RULES OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE

"And as you would that men should do to you, do you also to them."(Luke 6:31)

Whether you are playing a game , driving a car, or baking a cake, there are certain rules that must be followed if you are to succeed.
The Bible teaches that the Christian life is one of constant growth. When you are born again , you are born into the spiritual world. You become a baby in God's family. It is God's purpose that you will grow into full stature and become mature in Christ. It would be against the law of God and nature if you were to remain a baby and thus become a spiritual dwarf. In 2 Peter 3:18, the Bible says that we are to grow. This implies steady development, constant enlargement, increasing wisdom.

In order to grow certain rules must be observed for good spiritual health.

1. Read your Bible daily---your spiritual life needs food. What kind of food? Spiritual food. Where do you find this spiritual food? In the Bible, the Word of God. The Bible reveals Christ, who is the Bread of Life for your hungry soul, and the water of life for your thirsty heart.
2. Learn the secret of prayer---You know have a Heavenly Father. He hears and answers prayer. Jesus said "Ask anything in my name and I will do it." A prayerless christian is a powerless christian. Christ spent hours in prayer. If He had to pray how much more do we need to pray!
3. Rely on the Holy Spirit---As a born again Christian Christ dwells in you through the Holy Spirit. Your body is now the dwelling place of the Third Person of the Trinity. Ask Him to take over your life. Stand aside and let Him take over in all choices and decisions of your life.
4. Attend Church regularly---Christianity is a religion of fellowship. Following Christ means love, righteousness,service; and these can only be achieved and expressed through social relations. The church is Christ's organization upon earth. It is a place where we worship God, learn His word, and fellowship with other Christians.
5. Be a witnessing Christian---If you are practicing the four above this one will take care of itself-just as it follows naturally that if a cup is being filled continually it is bound to overflow. We are duly appointed and commissioned ambassadors of the King of Kings. We have bread for a hungry world. The people may seem to be so busy feeding on other things that they will not accept the Bread of Life, but we must keep on giving it, offering it to the souls of men.

PaulP Acts 20:24 (NLT)

Too Busy to Pray?

2 Chronicles 7:14

From the look of things , were all extremely busy guys.(and gals) You may have a demanding schedule and you have neglected to pay sufficient attention to a particular part of your life, the Spiritual part. If so, today is the day to change, and one way to make that change is to simply spend a little more time talking to God.
Sometimes instead of turning our thoughts and prayers to him, we may rely on our on resources Instead of asking God for guidance, we rely upon our own limited wisdom. A far better course of action is this: simply stop what your'e doing long enough to open your heart up to God : then listen carefully for His directions.
In all things great and small , seek God's wisdom and His grace. He hears your prayers, and He will answer. All you must do is ask.
Prayer strengthens your relationship with God.
PaulP Mark 11:24

Character

Keeping to the theme of "What is Integrity" here is a part that will stem from Integrity.

Character-- People today are desperate for leaders , but they want to be influenced only by individuals they can trust, persons of good Character. If you want to become someone who can positively influence other people , develop qualities of Integrity and live them everyday.

O.K. so your saying to yourself "What qualities is this guy talking about?" I will throw a few of them at you, there may be more , but here are a few that strike me right out of the gate.

• Trust- Solid trust can develop only when people can trust you all the time.


• Trustworthy- Your words and actions should match up.


• Humility- People won't trust you if they see that you are driven by ego, jealousy, or a belief that you are better than they are.


• Support-Nothing develops your Character better than your desire to put others first. If you will help others to succeed, you will succeed also.


• Promises- Never promise anything you can't deliver, and when you say you will do something carry through with it. A sure way to break Trust with others is to fail to fulfill your commitments.


• Service- We have been put on this earth not to be served, but to serve.

These are some that come to mind and there are more, It's not easy , and I'm not saying that I adhere to all of these, I'm just saying that we must try to live a life of Integrity. The goal of influence is not manipulation; it's participation. Including others in your life. PaulP

What is Integrity ?

A question that some may not, or cannot answer.

