Recommending: "God wants you to succeed!"

Here is a new resource: audio teachings by Andrew Wommack,

http://www.awmi.net/extra/audio/1085

God Wants You To Succeed

contents:
God's definition of success
come to the end of yourselves
your success is your relationship with God
Nebuchadnezzar finally got it right
the first step
imagination and success
learn how to dream big
be patient

Teaching article (excerpts):
God designed you for success. He made you to be a winner. This is true for every person, regardless of what has happened in the past. God has never destined anybody to live a mediocre life.
Jeremiah 29:11 says,
For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.
This verse says that God knows His thoughts toward you, and His desire is to give you an expected end. That end is promised in the Word of God. You can walk in victory like Moses. He was 120 years old, and his eyesight wasn’t dim nor his natural force abated (Deut. 34:7). He actually climbed a mountain the day he went home to be with the Lord.
These things are in the Word, and God is no respecter of persons. What we have today is superior to what Moses had in the Old Testament. We can be guaranteed success. Now, I’m not saying success can always be achieved without a fight or without effort, but we were destined for great things.
God created every one of us to be something special, but I also feel that we live in a culture that has totally misrepresented true success. As a matter of fact, I looked up the meaning of the word. The American Heritage Dictionary (AHD) defines success as “The achievement of something desired, planned, or attempted.” That’s a pretty broad definition. I mean, some people are aiming at nothing and hitting it every time. The second definition I found is “The gaining of fame or prosperity” (AHD). I hate that definition. That is not a godly definition of success at all. Lots of people have fame and prosperity, but they do not have true success. ...
........
It doesn’t matter whether the end result is good or not. God wants you to do what He has called you to do, and He wants you to do it out of His ability. I think what some call burnout is just people doing good things in their own strength and power. God’s never had anybody qualified working for Him yet, so stop relying on your own ability. If you don’t trust in the Lord, you can’t accomplish the things He’s planned for you and you won’t be a godly success.
(Please visit the web site for the original full article: http://www.awmi.net/extra/article/wants_succeed )
TV broadcast: http://www.awmi.net/tv/2014/week40
Live DVD:
http://www.awmi.net/store/usa/dvd_albums_live/3223_d

Freedom from fears

never before seen
such ample bountiful rich
blooms defying drought
————————————-
Sometimes we go through a prolonged spell of heat and drought. It seems very difficult to carry on living even the routine living human beings are equipped to live. The mind simply tells us self-talks that discourage and depress us further.
Today we read what Jesus says instead. All these words have come true. What Jesus has promised has happened. Those who believe in Jesus have experienced the abundant life through the power of the Holy Spirit He has given to His believers. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty – freedom from bondages, oppressions, depressions, infirmities, and all hindrances that block us from taking and living the abundant, super-sufficient life that Jesus has promised.
John 10
⁹ I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. ¹⁰ The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.
¹¹ “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep.
John 7
³⁷ On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. ³⁸ He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” ³⁹ But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing^[g] in Him would receive; for the Holy^[h] Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
John 4
¹⁰ Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”
¹⁴ but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”
Luke 11
¹³ If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!”
2 Corinthians 3:14-18 New King James Version (NKJV)
¹⁴ But their minds were blinded. For until this day the same veil remains unlifted in the reading of the Old Testament, because the veil is taken away in Christ. ¹⁵ But even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart. ¹⁶ Nevertheless when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. ¹⁷ Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. ¹⁸ But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.

Matthew 6:24-34 Jesus speaks about mental health

Jesus wants your mind healed!

We read what Jesus speaks about mental health. Jesus wants your mind well!
Notice the strong emotion He uses to describe how we str0ngly feel about the wrong things. What He says is not new. Humans have not changed since the beginning: doing the same things because others do them even though they know they will fail anyway. Passion is a natural emotion. But we need to choose where we put our passion.
Summary notes:

1. one common cause of illness: loving the wrong target.
2. key to healing: you can only love the right One.
3. know God: He values your life and your body. He also cares for your mind and emotion.
4. trust God.
5. Do not repeat the things that others do when they know they will fail anyway. Only the mad repeatedly do the same thing and expect a different result!

