Family Life Winners Family Life Winners

For those of you who can do 50 push-ups, please raise you hand. How about 30? How about 10? How about 5? Come on now! Have you never heard that Paul preached to Timothy in the New Testament on push up profits?

We’ll have to do a survey of the Body of Christ at some point and see what percentage of time and effort is put towards building the spirit, building the soul, and building the body. We would be willing to guess the figures would come out something like this: spirit – 20%, soul – 70%, and body – 10%. And the scary part about that is the 70% effort for our souls is probably a lot of entertainment and pity parties. Ouch!

Sorry, let’s back to Paul and Timothy. Paul doesn’t mention push-ups exactly, so you don’t have send us a warning calling us heretics, but he does say in 1Tim. 4:8 “Bodily exercise profits a little…” Paul is acknowledging that there is some profit in physical exercise because he is comparing it to the profit that comes from the pursuit of godliness or being like God.

That can’t be right because Yeshua never mentioned the value of bodily exercise. Ever heard that kind of reasoning before? Christ never mentioned it because exercise like walking and lifting and farming was a part of your everyday lives back then. Getting somewhere involved either walking or riding a horse, and if you have ever rode a horse,  you know it’s exercise. Even having and working a small backyard garden takes a lot of bodily effort.

Let’s not ignore putting some effort into keeping our bodies fit. There are so any benefits to doing this. Keep it simple to something like walking in your neighborhood or doing popcorn stretches in your living room – take it easy on the butter though.

A healthy body is able to fight off illness better and that means less down time and more time to devote to those things you love and are called to.

Looking into a microscope for the first time opened up a whole new world for us, a world that we could only have imagined before this first glimpse. This microscopic world was very much alive and impacting our lives even before we took that first look. Paul in 2 Corinthians 4 tells us the importance of seeing beyond our light afflictions and recognizing a whole new world of Yah’s glory in operation.

2 Cor. 4:17-18 “For our light affliction is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but the things which are unseen…”

This is a spiritual realm where we are being renewed daily and our glory account is being built up. While there is so much for our physical senses to take in, there is even much more going on in the spirit realm. We must not lose sight of this and take the time to focus our attention away from the things that are temporary and gaze upon those things that are working eternally in us.

Our physical existence is limited but our spiritual existence is boundless, and the more we get in touch with this truth, the more we will rise above our challenges and experience the unspeakable joy and victories that are ours in Christ. If we made a commitment to Christ and His Lordship, then we have also committed to being His ambassadors. (2 Cor 5:20)

So, how do we get better in touch with this truth? We have to balance out that time we are focused on our worldly responsibilities with the time we are spending in His heavenly presence. There is much to enjoy in this world but sadly the world will only pull us down. We must counter these destructive influences with the glory of our Savior and develop our spiritual focus of seeing beyond into those things “unseen”.

Please join us on this journey of becoming effective Glory Ambassadors for Christ, or renew your commitment if you have already started.

Click here: https://familylifewinners.com/glory-ambassadors-christ

Everybody knows the huge role our eyes play in our quality of life and in our enjoyment of life. There is also much talk about having spiritual eyes that enable us to see things of the Spirit. Yeshua said that the eye is the lamp of the body (light of our bodies) and our eyes play a big role in the condition of our souls. (Matt. 6: 22-23)

What role is that exactly? What we allow our eyes to focus on and receive leaves an impression on our thoughts and attitudes and can even trigger strong emotions. Basically, the things that we look at we will change our perspective on our circumstances and even about ourselves.

How we view ourselves and the events we  deal with act as a filter on our ability or inability to receive what our Heavenly Father has made available to us. There are some super-charged images (a tragic accident or crime) that can leave a lasting impact on our lives with just 1 look, while a steady diet of peaceful or conflicted images (mountain scenes or angry faces) will create changes in our values or expectations in life.

As a result, can we radically conclude that we should be very careful about what we allow our eyes to stay focused? Yes indeed, because what we allow our eyes to dwell on will impact our spiritual growth. It will do this because what we allow our eyes to look at effect our values, our thoughts, our feelings, even our hopes and dreams and our capacity to believe.

While the example of what Jacob did in Genesis 30 to create striped and spotted livestock does not have a direct application to us walking around with spiritual stripes or spots, we believe it effectively illustrates the principle that we are talking about here.

It would be very wise for us to be sensitive and discerning to the things we gaze upon and  only dwell and look upon on those things that are true and noble and just… ( Phil 4:8)

We all need partners as we take on the quest of becoming effective ministers for the kingdom of God. Our witness to the rest of the world is a valuable thing, especially in this age of social media and political correctness. We can’t take the “monk” attitude and keep our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ at arm’s length or greater.

