This was something I found in one of my old, old journals. I couldn’t begin to tell you what was going through my mind at the time of writing it, but it got me thinking about something: the war between our flesh and our spirit.

We are constantly torn between the two. However, just like this worm we sometimes think that we can live a life that shares equal time with our flesh and spirit. We want to please God, but we want to gratify ourself as well.

The truth is, we aren’t worms. We can’t split ourself in half and go down two paths. Even though the worm survived the splitting, one half of his body still would have died when he got to the sewage pipe. The same will happen with us, and a part of us is heading for death.

Jesus is life though. He has given us eternal life by paying for our punishment of death with His death. Abide in Him and you will surely live forever!

Recently, my mom was having some problems with a friend. There was much strife between the two, and it had led to a week long silent treatment. My mother was hurt, but was also acting stubborn, as many of us do when there are quarrels among us. As each day went by the grief would grow stronger. She was also battling a headache that seemed to make things worse. I prayed for a solution and I felt the Lord say that she needed to have complete forgiveness for the friend. I told her to let go of all negative feelings, and to act in a way that Jesus would act.

Sometimes we can’t forgive someone, because we simply don’t feel like doing it. God knows that, but He also knows the importance of forgiveness (as He has demonstrated through Jesus Christ), and He knows the affect that it has on His children.

In 2 Corinthians 2:10-11 Paul says, “If you forgive anyone anything, I too forgive that one; and what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything,, has been for your sakes in the presence (and with the approval) of Christ. To keep Satan from getting the advantage over us: for we are not ignorant of his wiles and intentions.”

Unforgiveness gives the enemy permission to invade our lives, and he is more than willing to take advantage of that permission. It is for this reason that we must be in obedience to God when He says that we are to forgive.

I told my mom, “you might not feel like doing it, but you can tell God that you are forgiving your friend as an act of obedience.” Be honest with God and tell Him, “I don’t feel it Lord, but I’m doing it because You want me to.”

She said, “I just don’t know if I can do that.” Later on in the evening, she called me back and said, “well I listened to what you told me, and I did what you said to do.” After that they had joined together again in friendship, and the headache that tormented my mom had vanished.

Hahaha…this is just a silly little video I did tonight!

The Canaanite woman walked right up to Him. She was an outsider, but she was desperate. Her daughter was possessed by a demon, and she knew Jesus could set her free. She begged Him, but His reply was not what was expected, “it is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.”

She said, “yes Lord, but even the little pups eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.” Then He saw how great her faith was, and He set the girl free!

Deliverance is not for outsiders or unbelievers, it is for the children of God. Actually, it is what the children of God should be feeding on. Notice how Jesus refers to it as bread? Yet, there are many Christians that deny the importance of deliverance, and refuse to believe that they could benefit from it. A big part of my walk with the Lord has been deliverance and healing. I had a lot of demons when I came to the Lord. I have submitted to many deliverances, and I have been set free from a lot. The first step is submitting.

You must recognize that there are things that are in your personality (that God did NOT create) that are against His will for your life. Demons don’t possess our spirit (that is sealed by God), but they are free to affect our mind, will, and emotions. Did you wake up angry today? That’s alright, maybe you are just stressed, and you are letting your flesh get the best of you. Have you been angry for a few days, weeks, or months? You might have a spirit of anger!

Why not trust that the same Lord who cast demons out over 2,000 years ago, can do it today. In fact, He has commissioned Christians everywhere to continue on with His ministry. That’s right, He has given US the right to command these things to leave, in His name.

That’s a gift you can’t afford to ignore!

If someone grabbed a bag of flour and said, “I’m going to sprinkle this white powder all over your food, and you are going to fall asleep for a long time”, you’d probably think they were foolish. If someone said, “This is anthrax that I’m sprinkling on your food, and you are going to fall asleep for a long time”, you’d run out of the house as soon as possible in fear. The difference is obvious: anthrax is a threat, and flour is not.

When the devil encounters Christians that are not walking in the promises of God, he probably thinks they are foolish, and he would be right. Many Christians are powerless. Jesus told the disciples to wait and they would “receive power” when the Holy Spirit came upon them. Jesus was talking about the promise of the Holy Spirit that was made for all believers.

The Holy Spirit brings POWER. He convicts the soul, and draws us closer to the Father. A Christian who is walking in the Spirit, and living by the Spirit, is a dangerous Christian. Dangerous to the devil, and to his world.

