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how to use scripture, how do I know it's real, Jesus, God, Bible, teaching, life, How do i take scripture persoanlly Taking Scripture Personally Article below or click link for downloadable PDF. PDF Taking Scripture Personally You are who God says you are. At first we are taught the basic things of God and learning to read the Bible. These are the basics of learning about the Lord and there is a next step. Taking scripture personally. Now…some people may not like this but here it goes…God is the One in charge. He is the One Who has allowed so many translations of the Bible. Go with me on this. I know some are stuck on “King James Only” paradigm but what about before 1611 when it was written? What about after, when scholars of Aramaic, Hebrew, and Greek are putting these languages into modern vernacular? We all see in part and know in part - 1 Corinthians 13:9-12 - "9 For we know in part and we see in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.” Meaning, none of us has the full picture. We all see certain and different aspects. Thus the different translations. I want to know what others are “seeing” from the Word. I have many translations. When I study I commonly go from one translation to another to see the perspective of each translator. Frankly, KJV for many, many people is turn off because they don’t understand it. And God wants His Word to go forth. So however you best understand it, in whatever translation - GO FOR IT! With that being said, when you take the scripture personally and realize it’s talking about you, you’ll see that you are who God says you are! It’s all in the nouns. Your identity now that you have received Jesus into your heart is completely new. You are not “who” you have known yourself to be. Weird as that may seem. So how do you find out now that you are a new creature and old things have gone away, and all things have become new? (2 Corinthians 5:17-18. ) You don’t look any different but you know “something” happened. Your thinking has changed. Your outlook has changed. But while our spirit-man is brand new, our mind still needs to be renewed and our body will won’t be renewed until we go by way of the grave or the Rapture/Resurrection. The best way to begin this journey is to spend time in the Epistles: Romans, Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Colossians, Philippians, and so on. These are books that were written to the churches in the New Testament. Most were written by Paul and a few were written by others like Peter, John, Jude, and James. If you’re not aware of this, both James and Jude were brothers of Jesus. As you come across passages that say: “in Him; in Whom; in Christ; in Christ Jesus…” know that they are declaring part of “who” you are. Take Colossians 2:9 for example: “9 For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; “ - now, change the noun of “in Him” with “me” - “For in me dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.” Now make this a confession that you say daily in your “Jesus time” as I call it - in prayer and reading the Word. Take time to speak the scriptures that excite you and put “you”, like your name or “me” in them. That will put a jump in your step! Here’s another example : 2 Corinthians 5:17-18, 21 - “17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. 18 Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, 21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” Here’s the confession - don't just read this. Speak it : “I am in Christ and He is in me. I am a new creation; old things have passed away and all things have become new; and all these things are of God Who has reconciled me to Himself, through Christ Jesus, Praise God! And He gave me the ministry of reconciliation to Himself. I am reconciled to God! For He made Jesus Who knew no sin to be my very sin - all of it - He took my sin and gave me His righteousness with God!” As your reading scripture in the Epistles, do this. Change the appropriate noun to make it personal - because this is “who” you are now! It will renew your thoughts as Romans 12:2 says to do. This is how you do it. Then take the scriptures that really excite you and write them down. Make confessions out of them and speak them out loud and declare them over yourself. This is how you change your thinking. Keep speaking these scriptures. This automatically puts them into your thinking and then into your heart. This is how the Lord instructs us to do this in Proverbs 4:20-27 - “20 My son, give attention to My Words; Incline your ear to My sayings. 21 Do not let them depart from your eyes; Keep them in the midst of your heart; 22 For they are life to those who find them, And health to all their flesh. 23 Keep your heart with all diligence, For out of it spring the issues of life. 24 Put away from you a [c]deceitful mouth, And put perverse lips far from you. 25 Let your eyes look straight ahead, And your eyelids look right before you. 26 Ponder the path of your feet, And let all your ways be established. 27 Do not turn to the right or the left; Remove your foot from evil. These are all ways things enter our heart: eyes, ears, mouth. They are gateways to our heart. What goes in our eyes; what goes in our ears; what comes out of our mouth. By guarding theses gateways we guard our heart. We are to stay focused on God’s Word. As we speak it out loud our ears hear it. We keep reading it with our eyes. And all of this is putting God’s Word within us, in our hearts, showing us who we really are. Sometimes we realize we have stuff in our heart that’s not good. These are “automatic ways of thinking” - they are what God calls “strongholds.” (2 Corinthians 10:3-6 .) And they inhibit our relationship with the Lord because we think these thoughts are real and true. Line it up with what the Word says. Not what you’ve learned from your parents, family, and such like. And you change the stronghold by changing how you think, on purpose. Through prayer pull those thoughts out in the Name of Jesus, pull them up like a weed. Wheat and chaff. Pull up the root in your thought life in the Name of Jesus and cut all cords to it in Jesus Name, and burn it up with the fire of God. And yes there are scriptures to back all this up: Ezekiel 17:9 - “9 “Say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Will it thrive? Will it not be uprooted and stripped of its fruit so that it withers? All its new growth will wither. It will not take a strong arm or many people to pull it up by the roots.” And Matthew 3:12 - “His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will clear His threshing floor, gathering His wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” And Hebrews 12:28-29 - “28 Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, 29 for our “God is a consuming fire.” Then replace that thought with what God’s Word says on the matter. Literally speak it to yourself so you can hear what you are saying. You may have to repeat the scripture coming into your ears; looking at it with your eyes; confessing it with your mouth - you do this until you know, that you know you are what the scripture says you are. This is how you will change your thinking and renew your mind. Truly “SEE” Yourself in the Scriptures DON'T allow the words, "yeah, but..." come out CHANGE your thinking to who God says you are. The Lord has been impressing me to share with my brothers and sisters for a while now that we have to See Ourselves In His Scriptures. For example, I was reading in Jude verse 24 “To Him, Who is able to keep you from stumbling; to present you without fault to present you before His Glorious Presence," INSTEAD read this scripture as such: “To Jesus, Who is able to keep me from stumbling; to present me without fault, to present me before His Glorious Presence, “ When we read vs 24 as written, we tend not see ourselves in the Word. So by changing “you” to “me” we are able to take this scripture personally and find ourselves in it. Hebrews 13:5-6 Amplified “…….for God Himself has said, ‘I will not in anyway fail you or give you up, nor leave you without support. I will not, I will not in any degree leave you helpless, nor forsake you, nor let you down or relax my hold on you. Assuredly not!’” Taking it personally, I repeat it aloud as such: “God Himself has said, He will not in anyway fail me or give me up nor leave me without support. He will not, He will not, He will not in any degree leave me helpless nor forsake me, nor let me down or relax His hold on me. Assuredly not!!” 1 John 5:14,15 “And this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His Will He hears us, whatsoever we ask we know that we have the petitions that we desire of Him.” Once again put yourself in this scripture. “Father God, I have this confidence in You, that if I ask anything according to Your Will You hear me, whatsoever I ask we know that we have the petitions what I desire of Him. “ Do this each time you're reading your Bible. It will change you!

Marriage in the Bible, How to be a wife, how to be a husband, what are the rules of marriage, fornication, living with my boyfriend, living with my girlfriend, living in sin, Do I have to get married Marriage Article below. For downloadable PDF click link. PDF Marriage Proverbs 31:10-31; 1 Corinthians 7; Romans 7:1-3; Ephesians 5:21-33. Malachi 2:14-16 - “You ask, “Why?” It is because the Lord is the witness between you and the wife of your youth. You have been unfaithful to her, though she is your partner, the wife of your marriage covenant. 15 Has not the One God made you? You belong to Him in body and spirit. And what does the One God seek? Godly offspring. So be on your guard, and do not be unfaithful to the wife of your youth. 16 “The man who hates and divorces his wife,” says the Lord, the God of Israel, “does violence to the one he should protect,” says the Lord Almighty. So be on your guard, and do not be unfaithful.” Marriage is a covenant. Every time God speaks, it’s a covenant. Sometimes there are time limits - like with the earth, the sea, the sun, the moon. But with people His covenants, God’s promises to people are eternal. God makes these promises to Himself so they can never be broken as Hebrews 6:13 - “When God made His promise to Abraham, since there was no one greater for Him to swear by, He swore by Himself,” Covenants, the covenant of marriage is forever in this realm on earth. It is only dissolved at the death of one of the spouses. Which is why it is said in Scripture that when one dies the other can marry again and is not committing adultery. Not what it seems Expectations can be good and sometimes not. We all have expectations of “what a marriage” should be. But what does God say about it? It’s a covenant as long as both are alive - Malachi 2:14-16; 1 Corinthians 7; Matthew 22:23-33. It will be difficult spending much time with the Lord because you are focused on your spouse and your family. And that is right. God is with you in this. He has given you the spouse of your choosing. Know all of this to start out. 1 Corinthians 7. (I like it in the Message Translation.) Spending time with the Lord will be a bit of a struggle because you have your family. But it should still be a priority with you to spend time with the Lord. When you don’t spend time with Him, you can’t hear Him as clearly. So prioritize a “set time”. Maybe it’s very early in the morning before your spouse and children awake. Or maybe it’s at night after everyone has gone to bed. Or perhaps if you’re a stay at home mom, it’s when your husband goes to work and after your child/children lay down for a nap. Talk with the Lord about it, He will direct you. It’s not about the length of time, rather the quality. Stay open to the Lord’s leading all day long as you’re going about your business. The more you keep your awareness of Him with you and leading you, the closer you will be with the Lord. There will be troubles and disagreements. Particularly if you didn’t clarify what your core values are with one another at the beginning. (See article on: Looking for a Spouse.) It’s okay to disagree but don’t let offense take hold. Always stay in forgiveness for your spouse and yourself. It’s not about “winning” or “proving your point”. It’s about growing together, learning together. The two are one flesh! True victory lies in understanding, compromise, love, and strengthening your bond together, through respectful resolution. Keep strife out of the marriage at all costs. Proverbs 17:1 - “Better a dry crust of bread with peace and quiet than a house full of feasting, with strife.” Again, it’s about respectful resolution. Not proving your point. When “strife” has grabbed hold that means that someone is not understanding, not compromising, and not strengthening the bond together with their spouse. If the other spouse will not let go of their point, then immediately forgive them and pray over the situation. Pray the Ephesians 1:17-23 prayer for you both, that the Holy Spirit would give you both wisdom and revelation knowledge; and that the eyes of you both have understanding what the Lord wants. You will “know” what comes next, a means for resolution. Remember, do all things from love. Nurture each day with love and respect. Make your life about doing things together (not just “going somewhere” kind of things), not only the good things but also the hard things. Do them together - don’t leave your spouse on their own to handle tough situations. Always lean to the Holy Spirit together to guide you through love, kindness, and honesty. This is key. Know there is an enemy, the devil. There is a spiritual world. Attacks will come. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you “see” them. Deal with them the way He leads you. Prayer of agreement is mighty in the Lord. One can put a thousand to flight and two can put 10,000 to flight! (Joshua 23:10 & Deuteronomy 32:30.) Pray for your spouse!! Pray over you and your family. Look at the Epistle prayers and see how the Holy Spirit leads you in this. Ephesians 1:17-23; Ephesians 3:14-21; Romans 15:5-7,13-14; 1 Corinthians 1:4-9; 2 Corinthians 1:3-5; Philippians 1:6, 9-11; Colossians 1:9-14; 1 Thessalonians 1:2-3; 3:12-13; 5:13-24; 2 Thessalonians 1:12-13; 2:16; 3:2-5, 16; 1 Timothy 2:1-4; Hebrews 13:20-21; Jude 1:20-21, 24.

