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September 17

Is There Good in Temptation?

“No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man …” (1 Corinthians 10:13).

The word temptation has come to mean something bad to us today, but we tend to use the word in the wrong way. Temptation itself is not sin; it is something we are bound to face simply by virtue of being human. Not to be tempted would mean that we were already so shameful that we would be beneath contempt. Yet many of us suffer from temptations we should never have to suffer, simply because we have refused to allow God to lift us to a higher level where we would face temptations of another kind.

A person’s inner nature, what he possesses in the inner, spiritual part of his being, determines what he is tempted by on the outside. The temptation fits the true nature of the person being tempted and reveals the possibilities of his nature. Every person actually determines or sets the level of his own temptation, because temptation will come to him in accordance with the level of his controlling, inner nature.

Temptation comes to me, suggesting a possible shortcut to the realization of my highest goal—it does not direct me toward what I understand to be evil, but toward what I understand to be good. Temptation is something that confuses me for a while, and I don’t know whether something is right or wrong. When I yield to it, I have made lust a god, and the temptation itself becomes the proof that it was only my own fear that prevented me from falling into the sin earlier.

Temptation is not something we can escape; in fact, it is essential to the well-rounded life of a person. Beware of thinking that you are tempted as no one else—what you go through is the common inheritance of the human race, not something that no one has ever before endured. God does not save us from temptations—He sustains us in the midst of them (see Hebrews 2:18 and 4:15–16).

My Utmost for His Highest

Copyright © 1992 by Oswald Chambers Publications Association, Ltd. Original edition copyright © 1935 by Dodd, Mead & Company, Inc. Copyright renewed 1963 by Oswald Chambers Publications Association, Ltd. All Rights reserved.

United States publication rights are held by Discovery House Publishers, which is affiliated with RBC Ministries, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49512

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September 16

Praying to God in Secret

“When you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place …” (Matthew 6:6).

The primary thought in the area of religion is—keep your eyes on God, not on people. Your motivation should not be the desire to be known as a praying person. Find an inner room in which to pray where no one even knows you are praying, shut the door, and talk to God in secret. Have no motivation other than to know your Father in heaven. It is impossible to carry on your life as a disciple without definite times of secret prayer.

“When you pray, do not use vain repetitions …” (6:7). God does not hear us because we pray earnestly—He hears us solely on the basis of redemption. God is never impressed by our earnestness. Prayer is not simply getting things from God—that is only the most elementary kind of prayer. Prayer is coming into perfect fellowship and oneness with God. If the Son of God has been formed in us through regeneration (see Galatians 4:19), then He will continue to press on beyond our common sense and will change our attitude about the things for which we pray.

“Everyone who asks receives …” (Matthew 7:8). We pray religious nonsense without even involving our will, and then we say that God did not answer—but in reality we have never asked for anything. Jesus said, “… you will ask what you desire …” (John 15:7). Asking means that our will must be involved. Whenever Jesus talked about prayer, He spoke with wonderful childlike simplicity. Then we respond with our critical attitude, saying, “Yes, but even Jesus said that we must ask.” But remember that we have to ask things of God that are in keeping with the God whom Jesus Christ revealed.

My Utmost for His Highest

Copyright © 1992 by Oswald Chambers Publications Association, Ltd. Original edition copyright © 1935 by Dodd, Mead & Company, Inc. Copyright renewed 1963 by Oswald Chambers Publications Association, Ltd. All Rights reserved.

United States publication rights are held by Discovery House Publishers, which is affiliated with RBC Ministries, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49512.

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September 15

What To Renounce

“We have renounced the hidden things of shame …” (2 Corinthians 4:2).

Have you “renounced the hidden things of shame” in your life—the things that your sense of honor or pride will not allow to come into the light? You can easily hide them. Is there a thought in your heart about anyone that you would not like to be brought into the light? Then renounce it as soon as it comes to mind—renounce everything in its entirety until there is no hidden dishonesty or craftiness about you at all. Envy, jealousy, and strife don’t necessarily arise from your old nature of sin, but from the flesh which was used for these kinds of things in the past (see Romans 6:19 and 1 Peter 4:1–3). You must maintain continual watchfulness so that nothing arises in your life that would cause you shame.

