21- Day Consecration: Obedience to God (Day 4)

As we journey along life and we see what God is doing among us in this place we call earth, sometimes, we need to be reminded who we are and to whom we belong. 

Romans 12:1-2

"Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual[a] act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will."

 What does this mean to you? Well, to me...God is dealing with me about being selfish. Stop complaining about what's wrong with this or that. Stop asking God why don't I get this or that. Stop wondering when my blessing will come. Stop interfering with those around me from getting their blessing because I am to busy worrying about me. I must be a living sacrifice HOLY and ACCEPTABLE which is my reasonable, the least I can do, service to God himself.

The question poised to me was "Linda, you keep asking Me to applaud you for your daily sacrifices and your reasonable service but when are you going to understand that is what you are supposed to do?" 

It is sort of like a man being applauded for taking care of his children, the ones he fathered. It is like you getting a job performance evaluation of "meets" and feeling you have done an "exceeds" performance. I remember as a young lady with my first job, a boss told me that he does not give awards for coming to work every day (perfect attendance), that is the least you can do. I give you a paycheck every two weeks that should be award enough. I thought that was pretty harsh of him but I am understanding it now. Why do we want God to reward us for our reasonable act of worship. Don't get me wrong He will celebrate our obedience to Him, it just may not be the way we think it should be. 

In this we must transform our thinking to His thinking. We must allow the same mind in Christ to be in us. We, well I, have to start asking God to renew my mind each day. Ask Him what thoughts I should have today, What things I should do today, what things I should say? When something happens in the day, I should not jump to my own conclusions but ask what do you think about this Father? More than WWJD (What Would Jeus Do), but WWJT (What Would Jesus Think). 

As I begin to go through this process, I am learning more and more that it's not about me. I am learning that as I think more like Christ I will understand more what His will is for me. His will is good, perfect and acceptable, meaning I become more pleasing to God. So just obeying the simple task of being a living sacrifice, transforming by the renewing of my mind and and knowing God's good, perfect and acceptable will, I am meeting his expectations and well on my way to exceeding them. Nice!

I Corinthians 3:16-17

"Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you? If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him; for God's temple is sacred, and you are that temple."

 I Corinthians 6:19-20

"Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body."

Last thought, all this makes me think about how well I am taking care of the temple that I am for Christ. Am I getting enough sleep? Am I operating as I should be? Do I understand that God is control of this vessel? Do I want him living in a sloppy mess? I have to make it a proirity to take better care of this temple God has blessed me with. I must love this temple just as God loves it. 

So, how does all this fit together, well just that. Doing what's right for my temple and being obedient to the signals of my body, making the necessary changes and transforming my mind to think differently about my health, wealth and emotional being is pleasing to God.

The journey continues...




You are Bound No More.

Pastor Linda Hillman
(c) 2015 LAH Ministries International
Booklindahillman@gmail.com

Get Your Copy Now
Will You Be Made Whole
In The Meantime

Do We Live In a Time That We Glory In Our Shame?

"Join with others in following my example, brothers, and take note of those who live according to the pattern we gave you. For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is onearthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body." Philippians 3:17-21

When I read the third chapter of Philippians, I got more understanding of what Paul was saying to the Philippians. Let's see if I can express it the way i understand it to be.

First, he warns about Judaizing seducers and tells them to follow his example (Paul). He also reminds them who his own lineage and his own status, that he rejects to be a follower of Christ (verses 1-6). The in verses 7-14. Paul talks about his choice to be what God has designed him to be.

"But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. " Philippians 3:7-14

Here Paul begins to talk about attain what the Lord has already attained for him and forgetting the past failures and successes to press toward this goal in Christ Jesus. Paul is stating to put it simply: Do not have confidence in your flesh but put your confidence in Christ. It does not matter what you have or the world thinks that you have. You must be willing to put it all aside for Christ and achieving this one goal.

So far, Paul is speaking to the church and he goes on to say in verses 15-16: that we must be mature and have this mind. He also tells us to govern ourselves by what we have already attained through the teachings and revelation of God's truth. Which leads us up to verses 17-21. Paul here is not addressing those that are not in Christ but those that are stating that they are in the body of Christ. He is warning them not to be like some who are, in my words, perverting the things of God by "their god being their stomach, their glory is in their shame, and their mind is on earthly things." Paul says, "they live as enemies of the cross."

