Simple, Spiritual Self-Service

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1.Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. Romans 12:1-2 (NASB)
Self-service kiosk
Self-service kiosk (Photo credit: melitroncorp)

Self service is a common part of human services that we realize throughout the course of every day. Whether it is at the ATM, airport, gas station, supermarket, workplace, etc., there is always some type of self service facility where you can serve yourself.  It has become the basic standard of service that we as Americans have come to expect. It is a simple, time and cost effective service tool which provides us with a new level of independence.  You can go, choose what you want and quickly keep it moving. It’s that simple!

 

The key to spiritual self-service is the acceptance of Christ’s unconditional service to humans, through His birth, life, Earthly ministry, death and resurrection, thereby establishing and fulfilling a Divine plan of redemption through the forgiveness of sin.  His Service to us At the Cross was unconditional work because He was born to provide us with the means of spiritual salvation  that we all can benefit from Eternally.  Whether we choose to believe in Him or not, His service to us is forever established. When we surrender our bodies to our Heavenly Father because we need forgiveness of our sins on a daily basis, we begin the process of spiritual self-service. True holiness is realized through your own personal identity with your need for forgiveness.  Spiritual self-service is that simple!!

 

There is Spiritual power of unknown proportions available to you when you are willing to present your body to God on a daily basis, totally surrendered to His Sovereignty over your life. His Power is revealed in your walk, your talk and your manner of life. Through every opportunity that makes up your day, you can experience the spiritual freedom of the conqueror lifestyle.  You see, when you choose to start your day, or in some cases re-start your day, by surrendering yourself under God’s authority, you are securing His leadership over every aspect of your day.  However, if you go through your day without this simple, spiritual self-service,  you are living a life that is solely reliant on your own abilities. Every idea, desire, motive and goal is born out of a spirit that is quenched by a soul that is sickened by unconfessed sin. Your body becomes a host for evil rather than God’s goodness. Unconfessed sin is a breeding ground for a swarm of complications that are designed to continue to distract you from His goodness as the world’s appeal demands your attention.

 

Your life can greatly benefit from the simple, spiritual self-service of surrendering to the saving grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ daily.  The reasonable service begins with a mindset to pray without ceasing, having a thankful heart and mind willing to submit your body, mind i.e soul and spirit to Him all reliant on His will for your life from day to day.  A healthy prayer life and daily attachment to His Word completes the simple, spiritual process. It is a simple process that can humbly begin every time you wake up from rest you are blessed to realize. It gets you going spiritually!

 

Find out how I was trained to realize the importance of this self-service model in my new book     “A Conqueror In Training“

 

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“Pray 1st”

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Psalm 121:1 A Song of degrees. I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. 
Ps 121:2 My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth. 
Ps 121:3 He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber. 
Ps 121:4 Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. 
Ps 121:5 The LORD is thy keeper: the LORD is thy shade upon thy right hand. 
Ps 121:6 The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night. 
Ps 121:7 The LORD shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul. 
Ps 121:8 The LORD shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.

My awakening was greeted with the severest of pain. I have learned to live with it from day to day. Yet this morning, like so many others, it began with the horror of stillness summoning the acuity of my spirit.  The stabbing, burning suffering in my flesh upon awakening is more consistent in the last year. There is literally nothing immediate about the relief process naturally.  It can happen at the most inconvenient moments and with no apparent reason.

Hopefully, you will read my new book, “A Conqueror In Training” over the holiday season and discover how I came to realize the “Conqueror Lifestyle.”  In fact, I pray you will want your friends and loved ones to have the blessed experience of reading it as well through your gift giving via ebooks. When you have read it, the message of this post will resonate in your spirits more brightly.  His training has effectively taught me to “pray 1st.”  Today, and everyday I start out in prayer 1st helps me to continue to stay in the race and run on some more.  Doing this has proven His Sovereignty over my life from situation to situation, experience to experience, outcome after outcome ultimately revealing that “Prayer Changes Things.”

Billie Holiday penned the song “Good Morning Heartache” while wrestling with her reality of pain and heartache experienced every morning when she needed another “fix.”  Her addiction to heroin was breaking her spiritually as her body required the drug more and more. Over time it destroyed her talent and took her life in death far too young.

