our beloved land and a bright light to shine in the hearts of all His people.  Amen!

See Hillsong United’s song “Love is War” here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5T1HODe7lqY

Rescue

Written By: Kirk Peterson

Shaper of Reality

When God touches your life, it is truly something to take notice of!  God’s hand has shaped my reality, not in vision or dreams, but in the physical world three times in my life.  Each time has come after I humbled myself before Him in prayer and cried out to my Lord in Heaven. 

Though God is invisible--God has sent His angels into the world, God’s Spirit has come upon prophets to fulfill His purpose, God Himself has become flesh as His son Jesus and since the Pentecost the Holy Spirit has created a home in believers of Jesus in the world of man--God is everywhere…but, the LORD chooses to remain invisible most of the time.  I believe this is to strengthen the faith of those who choose to believe, for how much greater is the faith of those who believe yet do not see?

Temptation

15Then call on me when you are in trouble, and I will rescue you, and you will give me glory.” (Psalm 50:15, NLT)

Video games has been one my greatest temptations—a trap the enemy of my soul chooses to use against me over and over again throughout my life.  God in His great wisdom has already showed me that I need to give them up forever!  He has given me sign after sign that I need to trust Him and let them go…My life is so much more rich spending quality time with those closest to me, living life with people instead of by myself in some digital video game creation.

Here is my first real story of how God shaped my reality after I humbled myself to Him in prayer:

Recently I had started back dabbling with video games.  I knew from the first time I did it, that I was doing something wrong.  I literally was hiding in the dark downstairs in my home as I played.  The Spirit convicted me that I was doing something wrong, but I went my own way anyway disobeying what God was telling me.

The first night I played for like four hours, then the second night I played for about six hours—falling further and further back into my addiction.  Finally after the second night of playing, knowing that I was going to be exhausted the next morning, realizing the time and energy that video games was stealing from my wife and 2 small children, and for the fact that the Spirt wouldn’t let go…I prayed.  I prayed to God for strength with my addiction and for help because I couldn’t do this alone. 

I looked in the mirror and stared at myself.  My gaze started to fall as I told myself that I just needed to trust God on this one and as I looked back into the mirror, staring at my face, my only thought was “Trust Me, Just Trust Me.”  I don’t know if I have ever had God actually talk to me, but speaking with others about when they feel the LORD speak, it sounds and feels a lot like this.  In fact, my mother in law says when the LORD speaks to you, she has found it tends to be very short and to the point.  Which is consistent with what the Bible teaches us in the holy word of God.

I went over to the iPad, found the video game app and held down the button to delete the game.  The software asked me, “Are you sure you want to delete this item?” and I hesitated, just for a second and then I let go and pressed the delete button.

LISTEN UP MY FRIENDS--Here is the “WOW” moment folks!  This is when the invisible God of my faith came into the world of His creation and shaped my life before me. 

At the exact moment I deleted the game and surrendered, the notification tone I had set for my cell phone went off in the distance.  My brother in law had a new song he was going to be releasing, “Heaven Help Me Now” and I had set those exact lyrics as the notification sound.

So as the sound found its way to me, coming from off in the distance “Heaven Help Me Now”--the moment shot straight through me and into my heart.  The fear of God was present as I was processing what happened.  After the shock had time to settle, a smile came over my face for it is not every day that the LORD of heaven’s armies touches you in your life in the real world!

Loosing & Binding

"Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. (Matthew 18:18, NIV)

The closest man I have ever meet to God was getting ready to tell me something.  As he was sharing with me, the hairs on my arms started rising and the Holy Spirit inside was pulling at me.  Almost like my heartbeat, the Spirit was beating in my chest “truth, truth, truth.”  This is what he told me…

“There are dark spirits from the enemy in the world that can attach themselves to people.  As a child of God, by His power not our own, we can bind the enemy!  God is greater and they have to submit to their LORD.  By the power of God you can pray that in the great name of Jesus Christ that the enemy is bound and cast out!  As he was sharing, he acted like one of those spirits, bringing his hands together, bound by some force, lowering his head and kneeling down to the ground before the One who is greater Jesus Christ.”

I had never heard something like that before?  The Spirit was telling me what he said was truth, and my knowledge of the Bible told me that what he said was consistent with what God has told His people.  All throughout the Bible, dark spirits had come upon people and needed to be cast out.  Jesus and his disciples cast out demons by the power of the Holy Spirit. 