“… not walking in craftiness …” (2 Corinthians 4:2). This means not resorting to something simply to make your own point. This is a terrible trap. You know that God will allow you to work in only one way—the way of truth. Then be careful never to catch people through the other way—the way of deceit. If you act deceitfully, God’s blight and ruin will be upon you. What may be craftiness for you, may not be for others—God has called you to a higher standard. Never dull your sense of being your utmost for His highest—your best for His glory. For you, doing certain things would mean craftiness coming into your life for a purpose other than what is the highest and best, and it would dull the motivation that God has given you. Many people have turned back because they are afraid to look at things from God’s perspective. The greatest spiritual crisis comes when a person has to move a little farther on in his faith than the beliefs he has already accepted.

My Utmost for His Highest

Copyright © 1992 by Oswald Chambers Publications Association, Ltd. Original edition copyright © 1935 by Dodd, Mead & Company, Inc. Copyright renewed 1963 by Oswald Chambers Publications Association, Ltd. All Rights reserved.

United States publication rights are held by Discovery House Publishers, which is affiliated with RBC Ministries, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49512.

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September 14

Arguments or Obedience?

“… the simplicity that is in Christ” (2 Corinthians 11:3).

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Simplicity is the secret to seeing things clearly. A saint does not think clearly until a long time passes, but a saint ought to see clearly without any difficulty. You cannot think through spiritual confusion to make things clear; to make things clear, you must obey. In intellectual matters you can think things out, but in spiritual matters you will only think yourself into further wandering thoughts and more confusion. If there is something in your life upon which God has put His pressure, then obey Him in that matter. Bring all your “arguments and … every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ” regarding the matter, and everything will become as clear as daylight to you (2 Corinthians 10:5). Your reasoning capacity will come later, but reasoning is not how we see. We see like children, and when we try to be wise we see nothing (see Matthew 11:25).

Even the very smallest thing that we allow in our lives that is not under the control of the Holy Spirit is completely sufficient to account for spiritual confusion, and spending all of our time thinking about it will still never make it clear. Spiritual confusion can only be conquered through obedience. As soon as we obey, we have discernment. This is humiliating, because when we are confused we know that the reason lies in the state of our mind. But when our natural power of sight is devoted and submitted in obedience to the Holy Spirit, it becomes the very power by which we perceive God’s will, and our entire life is kept in simplicity.

My Utmost for His Highest

Copyright © 1992 by Oswald Chambers Publications Association, Ltd. Original edition copyright © 1935 by Dodd, Mead & Company, Inc. Copyright renewed 1963 by Oswald Chambers Publications Association, Ltd. All Rights reserved.

United States publication rights are held by Discovery House Publishers, which is affiliated with RBC Ministries, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49512.

You Can’t Know Yourself Apart From Knowing God

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September 13, 2017

You Can’t Know Yourself Apart From Knowing God

Brothers and Sisters grace and peace to you in the name of God our Father and His Son and the Holy Spirit. May God lavish you with His goodness, and kindness out of His vast treasures of wealth and supply all that you need, and delight your heart with what you really want. God is Good and He does wonderful things for those that love Him, and those that He love. Lord thank you for this time and opportunity to share with your people in which I am one.  Bless them with the knowledge of the importance of knowing who they are to you. Lord lead me and guide me , in Jesus name Amen.

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Just about every human being at one time or another in our  life ask the questions. Who am I ?  Where did I come from ? Was I somehow here before?  Somehow you knew that there was something obscured from our vision, from our mind’s eye. We had a strong sense of something, a point in our minds that we cannot seem to penetrate. and the answers we seek is yet beyond this continuum. So once we convince ourselves that we can’t solve the mystery. We come back to the questions at the age of adolescence when we began to become more independent and when we become a young adult we become active in seeking the answer. That when the idea surface I have to find out who I am. You can’t know yourself apart from God.

