The New Life, Inc.

He Sends His Word

This word is the living word. The bible likens it to rain coming down from Heaven, and to seed that is being scattered abroad. The rain falls on the earth to prepare it for the seed to grow and find a fertile spot to multiply.

The bible also tells us that the birds eat up some of the seeds, other seeds fall on poor soil and are unable to grow, and some seed finds good soil and bears fruit. We are the earth; we are the soil; what kind of soil are we?

My friend, Dr. Bruce Morgan whom some of you know, often talked about how we as Christian people should have a positive effect on the people around us even when we were not aware of it because of the spirit of God in us; or just by moving to a new area we would affect that area.

I agree with him to a certain extent. Now I realize it depends on are we good soil or not. Can the word or seed find a fertile spot in us to work from?

The first part of our spiritual journey is God working in us is to prepare the soil for the planting with the intention that His word will find a fertile place in us. We will go forth into the world with His word and His anointing bearing much fruit. Then we will have an affect, on the people, and the world around us 

I just had a talk with my friend Judy Doctor. We were talking about the anointing of the Spirit. Does it come and go or do we have it all the time? I believe the anointing is there all the time. It is not always apparent because we are not always in the Kingdom or in touch with the Holy Spirit. I have noticed this with speakers. The same speaker can be greatly anointed with one talk and totally out of it the next talk. One talk, he is right in touch with the Holy Spirit and the next he is relying totally on himself. Has he lost the anointing? No he just lost touch with it.

It seems like some days we are good soil, the next day a bunch of stones.

First Love 

Rev. 2:2-4

I know your deeds and your toils and perseverance, and that you cannot endure evil men, and you put to the test those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and you found them to be false; and you have perseverance and have endured for My names sake, and have not grown weary.

But I have this against you, that you have left your first love.  

As I read this I had to ask myself the question; what is He talking about?

What first love?

I can’t speak for you, but I did not come to the Lord because I loved Him. I came to the Lord because I was desperate and had nowhere else to go.

I realized the Lord was trying to convey a very important message. As I pondered on this, I thought, what was my first love?

My first love was when I was in seventh grade and I was smitten by this girl in my class. It was not a sexual attraction, it is hard to describe. In study hall we could sit together at the same desk. We would be shoulder to shoulder. I would walk home with her, it was just wonderful being with her. We shared that relationship for two years and then our paths took different turns and I lost my first love.

It reminded me of a cover on the Saturday Evening Post Magazine, you must have seen it. A young boy and girl sitting on a bench leaning against one another and a little hound dog looking very disgusted, under the bench with a fish pole forgotten on the ground, first love. 

Then I was thinking; God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son to the cross. The cross was not the main issue. His love was. He desired that we could enter back into that first love, that relationship that He had with Adam and Eve and that was lost. The sin issue had to be removed so we could once again find and enter into the relationship with our Father like I had with that young lady many years ago that I lost.

What was your first love? Is that the kind of walk you have with your Father in heaven? That is what He desires.

Invest and Returns 

There is a parable where Jesus speaks concerning the talents in Matthew 25;14-30. You might be interested in looking it up and reading it.

God has given all of us various talents and abilities. We don’t all have the same ones, but I think they are all important. From the meaning in this parable, the Lord expects us to do something with these talents. God has given them to us so that we might have something to invest so we can get a return.

Do you know what talents and abilities God has given you? If you don’t know ask your friends. They might be able to tell you. If not, ask the Holy Spirit to show you what talents you have and how to use them to the fullest extent.

Some folks know what their talents are and they use them. The only problem is they are not wise investors and they don’t get any returns. They invest their talents in the wrong places and things.

Another thing I noticed, the talents were given according to abilities. You weren’t given more talents then what you had abilities to invest, but then when you made good investments the talents were increased.  The Lord wants every one of us to increase, not to decrease. The talents are not just money to invest; they are life giving talents; they are to invest in others and the return is to us. 

These talents are spiritual and when we use them and invest them in others it causes spiritual growth in us. When they are not used, there is no spiritual growth and we are in danger of these talents being passed on to someone else that will use them.

There are some in the body of Christ, the church, that always wants to receive but never think about giving. They are like sand traps that soak up all the life and never give any in return. Beware of them and find a better investment!

