FOCUS TO DISCERN AND BUILD GOOD TOMORROWS!
RE-WRITE AND CHANGE YOUR HISTORY.
By Wade Martin Hughes, Sr Kyfingers@aol.com
I do this in two parts.
I first called this re-write your history, and after thinking, you can’t change yesterday, it is set. Then I thought re-write your future and I thought we are writing it now --- how can you re-write it?
I didn’t come up with a good title, but we need discernment to realize today we are writing tomorrow’s memories. We need to live so the preacher can tell the truth at our funeral.
For what will you be remembered?
Are we allowing spiritual wisdom and discernment to lead us?
Remember the story of the great millionaire out on a huge yacht sailing the oceans.
His little son found a magnet and so enjoyed playing with it. He placed the magnet all around the deck seeing what the magnet would or would not be attracted to. The lad was playing near his Dad as he steered the yacht. The young man was amazed how the magnet attached to the side of the compass.
The boy went to eat lunch and forgot and left the magnet attached to the side of the compass.
The Dad held the vessel true to the course, some days later the Coast Guard had to rescue the whole family. The Dad was true to the course, the magnet caused the compass to give a false reading.
Let us come to God and allow His Sweet Spirit to guide us gently to His Plan.
Isaiah 40:28 Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding.
29 He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength.
30 Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall:
31 But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.
I. IF WE EVER KNEW OF A DAY WHEN BELIEVERS NEED PHYSICAL AND SPIRITUAL DISCERNMENT IT IS TODAY! I REFUSE TO LET GO UNTIL GOD BLESSES US!
A. Knowledge is good, wisdom is better.
Learn all you can! Apply all you can where you can.
WE NEED MUCH MORE THAN WHAT WE CAN LEARN AND KNOW!
Mom’s and Dad’s need more than parenting skills.
God can open eyes and ears beyond the human ability to know.
1 Kings 3:9 Give therefore thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and bad: for who is able to judge this thy so great a people?
B. WE WALK IN THE LAST DAYS.
OUR ENEMY KNOWS HIS TIME IS LIMITED AND HE IS THROWING ALL THE GARBAGE HE CAN MUSTER AT THE SAINTS.
The family is one of our enemy’s greatest targets.
Weak families --- weak churches.
Matthew 24:22 And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.
C. THERE ARE MANY BITTER --- HATE DRIVEN PEOPLE THAT ARE LOOKING FOR THE RUIN OF INDIVIDUALS AND THE KINGDOM.
There was a man following Paul, his name was Simon.
He offered to buy God’s gifts? PAUL SAW BEYOND HIS BRIBERY.
Acts 8:23 For I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity.
D. I think to fully understand the Bible you must be more than a carnal mind reading the red letters in a Bible. You must KNOW HIM.
Love letters are personal.
1 Cor. 2:14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
E. WE MUST REVERT TO THE SPIRITUAL GIFTS AVAILABLE TO BELIEVERS TODAY. WE NEED DISCERNMENT TO PERCEIVE SPIRITUAL MATTERS!
II. WE NEED THE GIFT OF SPIRITUAL DISCERNMENT ALIVE AND WELL IN THE FAMILY.
A. DISCERNMENT:
The quality of being able to grasp and comprehend what is obscure or hidden.
Insight, perception.
The ability to see what is not evident to the average person.
Accuracy in reading motive and character.
The power to distinguish and select what is true or appropriate.
A searching heart that is able to go beyond the obvious.
Great understanding, sympathy and compassion.
B. I was called to the hospital late one Sunday night.
I was rushed by a Catholic Sister into a room filled with mountain people.
The Catholic Sister explained to me that the Priest had already given the Last Rites to the young man, but the family had asked for me by name.
I went into the small room, maybe 15 to 20 people were gathered watching this strong young man dying. He was about 20 or 21. He was very handsome.
The room was very silent.
I surveyed the situation and just stood there.
The young man was turning blue, his feet and hands were cold.
Later his aunt noted that his arms and legs were cold and turning blue.
As a young preacher I stood there and watched this young man as he was dying.
The doctor’s gave no hope, the gangrene was so bad.
I stood there watching when finally Mary, another aunt came in the room and said to me --- ’HOLD A PRAYER!"
What a brilliant idea! I was caught in the moment and never thought about praying.
I put my hand on the young man’s left foot and started praying, a special anointing rested upon the room, I prayed and got a little bolder, and prayed some more.
When I opened my eyes I noticed his feet were a pink color, I said AMEN, AND THE YOUNG MAN SAT UP IN BED AND SAID I AM SO HUNGRY --- SOMEBODY BRING ME SOMETHING TO EAT!