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The first thing we need to know about God is that He created the Heavens and the Earth. In this statement located in Genesis 1:1 it is revealed that God is powerful and that He is a creator. If creating the earth is not powerful enough for us to see that God is awesome, then look up into the heavens, or in other words the universe. God created all that you see and can’t see. If you read the creation account you will see that God created the day and the night, and the plants and the animals and the days of the week, the sun and the moon and the last of His Creation is Man, the crown of God’s creation.  If you want to know who you are, whose better to ask then your creator. Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; ( Gen 1: 26a).  In this verse of scripture, God revealed two very important things for us to pay attention to. The first thing for us to see is that God is talking to someone else. First Only God can create so the other persons that He is talking to are not angels because angels can.t create. He is not talking to Himself as though He is some kind of schizophrenic. God was speaking to the Son and the Holy Spirit. All three persons in the Godhead participated in the creation.

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God said let us make man in our own image. If  we look at each other neither of us look like. God is Spirit so we can’t see God with our eyes. But the image that God is speaking of is,  Intellect, Emotion, and will. God created us to be the same kind of being that He is. God has a intellect and He gave us one, we have the ability to think independent of God and each other and most importantly we are able to communicate with God. God created man to worship Him. God Has a emotion and He gave us one. God has the ability to love to get angry, to be sad, to be sorry, in fact God is Love. God has a will and is able to do whatever He wills to do. God gave us a will and asked us to do his will and a choice to choose between His will or our  will .  This is where the problem comes in, in the exercise of free will man sinned. Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned—(Ro. 5:12)

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v15But the free gift is not like the offense. For if by the one man’s offense many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many( Ro. 5:15). God gave Adam warning that the cost of his disobedience is death Gen 2:16’17. God created us from the dirt of the ground. Our bodies are made of the same ingredients that are found in the earth. When we die our bodies are going to return to the elements of which we were made. But that’s not all, its not over. We still have to be concerned about our soul. Where will it go? If you read the Gospel of Luke  16:19-23, you will see that the rich man died and went to Hell immediately to endure an eternity of suffering.

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God’s word said,16For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. (John 3:16). that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth, confession is made unto salvation. ( Rom 10:9,10).  God cares about you and who you are, He knew you in eternity past before you were born.  Before He created the earth. God knows you better than you know your self, and He loves you more then you love your self. God says that all you have to do is believe in His Son and you will be saved. Amen  Thank you for my brothers and Sisters and friends, I hope this is a blessing to you and If you don’t know Jesus and you now believe, let me know to blog my post, if not blog my post. Thank you, Lord, in Jesus name Amen.

God Bless You

Rev. Reginald Stevens

From Time To Eternity

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September 13

After Surrender—Then What?

“I have finished the work which You have given Me to do” (John 17:4).

True surrender is not simply surrender of our external life but surrender of our will—and once that is done, surrender is complete. The greatest crisis we ever face is the surrender of our will. Yet God never forces a person’s will into surrender, and He never begs. He patiently waits until that person willingly yields to Him. And once that battle has been fought, it never needs to be fought again.

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Surrender for Deliverance. “Come to Me … and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). It is only after we have begun to experience what salvation really means that we surrender our will to Jesus for rest. Whatever is causing us a sense of uncertainty is actually a call to our will—“Come to Me.” And it is a voluntary coming.

Surrender for Devotion. “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself …” (Matthew 16:24). The surrender here is of my self to Jesus, with His rest at the heart of my being. He says, “If you want to be My disciple, you must give up your right to yourself to Me.” And once this is done, the remainder of your life will exhibit nothing but the evidence of this surrender, and you never need to be concerned again with what the future may hold for you. Whatever your circumstances may be, Jesus is totally sufficient (see 2 Corinthians 12:9 and Philippians 4:19).

Surrender for Death. “… another will gird you …” (John 21:18; also see verse 19). Have you learned what it means to be girded for death? Beware of some surrender that you make to God in an ecstatic moment in your life, because you are apt to take it back again. True surrender is a matter of being “united together [with Jesus] in the likeness of His death” (Romans 6:5) until nothing ever appeals to you that did not appeal to Him.

And after you surrender—then what? Your entire life should be characterized by an eagerness to maintain unbroken fellowship and oneness with God.

My Utmost for His Highest

Copyright © 1992 by Oswald Chambers Publications Association, Ltd. Original edition copyright © 1935 by Dodd, Mead & Company, Inc. Copyright renewed 1963 by Oswald Chambers Publications Association, Ltd. All Rights reserved.