So here is my last story of God showing me a miracle in the real world:

Every one of us sin and fall short of God’s glorious standard. 

I believe someone close to me has had a spirit of anger on them most of their life.  My wife and I were praying together for people in our life who do not know God and for their salvation.  She was there with me and can testify to the truth of what God did. 

As my prayer came to this person who is very close to me, the Spirit filled my words and lifted up my prayer.  I prayed with strong conviction, “Father God I know that there is a spirit of anger on this person.  You tell us in your word that who can enter the house of a strong man like satan and tie him up, but someone who is even greater.  I pray now God, in the great name of Jesus Christ to bind the enemy!  Jesus, I know that you are greater and as a child of God I cry out to you now to destroy this darkness.  May your glorious light shine so brightly that the enemy’s darkness is cast out!”

LISTEN NOW: here is one of the greatest God moments in my life folks, where my LORD showed Himself to be real and true, shaping my reality in the REAL WORLD!

At the EXACT moment I ended my prayer (this is not something I’m just adding to the story to make it better) but the exact moment I ended my prayer, “Ring, Ring” the phone rang.  It was the land line to the house of the person I was staying in.  I opened my eyes from praying and thought, “That is the land line, who would be calling at this hour (it was 11:09pm)? It has to be some telemarketer calling on that phone line…”  So the phone continued to ring, two-three-four times then my wife said, “I wonder what that means?” The moment she said that, the Spirit quickened my heart and I knew it was God.  My friend told me to always listen to the Spirit when He tells you something so, I immediately got up and went over to pick up the telephone.  Guess who it was on the other line?

The person I was praying about to bind the spirit was on the other line!  They said that the garage door was open to the other person’s house we were staying at.  We were spending the night at a house that was literally the next house over and the 2 houses were not more than 10 feet apart.  Adrenaline was pumping throughout my entire body, I was shaking and the fear of God was present!  My mouth was agape as I looked over to my wife in awe with the phone to my ear.  I could barely function for a second as I was taking in the moment.  

This person was an atheist.  I had promised to not share my faith with them as they told me it was offensive to them.  I had done the very best that I could in not sharing this part of myself with them and would have never shared my faith, but when God touches your life like this…who could not talk about it?

So, being convicted by the Spirit and the miracle that God revealed to me, I began to tell the other person on the phone what just happened.  I made sure to allow plenty of space in the conversation to make sure that they were willing to let me proceed and they did.

I told them the entire story.  They said that a neighbor had texted them that the garage door was open and that is why they called. 

“You have a mind of logic.  I have a mind of faith.  Forget about my faith for a moment, how does your logical mind explain what just happened”, I asked?

“It was just a coincidence. A set of random events that coincided”, this person said.

“Even if it was a coincidence, can you imagine the incredible probability of all of these events coinciding exactly?  You would have better odds winning the lottery twice”, I said back.

“If you are asking me to believe in fairy tales, well I’m not”, they replied.

Epilogue:

The next day we had a heated conversation.  This persons words were strong and there was anger present, but not quite like it was…The words they were saying were so dark and filthy, that only the enemy could have been a part of them.  This person went as far as blaspheming God and said things I do not wish to repeat.

I am at peace.  God allowed this miracle in this person’s life for a reason.  I left them with this thought, “Last night a miracle happened.  God answered my prayer and cast out that spirit.  My faith in this is absolute.  I believe the garage door symbolized the door being open in you for the spirit and now the door was closed (my wife had brought that one up after the fact). From now on, there will be something different about your anger, and I believe that is what your faith will grow from.”

The final part of the story was back when the phone was ringing, the person’s house we were spending the night at actually went to pick up the phone after the first ring.  They fumbled with the phone out of a deep sleep and lost it behind their bed.  For you see, the phone call was not meant for them, but was meant for me to pick up!

God the Holy Spirit breathes new life into those that surrender their life to God the Father and God the Son Jesus Christ.  This new life not only becomes a wellspring of hope for those who believe here on earth, blessing us with a rich and satisfying life--the living water of God's spirit also breaths new eternal life into our body, sealing in believers God's promise of heaven.

See Danny Gokey’s “Hope In Front of Me” here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KIhYZQ_ovw