One of the things I have noticed, if we use the talents we have, even though we think we don’t have very many, they increase and we have more.

A Choice 

Are you interested in continuing on in your spiritual journey or is this the place you want to stop?

Our Father in heaven, the Lord Jesus Christ or the Holy Spirit does not force any of us to do anything we don’t want to do. The Lord has given you everything you need to fulfill the purpose of the Church. The choice you now have is becoming a good faithful Church member or going beyond that and fulfilling the great commission.

I am not an enemy of the church. If you want to become a church member and are happy with that, God bless you. That is what many Christian people settle for; you would be in the majority.

There is a minority that will not settle for that and they will go out into the world and become workers in the fields that are ripe to harvest.

I have met a number of Christian people that are not involved in any church or fellowship. I was talking with one person a while ago and I asked this person what kind of relationship he had with God. He told me that his relationship was personal and intimate. He then continued on and told me he was not going to any church now but that several years ago he was very much involved in a church. The pastor had some problems and it left him pretty much responsible and everyone was looking up to him to take care of everything. He did not even have time for his own family. As soon as he could, he gave other people all the responsibility and left the church. His closing comment was; “Now I am free!”

I am sure there are those that can relate to this story.

The point I want to bring out is, this person is free from the responsibility, but it seems like he is still in the majority. He is not in the minority that have chosen to go out into the world and become one of the workers in the harvest that God is looking for.

We can become free of our responsibilities in the church. The question is as Christians do we have a responsibility in the world?

We need to be a part of the church. We need to be free, and hopefully, we go out in the world and become a worker in the harvest.

A Vision 

I had a vision about thirty years ago that troubled me greatly. I have only shared this with very few people just in 2012. Now the Holy Spirit tells me to share the vision but not to interpret it. Let the people that read it interpret it in the way they want.

This was not a dream, it happened when I was sitting in my chair in Vermont and thinking about the Lord.

I was looking down and I could see the whole of the United States. I saw a wave of oriental people in military uniform sweep across the nation from the east to the west. This is hard to describe because they were bent over like hunch-back and three layers deep. As they came across the country the land behind them was barren, there was nothing left across the whole country.

Next I saw a huge prison in the middle of this barren land. I was able see down into the prison from above. There were many, many people in this prison. They were living all along the walls. The prison was one great big space with a huge wall all around it. In the middle of this space was a huge pile of stuff like a small mountain or dump and people were crawling all over it like ants and running back and forth to the walls where they lived.

Then as I was standing outside the wall looking up at how big it was a man was standing in front of me. He was wearing an officer’s uniform and cap. I knew he was Jesus. I spoke to Him and said; “Lord you can set open this wall and set these people free.”

He replied: “They will not come out of the prison!”

He walked over to the wall and touched it. That whole section of wall was gone. I thought they would come streaming out. No one even noticed the wall was gone.

He was standing about four feet from me, looking at me. His eyes were filled with a great sorrow. Again He spoke and said; “they will not come out.”        

He then turned walked away and was gone.

Responsibility 

I remember several years ago a young man had come to a meeting where we were praying for folks to receive the Holy Spirit. He asked Jesus to come into his heart and prayed for the baptism of the Holy Spirit. He received the Holy Spirit with the manifesting of the gifts and with peace and joy. A week or two later he came back and asked: “How do I get rid of the Holy Spirit?

We asked him why he wanted to do this. He said; “I have been so miserable I can’t stand myself. I guess there were things in his life he had to deal with.

Hebrews 10:31 It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

There are certain times in our spiritual journey where God expects some changes in how we speak and act. A time to leave behind our childish behavior and function as spiritual adults. We can no longer say: “The devil made me do it!” or: “what do you expect I am just a human being!”

We are Ambassadors for Christ and as such we are in a position of responsibility.  We want peace, joy and love; forgiveness of our sins; miracles and healing; a wonderful church to be involved with; we want God to answer our prayers, and watch over our children.

I expect the people under Moses all wanted the same things. One of the things these people complained about was that God only spoke to Moses. As a result, God told Moses to bring all the people to the holy mountain and He would speak to all of them. When the time came to go they would not go. I think they realized the responsibility that went with it and did not want it.

