Category : Positive Written Sermons

Positive Written Sermons is a FREE service of Positive Christianity to those ACTIVE IN CLERGY MINISTRY to ease your burdens in ministry.

29Mar

POSITIVE WRITTEN SERMON – The Power of Positive Thinking

POSITIVE WRITTEN SERMON - The Power of Positive Thinking

Time Sensitivity: A Sunday before Easter

A FREE GIFT FOR CLERGY

Positive Written Sermons is a FREE service of Positive Christianity to those ACTIVE IN CLERGY MINISTRY to ease your burdens in ministry. Each positive sermon is non-denominational; feel free to tailor to your denominational needs, or personal style. We consider our sermons to be 90% complete; they await your personal stories and anecdotes.

Also, great lesson material available free daily – get Positive Daily Inspiration direct in your email inbox every morning. Text POSITIVEMINISTRY to 22828 to easy, free subscribe.

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Positive thinking has great power. Let us talk about the power of making deposits in your own mind that reap rich rewards. It can only return to you what you deposit within it.

Let me share a story with you. There was once a university professor who went searching for the meaning of life. After several years, he came to a holy man and asked to be enlightened. The holy man invited his visitor into his humble dwelling and began to serve him tea. He filled the man’s cup and then kept on pouring so that tea was soon dripping onto the floor. The professor watched the overflow until he could no longer restrain himself. “Stop! It is full. No more will go in.” The holy man said, “Like this cup, you are full of your own opinions, preconceptions, and ideas. How can I teach you unless you first empty your cup?”

In Greek mythology, there was a goddess of memory. She was the mother of nine sister goddesses who presided over poetry, the arts, and the sciences.

What if your safety deposit box at your bank was so filled with debris that you could no longer make good deposits, what if there was no room.

What happens when you are praying for healing, you’ve said your positive prayers, and then, in the middle of the night, those old thoughts about the last time you were sick bubble up? You say, “Oh, Lord, I pray this doesn’t happen again.” But the memory is so vivid. It is coming from your memory.

Let us say you are experiencing prosperity. It feels so wonderful; it is so good. Then, you remember so clearly about the last time you experienced lack. You remember what that felt like and how it was to deal with it. Suddenly, you are afraid because the memory is so vivid. It seems so much more powerful than your prayers of faith.

Or, you saw something with your eyes that hurt you a great deal. It was so vivid that you captured it forever like a photograph, and it keeps coming up to haunt you.

The inner mind is like a photographic plate, and yet most of us are carrying around images of lack of some kind.

Let us say you wanted to do something, but you couldn’t at the time. You felt helpless. That is so vivid in you, and it keeps bubbling up. You want it to bubble up once and for all, and come out, so this memory of this perceived failure will have no effect on you any longer.

Imagine, if you would for a moment, a God filled memory bank in your mind. Every time something unexpectedly bubbled up in you, it was beautiful; it fed you, gave you courage, and inspired you.

What is a memory bank? It is an investment place where many individual thoughts should work together for the good of the whole.

A bank is a place that gives loans and pays interest. It is a place you invest in for a bigger return later. A bank is a place you should be able to go to when you’re having a down day, and have it flood you with unbelievable good, joy, and exhilaration.

But many times, our personal bank has gone bust.

Many times, it works in the reverse way – negative memories come up and rob us of our present-moment peace of mind.

The memory mind is a “great gulfs fixed” between your present and the attainment of your highest desire, your good. The memory mind is your sensitive photographic plate of mind. Its true office is to receive impressions from God and to reproduce them upon the canvas of your conscious mind.

Right now, your conscious mind is looking out and taking in the world around you. You are filtering those things back into the realm of your memory bank. Sadly, this is especially true if something happens to you, real, or imagined, that is displeasing. It is almost like you make such an impression of that, that you just chisel a permanent statute to it in your memory bank.

In the Holy person, the memory bank exists to be flooded from God mind, and the daily perceptions of what God gives in life. Therefore, as a positive person, when you are facing something that is displeasing, your memory is filled to the brim with investments of God Mind for your well being.

The memory bank is pivotal. It is designed by our Creator to take images on its sensitive plate of God – to be filled with God’s good, and power. You can cleanse bad memories you have, by continually investing good memories, awareness, and gratitude of God’s good. Your life will take on spiritual power. A person is who he/she thinks, or eats, or reads, but more so a person is what he/she remembers within their own memory bank.

In the classic play “Macbeth,” Shakespeare said: “Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased? Pluck from the memory of a rooted sorrow.”

I’m going to ask you a question this morning: Do you have any rooted sorrows in your mind? If you do, you don’t want them there anymore. You do not need them. As a matter of fact, not only do you not need the rooted sorrows, but they are blocking you from God’s good. You have this rooted sorrow between your conscious-awareness mind and God mind.

In our Bible, James 1:7, 8, “A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.”

You must go back to your Source, your original depositor, and let God’s clear light flood your whole being with Divine Truth. Your body CAN BE the Temple of the living God. You must lay aside, forever, the idea of serving two masters and must look to the one Master, Christ. Jesus said that He came not to destroy the law, but that the law might be fulfilled through Him. It is the mission of every person born into the world to fulfill the law of Being, to allow God to come through in all phases of her or his mind, perfectly.

The Bible says, “Be subject, therefore, unto God. Draw nigh to God and God will draw nigh to you.”

God thinks. God responds. God is omni-responsive. God never gets to the point where God does not respond to you individually. If you turn to God and ask God to do something, God is going to hear you. Don’t look to appearances of all the debris in there. Ask God to flood your entire memory bank with light. You ask God and God is omni-responsive. God responds and cleansing happens.

Do you remember the story of the prodigal son? Go a little way, and God will come the rest of the way to greet you. You do not have to figure out, in conscious-awareness mind, the formula, the magic words, the keys to open this up. God knows how to cleanse you from inside out.

In Lewis Carroll’s “Through the Looking Glass,” the queen says: “It’s a poor sort of memory that only works backwards.” Memory bank is supposed to work forward by letting your being with positive thoughts and feelings, to bless you, to comfort and strengthen you, to guide you around pitfalls in life, by helping you to remember your connectedness to the Source.

God is ever ready to pour forth a Divine blessing, quick to respond to the call of the conscious awareness. God is omnipresent, but humans have hedged themselves about by a world of illusion of their own creating, and through its mists, they cannot see God, or catch the light from God. Jesus came to give us conscious control of the intelligence and the power necessary to dispel these mists, where we think we are alone and that we have to do it all alone. Jesus gave us the ability to dispel the fog, just like an early morning fog lifts with the light of the sun. When it lifts we can see, feel, and perceive that God IS WITH US.

There is not one person who is not equipped in this way. Each person has God’s help ready and willing to help at any time. God will lift you up, regenerate your memory bank, and transform the memory bank into the true image and likeness of God. It will happen by your saying you want it, in prayer.

There is an old saying: “Don’t be a single-stringed harp.” Can you imagine if a harp had only one string? You would get tired of that one note pretty quickly. Imagine that conscious mind is only looking in one direction, and yet, worry and fear in the human being do just that.

Imagine memory that only looks in one direction and turns its back on God. We don’t have to. We can find God right where we are.

As the old, bad memories come up, those things that hurt you in the past, what do you do? You don’t buy oats for a dead horse.

It’s just a mist. If you look closely through it, you will see God’s help. And as you see God through the fog and the mist of the old memory that is rising, you have taken away its power once and for all. It will never again have power to disturb you.

In the Bible it says, “A new heart also will I give you.” In this section of the Bible, the heart refers to your memory bank. “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you.” The whole mind will be raised to a new consciousness. This is what I pray happens now.

I pray, like the Bible says, that you have the same mind that was in Christ Jesus.

Let us pray:

Through the action of God, I ask and call forth a whole new spirituality in and through me.

I decree in Jesus Christ’s name that, in every level of my mind, I am being cleansed. I pray my memory bank is being cleansed by God. It is being cleansed through and through with the true light that lighteth every human. It lights the darkness in me now.

God’s light that does not allow any darkness to remain in me.

In Jesus Christ’s name … Amen

PRAYER / MEDITATION___________________

As you rest, think within yourself about your positive faith. You have faith in God. God is your instant, constant, abundant help in every need.

You have faith in God to open ways where to human sense there is no way. You have faith in God to guide, govern, and direct you in Divine directed service.

Rising up in you now is a faith in God to raise your human understanding to Divine higher understanding. You have faith in God. And because God is with you, you have faith in yourself as a child of God, eager to do God’s bidding.

Rest in the silence of prayer …

Dear God, I expect a miracle. Understanding that my help comes from You, I will not limit You with preconceived opinions of human mind. I am open and receptive to Your unlimited reservoir of good.

The abundance of God’s good is mine to use, share and enjoy. I am dwelling in the midst of infinite abundance of good. The abundance of God is my infinite source. The river of life is flowing through me, from God, through my memory, to, and through, my entire body. The river of life never stops flowing. It flows through me into lavish expression of God’s good.

Good comes to me through unexpected avenues. There is always a higher outworking of God’s law. It demonstrates in my life this day. God works in so many ways with so many wonders that I cannot even perceive of them in human mind this moment. Nothing is too good to be true because I dwell in the midst of all good and all love of God. Nothing is too wonderful to happen. With God as my source, nothing amazes me.