Matthew 6:24-34 English Standard Version (ESV)
²⁴ “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.^[a]

Do Not Be Anxious

²⁵ “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? ²⁶ Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? ²⁷ And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?^{[b] 28} And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, ²⁹ yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. ³⁰ But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? ³¹ Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ ³² For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. ³³ But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
³⁴ “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

Footnotes:

1. Matthew 6:24 Greek mammon, a Semitic word for money or possessions
2. Matthew 6:27 Or a single cubit to his stature; a cubit was about 18 inches or 45 centimeters

the power to save and heal all

GOSPEL POWER.
Wherever Jesus is, in the presence of the disciples and believers, where the Word of God is being faithfully and fearlessly preached, where faith in Jesus is, where the believers are walking by faith and in the power of the Holy Spirit in them, two things happen:

1. People recognize Jesus. More and more believe and are converted to Jesus.
2. They bring out their sick. And all of them are healed.

Romans 1:16

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile.

In Context

 

Romans 15:19

by the power of signs and wonders, through the power of the Spirit of God. So from Jerusalem all the way around to Illyricum, I have fully proclaimed the gospel of Christ.

In Context

1 Corinthians 1:17

For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel—not with wisdom and eloquence, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.

In Context

Ephesians 3:7

I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God’s grace given me through the working of his power.

In Context

1 Thessalonians 1:5

because our gospel came to you not simply with words but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and deep conviction. You know how we lived among you for your sake.

In Context

2 Timothy 1:8

So do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord or of me his prisoner. Rather, join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God.

In Context

Mark 6:53-56 New International Version (NIV)
⁵³ When they had crossed over, they landed at Gennesaret and anchored there. ⁵⁴ As soon as they got out of the boat, people recognized Jesus. ⁵⁵ They ran throughout that whole region and carried the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was. ⁵⁶ And wherever he went—into villages, towns or countryside—they placed the sick in the marketplaces. They begged him to let them touch even the edge of his cloak, and all who touched it were healed.

Acts 5:12-16 New International Version (NIV)
¹² The apostles performed many signs and wonders among the people. And all the believers used to meet together in Solomon’s Colonnade. ¹³ No one else dared join them, even though they were highly regarded by the people. ¹⁴ Nevertheless, more and more men and women believed in the Lord and were added to their number. ¹⁵ As a result, people brought the sick into the streets and laid them on beds and mats so that at least Peter’s shadow might fall on some of them as he passed by. ¹⁶ Crowds gathered also from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing their sick and those tormented by impure spirits, and all of them were healed.

Spiritual traveler’s notes : two dreams

The traveler Ying had two dreams. In the first he was with a group of fellow travelers packed tightly standing on a low oval shaped oak coffee table. They were trying to balance hard not to fall off. Aliens with laser guns were shooting and killing all who were not on the table.

In the second dream he was running with a group of fellow travelers with Cyclopes chasing them to kill them. Many ran ahead and he and his group knew they could not outrun the Cyclopes so they found a tiny space hidden behind some mountain rocks and hid there. It was a dead end. They could hear the Cyclopes running pass in pursuit of those who had run ahead. He knew the Cyclopes would turn back to search them out when they discovered that this group was missing from their targets. So he climbed on top of a brand new metal filing cabinet and looked for a way out. He saw a space with light at the other end in between two cliffs so narrow that only one individual could squeeze through side way one at a time. Then he woke in cold sweat.

He was a mere individual seeking divine direction to live this end times period. He never expected to face this kind of adventure with a group of strangers as if they were in a science fiction movie. Yet it’s real at this point of time when he woke and found himself still flying high in the rope carriage on two eagles’ wings.

What will all these come to? He asked himself. Will he ever return to his own comfort zone again? No one answered his thoughts.

He knew the dreams meant the assumed safety zone for many travelers were not real. They were crumbling down. The enemies were everywhere pursuing and the travelers were running as though they were helpless. How could this be? They were trained and given authority in the spirit and the power of the King’s name.

Yet they were running and hiding. The former secure private abodes and public gathering ‘clubs’ no longer afforded any shelter.

Each individual had to launch out and face the enemy head on. He thought.

He felt a pang of pain for some of his closer ones. But he soon found solace in the thought that time was still available on this planet. All was not lost yet.

He made a commitment that when he returned to his own place he would seek them out and help them to rise above the filing cabinet!

Meanwhile, the eagles continued to soar and they were climbing.

