God Thinking XCVII - Crossroads 8

"Another way your enemy wins converts is to convince them that to make a decision to follow after God means turning to a religious zombie or that you have to become mindless and follow after a set of rules like a lemming.  Again, nothing could be further from the truth.

Another way your enemy wins converts is to convince them that to make a decision to follow after God, means losing their freedom. 

The enemy convinces the decision maker that: 

• God is a tyrant
• That if they choose God’s way they will loose their personal freedom
•  That they will be trapped into living a life they don’t want
•  That they will have to give up everything sacred to them
•  That they will lose the intellectual edge
• That to decide to follow after Christ makes you less of a person
• That to make a decision that could better your health or your lifestyle in general, is just short-lived and that it is smarter, not to start something than to start and fail, and based upon past experience you will probably fail.

When at the place of a crossroad decision, the enemy has always and will always say the wrong thing to you.

When at the place of a crossroad decision, God has always and will always say the right thing to you. What voice are you yielding to?

    Excerpt from God Thinking XCVII - Crossroads - by Keith C. Powell                                                       Copyright 2015

God Thinking XCVII - Crossroads 7

"The seed of compromise. This is such an important subject. It is not the only negative seed planted by our enemy and others, but it sure has a lot to do with who we become in the future. Whatever your today looks like, try to remember that twenty years from now the things that you compromised on might not turn out so well. It takes long-term thinking to understand the devastating results of living a life of compromise.

The seed of compromise makes it difficult to decide what to do when you are faced with a crossroad in your life. 

When you are at a crossroad, and a decision is to be made, the truth is:

you are not left alone to fight this inner war

and the enemy isn’t holding you hostage.

But, because you have compromised before and survived it you have a false sense of security that you can compromise again and/or continue to compromise in your life, your decisions - your convictions, and all will turn out well.

Your enemy has planted many seeds over the years.  It’s not just the seed of compromise that affects your decisions when you are at the crossroad. 

How about:

The seed of complacency

The seed of unbelief

The seed of “all paths lead to God”

The seed of denial

The seed of “wait til tomorrow”

The seed of “anything in moderation is OK”

The seed of “I can’t stop”

The seed of “it’s too late anyway”

The seed of indifference

The seed of doubt

The seed of un-forgiveness

One way your enemy wins converts is to convince them that since a seed was planted it must be from God, and that is so far from the truth.   The wheat and the tares grow up together and they look very similar, but they are not the same and their end is also very different.

  
     Excerpt from God Thinking XCVII - Crossroads - by Keith C. Powell                                                       Copyright 2015

God Thinking XCVII - Crossroads 6

"The world clamors loudly and without sleep to draw you toward another direction, toward other inclinations than that of the Holy Spirit’s leading.

The Holy Spirit leads as a small still voice and the world leads as a boisterous and overtly egotistic voice.  The Holy Spirit gently leading and the world ruthlessly pulling, both knowing that the final decision is in the hands of the possessor of free will.

At each crossroad this battle goes on.  Each time you find yourself getting closer to the one direction or the other, you are either growing closer to God and leaning toward loving the things of God or you are growing closer to the world and leaning toward loving the things of the world. 

  

This notion of having to choose (of the things of the world or of the things of God) riles the uncommitted. 

The enemy has planted many seeds since Jesus left us here to do His Father’s will.  And one of the many seeds that our enemy has planted is the seed of compromise."

    Excerpt from God Thinking XCVII - Crossroads - by Keith C. Powell                                                        Copyright 2015

God Thinking XCVII - Crossroads 5

"At each crossroad of life:

I can’t make you choose what is God’s best for you

You can’t make me choose what is best for me

You can’t make your spouse choose what is best for them

Your spouse can’t make you choose what is best for you

You can’t make your friends choose what is best for them

And your friends can’t make you choose what is best for you

You cannot choose for each other at some of life’s crossroads.

If you have an open mind and an open heart to the leading

of the Holy Spirit, you might be re-considering some of the most recent decisions you’ve made. 

The Holy Spirit doesn’t cave in or condescend if you make a bad decision. 

God doesn’t go along with whatever you decide to do. No.  The truth is constant and God will wait you out, wait for you to return, turn back, repent.

As you receive new insight, you change “what you want” and “where you shop” to get it.

God designed you so that at each crossroad, God would speak to you in your inner self and lead you and guide you into receiving from God’s storehouse of blessings, all that God foresaw in His omniscience that you would or could receive. 

Exactly what is better than that?

   Excerpt from God Thinking XCVII - Crossroads - by Keith C. Powell                                                        Copyright 2015

God Thinking XCVII - Crossroads 4

"Back to the beginning, “What do you really want?” could be asked in a way to reflect the mind-set of a tare, or an adult tare, or the mind-set of infant wheat or the mind-set of adult wheat.

At each crossroad in life, there is a choice that will determine the next few miles or the next few months or the next few years or decades of your life.   That choice reveals the current condition of your relationship with God.

When you understand tour part of God’s equation of “why you are here?” “what you want” takes on a more important meaning than before.

Now the second part of this equation.  If you not know “why you are here,” “what you want” will be based on shooting in the dark, so to speak.

If you were given a chance to go through any store/show room, and you could choose as much as you wanted for twenty minutes, would it make a difference which store it was?  Of course. Would you choose the Dollar Store or a Mercedez dealership? A discount store or a bank? A drapery store or would you go house shopping?

As you became “who you are today” and as you become “who you are going to be” (different stages of your life) “what you want” and where you shop to get it matters. 

  
   Excerpt from God Thinking XCVII - Crossroads - by Keith C. Powell                                                        Copyright 2015

God Thinking XCVII - Crossroads 3

"Matthew 13:24-30

 24.  Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field:

 25.  But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way.

If you ever wanted to know how you be sure that the Bible is true and relevant, statements like this one validate scripture.  Experience tells you exactly how the enemy works, but God tells you in scripture before it even happens.

Matthew 13:24-30

 24.  Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field:

 25.  But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way.

 26.  But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also.

 27.  So the servants of the householder came and said unto

him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? from whence then hath it tares?

 28.  He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather

them up?

 29.  But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye

root up also the wheat with them.

 30.  Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.

The point is: God in His infinite wisdom made you, so that as you proceed forward in life, you get to certain crossroads that are deciding points.  Some of them early on, some along the way and some left for a later date. Are you at a crossroad right now?

  
   Excerpt from God Thinking XCVII - Crossroads - by Keith C. Powell                                                        Copyright 2015

God Thinking XCVII - Crossroads 2

"Mark 8:36, "For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?

You were designed to receive from God, God’s very best, under the anointing of a genuine relationship with God.  And everything that you receive under this anointing of God has in it the essence of God, pleasing you and making you at peace and giving you joy. 

But all that is taken or exercised or gathered apart from that which is given from God, brings trouble and pain, consequences and repercussions, not necessarily immediately, because some things do not show their origin until they mature. 

Remember the story of  the wheat and the tares (weeds), growing up together, to be threshed and separated at a later date.  Sometimes you can’t tell the wheat from the tares, especially early on.

But count on one thing, the wheat know who they are, (Amen).  It is the tares who are confused."

    Excerpt from God Thinking XCVII - Crossroads - by Keith C. Powell                                                        Copyright 2015