Rest in the silence of prayer …

I now give myself, freely and fearlessly, into this amazing, happy life that I am living today. Life gives back to me with fabulous increase. Blessings come in expected and unexpected ways from God.

God provides for me in wondrous ways this very day.

I am in grateful gratitude for what God is now doing for me, right now.

The river of God life flows through me now. The unlimited reservoir of good and love is outpouring on me, right now.

Rest in the silence of prayer …

May God’s good uplift you and fuel you in your daily life. Nothing else will exist but thoughts of God’s good. We turn to God now with our whole mind. We call forth the total, complete cleansing of God, as you rest it occurs. We ask that all negative thoughts dissipate like a mist. Like a fog, it will dissipate, under the heat of God’s light, and be no more.

We call forth the thoughts of God. We call forth a new reservoir and an investment of God power within us. Today, this moment, the action is taking place inside of each of us. We are created anew in God.

Rest in the silence of prayer …

If an old negative memory should ever coming up, dear God, with Your help, I will receive the blessing of light. I will have better dreams at night.
I will have a wonderful power during the day that gives me a foundation for my faith filled life to rest on. My positive thoughts 1,000 times more power. Every thought in me is a thought of God.

May my mind be a reservoir of God’s Divine ideas that hold to the truth about me.

Rest in the silence of prayer …

Thank You God, for Your ever abiding presence in my life.

In Jesus Christ’s name we pray … Amen.

Since 1999 – The worldwide PRAYER PLACE inside the Internet, serving well over 1,000,000 every day. Welcoming all faiths, excluding no one. Reaching the ends of the earth with the positive message of God. Not connected to any church, Positive Christianity is a Prayer Ministry without walls, physical or denominational, that the world can instantly access and use without cost.

ARCHIVES of recent Positive Daily Inspiration is available on our homepage; use anything you wish.

FREE Encyclopedia of Prayers: http://www.positivechristianity.org/prayersearch.php

NEED PRAYER? Click here – if you have a prayer need, Positive Christianity will start praying with you, daily, for an entire month. There Is Never a Charge for Prayer.

Easter offering:
Instant online donation:
https://positivechristianity.net/donation-tithe/
By mail: Positive Christianity Box 7993 Woodlands, TX 77387

GOD BLESS YOU, Happy Easter!
Christopher Ian Chenoweth

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22Mar

POSITIVE WRITTEN SERMON – Easter

POSITIVE WRITTEN SERMON - Easter

Time Sensitivity: Easter Sunday

A FREE GIFT FOR CLERGY

Positive Written Sermons is a FREE service of Positive Christianity to those ACTIVE IN CLERGY MINISTRY to ease your burdens in ministry. Each positive sermon is non-denominational; feel free to tailor to your denominational needs, or personal style. We consider our sermons to be 90% complete; they await your personal stories and anecdotes.

Also, great lesson material available free daily – get Positive Daily Inspiration direct in your email inbox every morning. Text POSITIVEMINISTRY to 22828 to easy, free subscribe.

_____________________________________

For hundreds of years, Hebrew seers had believed that a man was to come, who would fulfill the noblest ideals of humanity. This ideal man, they foretold, would be the Messiah, the anointed One, the beloved of God, the Savior. They prophesied that He would lead His people out of darkness and distress, into the light and joy that was to come. From the days of Moses, who declared, Jehovah thy God will raise up unto thee a prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken [Duet. 18:15, KJV].

Throughout the period of the great literary prophets, there had been these predictions. How and when this Messiah was to come the prophets did not know; nevertheless, they had a definite conception of what He would be like. Of all the prophets, Isaiah had the clearest vision. He said that a maiden would bear a son whose name would be Immanuel (which means God with us). He would be a redeemer, a king to whose sovereignty there would be no end.

Allow me to share with you Isaiah 9:2-5. The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light; they that dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined … For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, everlasting Father, Prince of Peace [KJV].

Isaiah gave a clear description of the nature of the anointed One. The Spirit of Jehovah shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the [respect] of Jehovah … and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither decide after the hearing of his words; but with righteousness shall he judge the poor, an decide with equity for the needy of the earth; and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth; and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked. And righteousness shall be the girdle of his waist, and faithfulness the girdle of his loins [Isaiah 11:2-5, KJV].

The prophet declared that the kingdom of the Messiah would be universal, not only for humans, but for all creation. And the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them … They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of Jehovah, as the waters cover the sea [Isaiah 11:6-9].

Truly this was a remarkable person. Allow me to share with you the most remarkable story of all–the Easter story, what we are here to celebrate this morning.

Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.”

Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went toward the tomb. The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, and the cloth that had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself.

Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead. Then the disciples returned to their homes.

There is an important fact here. There were two disciples, who ran to the tomb, and there are two disciples who run to your tomb–whatever you have entombed in your life; and whatever you are hoping on this Easter morning will rise again.

The two disciples were Peter and John. They spiritually represent faith and love.

But love gets there first. Mary Magdalene, the soul that has found faith and love, is not afraid once they come.

With love and faith, we, too, can face anything. Allow your love to go forward and your faith will follow. The two have a great, united strength where you can do anything; where you can face your fears if you allow these two powers, which are with you (Christ powers), to go ahead.

You remember, the two disciples ran on their way to their homes, but Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” When she said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?

You can just hear Jesus saying this. My Jesus, and, I hope, your Jesus, is a smiling Jesus, a Jesus with joy and a great sense of humor. I can just see Him. It is one of the peak moments of His life, filled with joy. And here is Mary in sorrow. He looks at Mary and says, “Mary, why are you weeping? Here I am. I am right here.”

But she supposed Him to be the gardener. She had tears in her eyes; she was in great sorrow. She looked up, but could not see clearly. She was still crying uncontrollably. She said to Him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, [probably in total disbelief] “Rabbouni!” (which means Teacher). Jesus said to her, “Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'” Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”; and she told them that he had said these things to her.

There were five appearances of Jesus on the day of the Resurrection (Easter Sunday). Appearance #1 was when Mary was standing at the tomb weeping. Mary’s weeping was the human reaction of grief over the death of a loved one. And added to her grief was the fear that someone had stolen Jesus’ body.

The two angels represent the positive words of life that bring spiritual power to bear; that lift the body out of matter into spirit. These two bright and shining powers are possessed of animated intelligence.

Jesus was standing nearby, but Mary’s eyes were filled with tears and at first, she did not recognize Him. When He asked why she wept, she thought He was the gardener. However, when He called her by name, she turned and knew Him in that moment. Jesus said to her, “Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended unto the Father.”

Why did Jesus not want Mary to touch Him? Later, in the same afternoon, He appeared to other women and did not object if they touched Him. It would seem that Mary was closer to Him than the others; for she had served Him continually from the time He had healed her, early in His ministry. Her grief, therefore, was heavier to carry than theirs.

In order to rise into the realm of God purity, the Christ must not be attached to the clinging affections of the soul. Jesus did not want the sorrowing thought of Mary to touch Him. The spiritual mind does not grieve; it does not look to matter and the limitations of the flesh for life eternal, and it dissipates the thoughts of sorrow by a denial of their reality or their power to affect the mind of the Son of God

The second appearance of Jesus was to the other women, who had come with Mary Magdalene to anoint His body. It probably took place in the garden of Joseph of Arimathaea. It is recorded only in the Gospel of Matthew.

And behold, Jesus met them, saying, “All hail.” And they came and took hold of his feet and worshipped him. Then saith Jesus unto them, “Fear not: go tell my brethren that they depart into Galilee, and there shall they see me [Matthew 28:9, 10].

The third appearance of Jesus Christ was to Peter. The details of it are unknown, though the visit is referred to by Luke and also by Paul in I Corinthians 15:5. “The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon” (Luke 24:34).

The fourth appearance of Jesus Christ on Easter Sunday was toward evening. Jesus appeared to two disciples on the road to Emmaus. This is a beautiful instance of Jesus’ desire to open the eyes of those who believe. The two disciples, with sad and anxious hearts, were discussing the incidents of the past two days, when a stranger joined them and asked about their distress.

I love Jesus and I love the way He smiles through all these events. He just joins them and walks with them for a while. I can just see Him doing this.

The stranger said, “Tell me why you are so sorrowful?” They were surprised that anyone who lived in Jerusalem had not heard of the crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth, a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people [Luke 24:19]. It had been their hope that He was the long-awaited Messiah. True, the report was abroad that He had risen from the dead, but no one had seen Him. These two had not heard of His appearances to Mary Magdalene and the other women.

After He reproached the two disciples for their lack of understanding and faith, the Master explained the Old Testament prophecies concerning suffering and glory that were to be experienced by Jesus Christ. When the three arrived at Emmaus, the disciples invited Him to share their food.

When he had sat down with them to meat, he took the bread and blessed; and breaking it he gave to them. And their eyes were opened, and they knew him; and he vanished out of their sight. And they said to one another, “Was not our heart burning within us while he spoke to us on the way, while he opened to us the scripture? [Luke 24:30-32, KJV].

With all speed, the two disciples returned to Jerusalem to tell the great news to the apostles. They found them and others with them, but before the two could relay their news, they were greeted with the joyous tidings, “the Lord is risen indeed.” Then the men from Emmaus told of their experience with the risen Jesus Christ.