As we accept the honor and challenge of being glory ambassadors for Christ, we also need to be positioned to give and receive encouragement from people we trust. We’ve heard it described as a pitcher that is being poured out and then getting replenished so that the process can continue and expand.

Do you have an encouraging partner that is available for you? If not, please take the time to ask the Lord to open those doors for you. This arrangement can also be an excellent opportunity for marital couples to join together for spiritual growth and for improved communication and strengthening for their marriage.

Today’s culture puts a huge emphasis on independence which results in a lot of people becoming isolated. While women may experience this to some degree, men generally are at much more risk to fall into this trap of isolation. Please pardon us for the using some gender identity labels here. Not really!

Let’s place some time in our schedules to pursue some “encouraging partner” possibilities if we don’t have one, or reach out to our “encouragers” to invite them for on-going contacts.

The most frequent activity of our Savior Yeshua while He was on earth was healing the sick. He even commissioned His disciples to go out and proclaim the the Good News and heal the sick and cast out demons. We also see in the Book of Acts many accounts of healing occurring. But in the 21st  century, where have all the healings gone?

Why are we not seeing more supernatural healing happening today? It is happening and has been happening for quite some time but should be happening much more. There have been many more situations in our private lives that we have not seen healing take place compared to the times that it did. We had one son who was miraculously healed of a serious blood condition, and years later we are still thankful for it.

What’s the key when it comes to seeing the people getting healed by the Lord? The gospels pretty much make the connection to our faith (“your faith has made you whole, according to your faith”, etc.) To answer our initial question, the answer is basically found in the question, where has the church’s faith gone?

Much of the Christian church teaches that divine healing is not even available to us any longer. Faith for healing is not being taught in many churches. Many churches will even ridicule Christians who teach this and practice this belief of praying for the sick to be healed.

The other major reason is that many Christians are not willing to take the risk of praying for someone to be healed. We firmly believe that every Christian has the anointing in them to release the supernatural grace for healing, whether we are talking about dealing with a cold or dealing with cancer.

If more churches would preach about healing and more Christians would would start laying their hands on people suffering from some illness, we would see more healing events.

We must start somewhere and call upon our anointing for healing to do the work of Yeshua in our world now by using our healing hands. Believe that there is healing from Jesus in your hands.

What kind of power has been given to mankind? The Lord granted us great influence and power through the mighty tongue. This power can be used for great evil or great good. The people back in Genesis 11 took it upon themselves to use the collective power of their communication to work together “to make a name for themselves” by building a tower to the sky. The Lord responded by confusing their language which resulted in their work ceasing.

We have seen in man’s recent history how the communication of ideas and directives to wield power and influence for selfish reasons have resulted in the deaths of millions of people. James calls the tongue “a fire, a world of iniquity” in chapter 3 of his book.

Thank the Lord that our tongues were redeemed when we became His sons and daughters, but there is still much discipline we need to exercise over our tongues, our words. We can still use it to curse others or bless them.

James liken the power of our tongues to a horse’s mouth bit which directs that horse and to a ship’s rudder which determines that big ship’s course. The Lord has given us the ability to direct our own lives and the lives of those around us through the use of our words, for evil or for good.

Your harsh words or your words of encouragement impact people’s lives everyday and that is why we must choose  our words wisely. Our words have the most influence over our own lives more than anything else. James is pretty much saying that we set the course for our lives by the words we speak.

An example of this in scripture is found in Joel 3:10, “Let the weak say I am strong…” Use your words to bring forth life and grace and encouragement and shalom. Don’t allow circumstances or discouragement force you and those close to you down a path of destruction.

Use the power of your tongue EVERY DAY to set the right course, a path of life and love and God’s glory.

The believing and speaking connection is the beginning of our resurrected life in Christ. The doors to our salvation in Yeshua are opened with the belief in our hearts that Yeshua is the Son of Yahweh who raised Him from the dead, AND are sealed with our confession, words spoken, that He is our Master and Lord. Romans 10:9

This combination or connection starts the most amazing and supernatural experience of being born into eternal life and adopted into the family of God our Father. This miracle sets us on a course that will bring us to unspeakable joy, heavenly challenges, a holy inheritance, and a destiny ordained before time by our Creator. As we have said before, as Christians we all share the same destiny as glory ambassadors for Christ.

To fulfill our unique destinies as ambassadors, we cannot discard the believing and speaking connection. We must learn to put this connection into frequent and effective use. Paul talks about this in 2Cor. 4:13 – “since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, I believed and therefore I spoke, we also believe and therefore speak…”

The working of our faith calls for us to speak to make decrees according to what the Holy Spirit has shown us or spoke to us prophetically and confirmed in His written Word. Right now we are standing in faith and praying for all our children by calling our “arrows back into our quiver” which were stolen from us. Ps. 127:4 says “Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, so are the children of one’s youth.”

