DAILY ENCOURAGEMENT WEDNESDAY – NINE BIBLICAL PRINCIPLES TO LIVE BY... Part 2.

The value of a principle is the number of things it will explain. - Ralph Waldo Emerson.

I give you sound learning, so do not forsake my teaching. – Prov 4:2.

If you missed Part 1, you can read it here. We continue in our 3 part series of biblical principles to apply to our Christian live: here are the next 3...

4: RECEIVE WHAT GOD GIVES YOU THROUGH OBEDIENCE, INSTEAD OF SWEATING FOR OUTCOME

God called Adam and Eve to join Him in His work by working in, and overseeing the Garden. It was a form of worship to Him. Work and worship come from the same meaning in Hebrew. God called the people out of Egypt where they sweated and toiled for food to eat, to a land of milk and honey so they could worship Him. He was their Jehovah Jirah... ‘My Provider,’ regardless of whether there was fertile soil to work...

So I gave you a land on which you did not toil and cities you did not build; and you live in them and eat from vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant.' - Joshua 24:13. Whenever we begin sweating our finances, we are making a statement about our belief in God.

What is the inheritance God has for you? We are to enter our own personal Promised Land and take the land God has provided for us through obedience, not sweat and toil... Unless the LORD builds the house, the builders labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the guards stand watch in vain. In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat— for he grants sleep to those he loves. - Ps 127:1-2.

Each of us must come to understand God’s provision for us is through our obedience, not our self-effort. This includes our physical, emotional and spiritual needs... To this John replied, "A person can receive only what is given from heaven. - John 3:27. John knew what his calling before God was. He knew what he was to do and what he was not to do. Each of us must walk in this understanding in order fulfil what God has planned for us.

5: EMBRACE TIMES OF ADVERSITY AS OPPORTUNITIES TO GROW INWISDOM, CHARACTER AND OBEDIENCE.

Adversity and trials are a by-product of a life fully committed to Christ. It is part of our calling as sons... Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? If you are not disciplined—and everyone undergoes discipline—then you are not legitimate children at all. - Heb 12:7-8.

The question we need to answer is whether our adversity is due to our righteousness in Christ or unrighteousness due to sin. Or, it can simply be a result of a fallen world. God uses adversity to frame our lives for the message He wishes to speak through us. The depth and width of our adversity and/or faith experiences is proportional to the call upon our lives. If youexperience major difficulties for righteous reasons, He will use those to impact more people.

God uses adversity to develop character, wisdom and obedience in our lives. Almost every leader God uses in a significant way is taken through the fire of testing to refine their character and deepen their call. Avoid becoming a victim to your circumstances, instead, see adversity as a place to experience the victory we have in Christ.

God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains; it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world. - C.S. Lewis.

6: IDENTIFY AND RENOUNCE THE INFLUENCE OF ANY GENERATIONAL STRONGHOLD, THAT MAY HAVE CAUSED YOU TO DEVELOP A COMPULSIVE BEHAVIOUR.

Satan wants to prevent every person from experiencing the love of God in their lives. He has made us to have seven basic needs as described in Genesis 1 and 2. These needs are 1) Security, 2) Blessing and Provision, 3) Love and Companionship, 4) Freedom and Boundaries, 5) Dignity, 6) Authority, and 7) Purpose and Meaning.

Satan deceives us in order to meet needs outside God s design by bringing about pressure situations in which people seek to meet their needs in their own way. When this happens a spiritual stronghold is developed. This encourages the person to meet their needs by serving the stronghold, rather than responding to the grace of God. This stronghold often develops throughout a family line and is passed down from one generation to another...

For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. - 2 Cor 10:3-5.

In order to fully experience the love of God we must renounce the influence of spiritual strongholds that have kept us from allowing God to meet our needs.

Loving Father, help me by the power of the Holy Spirit, to learn these principles, and apply them to my walk with Jesus, that I may be a better disciplined, and therefore a better child of God, for your glory. I ask this in the wonderful and mighty name of Jesus. Amen.

Be encouraged.
GBYAY