Fit For Service

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Matthew 11:28 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
11:29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
11:30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

 

Do you ever get overwhelmed during the course of your day?  Does caos push you towards your Savior or away from your Him?  When you are consumed with the failures of your life and your can’t feel good about yourself in the moment, how do you become fit for service? Physical fitness is a great metaphor for spiritual fitness. They both require a consistent daily commitment to working out.  You get fit for Service when you “work out your own salvation” with a daily commitment to stay yoked up with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. His yoke is easy and his burdens are light. We realize just how sufficient His grace and mercy is to us when we are willing to stay fit spiritually to serve Him.

Yoke
Yoke (Photo credit: Ludie Cochrane)

The answer to these questions is found in Jesus’ directive to the Hebrews in the text above.  It is helpful to know that Jesus was giving them an alternative to the traditionalism and ceremonialism associated with the legalistic platforms of the Hebrew elders at the time of His earthly ministry. The rites associated with legalism among them were burdening them to the point where they were in yokes of bondage that were detrimental to their service to Him. The bondage of legalism – a human response to sin sickness – categorized them as sinners in need of becoming fit for service. The Hebrews did not have the gift of God living in their individual spirits at the time of Jesus’ earthly ministry like we do today.

 

They were  “overwhelmed” with the consciousness of their transgressions, the constant external and internal berating over their sinful past and their unrealized spiritual condition being dead in their tresspasses and sins. At the point in the text they were trembling at the peril of the  dangers of sin, and seeking deliverance. Why? The death of John the Baptist signified the rejection of the preaching of the Kingdom to the Jews and was forecasting  the rejection of the Son of man which would result in His crucifixion.  The killing of John the Baptist was a demonstration of Israel once again being fit with the yoke of bondage described in Lev. 28:13 where they were under the lash of bondage and servitude to the evil associated with the Egyptians. You can be fit for service to render evil if you are not fit for Godly service. Human beings are predisposed to serve the sinful conditions of their hearts. This is why Jesus is opening the window of opportunity for them to come to Him and become fit for His service by taking on his yoke.  Today, when His yoke is secured over your life, you too can walk upright and experience the Conqueror lifestyle.

 

Leviticus 26:13 I am the LORD your God, which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, that ye should not be their bondmen; and I have broken the bands of your yoke, and made you go upright.

 

Thanks be to our God now that we all have the opportunity to come boldly before Him in our prayer lives and committed time in His Word. We can experience spiritual fitness for His service because of the finished work at the cross and His powerful resurrection which validates His worthiness to come to Him just as you are with a heart that is willing to trust in Him for all your spiritual needs. Jesus told the Jews – as an alternative to the elders religiosity and the Pagan rituals – to take His yoke upon one’s self and carry what has been raised up.  He was laying the foundation for the culmination of His death, burial and resurrection being available to them and us all. The yoke symbolizes being brought together with Him and under the authority of God’s Mighty Hand on a daily basis. Ultimately, His yoke – being a bond servant to him and carrying the message of salvation- is easier and the burdens are far better in Him.

 

Hebrews 4:16  Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.

 

 

 

 

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A Choice To Serve

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Joshua 24:15 And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.

Choices
Choices (Photo credit: Sky Noir)

Every day you realize you are awake and able to live another day, you have a choice to make.  In addition to the choices about what you will wear, what you will eat and what you will do first as you survey your list of options, you are responsible for an even greater choice. If you are not willing to make this choice, your decision is made for you. You can thank Adam for that. Whether you are God‘s child, or not, the life you live will always present opportunities for you to become willing to make a choice to serve the God who created the Heavens and the Earth or the gods of this world.

The choice is found in who you will serve –  who you will work for through the service of your life.  We all are destined to be used by God – goodness and evil are all manifested by God’s Sovereignty. Many of you seperate good from evil and designate good as being of God and evil exclusively being from Satan.  We need to consider Psalm 24:1 A Psalm of David and I Corinthians 10:26 An Epistle of Paul’s – “The earth is the LORD’S, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein” – EVERYTHING THAT IS HERE AND EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENS HERE IS BECAUSE OF THE LORD’S SOVEREIGNTY. If you fail to accept this truth then your choice will always be manipulated by your own ideas.  Even the evil that manifests through you is under the authority of Christ today. 