Isaiah 21:5

Prepare the table, Set a watchman in the tower, Eat and drink. Arise, you princes, Anoint the shield!

 

Zechariah 2: God measures and refines.

We read Zechariah 2 from NKJV today. Zechariah 2 New King James Version (NKJV) After speaking good and comforting words to the prophet, God immediately sends a warning of the worship standard He requires. He speaks of Himself as a consuming fire. He speaks of dwelling in the midst of His people.
First, God sees and measures. He has a plumb-line. His words are His plumb-line. 
The remnants of the children of Israel (representing the people of God) had started re-building the temple but halted and procrastinated for twenty years (from the time the remnants returned to Jerusalem and the foundation laid to the time the temple was ready for consecration). In the meantime they built their own businesses, houses, accumulated wealth etc. for themselves. (In the book of Haggai, some Israelites even abandoned their first wives and married foreign women, cheated their employees of wages, tried to cheat God by offering sick and defective animals. in short, they simply did not believe in God.) The two prophets: Haggai and Zechariah were sent by God to warn them and urge them to return to God and resume the building work. Not giving God a mere cheap lip service but really obeying God’s words from the hearts and the following the spiritual leading of the Holy Spirit. For God is the God of glory.

Revelation 11:1

[ The Two Witnesses ] Then I was given a reed like a measuring rod. And the angel stood, saying, “Rise and measure the temple of God, the altar, and those who worship there.

A second point is He is a consuming fire (Hebrews 12:29). Why does He mention He will be the wall of fire for His chosen dwelling?
Fire refines believers (the people of God). Zechariah 13:9 I will bring the one–third through the fire, Will refine them as silver is refined, And test them as gold is tested. They will call on My name, And I will answer them. I will say, ‘This is My people’; And each one will say, ‘The Lord is my God.’”
Fire eliminates the idols and unclean spirits. Deuteronomy 4:24 For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.
Fire destroys the evil works of the devil. Deuteronomy 9:3 Therefore understand today that the Lord your God is He who goes over before you as a consuming fire. He will destroy them and bring them down before you; so you shall drive them out and destroy them quickly, as the Lord has said to you.
Third point: The Lord God Almighty says very clearly He has chosen to take possession of His dwelling and He will dwell in the midst of His people.

John 14:10

Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works.

John 2:21

But He was speaking of the temple of His body.

John 14:17

the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.

1 Corinthians 6:19

Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?

__________________________Zechariah 2

Vision of the Measuring Line

Then I raised my eyes and looked, and behold, a man with a measuring line in his hand. ² So I said, “Where are you going?”

And he said to me, “To measure Jerusalem, to see what is its width and what is its length.”
³ And there was the angel who talked with me, going out; and another angel was coming out to meet him, ⁴ who said to him, “Run, speak to this young man, saying: ‘Jerusalem shall be inhabited as towns without walls, because of the multitude of men and livestock in it. ⁵ For I,’ says the Lord, ‘will be a wall of fire all around her, and I will be the glory in her midst.’”
Future Joy of Zion and Many Nations
⁶ “Up, up! Flee from the land of the north,” says the Lord; “for I have spread you abroad like the four winds of heaven,” says the Lord. ⁷ “Up, Zion! Escape, you who dwell with the daughter of Babylon.”
⁸ For thus says the Lord of hosts: “He sent Me after glory, to the nations which plunder you; for he who touches you touches the apple of His eye. ⁹ For surely I will shake My hand against them, and they shall become spoil for their servants. Then you will know that the Lord of hosts has sent Me.
¹⁰ “Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion! For behold, I am coming and I will dwell in your midst,” says the Lord. ¹¹ “Many nations shall be joined to the Lord in that day, and they shall become My people. And I will dwell in your midst. Then you will know that the Lord of hosts has sent Me to you. ¹² And the Lord will take possession of Judah as His inheritance in the Holy Land, and will again choose Jerusalem. ¹³ Be silent, all flesh, before the Lord, for He is aroused from His holy habitation!”