warfare, authority, what is a curse, how do curse happen, can I break a curse, can I stop a curse, cycles, God, Jesus, Bible, delcaring the Blood of Jesus over yourself breaks curses, requires true repentence Breaking Curses Article below. For downloadable PDF click link. PDF Breaking Curses Ancestral Curses and Others Curses Ties that Bind Have you noticed that “something” isn’t right? There are bad cyclical things that happen routinely in your life; and/or in your family line or in your own family. These things are the result of a curse. Numbers 14:18-20 - 18. “‘The Lord is slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving the sin and rebellion. Yet He does not leave the guilty unpunished; He punishes the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation. 19. In accordance with Your great love, forgive the sin of these people, just as you have pardoned them from the time they left Egypt until now.’ The Lord replied, ‘I have forgiven them as you asked.’” Proverbs 26:2 - TMT - “You have as little to fear from an undeserved curse as from the dart of a wren or that swoop from a swallow.” There are several kinds of curses and one area we all have to deal with are family curses. As the scripture in Proverbs tells us, if we are dealing with a curse, then it is “deserved”. Meaning something has happened to make that curse come upon us, whether we did it or someone in our family line back to the 3rd or 4th generation. Curses can happen for several reasons: Ancestral (Generational) Curse: typically this shows up in the area of health like “genetic” disorders and diseases; can also be mental issues; alcoholism; dying early; disabilities; cursed marriages in family line; accident prone and such things. Curses can come from buying items that have been cursed. Once the item is in the home things will begin to arise. Depends on what the curse is. When an item is cursed it has a demon attached to it. (All curses have demons attached.) Unrepented Sin. A person places a curse on you: this occurs from a witch —white, black, or other color-named witches; sorcerer; fortune-teller; psychic; tarot card reader; palm reader; necromancer, soothsayer, diviner; even horoscopes. What to do about these things in prayer: (There is a basic prayer at the end.) Recognize where the trouble came from and talk with the Lord about it. Do what He tells you to. If you’re not certain about what you heard, you always double check what you heard in your spirit or the thought that came up from deep within you with the Word of God, scriptures regarding that subject matter. Never listen to “voices” from outside of your head. God doesn’t speak to His children that way. He is within you. His Voice comes from within. Verbally repent of the sins of your forefathers/foremothers, and of your own sin. And if it is something you purchased, repent of having bought it, and get rid of the item. Receive your forgiveness of you and your entire family lines. Renounce and Break the curse in the all powerful Name of Jesus. Break all cords (Proverbs 5:21-23) to the curse upon you and family members and burn them up with the Fire of the Holy Spirit - for He is a consuming Fire! (Hebrews 12:29; Matthew 3:11 and Acts 2:3.) Release forgiveness of anyone who comes to mind, including the person who placed the curse (if relevant). Renew your mind by replacing thoughts, attitudes, and action (what you think, say, and do) with what God’s Word says regarding these things and your life. Speak the scripture out loud to yourself. When an old thought or attitude comes up - cast it down in the Name of Jesus and replace it by verbally quoting the scripture regarding it. Don’t just think it. Speak it. That’s how you will change your thoughts. You don’t need to memorize scripture. As you keep the Scripture(s) in front of your eyes and speak with your mouth (confession), over time they will come pouring out of your heart and mouth. It’s the Holy Spirit that helps you do this. Resist old patterns of behavior. Don’t allow yourself to “go there”, in Jesus Name. Again, speak the Scripture out loud to yourself regarding the situation. As Proverbs 27:19 and 23:7 - “As water reflects the face, so one’s life reflects the heart” and “For as he thinks in his heart so is he.” Change your negative automatic thinking of yourself with the Word of God. Every time an old pattern of thought comes up, cast it down in Jesus Name and replace it with the appropriate scripture that contradicts that thought. Choose scriptures on the subject matter that excite you! That excitement, that joy, is the Holy Spirit Who is taking hold together with you!! Those are the scriptures to use to renew your mind. STAY IN PRAISE and THANKSGIVING TO GOD until the manifestation comes to pass! You don’t need to repeat repentance for your forefathers etc. It’s done! Go to praise instead! The devil will attack. Guaranteed. And try to make you think you didn’t get free. All he is doing is attempting to make you “take doubt” on. Don’t give in. Never surrender! We have already won by what Jesus did on the Cross! For eternity!! Don’t put up with him trying to make you doubt that you’re free. Instead PRAISE GOD - ‘cause YOU ARE FREE! And praise is the most important thing we can do - it is our mightiest weapon: TPT Psalm 149:6-9 - “God’s high and holy praises fill their mouths, for their shouted praises are their weapons of war! 7. These warring weapons will bring vengeance on every opposing force and every resistant power— 8. To bind kings (Ephesians 6:12) with chains and rulers with iron shackles, 9. Praise-filled warriors will enforce the judgment-doom decreed against their enemies. This is the glorious honor He gives to all His Godly lovers. Hallelujah! Praise the Lord!” Satan doesn’t stick around when you praise. So get your praise on! PRAYER for family curses: “Father God, I come to You in the mighty Name of Jesus, and I thank You for the mighty power You have given me through the Name of Jesus and through His ALL Powerful Blood! You sent Your Word and healed us! Jesus is the Word, my Lord and Savior, and I am so grateful to You Father God for sending Him to redeem us. Now I recognize a curse on my family and I intercede for my family right now. I stand in the gap and repent of all sins, and cancel all oaths, rituals, contracts and such like that caused this curse to come upon me (us) from (name the person if you know, or yourself and) and my forefathers and foremothers. I receive Your forgiveness for me and my entire family in line and I thank You for it. In Jesus Name, I renounce and cancel the curse; and loose all devil(s) off of me and my family and cast them off permanently. You can never return, In Jesus Name. I cut all cords to the curse(s) that had kept us bound and Holy Spirit I ask for You to burn them up with Your glorious fire! I release forgiveness to (name person or people who come to mind). We are free in Jesus Name! Whom the Son has set free shall be free indeed. I thank You for it Lord Jesus! Holy Spirit help me with this, with old thought patterns and actions regarding this. Show me when I get into old patterns of thought and behavior and as you show me I will immediately stop my thinking in Jesus Name (and/or the behavior) and cast that thought down and replace it with the appropriate scripture regarding the situation (if it’s healing, replace old negative thought with a healing scripture that excites you; if it’s problems in marriage, go to the appropriate marriage scripture, etc). Thank You Holy Spirit for Your help. And every time this situation comes up in my thoughts I will praise You God for Your delivering me!!! Thank You Jesus!”

Parameters for being in leasership, Ministry, What God says about it, Rules, Being in Ministry Article below. For downloadable PDF click the button. PDF Being in Ministry or Other Leadership Roles Titus 1:1-3 “1 Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ to further the faith of God’s elect and their knowledge of the truth that leads to Godliness— 2 in the hope of eternal life, which God, Who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time, 3 and which now at His appointed season He has brought to light through the preaching entrusted to me by the command of God our Savior,…” Titus is the most important book to read if you have been “getting” that you are called into the ministry. Read it all. Several times. The Lord gives clear direction on how to be a leader and what the Lord expects. Roles Whether the Lord has called you into ministry or other leadership roles the bottom line is your relationship with the Lord has to be solid in the Word and in prayer, continual, abiding in forgiveness, and love, and doing whatever the Lord leads you to do, even when it’s uncomfortable and may result in backlash from others. As long as you are truly following the Lord, that’s all you need. It’s that simple. 2 Peter 1:10 says, “Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall.” Great verse that is generally used for calling but lets look at the whole thing the Lord states from verse 5: “5 For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, 6 and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, 7 and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. 8 For if these qualities[ are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. 10 Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall .” These qualities Peter wrote of through the Holy Spirit are the fruit of the Spirit on Galatians 5:22-26 - “22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.” These qualities abound in you as you spend time with the Lord. They are the result, the fruit, of spending time with the Lord. Bottom line is you need to be willing to step out in the giftings that God has placed within you. It’s God’s calling on you, He has got it worked out. Now just trust Him and do what He tells you to do. Not based on ego - pride. If there’s pride that you’re noticing, GET IT OUT!! Cast out the spirit of pride in the Name of Jesus and cut all cords to it, and repent of any prideful actions. (Prov. 5:21-23.) And stay on top of your thought life. If you notice a prideful thing trying to come in to your thoughts, cast it out in the Name of Jesus and replace that with the Word of God. Many times Philippians 4:8-9 is a good one to replace it with, “8 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. 9 Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.” Speak out loud and state: “No, in the Name of Jesus, I cast out that pride because I only think on those things that are true, lovely, admirable, excellent and praiseworthy, I thank You Father God for teaching me and I put it into practice in Jesus Name.” In a leadership role you have to be willing to state when you missed it . That is what a good leader does. And when you are living in a right relationship with the Lord this is easier to do. Like Paul when he spoke of how he attacked Christians before he got saved. He was very upfront about it. He acknowledged it. When a leader is honest, most people, Godly people, respect that and naturally forgive the person. If it is something in which major error has happened, you need to get away and spend time with God. You may have to resign your position. As I said earlier, Titus is key to reading and following for how you are to live a Godly life when you are in a leadership position - if there are problems in these areas then you need to withdraw from the position. This is why the role is so “heavy.” You are leading others. And leadership roles come with a heavier judgment. James 3:1 AMP - “Not many [of you] should become teachers [serving in an official teaching capacity], my brothers and sisters, for you know that we [who are teachers] will be judged by a higher standard [because we have assumed greater accountability and more condemnation if we teach incorrectly].” I’m stating this NOT to steer you away from your calling. Not at all. If this is the calling the Lord has put on your life, you need to obey the Lord. Although we have to be very aware of the responsibility. For it is mighty with the Lord. And we need to handle it soberly. Titus 1:16-2:1 - “16 They (teachers) claim to know God, but by their actions they deny him. They are detestable, disobedient and unfit for doing anything good. 1 You, however, must teach what is appropriate to sound doctrine.” Titus 2:7-8 - “…In your teaching show integrity, seriousness 8 and soundness of speech that cannot be condemned, so that those who oppose you may be ashamed because they have nothing bad to say about us.” Titus 2:15 - “These, then, are the things you should teach. Encourage and rebuke with all authority. Do not let anyone despise you.” Titus 3:10 - 10 Warn a divisive person once, and then warn them a second time. After that, have nothing to do with them. 11 You may be sure that such people are warped and sinful; they are self-condemned. Like stated earlier, Titus is important to study when going into leadership, especially in ministry. The last two scriptures state when correction is to be given. So many ministers are not willing to give correction when it’s needed . Instead they don’t want to offend anyone and want to keep people in their church, specifically to keep the tithers. That is the wrong motivation. This person is compromising and will suffer the results of it if they don’t make it right. Bottom Line Whatever the Lord is leading you to do - do. He is the One Who enables you . He gives you everything you need for the calling. And He gives you the wisdom and revelation knowledge to do it. In fact, if you don’t know of the Ephesians 1:17-23 and Ephesians 3:14-21 prayers, read them and pray them everyday for yourself. It makes a huge difference. The Lord will increase the wisdom and revelation knowledge He reveals to you, and will give you continuous strength in the calling He's given you and keep you in His love which teaches you. Love and knowledge work together . You can’t have one without the other. You have all of this because the Holy Spirit is in you but you need to pull it up and out of you by your faith, praying those prayers and expecting God to do them within, and with you. He certainly will.

God, Jesus, Bible, Advantage, Advantages, How to do it God's way, Rules of engagement Advantage in Life God's Way Article is below. Or you may click the link for downloadable PDF. PDF Advantage in Life God's Way Advantage in Life God’s Way Changing Your Perspective Knowing Who to Trust There are times when it’s good, even helpful and appropriate, to know the “goods” on a person or situation. Like… “Which day care can I trust?” “Where should we go for lunch?” “What time should I leave for the airport?” It’s that kind of valuable information that can give you an edge in life. And what better source to go to for anything you need to know than God. He sees everything—Hebrews 4:13. He knows everything—1 John 3:20. Did you know God’s sitting on a world of information right now, just waiting to pass it along to you, so you can have every advantage in life? God’s not trying to keep things from us. He’s trying to get things to us — like information and knowledge. Genesis 6—God warned Noah of a flood. Genesis 41—God prepared Joseph for abundance and famine. Luke 5; Matthew 17; John 21—Jesus told His disciples where to fish. But even more amazing is one of the time-tested, sure ways God has of downloading what’s in His head to yours: Amos 3:7 says, “Surely the Lord God will do nothing without revealing His secret to His servants the prophets.” Once when Israel was about to be attacked by three enemies at the same time, the king called a national day of prayer to get help from God. (2 Chronicles 20). As a great gathering of people stood outside the Temple in Jerusalem praying and worshipping God, the Spirit came upon a man, and he began to prophesy, basically giving Israel a battle strategy. It sounded crazy—but it worked! God often uses prophets to get valuable information into the hands of His people. There are 5 action steps that will give you an advantage in life God’s way: 1. Expect God to speak. Jesus was praying out loud in public one day, and God responded in an audible voice (John 12:28-30). Some of the people around Jesus heard it; others thought it was thunder. Don’t get caught snoozing and miss out on what God’s saying. Expect to hear from Him. 2. Get used to God’s style. We all have our way of saying things. God likes speaking the end from the beginning, letting us know what’s coming down the road (Isaiah 46:10). It’s His way of letting us know He’s God. Get used to God speaking to you from the future. 3. Know who’s really doing the talking. Jesus once asked His disciples a question to see if they were on the same page, and they all had pretty good answers—but Peter’s was the best, to which Jesus replied: “This was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by My Father in heaven” (Matthew 16:17, NIV). Recognize the real Source behind the words. 4. Get a second (or third) opinion. “Two or three prophets should speak and the others should weigh carefully what is said” (1 Corinthians 14:29, NIV). This comes from a principle and practice established by God: “On the [word] of two or three witnesses a matter shall be confirmed” (Deuteronomy 19:15). 5. Keep it in your face. Romans 10:17 says that “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God” (NKJV). We all have those things we highlight, #tag, bookmark, stick on the fridge; those habits that help motivate, prompt and focus us in the right direction. Do what it takes to keep God’s fresh Word to you in your face—and thereby, you’ll be building your faith. God’s all in when it comes to giving you every advantage possible. So, when He gives a Word, heads-up or valuable piece of insider information—jump on it, act on it. Practice these 5 Steps To Gaining the Advantage God’s Way—and dare to trust Him to bring His Word to pass!

