Bishop's Blog

There are so many things in life that can cause us stress. If you think hard enough, there’s always something that’s not going quite the way that you wish it was. Everybody says don’t worry and just put it in God’s hands, but the question is how do you really do that? 

Here are the steps:

First, pray and say” Lord, I release X [fill in your specific circumstances] situation to you.”

Second, adjust the situation by making whatever practical changes you can to remove stress. For example, if you are always running late work and you get stressed about that, then wake up earlier and leave home earlier. 

Lastly, relax. If you gave it to Him, then it’s no longer yours. It’s just like a car, when you sale it - it’s no longer your problem.

Relax… Relate… Release.

Matthew 8:18 Now Jesus, when He saw the great throngs around Him, gave orders to cross to the other side [of the lake].

Many of us don’t understand the purpose of storms in life. Storms are designed to get us from one side to the desired place or the ‘other side.” When the storm arose, the disciples were fearful because they thought that the storm was designed to take them out. They didn’t realize that the storm was designed to get them to the other side. Shortly after the Lord spoke peace to the storm, they found themselves in the desired place.

 When you make a petition to God concerning advancement in life, when a storm comes, don’t fear and don’t worry, it’s just there to get you to the other side. Storms will help you to get to the other side faster than just than usual. Whenever God accelerates your trials, He accelerates your destiny. Celebrate your storm because it’s taking you somewhere greater!

Proverbs 29:18 Where there is no vision [no redemptive revelation of God], the people perish; but he who keeps the law [of God, which includes that of man]—blessed (happy, fortunate, and enviable) is he.

It can be easy to be distracted by bills, circumstances, bad relationships, and negative things. When we find ourselves discouraged, it is because of a lack of vision. If you live life like you have nothing to live for, then you’ll perish with an unfulfilled assignment. The King James Version says that “where there is no prophetic revelation, the people cast off restraint.” In other words, vision determines your actions. If you forget that God showed you you’d own your own business, you’ll make bad decisions and “cast of restraint” like you’ll never have it. If you forgot that God showed you that your family will be saved, you’ll stop praying for them and they’ll perish. God allows us to enter places of frustration in order to give us revelation. 

If you feel like you are in a stagnant place, that might be a good place to be!! That means God is trying to speak to you and remind you of the vision. Once you get it, write it down. When discouragement comes your way, which it will, you then can go back to what you wrote and say this isn’t what God promised me, so that must mean that I’ve got to keep on pressing on.

Leviticus 26:9 
For I will be leaning toward you with favor and regard for you, rendering you fruitful, multiplying you, and establishing and ratifying My covenant with you.

Remember the old hymn We’ve Come this far by Faith? It goes on on to say “leaning on the the Lord and trusting in His holy Word. He’s never failed me yet.” To lean on simply means to rely upon for strength. You can’t lean on yourself, you must lean on the Lord. But isn’t it great to know that the Lord says that you’re not just leaning on Him, in return He is leaning toward you and making you fruitful in the things that you do.

One day of favor is worth ten years of labor. God has the heart of the king in His hand and there is nothing that is too hard for Him. God’s covenant with us is established when He blesses and increases us and we do our part through obedience to Him. When God leans towards you, all of heaven does as well.

Start everyday saying, “Lord, you are leaning toward me with favor and regard.” When you begin to speak that, you will feel things turning for your good. Stay positive and be willing to move with God. You’ve made it this far by faith leaning on the Lord and now the Lord will lean toward you. 

1 John 3:14-16 14 We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death. 15 Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in Him. 16 Hereby perceive we the love of God, because He laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.

The Bible calls hatred murder. Sometimes people can hurt you so badly that you can be tormented by the thought of them, tormented when you hear their name, and tormented by the thought that they might get away with what they did to you. When people hurt us, we must know that nothing happens that God hasn’t permitted. The book of Job teaches us that it doesn’t mean God necessarily causes all things to happen to us, but it can’t happen unless He approves it.

Secondly, we must know that we have to forgive people. You can be so angry with people that it ends up causing you to develop hatred against them. To hate is to murder. Not only do you murder yourself by losing joy and losing hope, but most people end up sharing their hatred of someone with others thus murdering their influence with others. God has forgiven you for great things and now you must turn around and do it for others. Forgiveness means that you release them from what they did to you and from your desire to punish them for it. It doesn’t mean a rekindling of a relationship or friendship and doesn’t even mean fellowship with that person.

Vengeance is the Lord’s, not yours and when you forgive someone you are releasing them and any “punishment” for what they did back to God.

Spiritual Authority

by Joyce Meyer - posted July 15, 2011

Obey your spiritual leaders and submit to them [continually recognizing their authority over you], for they are constantly keeping watch over your souls and guarding your spiritual welfare, as men who will have to render an account [of their trust]. [Do your part to] let them do this with gladness and not with sighing and groaning, for that would not be profitable to you [either].
—Hebrews 13:17

Our modern society is absolutely filled with rebellion, and rebellion keeps us from hearing God. I have observed that many, many people have trouble relating to authority. This is true in marriages, families, schools, businesses, civic activities, and throughout our culture. Submission to spiritual authority is practically nonexistent.