English: Billie Holiday, Downbeat, New York.
English: Billie Holiday, Downbeat, New York. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The imagery contained in this powerful recording demonstrates a heart overcome with brokenness and unwilling to “pray without ceasing.” I Thess. 5:17.  When you are caught up in your flesh and your spirit is conquered by sin, you will do everything humanly possible to discover change which can only come through the saving grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Pain is painful.  God allows pain for the purpose of perfecting His will in us. A personal identity to Jesus’ suffering on the Cross is where this truth begins. Thanks be unto God for  the mighty power of His Spirit at work which manifests and maintains the Conqueror Lifestyle in me from day to day. You too can come to know the Conqueror Lifestyle God has just for you. When you pray 1st, you call His power into the situation immediately.  Humanity ceases and Divinity commences in spiritually defining ways to demonstrate His power in us.   And He will do, what no other power, can do.

Stay in the race!

Darrin

 

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Forgive + Forget =Freeness

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This month we will talk at length about forgiveness on Conqueror Talk.  Every human being has experience with this principle in one way or another. All week this ConquerorShot has lingered in my spirit and I pray that you will be as blessed by the formula revealed in the title of this article.  It adds up every time.  When you can forgive anyone who wrongs you and forget anything that caused you to linger in an unforgiving stupor, you will experience a freeness in your spirit that is life-giving.

How many times have you held a grudge against someone because they did not do what you wanted them to?  Perhaps they could have done something for you that you needed but they did not.  Maybe they had no idea of your expectations and they were unable to meet your unrealistic mark.  More importantly, God is allowing the disappointment you must eventually forgive and forget to demonstrate the gracious, loving kindness His Son Jesus Christ manifested at the Cross.  There are so many wonderful gifts available to us. His hand reveals just a few good ones.Power In His Hand

During Jesus’ Earthly ministry to the Jews, the Gospel of Luke  reveals specific analysis relative to the formula we are using. Luke 17:4  “And if he trespass against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to thee, saying, I repent; thou shalt forgive him.” His message helps us to be aware of our human propensity to be trespassed against i.e. disappointed numerously by one or many individuals. What comes to mind for me is family. Whether it is immediate family or distant relatives, family will trespass against you. In fact, no one can hurt us more than our family members. They can gutt us to the core with their words, actions, attitudes, silent scorn and whatever else their flesh can think of. But Jesus reminds us that when they are willing to admit they have wronged us, it is our duty as humans to forgive them. When we make the decision to disagree with their appeal and disallow for them to experience our forgiveness through our personal charity, we CHOOSE to stay in spiritual bondage. This bondage includes a loss of spiritual unity with the finished work at the Cross for you and the effectual working of His Hand in our lives.

  • 2 Corinthians  2:10  To whom ye forgive any thing, I forgive also: for if I forgave any thing, to whom I forgave it, for your sakes forgave I it in the person of Christ; 

  • Colossians 3:13  Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. 

  • 1 John 1:9  If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 

Your forgiveness of anyone else is required because of the continual forgiveness Christ supply’s you with on a daily basis. When you can’t extend that to someone else/anyone else it is most likely because His Hand is not working in your life. God can and will fix it EVERYTIME!

Next week we will get into the second part of the formula “forget” here on ConquerorShots.

 TUNE INTO CONQUEROR TALK ON THURSDAYS 6PM EST ON GOSPELBODYRADIO.ORG. AS WE TALK ABOUT IT.

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God’s Love Teaches Us How It’s Done

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I John 4:16-19NASB

16. We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. 17. By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment ; because as He is, so also are we in this world.18. There is no fear in love ; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. 19. We love, because He first loved us.  Learn Gods Love Today

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Willingness To Wait

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wait
wait (Photo credit: CmdrFire) It’s Not As Difficult As You Might Think

When one is willing he/she is practicing the act of making a choice. Decision making is a process we are introduced to as early as our toddler years. Remember when you or your child was learning to walk. The toddler develops a comfortable stride and encounters the opportunity to demonstrate willingness. Will he walk up the stairs, down the stairs, out the door, outside the fenced area, etc. His willing heart will try to venture about with his new found gift – the ability to walk.