Deliverance prayers, God, Jesus, Prayer, Warfare, spiritual warfare Prayers from Nathan Reynolds website: www.snatchedfromtheflames.com PDF Link Prayers - ( daily; breaking occult power; especially good for deliverance; SRA) Prayers for Release Developed by Mary Lou LakeAuthor of “What Witches Don’t Want Christians to Know –Expanded Edition.”© Copyright 2015 & Updated 2017 by Mary Lou Lake AllRights Reserved. These prayers may be freely shared in their unaltered state. Kingdom Intelligence Briefing Address: A Ministry of Biblical Life Assembly PO Box 588 | Marshfield, MO 65706-0588 KIB Website: http://www.kingdomintelligencebriefing.comBLA Website: http://www.biblicallifeassembly.org Website for Nathan Reynolds: https://snatchedfromtheflames.com MORNING PRAYER Father, I declare that You are the One True Elohim, the Most High Elohim, the Elohim of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. I ask You to forgive my sins and cleanse me of all unrighteousness, create in me a clean heart and renew a right spirit within me. I plead the blood of Yahshua over my eyes and ears and over the eyes and ears of my family, so we can see and hear truth, and I ask You to shield us from all forms of mind control that can enter the eye gates and ear gates. I declare that we have access to the whole armor of Yahuah according to Ephesians 6; our loins are girt about with truth, and our feet are shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. We have the breastplate of righteousness, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation and the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of Yahuah. As we commit our works unto You, our thoughts will be established according to Proverbs 16:3. Father, I ask You to apply the blood of Yahshua to any doors that I have open to the enemy that I am unaware of, and I ask You to reveal these doors to me so they can be closed forever. I take the authority that Yahshua gave me over all the power of the enemy according to Luke 10:19. I stand upon Your Word in Matthew 16:19 that I have been given the keys to the Kingdom and what I bind on Earth will be bound in Heaven, and what I loose on Earth will be loosed in Heaven. I take authority over the kingdom of darkness in every plain of existence that has access to me, and I bind the power of the enemy to affect me or my family, and I loose the power of the Kingdom of God to form impenetrable shields in every dimension above, below and all around, in the name of Yahshua. I stand upon the promise in Your Word that says that no weapon formed against me shall prosper, according to Isaiah 54:17. I stand upon the 91st Psalm that no evil shall befall me, neither shall any plague come nigh my dwelling. The 91st Psalm also promises that Your holy angels have been given charge over me and my family to keep us in all our ways. Father, I ask You to send extra angels for reinforcement during times of spiritual warfare, in Yahshua’s name. Father, I ask You to forgive the sins of all of my ancestors (and the ancestors of my children and grandchildren), and I plead the blood of Yahshua over my DNA and the DNA of all of my descendants, which cleanses our bloodlines of all iniquity. I bind the power of any generational or familiar spirits to attach or influence us, and I loose the power of the Kingdom of Yahuah within us and around us as we keep Your commandments. I declare that our family is free to walk in the blessings of Deuteronomy 28. I ask You to forgive the sins of all individuals being used by the enemy to combat our family (and ministry). I ask You to forgive the sins of all of their ancestors, and I plead the blood of Yahshua over their bloodlines all the way to the DNA level, breaking the power of iniquity. I ask You to break all of their occult power to the highest levels, making it impossible for them to be used by the kingdom of darkness to harm anyone. I ask You to save their souls, deliver and heal them. I plead the blood of Yahshua over every action and every word spoken against me and my family, nullifying the demonic power. I command any evil spirits sent on assignment against me and my family to return to the place they were sent from. I bind these spirits from harming those that sent them, but I pray that their defeat in their mission would serve as a testimony of Your greatness and the victory that Yahshua won for believers, in Yahshua’s name. Father, I ask You to remove my DNA and the DNA of my family from any hair, blood or any other contact object in the hands of the enemy and break all conduits to our physical bodies, in Yahshua’s name. Father, I ask You to forgive the sins that have allowed technology to be used as a weapon against Your creation. I ask You to place shields between me and my family and all broadcasts of the enemy through the airways, TVs, computers, phone lines, electric lines and satellites. I stand upon the promises in Your Word that You are our shield. I ask You to purify our air, water and food, in Yahshua’s name. Father, I ask You to forgive the sins done on the roadways, railroad tracks, and waterways. I ask You to forgive the sins of any individuals or groups that have adopted the roadways, and I ask You to break any occult connections that would give power to the kingdom of darkness. Father, I ask You to provide divine protection during any modes of transportation. I ask You to surround our vehicles with Your holy angels to insure safe travel, in Yahshua’s name. Father, lead me in paths of righteousness today and attune my ears to Your voice that I may follow You. I ask You to fill me with a hunger for your Word, that I may know You more. I give You all of my praise, my worship, the honor and the glory, in Yahshua’s name. EVENING PRAYER Father, I declare that You are the Elohim of our evenings as well as our days. I stand upon Psalm 91:5, 6 --Thou shalt not be afraid of the terror by night or the arrow that flieth by day; nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday. I plead the blood of Yahshua over my family. I come into agreement with the promises in Your Word that my family is blessed physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. I ask You to put impenetrable shields around our property, with armies of Your holy angels standing guard. I ask You to forgive the sins that have been done in the surrounding area, and I command the kingdom of darkness to clear our airways, grounds, and underneath, in Yahshua’s name. Father, I bind any demons from entering our property. I ask You to forgive the sins that have enabled astral travel and I ask You to block that activity. I ask You to place hedges of protection around our family that humans cannot penetrate, either physically or through astral projection. I loose the power of the Kingdom of Yahuah to break the power of satanic surveillance. Father, I ask You to send Your holy angels to roadblock any attacks from the enemy. Father, because of Your faithfulness, we can go to sleep with full assurance that You are watching over us through the night. We ask all of these things in the Mighty Name of Yahshua. PRAYER FOR RELEASE FROM GENERATIONAL CURSES Father, I ask You to forgive all of the sins of our ancestors. I ask You to cover our bloodlines all the way to the DNA level with the blood of Yahshua, and I ask You to send the blood of Yahshua over the spiritual lines connecting us to those that we share DNA with, blocking any familiar spirits coming to us. We declare that Yahshua paid the price for us to be free of every generational curse, and we take our authority over all the power of the enemy according to Luke 10:19 and stand upon Matthew 16:19 that what we bind on Earth will be bound in Heaven and what we loose on Earth will be loosed in Heaven. We bind every familiar spirit and generational spirit that has attached to our family because of the iniquity on our bloodlines, and we command them to leave us, in Yahshua’s name. We loose the power of the Kingdom of Yahuah within us and around us, and we ask for restoration of all that Ha’Satan has stolen through these generational doorways (including our health, resources, joy and peace), in Yahshua’s name. FREEMASONRY I recommend visiting www.isaiah54.org/freemasonry for further prayers specifically designed for Freemasons and their descendants. PRAYER FOR RELEASE FROM SOUL TIES Father, I repent for every ungodly soul tie that I have made through sexual union. I apply the blood of Yahshua to the soul tie that I made with____________. I ask You to sever the cord connecting me to this person with the Sword of the Spirit. I bind any demonic attachments that came to me, and I command them to leave me, in Yahshua’s name. I loose the power of the Kingdom of Yahuah within me and around me to restore what was damaged by this soul tie. I ask You to seal the severed cord with the blood of Yahshua, so it can never be connected again, and I ask You to remove any foreign DNA from my body, in Yahshua’s name. Father, I ask You to deliver every person from any spirits that were transferred to them from me, in Yahshua’s name. PRAYER FOR VICTIMS OF TRAUMA AND FRAGMENTATION Father, I submit myself to You, spirit, soul and body, and I am so grateful for the price that Yahshua paid to make me whole. I ask You to forgive the sins of my abusers, and I ask You to sever all soul ties with them. I command any spirits that passed through the soul ties to leave me, in the name of Yahshua, and I ask You to seal those severed cords with the blood of Yahshua. As an act of my will, I choose to forgive every individual that has harmed me, in Yahshua’s name. I take authority over my mind, and I bind gatekeepers and watchers and break their power over me, in the name of Yahshua. I loose the power of the Kingdom of Yahuah within me and around me, to overtake and override every plot and scheme of the enemy to hold me captive, in Yahshua’s name. Father, I ask You to impart to me the anointing that destroys every yoke of bondage. I thank You for the promise of a sound mind in 2 Timothy 1:7. Father, I ask You to forgive the sins done to me that defiled Your Name, Your Word, and Your House, and I ask You to restore the truth of who You are to every part of my being. Father, I ask You to judge every demonic force that has been a part of my captivity since I was a child and deliver me. I plead the blood of Yahshua over every ritual performed and every oath, vow, contract and covenant made connecting me to the kingdom of darkness, and I ask You to set me free and bring me under the protection of Your Kingdom. Father, when I was a child I was taken against my will, but I now have authority through Yahshua over my tormentors, and I command them to let me go, in Yahshua’s name. According to Psalm 142:7, I pray: Bring my soul out of prison, that I may praise thy name. Father, I ask You to make every doorway to blocked memories one-way doors, and I plead the blood of Yahshua into every area of my mind. I ask You to override any mind control programming that has been used as a weapon against me, as I stand upon Your Word in Isaiah 54:17 that no weapon formed against me shall prosper. I ask You to show me anything that I need to see to be free, but I ask that the overwhelming emotions would be buffered, to allow me to come to grips with the truth without further trauma. I place my healing in Your hands, and I place my trust in You. I bind any demons that are a part of my programming, and I loose the Spirit of Truth to counter and eradicate from my mind spirits of doubt and deception, in Yahshua’s name. I ask forgiveness for the sins that caused my mind to fragment, and I command the past to let me go. Because You fill all space and time, I ask You to pour anointing oil on every fragment of my mind at the time that the splitting occurred. I claim the manifested healing and deliverance at this present time, and I declare that I am not a child anymore; I am free to mature to my present age with restored peace and joy. I claim restoration of the years that Ha’Satan has stolen from me. I claim back my health, my resources, and my future, in Yahshua’s name. I declare that I am a child of the King of the Universe, and I choose to follow the One True Elohim and declare that I have been set free from the kingdom of darkness, in Yahshua’s name. I renounce all connections to Satanism, witchcraft, Druidism, and all other factions of the occult. Teach me Your ways so I can walk circumspectly before You each day, in Yahshua’s name. Father, I ask You to forgive every sin done by every fragment of my being, including involvement in the occult. I renounce these powers and bind Ha’Satan’s ability to use me in any way. I loose the sanctifying power of the blood of Yahshua to cover any gifts that You have given me, so I can flow in a pure stream of the Ruach Ha’Kodesh. Father, I repent for any forbidden activities, such as astral projection, and I take authority over my vessel and forbid any demons, humans, or mind control program to cause me to leave my body. I ask You to forgive the sins of every individual that I have been connected to in the occult, and I ask You to sever all connections so that I can never be accessed again, in Yahshua’s name. I ask You to forgive the sins that allowed fragment exchanges between me and any other person, and I bind any demons connected to these exchanges. I ask You to block any humans with pernicious intent from contacting me. I ask You to hide any brain wave identification and block all satanic surveillance, in Yahshua’s name. Father, place hedges of protection around me and surround me with armies of Your holy angels to block all activity directed against me in the spiritual or physical realms, in Yahshua’s name. I take authority over and command every part of my being to stay within my physical body. Father, I place my sleep state in Your hands and trust You to keep me safe. Father, I ask You to reveal any additional information that is essential for my healing, in Yahshua’s name. Let’s Work Together Get in touch so we can start working together. First Name Last Name Email Message Send Thanks for submitting!

Kamp Jesus Our mission is to help replenish the earth with the true Word of God by bringing hope to the hopeless. There is a YouTube channel: Kamp Jesus. by Rina van de Kamp at - www.youtube.com/@rinavandekamp-kampjesus You can email on the contact sheet for further questions. We are happy to be of help. About Us We believe in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God is our Lord and Savior and He came and gave His life for you, for all that you've done wrong, so that you don't have to be pay the price. He came for all to have the knowledge of Him. But you have to ask Him into your heart. Receive Him. All you have to do is call upon the Name of the Lord and you shall be saved. Then ask Him to reveal Himself to you, to help you. He is always there for you even when you don't know it. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever; and with God all things are possible. He is coming back soon! Hallelujah! We at Kamp Jesus made this website for you! It is a teaching site for the things of God. Scroll though the different subjects to find what you're looking for. There are PDF's links available for you to download. And if there is subject matter that you are looking for but don't see it, send us an email and we will get it to you. May the Lord bless you and keep you. May His face shine upon you! He loves you more than you can imagine...so let your imagination expand with our beautiful Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!

How to keep steady, How to guard yourself, Protect, On track, How to use the Word, Is scripture for real, How do I know what's true Guard Rails Rules to Judge By Article below. Or downloadable PDF in link. PDF Guard Rails Rules to Judge By How to stay on track When driving down the highway it is always good to have guard rails. They can keep you from running off the road and doing serious injury to yourself and others. RULES TO JUDGE BY The basic rule to judge all things by is what God said in His Word . His Word is your guard rail. His Word will keep you on track if you follow it, follow the Holy Spirit’s leading, keeping your heart sensitive, pliable and correctable to the Lord. Here are some foundational scriptures, guard rails, to keep you on track: Proverbs 23:7 - As a man thinks in his heart, so is he. - This lets you know that you have what you have because of how you think in your heart. Your heart is referencing your soul (when you look it up in Strong’s). And your mind is a part of your heart - soul. So how you think of yourself will show up in your life. - Our "thoughts" are spoken of often in scripture: Romans 1:18-23 Futile in their thoughts and how they thought was a choice. How will you choose to think this day? - Romans 12:3 don’t think more highly of yourself that you ought to. - Matthew 9:4 you can entertain evil thoughts. - 1 Corinthians 14:20 we can think childishly - Pride is in thinking, 1 Corinthians 8:2; Matthew 6:7; - We are to control our thoughts, 2 Corinthians 10:3-6 - Proverbs 4:20-27 - the “gateways” to the heart : eyes, ear, mouth. If we are careful what enters them and what exits the mouth, we guard our heart. This will change our thoughts. 2. John 10:10 How to tell who is active in your life, satan or Jesus. 3. Always start - the beginning - all things with God and His Word - John 1:1-4. 4. Liberty: There is always Liberty with God, not heaviness or binding - Galatians 5:13 - We've been called to liberty, freedom. Isaiah 61:1 & Luke 4:18-19 - Jesus came to set the captive free James 1:25 - Liberty is a law of God, are you blessed in what you hear even if it’s heavy/intense word? 2 Corinthians 3:17 - Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. Psalm 119:45 - We walk in liberty BECAUSE we seek His Word. 5. Is there Joy , that is where God’s presence is - Psalm 16:11; Nehemiah 8:10. When your joy gets attacked, and it will, get out your scriptures that speak about your joy in the Lord and shout praises to Him for what He has done for you. He is in you! He is your Strength. The Holy Spirit is your strengthener. John 15:11; Ezra 6:22 (The Lord has filled you with joy); Isaiah 9:3; 1 John 4:4; 5:4; Romans 8:31; Psalm 98:4; Psalm 5:11; Philippians 3:1; Isaiah 49:13; Isaiah 55:12; Psalm 105:43; Psalm 95:1; Acts 13:52; Psalm 48:2; Isaiah 35:10; Nehemiah 12:43; Isaiah 61:7. 6. The Holy Spirit confirms what you’re getting with “peace” - Romans 8:26-27; Colossians 3:15. God is the God of Peace 1 Thessalonians 5:23; Hebrews 13:20; Jesus said He has left His peace with us - John 14:27. 7. There is no condemnation with God - Romans 8:1-2. “Conviction” is not condemnation. Conviction is when the Holy Spirit is leading you to do something but you are either refusing to, or you did something you weren’t supposed to and the Holy Spirit is convicting/reproving you to stop - John 16:8 8. Don’t quarrel with each other regarding convictions - Romans 14:1-23. Sometimes convictions are personal. They are not always general for the entire Body of Christ. Like, if I am not supposed to eat dairy and I have a conviction about it I shouldn't argue with other believers because they do eat it. Some things the Holy Spirit gives you is personal, it's not necessarily for the Body of Christ. You know you're out of line if what you speak causes condemnation. (Romans 8:1.) 9. Does it bring fear , fear is not of God - Romans 8:15; 1 John 4:18; 2 Timothy 1:7 10. Is something “dominating” you - you can’t control it - 1 Corinthians 6:12. God never dominates. He always leaves it up to your free will. 11. Whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved - 2 Pet. 2:19 12. Does it come from Love , God is love - 1 Peter 4:8; 1 John 4:7-8 13. God is not the author of confusion - 1 Corinthians 14:33 14. God does not tempt anyone - James 1:13 (12-15) 15. God, the Holy Spirit, Jesus ARE wisdom and revelation knowledge , you can’t be around them and not have it - Ephesians 1:17-18, He is the light of the world, you will have “light” on the subject - 1 John 1:5. 16. Dealing with rejection - just because you may be damaged goods doesn’t mean you’re worthless!! Because God says you are a new creature!! - 2 Corinthians 5:17-21; 13:6-8. You ARE who God says you are! And God is in the business of healing broken hearts and spirits.

