I was listening to an audio sermon from Andrew Womack yesterday and I’ve decided to create a blog series based on his sermon titled “How to Deal With Temptation”.

In the first segment (relative to his teaching), I will be discussing how we can overcome temptation by “preparing our heart”. It is the first thing we must do, if we are going to have victory over the devil. Mr. Womack says, “you can get your heart so fixed on God that you wont do evil.” I agree with him, and I believe it is possible to never sin if our hearts are prepared and we are seeking God at all times. After all, sin occurs when we are not in the Presence of God. It happens when we start chasing after our own desires, and ignoring the convictions that the Holy Spirit has placed upon us.

Think back to a moment when you have been in the Presence of God. You are alone with Him, and you are praising and worshipping Him. Can you really imagine doing something evil in that moment?

We don’t have to sin, we choose to sin.

You might say to me, “only Jesus is perfect, and we are all going to sin.” I would answer as Mr. Womack has answered, “don’t judge me according to your standards.” If you’re convinced that inevitably you are going to slip and fall everyday, then you probably will. You’re heart is not prepared.

So how and when do we prepare our heart? First off, it needs to be done before temptation comes along. Mr. Womack says, “it’s impossible to make a U-turn when you are going 1000 miles per hour.” If you are running that fast after God, when temptation comes, it’s not going to trip you up. Conversely, if you are moving slowly in your walk when temptation comes, it won’t be that hard to turn away from God and go in the other direction.

We can prepare our hearts by spending more time with the Lord. By seeking Him every day and including Him in all that we do. You can also prepare yourself for any temptations by forming a battle plan. This has to be done before the battle! Jesus prepared 30 years before He went into the desert to be tempted.

One problem that has caused Christians to stumble, is that they are dancing a little too close to the line of righteousness and sin. We watch television shows with sexual images in them, and expect those images to be forgotten. We condone lying when it is “absolutely necessary”, and forget that it is an abomination to the Lord. Christians are always seeing how far they can go, and how much they can enjoy the world as those who are of the world do, and then they are shocked when they fall into sin.

Maybe if we start concerning ourselves with how to be righteous, we can actually start being righteous. What a concept?

I find when witnessing to unbelievers that they all have a lot of the same arguments. Some of them have valid questions that deserve answers, and most of the answers can be provided by using the Word of God. Yesterday, I heard an objection that almost made me laugh.

Can you imagine him on the day of Judgement?

Ooops. Maybe we shouldn’t sweat the small stuff…especially when our eternity is at stake.

In Romans 2:4, we are told that it is God’s kindness that leads us to repentance. Does that mean that God is not being kind to those who don’t repent? Absolutely not!

From this verse, you can see that it is our stubbornness and our own unrepentant heart that keeps us from repenting. A friend of a friend was recently struggling with smoking. He would cry out before God to remove his habit, and each time he’d end up smoking. Finally, God revealed his attitude about it. He realized that whenever he cried out to God and “thought” he was being repentant, he was really thinking in his mind, “I’m gonna smoke next time.” That day he made a strong decision not to smoke, and he hasn’t smoked ever since. Stubbornness is a lack of yielding to God, and it comes from a heart that doesn’t want to change. It is true that God leads us to repentance, but we have to decide whether or not we are actually going to change.

If we go on to Romans 2:8, Paul says, “but for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger.”‘ Basically, when you are chasing your own will, instead of God’s, your heart will begin to harden. When one is focused on their own agenda, and they are following evil, it is unlikely that they are going to repent any time soon. Like I said, it’s a choice that you have to make. Are you doing something wrong? Have you been convicted? Then it is up to you to stop doing it!

Another obstacle that keeps people from repenting is not knowing what repentance is or isn’t. As I’ve discussed in the article prior to this one, repentance isn’t feeling bad about what you’ve done. Unfortunately, there are many in the Body of Christ that don’t understand this. They think repentance is something else when it is really just a decision that we can make because of the Lord’s kindness. If there isn’t a foundation of repentance in the church, then we basically have a church full of people doing whatever they want, and constantly feeling guilty about their wickedness. Sadly, this is actually the way a lot of churches are behaving in these last days.

Repentance is the first step that we take before we are saved, but it doesn’t end with our salvation. We all have areas where we have not yielded to the Lord. This may be one reason why we are told in 2 Corinthians 13:5 to “examine ourselves to see if we are in the faith.”

Do you think that when the devil comes to tempt you, that he is going to show up in a red leotard with horns made out of a headband and a plastic pitchfork proclaiming, “I’m the dark lord who has come to steal your soul.”

Laugh all you want, but there are many who think they are doing all the right things because the devil hasn’t told them that they are doing anything wrong.

Don’t wait around for him, he isn’t going to tell you anything! Instead, acquaint yourself with the Word of God that holds all the Truth that we need.

A friend came to me today, and said that she was researching the Holy Spirit, and she was excited about one of the things that she found. As she began to read, the Holy Spirit started grabbing my attention. She was saying things like, “everyone is born with the Holy Spirit, God created the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit is the bridge to God”, all of which are false statements. I’ll let you search the scriptures to get the Truth about the Holy Spirit, but I’d like to call attention to the website that is spreading these lies.