I stood there amazed. I almost needed to change my pants.
Many times since that day I have thought, ---
WHAT IF MARY HAD NOT SAID, HOLD A PRAYER?
I was a Preacher, I graduated from college and I never had the sense to pray?
C. About a year later I was driving a 54 passenger church bus. As I was driving I mentioned I lost all my keys about two months before.
There were keys that I had none to copy.
As I was driving the church bus and I told how bad I needed my keys, a little girl about 12 years old, named Barbara, said:
"Preacher did you pray to find your keys?"
Of course the preacher ... hadn’t, never thought about praying?
She lay her little hand on my shoulder and prayed a simple prayer, "Jesus, You know where Preacher’s keys are, help Preacher find them, he needs them! Amen!
The next morning a Preacher in the next town called and said we found some keys in the ditch in front of our house and for some reason my wife thinks they
might be yours.
I went to his house and sure enough there were my keys. I picked up my keys, they had laid in his yard for two months and the rain made some rust a little, I cleaned them up and used them for years.
I thank God for a little girl that had faith, when the preacher never even asked? She is now around 40 years old. I don’t know if she remembers, but this old preacher does.
D. TODAY I WAS AT THE FOOTBALL FIELD.
My oldest son is the head coach of the little league COWBOYS.
During the third quarter a ten year old player on his team was down and could not move. My son called the MOM out on the field. They never permit this.
Later my son called me out on the field, he asked me to drive the Mom and little brother to the hospital. We were to ride behind the ambulance.
The crowd of about 300 was silent and very still.
I was standing at the 45 yard line with the young boy and the MOM.
The coaches of both teams were standing around, there was a solemn stillness as we waited for the ambulance.
I put my arm around the MOTHER and I started a sweet, quiet prayer, immediately the Mom calmed down and said A PEACE CAME OVER US.
The ambulance pulled on to the field, loaded the young boy, and away we went.
At the hospital I watched the little 4 year old brother until the DAD arrived. The Dad visited with his injured son and his wife, and then he came out front in the Emergency Room.
The Dad inquired, ARE YOU THE MAN THAT PRAYED for my son and wife?
He thanked me over and over. He said YOU WILL NEVER KNOW WHAT YOUR PRAYER DID FOR MY FAMILY. He wasn’t even there when I prayed, yet his wife told him all about it before he came out.
There is power in prayer. I never asked for permission to pray, I just felt the need to pray.
III. YOU WILL NEVER KNOW WHEN YOUR SMILE, YOUR WHISLE, OR YOUR PRAYER CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE.
A. Beware of the heart, we look on the action, God searches the motive.
If we guard our weaknesses, we are smarter than if we deny our weaknesses.
B. We should build friendships around us that help protect our weakness and make us stronger.
Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
Proverbs 12:20 Deceit is in the heart of them that imagine evil: but to the counsellors of peace is joy.
Proverbs 20:17 Bread of deceit is sweet to a man; but afterwards his mouth shall be filled with gravel.
IV. THERE ARE SOME WORDS WE NEED TO KNOW TO UNDERSTAND THIS LESSON.
A. TRUTH:
The state of FACT.
Fideliity, constancy.
Sincerity in action, character, and utterance.
A spiritual reality.
B. When I was a teenager JOHNNY CASH had a hit song:
WHAT IS TRUTH?
The song told a story of a young boy in Sunday School Class learning
THOU SHALT NOT KILL.
The boy grows and is drafted in the Army, where they train him to kill.
The young man asks WHAT IS TRUTH?
(DEFENDING YOUR NATION IS NOT MURDER!)
C. NOW WE WALK IN A DAY WHEN MANY PEOPLE SAY THERE IS NO TRUTH. THEY CLAIM SITUATION ETHICS, TRUTH DEPENDS ON THE SITUATION YOU FIND YOURSELF FACING.
Several years ago I knew a Christian man that drew UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS by deception. He later got caught and was taken to court. He had to go to jail
for a few days and pay every penny back.
I visited the man in JAIL, he explained to me HE HAD TO DRAW UNEMPLOYMENT TO SUPPORT HIS FAMILY. HE KNEW IT WAS WRONG, HE KNEW HE HAD NOT EARNED THOSE BENEFITS BUT GOD KNEW HIS SITUATION AND IT WAS OK.
No it was not! He cheated, deceived and lied.
D. Another time a dear friend came to me and asked me to sign food stamp papers that her daughter lived on her own and thus qualified to receive food stamps.