Spirit, What is my spirit, Soul, What is my soul, Are Soul and Spirit the same, are spirit and soul different, body, God, Jesus, Bible, Scripture Spirit, Soul, & Body How to Discern the Difference Article below or click link for downloadable PDF PDF Spirit, Soul, & Body HOW TO DISCERN THE DIFFERENCE The difference in “who” is talking to you and how all of this operates. We are a Spirit, we have a Soul, and we live in a Body. * You will at different times hear from your Spirit, Soul, and Body, and from the devil. Learn how to hear each. Learn how to take authority over your soul. Learn how to be disciplined. In this, you will learn how to walk with the Lord and re-train yourself. 2 Timothy 3:16-17 - All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine , for reproof , for correction , for instruction in righteousness : that the man of God may be mature thoroughly furnished until all good works. 1 Thessalonians 5:23 - and the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God, your whole spirit, and soul and body be preserved, blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. * TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER ONE: LET’S BEGIN WITH THE BASICS CHAPTER TW0: LEARNING TO WALK WITH GOD CHAPTER THREE: FURTHER DETAILS ON THE BODY CHAPTER FOUR: FURTHER DETAILS ON THE SOUL CHAPTER FIVE: MORE ON THE SPIRIT CHAPTER SIX : CONCLUSION SCRIPTURE REFERENCES CHAPTER ONE - LET’S BEGIN WITH THE BASICS SPIRIT, SOUL, & BODY - we will do this in reverse: Body, Soul, & Spirit because that is how we think of it in the world: The Body : It is our “outer layer” and speaks according to the 5 senses - what you can see, hear, smell, taste, and touch. It is the part of us that touches the world around us. Helps us interact with the physical world. To know if it’s hot or cold, to know when to cross the street, or when we are thirsty or hungry, and so on. Some people are controlled by their Body. How their Body feels with its sensations at any moment takes precedence over Spirit or Soul. The Soul: It speaks according to our intellect (mind), free will, emotions (feelings), and personality. This is the next layer inward within our bodies - in our heads and emotions (or heart). In the Bible when it says “heart” most often it is referring to our Soul. Like Psalm 64:6 NIV - “They plot injustices and say, ‘We have devised a perfect plan!’ Surely the human mind and heart are cunning.” You can tell by the context of that verse which one, Soul or Spirit, is being referred to, it is the Soul. We can see this is why our heart needs to be circumcised - Romans 2:29. The Spirit and Soul are connected according to Hebrews 4:12 - For the Word of God is quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing between soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intent of the heart. Soul and Spirit. What can be divided means it is connected. But until we receive Jesus into our heart we are unable to understand what is happening with us. We can’t distinguish the difference. Our heart can only be circumcised by Him, cutting away the “old man” from our Spirit. The Soul has to be renewed - it is the “renewing of our mind” Romans 12:2. And in our daily life interacting with this world the Soul typically has priority over our Spirit man with the Body as the second in command. Both the Soul and Body have not been renewed yet until we choose to do it. This is why they cause such trouble when we haven’t learned how to take authority over those parts of us in the Name of Jesus. The Spirit: this is the part that has been renewed by accepting Jesus into our hearts and is in contact with God. He speaks to us through our Spirit and only the word of God and things pertaining to the word of God come through our Spirit. Jesus is the word made flesh. God and His word are the same thing and this is how He speaks, things that go in line with His word. Our Spirit is what is called the “inward man” - or the “inner part of the belly” - Proverbs 20:2; Ephesians 3:16; & Psalm 51:6. It’s deep down within us. If you place your hand on your upper belly, the soft area at the opening of the rib cage, deep within that region. This is where you get those “gut feelings.” That’s where your Spirit is. When you “get” an unction, a revelation, from the Holy Spirit through your Spirit there is a quality to it…it’s “good.” You think: “Man, that’s good!” There is a sweetness to it. And there’s peace to it. Your belly is just so, so, good and likes what it “heard.” Totally satisfied, like you ate a really good meal. * Be aware of “naming” things of your Soul with the same terms used for the Spirit. You are deceiving yourself. You are buying into a con game either from your own thinking or from the devil to hoodwink you into thinking or “reasoning” is coming from your Spirit, when it is not. A person will always be deceived when this happens - James 1:22. You can’t be hood winked for long. You can always tell by the fruit of your life, what do you have. If you don’t like what you see, talk with the Lord. Ask for His correction. Repent when He shows you. And make the changes He tells you to make. ** We can see that our bodies will be rebellious and need to keep them into subjection to the Word. They are not re-created yet. So they will be disobedient. You can count on it. This is the reason why it is important to fast. To keep our bodies under and not rebellious. To take charge, on purpose, what you allow your body to eat and when. This is telling your body “who” is in control. Because the enemy is in this realm. This helps our spiritual ears to hear the Lord more clearly when our bodies aren’t fussing. Now you don’t need to do long fasts. They may be for one meal. Go as the Lord leads. And with that time that you would eat, instead pray and stay in the word. Always follow the Holy Spirit’s leading in ALL things. We discipline our Bodies by not allowing it to rule us. Instead we give God the priority and allow Him to rule us through our Spirit. We have to give one part priority. This is the way our system works. And until we learn how to do this from God’s word, we are either ruled by our Bodies or ruled by our Souls. We then follow whichever one we are giving credence to and speaking along those lines and doing actions along those lines we are bringing the things to pass by “speaking” and “doing” what is ruling us. You can always tell what is ruling you by listening to what comes out of your mouth. Then you will know what is in your heart and what is ruling you. But we can’t change this until we know what God says to do about it. Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks - Matthew 12:34. It is sobering to observe what comes out of our mouths. Whatever is in our heart. If it’s contrary to the word of God it is coming from our Soul or from the devil and we need to change it. Yes, the devil throws thoughts at our heads and if we take that thought and start speaking it, we will bring that word to pass. Because the things we speak are what we have. Genesis 1 - God spoke and it was so. We are made in His image. Instead let’s choose to have God rule from our Spirit. We are one Spirit with Him. 1 Corinthians 6:17 - Whoever is united with the Lord is one with Him in spirit. Hebrews 4:12 - For the Word of God is quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing between soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intent of the heart. We see from what the Lord has said in these scriptures that we are ONE with HIM in our inner man, our Spirit! It may not “feel” like it but we are. We also see that If you can divide Spirit and Soul, then that means they are together. Which shows us we can’t tell “what” or should I say “who” is speaking unless we use the word. The Word is the only way to discern who is “talking” and what you are being motivated by: Spirit or Soul, or Body, or the devil. They each have a “voice” and a particular way of speaking to us. And we can discern what part is “talking” to us with thoughts when we dive into the word and believe what He says about us! When you ask the Holy Spirit for insight He will let you know whether that “thought” was from your intellect, emotions, five senses, the devil, or from Him. As we do this the Holy Spirit “shows” us things…I call them “a-ha” moments. These are times when we get the “a-ha” about a particular situation we are wondering about. Our eyes “see” what is happening. That’s called: revelation knowledge (Ephesians 1:17-18), which we get from the Holy Spirit. He IS revelation knowledge. The more you “hang out” with Him the more revelation knowledge you get. Yes He is always with you, He will never leave you nor forsake you. What I mean is that you “choose” to spend time with Him and listening for His leading. The more you do this, the more revelation you’ll have…if you are willing to receive it. We always have to be willing to receive. Sometimes that can be challenging. But bless God, we can do it because we “choose” to. As we spend time with Him we begin to notice when we are being “just us,” being weird, “fleshly” - in our carnality; or if we are “seeing” through the lens of the Holy Spirit. This only happens as we talk with the Lord about it and stay in the word about the situation and do what He reveals and tells us to do. A friend said to me once, “Discernment is not knowing right from wrong but knowing right from almost right.” Huge insight to her statement! (That’s the Holy Spirit operating through someone else to give the word that is needed! I thank God for that.) We need to press into the Holy Spirit to “see” what is right from almost right with everything and in this case from “what” or “who” is speaking to us: Spirit, Soul, Body, or the devil. Each speaks differently. You know if you have a friend who is from another country - they have a certain way of speaking, catch phrases, subject matter they like to discuss, metaphors, and so on. It’s the same here. Spirit, Soul, Body, and the devil, all speak differently and come at you from places: Spirit - God deep inside your being speaking in line with the word of God; Soul - occurs in your thinking or emotions, or personality; Body - things of the 5 senses which are needed for this physical world, bear in mind your Body is the temple of the Holy Spirit so how we treat our Bodies is important; devil - from outside of your body to your head as thoughts coming from the outside pretending at being “you” (most often) talking to yourself. Sometimes pretending to be God - Isaiah 14:13-14. Always saying bad things about you, to you, so that you think it is “yourself” - he has been running con jobs, always a liar and skilled liar of which he is the father of lies, hides the lies within truth, he even knows scripture and will quote it to you just like he did with Jesus in the temptation in the wilderness, always speaks about bad things you’ve done in the past of which God already forgave you of and has no memory of it - He has removed it as far as the east is from the west - Psalm 103:12, and the devil always comes from the five sense realm or emotions because the senses and emotions can “drive” someone. Whenever you are being “driven” - “pushed” to do something and you can’t control it the devil is always behind it. Until we learn how to operate with the Spirit, through our Soul, and to our Body it’s a free for all. One of them has priority and is in control. Because of this material world it will either be Body or Soul… and yes, someone can be controlled by the devil, especially unbelievers but that is enacted through the Body realm. The devil and his hordes are always looking for a body. The Spirit is the enigmatic part of us that most born again brothers and sisters have no idea how to operate from; and people who are not saved have no idea at all. 1 Corinthians 2:9-14 - 9 But as it is written:“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” 10 But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. 11 For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. 13 These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. 14. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. Whatever He tells you to do, do. So if He says you need to eat vegetables for a few days, do it. Or if He tells you to get more rest, do it. We do this no matter what our Bodies want. We give God the priority and do what He says. He always has a good reason, and the reason is for our benefit. But it is up to us to discipline our flesh when it rears its ugly head and wants to do things contrary to the spirit. How do we do that? It is the same whether it is for our flesh/Body or our Soul: 2 Corinthians 10:3-6 - For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: 4. For the weapons or our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds. 5. Casting down vain imaginations, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. 6. And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled. This is a great scripture for step by step instruction of “how” to deal with the unruly flesh/Body, as well as our Soul, or the devil, when they is causing havoc. What is a “strong hold”? It is a belief system that we have. We identify with it. We think it’s “the truth.” But it is simply a thought we were taught somewhere along our life and have treated it “as truth.” We do this, it defines us. BUT we can tear it down through casting down the thought in Jesus Name. (We will get into this more in later paragraphs.) Verse 5 can be phrased another way for seeing the order of what we are to do: “By casting down vain imaginations, and every high (or lofty) thought that exalts itself over the word, or speaks contrary to the word…and being ready to revenge all disobedience from our Bodies, Souls, or the devil.” Many times the common Christian phrase that is used is: “rebuke that thought” for a thought that comes up contrary to God and His word. But this is only half of what needs to be done. The next part is to replace that thought with the appropriate scripture that contradicts that thought. Or in common writing terms when you are using a word processor, you use the key for “find and replace.” That’s what we want to do with the word. Find the appropriate scripture on a situation and replace your previous “ingrained” thought(s) - or “strong hold” - cancel them out in Jesus Name and replace it with what the word says. For example: a thought comes to your mind that you have no will power to eat healthy. You may even make a statement to someone along those lines. As soon as you realize it (even if it’s hours later), speak out loud to yourself. Say: “I refuse that thought in Jesus Name, and cast it out! I HAVE the will power because I am a new creature in Christ Jesus. Old things are gone away and ALL has become new!! (2 Corinthians 5:17.) I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. (Philippians 4:13.)” This is what you do with thoughts and words that come up from your heart or into your mind and out of your mouth, to take authority over them. When you first do this you will feel like you’re are lying to yourself because you always thought that negative thought, and it was a “strong hold.” But now you are replacing the “you” with God. It’s His thought of who you are and you are making it yours. On purpose. He’s right. Always. This first day you will have to do it a lot. It may seem like every 10 seconds you’re having to cast down thoughts and replace them with the word. But as you stay persistent it will get easier. Even the next day will be easier. By the third day it will be even easier. By the fourth day you’re doing a victory dance because it’s over. There will be times here and there of the flesh rearing its ugly head or the devil tryin to jump in, but it’s laughable when it happens and you treat it the same as you did at the start: cast down that thought in the Name of Jesus and replace it with the Word. We can also ask the Holy Spirit for His help, always. He is our Helper. Psalm 141:3 - Set a guard over my mouth, Lord; keep watch over the door of my lips. Do not let my heart be drawn to what is evil so that I take part in wicked deeds along with those who are evildoers; do not let me eat their delicacies. There’s another in Psalm 139:23-24 - Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. As you do this He will highlight to you when something has come out of our mouth, or thought, or action that is contrary to the Word of God. Then take action on what He is telling you to do. And as you start this process the first thing to watch: what comes out of our mouths. There’s one more part to all of this, and that is understanding the “gateways” to our heart. These are the openings to our heart and what goes into them is what gets planted in our heart. We are told to “guard our heart” which means to guard the entrances to the heart. The gateways or entrances are: eye gate; ear gate; mouth gate. What goes into our eyes and our ears can get into our heart. Mouth is a two way gate. We speak out of the abundance in our heart, that’s how we know what is in it; and we can speak the word out loud to change what is planted in our heart. This is our Body and Soul working together. That is how we are made. And the Lord gave us scripture for this: Take a look at Proverbs 4:20-27 - Berean Study Bible: 20 My son, pay attention to my words; incline your ear to my sayings. 21 Do not lose sight of them; keep them within your heart. 22 For they are life to those who find them, and health to the whole body. 23 Guard your heart with all diligence, for from it flow springs of life. 24 Put away deception from your mouth; keep your lips from perverse speech. 25 Let your eyes look forward; fix your gaze straight ahead. 