A Willingness to wait on the LORD requires faith. Faith in the death, burial and resurrection of Christ Jesus establishes the relationship between you and the LORD. The onset of the relationship is when you become willing to trust that He died, was buried and arose from the dead to save you from your sins and the judgement of eternal separation from God. Faith produces a willingness to believe that all things are working together for your good and the difficulties have intentional results DIRECTLY associated with His will JUST FOR YOU. REMEMBER He died so that you can live. Your life’s spiritual awakening, development and maturity is the relationship. During the maturity of the relationship, He uses the “waiting” to mature your faith through His Word. The Christian faith establishes the power of God in us through the resurrection of Christ Jesus. By this we are equipped to walk by faith; not by sight.

Christians are often referred to as “children of God” mainly because of the spiritual adoption principle found in Romans 8:14-15. We are His children always. When we are in receipt of the “gift of God, eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” we are forever classified as children of God which makes up the family of God here on Earth.

In today’s world we live in everybody wants everything NOW. NO ONE LIKES TO WAIT FOR ANYTHING – phone assistance, public transportation, traffic jams, DMV lines, restaurant seating, the cable man etc., etc., etc…  The wait produces the need to focus on God’s presence during the wait!
“God is our refuge and strength – a very present help in trouble.”

He maintains this description to ALL of His children no matter what level of spiritual maturity we are working with.Try as hard as you can to disprove this Heavenly attribute while you engage life matters from day to day. You will find that He Is ALWAYS present and He NEVER COMES UP SHORT. But you do all the time, and you will even try to blame others, including our Heavenly Father, for your own shortcomings. Ultimately you will find a need to wait on Him and encounter your own willingness to wait. In times of waiting, the trials will mature you and you will be better because of your willingness to wait.

Psalm 27:14  Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD.
Psalm 130:5  I wait for the LORD, my soul doth wait, and in his word do I hope.
Proverbs 20:22  Say not thou, I will recompense evil; but wait on the LORD, and he shall save thee.
Isaiah 40:31 But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.
Lamentations 3:25-26 The LORD is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him.
 It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD.

The fact is that a willingness to wait on the Lord is a practice that yields an experience similar to how a toddler practices his decision making skills when learning all the opportunity “at his feet.” My hope is that you will benefit from the use of the Conqueror Lifestyle to willingly wait on the LORD and grow in the process. It will help you soar to new heights In Christ that you could never experience outside of Christ. All of the possibilities are manifested in your willingness to wait. Waiting develops patience. Patience develops perseverance. Perseverance develops hope. Hope propels a Christian to maintain his/her position in Christ because He NEVER fails. Surrender to win and be a witness to the power of living victoriously day after day. 

 “Qualities of A Conqueror Volume 1” – a textbook/workbook compilation available now to help you develop and maintain The Conqueror Lifestyle.

Stay in the race!

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Have You Heard………?

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Romans 10:17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.

In the Book of Joshua the 2nd chapter you can read about the story of Rahab.

Rahab and the Emissaries of Joshua
Rahab and the Emissaries of Joshua (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The mere mention of her name elicits the world of prostitution. Her Biblical story reveals that she was a ‘working girl’ who was willing to help 2 Israelite men who Joshua sent to spy on the land, including Jericho. The fact that she was willingly accommodating to these young, viral men could suggest the theory she was preying on their vulnerability giving rise to an opportunity for her to capitalize and get paid. The human mind will also fantasize about the origins of the spies ending up at a harlot’s house. In fantasy they may have deliberately ended up there to “blow off some steam.”

In the story’s enticing opening the reader will want to find out what happens. This is a great read in and of itself. However, the emphasis for this “shot” is on what Rahab heard and how she responded. As she takes the liberty to check on the spies she divulges her true nature. Here we see that the word was spreading about God‘s power being demonstrated through the chosen Israelites. The news worthiness of their trek through the Red Sea and the conquering of 2 kings was a source of awakening in the hearts of many. Rahab’s awakening is clearly stated in verse 11″When we heard it, our hearts melted and no courage remained in any man any longer because of you; for the LORD your God, He is God in heaven above and on earth beneath .”

