As Christians, we have a responsibility to live right, because whether or not we know it, people are watching to see how we are going to deal with various situations. Also satan, who the bible calls the accuser of the saints, is waiting for us to miss up so he can getting us to challenge our own faith and get into, self condemnation. However the beauty in all this, is for those truly born again believers in Jesus Christ, God has given his Holy Spirit who understands our responsibility and therefore, through his strength, gives us the ability to RESPOND. If we say we are people of faith, that faith is going to be tested, as the only way we will know how strong our faith is, is in testing times. A good example of this is Gideon in Judges chapters 6 – 8. He was a man who God called to save Israel from the Medianites. His first reaction was to say he can not do it because he is too small and weak, being from the smallest tribe Manasseh. However, then he began to respond and put faith into action, so he made a sacrifice and offered it up to God. His sacrifice was what is known as a Meal offering, which signified EFFORT, in other words HE had to play HIS part in it and it took effort to prepare. If you are going to respond to a situation in faith, it is going to take EFFORT on your part. Judges 6:18 -21 “Jdg 6:18 Do not depart from here, I pray, until I come to You, and bring forth my food offering and set it before You. And He said, I will stay until you come again. Jdg 6:19 And Gideon went in and made ready a kid and unleavened cakes of an ephah of flour. He put the flesh in a basket, and he put the broth in a pot, and brought it out to Him to the oak, and offered it. Jdg 6:20 And the Angel of God said to him, Take the flesh and the unleavened cakes and lay on this rock, and pour out the broth. And he did so. Jdg 6:21 Then the Angel of Jehovah put forth the end of the staff that was in His hand and touched the flesh and the unleavened cakes. And there rose up fire out of the rock and burned up the flesh and the unleavened cakes. Then the Angel of Jehovah went away out of his sight. Gideon continued to respond as God ministered to him, but he was a work in progress as we ALL are, and therefore he had some fears that he was yet to overcome: Jdg 6:25 That night the LORD spoke to Gideon again: Get your father's second-best bull, the one that's seven years old. Use it to pull down the altar where your father worships Baal and cut down the sacred pole next to the altar. Jdg 6:26 Then build an altar for worshiping me on the highest part of the hill where your town is built. Use layers of stones for my altar, not just a pile of rocks. Cut up the wood from the pole, make a fire, kill the bull, and burn it as a sacrifice to me. Jdg 6:27 Gideon chose ten of his servants to help him, and they did everything God had said. But since Gideon was afraid of his family and the other people in town, he did it all at night. How many times has God told you to do something, but because of fear and embarrassment of what people will think, you either delay it or you do not do it at all? These are the times your faith is going to be tested. E.g. When you are in the company of non-believers and you sitting down to eat a meal, are you too embarrassed to bless your food? Do you quickly mutter your prayer under your breath in the hope that no-one sees? As believers we should not be man pleasers, but we should want to please God first and foremost. We need to understand that sometimes our stand for God is going to come with some stiff opposition, but if God tells us to do something; he also gives us the ability to fulfil it: Judges 6: 28 - 30 “Jdg 6:28 When the people of the town got up the next morning, they saw that Baal's altar had been knocked over, and the sacred pole next to it had been cut down. Then they noticed the new altar covered with the remains of the sacrificed bull. Jdg 6:29 "Who could have done such a thing?" they asked. And they kept on asking, until finally someone told them, "Gideon the son of Joash did it." Jdg 6:30 The men of the town went to Joash and said, "Your son Gideon knocked over Baal's altar and cut down the sacred pole next to it. Hand him over, so we can kill him!" The bible says in Rom 8:31 “What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?” Gideon is the perfect example of the scripture in Corinthians which states: 1Co 1:27 But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; Later on we read how God took this same man who initially thought he was nothing and weak, to defeat the armies of Median with only 300 men after 22,000 of his original army LEFT him and went home out of FEAR. Is there ANYTHING too big for God? So what is your perception of yourself? You need to have the right one because, your perception will affect your opinion and your opinion will affect your attitude and your attitude will affect your performance. Remember as believers we walk by faith and not by sight, so as Philippians 4: 6-7 states “Php 4:6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. Php 4:7 And the peace of God which passes all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” Parallel Principles In this business first and foremost you have to believe you are going to be successful, because if you do not, you have already failed. You are going to have to do some personal development, which will then enable you to respond in certain situations. You can not afford to let FEAR govern you, because if you do, you will not do the things you need to do. You can not be people pleasers but you will need to be able to tell people the things they need to hear and not necessarily the things they want to hear. You will need to make a step of faith and move out of your comfort zone. You will need to put effort in and be willing to make sacrifices. There is not one successful person in the world today, that their success did not cost them anything and the journey not full of ups and downs. Most people fail because they do not want to put the effort in and they love the ups but can not deal with the downs. That is a person who reacts rather than responds. Which one are you? ********************************************** Jason Gregory Business Coach & Mentor Reliv International **********************************************
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As Christians we need to understand the importance of sacrifice, because if we do not understand it, we will not never truly understand the Christian walk.