26 Make a level path for your feet, and all your ways will be sure. 27 Do not swerve to the right or to the left; turn your feet away from evil. In verse 20-21 we see that the word(s) that we hear causes “images” to come up. We see what was said. This happens no mater what is spoken. This is why we have to be careful what we “hear”. It causes images in our mind. If we keep thinking on it, it will come out of our mouth. If we are “inclining our ear” to the word of God we will be storing it in our heart and have life and health. Out of our heart springs life. But if we are storing things contrary to the word of God, then we are springing up death from our heart and those words we speak will be “death” types of words. Like when someone constantly has negative things to say. They are hard to be around because they are so negative. That is a heart issue, a heart filled with sickness, death, disease, destruction. And we know who is the instigator of that - John 10:10 the devil has come to steal, kill, and destroy. Jesus came to give life and that more abundantly. The remainder of the verses are about staying focused on God’s word and doing it. The steps are simple. The “doing” of it is initially a challenge due to our “feelings” but the Lord also changes our “feelings” when we do this and He is with you every step of the way and will help you. * I’m going to repeat myself, I am choosing to do that in this article because this is important: Watching our words is the first thing to notice and when something comes out, we say something that is contrary to the word, immediately repent of it. Not just ask forgiveness. “Repent” - which means to change our way of thinking about that situation. Then cancel those words out in Jesus Name, because they create. AND then replace them with what the word says about that situation. STOP yourself when you realize you said something contrary to the word - even if its hours later. Then say: “Sweet Heavenly Father, forgive me for saying that. I change my thinking with what Your word says about me. I forbid my body to have control over me in Jesus Name! I keep my focus on You in my Spirit through the Holy Spirit in charge of my physical Body and Soul, and I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. It’s not my strength, it’s Yours! And I thank You for giving it to me.” (Philippians 4:13.) *** CHAPTER TW0 - LEARNING TO WALK WITH GOD Now that you know the basics you can begin or renew your relationship with God. And we do all of what was mentioned on the previous pages because we love the Lord and want to clearly hear Him and be directed by Him. It’s about our intimate relationship with Him. He is closer than a brother. He is always on our side and wants to help us. Spending time with the Lord is the most important thing. Any relationship needs time with that person. Our relationship with the Lord is no different. The more you read His word the more you learn how He talks. Where most people miss His voice is when they think they hear themselves rather than Him. For example: At work, discipline yourself to ask for His help. Ask: “Okay, Lord, how do I do this?” An idea or hunch will come from deep within your being to your head as a thought. You check that “thought” this way: a.) Do you have “peace’ about it? b.) Do you have joy about it? If you have peace and joy, it’s Him. Especially joy. (Colossians 3:15; 1 Thessalonians 5:23; Psalm 16:11.) Love, joy, peace are all results of hearing from Him, they are Him and He exudes them. When He speaks to you they are always present. Even when He is correcting us! There is peace and love. While it’s sobering there is liberty - freedom in taking His correction, never bondage. If there is “confusion” - that is not God. He is not the author of confusion but of peace - 1 Corinthians 14:33. As an example, you know that friend or associate you have that is so great to be around. You feel great about yourself when you’re with them. You laugh. Have a good time. Enjoy each others’ company. This is what it’s like with the Lord! Even more so because He is the creator of all that exists - and you are a friend of God and His love for you is everlasting. This is what we all aspire to, a high quality of life with an intimate relationship with the Lord. We will unpack this further in the nitty-gritty of things in the following pages. *** CHAPTER THREE - FURTHER DETAILS ON THE BODY Ephesians 6:12 - For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. In this Ephesians scripture we can see the relationship between the devil and the flesh. They are symbiotic. This world is where he roams and attacks come in the material world and will affect our bodies. All ways, and always. Attacks can also come to our minds as “Thoughts.” They come from the outside into our heads. Usually that’s his mess. Sometimes thoughts from other people come. Thoughts come from the outside from whatever we are giving our attention to, like books, movies, music, and conversation. But this is where we need to control what comes into our “gateways.” We have to guard our heart. And in the flesh realm is where we see the devil roams in scripture. Look at Job 1:6-7 and Job 2:1-2. He is roaming the earth. And we see in 1 Peter 5:8-10 he is roaming the earth to seek someone to devour. And devouring was on his mind with Job. God wouldn’t allow him to devour Job but He allowed the devil to do it to Job’s family. I have heard people ask why did God allow that. When you read the first couple of chapters you see that his kids were in sinful behavior, his wife was in sinful behavior (complaining about God, like Israel did in the desert), and we see Job was in fear because of the sacrifices he offered continually for his kids because of their sin. A parent or whomever is led to intercede for someone in sinful behavior is only allowed for so long. God expects the people (person) to make it right. God had to allow it by His very own truth, law. Job was supposedly the first book written, before the law but God’s law is forever. God is forever. His truth is forever. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. And being disobedient to Him knowingly or unknowingly, although they had no understanding, allowed the devil to pounce. The only way the devil can do that is if someone allows him by their thoughts, words, and actions. We have Authority over him as Jesus told us in Luke 10:17-19. We are to use that Authority that Jesus gave us in His word as He said and do honor to His blood that was spilt for us. He upholds all things by the Word of His power! (Hebrews 1:3.) And when someone is in sin there is always a result for the sin. Repentance sometimes voids the result or outcome, sometimes it does not. There are times when people in the Bible had to go through the result of their sin even though they got their hearts right with God. I believe Adam and Eve were the first; Abraham - yes, he brought Lot with him who was family and Abraham was called God’s friend and Jesus was able to come to the earth because of Abraham’s faith for God to raise his son from the dead. Abraham’s faith was more important than the sin of taking his nephew Lot with him on his journey. But who knows how that would have happened if Abraham didn’t take Lot. James 4:7 - Submit yourself to God…..resist the devil and he will flee. Consciously submit and yield ourselves to God!! Do this first. Then as we resist the devil by casting down his thoughts and accusations he will flee, but we have to resist. Resist the thoughts he throws into our heads and the drives of our Bodies. Take Authority over our flesh through Jesus and His Word. It keeps our Body under. As Paul said in 1 Corinthians 9:27 - “but I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified.” Romans 13:14 - But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires o the flesh. * I. Matthew 26:41- Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. We are to keep “watch” and pray. “Pray” in straightforward terms means: in conversation with the Lord. We can do this all throughout the day. This is what Paul means by “pray without ceasing” - 1 Thessalonians 5:17. As we keep our hearts in tune with the Holy Spirit, He warns us of what is coming. He then leads us to pray against it to stop it or decrease the severity of it (John 14:26 and Romans 8:26-27). The next part is key: our Spirits are willing. This born again part of us is in union with Christ, as 1 Corinthians 6:17 says, and they are willing. We are one Spirit with Him. But our flesh, which is in two parts: physical body and the flesh nature (or sin nature, or sometimes called “human nature”) is what needs to be crucified: Galatians 5:16-17, 24 - This I say then, Walk in the Spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that you cannot do the things that you would. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. In verse 24 for us to “belong to Christ Jesus” is a choice…after we are born again. If we take this scripture and compare it to Romans 7:14, 25 and Chapter 8 and Galatians 5 we see that there is a “struggle” between our flesh and Spirit. And we all know brothers and sisters who “got their life insurance.” Meaning they received Jesus into their heart but they are not submitted to Him. Yielded. We have to yield to Him to “belong” to Him. They are saved. They will go to heaven. But they won’t receive a crown. There are 5 crowns that believers can achieve. Not all who run the race will receive the reward - meaning all who get saved won’t do what it takes to receive a crown. It’s a reward. I know believers who do not submit and do not yield to the Lord. Walking in the Spirit is a constant choice. We must walk in the Spirit in order to have crucified the flesh - Romans 8. It’s an “if”/“then” statement. Even if we walk according to the flesh our inner man, the Holy Spirit though our Spirit will be grieved because we are not doing what He says. He will give that inward feeling of “discomfort” but if we continue to disobey He will stop warning us and let the result of the sin come upon us. And there are many brothers and sisters who do not walk in the Spirit and their flesh isn’t crucified, and going through turmoil. How do you know? Their fruit. You can always tell by what inhabits and surrounds a person’s life. BUT all we have to do is repent. Sometimes we still have to go through the result of that sin, like David with Bathsheba (2 Samuel 11-12) but the sin is forgiven. Repenting doesn’t always get rid of the result but it does make your hearing from the Lord, intimacy with Him, get back on track. Ephesians 2:3 - All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. Romans 6:6,16- For we know that our old self was crucified with Him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin….Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? We are always obeying somebody . Either the flesh and sin, or God. We have a choice. Choose you this day life or death, blessing or cursing: therefore choose life, that both you and your seed may live: That you may love the Lord your God and that you may obey His voice, and that you may cleave unto Him: for He is your life and the length of your days… - Deuteronomy 30:19-20. The Holy Spirit in our inner man has to have priority over our flesh. The two - flesh and spirit are against one another: Galatians 5:17 - For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do what you want. Romans 7:14, 25 (part, in my words) - Thank God because He delivers me through Jesus Christ my Lord! I myself in my mind serve God, but in my sinful nature am a slave to the law of sin. What that means as born again believers is we are constantly presented with a choice. Choosing to abide by the sinful nature or choosing to abide by God’s word. He gives us the choice. He never forces it upon us. * II. The word “death” in Strong’s means: Greek- #2288 separation from the life of God. Before we were born again we were in “death”- in sin. We were separated from God. Genesis 2:17 -“But of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it: for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” When Adam and Eve ate of the fruit they died immediately in the Spirit-Soul-Body. They were separated from God in all three areas. Notice God didn’t know where they were…He asked, “Where are you?” They had been separated. It was hundreds of years until their bodies learned to die. Yes, their bodies had to learn to die. They were not created to do so. The natural man or flesh, or one who is separated from God cannot spiritually discern because they are spiritually dead - the Spirit is separate from God, the Soul is separate from God, and the Body is separate from God. Our outer man is perishing but the inward one is renewed day by day - 2 Corinthians 4:16. (This is a great confession to do each morning!) This is why 1 Corinthians 15:51-53 is so important. Our bodies need to be recreated in their original, un-fallen state. Immortal. We won’t have blood running through our veins, instead it will be the glory of God. Just imagine what that will be like!! (Luke 24:39; Romans 6:4; 1 Peter 1:21) When we receive Jesus as our Lord and receive His sacrifice for us, that brings us into union with Him. No longer separate in our Spirit from the Spirit of God. But our Soul and Body are not changed. Originally we were intended to be entirely a part of God - Spirit-Soul-Body. Like Adam when he was first created before the fall. But now that we have received Jesus our Spirit is alive unto God, 2 Corinthians 5:17 and 18 Amplified- Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature (new species of being), old things are passed away and all things are become new. And all things are of God, Who has reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation. The first Adam and the last Adam - Jesus Christ - 1 Corinthians 15:45 “It is written, ‘The first man Adam became a living being,’ the last Adam, a life-giving Spirit.” This is why when we receive Jesus into our hearts we have life the moment we say “yes” to Him. You know something happened. You now have life in your Spirit. Adam at first was entirely one with the Father - Spirit-Soul-Body. Imagine what that must have been like?? We will soon get to experience that for eternity!! When the fall happened he was entirely separated Spirit-Soul-Body. Imagine what that must have been like for Adam and Eve to experience both. Jesus too, when He was on the cross and said, “Father, why have you forsaken Me?” Jesus had always been one with the Father and then at the cross He was entirely separated from the Father, and the Father had to turn His back on His Son because He was laden with all of our sins. (Habakuk 1:13; Exodus 33:18-23.) That was devastating to Jesus to have His loving Father have to turn His back to Him. Scripture says Jesus gave His Spirit up to death. It was not taken. I believe He died of a broken heart and gave up His Spirit. * We are to take authority over our Bodies: 1 Corinthians 9:27- But I keep under my body (make it my slave) and bring it under subjection…. (Look at TPT) and our Souls (thoughts, emotions, personality: 1 Corinthians 10:10-13 TPT - And we must not embrace their ways by complaining-grumbling with discontent, as many of them did, and were killed by the destroyer! All the tests they endured on their way through the wilderness are a symbolic picture, an example that provides us with a warning so that we can learn through what they experienced. For we live in a time when the purpose of all the ages past is now completing its goal within us. So beware if you think it could never happen to you, lest your pride becomes your downfall. We all experience times of testing which is normal for every human being. But God will be faithful to you. He will screen and filter the severity, nature, and timing of every test or trial you face so that you can bear it. And each test is an opportunity to trust Him more, for along with every trial God has provided for you a way of escape, that will bring you out of it victoriously. Praise God, He is with us through all tests and trials and provides a way out. These tests and trials come in this material world, like the parable of the rain that beats upon the house. Much of the time tests and trails come through our own bodies. Sometimes through the soul - thinking and emotions. And we are warned not to grumble and complain spoken words against God. They create. And it killed them. A very sobering warning. One thing of note: when you are in the midst of a test/trial, notice that is when you do not hear the voice of God. Like when you took examinations in school, the teacher was there in class. He or she was at their desk. Never said a word. They waited until the test was finished. This is important to know. You will still have unction/knowing from the Holy Spirit. Stay highly tuned to His direction during the test. Whether you obey or not will either decrease the time of the test, or increase the length of time of the test. And important to realize there is difference between a test/trial and a temptation. The Lord does test - Abraham with Lot for example versus Jesus in the wilderness tempted by the devil (Jesus had to deal with His soul while in prayer and fasting). Temptations do not come from God as James 1:12-16 - we encounter them because of our flesh and Soul: “Blessed is the man that endures temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive that crown of life, with the Lord has promised to them that love Him. Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither does He tempt anyone; but every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust has conceived, it brings forth sin; and sin, when it is finished brings forth death.” * IT ALL COMES DOWN TO WHAT WE FOCUS ON: Paul says in 1 Corinthians 2:14 - But the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. Paul wrote this to the church in Corinth, to believers. Another scripture that is imperative to read is Romans 8. The entire chapter is about focusing on the Holy Spirit or focusing on the flesh, and the outcome of both. Here’s another aspect to be aware of with the body: CRAVINGS - any “impulse” from the body that is hard to control or you have no control comes from a demon. Many times it is attached because of unforgiveness and/or fear. Sometimes it’s a family curse. If this is the case, as always, ask the Lord how to go about it. It requires repentance either for yourself, or in the case of a family curse repenting for your forefathers and foremothers of all agreements, oaths, contracts, and such like, known and unknown. Tell the Lord you receive forgiveness; and cancel out all family curses. Stamp the spiritual contract with the Blood of Jesus because you are redeemed from the curse of the Law (Galatians 3:13-14) and the Law of the Spirit of Life (Romans 8:2) is in you, on you, and has permeated your life. You are free, in Jesus Name. And cut all cords to the curse or whatever it is, in the Name of Jesus (Proverbs 5:21-23) and burn them up with the Fire of God (Hebrews 12:29 and 1 Kings 18: 38-39 [23-39].) * REVIEW: John 6:63 - It is the Spirit that quickens (or that gives life); the flesh profits nothing; the Words that I speak unto you are Spirit and they are life. Very clear distinction between Spirit and Body in this scripture. We can see the outcome of being focused on one or the other. Our Spirit is new, born again, and one with Jesus. There is light and life with what He speaks. This is where God talks to us and what He says always agrees with His word. His word is life to us! The more you read it the more you have life and light on the situation. It makes you “feel” energized…I know, it’s a feeling and the word affects our feelings in the right way. Did you know God has feelings? But He’s not ruled by them. Our Body, called “flesh” or “carnal” is 2 parts: physical body with the 5 senses - see, hear, smell, taste, and touch; and our sin nature - also called “human nature”, or “beast like nature” - Daniel 5:21; 2 Pet. 2:12; Jude 1:10; Ps. 49:12, 20; James 1:23-26; Romans 8. Don't waste even a moment's thought on your former identity to awaken its selfish desires. Instead fully immerse yourselves into the Lord Jesus, the Anointed One. - Romans 13:14 TPT Paul says 1 Corinthians 9:24-27 - do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air. No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize. We see that even when moving in the Spirit preaching, because Paul constantly had the flow of the Holy Spirit with miraculous signs following, if he didn’t keep his body “under”- discipline his thoughts and emotions, he would loose the crown!!!! *** CHAPTER FOUR - FURTHER DETAILS ON THE SOUL We discussed much of how to do this already. How we retrain our Flesh/Body is the same as retraining our Soul. There are only a few things to add here. Soul: mind, will, emotions, and personality. I’m going to do this out of order above. Let’s go to the “WILL” . Will power is your “chooser” - the will can only work properly when you have enough word in you. You know the phrase: “I have no will power…I have to eat the entire cake.” They don’t have enough Word to resist that temptation. This is the only way our “will” can properly work: with the Word. 2. Our Soul - mind (thoughts), FEELINGS, personality are not always right, although we believe they are. Every thought we have is not accurate. Every feeling we have is definitely not accurate and can get you in trouble. Feelings can kill and being ruled by “feelings” will make one’s life absolute hell. They are up one minute and down the next. A roller coaster that always leads to confusion, and God is not the author of confusion but of peace. (1 Corinthians 14:33.) Feelings (Emotions)- is huge. At times they can seem overwhelming. This is where we stumble the most. We think we “are” our emotions. But no. We have feelings…they are not who we are. Feelings can kill you! Talk with anyone who has attempted suicide. They will tell you how they “felt.” ‘Hopeless. No way out. People are better off without them.’ The person has their identity in their feelings. And nothing could be further from the truth. Another example: when someone is ill - people because of “feelings” can be detrimental to the person who is sick, because they “feel sorry” for them. “Feeling sorry” is only an emotion. It has no “action” to help the person. Then the person who “feels sorry” for them speaks words of illness and death over them. Not words of life. Words create. The power of life and death is in the tongue, and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof. - Proverbs 18:21. Instead of emotion, Jesus moved with COMPASSION. Notice the verb. “Moved”. Compassion “does” something about the situation. So when you hear of someone who is not well, pray for them! Pray how the Lord leads. Each situation is different. Speak words of life to them…which means speak scripture to them. Put it in layman's terms, don’t “christian-ize” the words straight out of King James Version…that can turn many people off. For people who are in the hospital, sleeping, in and out of consciousness, or coma - that’s when to play the word in their room, it changes things!! 3. more on the MIND : 1 Corinthian 8:1 - Knowledge (head knowledge) puffs up but Love builds up. This word gives us a key! Are we puffed up by what we are saying or thinking? Or does it benefit someone else. Results are the key! By the result we know what was the motivator and if actions are needed to be taken like casting down thoughts and replacing with the word. This is why our focus needs to be on the love of God and what He wants. Not what we want. And we can always tell by the end result. God is very specific about the thoughts of our Soul (mind) and what it leads to, like the scripture above, and the ones below: 1 Corinthians 3:18-20 NIV - Do not deceive yourselves, if any of you think you are wise by the standards of this age, you should become “fools” so that you may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight. As it is written: “He catches the wise in their craftiness”. And again, “The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile.” (Job 5:13, Psalm 94:11.) Romans 12:2 NIV - Be not conformed to the world’s way of working: but be transformed by the renewing of your mind - THAT we we may prove what is that good, acceptable, and perfect will of God. And I like to use this scripture with this, Philippians 4:8 NASB- Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, commendable, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, think about these things. One translation says “if there is anything praiseworthy - meditate on these things.” These are the things to think about on purpose. Not on our automatic thinking from our minds when it is contrary to the word. We renew our minds by reading the word and confessing the word, and guard what we see with our eyes, hear with our ears, and speak with our mouth. It’s a simple equation but it takes work. And by doing this we prove what is the perfect will of God in our lives. Fruit. We will bear good fruit. (Matthew 12:33; John 15:2.) We can tell what is happening in our lives by the fruit we are bearing. In other words, look at what you got. If you don’t like what you see, then things need to change within you. And this is how you do it. Refocus. Put your sights on the Lord - intimacy with Him IS key. Take time every day to be with Him in prayer and the word. Ask Him to help you, to show you where to go in the word. Then get quiet for a few minutes and see where you are led to go in the Bible. You may hear His still, small voice coming up from deep inside of you; or you will get a “knowing” of where to go; sometimes from deep within you will come a picture of the title of the book, like John or Isaiah and a chapter number; or sometimes a thought will come up from within you of the place to go. Whichever way He chooses to tell you, do it. Continue to nurture your “hearing” of Him.You already do whether you know it or not. You are His sheep and you hear His voice (John 10:27), it’s simply strengthening the “learning” how to hear. Continue to follow His promptings and leadings. If you follow one that wasn’t right, then you know it wasn’t Him. It was either your Soul or your Flesh, or the devil. Just because you found it wasn’t the Lord isn’t a bad thing. It is part of teaching you what is what. When the devil chimes in he typically starts with bringing thoughts to your mind that “you are worthless; you can never do anything right; people think your an idiot; you don’t have what it takes” etc. Never fails, he will always talk bad to you, about you, and make you think it is “yourself” that is talking this way. The more you keep doing this he will eventually be his ugly self and tell you he’s going to kill you. Laugh at him. He can’t touch you. Psalm 91:16 with long life will God satisfy you and show you His salvation. The difference is satan will condemn you; while the Holy Spirit will convict you in order to help you to grow in the Lord. There are some Soulish ways of thinking, ways we were raised, what we heard from our parents or family, or friends that is negative - these are “strong holds.” We took on these thoughts as our “identity.” But it’s not who we are. All of these thoughts can be changed just the way God told us in 1 Corinthians 10:3-6 and Proverbs 4:20-23. Casting down those thoughts in Jesus Name and replacing them with what the word says about us; and guarding our hearts by careful watch of what goes into our eyes, ears, and out of our mouth. Be sure to cut the cords to that way of thinking - Proverbs 5:21-23. Strong holds always have cords. It’s what creates the bondage - Isaiah 5:18; Psalm 107:13-14; Psalm 140:5; Psalm 129:4. Plus, with all of this the Lord also gave us His mind. We have that in our inner man, the Spirit, that is one with Jesus. (1 Corinthians 2:16.) This is the part of us that knows deep down what is right and what is wrong. Our moral compass. We call it our “conscience”. Keep on track with the conscience. Don’t violate it by not doing what you are led to do. Following our conscience will keep you on the right track. 1 Timothy 1:19 NIV - Holding on to faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and so have suffered shipwreck with regard to the faith. As we do all of this we know as Philippians 4:7 says, The peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Always follow your “peace”. If you don’t have peace about something, don’t do it! Don’t allow yourself to be pushed to make a decision. Colossians 3:15 Classic Amplified says, “Let the peace of God [the umpire of peace, the inner calm of one who walks daily with Him] be the controlling factor in your hearts [deciding and settling with all finality all questions that arise in your mind]. To this peace you were called to live as members of Christ’s one body. And be thankful [to God always].” And if you still don’t have peace about a situation, ask the Lord about it. There’s something He is trying to tell you. Don’t make any decisions about a situation until you have peace about that situation. Stay in the word and prayer until you get the answer from Him and you know how to proceed. * THOUGHTS & EMOTIONS ARE CONNECTED. One causes the other. We don’t ever think of them as separate, because they are not. Thought causes emotions; and emotions cause further thoughts. We are separating them in this study as a matter of study. And if we continue ruminating on a thought it creates a pattern, a “habit”, in our mind to continue thinking on those things which stirs up powerful feelings. Scientifically it has been proven (https://qz.com/1569158/neuroscientists-read-unconscious-brain-activity-to-predict-decisions ) - that if you take a thought for 10-11 seconds a pattern is created in the brain and a decision is made, thus an action and words occur next. This is why it is so crucial to be aware of our thoughts BEFORE a pattern is created in the brain. A habit. A proverbial “groove” if you will, like a groove in a record. When we stop the thought that is contrary to the word of God before 11 seconds, we stop the pattern from ever forming. It’s much easier to deal with thoughts quickly. It takes more time to uproot and change patterns in the brain. No matter which way we have to go, we got the victory through Christ Jesus. And it is the same simple way of casting down the thought in Jesus Name and replacing that thought with the word of God that pertains to the situation. As we take authority over our emotions and thoughts when they are out of line with the Word our mind gets more and more renewed, so does the emotions. We won’t be an emotional rollercoaster but on a steady, even keel that is hard to get flustered or flare out in situations. For example: in an emergency, a crisis situation - people either become paralyzed, or cry, or scream and yell profanity. This is the common reaction and is evidence that those people do not have any word in them. It is the Spirit man that is supposed to take over. But they have nothing in their spirit, no word. Their mind shuts down and they don’t know what to do and their emotions get flustered and flare. Another aspect for renewing our minds and emotions is that it is crucial for healing emotional scars. This is where being “hurt” comes from. Our “hearts hurt” because of an emotional scar because we “see” ourselves as our emotions. But we are not. That’s what the phrase means: “Don’t take it so personally.” Taking the emotional hurt personally - as if it is us. It is simply an emotion we have. This is why we have to renew our minds, how we think of ourselves and “see” ourselves. The way we think about that situation will create a bigger groove of hurt in our emotions and causes us to not forgive. We are new creatures. Old things have passed away and ALL has become new! And we forgive because Jesus told us to. It keeps us in contact with the Lord. If we harbor unforgiveness we separate ourselves from the love of God. He can’t get to us because there is a “barrier” in between us and Him and we were the ones that put it there…and we can “take it down” too, simply by forgiving…on purpose - Mark 11:25-26. We have to retrain our thoughts by be disciplined in forgiving that person instead of harboring resentment, pray for them, bless them in Jesus Name. This will take a few days just like any retraining of our thinking. It is the same process. If we will change our tendency to see ourselves as our emotions we won’t be so flighty; instead more stable, consistent. Plus we are commanded to forgive: Ephesians 4:32 And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you. When we don’t control our emotions we will 100% of the time get “off”. It’s the realm the enemy uses a lot. It’s one of the major fields he attacks. Attacks our minds, attacks our emotions, attacks our personalities, attacks the will power. * Here’s one more part to look at regarding dealing with the soul, and specifically our feelings and thoughts, AND how it relates to the will: Jesus at Gethsemane - He was struggling with His own soul! Matt. 26: 36-46 - Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to the disciples, “Sit here while I go and pray over there.” And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and He began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed. TPT - An intense feeling of great sorrow plunged his soul into deep sorrow and agony. And he said to them, My heart is overwhelmed and crushed with grief. It feels as though I’m dying. Stay here and keep watch with me. “ 39. The he walked a short distance away, and overcome with grief, he threw himself facedown on the ground and prayed, “My Father, if there is any way you can deliver me from this suffering, please take it from me. YET WHAT I WANT IS NOT IMPORTANT, for I only desire to fulfill Your plan. Luke 22:39-44 -42 - Father, if you’re are willing, take this cup of agony away from me. But no matter what your will must be mine. 44. He prayed even more passionately, like one being sacrificed, until he was in such intense agony of spirit that His sweat became drops of blood, dripping onto the ground. Agony: (Merriam-Websters) - 1. A. intense pain of mind or body; anguish, torture. B. The struggle that precedes death. A violent struggle or contest. 