Zechariah 1: God spoke good, even comfortable words

In our previous day’s post' (please refer to: http://kzlam36.wordpress.com/2014/10/01/zechariah-1-return-to-me-and-i-will-return-to-you/ )

 

we read the Bible verse from the book of Zechariah in New Living Translation. Today we read Zechariah 1 American Standard Version (ASV). This prophecy is for the Americans too. God spoke about the past and the future of the children of Israel, the children of Abraham by faith, and the children of America today too. Let us review what God spoke yesterday. (quoting in excerpts)

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² Jehovah was sore displeased with your fathers.

³ Therefore say thou unto them, Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: Return unto me, saith Jehovah of hosts, and I will return unto you, saith Jehovah of hosts.

⁵ Your fathers, where are they? and the prophets, do they live for ever?

⁶ But my words and my statutes, which I commanded my servants the prophets, did they not overtake your fathers? and they turned and said, Like as Jehovah of hosts thought to do unto us, according to our ways, and according to our doings, so hath he dealt with us.

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Yesterday God told us how He felt about our fathers, those who turned away from God. He spoke further on this subject and what He intended to do. He is speaking to a new generation now.

Today we continue reading as follows: Zechariah listened and pondered. Three months later he received further messages accompanied by visions from the Lord.

a summary for pondering and meditation like Zechariah did.

1. Zechariah saw an angel riding upon a red horse, standing among the myrtle trees at the valley. He was not surprised at the supernatural. He spoke to the angel. What was Zechariah doing there? He was led in the spirit to go out in the middle of the night to the valley where the myrtle trees were. If he had stayed in his bed and slept on, he would have missed God’s messenger and the whole night of eight visions!
2. He asked the angel what each vision meant. An honest and humble prophet (watchman) of God.
3. The angel was not surprised that Zechariah saw him and he replied him. Hebrews 1:14 “Are they (angels) not all ministering spirits, sent forth to do service for the sake of them that shall inherit salvation?”
4. The angel was actually doing his work: watching the other angels who were sent out on assignments to patrol the earth, then came back and reported to the one who talked to Zechariah.
5. The angel who spoke to Zechariah interceded to God and asked about the timing of intervention from God for the happenings to God’s elect people on earth. (The angel knew God’s intention and he spoke to God about fulfillment of the timing).
6. God actually replied and told what He intended to do and why. (In verse 16, God used the present tense ‘I am returned’ to put a time to the physical application of his intention.)
7. God gave a positive message (good and comfortable words) to the prophet: “My cities shall yet overflow with prosperity; and Jehovah shall yet comfort Zion, and shall yet choose Jerusalem.” Wow, what a merciful and awesome God to His people!

__________________________

 

⁸ I saw in the night, and, behold, a man riding upon a red horse, and he stood among the myrtle-trees that were in the bottom; and behind him there were horses, red, sorrel, and white.

⁹ Then said I, O my lord, what are these? And the angel that talked with me said unto me, I will show thee what these are.

¹⁰ And the man that stood among the myrtle-trees answered and said, These are they whom Jehovah hath sent to walk to and fro through the earth.

¹¹ And they answered the angel of Jehovah that stood among the myrtle-trees, and said, We have walked to and fro through the earth, and, behold, all the earth sitteth still, and is at rest.

¹² Then the angel of Jehovah answered and said, O Jehovah of hosts, how long wilt thou not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah, against which thou hast had indignation these threescore and ten years?

¹³ And Jehovah answered the angel that talked with me with good words, even comfortable words.

¹⁴ So the angel that talked with me said unto me, Cry thou, saying, Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: I am jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with a great jealousy.

¹⁵ And I am very sore displeased with the nations that are at ease; for I was but a little displeased, and they helped forward the affliction.

¹⁶ Therefore thus saith Jehovah: I am returned to Jerusalem with mercies; my house shall be built in it, saith Jehovah of hosts, and a line shall be stretched forth over Jerusalem.

¹⁷ Cry yet again, saying, Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: My cities shall yet overflow with prosperity; and Jehovah shall yet comfort Zion, and shall yet choose Jerusalem.

¹⁸ And I lifted up mine eyes, and saw, and, behold, four horns.

¹⁹ And I said unto the angel that talked with me, What are these? And he answered me, These are the horns which have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem.

²⁰ And Jehovah showed me four smiths.

²¹ Then said I, What come these to do? And he spake, saying, These are the horns which scattered Judah, so that no man did lift up his head; but these are come to terrify them, to cast down the horns of the nations, which lifted up their horn against the land of Judah to scatter it.