United States publication rights are held by Discovery House Publishers, which is affiliated with RBC Ministries, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49512.

WHo ARE YOU ?

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September 12, 2017

WHO ARE YOU ?

Do you know who you are ? Or do you think that you know who you are? Why is it that once we become a adolescent we say that I have to find myself, or I have to find out who I am. What is the process you use to find yourself? Is it by trail  and error ? Do you ask your parents? Do you go to a psychiatrist ? Exactly what is the method you use or do you even know? How about it?  Let me know.

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  September 12

Going Through Spiritual Confusion

“Jesus answered and said, ‘You do not know what you ask’ ” (Matthew 20:22).

There are times in your spiritual life when there is confusion, and the way out of it is not simply to say that you should not be confused. It is not a matter of right and wrong, but a matter of God taking you through a way that you temporarily do not understand. And it is only by going through the spiritual confusion that you will come to the understanding of what God wants for you.

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From Where The Wind Blows

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FROM WHERE THE WIND BLOWS

Brothers and Sisters grace and peace to you in the name of God the Father And the Son and The Holy Spirit. I thank God for this wonderful opportunity to share His Word with you concerning the new birth. Lord I pray that you be with me as I share your word with my brothers and sisters and with my friends that don’t know you concerning the forgiveness of sin. Lord open everyone’s  hearts and minds so that they may understand  and come to know Jesus , it’s in Jesus name that I pray Amen.

It wasn’t a question of whether he believed in God, to Nicodemus it was  a matter of understanding how could this be? He felt that everything he witness was somehow in conflict with what he understood concernng God. After He saw the miracles Jesus performed and heard the things that Jesus said, Nicodemus new that something was  missing in his understanding. Under the cloak of darkeness he secretly came to the only one that could answer his questions. He said to Jesus “Rabbi we know you are a teacher come from God; for  no man could do these miracles that you do except God be with him9John 3:2).. Jesus didn’t need for him to tell him what he was there for, so He cut to the core. We can infer from this that God don’t have  to wait on us to verbalize what is on our minds before He respond to us.

Jesus knew that which was on Nicodemus mind although he didn’t come right out and say it. Jesus said to Him “you must be born again”. Regardless of the fact that he was very religious man, and very well educated, he must be born a second time. Nicodemus was perplexed, He could not see what Jesus was saying as possible. It defys reason to even imagine a man could reinter his mother’s womb and be born again. Jesus explained to Him, in order to  enter this world you must be born of the flesh. In order to enter heaven you must be born of the spirit.  Nicodemious became bewildred and said “how could th be?’

Jesus pointed out to Nicodemus that when He explain natural thing to him and he didn’t understand , he wouldn’t be able to understand spiritual things, Jesus told him He is the only one who has come down from heaven  and is going back. Jesus revealed to him that only He was qualified  to tell him about things  that is happening in heaven.  In order to enter the kingdom of heaven you must be born of Water and Spirit. Human beings only can produce human beings. Only the Holy Spirit can give new life from heaven. A person must be washed by water in order to cleanse their natural bodies. Like wise in order to be born again one must be washed by the water of the word of God and receive new life from the Holy Spirit.

You do not know where the wind comes from or where it goes nor can you direct its path. The wind goes where it pleases to go. You can not see it but you can track its’ path from where its’ been. So it is with the Holy Spirit, He gives life to who he pleases. You can’t see  nor can you direct His path but you can tell where he has been for He gives life to those who has been washed by the word of God. To be cleansed by the word of God you must believe that Jesus is the Son of God according to the scriptures, He died on the cross for our sin, and  God raised Him from the dead on the 3rd day of His death according to the scripture. If you believe this statement the Holy Spirit will generate in you a new life, a new spirit That will never die according to the scripture. Lord thank you for the opportunity, I ask that you bless those who read this message, It’s in Jesus name I pray Amen.

My friends thank you for taking the time to read this message, I hope God gives you the understanding you need to believe, your life depends on it. Brothers and sister I hope that  this message has increased your understanding and encouraged your hearts to lead others to the hope you have in Jesus.  If  God has caused you to believe Let me know blog my post, let us rejoice together. If this message has encouraged you Let me know blog my post.

God Bless you,

Love always

Rev. Reginald Stevens