The Oxford Dictionaries meaning of sacrifice is “Giving up of something valued for sake of something else.” Many people want things, but do not want the pay the price for those things, that is why we live in a society that on the most part, have a lottery mentality. However as Christians we need to be separate from the world in our actions, as well as in our thinking. God showed he love for us in that he sacrificed something of value John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.” This is the foundation of our Christianity and is based around love. When we look back at the beginning, when man first fell in the garden and tried to cover up their sin, we see God, out of love, making atonement for them by sacrificing something of value Gen 3:21 Yahweh God made coats of skins for Adam and for his wife, and clothed them. Skins to cover them and the blood of the innocent animal to atone for their sin. Later on we read about two brothers giving an offering to God, one being accepted and the other being rejected. One brother understanding the importance of sacrifice and other thinking his way was good enough. (Cain and Abel you can read about that in Genesis 4) We see God establishing a sacrificial system with his chosen people the Jews in order the teach them to importance of sacrifice but to also lead them to understand about the ultimate sacrifice that he was going to make. Many Jews to this date still do not understand about that, so they are still under the school master of the Mosaic Law, but they will understand and once the church has been raptured, it will be the Jews that will be spear heading the gospel. David is a good example of someone understanding the importance of sacrifice and he demonstrated it here: 2Sa 24:23 All these Araunah, like a king, gave to the king. And Araunah said to the king, May Jehovah your God accept you. 2Sa 24:24 And the king said to Araunah, No, but I will surely buy from you at a price. And I will not offer burnt offerings to Jehovah my God of that which costs me nothing. And David bought the threshing-floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver. 2Sa 24:25 And David built there an altar to Jehovah, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. And Jehovah was entreated for the land, and the plague was stayed from Israel. We are to present our bodies as living sacrifices Rom 12:1 I beseech you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing to God, which is your reasonable service. Rom 12:2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, in order to prove by you what is that good and pleasing and perfect will of God. Rom 12:3 For I say, through the grace given to me, to every one who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think. But set your mind to be right-minded, even as God has dealt to every man the measure of faith. Rom 12:4 For even as we have many members in one body, and all members do not have the same function, Rom 12:5 so we the many are one body in Christ, and each one members of one another. This means there are going to be areas of our lives that, before we became Christians we placed a high value on, that when we become Christians, we need to sacrifice or give up. Certain attitudes, language, actions and mindsets. For the most part we were in the world (i.e. The worldly system), for a long time before we got saved, so there is a lot of things in our souls that need to be renewed and our souls are made up of The Mind of our Intellect, The Mind of our Emotions and The Mind of our Wills. If we are not willing the sacrifice these things we will not truly be walking the Christian walk. This was Jesus speaking the Father concerning us. Joh 17:13 And now I come to You, and these things I speak in the world that they might have My joy fulfilled in them. Joh 17:14 I have given them Your Word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Joh 17:15 I do not pray for You to take them out of the world, but for You to keep them from the evil. Joh 17:16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Joh 17:17 Sanctify them through Your truth. Your Word is truth. Parallel Principals Success is not an accident, most successful people if you look back at their lives, they had to make a lot of sacrifices along the way. These are the people that do the things that the other people just could be bothered to do. These are the people that were studying, when all of their friends were partying. These are the people were learning new skills whilst working, where as everyone else were just doing their 9 to 5 and happy to get their check at the end of the month. In Reliv successful people are the people that plug into every element of the Reliv System. These are the people that are persistent in their prospecting. These are the people who are dedicated to their business. These are the people who are sacrificing value time with their families, so they can more time with them later. These are the people who are not making excuses These are the people who are teachable because they know that is the only way they will ever truly learn. This are the people with Vision because they know that without it they WILL perish! ******************************************************************* Jason Gregory Business Coach & Mentor Reliv International ******************************************************************** |
Click Image below to see an opportunity to work with a group of believers, passionate about helping people with their health and their finances. Click image Now!Me and Aneela with the European Chairman of Reliv International Click below to watch some powerful Christian videos KINGDOM PEOPLE AuthorFor the past Eight years, I have been hosting a weekly prayer call for the believers in the offline company that i work alongside. Looking at biblical principals and seeing how we can apply them into our businesses. Archives
May 2018
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