It’s a nice little place on the web called, The Voice for Love. While there, you can learn things like:

1. Meditation for beginners
2. 40 tips for hearing God
3. Your true nature and Oneness with God

AND MORE!

Check out some of the reviews:

Rev. Susan, isn’t the best book on “how to be in communication with God”, the Bible?

And if you still can’t hear the Holy Spirit screaming, “this is false!”, then check out their “Inspirational Christian Prayers”.

I have sent them an e-mail, not condemning them (although that’s probably what they will hear), but sharing with them the Truth according to God’s Word. Pray that the Holy Spirit will convict them, and that the demon that they have been listening to for the last 14 years would finally shut up.

In his last post, Sidharth did an excellent job of defining the simple definition of the word “repentance”. He also pointed out that, “repentance is the first and foremost response the Gospel of the Kingdom demands from an individual.” It is no surprise that this foundational requirement has been dramatically distorted in these last days. Many have confused remorse with repentance, and they have deceived themselves into thinking that just because they feel bad about what they have done; they have fulfilled God’s will.

According to dictionary.com the definition of remorse is this:

1. Deep and painful regret for wrongdoing; compunction.

There is nothing in this definition that would imply there was a change of direction in one’s life. While repentance may happen as a result of remorse; remorse alone is not the fulfillment of God’s command. Also, the need to repent is not dependent on feelings of remorse. You don’t have to wait for things like regret and guilt to change your life’s direction! By aligning your life with the Word of God, you will be in His will.

I remember an instance where I was reading the Bible and I came across a scripture that had to do with gossiping. I had been guilty of this sin, but I never felt bad about it. While reading, I recalled some scenarios where I had been gossiping, and I realized that it was time to make a change. It had nothing to do with my feelings, but rather my willingness to be obedient to the Word of God.

Remorse doesn’t guarantee repentance. This is clear in the case of Esau:

The Amplified Bible clarifies it more:

As you may remember, Esau had given up his birthright for a single meal. Afterwards he deeply regretted his mistake, but all the remorse in the world couldn’t change what he had already done!

I recall another night when I experienced true repentance. In this night, I had been burdened with the credit card debt that I had incurred. There were times before this night that I regretted my careless spending, but this time something was different. God had shown me a few scriptures that outlined how I was to be a good steward of the money that He had blessed me with. After seeing His Word and knowing that I had disobeyed Him, I didn’t just regret what I had done, but I knew that I had to change from that night on. To not change, would be outright disobedience!

It is important to take note of how it was God who led me to this repentance. It wasn’t something that I could find on my own because my guilt was selfish. I needed to be shown that my actions were offending Someone much higher than me!

In Romans 2:4 we are told that it is God’s kindness that leads us to repentance. In my next post, I will be discussing what keeps people from truly repenting, and why this error has formed a Church that is sick and dying.

From Wikipedia:

I love the last sentence. It warms my heart to know that whatever progress the devil thinks he is making, God is still ahead of him. Notice that the Bible sales didn’t increase simply by 100%, but rather above and beyond!

That’s the kind of God we serve!

I recently had an amazing night with the Lord. Lisa (my prayer buddy) came over and after dinner we got into prayer (what we do best). She had received a few words of knowledge for me, and when she was done she asked God if He could give me a few words of knowledge for her.

We were still for a few minutes and all of a sudden I got this image of her pulling a turnip out of her garden. She doesn’t even have a garden yet, but 2 months ago I had a word of knowledge that she was going to be moving, and that she was going to have a garden. I didn’t know at the time that this was a desire of her heart. Believe it or not, at the end of the month she is going to be moving into a house…with room in the yard for a garden!

Now, when I got this image of a turnip, I was a little disgusted. I have never been a fan of this unusual root. To be honest, I have never really known anyone who did enjoy turnips. I thought for a second in my flesh, “maybe I should say something like potato. Everyone likes potatoes.” That’s not what I heard in my spirit though. I began saying, “eww gross!” Lisa asked me what was wrong, and I told her my vision.

She started jumping up and down with joy and proclaiming her love for turnips. Apparently, her mother had made them every year for Thanksgiving and Christmas when she was little, and she always liked them. She was so excited, and we both knew that the Lord was with us. It was such an amazing moment, and from something so simple!

So why does God do things like this? I believe it’s to show us that He really does know everything about us and that He cares what is happening in our lives. Many times when I have received a word of knowledge from someone, it has been something personal and something that no one else would know to say except God.

After these moments, faith is greatly increased because we are able to come to the realization that God is with us. He isn’t floating around somewhere millions of light years away. He is a personal God!

Months after I had originally said this new layout would arrive, but it is finally here! I almost gave up on it after a coding problem, but I found the solution!

I’m excited that I finally have a fresh new blog. I have done away with some features that were in the previous layout (e.g. Twitter), but I’m content with the simplicity of this layout. I will be doing some minor modifications over the next few weeks, but I figured I better just get this thing up already!

I hope you enjoy it!