You HAVE to examine yourself – meaning – you have to check yourself whether or not you are still on track and still in tune with God. It’s an actual instruction in the Bible: 2 Cor 13:5 “Test and evaluate yourselves to see whether you are in the faith and living your lives as committed believers. Examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you – unless indeed you fail the test and are rejected as counterfeit?” To examine yourself means to study your own behavior and motivations. It means you are reflecting, doing introspection. It’s to test and see if there is something about you that should not be there. The reason we have to test ourselves and examine ourselves is because we lose focus from time to time without even realizing it. We allow our circumstances to consume us. You may be praying and praying, but you may not be listening at the same time to God’s response. You have to check yourself for rebellion, jezebel and fear. These are the evil
We all need money. We need it to pay bills, eat, get our kids through school, for clothes, basic needs and more. God knows we need money. But we must also remember that money must not dictate who we are, how we serve God or how we treat others. Money must not have a hold over us. The god of this world is mammon - money. It is what everyone on this planet is chasing after - money and power. But we are not of this world. This place is not our home. We cannot think and act and do like the world. We are supposed to see money in a different light. Money is just something we need to finish our actual missions here on earth. It's not the reason we live! Your bank balance should not determine your actions, behavior or spirituality. Your bank balance is not supposed to determine your prayer life, your character and how you treat people. Money should not be the determining factor on how you see yourself, what your status is or how good God is.
There are many things you believe right now that are rooted in fear. In fact, you are very convinced of things and may even believe that it's God, but it's not. The Bible says that our hearts deceive us - Jer 17:9-10. We need the Holy Spirit to reveal those lies we are believing. Ever listened to a sermon or read a spiritual book or your Bible and suddenly you realize something you have not realized before? That's the Holy Spirit enlightening you. The lie you believed is now exposed. When I say "fear is a liar" I mean the following: - your lack of boldness is telling you that you are not anointed - your timidity is telling you that you are not called and that God cannot use you to make a difference - your limiting mindset is telling you that you can't change an atmosphere and tell a demon to leave
This is the piece of scripture that sounds crazy and impossible to do! Then again, God would not instruct us, what we would not be able to do! James 1:2-3 "Consider it nothing but joy, whenever you fall into various trials. Be assured that the testing of your faith (through experience) produces endurance (leading to spiritual maturity, and inner peace)." The word "joy" in this verse has a profound meaning: "joy in its highest form" and "every kind of joy". God expects us to have joy in its highest form when we face challenges! How is that possible?! This verse links with Phil 4:6-7 "do not be anxious about ANYTHING, but in every situation, by prayer with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts". Do you see the similarities? We should not allow fear to overwhelm us when we face challenges. Fear steals our joy! We must find a reason to celebrate God, thank God, reflect on His goodness, even in challenging times! When we do that, the Bible says, we will experience peace that no logic can explain!
When someone is intimidating you, it means, they are trying to scare you, terrorize you, make you subdued, discourage you, trying to dominate you and push you around. They are trying to twist your arm and pressurize you. Now, read this: 1 Pet 5:8 "be sober-minded. Your adversary the devil prowls around LIKE a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour." He's not a lion, he's just intimidating. And yet, the Bible also says: Prov 28:1 "The wicked flee when no one pursues them, but the righteous ARE AS BOLD as a lion." The devil is like a predator: it waits when you are at your most vulnerable, most tired, most scared, to strike! This is the only reason the Bible says the devil is like a lion. But YOU are a lion! You should be bold and confident and brave, even when you face danger and intimidation! It's not sin be scared, but it becomes sin when you allow fear to control your emotions and dictate the decisions you make. Remember, Jesus was scared too! He was very scared in the Garden of Gethsemane, BUT He continued to obey His Father.
Have you ever heard of the phrase "cover" it in prayer? It's a biblical principle. The Biblical definition of "covering" means to "conceal" or "wrap" or "protect" and even "disguise". Wow! This means, that when you pray properly over something or someone, when you really cover it in prayer, you are actually wrapping it, protecting it, concealing it...from who? From the enemy! Because your enemy is an opportunist according to 1 Peter 5:8! The enemy doesn't want you to receive your healing, breakthrough, help, whatever it is you're praying for. This is why, we must COVER it properly so that the enemy can't get an opportunity to frustrate, delay or stop our breakthrough! We cover our various food items in the fridge. Have you ever wondered why we do it? The scientific reason behind it is so that one item doesn't contaminate the other items.
If you are hard on yourself, you struggle with condemnation. What is condemnation: - you actually disapprove yourself - you see yourself as a failure - you are critical & judgmental, especially when you've made a mistake - self-hatred - carry guilt of the wrongs & disappointments you've experienced - have many regrets and think about them often - blame yourself whenever something does not go "according to plan" If Romans 8:1 says that there should be no condemnation for those of us who believe in Jesus, then why are we hard on ourselves? In fact, this verse in the Amplified says "no guilty verdict, no punishment for those who are in Christ Jesus". And yet, we are hard on ourselves.
Let me first explain what familiarity is: To be "familiar" with someone, means you are acquainted with, close to, buddies with, casual with, attached to, comfortable with. It means that they are your friend. This message is not saying you shouldn't have friends, but it is teaching you something to be weary of: satan uses those closest to us to attack us, too! We are familiar with those closest to us, it is why it hurts so much when the people who should have your back, turn their backs on you. Job had those closest to him, turn on him - his friends, even his wife! The comments they made, the "advice" they were giving him, was going to cost him his salvation in his most difficult time. He had a choice to make. He did not allow the familiarity to his friends and wife, to affect his walk of obedience to God. And that is what I am teaching you in this message.
2 Corinthians 4:4 states that Satan, the god of this world blinds the minds of the unbelieving to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ. This verse proves that satan wants us to be spiritually blind. What does spiritual blindness look like? * being rebellious * lacking in discernment * hardness of heart * religiousness * pride When we don't deal with the above mentioned, we become spiritually blind. We struggle to see what is really going on in our hearts and lives. When we are spiritually blind, we don't have understanding and revelation. We may have knowledge, but there is no wisdom.
None of us are excluded from this. Because none of us don't have rebellion. We have a sinful nature and that sinful nature, no matter how hard we try, sometimes still gets the better of us and those closest to us get the brunt of it - like our spouses. What is rebellion? Rebellion is everything we do that is opposite to the fruit of the Holy Spirit: hardness of heart, pride, stubbornness, anger, frustration, bitterness, anxiety, controlling behavior, selfishness and the like. All those behaviors that do not resemble Jesus' character, is our rebellious, sinful nature. Our actions, words and behaviors, affect our spouse. When we stress, when fear is in control, we say and do things in haste - Prov 19:2 warns us that when we act in haste, we will make mistakes. How many of your decisions made in haste did not affect your spouse negatively? Of course it did! What affects you, affects your spouse! What about going to be in anger? Eph 4:26-27 teaches us not to go to bed angry and hold on to anger and offense because we give the enemy an access point to our lives when we do that! How many times did you not forgive and went to bed angry?
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