The fifth appearance of Jesus was in the evening. Ten of the apostles were together in a room. The door was closed. Suddenly, Jesus came and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, “Peace be unto you.” And when he had said this, he showed unto them his hands and his side. The disciples therefore were glad when they saw the Lord. Jesus therefore said to them again, “Peace be unto you: as the Father hath sent me, even so send I you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, “Receive ye the Holy Spirit: whosoever sins ye forgive, they are forgiven unto them; whosoever sins ye retain, they are retained [John 20:19-23].

John the Baptist had baptized with water unto repentance, but he said of Jesus, “He shall baptize you in the Holy Spirit and in fire” [Matthew 3:11].

When we have received a concept of the relation that we, as spiritual beings, have to God, the old state of thought is easily dissolved and washed away by that of which water baptism is symbolical–denial. Then, there come into our mind ideas directly from God, and we see everything in a new light. This baptism of the Holy Spirit quickens the whole human. When the mind has received words of God, the way is open for the healing power, which is called the Holy Spirit, or the Spirit of wholeness, to descend further into the body consciousness. This outpouring or inpouring of the Holy Spirit is the second baptism.

This second baptism may be considered as the taking on of Divine ideas by affirmation of total faith.

The ten apostles gladly accepted the news, but Thomas thought the news was just too good to be true. He said, “Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails and put my finger into the print of the nails and put my hand into his side, I will not believe” [John 20:25]. A week after the Resurrection, Thomas was given the proof he required.

Through His Divinity, we understand our own connection to God. What is the secret of Jesus’ enduring influence? One basic reason is that man is a spiritual being, made in the image and likeness of God. Everyone may not be aware of this, but we, instinctively, respond to the One whose every word and act was evidence of His divinity.

The voice of our spiritual self may be faint; we may even deliberately close our ears to it, yet it continues to sound and ever urges a climb to higher ground. Jesus made this ascent, and by our spiritual kinship with Him we are drawn to Him.

In mind, we are all related to a great creative Spirit of God that infuses its very life into our mind and body, when we turn our attention to it. We have, mentally, wandered away from this creative Spirit of God and lost contact with its life-giving currents. Jesus made connection for us, and through Him, we again begin to draw vitality from the great fountainhead.

This higher state of consciousness is what we are here to celebrate this morning that can overcome anything, that can overcome any tomb, anything that is dead in our lives. This higher state of consciousness is possible to all who follow Jesus by claiming their Divine heritage of choice to know they, too, are connected with God.

His promise is I go to prepare a place for you, that where I am you may be also. Through His great overcoming, Jesus released the Christ consciousness into the universal ethers. Those who keep His word may enter into it.

The Easter story! And it is true–every last word of it is true. It is the enduring influence we have of His message and the possibility of attainment we have by following that message that we are here on this Easter morning to celebrate.

God bless you!

PRAYER / MEDITATION_________________________________

What a joy it is to again pray. As you close your eyes, realize you are not only praying with your family, but also with people around the world. I ask you to join me in this time of prayer.

At this sacred time, we come together for a single purpose. That single purpose is united prayer. The prayers we share reach out to touch people in every corner of our city, at all churches, for prayer is universal.

We join our hearts and minds in stillness. God surrounds us as we move into this time of tranquility. We relax our minds and bodies, and we turn our thoughts toward God’s Presence. A calming peace washes over you and you feel at one with the Christ.

As you dwell in the silence of prayer, you remember these comforting words of Jesus Christ: Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Take this thought with you, this Easter morning, into the silence of prayer. ..

Our prayer for inner peace is: The Christ is risen as peace. Hold that in your thinking. You are centered in peace.

You now focus your thought on Divine direction. You know that you are never alone as you travel the path of life. The Christ is always with you, to guide and direct you. In every situation, Christ is the ray of light that shines brightly, illuminating our way.

We walk through life serene and secure. We know our paths are bright and our way is clear. How grateful we are, dear God, for guidance. How certain we are that the way to the perfect plan lies before us.

Make me to know Thy ways, oh Lord. Teach me Thy paths. Our prayer for guidance is: The Christ is risen as light. My path is clear. Accept that, now, in the silence of prayer …

Centered in the Christ presence, we gently turn our thoughts to healing. Begin to sense that irrepressible desire for perfect health and wholeness. Our nature is to be strong and well. As we pray and believe, we feel the healing work taking place within us.

We know that even the smallest cell reacts to the Christ presence. Each atom of our bodies attracts the healing love of God. We are bathed in perfect health, which becomes more and more evident.

“For I will restore health to you; and your wounds I will heal,” says the Lord. Our prayer for healing is: The Christ is risen as life. I am healed. We totally accept that thought, now, in the silence of prayer. As we do so, it moves into our body-consciousness; the atoms and cells of our physical body temple accept that thought at the same time …

And now we, consciously, open ourselves to the good that awaits us. Our world is filled with abundance of every kind, and it is ours to enjoy. We have faith that Christ is providing for all of our needs. As we realize this, any impression of lack disappears.

As we bask in the light of prosperity, we remember that as children of a loving Provider, we are always cared for in generous ways. As we learn to graciously receive, we also learn to give; and we are twice blessed.

And the Lord will make you abound in prosperity. Our prayer for prosperity is: The Christ is risen as love. I give and receive bountifully. Accept that right now in the silence of prayer …
We now return our attention to the present moment, bringing with us, on this Easter Sunday morning a new perspective, of the activity of Christ within us. We are filled with thoughts of peace, guidance, health, and prosperity. We go forward from this place to rediscover our God-given good.

The light of God surrounds us;
The love of God enfolds us;
The power of God protects us;
The presence of God watches over us.
Wherever we are, God is!

In Jesus Christ’s name we pray … Amen.

Since 1999 – The worldwide PRAYER PLACE inside the Internet, serving well over 1,000,000 every day. Welcoming all faiths, excluding no one. Reaching the ends of the earth with the positive message of God. Not connected to any church, Positive Christianity is a Prayer Ministry without walls, physical or denominational, that the world can instantly access and use without cost.

ARCHIVES of recent Positive Daily Inspiration is available on our homepage; use anything you wish.

FREE Encyclopedia of Prayers: http://www.positivechristianity.org/prayersearch.php

NEED PRAYER? Click here – if you have a prayer need, Positive Christianity will start praying with you, daily, for an entire month. There Is Never a Charge for Prayer.

DONATIONS Thank You for helping us with this great free work for ministers of every faith:
Instant online donation:
https://positivechristianity.net/donation-tithe/
By mail: Positive Christianity Box 7993 Woodlands, TX 77387

GOD BLESS YOU,
Christopher Ian Chenoweth

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15Mar

POSITIVE WRITTEN SERMON – Palm Sunday

POSITIVE WRITTEN SERMON - Palm Sunday

Time Sensitivity: Palm Sunday

A FREE GIFT FOR CLERGY

Positive Written Sermons is a FREE service of Positive Christianity to those ACTIVE IN CLERGY MINISTRY to ease your burdens in ministry. Each positive sermon is non-denominational; feel free to tailor to your denominational needs, or personal style. We consider our sermons to be 90% complete; they await your personal stories and anecdotes.

Also, great lesson material available free daily – get Positive Daily Inspiration direct in your email inbox every morning. Text POSITIVEMINISTRY to 22828 to easy, free subscribe.

“The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows God’s handywork.” Psalms 19:1

(Find picture of Albrecht Deuer’s “Praying Hands” on the Internet. Ideally place picture on PowerPoint to project or copy for front of Sunday bulletin.)

Today I share a beautiful piece of art with you. You have seen this before. It is one of the most famous pieces of art that exists to inspire humankind. This is Albrecht Deuer’s “Praying Hands.” In churches of all religions around the world, there are hundreds of thousands of these.

It’s a beautiful piece. He was a genius. Many of his paintings are so great that they hang in the great galleries of the world. Of all the great art pieces, this is one of the very best. Years after it was painted, this was sculpted from one of the paintings. This is a copy of what is in the prayer chapel at Northwestern University. Let me share the story with you of this great work.

There were two struggling artists. It is believed they lived in France. They were trying to make it financially, but it was obvious that they both couldn’t go to art school because they didn’t have the money. They both wanted to go. Albrecht wanted to go and his friend, Hans, (who lived with him), also wanted to go. But the problem was, they had to make the decision as to who went first. Hans said to Albrecht, “Please you go on. I’ll stay back here and work. I’ll send you the money. You start to work and get paid for your work, and then I’ll get to go to school. I’ll then learn to be a great painter also.”

Albrecht said, “All right. But why don’t you go first?” They argued back and forth, and finally Hans won the argument so his friend, Albrecht would be the one to go first.

So Albrecht went to Paris and learned all the creative things needed to be a great artist. Three years later, he went back to the small town in France to see his friend, Hans. He knew right away that there had been a great price paid by Hans. He looked at Hans’ hands which had been doing manual labor during these years. They were stiff and gnarled. They could no longer hold a delicate brush. His friend had given his all–his love–so that Albrecht could go and give his life to creating things of beauty.

Albrecht looked at Hans and said, “May I do something for you? May I paint those hands that I love?”

Hans said, “How could anyone love these hands? They are so twisted and calloused.”

Albrecht held his hands and said, “No. I love these hands.” He painted these hands in the praying fashion that we know so well, because he had seen his friend pray many, many times before.

