Tag: SPEAKING IN TONGUES

Be Strong!

On December 24, 2018

THE KIMBERLY JOY SHOW: WHY BELIEVERS IN CHRIST NEED INNER STRENGTH

WHY DO BELIEVERS IN CHRIST NEED TO BE STRONG?

In the third chapter of Ephesians, Paul prayed inner strength for the Gentiles (non-Jews) who had become believers in Christ. Paul, who was appointed as an apostle of Jesus Christ, knew all too well that inner strength was vital for Christians. During this era, men, like Paul, faced much persecution. Paul detailed some of his suffering in II Corinthians 11:23-27 (New Living Translation):

^“23Are they servants of Christ? I know I sound like a madman, but I have served Him far more! I have worked harder, been put in prison more often, been whipped times without number, and faced death again and again. ²⁴Five different times the Jewish leaders gave me thirty-nine lashes. ²⁵Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. Once I spent a whole night and a day adrift at sea. ²⁶I have traveled on many long journeys. I have faced danger from rivers and from robbers. I have faced danger from my own people, the Jews, as well as from the Gentiles. I have faced danger in the cities, in the deserts, and on the seas. And I have faced danger from men who claim to be believers but are not.²⁷I have worked hard and long, enduring many sleepless nights. I have been hungry and thirsty and have often gone without food. I have shivered in the cold, without enough clothing to keep me warm.”

Today, most specifically here in the United States, we, as believers, are not threatened with physical persecution, like the apostle Paul. Nevertheless, we are persecuted. For instance, perhaps you have endured lies, ridicule, and, even, rejection for believing in Jesus. Whatever the case may be, through it all, you must be strong!

HOW DO BELIEVERS WITHSTAND OPPOSING VIEWS?

Besides persecution, we need inner strength to withstand the opposing views of non-believers:

Jesus isn’t real!

Jesus isn’t the Son of God!

Jesus isn’t God!

Jesus was only a prophet!

Jesus didn’t die for our sins!

Jesus didn’t rise from the dead!

If you’re not strong in your faith, you can be easily led astray by those who don’t follow Christ. Therefore, you have to be strengthened daily through prayer, worship, and God’s Word. You will then know how to “[cast] down imaginations, and every high thing that [exalts] itself against the knowledge of God, and [bring] into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ,” (II Corinthians 10:5, King James Version). In other words, in time we learn how to dismiss words of doubt from naysayers with God’s Word, just as Jesus did when He was tempted by the devil in the wilderness (Matthew 4, Mark 1, Luke 4).

WHAT IS THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT FOR BELIEVERS?

As Paul prayed inner strength for the Gentile believers, he said in Ephesians 3:16-17, NLT):

“I pray that from His glorious, unlimited resources He will empower you with inner strength through His Spirit. 17 Then Christ will make His home in your hearts as you trust in Him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong.”

Once we invite Jesus Christ to live in our hearts, through our faith in Him—believing He died for our sins and rose from the dead—we should also invite the Holy Spirit to fill us. At our church Power and Faith Ministries in Fairifield, Ohio, while we believe in accepting Jesus as Lord and Savior, we also believe in being filled with the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in other tongues, as the believers did on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2.

Each time we pray in our heavenly language (as we also like to call it since it comes from God), our spirits are strengthened.

In Ephesians 3:18-19 (NLT) Paul then said:

“18 And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep His love is. 19 May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.”

Overtime, we recognize more and more just how great God’s love is, and His love becomes strong in us.

WHY IS LOVE SO IMPORTANT IN THE BODY OF CHRIST?

Love is important in the body of Christ because GOD IS LOVE (I John 4:16). Since God is love, His love strengthens us. Please recognize that it’s GOD’S love we need, not worldly love. What do I mean? Worldly love is conditional, which says, “I love you IF…” On the other hand, the love of God says, “I love you IN SPITE OF….”

If we’re full of GOD, then we’re full of LOVE; if we’re full of LOVE, then we’re full of GOD, thereby being strengthened.

When Jesus was asked about the greatest commandment by some of the Pharisees or religious leaders in Matthew 22:37b-40 (KJV), He replied:

“37…..Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. 40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”

When we’re full of love—GOD—we won’t do anything to hurt God and each other.

DO WE LOVE AUTOMATICALLY?

Once we are saved, do we possess unconditional love automatically? No, not necessarily. Thus, we must follow the example of Jesus which is displayed so vividly in the Bible. What was His biggest demonstration of love? Absolutely! His crucifixion, burial, and resurrection! Naturally, we are not expected to follow in His footsteps and sacrifice our lives for all mankind on a rugged cross. Nevertheless, we can show the love of God in other ways. Just as Jesus exemplified, while He lived as a man here on Earth, we can love through our kindness, encouragement, helping hand, generosity, and selfless prayers. In a nutshell, we must CHOOSE to love!

A RECIPE FOR INNER STRENGTH

Again, how do we gain inner strength, so we may be able to stand up against persecution, the views of non-believers, and sin?

Repent of our sins and receive Jesus into our hearts as Savior and Lord
Be filled with the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in other tongues
Spend time praying to and worshiping God
Study and obey the Scriptures
Walk in God’s love

THE PRAYER OF SALVATION

If you haven’t accepted Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior, you can do so right now. I then encourage you to find a good Bible-believing church that will help you grow in your relationship with the Lord.

Romans 10:9 (New International Version) says, “If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”

Please pray the following prayer:

Dear Jesus, I come to You confessing I am a sinner in need of a Savior. I believe You shed Your blood on the cross and died for my sins, were buried and rose again so I could be free! Please forgive me for my sins and the life I have lived. I confess You Jesus as Lord and accept You as my own personal Savior. According to the Word of God, I am now saved! Hallelujah! I AM FREE!