"The Lord is near all that call out to Him, all that call out to Him with integrity."(HCSB). It sounds as if God is actually requiring us to have integrity when we pray to Him. Webster describes integrity as--"an adherence to moral and ethical principles; soundness of moral character, honesty." Developing and maintaining integrity require constant attention. It is absolutely essential to have integrity if you desire to become a person of influence. Anytime you compromise your integrity, you do yourself an incredible amount of damage. That's because integrity really is your best friend. It will never betray you or put you in a compromising position. It keeps your priorities right. When your tempted to take shortcuts, it helps you stay the right course. When others criticize you unfairly, it helps you to keep going and take the high road of not striking back. And when others criticism is valid, integrity helps you to accept what they say, learn from it, and keep growing.

The bottom line when it comes to integrity is that it allows others to Trust you. And without Trust you have nothing. Trust is the single most important factor in personal and professional relationships. And it is a key to becoming a person of influence.
When you earn peoples Trust, you begin to earn their confidence. In order to be a leader, a man must have followers, a man must have their confidence. The supreme quality for a leader is unquestionable integrity. Your talk and actions must square with one another . Therefore integrity must be counted as the highest purpose to benefit trust.
When people begin to trust you, your level of influence increases, and that is when you are able to begin impacting their lives.

Here is a short story of how your talk and actions must square with one another to be trusted by your followers.
When I was in the Fire Service I had a Captain that was over a team of seven men, When he ask us to go into a burning structure there was no doubt on any of our minds to even hesitate at such a command. Why? Because he had proven to us and faught fire beside us in most every situation that we had ever faced. He would always tell us " I will never send you into anything that I wouldn't go into myself." And we believed him because we had seen him back that statement up. His Actions were always Squaring up with his talk.

When people begin to trust you, your level of influence goes up. Power can be a dangerous thing . In most cases those who want power probably shouldn't have it, and those who have it probably enjoy it for the wrong reason. Use power to help people. There is but one just use of power and it is to serve people. Here is a question to ask yourself when you seem to be getting a little ambitious and your focus seems to be blurring .... "If the Whole World followed me , Would it be a better World?"

"The Lord is near all who call out to Him, all who call out to Him with integrity." (Psalm 145:18)

PaulP

Come Home

Several years ago, as I passed the fifty mark on the calendar of my life, I discovered a new and distinct desire to go deeper and pursue God more intentionally than ever before. I was awakened to the reality that we do ourselves no favors when we act and live as though Christianity were a stage on which we are to perform as though there were no deep need of an intimate relationship with the one who is the focus of our activity.
At the same time, God has given me gifts that enable me to be fruitful--just as He has for all believers. These gifts and His wisdom have made it possible for me to meet the challenges I have faced relatively well. Sometimes by virtue of these gifts He has given us ,we forget that we need Him. We become overconfident and forget from where these gifts originated.
But I do need Him. When we forget that we need Him, our Christianity becomes little more than a task maintained by responsibilities and requirements. And we miss the pleasure and wonder of needing Him and being in touch with His presence and power that alone can satisfy,sustain and secure us as an ongoing experience of life.
James4:8
PaulP

Get ready for a Journey*

It is getting close to that time of the year for "Journey through Easter" to begin. Preparations and planning are know an ongoing thought and prayer for this years Journey. If you are not familiar with the Journey let me just give you a few highspots of the perfomance. First of all a full blown Jerusalem market will be built on the Walnut Creek grounds, from Blacksmith shop to Net weavers, just imagine what shops would have been in Jerusalem in ancient times and they will be there for you to walk through at this time. Then comes the perfomance that you will view through a tour group with guides,(everyone dressed in the costume of that era) . Judas and the betrayal, The Lord's Supper, Disciples, Guards taking Jesus from the Garden, The Cross, and The Tomb scene. With an ever present satan lurking in the background . Come join us as we go through this Journey. March 5th - 8th. 7p/m 1969 Sego Lily rd. Diana Tx.