Many Christian people are sitting in the church every Sunday that should have gone out into the world years ago, illed with the Holy Sprit doing the things that Jesus did. They are like the ones spoken of in Hebrews 5:12

For thought by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and have come to need milk and not solid food.

We say we are following Jesus and being lead by the Holy Spirit when we are really following Moses and the law and practicing religion. We are doing our duty instead of assuming the responsibility of being lead by the Holy Spirit.

Questions! 

I remember as a little kid before I even started school I was a wanderer. I would follow Dad all over the place. He must have gotten tired of me being in the way all the time. I was always asking questions about everything that was going on. I am sure I didn’t understand most of the answers he gave me, but I continued to ask questions anyway.

Then I went to school and teachers began to teach me things I didn’t know. I stopped asking questions for many years. The teachers were asking me questions instead. I found out I didn’t know much and from that point on you would have to call me a wayward son. I went into the military service and later got married, no purpose, no more questions just a lost soul wandering lost in a fog.

I was in a Sunday service one morning and suddenly I realized there had to be something more and I started asking questions once again. My first question was; “There has to be something more than what I have and I want it?”

As a result I experienced the Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. I began to see, hear and then understand spiritual things. The bible opened up to me and I understood many new things. I had many questions and I found many answers. I began to think I really know a lot, until the Lord began to ask me questions that I did not have answers for.

I understand a lot more then I used to. I might be able to answer some of the questions you might ask me, but to be very honest I know very little. There is so much to be known and I know so little. We learn a little and then we think we know it all and it goes to our head and we start coming out with all the answers when we still know so little and should still be asking questions.

We have so many problems in the world, in our government, and in our homes. We think we have all the right answers, but we don’t. The reason we don’t have the right answer is because we don’t know how to ask the right questions, then we might find some answers.

The bible tells us the whole head is sick and it will continue to be sick until we turn to the Lord and receive a mind like Christ. You see the Lord gives us a new mind as well as a new heart. As long as we keep operating from the old mind and heart, we still have the wrong answers, ask the wrong questions and give the wrong advise.

Godliness

I have been reading the second epistle of Peter, in the first chapter there is a list of what Peter called qualities. One that caught my attention was godliness. I thought that was interesting, I wonder what godliness is? I looked it up in my dictionary and it said very little about it, but somehow I felt this is important. I remember from somewhere in the past a quotation, “cleanliness is next to godliness” and as I thought about this I realized if you think of cleanliness as referring to purity; godliness is purity, in our thoughts, our speech and in our actions.  

I then asked myself the question; “Do I know anyone that is godly?” I came up with a blank. I know people that are trying to be godly or think they are godly, but I didn’t think they were godly.  

I then began to ask other people, “Do you know anyone that you consider to be godly? Most people did not have an answer right away, but they started thinking about it. Some of the responses were, “I have never thought about it”.

If they did come up with an answer, my next question was, “Why do you consider them godly? One of the responses that began to give me a little understanding was from a lady bartender as I was having lunch one afternoon. I asked her the question, “Do you know anyone that you consider to be godly?” she answered very quickly. “Yes I know two people, one of them is my grandmother.” I then asked her, “Why do you consider her to be godly?” Her reply was, “Because of the way she lives her life.”

This gave me a new understanding of what godliness is. We can be godly in some ways and ungodly in others ways. People can see godliness in us. They may not recognize it as godliness, but they still see it.

Do you consider yourself to be godly?

I asked Pauline the question; “Do you know anyone you consider to be godly?” she thought about it for a few moments, and then she said, “Yes! I consider you to be godly;” This really surprised me; for I did not consider myself to be godly. Maybe it is important for us to see that some of the time we are godly, and that other people see us as a godly people.

I asked another friend; “Do you know anyone godly?” This person said, “Yes I know several people I would consider godly.” I asked why, and he told me they would hear God and do what He told them, they were obedient.

As I was thinking about these things I saw something real clearly. If every time there is a question whether a word or action is questionable; just consider; is this a godly word or action. You will know immediately in your heart and spirit if it is or not. Then it is up to you to be godly or ungodly.

Who Do You Think You Are? 

