ASK

Yet God promises it to those who really ask. But remember the secret of ASKing -- asking, seeking,
and knocking.

Deceitful Practices
Still other deadly sins exist within the very circles that make pretense of the most advanced type of godliness; such, for instance, as professing great compassion for the sick, conducting giant meetings for the purpose of bringing healing to them, but slyly separating the hopeless cases from those less serious and more susceptible to psychological impressions, and all the while growing rich on the miseries and pains of humanity. Some of these prophets own large estates, drive huge cars and boast of fabulous wealth tied up in equipment, while the suffering multitudes whose blood they suck hobble or crawl or are carried to meetings.

Investigation of one such man carried on by some godly pastors revealed that he had been hiring healthy persons to come up for prayer and pretend to be healed. This was done, he explained when faced with the deed, to "encourage weak faith." Thus lying and deception were deliberately made a part of the purported methods of the Holy Spirit.

Others base everything on the power of money and personality, yet testify that they are trusting wholly in the power of the Spirit. And many introduce into their religious work every gimmick known to the world, and so destroy the very thing they profess to cherish.

It is sufficient evidence of the moral insensibility of such men that they violently resent even the mention of these things; and it is further proof of the success of their methods that the very public they have betrayed will rush to defend them.

Verse
For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, masquerading as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. Second Corinthians

It is a great deliverance to lose one's self. There is no heavier millstone than self-consciousness. It is so easy to become introverted and coiled around ourselves in our spiritual consciousness. There is nothing that is so easy to fasten onto as our misery: there is nothing that is more apt to produce self-consciousness than suffering. Then it becomes almost a settled habit to hold onto our burden and pray it unceasingly into the very face of God until even our prayer saturates us with our own misery. Rather, we should ask for power to drop ourselves altogether and leave ourselves in His loving hands and know that we are free. Then we may rise into the blessed liberty of His higher thoughts and will and demonstrate His love and care for others.

The very act of letting go of ourselves lifts us into a higher place and relieves us from the thing that is hurting. This habit of prayer for others, and especially for the world, brings its own recompense and leaves upon our hearts a blessing, like the fertility which the Nile deposits upon the soil of Egypt as it flows through to its ultimate goal.

Scripture
I knew a man in Christ—2 Corinthians 12:2
Knowing God’s Will by Three Ways

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Bible Verses ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Rom. 12:1 I exhort you therefore, brothers, through the
compassions of God to present your bodies a living sacrifice,
holy, well pleasing to God, which is your reasonable service.
(2) And do not be fashioned according to this age, but be
transformed by the renewing of the mind that you may prove
what the will of God is, that which is good and well pleasing
and perfect.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Words of Ministry ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Our question now is how do we know God's will. We often think
that mortals like us could never understand God's will.
However, we should have the assurance that not only do we
want to obey God's will, but God Himself also wants us to
obey His will. Not only do we seek to know His will, but God
Himself also wants us to know His will. If God wants us to
obey His will, He must first enable us to know His will.
Therefore, it is God's business to reveal His will to us.
None of God's children need to worry and say, “Since I cannot
know God's will, how can I obey it?” This concern is
unnecessary because God always has a way to show us His will
(Heb. 13:21). We have to believe that God will always show us
His will through the proper means.

What are the ways to know God's will? A Christian must pay
attention to three things in order to know God's will. If
these three things are in agreement with one another, we can
be quite sure that it is God's will. These three things are:
(1) arrangements in the environment, (2) the leading of the
Holy Spirit, and (3) the teachings of the Scripture. These
three things are not mentioned according to the order of
their importance. They do not necessarily have to be in
sequential order. We are simply stating that these three
things help us know God's will. When the testimonies of these
three things are in agreement with one another, we can be
assured that we know God's will. If one of these three things
is not in agreement with the other two, we still need to
wait. We must wait until all three agree with one another
before we go ahead.

Life's too short to wake up in the morning with
regrets, so......
'Love the people who treat you right. Pray for
the ones who don't'



Making Confession to God

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Bible Verses ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

1 John 1:8 If we say that we do not have sin, we are
deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us. (9) If we
confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us
our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Words of Ministry ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If we are willing to be enlightened by the Lord, He will show
us many unrighteous things. Once we see that we are wrong, we
should not be afraid of confessing our wrong. When we first
become a Christian, it is inevitable that we will make
mistakes. The worst thing is being ignorant of our mistakes
or refusing to admit our mistakes once we know them. Being
ignorant of our mistakes is being in darkness. Sins can be
forgiven, but darkness cannot be forgiven. If we confess our
sins, the Lord will forgive us. But darkness makes us
ignorant of our sins; therefore, we cannot enjoy forgiveness.

If we confess our sins, He, according to His word and based
on the redemption through the blood of Jesus, forgives us
because He must be faithful in His word and righteous in the
blood of Jesus; otherwise, He would be unfaithful and
unrighteous. Our confession is needed for His forgiveness.
Such forgiveness of God, which is for the restoration of our
fellowship with Him, is conditional; it depends on our
confession. Both God's forgiveness and God's cleansing are
needed for the restoration of our broken fellowship with God,
that we may enjoy Him in uninterrupted fellowship with a good
conscience, a conscience void of offense.





If someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should
restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted.
-- Galatians 6:1


THOUGHT:
In a day when intervening in someone's life is no longer
politically and socially correct, these verses ring out like a
gunshot on a still night. Sin is still real and is just as deadly
as ever. Yet because we fear being branded judgmental and
self-righteous, we let many who are trapped by sin go to their
spiritual deaths. The call is for nonjudgmental intervention -- we
recognize the gravity of the sin and the need of the sinner,
without feeling arrogant in our righteousness. "There but for the
grace of God go I."



Conformity and Nonconformity

Conformity is the virtue of the slave and can become the vice of the saint.

It is a gloomy lesson of history that whole populations will often enslave themselves to the will of an ambitious political leader if he can promise them security and a few pennies more wages per day. And as often as not, after they have sold their birthright to him by conformity they find that they get the few extra pennies only by long hours of toil, and that the security they need most is protection from their protector.

The dictator, whether he be a political or a religious one, must be able to distribute little favors to the faithful, and these he always manages to have at hand. These favors are like the fish tossed to the performing seal, or like the salt lick of early American days placed near the shooting blind to entice the wary deer within range of the old muzzleloader. But conformity is what the dictator must have if he is to do any dictating worth speaking of.

Now, conformity within limits is a good thing. The musician must conform to the laws of harmony, the engineer to the laws of physics and the farmer to the law of growing things. If I would learn a new language I must bow to its grammar, its vocabulary and its idiom. And civilized society is possible only because the majority of citizens conform quietly to the rules of civilized life.

When this has been said in praise of conformity, there is not much left to say about it that is good. From there on it is almost wholly evil. It is evil because it can be and often is used by the dominant few to enslave the pliable many.

In Him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of Christ who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of His purposive will. Ephesians 1:11

There is the danger of conforming to what is evil and contrary to God's will for us. However, there is also the responsibility of conforming to what is good just as God works out everything in conformity to the purpose of His will.