Often when a pastor tries to bring some kind of correction, people tend to become upset and want to leave the church—and that is not right. Paul corrected people often; that was part of his job as a spiritual leader and it remains a responsibility for spiritual leaders today. Paul said: “Not that we have dominion [over you] … but [rather that we work with you as] fellow laborers [to promote] your joy” (2 Corinthians 1:24). If we will understand and believe that spiritual authority exists to promote our joy, we will embrace it and when we do, our joy will increase—and so will our ability to hear God’s voice.

The spirit of rebellion that is at work in the world today is the spirit of the antichrist according to 2 Thessalonians 2:7–8, one that is willing to submit to no one. People today say they are demanding their rights, but in reality they are often only resisting any authority but their own.

God’s word for you today: Be submissive to authority as a service to the Lord, and He will bless and prosper you. 

It can sometimes be difficult for us to fully understand the love that God has for us because often times we see love within the confines of what we can comprehend. Most of us love conditionally and were loved by people whose love would come and go depending on what we did. The love of God is probably one of the greatest mysteries for humans. It’s not a mystery because God doesn’t explain it; it’s a mystery because we can sometimes think that we don’t deserve it. If you have a poor self image then you will doubt that anyone, let alone God, could love you. That is why many people end up making bad relationship decisions because they don’t think that they deserve to be loved because of their appearance or because of their personality flaws.

God’s love is not limited to your appearance or your flaws. In fact, God made you and when He made you He broke the mold. He didn’t make any mistakes. Love who God has made you to be and know that whatever personality flaws you have, God and only God has the ability to help you correct them. He doesn’t stop giving His love because you are too big, too small, too dark or too light or whatever else. You are precious to Him. Another reason that someone may have trouble understanding the love of God is because they don’t take God at His word. If your word is no good, then you will think that everybody’s word is like that including God’s. 

We have to learn that God’s word is no lie and that when He says that He will love you and care for you no matter what mistakes you’ve made, you must believe Him. Mistakes are not love stoppers for God. In fact in 1 John 1:9, that if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us. He doesn’t withhold His love and He’s not standing over you wanting to ”strike you down”. That doesn’t mean that there are not consequences for your actions, but He is waiting on you to return to Him standing with open arms ready to forgive you and restore you.

One of the last reasons and the biggest reason that we can think God may not love us or care for us anymore is if you were raised by someone that didn’t love you unconditionally. Maybe it was a demanding father or a condescending mother that always extremely critical you when you made a mistake and always made you feel ostracized. Your challenge is to first forgive them and release them for their actions. Many times parents do the best job they can with the information that they have. Most families have some type of dysfunction.

Next, you can’t view God through the eyes of your parents, you must view Him in the eyes of the Bible and the Bible teaches us that He loves you so much that He died for you and conquered death for you so that you could be victorious. God will never stop loving you ever for any reason. According to Romans 8:35-40, nothing can separate us from the love of God, not even you!!

Shalom Everybody,

We pray that your week was filled with joy!! God is doing so many great things through the Harvest Christian Center and we are in awe of how God has shaped such an incredible church right here in a place where it’s estimated that less that 5% of people in the state attend worship services on a regular basis. God has called Harvest to be an innovator and pioneer in so many ways and we’re always striving to further the culture of the Kingdom and we’re honored that God has chosen us for such a time as this!

They say that the greatest and highest form of a compliment is when someone imitates what you do… pioneers have to be careful not to get angry when they see people attempting to recreate or reproduce something they saw them do…it’s the highest form of flattery and it shows that God wants to use you in a way to blazes trails opposed to just follow them… that’s the whole reason for pioneers. You create paths for others to walk down with the wisdom you learned on how to handle the obstacles that you faced when first confronting the new territory.

Pioneers have to deal with challenges and may not even get “credit” for blazing the path BUT we must all remember that every creative idea or though originated with the master pioneer Himself and since there’s nothing new under the sun, just enjoy that God is using you to further His kingdom and to help others along the way!! AND if you’re a person that’s using a creative concept that you saw or learned from someone else and are applying it in your life, in your ministry or in any other realm, follow Galatians 6:6 and share in all good things. You can do this by sharing a testimony of how what you learned blessed you and it’s not a bad practice to sow financially into that person or ministry either. Everything that’s freely given wasn’t given freely. This just means that it may be a free idea to you, but you don’t know what sacrifice and what cost it had to the one you’re getting it from! The messages that you may hear that revolutionize your life may only cost you a few dollars to purchase the CD, but it may have cost your pastor years of his life to learn. 

Take Over!!

Bishop