So the next time you do something right, and you are attacked, don’t be discouraged. Rejoice when you do the will of the Father! Be glad that it makes the devil angry! His time is short, and he knows it!

It has been exactly one year since awesomepurpose.com had its first post. Wow! I had hoped to premiere a new layout in time for this special anniversary, but I had some trouble with the coding at the last minute. Moving on…

When I started this website, I had no idea what to expect. I felt led to do it, and I obeyed, and the Lord has blessed me tremendously with this blog. Not only have I been able to share the amazing works of the Lord that I have been witness to, but I have also had the chance to be apart of many discussions between Christians (some I’d like to forget), and I’ve learned a lot from my fellow bloggers.

The greatest reward that any writer could ask for is to know that their writing has somehow touched the lives of the readers. In some small way, I think I have done that!

So what has happened in the past year?

June 12, 2007 - The first layout is premiered, and it was also my first time designing a page using CSS. The original layout was pretty simple, and I quickly grew tired of it.

August 7, 2007 - Version 2.0 is released and the feedback is wonderful! The blog looks much more professional with its new catchy design! Also, I moved from blogger.com to wordpress.com for more functionality. It was a challenge learning the new codes, but it was worth it!

September 11, 2007 - I went public with my deliverance from homosexuality with the article titled, “Coming Out Straight“.

November 8, 2007 - Version 3.0 is released, but is really only a slightly modified Version 2.0.

December 7, 2007 - I discover sitemeter.com, a wonderful little tool that shows me exactly who is coming to my site, among other useful details. Unfortunately, traffic before this was not recorded. Since the day I started using this service I have had 6,876 unique visitors with an average of 27 per day.

January 6, 2008 - I surprised everyone with the beautiful Version 4.0 Wood. It’s quickly named my “favorite layout ever.” I also included Twitter as a side feature for the new look.

February 5, 2008 - I received my first blog award!

Since the beginning of my blog I have had 127 posts, and 370 comments (not including the ones that have been deleted). Not overly impressive, but not bad either for my first year!

Anyway, thanks to everyone who still reads this thing, and to the new comers…I hope you enjoy what you are getting yourself into!

Last week my passion was reawakened for the church.

It started with my Pastor’s message titled, A Wake Up Call. It was probably one of the best sermons that I have ever heard; not only because of it’s relevance to the modern church, but also because of the questions that were previously in my heart.

I was really feeling like I needed to be apart of the church. I had stopped going for awhile because of conflicts with my schedule and also partly because I was irritated with a few things there. However, the Holy Spirit continued to convict me that being on my own as a Christian was not safe. This was confirmed with the Pastor’s sermon. At one point he mentioned that God told him the church was filled with apathy. He drew a diagram illustrating that there are a few “on-fire” Christians in the middle, and a ring of “seekers” on the outside. In the middle, are hundreds of everyday people that are just filling the seats, but aren’t really walking the walk. Believe me, it was an intense sermon, and the conviction was so heavy in the room you could almost see it weighing people down. However, it was necessary. As a pastor, it is his job to protect his flock, and that is just what he did. I respect that, especially with all the “feel good” preachers that are out there now. The world could use a few more leaders who aren’t afraid to stand up for Truth, no matter how much it hurts.

Now, my problem isn’t with my walk outside of church. I’m doing pretty good with that. My problem is within the church. I’ve just never connected with people there. Pretty sad, huh?

Anyway, I realized that I was there to hear that message for a reason, and to not act on the message that I was receiving would have been disobeying the Holy Spirit. So, I have to get more involved with the church. I am NOT a social person. It’s not that I can’t be, but I have always chosen not to be. That has actually worked rather well for me in the past, but now God is saying something different. He’s saying, “that isn’t going to work anymore. You’re going to start playing by My rules now, and you need to have more fellowship with your fellow brothers and sisters.”

In other words, it’s time to “play nice”. Great, not exactly something I’m use to!

I’ve had the desire in my heart to have more friends my age. Actually, to have one friend my age would be nice. All my friends are older than me, and don’t get me wrong; I love them all. In the past, I was perfectly content having older friends, but something is crying out in me to get involved with people in my age group.

Coincidentally (yeah right), my church just started a young adult ministry (ages 18-24). It’s called Transit, and we are meeting for the first time on Tuesday. I can’t believe I’m going to go to something like this, but I’m trusting God on this one.

Who knows, maybe I’ll meet the girl of my dreams there? Oh, wow…I hope I’m not wrong for thinking like that!