Rahab heard what God had done and her heart awakened to TRUST IN GOD. The Israelite men were God’s men. She did not view them as objects for capital gain. Instead she was IN POSITION as a vessel for God to use as He deemed necessary. It is this design for FAITH THAT WE WILL NEED TO REALIZE IN ORDER TO MAINTAIN A CONQUEROR LIFESTYLE. We live life from day-to-day under the auspices of God’s Sovereignty. NOTHING, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING, HAPPENS BY SURPRISE IN THE CREATOR’S WORLD. Yet human beings are constantly attempting to act as “the controlling force” of their destiny. Psalms 24:1 says the Earth is the Lords and the FULLNESS thereof. If you are ever going to be of use to anyone it is because of God and God alone. God is ALWAYS UP TO SOMETHING GOOD BECAUSE GOOD IS ALL HE DOES.

You have to hear about God’s power; hear about God’s grace; hear about God’s love; hear about God’s faithfulness; hear about God’s Sovereignty. Have you heard that Jesus Christ SAVES to the UTMOST?

Hear how He provides, protects and preserves His people. Hear how He can DO ANYTHING BUT FAIL. You can hear it from Genesis to Revelations as you read about the Mighty God we serve. All the while your heart will awaken to a continuous cultivation of FAITH in all that you hear about Him. As this faith matures, a newness in the way you think and respond to ANY life situation erupts. You will say things that you thought you would never say, do things you thought you would never do and life will take on new meaning. This and more is likely when you HEAR of his goodness, strength and power and discover He is always available for you. Faith comes by what you heard and what you hear from the Word of God.

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A Heart to Serve

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Practice Love This Holiday Season
Galatians 5:13
For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity to indulge your flesh, but through love serve one another.
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Shannon’s article on faith today supports this month’s theme “awareness of God.” A life of faith includes a daily awareness of God. This post makes faith in God highly attractive.
Thanks Shannon. God bless you!
Darrin

Revelations in Writing's avatarRevelations In Writing

“For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law.” – Romans 3:28

Our forgiveness, salvation and justification from and before the Father are found only by faith; by trusting whole-heartedly that Jesus’ death on the cross was enough for us to become right with God.  We are not saved by works.  Only by FAITH.

“Why does God save us by faith alone?

(1) Faith eliminates the pride of human effort, because faith is not a deed that we do.

(2) Faith exalts what God has done, not what people do.

(3) Faith admits that we can’t keep the law or measure up to God’s standards – we need help.

(4) Faith is based on our relationship with God, not our performance for God.” – (NIV Study Bible footnotes)

If faith eliminates our personal pride for what we practice, then as we come before Him…

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Not Outside Then Inside………

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God gave us the cogent example of the Pharisee in the Gospels to demonstrate how human wisdom and human interpretation of God’s word leads to spiritual blindness. The Pharisees were experts in the letter of the law but they did not have a clue about the significance of Christ – whose identity originates in the Old Testament to prophets like Moses, who wrote the Torah.

Consider the lesson contained in the reaction Christ demonstrates towards the Pharisees.

Cup and Saucer
Cup and Saucer (Photo credit: Cookieater 2009) WHAT GOES INSIDE IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN THE BEAUTY ON THE OUTSIDE

If you too are so focused on keeping your outside clean for others to think you have it all together, yet you continue to neglect God’s goodness to your spirit, through his love, forgiveness, grace and mercy at Calvary, then, like the Pharisees, you too are guilty of hypocrisy.



Matthew 23:23 "Woe to you, experts in the law and you Pharisees, hypocrites! You give a tenth of mint, dill, and cumin, yet you neglect what is more important in the law — justice, mercy, and faithfulness! You should have done these things without neglecting the others.
 23:24 Blind guides! You strain out a gnat yet swallow a camel!
23:25 "Woe to you, experts in the law and you Pharisees, hypocrites!You clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.
 23:26 Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup, so that the outside may become clean too! (NET Bible)
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God IS ALWAYS Present

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