Or another way of putting it; “Who does he think he is? A number of times in the past years I have been asked this question; “Who do you think you are?” Other times when people were speaking to others about me they would say: “Who does he think he is”? I expect that many of us have made that remark at some time or other.

As I think about this I realize that is a very important question, “Who do I think I am?”

Several years ago the Lord asked me a question, “Who am I?” I knew He was not looking for a pat answer or a quote from the bible. There was something He wanted me to see. I thought about this question and pondered on it.  About two weeks later I saw what the Lord wanted me to see. I spoke to the Lord and said; “Lord I know who you are! You are who you are; and you don’t have to be anything different then that!”

The Lord replied; “That is right; now who are you?”

I had spent most of my life running away from myself, trying to be somebody else. I knew this question was very important. I pondered on this question for another couple of weeks, then I had the answer. I said, “Lord; I know who I am!” He replied; “Who are you?” I said, “I am who I am and that is all I need to be. I don’t have to be anybody else or be like anyone else!” It is easy to be me, difficult to be someone else.

Romans 12:3; For through the grace given to me I say to every man among you not to think more highly of himself then he ought to think, but to think so as to have sound judgement, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith.

Am I thinking properly about who and what I am?

Am I thinking properly about other people?

If I am thinking with sound judgement about myself and others I am not lifting them up and I am not bringing them down. I think many of us like to think we are a little smarter, more intelligent, wiser, gifted and with greater understanding then the normal person. This may be especially true of people in leadership positions, it kind of goes to your head, when other people start exalting you, you start believing it yourself. This happens in government and in church. God starts working through people and the first thing you know, you think you are doing it.

I am aware I am gifted in certain areas, so is everyone else in different areas. I am aware I have some talents, but everyone else has their talents as well. May God give every one of us sound judgement to think properly of ourselves and the other folks in our lives.      

Internal Voices

1 Corinthians 3:16  Do you not know that you are a temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?

Do you know there are other spirits that are also looking for a temple?

God our Father, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit have not lost their voices. They are in the temple and they are able to speak to us and through us right through our thought life.

We are very interestingly made, one moment we are lifting up the Lord and the next moment we can be thinking and saying some awful bad stuff. Why is this?

We are like a house with many rooms. Some of these rooms we visit often; some of them we never visit and have no desire to. My friend Dr Bruce Morgan spoke of the dragons in the cellar. I sent him a card several years ago with a picture of a dragon sitting under a tree with a long spear picking his teeth. There were pieces of armor scattered all around on the ground and the statement on the bottom said; “sometimes the dragon wins”.  I think we can all relate to that.

We all have emotions, and it is like we have a different room for each one. All these emotions seem to have something to say and at times want to be heard. We don’t always speak what these emotions are saying to us but we are often hearing what they are saying in our mind. They can be very troublesome to us. Indeed we must be on guard that other spirits are not allowed to enter into some of these rooms within us.

I don’t think we have to worry about the rooms that are filled with love, peace, joy and are placing wonderful thoughts in our minds and mouths. The rooms we need to be mindful of are ones that contain anger, bitterness, resentment, and unforgivness. These all want to be heard in our mind and through our mouth. These are the rooms that other spirits will quickly enter in, if given any opportunity. They will trouble your mind and rob you of all peace love and forgiveness. These thoughts are our worst enemy and you are the one that must gain the victory if you are to have peace.

2 Corinthians 10:4-5  For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.

There are thoughts that rise up in us that need to be taken captive and if they are not, they are going to torment us. They come from those places where we have allowed anger, resentment, bitterness and other ugly things that are sin, to remain undelt with.

I can almost hear some of you saying, “That is fine but how do you do it?

Recognize the thoughts for what they are; evil! Very evil!

Decide if you want to resist them or entertain them and be miserable, angry and hateful.

If you decide you don’t want them, then take the thoughts captive and bring them and the hate and anger that go with them, right to Jesus.

Ask Jesus to take them and to give you peace, joy and love in place of them.

If you begin to recognize these thoughts for what they are, and begin to resist them, and ask Jesus for help, you can come into a new place of peace and rest in your soul.

The voices will be silenced!  You may not have the victory immediately! If you continue to resist you will have the victory.