Legend says Albrecht gave this painting to Hans around 1342. The rest became history. But listen to the complete story. The complete story tells a lot about friendship, about giving ourselves to God, and about helping someone else to obtain something great. Probably because of his doing manual labor, Hans gave the world something greater than he could have ever done himself. God always has a plan. In a way, Hans was much more of a genius and gave the world much more than Albrecht did. He gave his all, that the artistic beauty of the genius could be seen. It’s like Jesus Christ gave us His all.

It is spiritual to care for others more than you care for yourself. You will also find through God’s love that you cannot give more away than you receive.

All good spiritual work is prayer. You too can make wondrous prayers. You don’t necessarily have to have your hands in this fashion. You can pray at any time. Archbishop Trench once said this about prayer: “Prayer is not overcoming God’s reluctance. It is laying hold of God’s highest willingness.” So often, when we are like this in prayer, we wrongly think that God is reluctant to answer our prayers. We think we have to somehow speak in a certain way, and somehow, we have to convince God to help us. But God is a willing God – if we are willing to make that triumphant spiritual entry like Jesus Christ did.

I pray that you, yourself, can obtain a spiritual connection in your own life. This is something that each person needs in his or her own individual life.

That’s the reason we’re here.

We come together in our humanness to discover the presence of God; God is ever willing to work with us, in us, and around us.

“One day Jesus had a blind man come up to him. The blind man said to Him, ‘Lord, let me receive my sight.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Receive your sight. Your faith has made you well.’ Immediately he received his sight and followed Him, glorifying God. “(Luke 18:41-43).

The story is not clear on how many were with Jesus when these events were taking place, but you had one incredibly grateful blind man who was seeing, possibly for the first time in his life. The events he was going to see had great significance.

Let’s pretend that up to this moment we were blind, and we have just received our sight. When you get into church you are going to hear a message you have NEVER heard before. Your awareness of God is so great that even the messages that you know well, become new. It has to become new IN you. It has to be seen and heard in a new way, a deeper, more profound way.

In Mark 11:1 it says: “And when they drew near to Jerusalem, to Bethphage and Bethany, at the Mount of Olives … “

Let me explain, first, what the names of these cities meant. Names, in Biblical times, had great spiritual significance to the people. Jerusalem meant a habitation of peace. Imagine in your life if you were drawing near to a habitation of peace. Jesus spiritually knew what was going to happen. You wonder how could this Man, headed toward a crucifixion, have peace? How can you, head toward a crucifixion, or tremendous difficulty, in some area of your life, and still have peace? You can, if you have a high awareness of the Presence of God with you, helping you.

Bethphage is a place of unripe fruit. It is a place in our awareness where grace is realized, but it is just coming into realization. The fruit is there, but it is not quite ready yet; it is not ripe. There is still more to be done. You have had times like that. You have had an idea, but it is not ready yet. You have got it, but you don’t have all the details. You have been guided by God to do something, but you do not know yet where your next step is going to take you.

Bethany means wailing, limitations and affliction. But it also spiritually signifies the demonstration OVER these conditions.

You have a wonderful realization that God’s good is coming. And then you have a town (or a place in your awareness) you are drawing near to which is trouble or difficulty. That is normal in life. Just realize that God is with you. God will get you through this difficult time.

He said to two of His disciples, “Go into the village opposite you, and immediately as you enter it you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever sat.”

I think that is the greatest miracle of this whole lesson. If I bring a colt in this church and ask you to sit on this colt – but I add, “By the way, no one has ever sat on this colt.” I’ll tell you; you might want to do it, but you would be foolish if you sat on it. This colt would throw you, and you would be airborne for some time.

It never happened to Jesus. He sat on that animal, what some consider the lowest of animals, and He tamed it immediately. It didn’t buck or throw Him off because of His consciousness and His awareness of His divinity. This was the highest moment in the animal’s life as well as for the people who had the colt. In Eastern places, when a holy man wanted to borrow a colt, it was a high honor for the family to give that colt over to him. And Jesus knew exactly where the colt would be. He told his disciples:

“Untie it and bring it. If anyone says to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say ‘The Lord has need of it and will send it back here immediately.’ And they went away, and found a colt tied at the door out in the open street; and they said to them, ‘What are you doing untying the colt?’ And they told them what Jesus had said, and they let them go.

“And they brought the colt to Jesus, and threw their garments on it and He sat upon it. And many spread their garments on the road, and others spread branches which they had cut from the fields. And those who went before and those who followed cried out, ‘Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!'”

“In the name of” … means “in the nature of.”

They will say that TO YOU every time you come into a situation in the name of the Lord. If you come into your home and your family is quite dysfunctional and fighting, and you come in – in the name and nature of the Lord, (which is love), and bring harmony and peace to that situation, they will call you blessed. If you do this in your workplace, or wherever you are, you can come in the name of the Lord and make others feel God’s presence.

Hosanna means “save now.” There are many times when you want to be saved from the situation you are approaching. Many people here have high anxiety because of something that is facing them. We are yelling out Hosanna. God is a bigger God than any problem you face in your life. If you have this attitude, if you have this trust in God, you too will ride on the colt inside of you. This colt is your human nature, your lower nature that can buck with worry, and throw you off. You WILL ride and it will not buck or throw you off even though you have been thrown many times before, when you did not approach in a spiritual way.

Have you ever been so nervous that you actually shake? It’s like a bucking bronco. We do it to ourselves through worry and anxiety. If Jesus would have done it, we would not have blamed Him. He could have been in a real anxiety state. But He was not, He was calm. The animal was calm. He rode the animal, and He was not bucked off.

“Blessed is the kingdom of our father David that is coming! Hosanna in the highest!”

Hosanna in the highest; save now in the highest. Every time you need saving from something in your life, you can be saved in the highest by God. God is the highest. If you want to go to someplace that will never turn you away, that will always be willing, that will always accept you and love you, it is the Lord God Almighty. God will never forsake you. God will never fail you.

“And He entered Jerusalem and went into the temple; and when He had looked at everything, as it was already late, He left and went out to Bethany with the twelve.”

When He looked around the temple, He saw many things that were wrong. He saw some things that needed to be changed. He saw a lot of people were not praying aright. He was quite disturbed by this into that evening. The proof of this is His actions the next day.

“On the following day, when they came from Bethany, He was hungry. And seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, He went to see if He could find anything on it. When He came to it, He found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. And He said to it, ‘May no one ever eat fruit from you again.'”

This means, in our own life, we have to be ready to produce fruit. We have to be ready so that we may be known by our fruit. Our big moment comes daily. Maybe it is a family situation where everyone is fighting, or an office situation where there is in-harmony, or maybe you’ve been laid off from work. Instead of riding that bucking bronco of worry and fear, know that God is with you, and you are going to be okay. That is what produces spiritual fruit of the harvest in our lives.

You become the light of the world. It doesn’t stay within you. It goes forth and blesses everyone around you.

We will never know how many people we bless when we are holding to trust in God. Others see it. They will look at you and say, “You have something I want. How do I get some?”

“And they came to Jerusalem. And He entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold and those who bought in the temple, and He overturned the tables of the moneychangers and the seats of those who sold pigeons; and He would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple.”

What does it mean that He wouldn’t allow anyone to carry anything through the temple? We often carry our fears into our places of worship, and we forget to let go of them there; we continue to carry them. Do you know what will really make you more religious? Prayer. You can fold your hands or sit or stand … however you choose, as long as your thoughts are on God Almighty. That is what makes you religious whether you’re inside the temple or wherever you are. You are the religious symbol of the church.

“And He taught and said to them, ‘It is not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations?’ You have made this a den of robbers.'”

We ARE a house of prayer. We are here to help. And we know all help comes through us from God. It is our willingness working, our human willingness to allow the Divine to come through. We have to watch that we may never make our churches places of robbers. We have to take the focus off the humanness and put it on God.

“And the chief priests and the scribes heard it and sought a way to destroy Him; for they feared Him, because all the multitude was astonished at His teaching. And when evening came, they went out of the city. And they passed by in the morning, and they saw the fig tree withered away to its roots.”

That will happen to us if we do not let our spiritual fruits shine forth. If we do not allow that nature of God to come through us instead of our lower, human, animal nature, we’ll wither away also. It says so many places in the Bible. But that is not going to happen to you. Truly, if you are in a place where you have been withered, if you turn to God, you will experience the resurrection again. That is the message of Christianity – eternal life out of death. There are many areas of our lives that can be dead in the moment. They can come back to life again because God is a God of new life.

“And Peter remembered and said to Him, ‘Master, look! The fig tree which you cursed has withered.’ And Jesus answered them, ‘Have faith in God. Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, `Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him.'”

When you pray, believe. Have your willingness allow God’s willingness to come through.

Jesus on prayer, “Therefore, I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone; so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.” Mark 11:24, 25

In other words, replace the lower, human, animal nature of resentment, hate, and envy with love. Allow that Divine love to shine in you and through every part of you. To make this a house of prayer for all nations, prepare for the experience.

You are going to make a triumphant entry into spiritual power and answered prayer. You are going to prepare by being willing for God to work in your life.

Second, you are going to rely completely upon God’s guidance. That is important. If you are filled with worry and fear, and you’re all tense, let go and let God.

Third, you need to concentrate on God and God’s power. You enter into the time of the silence of prayer. In due time, in the silence of prayer, you hear the message.