Joshua was nearly at the end of his life when he delivered this sermon in Joshua 24. It gives attention to doctrine and application.  The doctrine is represented by all of the deeds in which the Lord God Almighty provided for His people. From the calling of Abraham, the birth of Isaac, the deliverance out of Egypt and through the Red Sea and their warring victories into the Promised Land, God proved His determined will and put it on display for the world to know. The Hebrews were recipients of the consistent manifestation of God’s Sovereign Power.  They had proof to know that no other god is comparable to the God of the Heavens and the Earth.  But it is the application of the sermon where we find the purpose of the choice to serve.

Your acquaintance with good and evil notwithstanding, it is a fundamental Biblical truth that when your flesh is controlled by sin you can not please God. You sow seeds of sin through all types of lifestyle choices.  Every decision you make is based on your pursuit to manifest and fulfill the desires of the flesh.  Joshua was reminded of Moses who declared the importance to choose life with a heart that loves the Lord, His Word all with a willingness to serve Him daily. Read Deuteronomy 30:11-20.  You can offset any affinity towards sin when you make a choice to serve God by praying for the knowledge of His will and the power to be all that He has created you to be. You can be of maximum service to God, realize the Conqueror Lifestyle  and serve Him and others effectively, when His power is working in you and through you conforming you to the image of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. But you can make this choice to serve God only because of the death, burial and resurrection of Christ which gives you access into His grace.

Others realize your choice by every word that comes out of your mouth, every deed of your hands and every direction that your feet move towards. The heart decides which choice is to be made.  A heart that is willing to freely surrender to God’s Sovereignty is a direct result of a quickened spirit connected to the power of the resurrection at work in you. It’s not hard at all to make Jesus your choice when you accept all that He has freely done for you.  You willingly desire to serve Him because of how effectively He serves you.  Stop trying to be your best you independent of God’s spiritual blessings at work in you. You will know true service as He manifests His good works in your life when you make the choice to depend on and serve Him in all that you say and do. Agree with me and Joshua and make your choice THE LORD.

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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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Let Him Lead You

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"Lead Me, Guide Me" by Doris Atkers
Verse 1 
I am weak and I need Thy strength and power,                                        
To help me over my weakest hour. 
Let me through the darkness Thy face to see, 
Lead me, oh Lord lead me. 
Chorus 
Lead me, guide me along the way, 
For if you lead me I cannot stray. 
Lord, let me walk each day with Thee. 
Lead me, oh Lord lead me. 
Verse 2
Help me tread in the paths of righteousness.
Be my aid when Satan and sin oppress. 
I am putting all my trust in Thee: 
Lead me, oh Lord lead me. 
Verse 3 
I am lost if you take your hand from me, 
I am blind without Thy light to see.
Lord just always let me thy servant be,
Lead me, oh Lord lead me.

“Where Your Feet Are IS Where You Are”

Solid as a rock
Solid as a rock (Photo credit: Joybot)

     For years I struggled with the TRUTH in the slogan above.  Furthermore, for decades I maintained enormous opposition against the idea of “God‘s leading” over my life. As I look back over my life I can now see that all of my struggling with the prospect of surrendering to God’s will for my life was due to me wanting to be in control, my ego leading me in the fulfillment of the desires of my flesh and my human affinity towards being a product of this world rather than a servant of the God who created me. I could not “Be still and KNOW THAT GOD IS GOD” and appreciate all of the goodness that He brings into my life through His Sovereignty over my life. The best I could do was to continue spinning my wheels of human potential landing in life situations where I ultimately got stuck in ditches that got deeper and deeper over time. I could not appreciate the joy in the journey because I was always frustrated with one aspect (or another) of my life’s reality where I kept coming up short. 

     Along the way to the point of realizing God’s mission for my life, I came to appreciate all of the hardships, pain and suffering, grief, loss, guilt, shame and remorse my life manufactured. Today “I do not regret the past nor do I wish to shut the door on it.” Like Iyanla, “I did my work.” The evidence of the task is soon to be realized publicly with the release of the books. Today I can be grateful for where my feet are because my heart and mind are humbled under the “mighty hand of God.” There is a consistent awareness of God’s presence that sustains me. The reason for the presence of peace, love, joy, thanksgiving, faith and hope that wakes me up every day and preserves me throughout most of my days is because GOD IS LEADING ME. The essence of His leadership in and over my life is realized in the Conqueror Lifestyle that He prepared just for me. 

God has a Conqueror Lifestyle prepared just for you as well. To find out more about the Conqueror Lifestyle follow me on twitter @ConquerorShots.

 Darrin D. Payne

 

 

 

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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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A Conquering Response to a Trending Lack of Love

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A response to this article http://www.americapreachers.com/speak-out/pastor-says-no-to-women-wearing-weaves-in-church/
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