I knew that the daughter lived in the same house with the Mom and Dad.
This was a bold lie. The lady went on to explain they would never get caught.
This was a church member.
I refused to sign a lie, the lady got mad at me and left the church.
She said I couldn’t see the need?
Live right, get a job, earn your way?
Later she called me to tell me of a better pastor than I was, he signed the papers
and he had known the case longer than I had?
V. THERE ARE SOME SNAKES THAT ARE LISTED AS CHARMERS.
The snake can crawl up a tree and lay still on the branch and then the snake will wiggle it’s tongue in such a pattern that a bird will land and watch until
the bird is charmed to walk right into the snakes mouth.
The bird will die by it’s own power, walking ever so slowly into the jaws of death.
I am told it becomes almost impossible to take the birds attention back. You have to jump, scream, scream some more to unplug the bird from the
death that it faces.
VI. WE MUST HAVE DISCERNMENT BETWEEN TRUE AND FALSE.
MANY FALSE TEACHERS WILL BE SO POPULAR THEY CAN SELL SNAKE OIL, AND PEOPLE LACKING DISCERNMENT WILL BUY IT AT GREAT EXPENSE. CAN WE REALIZE THE POWER OF A LIE?
2 Thes. 2:11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:
A. LIE:
TO MAKE AN UNTRUE STATEMENT WITH THE INTENT TO DECEIVE.
To create a false or misleading impression.
Dishonesty.
An untrue or inaccurate statement that may or may not be believed as truth by the speaker.
Something that misleads or deceives.
Falsehood.
We tend to soften or palliate lying.
1/2 truth = whole lie.
B. THIS PROBLEM OF DISTORTING THE TRUTH CAN TAKE MANY FORMS,
THE OFFICER OF THE COURT SAY:
1. WILL YOU TELL THE TRUTH?
2. THE WHOLE TRUTH?
3. AND NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH.
C. DECEIT, DECEITFUL, DECEIVE, DECEPTION:
TO HAVE THE TENDANCY OR DISPOSITION OF NOT BEING TOTALLY HONEST.
Crooked, false, fraudulent, to give false impressions.
Underhandedness,
TO TRAP, TO ENSNARE,
To fail to fulfill.
CHEAT, SURPLANT,
To accept invalid and untrue as truth.
D. ATTITUDE:
A MENTAL POSITION WITH REGARD TO A FACT OR STATE.
A feeling or emotion to a fact or state.
WE BOLDLY SPEAK OF HAVING AN ATTITUDE?
A negative or hostile state of mind, cocky and arrogant.
E. MOTIVE, MOTIVATION:
What causes a person to act?
Impulse, incentive. Stimulus to action.
Emotion or desire of the will that causes one to act.
The driving power.
Impel, excite, to give energy.
F. CONSCIENCE:
The sense of moral goodness.
The sense of one’s personal conduct and having good intentions of doing good
by a sense or feeling of obligation and love to do good and right.
G. ID, EGO, and SUPER-EGO...
The conscience is the part of the super-ego that transmits commands and desires.
VII. IS IT POSSIBLE TO DEFILE YOUR CONSCIENCE?
1 Tim. 4:2 Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron;
A. SEARED:
To cause to wither away or dry up.
To burn, scorch, or injure by heat.
B. TO SEAR ONE’S CONSCIENCE IS TO NUMB, OR DEVOID YOUR SENSATION AS A RESULT OF OVER-RIDING AND THEN HAVING ANESTHESIA, SO YOU OVER-RIDE YOUR EMOTIONS AND GROW COLD AND INDIFFERENT.
VIII. WHAT DOES GOD THINK OF DIVISON AND REBELLION?
GOD TOTALLY REJECTED SAUL,
1 Samuel 15:23 For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity
and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, he hath also rejected thee from being king.
A. UNDERMINE:
TO WASH AWAY THE SUPPORTIVE STRUCTURE.
TO SUBVERT OR WEAKEN INSIDIOUSLY OR SECRETIVELY.
To weaken or ruin by degrees.
To work surreptitiously to bring destruction of...
B. Can you imagine how a snail sees the world?
There is a little trail of slim aimlessly wandering from here to there?
A snail has a limited history.
Isaiah 40:28 Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding.
29 He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength.
30 Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall:
31 But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.
C. Then imagine the eagle, how high it can fly?
The eagle senses a storm coming and launches and flies high above the storm.
The storm is no alarm to an eagle.
The eagle has a great renewing powering.