In hearing the message, you usually don’t hear a knock and God’s voice out loud. You often get an idea. The idea is like unripe fruit at that point. It is a new grace coming into your life. But if you act on the idea, something is going to happen. That is the message. And then, you live the blessed life. You have to walk the way Jesus walked and think the way Jesus thought and act the way Jesus acted. You cannot resort back to the way you were.

Constance Foster said, “I am convinced that every prayer we make is answered. Actually, our wishes and prayers bring the most inescapable results in the world. They are coming through constantly to our lives and our affairs. If you want to know what you have been praying for, just take a good look at the situation in which you find yourself as of this moment. It is the answer to your real prayer.”

Ernest Wilson wrote a book called The Week That Changed the World. He said, “Come with me God’s way. This is the invitation of the Christ.

Trust God. He is telling us in many ways. He entered Jerusalem not to fulfill His human will as Jesus, but His Divine purpose as Christ. His nature in us today is the same. It calls us to new heights of daring. It seems at times many problems put things at risk. It points to unchartered ways, sometimes at variance with the worldly security or acclaim.”

Let us pray. Dear God, as I would receive the blessings and promises of the kingdom, so I would also accept the discipline. Let my will and persistence claim higher goals than worldly gain alone. Like one who was to follow You, I would not be found unfaithful to that heavenly vision. I would keep the faith, run the course, and follow the light as Your nature grants me to see the light.

Thank You, God, for helping me begin to obtain a triumphant spiritual entry in my own life.

In Jesus Christ’s name we pray.

Amen.

PRAYER / MEDITATION_____________________________

What a holy time this moment is! This is a moment when you are turning to God, closing your eyes to the outside world and to its cares and concerns. This is a moment when you turn to the All-powerful Presence of God. And it is a moment when you spiritually hear. You hear that your problems are not really so big. And you learn how big God really is.

We do not really know God until we know God as love. We may have an intellectual understanding of God. We may have faith in God as Creator. But we do not know God until we feel love in our hearts and express love in our daily lives. Even when we think, speak and act from our highest understanding, we find that occasions arise which can only be met by the special calling upon the power of Divine love.

When wisdom is there, a problem cannot overpower us. When wisdom to solve a problem in our human self may fail us, love clarifies it and provides the answer. When there is discord and alienation to be overcome, God’s love works to restore understanding and harmony.

Now, during our prayer time, listen to these words from the Holy Bible (1 Corinthians 13:4-7):

“Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong but rejoices in the right. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”

Allow God’s love to become part of your nature, your mind, your body, your awareness. Allow the love of God to flow through you in this time of silent prayer …

Dear God, I pray that I love more. I pray that I walk away from human judgment and that I see with the eyes of love. I pray that I see all men and women in love. With God’s love, I do not judge. With love, I accept others. I pray that I am able to love You more. Dear God, I know that love compensates for every deficiency in my life. And it removes all barriers to complete and happy living. If I take offense or if I give offense, love erases the wrong and transmutes the experience into something good. If our spirits are down, Divine love is mighty to uplift us.

I pray this hour that love is the wonder working power of God in my life. I pray that it will take the least desirable things in my life and transform them into objects to be supremely desired. An environment ever so unpleasing – can be transformed as love puts God’s enhancements into unhappy conditions. Joy and peace come in to refashion along me lines of harmony and grace.

Many of us have problems at the workplace. I pray that God’s love comes in. I pray that unhappy conditions in our homes are transmuted this hour into joy and peace. I pray that God manifests as love in many forms and in many ways in every area of your life. I pray that unselfishness is part of my being from this moment on. I pray that I give of myself more. And I pray that I fulfill the law which never fails, which casts out fear, which gives peace of absolute union with God.

In the silence of prayer …

I pray that we know God as unconditional, perfect love. I pray that we may experience the joy of rebirth in God’s love. And I pray that we yield ourselves to its wonderworking power and direct its creative energy towards all that needs to be adjusted, removed, harmonized, or healed in our lives this day.

Prepare yourself, now, for this to occur in the silence of prayer …

In Jesus Christ’s name I decree that you live in God and God lives with you. I pray that your heart overflows with an understanding love and your life is filled with harmony. And I pray that you make that triumphant entry into a new level of Thinking, into a new awareness, into a new life.

In the nature of Jesus Christ we pray, and we act …

Amen and Amen.

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Christopher Ian Chenoweth

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08Mar

POSITIVE WRITTEN SERMON – Asking For and Using God’s Help

POSITIVE WRITTEN SERMON - Asking For and Using God's Help

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“Do not worry about anything, but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be known to God.” Philippians 4:6

Is Life Overwhelming? I have heard some people say in the past, they do not want to bother God unless it is a crisis emergency situation. Some have said that God’s help is not to be used for small things.

Sometimes, life can become overwhelming. No matter how much we plan, or how much we prepare for it, sometimes things happen, and we feel out of control. We feel as if we do not have the power that we had before. Something has happened, but we don’t know exactly what.

Do you remember the story of the giant in “Gulliver’s Travels?” Here was a person, like us, who was all-powerful. Here was a person who could walk above problems. Here was a person who could seem undefeatable but the giant’s thoughts were working against him.

The giant in “Gulliver’s Travels” falls asleep on the beach. While he is sleeping, all these tiny, little people come, put strings over him, and then stake down the strings.

A few strings would be no problem at all. He could easily pull those up, sit up, and go about his way. But these little people worked all night long. Each tiny, little person came up to the giant and placed strings across him.

The giant wakes up and finds that he cannot move his arms or legs, and he cannot sit up, no matter how hard he tries because he is all tied down.

You and I have been the same experience, haven’t we of being all tied up in the thoughts and worries about momentary circumstances of our lives.

These little people are those little worries, those human thoughts, those little things that scramble around inside of your mind and that seem so uncontrollable. Every time they move across, they take a string with them. Soon you are tied down. Soon you are weak in thought and you don’t feel like you can get up again. Soon you think the weight of life is pulling you down.

You might say, “God, can I ever stand again? Can I walk tall and free? Can I ever be all I once was?”

You can! You can! With God’s help you can.

Sometimes, the things that happen to us can seem so overwhelming. But whatever they are, you can! You have the power – because God has the power and the know-how.

We have the ability to have a transfusion of thought where we totally change our mind; where we have a fusion (if you will) with a Mind that is greater than our mind, God’s Mind that knows how to lift us up and out of our problems. When we are free from selfishness, limitation, greed, fear, anxiety, hatred, and inferior feelings we can stand up to anything.

Revelation 21:4-5: “The former things are passed away … Behold, I make all things new. “

Who is “I?” The “I” is God. Imagine if God came up to you, tapped you on the shoulder, stood right by your side, looked into your eyes, smiled at you and said, “Don’t let the past burden you. Don’t let it tie you down on the beach of life anymore. Don’t worry about those waves. The past is no more. It has passed away and you have a brand-new life in Me.”

To truly follow Jesus Christ, we have to do this in our prayers, inside our own thinking.

There are four biblical keys to Jesus unfoldment, and four biblical keys to our own unfoldment.

Let me go through the biblical keys. In many original texts of the Bible Jesus is referred to four different ways. These four ways have real keys of mystery.

The first degree of unfoldment: Jesus.
The second degree of unfoldment: Jesus Christ.
The third degree of unfoldment: Christ Jesus.
The fourth degree of unfoldment: Christ.

I’m going to relate this to you because everyone goes through the same experiences as those people in our beloved Bible. In our own spiritual growth, if we are following Jesus, we must go through the same experiences Jesus did.

“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father.” John 14:12

The first degree is Human/Jesus. This is the outward-directed human with aspirations of more spiritual consciousness. The outer child, in spirituality, that questions his powers and abilities. This is when you are totally outward directed. You wake up in the morning, you wonder, “What kind of day am I going to have?” You turn on the television and listen to the weatherman to help you determine what kind of day you are going to have. You go to work and see how others treat you. That determines what kind of day you’re going to have.

Outer events totally determine how you feel inside of yourself.

You are outward directed, but somewhere inside of you, you know that there is more. The thoughts you have that are not outward-directed are just “toy” thoughts.

Let me explain what I mean by “toy” thoughts.

Toy thoughts are the young person playing with dreams of the future or the old person playing with memories of the past.

Let’s suppose one day you get fed up with being tied on the beach and you say to yourself: “Isn’t this interesting? I’m tied down. I can’t move my arms or legs. I can’t go where I want to go or do what I want to do.”

Perhaps you feel tied down in your career. You know in that moment that there is more. You say: “Wait a minute! I can have more. With God’s help, I CAN be a success. I can do what I dream of doing. I don’t just have to play with these thoughts anymore. I CAN do it!”

There was a point sometime in the past, in your life, when you were seemingly tied down. Sometime, somewhere, when you dreamed about it, but you went BEYOND the dream.

You have to go through this again, and again, and again, to get beyond where you are, to go beyond the imagined potential.

If Jesus would have just imagined and daydreamed, He would not have lived up to his potential and His mission.

The second degree is Jesus Christ. This is the human consciousness merging with Christ consciousness. This is when you are merging your mind with God’s Mind, but you are still putting worldly things first. That is when you are still putting the weight of the world first, but you have a strong anchor of God consciousness somewhere inside of you. The Jesus Christ consciousness is growing, evolving, and becoming more in you.

The third degree is Christ Jesus. This is when the spiritual now comes first in your life. You have a Divine indifference to outside appearances.

That is like when you go into the doctor’s office and the doctor says, “I have a dying-nosis for you, it doesn’t look good.”