3. A strong sudden display, outburst. In this instance we see Jesus struggle with His own soul - thoughts and emotions - He surrendered His will to His Father. Not Jesus’ will but God’s will. Will power is the “chooser”. This is crucial in times of crisis. If it wasn’t for the fact that Jesus had so much word in Him (He is the word made flesh - John 1:1-4,14), He wouldn’t have been able to make HIs will submit to God the Father. That is the only way we can do this ourselves. We have to have the word in us, abiding in us - John 15:7. Sometimes the Lord may show you something terrible that you have to face, but that you need to go through it. Just like He did with Paul and Peter. They knew the what was going to happen. The Father always has a very good reason. We may not understand it yet but He will reveal it to us. And He gives you the faith to get through it. For example, there was a man who knew he was going to prison. He had done nothing wrong and had been set up. But the Lord told him that He wanted him to go, there was something for him to do there. The man was sent to prison. And once the man was in jail the Lord told him to minister to other inmates. Eventually he began a prison ministry with the inmates in his jail and many came to know the Lord!!! At the beginning of the situation it looked like that the entire thing was wrong. This man had been set up. It wasn’t right. Same as Jesus. Jesus was set up. It wasn’t right. But there was a purpose!!!! And the man who was sent to jail was the means of the Lord being sent to those in prison and “setting them free”. One statement I heard was from one of the inmates who came to the Lord though this man’s ministry, the guy was in for a life sentence, he said how much he thanked Jesus for loving him enough to come in to where he was, and no matter what it looks likes, he was freer than he could ever be even when he was on the outside. “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free…whom the Son sets free is free indeed!!” (John 8:32, 36.) This man is set free! Even though to the outside world it looks like he is not. No matter the massive battle Jesus had with His soul, His emotions and thoughts, and submitting His will to God’s will, Jesus’s death and resurrection was for saving all of mankind! That’s why He said on the cross before He gave up His Spirit: “It is finished.” * 4. PERSONALITY We don’t have to be chained or imprisoned by our personality either! Glory to God!! That’s why we have to renew our minds with who Jesus Christ says we are. We are not our personalities or what others have said about “who we are”. And we do not have to be a prisoner of either one in our behavior. All parts of our Soul are something we have. It is not who we are. We are to take control of our Soul’s through the word by “who” God says we are. Personality is the most difficult area to change because it is a foundation of how we identify ourselves. When you “see” yourself at “that” thing, you don’t think it can change. But it can!! Once you grasp that so much of our personality is learned behavior, it then makes it easier. Those parts to the personality are not “you” and they can change. Praise God we have been delivered from our personality as well as sin, sickness, destruction, poverty and such things. (Galatians 3:13-14; Romans 8:1-2; Deuteronomy 28.) No matter what has gone on in a believer’s mind and becomes their personality, and the decisions they have made for themselves is not necessarily true. When you use the word of God to change ungodly thinking, those previous “identities” make no difference….but you have to know this. You have to change your automatic thinking on purpose WITH the Word. Cast down those thoughts in the Name of Jesus and replace it with what the word days about that situation. That’s the only thing that can change it! When your personality is telling you will never be good enough, or you can’t excel because your not smart enough, or whatever you have “made” your identity; then the devil jumps in and bombards your thoughts with even more bad news of telling you how bad you are, WITH fear - when he shows up there is ALWAYS fear - tell your thoughts, the fear, and the devil, OUT LOUD, “No! I refuse that thought! That is not who I am!! God so loved me that He gave Jesus to die for me!! He gave me His righteousness (2 Corinthians 5:21), if you don’t like it take it up with Him! I’m a new creature! OLD THINGS have GONE AWAY!!! ALL has become NEW and all things are of Father God Who is in me!! THE mighty God is in me and He continuously gives me life and that more abundantly! (John 10:10.). And I do NOT have the spirit of fear BUT of power, love, and a sound mind!” (2 Timothy 1:7.) There is one more element when we are dealing with re-training the personality. Those deep ingrained belief systems have spiritual “cords”. Since the thoughts are not “truth” - truth is the word of God (John 17:17), and the word gives faith according to Romans 10:17 - and whatsoever is not of faith is sin (Romans 14:23), that means those programmed identities are “sin”. Sin has cords. Take a look at a few scriptures: Psalm 129:1-4 - “They have greatly oppressed me from my youth”…they have greatly oppressed me from my youth, but they have not gained the victory over me. Plowmen have plowed my back and made their furrows long. But the Lord is righteous; He has cut me free from the cords of the wicked. “They” are the “wicked” which always refers to the devil and his hordes. Remember they exist in the soul and physical realm. They don’t have the victory over you unless you allow it. And they attack from our youth. It’s imperative as a parent to watch your kids and what they say!!!!! You can tell if they are being attacked! Even at 4 or 5 years old. Pay attention to what they say and let the Lord lead you. And the last sentence of that scripture is amazing: The Lord is righteous and He has cut me free from the cords of the wicked. Because when we are attacked by the devil, if he is “allowed” because we play with the thoughts he gives us because we think they are our own, then he ties us up spiritually with cords. Often it is called “bondage” in the word. Look at Isaiah 5:18 - Woe to those who draw sin along with cords of deceit, and wickedness as with cart ropes. When we don’t realize that we are in bondage with cords of sinful thoughts our life becomes more and more miserable. We have the same terrible cycles occurring in our lives and become more and more desperate. That’s because we are believing a lie and the lie attaches to us with cords. Psalm 107:13-14 - They cried unto the Lord in their trouble, and He saved them out of their distresses. He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and broke away their chains (cords). When we identify a part to our personality that needs to change, we first find all the scriptures about that subject matter and write them down. This is “who” you really are. This will take more than an hour. Give yourself a few days or so to do this. Then when you’re ready, with your Bible and the scriptures you’ve written out, you are going to pray. You are going to “repent” which means “change your thinking” about the former way of thinking and cut all cords to those thoughts to you and everything that belongs to you. Doesn’t have to be these exact words but something like this: “Father God, in the mighty Name of Jesus, I am so sorry for having ungodly thoughts that I made my identity. I repent of that in Jesus Name. I cut all cords to those thoughts and to all they are attached to and I thank You Jesus for shattering the chains of bondage to those thoughts. I am free!! Now I see in Your word that I am: (read off the scriptures you found). I am what You say I am because You made me this way!!! You have blessed me and I thank You for it. Holy Spirit I ask that you let me know if I do that again. And I thank You for it.” * Our “Conscious ” is a part of the soul. We are instructed not to violate our conscious or anyone else’s. As we grow up in spiritual things our conscience grows as well: 1 Corinthians 8:10-13 TPT - For if a believer with a weak conscience sees you, who have a greater understanding, dining in an idol’s temple, won’t this be a temptation to him to violate his own conscience and eat food offered to idols? So, in effect, by exercising your understanding of freedom, you have ruined this for a believer, a brother for whom Christ has died! And when you offend weaker believers by wounding their consciences in this way, you also sin against Christ. So I conclude that if my eating certain food deeply offends my brother and hinders his advance in Christ, I will never eat it again. I don’t want to be guilty of causing my brother or sister to be wounded and defeated. It’s important to abide by what our conscious is telling us. Otherwise if we violate it, it is the same as sin against the Lord. And we don’t want to cause our fellow brothers and sisters to stumble. We have a responsibility to the Lord for this, as He had said, for each other. The Lord showed me during the writing of this - 3 John 2 - “Beloved, I wish above all things that you would prosper and be in health, even as your soul prospers.” He said that when our minds are not renewed (soul) we cannot prosper nor can we be in health. If we see ourselves struggle with money and health, we know what the problem is. The Soul, our mind needs to be renewed! The Word will show us when our soul is getting out of line and differentiating between Soul and the Spirit. The Holy Spirit teaches you these things. Ask Him questions, tell Him all the questions that arise in your mind. He will let you know what is what. He will show you what is coming from the Spirit and what is Soulish. Forget about the “thinking” that He already knows it all. Yes, He does. And when we talk with Him about the things we are questioning it clears us up. The Holy Spirit shows you what is going on. It’s so cool when He does this!!! 1 Peter 1:22 - Seeing you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that you love one another with a pure heart fervently. *** CHAPTER FIVE: MORE ON THE SPIRIT Proverbs 20:27 The spirit is the lamp of the Lord that sheds light on one’s inmost being. When we give God our priority, prioritize Him in our Spirit, He sheds light on our inmost being and every situation we give to Him. This is how we have “light” on the situation - Him. He is light, the light of this world. (1 John 1:5 & John 8:12.) As we press into Him we allow Him to lead us - Proverbs 3:5-6 says Trust in the Lord with all your heart; lean not to your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your path. So we make a choice to not lean to our understanding - our thinking - and always acknowledge Him. It makes everything easier. Relying on Him for His direction for every situation rather than our own thoughts and feelings is freeing…absolutely liberating. Yes, it is hard to first start this because of our habits but habits can be changed and once we do it gets easier each time, and we eventually realize how limited we were before relying on the Lord, when we just guessed at everything in life. We don’t have to do it alone and we aren’t in this alone. We were never intended to be. God always wants to help, He is the lover of our Spirit, Soul, and Body - our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. Temple. This why we undergo specific judgements for things done to our bodies if we do not repent - 1 Corinthians 3:16-17 (The Holy of Holies is within us, where the Holy Spirit dwells. The Holy of Holies was the inner sanctuary where God’s presence dwelled. That’s IN us!! God’s presence is IN us. Have people ever told you “you just light up a room.” That’s God in you! In the temple the high priest could only go into the Holy of Holies once a year. And the holiness of God could only be accessed by the high priest once per year with a veil between him and God, a barrier (representing sin). God’s eyes are too pure to look on evil (sin)- Habakkuk 1:13. The priest with the veil and the elaborate customs (ordination) put in place by God were a reminder that man could not carelessly or irreverently enter God’s awesome presence. Before the priest entered the Holy of Holies on the Day of Atonement, he had to wash himself, put on special clothing, bring burning incense to let the smoke cover his eyes form a direct view of God and bring sacrificial blood with him to make atonement for sins - Exodus 28 and Hebrews 9:7. He has saved us from all of the torment of this world. God is not the tormentor. He IS love and kindness, just, peacemaker, life, light and so much more. Jeremiah 31:3 - “…I have loved you with an everlasting love, therefore I have continued My faithfulness to you.” His absolute holiness is within us. It is the Lord who speaks with us out of our innermost being, deep in your belly. At times the words seem to come up from our belly, the upper part where the rib cage opens, and the words will move from there to deep within our head, not from the outside in. Sometimes we will hear His still, small voice (1 Kings 18:19-20) from within us. When He speaks, He always speaks according the word. He may use modern terminology but there are always scriptures that go with what He is telling you. If you don’t know the scripture off hand when He speaks, ask Him for one. He always gives at least one. John 4:24 - God is a Spirit: and those that worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and truth. We know His Word is truth (John 17:17). So we worship Him in the Spirit and in the Word, and as we do this the Holy Spirit reveals things through His Word about what is going on with us- are we wrapped up in our Soul in a mental game of gymnastics, or are we operating in the Spirit, or are we trapped in our flesh (Body). This is the only way to find out. Stay in the Spirit worshiping God being led in the Word. Not led by the Soul or Flesh. You can always tell by the fruit your life is producing. As we worship Him, we shut off our physical senses (Bodies) - that’s why it’s important to close your eyes so you don’t respond to the sense realm; and we tell our Souls (mind and emotions) to “keep quiet.” Stay focused on His majesty. His beauty. There’s nothing like it! THIS is who we are! We are our God-given-recreated Spirit. Our Spirit-man. Made in the image of God in connection with Him. We are who God says we are: we are more than conquerors though Him who loved us; and there’s no condemnation to us who walk after the Spirit and we walk after the Spirit - we follow Him; therefore we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us; it’s Christ in us, He does the work and greater is He who is in us than he who is in the world; the law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus has made us free from the law of sin and death; if God be for us who can be against us!! (Romans 8:1-2, 31, 37; Colossians 1:27; Zechariah 4:6; Philippians 4:13; 1 John 4:4) Galatians 5:15 - Walk in the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. John 6:63 - It is the Spirit that gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I speak unto you are Spirit and they are life. Always keep “feeding” on the word. It gives life. We don’t want to put our Spirit man on a diet or starve him. We want to keep him well-fed, and we do it with the word: Matthew 4:4 - But he answered, “It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” *** CHAPTER SIX: CONCLUSION The crucial part is to put the examples to work in your life so that God IN your Spirit has dominion over your Body and Soul. We have to “choose“ this on purpose. We ARE a Spirit; we HAVE a Soul; and we LIVE in Body to contact this world. Being made in the image of God, it makes sense. He is in three parts: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And what I love about that scripture in 1 Thessalonians 5 (on first page) is that God, who is the God of peace is the One who preserves us!!!! He preserves us blameless! Unto the Rapture! That’s shouting ground right there. And the following scriptures sum it up nicely: James 1:22-23 - But be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving your own hearts (souls). Matt. 7:24-27 - Therefore whoever has these saying of mine, and does them, I will liken him unto a wise man, who built his house upon a rock: and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it did not fall because it had its foundation on the rock (from doing what was heard in the Word). But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell: and great was the fall of it. James 2:22-24, 26 - You see that his (Abraham) faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. [Faith not joined with action leaves room for doubt to fill that void. Which makes us double minded.] And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him as righteousness,” and he was called God’s friend. You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone. For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. Phil 4:6-8 TPT - Don’t be pulled in different directions or worried about a thing. Be SATURATED IN PRAYER THROUGHOUT EACH DAY, OFFERING YOUR FAITH-FILLED REQUESTS BEFORE GOD WITH OVERFLOWING GRATITUDE. Tell Him every detail of your life, then God’s wonderful peace that transcends human understanding, will make the answers known to you through Jesus Christ. So keep your thoughts continually fixed on all that is authentic and real, honorable and admirable, beautiful and respectful, pure and holy, merciful and kind. And fasten your thoughts on every glorious word of God, praising Him always. *** SCRIPTURE REFERENCES Alphabetical by Subject Beast-like Nature: Daniel 5:21; 2 Peter 2:12; Jude 1:10; Psalm 49:12, 20; James 1:23-26; Romans 8 flesh vs. Spirit. Choices: Deuteronomy 30:19-20; Proverbs 18:21; follow the flesh or the Spirit, outcomes: Deuteronomy 28 and Romans 8; Genesis 2:17. God: Luke 24:39; Romans 6:4; 1 Peter 1:21; 1 Corinthians 6:17; 2 Timothy 3:16-17; 1 John 2:20,27; John 10:27-28; Hebrews 1:3; Proverbs 3:5-6; John 1:1-4, 14; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; Hebrews 12:29; 1 Kings 18:38-39; John 4:23-24; 1 Corinthians 14:33; Job 5:13; Psalm 94:11; John 8:32, 36; Habakuk 1:13; Exodus 33:18-23; Exodus 28; Hebrews 9:27; Jeremiah 31:3; 1 Kings 18:19-20; Colossians 1:27; Zechariah 4:6; 1 John 4:4; Mark 11:25-26; see also James 13-15; 1 John 1:5; John 8:12. Scripture/The Word: John 1; 2 Timothy 3:16-17; John 17:17; Hebrews 4:12; Hebrews 1:3; Psalm 1:2; Romans 10:17 and Romans 14:23; John 6:63; Matthew 4:4; James 1:22-23; Matthew 7:24-27; James 2:22-24, 26; John 15:7. Spirit of God (Holy Spirit): 1 Corinthians 2:-9-14; Romans 8; Galatians 5; 1 Corinthians 12-14; John 14:18, 26-27; John 16:7-15, 33; Psalm 141:3; Psalm 139:23-24; 1 Corinthians 3:16; John 6:63; Proverbs 20:27; Ephesians 1:17-18; 1 John 1:5; John 8:12; see also John 7:37-39. Spirit, Soul, Body, Heart: James 1:12-16 ; 2 Corinthians 10:3-6; 1 Thessalonians 5:23; Hebrews 4:12; Psalm 64:6; 2 Corinthians 4:14; Romans 2:29; Matthew 26:41; Ephesians 2:3; Romans 6:6,16; 1 Corinthians 9:24-27; Philippians 4:13; Philippians 4:6-8; 2 Corinthians 5:17-18, 21; Matthew 12:34; Proverbs 4:20-27; 1 Corinthians: 15:51-53; Galatians 3:13-14; Romans 13:14; Proverbs 18:21; 1 Corinthians 8:1, 10-13; 1 Corinthians 3:18-20; Romans 12:2; Job 5:13; Psalm 94:11; Matthew 12:33; John 15:2; 1 Timothy 1:19; Colossians 3:15 Amplified; Ephesians 4:32; Matthew 26:36-46; Luke 22:39-44; 3 John 1:2; Proverbs 3:5-6; 1 Corinthians 3:16-17; Galatians 5:15; John 6:63; Romans 14:23; James 2:22-24, 26; Romans 13:14; 1 Peter 1:22. Warfare, devil: Genesis 2:17; 2 Corinthians 10:3-6; Luke 10:17-19; Proverbs 5:21-23; Isaiah 5:18; Psalm 107:13-14; Psalm 140:5; Psalm 129:1-4; John 10:10; 2 Timothy 1:7 (“fear” is a spirit); James 4:7; 1 Peter 5:6-10; Matthew 18:18; Ephesians 6:12; Job 1:6-7; Job 2:1-2; see also Isaiah 14:9-17; Ezekiel 28:11-17; Revelation 12:7-12; Genesis 3; Genesis 6; Psalm 110:1 with Romans 16:20; Psalm 91; 2 Thessalonians 3:3; 2 Timothy 4:18; Isaiah 54:17; Psalm 2:1-4; 1 John 4:4; 1 John 5:4.