Every day we are all faced with real challenges to our faith in the Word of Yahweh and His promises and we must gain a true expectancy in seeing the truth of His promises becoming real in our lives. We start with a genuine believing and then begin speaking those promises out. This is why we are called God’s co-laborers in 1 Cor 3:9. We have an important part to play.

So, let’s make sure our words are connecting to our faith, our believing in our Most Holy Yah, His Son Yeshua, through the anointing of His Holy Spirit.

Who controls the words that come out of your mouth? Is it the person that just referred to you as an ignorant pile of refuse in the street? Is the person who just told you that they hate you? We control the words coming out of our mouths and Yeshua told us in Matt. 12:36 that we will be held accountable for every idle word we speak.

The word here is idle, not idol, and basically means unproductive or unprofitable. This means spoken words that are not building up or not encouraging or not inspiring. We need to start taking this warning seriously and do something about it.

We have been given the ability or anointing to create good things with our mouths and we dare to spout useless and vulgar words when we get upset or discouraged or in response to some hardship or obstacle?

Let’s look at this from a positive, what-can-I-do perspective and not so much a what I should’t do view. Start finding ways and words that build up the people around you, family, friends, co-workers. Ask the Holy Spirit to show you how these people need to be encouraged or nurtured or comforted.

This will likely take time and effort and commitment to get our mouths reconditioned to “fruitfulness” and staying away from idleness, but ignoring this wisdom from Yeshua will greatly hinder our growth as His Glory ambassadors.

In staying with a recent theme, what’s in your mouth?

This sounds like a pretty easy decision to make when it comes to choosing death or life. Who in their right mind would choose death over life? Yet the Lord wanted to make sure things were very clear that we need to see things from a life or death perspective. He also wanted to make sure that we knew we had a choice. Moses instructed the people to choose life in Deut 31.

So exactly how do we choose life?  The quick and simple answer is that we do it with our minds – we make a decision. That is absolutely true, but it doesn’t stop there. In fact we have only just begun the process of experiencing life and blessing when we make a decision.

The next step is where the men or ladies are separated from the boys and girls. We see this next step in Proverbs 18:21 – “Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.” The point here is that we can make a mental decision for life but the real force of the matter is how we speak.

The biggest lie we have ever heard is that sticks and stones can break some bones but words can’t cause any hurt. Lie, lie, lie. We can decide to help someone or take the time to teach someone, but if our words are harsh, cutting, or over-critical of this person, we have just undermined with dynamite what we originally set out to do.

This also applies to the words we speak over ourselves. We choose life or death with the words we speak over our dreams, our performances, our motivations, our health, our relationships, our emotions, and our destinies. We are missing out on a huge tool or key to our successes if we fail to realize this.

We cannot over-emphasize the importance of our words when it comes to enjoying success and being able to advance in the things the Lord has called us to and in or marriages, our children, and our lives.

Please do not pass over this encouragement given in Proverbs, for your words will indeed indicate the type of “fruit” you will be eating, fresh and tasty, or rotten and bitter.

My wife and I just finished enjoying some fresh figs and they were amazing. It had been years since enjoying these tasty jewels and were not not disappointed. Food is for our enjoyment but we have thrown caution tot he wind in our food choices. This leads us to ask, “What’s in your stomach?”

It makes a huge deal what we are consuming in our over-all health, our energy levels, and in our susceptibility to illnesses. We do strongly believe that the Lord has provided us with the gift of wholeness and health, but we should be cooperating with Him by taking a look at our food selections.

We live in an age where processed and artificial foods reign and you may even get some raised eyebrows and jokes about eating organic foods or eating spring mix. We excitedly suggest that some thought needs to be put towards the quality of food products in our homes and consequently in our stomachs.

Your bodies’ cells regenerate at different rates but they pull the nutrients from what you digest to make new cells. Your skin completely regenerates itself approximately every month. Your blood cells get renewed every 4 months. Some studies say that your body generates a new complete system every 7- 10 years. There are some cells that stay with us most of our lives like our brain cells and heart cells.

The point is that the decisions we make daily of what we eat will have an impact on the quality of our lives, for better or for worse. There is so much for us to accomplish in this life for the Lord and we don’t want to be laid out fighting off illnesses when we can be getting more amazing things done for the kingdom.

Next time that twinkie comes calling your name, stop for a moment and think about those poor cells that had little to work with when the time came for them to be replaced. All joking aside, everyone can easily add a fruit here and a carrot there and a leafy green here and an apple there.