God Thinking LIII - Getting Beyond Your Self 1

"In prayer you have got to get beyond your self:

Beyond your needs and desires

Until you do, you will not hear from God.

• you will not get the answers to your questions.
• You will not understand your purpose for being.
• You will not understand God’s blueprint for your life.
• You will not receive the plan and you will not receive the provision for fulfillment of that plan, until you get beyond yourself. 

I’m not saying that you should not ask God for things or to not ask God for your needs to be met.  The scriptures are clear - you are encouraged to ask for your needs to be met and for your desires to be fulfilled, but, hear what the writer of Psalm 42 says.

Psalms 42:1-2

1.  As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God.

 2.  My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God:

 

And the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 2:9-10, 9.  But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.

 10.  But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.

 

In prayer you have got to get beyond your self: And when you do, you come to the place where you can commune with God.  

 

You go to God in prayer.  You ask forgiveness for your sins and indiscretions - you confess your sins - you repent of your sins - then:

You seek Him for your needs.
Now that you have settled in and had your needs met;
You pray for others.
Then, you thank God for Who He is.
You praise Him for His magnificence.

Now where most of us stop praying, because, after all we have been praying for five minutes - Where most people stop praying and start doing their housework or pick up the kids or make dinner or go back to work or go to bed - For all the Martha’s out there and all the workaholics - For all of those who forget what they prayed for before they even finish praying - I want to talk to you about a place where your dialogue with God is:

Unencumbered by any remembrance of your sin.
Unencumbered by who you once were.
Unencumbered by where you’ve been or what you have done. 
Unencumbered by your past.
Unencumbered by your idiosyncrasies.
Unencumbered by you routine.

To commune with God you have to get past that place where prayer is all about you.

A place where God speaks and you listen. 
A place where dinner or your favorite TV show does not  decide when you break off your communication with the Holy One.

 

Prayer with God was never meant to be something that you do in passing or out of duty, but worse yet is to treat prayer like a smorgasbord, and God is the server and you go to Him begging for this or that and even worse yet, demanding that God do this or that.

 

Note: I hear some of that teaching on TV and big box ministries and it makes me sick.  A right relationship with God is based on the truth of scriptures being unlocked in your heart by the indwelling Holy Spirit.  You don't need to be titillated by rich and powerful carrot danglers, you need to be instructed in righteousness by God. Nothing else will do.  Think about it, after chasing the carrot for twenty or thirty years, what are the results of your actions/reactions to that kind of teaching?

 

Excerpt from God Thinking LII - Getting Beyond Your Self by Keith C. Powell Copyright 2014

 

 

 

 

 

    








   

God Thinking LII - Fruitless 9

"  16.  Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, (Before I go any further, we all must condescend to understand that not one who has ever come to Christ has come on their own.  They were invited by the Father to come unot the Son.  It is pride that makes us feel like somehow we were deserving of God’s call to receive His grace. 

John 14:6, “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”

 

16.  Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, (Again, I want to comment on how important it is that we see and understand the Word.  God chose us and ordains us to bring forth fruit.  This verse could be read like this: “Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, (placed within you, committed to your existence, purposed in you, settled in your heart, caused you to be fully:  prepared, able, informed, supplied, inspired, motivated and ready) that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.

In these verses is discourse from God to us about His purpose in bringing us into the vine in the first place.  It’s all about bearing fruit.  And we should be about bearing fruit.  

Does Christ bring forth the fruit?  No, that is the job of the branch and there will be no fruit borne without the branch.  

If we had any idea of how much God relies on His Children to do His work, we would get serious with God and bear fruit.

Is the Word of God clear - that God is calling us to bring forth fruit, more fruit and much fruit and also fruit that remains.

Do you know what the fruit is?  The souls of men, women, teens and children.

How do you feel about being given a commission to go forth and bring forth fruit?
 

Excerpt from God Thinking LII - Fruitless by Keith C. Powell Copyright 2014

 

God Thinking LII - Fruitless 8

"God wants you to know that by your fruits you are known.  Matthew 7:16, Matthew 12:33, Matthew 13:23, James 3:17.

 9.  As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love.

 0.  If ye keep My commandments, ye shall abide in My love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in His love.

11.  These things have I spoken unto you, that My joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.
12.  This is My commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.
13.  Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
14.  Ye are My friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.

I can understand the unbelieving world to have a real problem with this statement, but Christians claim to have trouble with it.  Who do we think we are, the clay saying to the potter, “Why hast thou made me thus?”  

Romans 9:20,  15.  Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.”

There is a group of people that are spiritually minded, and a group of Christians that are spiritually minded that think they need some type of extra-biblical experience to be really spiritual - and yet Jesus Himself only operated within the realm of God’s spoken Word.  And furthermore Jesus has made known to us every bit of knowledge and wisdom that was revealed to Him.  “for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.”

God designed you to be a branch that bears fruit, more fruit, much fruit.  God is the husbandman, the vinedresser and Jesus is the vine.  And you have at our finger tips every Word that Jesus had.  Everything that God spoke to Jesus, Jesus spoke to you, and you need to see the Word of God for what it is.

 

Excerpt from God Thinking LII - Fruitless by Keith C. Powell Copyright 2014

God Thinking LII - Fruitless 7

"I have lent myself and my will to God with the understanding that it is possible, that I might have to change the plans I made previously, in the flesh.

 

In all this, I testify to you that I have nothing, know nothing, understand nothing - I have no insight, inspiration, peace or rest - that is not provided for each and every believer and it is provided in God’s written Word.                                                  

 

Now let's here from God: 

“1.  I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.