D. The caterpillar’s history seems trapped in the mud?
But one day the pupa will emerge out of the cocoon and the wind will blow.
The mud will no longer be the acceptable norm --- FEEL THE WIND?
10 BROTHERS BELIIEVE A LIE? THEY FORGET THEIR SIN?
The worms are satisified in the mud?
Can we see and not see?
Genesis 42:8 And Joseph knew his brethren, but they knew not him.
E. WHAT IS THE INTENT OF THE HEART?
Do things have to stay the same?
Job 28:7 There is a path which no fowl knoweth, and which the vulture’s eye hath not seen:
F. THERE IS A VIEW BEYOND THE SNAIL? THERE IS A VIEW BEYOND THE EAGLE? WE NEED TO CONSIDER --- FROM HEAVENS POINT OF VIEW?
IX. WHY DID JESUS WEEP?
A. Jesus is standing on Mount of the Summit, called Jebek ez-Zeitun, later this 200 feet high
hill over looking the city between Jerusalem and Bethany ---
WILL BE CALLED THE MOUNT OF OLIVES.
Jesus is standing on Mount of the Summit, called Jebek ez-Zeitun, later this 200 feet high
hill over looking the city between Jerusalem and Bethany --- WILL BE CALLED THE MOUNT OF OLIVES.
Often times Jesus had walked this road, and many times he may have sat down to rest.
It is on this hill Jesus will explain the SIGNS OF HIS SECOND ADVENT ---
B. WE NEED TO COME ABOVE THE SITUATION AND LOOK AT THE POSSIBILITIES.
It is on this road that JESUS WEPT.
John 11:35 Jesus wept.
JESUS WAS NOT CRYING FOR HIS FRIEND LAZARUS.
Jesus saw Martha cumbered by much serving. Jesus saw Mary and Martha’s lack of faith.
C. WE SIT AROUND AND COUNT APPLES ---WHY NOT SEE AS GOD SEES --- LET US COUNT THE SEEDS IN AN APPLE? NO SEE BEYOND THAT --- LET US COUNT HOW MANY APPLES ARE IN A SEED!!!
D. LAZARUS WAS ONCE DEAD, BUT NOW WE FIND HIM IN SWEET COMMUNION WITH GOD’S SON.
John 12:2 There they made him a supper; and Martha served: but Lazarus was one of them that sat at the table with him.
E. WE NEED TO COME CLOSE --- A CLOSE INTIMACY
X. YOU WILL KNOW A TREE BY THE FRUIT IT BEARS?
Luke 6:43 For a good tree bringeth not forth corrupt fruit; neither doth a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.
44 For every tree is known by his own fruit. For of thorns men do not gather figs, nor of a bramble bush gather they grapes.
45 A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh.
A. THE ROAD TO SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT AND GROWTH IS NOT ALWAYS THE EASY TRAIL...
There is a high road that an eagles eyes can not see...
B. In all HISTORY THERE IS ONLY RECORD OF ONE MAN LAYING HIS HEAD UPON THE CHEST OF THE SON OF GOD AND HEARING THE DIVINE HEART BEAT!
C. PAUL WAS CALLED UP TO THE THIRD HEAVEN....
Jeremiah 33:3 Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.
D. MAY THE LORD SHOW US GREAT AND MIGHTY THINGS.
MAY WE HAVE MUCH FRUIT TO LAY AT HIS FEET.
Let us pray Paul’s prayer for his friends for our friends.
Philip. 4:17 Not because I desire a gift: but I desire fruit that may abound to your account.
E. DREAM, DREAM BIG, DREAM AGAIN, PRESS ON...
REFOCUS YOUR EYES MY FRIEND!
LET US REWRITE BY FAITH AND CHANGE OUR OUR JOURNEY AHEAD!
God has a better plan for us.
We can not stay the same and expect a different result, we must be willing to change and
make some on the course adjustments.
Remember the story of the great millionaire out on a huge yacht sailing the oceans. His little son found a magnet and so enjoyed playing with it. He placed the magnet all around the deck seeing what the magnet would or would not be attracted to.
The lad was playing near his Dad as he steered the yacht. The young man was amazed how
the magnet attached to the side of the compass.
The boy went to eat lunch and forgot and left the magnet attached to the side of the compass.
The Dad held the vessel true to the course, some days later the Coast Guard had to rescue
the whole family. The Dad was true to the course, the magnet caused the compass to give a false reading.
Let us come to God and allow His Sweet Spirit to guide us gently to His Plan.
His servant, Wade Martin Hughes, Sr. Kyfingers@aol.com
Help me? Pass this on ---
