Infused in the Word--May
We are continuing in our weekly scripture discipline to encourage you to read and study God's Word more and also meditate on the key thoughts of our recent articles. We pray this will encourage and assist you as you grow in the Kingdom.
May--Week Twenty-One
Article: Your Principles, Your Standards
- As citizens and children of the Kingdom of God, we should always have our thoughts in line with His principles. Read what the ambassador Paul said: And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me—everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you. Philippians 4:8-9
- We, as citizens of the Kingdom, embrace the Lord's constitution, making our standard of living set apart. Run from sexual sin! No other sin so clearly affects the body as this one does. For sexual immorality is a sin against your own body. Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body. 1 Corinthians 6:18-20
- Kingdom citizens aren't religious or living according to the world system. They follow and read the constitution. They are led by the Governor, meaning the Holy Spirit. That is what the Scriptures mean when they say, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love Him.”
But it was to us that God revealed these things by His Spirit. For His Spirit searches out everything and shows us God’s deep secrets. No one can know a person’s thoughts except that person’s own spirit, and no one can know God’s thoughts except God’s own Spirit. And we have received God’s Spirit (not the world’s spirit), so we can know the wonderful things God has freely given us.
When we tell you these things, we do not use words that come from human wisdom. Instead, we speak words given to us by the Spirit, using the Spirit’s words to explain spiritual truths. But people who aren’t spiritual can’t receive these truths from God’s Spirit. It all sounds foolish to them and they can’t understand it, for only those who are spiritual can understand what the Spirit means. 1 Corinthians 2:9-14
Moving into Corinthians:
As you read your Bible (God's Constitution for the Kingdom) highlight key scriptures and phrases as the Holy Spirit guides you. What scriptures touch you and minister to you? We have also included links to Bible Gateway in case you don't have a Bible with you at the moment.
This week read and meditate on 1 Corinthians 11-12. Paul's messages on instructions to the early church; many spiritual gifts among the body, but all of the same Spirit.
Keep seeking the Kingdom!
May--Week Twenty
Article: Your Words Are the Framework of Your Life
- God created the universe with His words. He spoke it into being. His Words brought life and order to formless chaos! Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light...Then God said, “Let there be a space between the waters, to separate the waters of the heavens from the waters of the earth.” And that is what happened. God made this space to separate the waters of the earth from the waters of the heavens. God called the space “sky.”...Then God said, “Let the waters beneath the sky flow together into one place, so dry ground may appear.” And that is what happened... Genesis 1
- Then God created mankind, in His image, to be like Him. So God created human beings in His own image. In the image of God He created them; male and female He created them. Genesis 1:27
- Your words are building a framework for your life. If your life seems to be going from bad to worse and you question why God is allowing it to happen, examine what you have been consistently saying? Are you negative? Do you talk often about all that is bad in your life? I call it "testifying what the devil is doing in your life" instead of what God is doing! Don't embrace sickness, disease, mental or emotional disorders or addictions. Don't own them...God never intended for them to be yours. Satan wants you in a posture of hopelessness and defeat. The tongue can bring death or life; those who love to talk will reap the consequences. Proverbs 18:21
So Jesus answered and said to them, “Assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but also if you say to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ it will be done. And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.” Matthew 21:21-22
- You are not your current condition! You are a blood-bought believer in Jesus Christ. You are a son or daughter of the most high God.
You are a citizen of the Kingdom of God. Speak like a victorious Kingdom citizen. Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:37-39 NKJV
Moving into Corinthians:
As you read your Bible (God's Constitution for the Kingdom) highlight key scriptures and phrases as the Holy Spirit guides you. What scriptures touch you and minister to you? We have also included links to Bible Gateway in case you don't have a Bible with you at the moment.
This week read and meditate on 1 Corinthians 9-10. Paul's messages on denying self and serving all of mankind and lessons to be learned from Israel's idolatry.
Keep seeking the Kingdom!
May--Week Nineteen
Article: Understanding the BIG Picture
- From the very beginning, the Lord God's plan was to colonize planet earth with the heavenly government. That is why He created man, to manage the earth and all He had created. Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground.” So God created human beings in His own image. In the image of God He created them; male and female He created them.
Then God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground.” Genesis 1:26-28
- If you are in right-standing with the King, He will give the Holy Spirit to you. “If you love me, obey my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you. He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth. The world cannot receive Him, because it isn’t looking for Him and doesn’t recognize Him. But you know Him, because He lives with you now and later will be in you. John 14:15-17
- All we have belongs to the Father God. The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it. The world and all its people belong to Him. For He laid the earth’s foundation on the seas and built it on the ocean depths. Psalm 24:1-2
- The Lord God created the earth to be inherited by mankind. The heavens belong to the Lord, but he has given the earth to all humanity. Psalm 115:16
Moving into Corinthians:
As you read your Bible (God's Constitution for the Kingdom) highlight key scriptures and phrases as the Holy Spirit guides you. What scriptures touch you and minister to you? We have also included links to Bible Gateway in case you don't have a Bible with you at the moment.
This week read and meditate on 1 Corinthians 7-8. Paul's messages on marriage, singleness, widows and being sensitive to those with less knowledge.
Keep seeking the Kingdom!
May--Week Eighteen
Article: Living in a Fallen World
- Remember, we who are born again by His Holy Spirit, live in this world but aren't of this world. In the Lord Jesus' prayer to His Father, He made it very clear. I’m not asking you to take them out of the world, but to keep them safe from the evil one. They do not belong to this world any more than I do. John 17:15-16
- In this present world, they say that "truth is relative". A man is only a man is he feels like one and a woman is a man if she decides she is. They say that is her "truth". But for those of us who are Kingdom citizens...followers of Jesus Christ, God's Word is Truth. There is only one true truth and that is God's Word. It is eternal and unchanging! Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth. John 17:17 NKJV
- His Word will sanctify us from this present world. We are to preach and teach the Kingdom message that others may believe and become one. “I am praying not only for these disciples but also for all who will ever believe in me through their message. I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one—as you are in me, Father, and I am in you. And may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me.
“I have given them the glory you gave me, so they may be one as we are one. I am in them and you are in me. May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me. John 17:20-23
- Remember that in this fallen world, being guided by the Holy Spirit and God's Word is absolutely vital. Otherwise, anyone can be deceived and some of the greatest deceptions come from religious leaders who themselves have strayed into pursuing the things of the world above the Lord. “Then the King will turn to those on the left and say, ‘Away with you, you cursed ones, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his demons. For I was hungry, and you didn’t feed me. I was thirsty, and you didn’t give me a drink. I was a stranger, and you didn’t invite me into your home. I was naked, and you didn’t give me clothing. I was sick and in prison, and you didn’t visit me.’ “Then they will reply, ‘Lord, when did we ever see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and not help you?’ “And he will answer, ‘I tell you the truth, when you refused to help the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were refusing to help me.’ “And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous will go into eternal life.” Matthew 25:41-46
Moving into Corinthians:
As you read your Bible (God's Constitution for the Kingdom) highlight key scriptures and phrases as the Holy Spirit guides you. What scriptures touch you and minister to you? We have also included links to Bible Gateway in case you don't have a Bible with you at the moment.
This week read and meditate on 1 Corinthians 5-6. Paul's messages to the church at Corinth. Dealing with issues in the church: Immorality, spiritual pride, lawsuits and other bad behavior.
Keep seeking the Kingdom!