You say: “Wait a minute.” That’s not true, and through prayer you give yourself a living-nosis. It is a spiritual knowing about the healing power of God with you. You are more than you see within the image of the mirror.

Or it is like when someone says to you, “You really think you can build this business?”

There are always people in your life to give you a negative message. They do not know any better. They are looking just to outer appearances, not knowing about the spiritual help that is available behind the appearances. God is the great untier of your life, God is the great unbinder of all that has held you down.

You will have a Divine indifference to a negative message. You know you can do more because you are not alone. You know you can go beyond – be more, do more – because you have a knowledge of God who is bigger than any appearance that you, and others may see with their human eyes.

The fourth degree on our quest is the Christ. This is when we are in the world but not of it. This is when we no longer MAKE TIME for our faith, we now place God first; our faith comes first, and we have to make time for all other things. This is a HUGE difference.

Previously, we might have said: “Oh, God, I don’t have time to pray today because I’m so busy. I’d feel better if I had time to meditate, but you don’t know the pressure and deadlines I’m under.” How much better it is to allow faith to come first, to pray, and to meditate.

When you do this, you are recharging; you are getting ready; you are going apart for a while like Jesus did, and then you are coming back into the world fully powered, super-charged, ready to perform miracles. Nothing can stand in the way of the Divine power coming in and through you. You are then FULLY working with God. You are so much of God in action and God’s love in demonstration that people cease sensing you and they sense God. That is the Christ.

We have seen, or sensed those in life that manifest this degree. Mother Teresa is an example that comes to mind.

Is this a one-time experience? It’s not even a one-time daily experience. It is something we have to constantly decide upon, choose, and do. When we do, we truly follow Jesus, we live up to our potential of all we can do and be.

Jesus told us: “Leave your nets.” These are nets of personal involvement. What do your nets pick up? If you are putting down your nets in your human mind and catching things, your nets are picking up thoughts of people who are telling you that you can’t build your future, you can’t prosper, or the dying-nosis that says you can’t rebuild the cells in your body with God’s help to produce new wholeness and life.

Jesus said, “Leave your nets – and follow me.” What does that mean?

It does not mean to follow Him with just your feet. It means to follow Him with your head and heart.

There are a million miles between the two. We can run to every church and religious service and still never “get it.”

But we can close our eyes wherever we are in prayer and “get it” right where we are – in an instant. You have it within you to rely upon.

It is discipleship.

Discipleship means to perfect who I am, and to fully expect to perfect myself. Now, this is quite a difference. I can stand here and talk about perfecting, but I am not talking theory. This is practical, useful, life-changing practice.

We are taking it from theory, putting it inside of ourselves, and agreeing right now, in this time: “I will walk the talk. I will act in this way.”

When everyone around you is being unloving, you stand up and say: “This is it! Right now, if I really believe, if I am really going to follow Jesus Christ, I’m going to be loving RIGHT NOW.” Whatever it takes, make the spiritual decision, and live by it. No longer live in the means and ways of small mind.

Walt Whitman said, “I am not contained between my hat and my shoes, and neither are you.” You are much more.

Any time you think you are contained, you are like that giant tied down.

Any time you sit in a chair and think this is all there is to your life, you are like that giant tied down.

If something is going wrong and you’re depressed and you think this is all there is, you are like that giant tied down.

You need to go to a higher Mind than the mind that caused your problems, in order to heal your problems.

When you do, the strings just melt away. The burdens are no longer burdens because you have 1000 times the power. You follow Christ to your potential.

Christ IN YOU – the hope of glory!

We are not just to stand at the foot of the Cross and look up. We are to take Jesus down and follow Him by becoming what He said to become; by becoming an active student on the quest; by becoming that inside of ourselves, which will cause people outside of us to say, “Now there is an example – a sample of the great example – of Jesus.” We are active examples of our faith, OR not.

There is a story of a man watching a woman yelling at someone. He sees her open her car door which has bumper stickers of the church she attends on it. The man decides never to attend that church because obviously it’s not working.

Following Jesus, we become living examples of our faith. We sense it working in us, and so does everybody else.

We realize that Jesus did not have a sick, unhappy, vengeful, or judgmental God. We realize that He did not have a poor, limited God. We realize that my God is big enough to be your God, and bigger than any problem we both may EVER face.

We are not tied down to anything on earth, but instead tethered to heaven itself.

How do we do this?

There are three “D’s” to discipleship.

The first D – Discipline. This is renunciation and control over the little people who live inside of our minds, or those outside of us (the little people) who are shouting negativity that we have listened to for so long. Or maybe it is our own voice, which is saying: “I know how to get you. I know how to push your buttons. You have an inferior feeling right here, and this button is easy for me to push. This self-condemning voice can put you down for days.

Discipleship is standing up, inside of you, in the moment, becoming the giant you are, and not letting the little people tie you down any more. It is ending, once and for all, the tyranny of the unwanted in your life.

The second D – Dedication. It is a single-pointed focus. Matthew 6:22 Jesus states, “The light of the body is the eye: if therefore your eye be single, your whole body shall be full of light.”

In John 18:37 Jesus says, “For this I was born, and for this I have come into the world, to bear witness to the truth.” [RSV]

How would you bear witness to the truth if you decided to witness? IS IT to go to someone else to convince him or her to think the way we do? No. It is to live it. It’s to be a sample of the great example.

The only way you can ever really change a person is by him or her seeing something exhibited by you that he or she wants to become. This person will want it so badly that he will go after it himself, which means he will have to go in the same direction you did and in the same direction Jesus did.

The third D – Devotion. “Draw near to God and God will draw near to you.” [James 4:8]

This is an all-embracing attitude of devotion.

We have to change our self-image. One reason we often block off our good is we do not have an adequate self-image. We live in human mind and human body only, and we realize we are frail. We realize we can’t do all the things we want to do. We’ve hit our walls of life and it has hurt. We’ve learned our lessons well, and we won’t do it again.

When we are tied down and locked into that pattern of thinking, we have an inadequate self-image. We need to change our self-image, realizing that we are a partner with the larger spiritual Self.

We do not think of ourselves in wrong terms. In truth we are children of God. In truth, we are native citizens of the kingdom of God. And the kingdom of God is your house. God’s house is a mansion of love, joy, happiness, and a thousand other individual gifts awaiting your spiritual discovery.

The little thought people with the strings are always trying to tie us down.

Whenever anything in life gets you down, God can get you out of it. God can cut the rope that is tying you down. Nothing has to be an overpowering weighty experience.

You have a transcendent Christ who lifts you above everything you are facing in life. You have to change, in your mind, some of the things that human mind has locked you into. We have to change the human mind thought of criticism to the Christ Mind thought of praise and gratitude. We have to change the human mind thought of condemnation into Christ recognition. We have to change false belief into the truth of Christ. We have to change human mind sickness into the Christ Mind truth of wholeness.

We have to turn weakness into strength, limitation into fulfillment, fear into an all-knowing faith, hate into love, and prejudice into open-mindedness, compromise into integrity, falsity into honesty, ugliness into beauty.

I believe that with God as the center of your universe you can accomplish anything, and be happy doing it.

As we look at these words that are concepts of human mind and concepts of Christ Mind, we have to realize that, as native citizens of the kingdom of God, we have a free will choice – we can choose. I suppose that is the whole lesson and the destiny of each one of us. In this moment, tomorrow, and the next day we have the choice.

In the moment, do we follow the little people who are scurrying around on the beach trying to tie us down, or do we follow the Christ? If we follow the Christ, we have to get up.

At first, it may appear a struggle.

We may begin on our knees. We may have to struggle up the rest of the way until we stand.

BUT when we stand on the firm foundation of faith in God, we are the free soul.

We are flying high above our problems, looking down and saying: “My, don’t they look small and insignificant? I can’t believe that I allowed that to bother me so much.”

Let us pray.

Dear God, I know that I am more, I can do more, be more, and manifest more in my life. I agree to follow You, dear God in my spirituality. God, I totally consent to You NOW. Manifest Divine ideas through my human brain, words, through the words I speak, and the sounds I hear and perceive when I am hearing. Help me to keep my focus single, manifest through my eyes so that I am no longer blind – so I can see beauty everywhere in a new degree, higher, better and deeper than I ever have before. Manifest in my physical body temple so I can express radiant health. Manifest in my beingness so wherever I go I will radiate spiritual love to everyone without saying a word or making one action.

I give myself totally and completely today. I leave my nets, I follow, and I become.

In Jesus Christ’s name we so dedicate ourselves – each one of us – to this lasting truth of us.

Amen.

PRAYER / MEDITATION______________

I ask you now to relax and give up all the personal, heavy thoughts, and go within yourself, in prayer, on a quest to find God.

The same Christ spirit that was in Jesus is with you and within you. Jesus said that you are a child of God.

You find the Christ in your life and within yourself. And during this prayer time, perhaps in one of the periods of the silence, you realize that you are one with living presence of Jesus Christ.

In the silence of prayer …

Your soul now takes deep root in God. You are growing and unfolding, drawing upon the invisible and making God manifest in your life.

The power of the Divine presence of God is irresistible in you. Your part is to have faith in God, and to make God’s good things manifest in your life and affairs.

The Christ Spirit in you is a magnet to attract the Christ love. You are a true follower of Christ Jesus. You find that as you discipline yourself and your thinking to bring it in line with God’s Truth, your thoughts are formative. They are like seeds that produce after their kind.