 2.  Every branch in me that beareth not fruit He (The Father) taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, He purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.

 3.  Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.

 4.  Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in Me.

 5.  I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without Me ye can do nothing.

 6.  If a man abide not in Me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.  (A branch without a tree is just firewood.

 7.  If ye abide in Me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.

 8.  Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be My disciples. 

 

(Have you ever noticed that when God wants to get something across to you, He makes it perfectly clear, so there will be no doubt (due to lack of persistence or reasoning on God’s part). 

 

God does not want His people in the dark, God wants you in the light, and that is why in these passages, God emphasizes the importance of the believer bearing fruit. 

Excerpt from God Thinking LII - Fruitless by Keith C. Powell Copyright 2014

God Thinking LII - Fruitless 6

"You will have to abide in Christ to bear fruit and it’s all about bearing fruit.     

 

Let’s read the Word again, but before I do, let me share something with you first. 

When I read the Word of God, I believe what God says.  I may not have full revelation, but I believe what I read, when I read the Word of God. 

 

Every time I read the Word, God changes me. 

• He makes me feel good and He reveals me as I am. 
• He reveals who I am when I am in the flesh and He reveals who I am when I trust in the blood of Christ for my propitiation. 
• He lifts me up and God prunes me.
• God encourages me and enlightens me and empowers me.
• There’s times when I read the Word that I could walk on water and there’s times when God says to me, “you vain and little man”.
• God’s Word proves me and improves me, changes me and reveals me.
• It is by His Word that I can even know who I should be, why I should be it, when I should get on to it, where I should do it and how to do it.
• It is the Word of God that makes me and sometimes breaks me, because I have stopped trying to get out of it what is convenient for me and I have chosen rather to make it my gospel.  

I believe it, trust it, rely on it, align myself with it, have faith in it, and there is not one word in it that I would even consider changing, because I have come to believe it is the living Word of God.

 

I know that in the pursuit of knowing God, I will be revealed. 

I have learned to accept God’s chastisement, God’s pruning, God’s purging, God’s cleansing, God’s eliminating, God’s eradicating and God’s liquidating.  

I fully accept the outcome of pursuing a deeper and holier life, knowing that in that pursuit, the pathway is not paved with gold and fleece only, but that God may allow me to go through some things that I find no particular personal inclination to, nor do I find pleasure in, nor would I choose it. 

I understand, believe and teach, that God’s grace is sufficient.

Excerpt from God Thinking LII - Fruitless - by Keith C. Powell Copyright 2014

God Thinking LII - Fruitless 5

• "satan is the one who has said the Word of God is complex complicated and cumbersome
• satan is the one who has said that you cannot live out what God says you can live out.
• satan is the one who plants seeds of doubt every time you and I are about to get our breakthrough.
• satan is the one who causes us to be double-minded and teeter totter back and forth from belief to unbelief.
• satan is the one who says you cannot do what God says.
• satan is the one who says you cannot be who God says you can.
• satan is the one who has duped the pastors and priests to teach and preach less than the powerful and always flawless, inspired, infallible Word of God.
• satan is the one, who, every time you start to believe something that God has said, tells you to check it out with the unbelieving world or other religious philosophies before  relying on its content.

It’s no wonder that this world is in such disrepair, even believers don’t believe. 

God is not going to change His mind, write a new book, alter His creation, bend the rules, break His Word, take back what He has said, send someone else, abide by popular consensus or consider alternate plans.  So it's time to quit trying to skirt around God's perfect way and get with God's plan.

Excerpt from God Thinking LII - Fruitless - by Keith C. Powell Copyright 2014

 

 

God Thinking LII - Fruitless 4

"Everything that God created, He has designed and engaged/retained/reserved for service to you so that you could have the fullness of God’s provisions and bear fruit.

What is it with Christians today?  So many want everything God has to offer them - they want to drown in God’s provisions.  They want to:

• hoard it, hide it
• use it to elevate themselves
• be one up on each other

But, the thought of having it so they can bear fruit (give it away) hasn’t become an active part of their plan.

It is an active part of God’s plan. As a matter of fact, God thinks that bearing fruit is the plan.
Let’s read it.
John 15:1-16, “1.  I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.
 2.  Every branch (take a good look at this word branch, because this branch is you and me) and (If the branch is not, in Christ, it is not expexted to bear fruit) in me that beareth not fruit He (The Father) taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, He purgeth it, (cleanse it, prune it) that it may bring forth more fruit."

You are not reading some fairy tale where the story writer is using metaphors in hope of entertaining you.  You are not reading someone’s fiction novel where you are moved by the plot, but at the same time you know that it isn’t real, so whatever is happening in the story isn’t going to happen in your life.

These are not words to consider, as if what God says should first be considered for possible ingestion.

These are not hollow words that might provide some insight to those who have found religion.

 

When God speaks to you, what God is saying, is what must be said.

When God tells you how it is, it is not so that you can see, if how it is, is how you want it to be.  God tells you how it is so you can know with utter certainty, how it is.

 

When God reveals the truth concerning the matter, it’s not so that you can calculate the cost to determine whether what God has said is worthy of your attention at this time.

 

God designed you to get it. 

God designed you to receive what He is revealing. 

God designed His Word so that when you read it, you are inspired to move on its every premise."

Excerpt from God Thinking LII - Fruitless - by Keith C. Powell Copyright 2014