WELCOME TO THE FAMILY OF GOD!!!!!

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P.U.S.H. Chapter Three

By Kimberly Joy

On March 20, 2017

In Prayer

P.U.S.H. PRAY UNTIL SOMETHING HAPPENS
As Christians, we are to P.U.S.H. or pray until something happens. We are to pray to God continually. Ephesians 6 tells us that prayer is one of our weapons against the enemy. Notice what I said….ONE of our weapons! So, we have more than one weapon, and they each play a significant role in our lives as believers in Christ.

I shared in my previous blog post “P.U.S.H. Chapter Two,” how God had to show me the importance of approaching Him the right way. I was in the habit of sometimes praying out of my emotions instead of praying in faith. The prayers I prayed out of fear, worry or frustration were not being very effective. For instance, there were times when I would just complain or vent to God, rather than really praying. In those moments I didn’t feel like praying. I only felt like complaining. And for years, God allowed that behavior from me. However, recently, God has revealed to me that it’s time for me to mature. Why? I now know God well enough to know that He will always come through for me. Regardless of how the situation looks, God ALWAYS comes through.

It reminds me one of my favorite Tye Tribbett songs. In the song he says:

“Please be encouraged. This is not the first storm you’ve been through. You’ve been through worse. You didn’t come this far just to lose. He knows your needs, so take no thoughts on what you lost.
God will restore, and this is how I’m sure. If He did it before, He can do it again. Same God right now, same God back then.”

James 1:17 says:

“Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, Who does not change like shifting shadows.”

So, God our Father, our Creator, never changes. He is our Deliverer, Healer, Restorer, Teacher, Protector, Provider! God is EVERYTHING we need! Because we are human, sometimes we have to remind ourselves of that truth! I know I do!

QUESTION:
Have you ever been in a situation where it looked like it was never going to get better? I know I have! But, guess what? It eventually got better! I got what I needed…..my healing…..my breakthrough…..my deliverance…..my answers…..my instructions!

MY WEAPON OF PRAYER
As I was saying before, recently God told me that whenever I’m faced with a difficult situation, that’s not the time to get in my feelings. Rather, that’s the time to pick up my weapon of prayer!

God instructs me to pray HIS way. What does that mean? I am to pray His Word and His will, not my opinion or someone else’s opinion. To pray God’s way also means to pray in the Holy Spirit. For those who have been empowered to speak in tongues, that gift should be used as often as possible during prayer. Ephesians 6:11-12 say:

“11 Put on all of God’s armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil.
12 For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.”

In other words, we are faced with Satan and his demons. I Peter 5:8 lets us know that the enemy is always on the prowl trying to destroy everyone he can. So, it’s a must that we stay prayed up.

Ephesians 6:18 says:

“Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere.”

As the verse says, we are to always pray in the Holy Spirit and to pray for each other as believers in Christ. To take it a step further, we are to pray for ourselves, our families, our friends, our neighbors, our co-workers, our leaders (inside and outside of the church), our communities, our country, the WORLD!

WE HAVE A RESPONSIBILITY
According to I Timothy 2:1-4, we are to pray for all people because God wants everyone to know the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and to be saved. That’s right! God wants to see EVERYONE saved! So, as people of God, we have a responsibility to tell others about Jesus and to share our testimonies of what He’s done for us personally. Testimonies can be very impactful. In some instances, sharing your personal testimony is more effective than just telling a Bible story. Your testimony helps those to whom you’re witnessing to really connect with the message.

We, as believers, also have a responsibility to let our lights shine and, again, to pray! When we don’t know what else to do, we can always pray. A perfect example is my own mother Geraldine Banks. Although I accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior at a young age, I haven’t always gotten things right. However, what has helped me in my spiritual walk has been my mother. It wasn’t because she always got everything right. She wasn’t supermom (if there’s even such a thing). She didn’t have a manual for “How To Be the Perfect Parent”. What she did have was her relationship with God, the Bible, and a strong prayer life. My mother prayed (and still prays) for my brother and me.

And when I say she prayed for us, I’m not referring to her silent, private prayers. Rather, I’m talking about the prayers I was blessed to hear in the middle of the night. There’s nothing like hearing my mom pray for me. Hearing her walk up and down the hallway, calling out our names, speaking in tongues and interceding for us just reaffirmed her love for us. Her prayers helped me to want to do better and live right.

Again, God is commissioning us to pray, not complain, not worry, but PRAY! I know from personal experience that satan does everything he possibly can to try to convince us not to pray. Why is that? Even he knows that prayer still works! Therefore, we can’t allow ourselves to be fooled by him anymore.

I want to urge you to really use your weapon of prayer, even when you don’t feel like it. That’s why I appreciate being able to pray in the Holy Spirit. Romans 8:26 says that, even when we don’t know what to pray for, the Holy Spirit knows.

If you don’t currently speak in tongues, that’s okay! God still hears your prayers! However, I encourage you to ask the Holy Spirit to empower you to speak in tongues, and He will! Again, praying in the Holy Spirit is a powerful weapon against the enemy. Besides, when we speak in tongues, Satan and his demons have no idea what we’re saying. Remember, unlike God, Satan is not omnipresent or all-knowing.

I believe God is ready to do greater things in our lives and in the lives of those around us. Therefore, children of God, we must continue to P.U.S.H!

(“The Kimberly Joy Show: P.U.S.H Pray Until Something Happens Part 3”)

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