Midcourse Adjustments
2 Cor 13:5
5 Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?
Is there anything going on in your life right now? I mean something that is going to launch you into a fruitful future? Or are you just moving right along with nothing really happening. No excitement, no passion for ministry or to seek God, just satisfied.
Maybe you need to cause things to happen by making some adjustments in different areas of your life.
Try this;
1. Change your whole way of praying.
Seriously, if the way you are praying and what you are praying is
not keeping you energized to serve God, the something needs to change.
A. Focus on the needs of others instead of yourself. God said that he would take care of you if you would only, "seek His kingdom and His righteousness," then all your needs would be taken care of. (Spiritual, physical, financial, social, and emotional)
B. Pray for your enemies. (Those who have hurt your feelings through words, actions, avoidance, etc.)
C. Pray the Word. The best way to view yourself is through the Word. The best way to develop great faith is praying the Word and listening to what it says. Pray after you read each Scripture and pray in the first person.
2. Change your way of talking.
A. No one listens to you better than you do. Begin to talk faith talk. If God said it in His Word, then you can talk it with undoubting, positive, nothing can change it, its going to happen, faith. Quit saying, "I hope that He will, or I know that He can, I don’t know what I’m going to do, trash. That is not faith talking. That is doubt and unbelief talking.
B. Who you talk to has a lot to do with your faith. Talk with people who you know God answers prayer for, because of their great faith. Don’t hang with people whose chin is always dragging the ground. Misery loves company.
C. Listen to yourself worship and praise God and then understand that this is what God is listening to when you worship. How do you rate your worship? Do you think that God is really lifted up with your praise? Don’t say, "I hope so." Understand that you are speaking words of love and praise to allmighty God and let that awesomeness overwhelm you.
3. Change your way of giving.
A. How often are we guilty of being consumers instead of givers? We come to church to hear, receive, to be partakers of, noticed, and recognized. But let us ask ourselves, what contribution do I offer to this assembly? If you really can’t think of any, then change is a must if you want to feel fulfilled in your walk with God. You have a talent. We all do, so use what you have, even if you feel that it is insignificant, for God and the church. We all have some creativity.
1 Peter 4:11 ... .if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability! which God giveth: that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ,
Make yourself available. Come to prayer meetings and outreach services. The outreach minister needs the help and you need the change.
B. Stop bringing a curse upon you and your family by not giving what God requires of you. Giving God your tithe is not an option. You receive by giving. You sow sparingly, you reep sparingly. Giving of your resources is not only obedience, but the ultimate expression of your faith. You must give away that which you can not keep to gain that which can not be taken away. Financial problems, sickness, the deterioration, brake down and loss of material things, can be the result of disobedience. Someone said, I can’t afford to pay my tithes, but the truth is, you can’t afford not to. Prove God and He will bless you. If He doesn’t, then this Word is not true.
4. Change the way you live.
A. Clean up your spiritual life first. Evaluate what kind of condition your condition is in. Die to every kind of sin so that the Strong Man dies too. (Repent of secret sins.)(See my sermon "Living with the STRONG MAN")
B. Do a house cleaning. Do you know why a lot of family tragedies happen? Its because the home has not been cleansed of every kind of sin. Purpose to recognize and remove those things in your home which hinder living according to the Word of God.
When we fail to do this, 6 things happens.
1. Evil things in the home brings God’s curse upon the father. Duet. 7:25-26
2. If the father is bound by any evil thing, Satan can destroy his house. Mark 3:27
3. Lack of standards allows wicked men to creep in and seduce your daughters. 2 Tim. 3:6
4. If evil is rewarded for good, evil will not depart from the family. Prov. 17:13
5. Rebellion in the home disqualifies the father from church leadership. 1 Tim. 3:4, 5:12
6. Godless influences stifle a father’s ability to teach God’s principles. Deut.6:7
Prov 12:7 The wicked are overthrown, and are not: but the house of the righteous shall stand.
C. Stop hanging with rebellious and immoral friends, those that easily influence you. Nonbelievers.
D. Give up things that harm your health. You house God’s Holy Spirit.
E. Stop watching trash on TV and the internet. Controlling your eyes helps control your mind.
F. Music seems to be such a big part of people’s lives today, and that’s OK but don’t listen to music which express the philosophy of rebellion to authority and to moral standards.
Repeat
Is there anything going on in your life right now? I mean something that is going to launch you into a fruitful future? Or are you just moving right along with nothing really happening. No excitement, no passion for ministry or to seek God, just satisfied.
Maybe you need to cause things to happen by making some adjustments in different areas of your life.