True Revival

I am really into the concept that we are in a battle with Good and Evil on a daily basis. It's not really a concept, it is a reality, that we are bombarded daily with satans firey arrows. So right now my theme for my mornings and daily thoughts run to "Battlefield praying." In the previous post I spoke of letting the Holy Spirit ride through and 'cut' out every and all strongholds that we may be harboring within our daily lives. Battlefield praying is not only limited to this type of praying we must extend this type of praying into all aspects of our daily lives. Here is another area where we can use Battlefield praying : For True Revival ; we can schedule a series of meetings called "Revival", but True Revival must be a sovereign work from God. You can't schedule that in advance, only God can accomplish that, in His timing and in His way. True Revival always starts through prayer. Not just your typical everyday, 'church praying' , but by truly calling out to God in intercession, calling out to Him with a true hunger for His Spirit to be poured out on us. Yeah, you know what I'm gonna say next---more Battlefield Praying. This is just another way to use it. Or in other words 'To bathe the Church in Prayer."But for me "Battlefield Praying" sounds more aggressive and we will have to be standing with the full armor on during these times of prayer. There must be so much prayer, that it becomes a force you can feel every time you walk into the sanctuary. True Revival will come suddenly, when God moves in the Bible , He does it suddenly. We pray, wait, water the seed,and it looks as if nothing is happening. Then suddenly, there's Revival. God won't warn us, He will just move into Revival.
We mustn't try to figure out when God will bring us Revival, We must be prepared for it. How?
Pray,Pray,Pray,Pray and Pray some more! Cry out to God and when the time is right, He will move. It is at the Altar that God will accomplish this. It is essential! That is the place where God will do His work upon our hearts. We must be ready for what God wants and desires to do.
God Bless and Stand always Ready! {Joshua 1:9}
PaulP

Battlefield Praying

There is a war taking place, and it's command post is the Kingdom of God. Eveywhere the Kingdom advances, there is always an ongoing battle against satan and his dark side. If you have accepted Christ as your King then you are a citizen of His Kingdom, and as you know that kingdom is at war. There is a battle raging, and it is a battle for the lost souls of this world. This is where battlefield praying can be very affective. Jesus calls us to live differently than the world. Christ insist, that to be His followers, we must live our lives not defined by worldly materials. We can't live our lives defined by the flesh and blood of this life. Peoples lives are changed by the unseen world, the world of battlefield prayer.

I met with a couple of brothers who are warriors in this battle a few days ago. One of these brothers actually drew the plan out on a piece of paper.As he was drawing I was thinking this brother is actually drawing out a battle plan, a strategy that can be used against a dark kingdom. If we are to succeed on the front lines of this battle, we have to lay bare our hearts, open ourselves up and let the Holy Spirit ride through us with His scythe cutting out all and every stronghold that is there no matter what it is. And then putting on the full armor of God daily. (Eph.6:11) And then and only then can we fight a productive battle against satan and all of his temptations. We must unify ourselves into this thought of battlefield praying. God has equipped us to overcome satans power. The apostle Paul said that "the weapons of our warfare are not carnal (of a fleshly or earthly nature), but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds."(2Cor.10:4)

Use Me

The one thing the devil fears more than any other is a God's man or woman who is willing to say those two little words each day:Use Me. We especially grab his attention when God burdens us to begin inviting others to explore a relationship with Christ. He will stop at nothing to keep these two little words from ever being fused together in prayer. He needs to keep them seperate in your life. Use Me. Two little words---A verb and a pronoun. What's the big deal, you say? Put the two together, speak them sincerely to God, and mean it. In the natural realm, it may seem insignificant. But in the spiritual world there are huge repercussions.

• It means a warrior has been added, ready to fight for souls.
• It means salvation and transformation of lives.
• It means forgiveness and healing.

Imagine the footholds of the enemy that will be taken back, live saved, relationships transformed, just because you prayed these two little words and meant them. Use Me...

PaulP

The Heart of a Warrior

Why did God create you? A man must have a battle to fight, a mission or purpose to his life. That is why God created you--to be His ally, to join Him in the battle. You have a specific place, a mission God made for you. You will always encounter at least three enemies: the world, the flesh and the devil. Let me know how you are doing in this daily and minute by minute battle.
And what are some of the weapons you are using to do your battling with.
PaulP