What are spiritual cords, all relationships have cords, decisions have cords, decisions have reactions, repeating cycles, why do cycles repeat Cords - (yeah, it's a thing) Article below. For downloadable PDF click link below. PDF Cords Yeah, this is a thing. I know…who knew? Let’s take a look at what scripture has to say about it then how to tell if you are dealing with this and how to pray about these things. Proverbs 5:21-23 - “21 For your ways are in full view of the Lord, and He examines all your paths. 22 The evil deeds of the wicked ensnare them; the cords of their sins hold them fast. 23 For lack of discipline they will die, led astray by their own great folly” Hosea 11:4 - “I led them with cords of human kindness, with ties of love. To them I was like one who lifts a little child to the cheek, and I bent down to feed them.” Isaiah 5:18 - “Woe to those who draw sin along with cords of deceit, and wickedness as with cart ropes,” Psalm 107:13-14 - “Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and He saved them from their distress. 14 He brought them out of darkness, the utter darkness, and broke away their chains.” Psalm 140:5 - “The arrogant have hidden a snare for me; they have spread out the cords of their net and have set traps for me along my path.” Job 30:11 - ESV “Because God has loosed my cord and humbled me, they have cast off restraint in my presence.” Ecclesiastes 12:6-7 - “6 Remember him—before the silver cord is severed, and the golden bowl is broken; before the pitcher is shattered at the spring, and the wheel broken at the well, 7 and the dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.” Hebrews 12:29 - “or our God is a consuming fire.” As you can see from the scriptures there are different types of cords. Some are good and some are bad. The two main types are cords of sin and traps or snares that have cords. Sin has cords. This is the most common one we have to deal with. Case in point, when there is recurring sin that you can’t seem to stop - a cycle that keeps repeating - it usually has a cord. It can also have a demon that is attached to you with that very same cord. Even if you’re repented of the sin, been studying scripture to change your thinking, but you still find the sin recurs. That is a cord. And cords can attach demons to a particular behavior. You know there’s a demon when you “can’t stop.” The other is a trap or snare. These are put in place by the devil. But he can’t place a trap unless we have created an opening or it is time for a test. Many times the openings come from our thought life. If we haven’t been taking our thoughts captive as 2 Corinthians 5:3-6 says, and mulling something over repeatedly the Lord may allow a test, or if we have started to speak what has been going on in our thoughts, then that creates an opening for the devil to throw something at us. There are also cords with relationships, whether it is a friendship, partnership in business, or romantic - all have cords. If the relationship was toxic, there were cords. If the relationship was romantic and is someone you just can’t “seem” to get over and you think of them a lot, may even have depression from it - there’s cords. All these things hang on with cords. Anything that is “plaguing” you is a cord. How to get rid of them: Ask for forgiveness of the sin and receive it. As Ecclesiastes 12:6-7 says, sever the cord(s) in Jesus Name, and loose all demons attached. Hebrews 12:29 - With the mighty fire of God Almighty, or sometimes I say the Fire of the Holy Spirit, I call the fire of God to burn up the cords and all residue of them. Like 1 Kings 18:30-39 says, His fire consumed the sacrifice with not only the animal but the wood, water, stones, and earth it was upon. There was nothing left! Ask the Lord to show you when your thoughts are going off track and take them captive in Jesus Name, cast them down, & replace with the Word of God regarding that matter.

Who is God; Who is Jesus; Jesus Christ and what He's done, Savior, Son of God, How you see Jesus, Your life reflects what you believe, God, Jesus, Are they real, Isn't the Bible just stories, Authority, Bible, Teaching, Belief, Faith, Love, How Great Is Your Jesus? How Great Is Your Jesus? PDF Do you truly know how BIG and HOW GREAT God is? This is a serious question to ask ourselves. If we don't get how big He is and what He's done for us, we can never show it in our lives. And if we can't show it then we haven't truly received it. Isaiah is a great book to see how big God is! In your time read chapters 33-35, 40 ; and Job chapters 38-41 is God speaking of Who He is and some of the things He has done. But here we will look at: Isaiah 35:2-4 "...they will see the glory of the Lord, the splendor of our God. Strengthen the feeble hands, steady the knees that give way; say to those with fearful hearts, 'Be strong, do not fear; your God will come, He will dome with vengeance; with divine retribution He will come to save you.'" Isaiah 40:12-14 "Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, or with the breadth of His hand marked off the heavens? Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket, or weighed the mountains on the scales and the hills in a balance? Who can fathom the Spirit of the Lord, or instruct the Lord as His counselor? Whom did the Lord consult to enlighten Him, and who taught Him the right way? Who was it that taught Him knowledge, or showed Him the path of understanding?" Of course this is rhetorical. No one did this but Him. And HE IS IN YOU!!! As you know Him more, more of Him you will reflect! Because you Cannot Reflect From Within You Qualities Of The Lord If You Haven’t Truly Received Them. He Is In You - All Of Him but Do You Let Him Show Out From Within You? We know God is Love. He has mercy, grace and all that… but He is Love. Jesus and The Father are One. It is this immeasurable Love that Jesus has for the Father and for us that is equal to the immeasurable Power of Jesus. So, as we cannot measure His Love; we also have no ability to measure His Power. His vast Love and His vast Power are immeasurable. It is absolute and vast. And that is what is living inside of you, but His Power it is ruled by Love. That is the ultimate Love. It is written “Love conquers all things.” not just a couple things, everything. God is Love. We are talking about the God kind of Love, not man’s type of love that tends to be self centered. We are talking about the true Agape Love that caused Him to sacrificed everything to bring man back to Him. It was not an easy sacrifice. His sacrifice was more than equal to His Love. When we start dealing with the Love of God, the Love that He has for man is sometimes mind boggling to see how vast and deep it is. Start tuning into His Love. When you start to see who you are in Him, in Christ (the Anointed One and His Anointing) and in His Love, it changes your idea of yourself forever. Check out what that anointing is. When you start exhibiting that anointing in you and in your life, you are tapping into the immeasurable Love of God. Then you have no problem finding your identity in Him. It’s been an identity problem with the modern day christian in America. They have no idea who they are. It takes study in scripture and in prayer.Dedicating yourself to your pursuit of finding out who you are in Christ. It comes only with your determination and dedication so you can live up to who you are in Jesus, but when you do that, life is an adventure. This power can only be executed with your understanding of that power with in you. Ephesians 3: 20-21 Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, unto Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen. How much power is at work in you? This is major! In your alone time with Jesus ask Him how you can increase His Power in you. Then do what He says. This will take your spiritual walk to another level. 1 John 3:2-3 2 Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it does not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is. 3 And every man that has this hope in him purifies Himself, even as He is pure. I know that it’s an easy thing to say but I would like to give you an insight as to how this can be accomplished. The thing that the Lord judges is our hearts. We know what is in our hearts by our thoughts, by our words and by our deeds. It is written, Out of the treasure of our heart the mouth speaks. But let’s go even further than that by noting the thoughts arising from our heart. So when you start looking at what your are thinking as well as saying and doing, and judging yourself in these three areas, you will see the weak areas you need to build yourself up in on the Word to become strong. Any thought that doesn’t line up with God’s Word, you cast that down as a vain imagination and replace it with the Word of God that applies. So when you start cleaning up your thought life, your words will start to be cleaned up. What I mean by “cleaned” is anything that is contrary to the Word of God. I am not speaking about foul language or sexual thoughts, I’m talking about thoughts and words contrary to God’s Word. Thoughts of despair and failure, self condemnation and anxiety. When you start to clean up your thoughts, words and deeds by lining them up with the Word of God then you will become pure as He is pure. A bride without spot or blemish. God will then turn up His Power in you. He cannot turn up His Power within you if your thoughts and words are contrary to His. We already have the Mind of Christ. We got that when we were born again. This is about us working out our salvation with fear and trembling. This is how it’s done. It is a job. It is a job of a disciple to become more and more like Him. When we dig deep, and become determined to be holy as He is holy we can look forward with gladness that when we are face to face with Him, we will be uniquely the same. We think His thoughts, we feel what He feels. We feel the grief and the hurt of those who are lost. We feel that! We feel the grief and the hurt of the backslidden. They are in areas that do not have to be. They are in such defeat they don’t even know that they are losing. When we see that, we drop down to our knees and pray, “Lord send Your Spirit to open their minds open their hearts so that they can see who they are and where they are.” If they would judge themselves and correct that, then revelation comes as a powerful flood upon them. God is revelation Himself. When you put yourself in that position by purifying your life that’s how you turn up the Power of God within you. That’s how you turn up the Love of God within you. That’s how you are able to pray revival in your community, in your state, in your country. That is how you have dominion and authority. 1 John 4:4 You are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world. This is all predicated on you. How great is Jesus in you? How great is the anointing in you? They will not increase until you increase Jesus within you. When you increase the knowledge of His Word, when you increase your obedience to His leading by the Holy Spirit, when you increase all of these things, then Jesus can truly be greater than. You are the one that makes Him greater than. Those out there that are prayer warriors who get worried about coming up against “that” strongman or “this” strongman, shows how great Jesus is in you. The greater Jesus is within you, there is nothing in all creation that you come up against that should have you worried. Jesus is greater. But you are the one that makes Him greater. Nobody else, you. Ask yourself, “How great is Jesus in me?” How you view Jesus affects everything in your life. You need to come to the realization that you are the deciding factor. Your thoughts, your words, your deeds are the deciding factor on how great Jesus is in you. How great is His Power in you? How great is His Name in you. How great is His Blood in you? You and only you decide that. 1 John 4:4 You are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world. Genesis 1:26 “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.” Luke 1: 30-33 And the angel said to her, Fear not, Mary: for you have found favor with God. And, behold, you shall conceive in your womb, and bring forth a son, and shall call His Name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of His father David: And He shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of His kingdom there shall be no end. John 15:4-7 Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can you, except you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches: He that abides in Me, and I in him, the same brings forth much fruit: for without Me you can do nothing. If a man abide not in Me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you shall ask what you will, and it shall be done unto you. 1 John 4:15-16 Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwells in Him, and he in God. And we have known and believed the love that God has to us. God is love; and he that dwells in love dwells in God, and God in him. 2 Corinthians 6:16 And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God; as God has said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. John 10:30 I and My Father are One. John 17:10-1, 20-23 And all Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine; and I am glorified in them. And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep through Thine Own Name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one, as We are. While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Your Name: those that You gave Me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled. 20-23 Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on Me through their word; That they all may be one; as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they also may be one in Us: that the world may believe that You have sent Me. And the glory which You gave Me I have given them; that they may be one, even as We are One: I in them, and You in Me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them, as You have loved Me.

can you lose your salvation, once saved always saved, eternal salvation, life after, life after death Can You Lose Your Salvation? Let's see what the Word of God has to say about it. Article below or click link for PDF. PDF Can You Lose Your Salvation? Let’s see what God has to say about it in His Word. His Word is truth and the only thing that matters. It is HIM speaking TO you. God’s Word is for instruction and correction (2 Tim. 3:16). 1 Peter 1:23 For you have been born again , not of perishable seed, but of imperishable , through the living and enduring word of God. God’s Word is imperishable and that is the Word that we believed. It never goes away. Trust Him . 2 Cor. 5:17-19 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature . Old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. And all things are of God, Who has reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ, and has given to us t he ministry of reconciliation; That God was reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them ; and has committed unto us the word of reconciliation. This is not only for sins of the past. This is of ALL sin. And He is Faithful to do it. Trust God . 1 Peter 2:1-3 Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation , now that you have tasted that the Lord is good . 1 Peter (all of the Epistles) is written to believers. Isaiah 12:2 Surely God is my salvation; I will trust God, and not be afraid . The LORD, the LORD himself, is my strength and my defense; He has become my salvation. Ephesians 1:13 In Whom you also trusted , after that you heard the Word of Truth, the good news of your salvation; in Whom also after you believed were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise . 2 Cor. 1:20-22 For all the promises of God in him are “yes”, and in Him “Amen” (“so be it”), unto the glory of God by us. Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set His seal of ownership on us , and put His Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come. Ephesians 4:30 And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby you are sealed unto the Day of Redemption. Did you know that doubting your salvation or believing you can lose your salvation grieves the Holy Spirit? Repent, for the Day of the Lord is at hand. Ephesians 6:17 is taking the helmet of salvation…for what? Like 2 Cor. 10:3-6 says to protect our thoughts from lies against the truth of God. Salvation is eternal . Anything that pops up in our heads or to our heads that says we lose our salvation is a lie. We cast down that lying thought with the Word of God just like Jesus did in the wilderness when He was tempted by the devil. Jesus spoke to those lying thoughts and visions. If you are having a hard time because you still believe that you can lose your salvation then get on your face before our great and holy God and ask Him to reveal it to you. The root of the unbelief is not trusting God and trusting His love. Get quiet before Him so you can hear what He has to say within you. Read John 3 ; Ephesians 1-3 ; Galatians ; 1 Cor. chapters 1-2 ; 5:1-5 and chapter 15 ; 2 Cor. 1 and 5 , and Romans ...even Hebrews chapters 7-9 until you know, that you know that God has said over and over again in His Word that you cannot lose your salvation.