The Cave, the Stronghold, and the Forest-Part V ( A Series by brother Joel)

(Continues from the last time)
Does the fear to fail hold us captive in our strongholds and are so afraid to venture out? This kind of fear may seem very reasonable and logical but it is lethal. You see, in Psalms it says that even though a righteous falls six times, he or she raises seven times.It is human to fail. That means it doesn't matter if a possibility of a failure is a part of the move we feel in our spirits compelled to make. If we never failed then we cease to be flesh and blood. Who knows you are going to succeed at the first move or not?! Many others have and so are those who failed. It is a known fact that many things that we enjoy their usefulness in today's world resulted from people who succeeded to invent them after multiple failures; some after 100 attempts, others after two attempts. What if the person who succeeded at the 100th attempt had quit at the 99th failure? We wouldn't have automobiles today! Telephones as well! I understand , we, Pentecostals, paint failing at something as a weakness but that is not Scriptural. We have given the enemy a tool to use against us.( I wish i had much time to get into details regarding this topic at this moment ; i pray i will some day be able to). What i have learned from many 'failures' i have experienced is that, i was never the same after the experience. I was a better person not because of my failure but rather my courage to do what i attempted to accomplish. There are no promises that a child of God will never fail at something but there are many promises that God will be with those who obey Him. This planet of full of people who have great ideas and opinions as to how things should be done but never made an attempt to act on them. God help us not to be in that lot!
God never fails but we do fail and He is well aware of that. We are so proud and try so hard to be sub-humans whom we're not.It is encouraged to walk, talk and think like people who are perfect but down deep inside we know we are not.It is all a facade! The New Testament never intended to imply that 'we should be PERFECT as our Father in heaven is' but rather 'we should walk in maturity as Christ did'. I will never forget an old man who has been used by God to heal many people, he said he has no recollection at what point people started to get healed after he prayed for them. He believes it must be after he prayed for more than 100 people and none of them experienced any healing. He kept obeying the word of God in Mk. 16.Thank God he did not give up! One time i was invited to preach in a certain small church and in after much preparation to my disappointment the service was canceled after my arrival at the church. I was really discouraged; not in anyone, but my self. I asked God what is wrong with me that i was completely clueless that i was not going to preach that day.I told myself if i was spiritual enough i should have discerned in spirit and would have known ahead of time that it was going to be canceled. I felt like a failure.However, one day it down on me that i am a spiritual being who is still housed in this house made of flesh and blood. I am not Mr. Omniscient. I am limited and feeble.I am not all-knowing. God is though and that is enough. I can trust Him. Time will come that we will be freed from this body but while still in this world we are limited and failure at some times is an avoidable. There is no need to stay in the stronghold because of fear to fail.We must learn quick from our failures and forget them. This is the only 'good amnesia'.
To be continued next week...

Thus says the Lord...for real?-From the Teaching Ministry of Bro. Timothy Kyara, in UK

“…Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world…” © 1 John 4:1, NIV, italics and emphasis mine

An 1872 experiment by Heinzmann (later corroborated in 1875 by Fratscher) demonstrated that when a normal frog is placed in a cold water and temperature suddenly raised, the frog would leap out. But when the water is very gradually raised the frog would not attempt to escape. One source from 1897 says, "…when water temperature was raised at a rate of 0.002°C/s, the frog was found dead at the end of 2½ hours without having moved” (Sedgwick, William, July, 1888)

It is said the most dangerous kind of false teaching (or heresy) is that which comes from your trusted everyday spiritual leaders, gradually moving away from the truth…the reason is simple, you don’t see it coming as it comes from the spiritual authority you have learnt to trust, and it comes so gradual you don’t realize, question or doubt until it is too little too late. My point is, no matter who speaks to your life, learn to measure it against the word and the Holy Spirit inside you.

JUWAKWATA REVIVAL MISSIONS ( jrmissions.com)

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The Cave, the Stronghold, and the Forest-Part IV ( A Series by brother Joel)

Unless the Lord builds the house,
its builders labor in vain.
Unless the Lord watches over the city,
the watchmen stand guard in vain.
In vain you rise early
and stay up late,
toiling for food to eat-
for He grants sleep to those He loves.
The Psalm 127:1,2(N.I.V).

(....continues from last week - The Stronghold)
Since then, we never saw the gang do that any more. I wonder if they were still hanging around the same place they used to some of them could have been killed together with the guy who was gunned down. Only God knows!!
But for me, i am left with a bitter -sweet feeling. The reason is, after the incident with those kids my anger was replaced with compassion. Those kids seemed to be wondering around just like sheep without a shepherd. It is very possible most of their parents are busy chasing after the dollar while they are left clueless of what their kids are doing in their absence. No adult is willing to step out and give them direction in life. The youth are wolverine and taken by every wind. They don't know how to live,thus, are manner-less, devoid of understanding, no regard to human life. They can kill without hesitation. It really moved me and i and my wife begun to pray for them. We still do today.
However, God prompted my heart to go out there and share with them the Gospel. I kept procrastinate until the murder happened. I am left wondering if i did obey the Holy Spirit if this guy could have been still alive today?! His picture still burns so strongly in my heart. I am intending to make u to it next year when winter ends and the kids frequent the outside.
But why didn't obey? Because i didn't want my step out of my place of safety. My stronghold. David didn't want to leave his stronghold.It took God to send a prophet to go and rebuke David to leave the place ( V.5).
Are we so satisfied with what we have and where we are at in such a way we don't hear God's voice for us to make a change? Are we afraid of the known so we would rather stay where we are and do what we do than obeying God? My friend as we read above anything we put our trust in besides God and His word is prone to fail us. It may not seem so at the moment but trust me time will come that we will. What is it that we need to change but are scared. Does His Holy Spirit prompt your heart to go to mission field and serve him full time but are worried about provision? Is it new business but we intimidated by the unfamiliarity? Or is He telling you to speak with someone about Jesus but are worried how he or she will respond? Are we afraid of giving to God's work or according to His leading because our savings provide us the security we need? We doubt God as the result!! We don't want to leave our stronghold!
.....to be continued next week