In this prayer, you are cooperating with your Maker. You are training yourself to think life-giving, health-producing thoughts. You are in communion with God in prayer. You are praying for wisdom and guidance. You are open and receptive to the leading of Spirit, and it is revealed to you just what steps to take in order to do your part to establish Divine order.

Psalms 50:23 says, “To him that ordereth his conversation aright will I shew the salvation of God.”

In the silence of prayer …

There is no limit to spiritual unfoldment in you. The spirit of God’s Truth within your soul is giving you a right understanding of every experience that comes to you.

You are calling some of your inactive, unused soul powers into expression during this prayer. You are developing your soul. This is an important step. You are exercising your powers, and how much stronger they spiritually grow.

The assurance and satisfaction of knowing that your faith and all the rest of your spiritual faculties are being developed towards the Christ degree of unfoldment comforts you.

God has created your earth; God has created you. Instead of your own thoughts, you go to Christ Mind and you receive whatever you need; you heed the instruction.

In the silence of prayer …

Dear God, I thank You that the solution to every problem lays within us and within You, dear God, I find what I have been searching for my whole life long.

In Jesus Christ’s name, on our quest to that degree of unfoldment, we pray … Amen.

Since 1999 – The worldwide PRAYER PLACE inside the Internet, serving well over 1,000,000 every day. Welcoming all faiths, excluding no one. Reaching the ends of the earth with the positive message of God. Not connected to any church, Positive Christianity is a Prayer Ministry without walls, physical or denominational, that the world can instantly access and use without cost.

ARCHIVES of recent Positive Daily Inspiration is available on our homepage; use anything you wish.

FREE Encyclopedia of Prayers: http://www.positivechristianity.org/prayersearch.php

NEED PRAYER? Click here – if you have a prayer need, Positive Christianity will start praying with you, daily, for an entire month. There Is Never a Charge for Prayer.

DONATIONS Thank You for helping us with this great free work for ministers of every faith:
Instant online donation:
https://positivechristianity.net/donation-tithe/
By mail: Positive Christianity Box 7993 Woodlands, TX 77387

GOD BLESS YOU,
Christopher Ian Chenoweth

Read More
01Mar

POSITIVE WRITTEN SERMON – Live in God’s Joy

POSITIVE WRITTEN SERMON - Live in God's Joy

A FREE GIFT FOR CLERGY

Positive Written Sermons is a FREE service of Positive Christianity to those ACTIVE IN CLERGY MINISTRY to ease your burdens in ministry. Each positive sermon is non-denominational; feel free to tailor to your denominational needs, or personal style. We consider our sermons to be 90% complete; they await your personal stories and anecdotes.

Also, great lesson material available free daily – get Positive Daily Inspiration direct in your email inbox every morning. Text POSITIVEMINISTRY to 22828 to easy, free subscribe.

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Psalm 100:1 “Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all you lands.” For a lot of people, joy is a far-off memory. I am suggesting to you, that joy can be a daily, hourly, moment-by-moment experience.

You can experience the joy of being alive again.

Jesus was the best teacher of joy.

There was a man that had great hardship in his life. For years he lived with a great sadness.

One day, an ordinary day like today, he decided to give up sadness for joy. He said life is too short to be wasted, and he made a conscious decision to live in joy. It was as easy as that. He reported later, he never felt so alive, since childhood.

People realize that Jesus knew about joy. They knew that whenever they heard Jesus speaking, they would experience joy; that He would share techniques, strategies, and methods they could use to experience the joy of being alive.

Those people realized that Jesus would share with them simple, clear, understandable, easy ideas as to how they could experience more joy in their lives. They were just like us today – they wanted to experience the total joy of being alive.

They knew that not only would He share techniques and strategies they could use that would be simple and easy to understand, but He would be interesting and entertaining.

For our scripture, we will look at a situation that takes place in the ministry of Jesus where He was sharing ideas, they could use to experience the joy of being alive. The beauty of it is that He was sharing it in an interesting and entertaining way. He would put the information in story form. If you want to get people’s attention and hold it, He knew, story form is probably the best form you could possibly use.

Luke 15:11-13, Then Jesus said, “There was a man who had two sons. The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of the property that will belong to me.’ So, he divided his property between them. A few days later, the younger son gathered all he had and traveled to a distant country.”

The story speaks to us out of the past with many levels of truth. The first level truth of the complete story is that you can search everywhere for joy, but it is found right where you are in your own backyard.

This morning we will be looking at these few verses. In those few verses are some ideas, some techniques, and some strategies you can use to experience the joy of being alive.

The first idea that comes out in this story is: Look at your rules.

For a lot of us, very simply and easily put, if we are not experiencing very much joy in our lives, if we are not experiencing the joy of being alive, it’s probably because of our rules.

Look at your rules: What are the rules? What needs to happen in order for you to allow yourself to experience the joy of being alive?

One man admitted, honestly, “There was a time in my life when I had to be wearing a $1,500 suit, have $1000 dollars in my pocket, live in an expensive home, drive an expensive car – and the list went on and on – for me to be happy.

Needless to say, I had set it up so it was difficult for me to experience joy on a regular basis. Not only was it difficult – if I’m honest – it was probably impossible.”

Another person, a woman, an admitted workaholic, said that she could only experience joy when all of her work was done. The problem was the work was NEVER done.

A married couple admitted that they could only experience joy when they were away from home; the only problem with that rule, with two people working, they could barely ever get away and it started to affect their relationship.

One man had a rule of looking to retirement for his joy, in an imaginary future, instead of living in the joy of the moment. He put it off until some future time. The problem with this is – joy is a learned response to life; unless it is practiced, it is lost.

Maybe you, or someone you know, are doing that. Maybe you have life’s self-imposed rules set up in such a way that you have made it difficult, if not impossible, for you to experience joy on a regular basis.

I suggest that you have the power to change all of that for yourself. If you do wish to experience the joy of being alive on a regular basis, not just on rare occasions – you can change the rules.

One woman laughed saying: “I have only one rule now: Any day above ground is a good day.”

Spiritual people find joy in the ordinary, and even in the mundane.

I suggest to you that this is, indeed, a great joyous day. This is a great day filled with a great opportunity for you to experience the joy of being alive.

A spiritual person finds great joy in the ordinary days, when nothing special is happening.

If you are not experiencing the joy of being alive, look at your rules. Maybe you have made it too complex, too difficult, or too complicated; maybe you have set the game up where it is impossible for you to experience joy on a regular basis.

The younger son in this parable had done that. His rule for experiencing joy and happiness was to leave home and the relationship with his family. In his mind, he had to leave his father, and his family in order for him to experience the joy and happiness in being alive.

How many of you are parents? At one time or another, you have either been the parent figure or you have been the younger child. Let’s break it down and see if we can clothe it in modern language and put it in a modern context.

What was going on? Just imagine when you leave the service, this morning, your younger son or daughter is waiting for you. He/she comes up to you and says, “Listen, I’m ready to leave and I’d like a little traveling money. You told me you were going to leave me some money when you die, right? I have an inheritance coming, right? Well, I’ll take my inheritance right now.”

Would that create a problem in your life? If you have children or grandchildren, you might plan to leave all of them some money. But if even one of them should come to you, after this service, and tell you that he/she wants their inheritance right now, you would have a problem.

Your assets are probably not that liquid. You would have to sell several things in order to give him/her the inheritance you would like to leave.

So, this younger son has created a problem for his father in demanding his inheritance. In a very real sense, this younger son is really saying that he does not want to have any reason to have to come back here. He is saying, “I’m breaking the relationship between you and me. It’s over. Give me the money and I’m gone.”

By demanding his inheritance in advance, before his father passes away, he is actually breaking the relationship. That is the second idea for joy I’d like to share with you.

The second idea is: Look at your relationships.

In our lives, there are some relationships we do need to break; maybe even run away from. But those relationships, friends, that have nurtured, nourished, and encouraged you – supportive positive relationships – are those you want to keep.

You do not want to break off from those relationships that are good and supportive, and that have proven over time that they are in your best interests.

This father has proven that he loves his son, yet the son wants to break this good relationship.

Do not break good relationships.

The joy in being alive will not come through things, but through love.

The joy of being alive comes from the relationships we have with one another, and the relationship we have with God.

You want to nourish and encourage the good, positive relationships. And you want to go out and make new relationships with other individuals who are positive and willing to support and encourage you.

This boy, in his youth, inexperience, and desire to chase after illusive, imaginary joy and happiness, broke the relationship with his father. That is joy based on the false belief that the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.

That is why he was demanding the money up front.

Next, let us consider the father. What a man he must have been. He did not beg, barter, or bargain with his younger son. He just produced the money. He knew what was going to happen with that money. He knew his son was going to put it in sack, throw it across his back, head out toward the far country, and he would never see that cash again. His main worry was probably that he would never see his son again, but he knew the money would be gone.

He was willing to allow this boy to do what he needed to do. Maybe this was a sign of love. He produced the money, gave it to him without any argument, and let him go.

Human beings have a natural fight or flight response in them. For people that have not experienced joy in a while, they are too tired for fight, and they tend to daydream about flight to some imaginary place that will bring them seeming happiness. No place outside of yourself will bring you happiness and joy – it must come spiritually from within you – and not be dependent on imagining destinations.