So, with all this said, do I believe that this scripture is relevant for the time we live in? YES. My reasoning being many are living as enemies of the cross, but say that they are friends of the cross. They smear the reputation of the church. They tend to forget it's not about earthly gain or what you can be or get here. It's all about helping people see Christ is still the answer. They promote themselves in a way that people come to see them and not the one who sent them. They pollute the gospel for their own gain.

Some of us have forgotten that this world is not our home we are just passing through. Paul reminds even the Philippians of this too.

"But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body." Philippians 3:20-21.

I hope I made myself clear, your thoughts welcomed.


You are Bound No More. 

Pastor Linda Hillman 

(c) 2015 LAH Ministries International 

Booklindahillman@gmail.com 

Get Your Copy Now 

Will You Be Made Whole 

In The Meantime

No More Drama! We Dont know What's Real These Days!

A teacher had a poster on her classroom door that read, "Save the drama for your llama." This poster was absolutely necessary because she worked in a middle school! But the truth is drama is not only for middle schoolers; it can be a part of anyone's life at any age. 

In the world we live in today, drama can make you rich and famous. Don't believe me look at Real housewives of ??? (you fill in the blank). It is almost like reality TV has taken over the world and we reward people for a life full of drama. We condone their lifestyles because it's entertaining. We overlook the bad habits and rude behavior because it something to watch and makes us feel better about our own lives. "We say things like my life is not that bad." 
We laugh at the drama we see on TV and even in regular TV shows, more and more is about how much drama can I put into an hour. I mean even one of my favorite shows is Scandal. Why because we all love to see a scandal unfold before our eyes. Each week it something else that makes me say "Oh my, what will happen next?" Now there is nothing wrong with watching Scandal unless God tells you not to. For the sake of making my point, we are addicted to drama. the worst it is the more we seems to gravitate to it. 

Drama tears us and others apart. Paul says in Galatians 5:15-16, “If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other. So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.” (NIV) Just before this in verse 14 Paul reminds them of Jesus’ teaching from the Old Testament that everything is summed up in loving God and loving others. In other words, our responsibility is to love God and others instead of causing drama by talking about each other and engaging in other sins of the flesh.

How do we stop the drama? The first thing is to walk in the Spirit. We are lead by God in the way He has uniquely made us to love Him and others. When we do this, God takes away our desire or "need" to create drama by filling it with meaningful, life-giving tasks.

Prayer:

Our Father, help us to see the meaningful purpose that you have given us. May we not be drawn in by dramatic situations that cover up what is truly going on in our hearts. Let us see who we truly are and find joy in the purpose that You have given us. In the name of Jesus. Amen.

You are Bound No More.

Can You Get Passed The Circumstances?

We must keep our eyes on Jesus, who leads us and makes our faith complete. - Hebrews 12:2

Peter was a really unique man. He was the boldest of all the disciples. He said things that other people only thought. He was the type of person who did things that other people didn’t have the nerve to do. Peter was completely drawn to Jesus. Peter wanted to follow Jesus with his whole heart. But, many times he made mistakes. Does this sound like anyone you know? Maybe you are not as Bold as Peter but you still want to follow him and are drawn to him like Peter. Maybe, you are afraid like Peter was after denying Christ that there is no forgiveness for you. I am a living witness that Jesus can and will forgive you.

The above scripture in Hebrews is the key. We must keep our eyes on Christ. Only in him can we find perfection. He is the only one that can cause our circumstances, issues, problems and past hurt, habits and hangups to become null and void. Does that make you breathe easier? It should. You don't have to do it in your own strength.

I am reminded when I read "We must keep our eyes on Jesus" about the testimony in the Bible of how Peter walked on the water. No one can walk on the water, don't believe me, well try it and see how successful you are. Yet and still, we will say when someone has excelled at something in life, "it's like they can walk on water". Peter was an imperfect man, who put his trust in a perfect man and was able to accomplish something no one else has repeated since him. 

Trust is all it took. Setting aside all the thing that told him he couldn't accomplish it, to believe the one who said he could. take a moment to think about it.

Does your current situation seem impossible? Do you feel you will never get over that hurt, that habit, or that tragic event? Do you let others define you by your past? Do you wish you could move passed it but you are afraid what might happen if you take that first step?

I encourage you today to take a breath and put your eyes on Jesus. Keep them there and step forward. Let the spirit of God lead you. You salvation is only steps away from you. Don't be afraid and let your emotions get the better of you. You may just do the remarkable!


You are Bound No More. 


Pastor Linda Hillman 
(c) 2014 Living Above Hurt Ministries 
Pastorlindahillman@hotmail.com