Treasured Truth

God not only deserves, but He requires our praise and Pastor Ford explains today that the word “Hallelujah” conveys to Him our highest praise. God wanted a word that every Christian could use, no matter what our culture or color, no matter what our creed, and no matter what our language, and the word that He gave us is “Hallelujah!”

When we are seeking the victory that God has in store for us, we need to realize that we should quit trying to get back at our haters. Instead, we need to turn our haters over to God.  Why?  Because He’ll make our enemies our footstool. He will put the fear of God in them and He will prevent them from hindering our progress toward victory.

Whatever we are clinging to from our past—that could be the very thing that keeps us from our destiny. That could be the very thing that prevents us from having a good relationship. And that could be the very thing that’s causing us to not be able to make any progress toward victory.  And it’s all because we refuse to turn that thing over to Jesus.

When we are looking forward to what God has for us, we have to realize that our faith can get us there, but what does it take to keep us there?  Commitment.  Our faith will get us to God’s promise for us, but we’ll never stay there until we have total commitment to Him and His plans for us.

As we continue to look at how to prepare for victory, we need to let our past go and look forward to what God has for us in the future. Whatever happened to us in the past that was damaging and everything we did that was shameful in the past—we need to ask for and accept God’s forgiveness and then let it go!

There are some people, no matter what you do to them, no matter what they go through, they will never deny Jesus, they’ll never backslide on Him. They can go without food, without job, without lots of things, and they still have the joy of the Lord./  They still tell people that Jesus Christ is the center of their joy.  And Pastor Ford points out how they can do just that and what having the mindset actually requires.

God is not going to let anything you or I do, stop us from doing what He has ordained for us to do and reaching the victory He has prepared for us.  Go through scripture and look at it.  All of God’s heroes and she-roes had flaws and made mistakes and mis-steps along the way, but none of them were able to stop the plan of God.  None of them!

While preparing us for victory, Pastor Ford explains that God will take us to where we are not prepared to go, because we don’t have the commitment that it takes to stay there. We had faith that brought us there.  But we don’t have the commitment to keep us there. So, God is working to cultivate that commitment in us.

Scripture says that our God shall supply all our needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus!  And that’s what God has done.  And that’s what God will do for us!  So we need to step up and stand up for God.  And do what Jesus has called us to do, regardless of the price.  Because when we do, we’ll see God working and preparing us for the victory he has in store for us.

As we prepare for victory, we have to put some skin in the game.  Why?  Because, too many people want the benefits of adoption, without the sacrifice of relationship.  Pastor Ford says that often we want full time benefits from Jesus, while treating Him like He’s our part time job.