Many people do not have a good relationship with themselves, and the fight or flight response is against themselves. They fight themselves, all the time, with inner anger and turmoil, and have flight through substance abuse, or addictions of other kinds.

This does not ever work because you cannot escape yourself.

What is needed for joy is a new, higher kind of relationship with themselves.

The third major area to experience joy is: be intentional about your growth.

I want to say something good about this son. This boy, in Jesus’ story, represents growth. Don’t you admire a person who is willing to grow? Well, this boy is about growth. Sometimes, in order to grow, you have to actively seek change.

The boy thought as long as he was at home with his father, no matter how good the father was, he could not grow. He needed to leave.

I think, though, that you can leave without breaking off the relationship. The way he left was not good, but the fact that he was seeking growth was good.

One of the best ways to reinvent life is to reinvent yourself right where you are to change from center to circumference of you. In the end it is the only thing that will lastingly work, because no matter where you go you take yourself with you.

If you want to experience the joy of being alive, look at your rules, look at your relationships, and intentionally be about growth. Put yourself in situations and dynamics where you can grow. . Pray to God that you are willing to grow to find lasting joy in your life

There have been times in your life when you had to go. School, a new job, getting married – these are all transitions of movement in the quest to experience more joy in your life.

Many times, you have had to push the envelope of what you thought was possible to get to the growing edge of life.

For this young boy, his growing edge was he had to go. In order to grow, he felt like he had to go.

You are the expert on you. Never pretend to be an expert on someone else. You know where your growing edge is.

If you want to find your growing edge, check your feelings. When you are face-to-face with your growing edge, you’ll experience a certain emotion – fear.

One man, who had a lot of fear, spoke aloud this positive prayer affirmation: “If I can’t, then I must, with God’s help.”

If there is an obstacle in your life, a growing edge in your life, that you are frightened of and can’t face, just maybe … you must.

His second prayer affirmation that has stuck with me was: “Once I take the first step, God will do whatever God needs to do to protect me.”

Once we take the first step toward my growing edge, God will do whatever God needs to do to protect us.

Often, a lack of joy in life can be traced to the fact that the soul is no longer seeking growth but has accepted the status quo.

There is a presence and a power with you that is mightier than any circumstance. Once you take that first step toward confronting your growing edge, you experience it. Once you take the first step, God will be with you every step of the way. Take the first step in faith.

Take the first step towards the experience of the joy of being alive. Look at your growth put yourself in a dynamic situation. Be intentional about it so you can face your growing edge.

You know what it is, because when you go to walk through it, it will feel like walking on air. But when you get to the other side, you will experience the joy of being alive.

That is my prayer for you this morning.

I want to suggest to you that you deserve to experience the joy of being REALLY alive.

Look at your rules.

Look at your relationships.

Look at your growth. Look to God.

Let us pray,

Dear God, help me to honestly examine my life. Have I set up rules that are truly barriers to me experiencing joy? Help me to reevaluate my self-imposed rules and tear down the self-imposed barriers, so that I can experience real joy, right now. Just for today, I will eliminate all rules, and conditions, that I have placed upon myself, and allow myself to experience Your joy.

Dear God, help me to honestly examine my relationships savoring the ones that I need to savor, and severing the negative associations that I need to sever, so that I am lifted up. Help me, also, to re-examine, with an honest look, at the relationship that I have with myself. I promise to treat myself better, and to be good myself, just like I promise to be good to those that I love.

Dear God, help me to grow, help me to seek, help me to get past my fears so that I can feel totally alive again.

God, I consent now to new, positive rules, relationships, and growth.

In Jesus Christ’s name … Amen.

God bless all of you!!

PRAYER / MEDITATION________________________

In the silence of prayer,

God’s Truth is here; love is here; God is here; and joy is here.

In the silence of prayer, we have the opportunity to experience the joy of being alive.

Dear God, we open ourselves this morning to experience the joy of being alive. This wonderful gift You have placed within our hearts, our minds, and our spirits is the joy of being alive.

We cannot ask for more than that. We cannot ask for more than joy. And it is a gift You have already given us. Within us is the joy of being alive.

In the silence of prayer, accept the joy of the Christ …

(Silence)

This morning, we are willing to open our hearts and minds, to take off the shackles and the fetters, to free ourselves to experience the joy of being alive.

And so, with a sense of expectation, with a feeling of gratitude, perhaps even with awe and wonder, we step into this experience of joy – the joy of being alive.

In the silence of prayer we humbly ask for more life …

(Silence)

I am willing to experience the joy of being alive.

Dear God, I am willing to accept and embrace the joy of living.

I am willing to experience the joy of being alive.

That is God’s Truth in action, and You have made it so, dear God.

We accept it …

In Jesus Christ’s name … Amen.

Since 1999 – The worldwide PRAYER PLACE inside the Internet, serving well over 1,000,000 every day. Welcoming all faiths, excluding no one. Reaching the ends of the earth with the positive message of God. Not connected to any church, Positive Christianity is a Prayer Ministry without walls, physical or denominational, that the world can instantly access and use without cost.

ARCHIVES of recent Positive Daily Inspiration is available on our homepage; use anything you wish.

FREE Encyclopedia of Prayers: http://www.positivechristianity.org/prayersearch.php

NEED PRAYER? Click here – if you have a prayer need, Positive Christianity will start praying with you, daily, for an entire month. There Is Never a Charge for Prayer.

DONATIONS Thank You for helping us with this great free work for ministers of every faith:
Instant online donation:
https://positivechristianity.net/donation-tithe/
By mail: Positive Christianity Box 7993 Woodlands, TX 77387

GOD BLESS YOU,
Christopher Ian Chenoweth

Read More
22Feb

POSITIVE WRITTEN SERMON – See Yourself Succeeding

POSITIVE WRITTEN SERMON - See Yourself Succeeding

Time Sensitivity: none

A FREE GIFT FOR CLERGY

Positive Written Sermons is a FREE service of Positive Christianity to those ACTIVE IN CLERGY MINISTRY to ease your burdens in ministry. Each positive sermon is non-denominational; feel free to tailor to your denominational needs, or personal style. We consider our sermons to be 90% complete; they await your personal stories and anecdotes.

Also, great lesson material available free daily – get Positive Daily Inspiration direct in your email inbox every morning. Text POSITIVEMINISTRY to 22828 to easy, free subscribe.

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Many people are going through trials of inferior interior thinking. Poor self-worth plagues many.

In the book, “The Power of Positive Thinking,” by Norman Vincent Peale, he shares a story of a pole vaulter. On this particular day, he was up for a scholarship. That meant that if he made the vault, like he had made it before, he was going to get an athletic scholarship to college. You can imagine the pressures that were on him.

Have you ever noticed, when pressures are on us, that is when the inferiority thinking rises to the forefront of our thinking? This young man stood there, looked at the bar, and then looked at his pole. He knew, inside of himself, that he did not have what it would take to make it over the bar.

I would like to share with you some of the things his coach said to him. These are time-tested bits of wisdom that we can use to go over a barrier that may be in front of us in life.

He said to the young man: I want you to throw your heart over the bar.

In your imagination, I want you not to see anything below the bar. In your imagination and eyesight, only see the things ABOVE the bar.

There are so many times in our lives when we are looking at the ground and all the things BELOW the “bar.” Then, we look up for a brief moment and think that the bar looks so high. We say to ourselves, “I’ll never get over that. I wish I could, but I can’t.”

If, ahead of time, we can visualize everything ABOVE the bar and nothing below the bar, we will have a lifting power of God inside of us to throw us up and over any obstacle in life. It will work every time because you are more than flesh and bone. You have the Spirit of God with you, and God is giving you the strength and courage to go anywhere you want to go.

Colossians 3:2 states, “Set your minds on what is above, not on what is on the earth.”

If you wish to keep up comfortable place in mind, and have a peaceful soul, you must distance yourself, at least somewhat, from negative distractions around you. But distancing yourself is not easy, especially when so many negatives are struggling to get your attention, and your participation.

C.S. Lewis advised, “Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in; aim at earth and you will get neither.” That is a wise reminder. You are likely to hit what you aim at, so aim high – aim at heaven.

When you do, you will be strengthened in character as you improve every aspect of your life. And God will demonstrate God’s approval as God showers you with more spiritual blessings than you can count.

St. John Chrysostom stated, “Whoever seeks earth before he seeks heaven will surely lose both earth and heaven.

A gentleman was suffering from inferiority thinking. One evening, Dr. Norman Vincent Peale was backstage getting ready to speak, and a man stepped up to him, handed him a business card and said, “Can I speak to you for just a minute?”

Dr. Peale said, “I’m sorry, but I just can’t. I am going on stage in just a moment to speak. But I will talk to you after the program is over.”

Dr. Peale then went to the lectern and started to speak. As he was speaking, he saw the man pacing back and forth at the back of the auditorium; his head was down, and it appeared that he had the weight of the world on his shoulders. Dr. Peale really wanted to talk to the man, but after his presentation the man was gone.

He just could not get the man out of his mind. He realized he had the man’s business card, so he decided to call him. The man said, “Everything in my life rests on a meeting tomorrow, and I just don’t feel that I have the power in me to pull it off. I no longer believe in myself. I have had some setbacks, and I’m very concerned and worried. I just know that my whole career is going to plummet after this meeting, tomorrow, fails.”

Dr. Peale reminded him that no one single day in our lives can destroy our future. But he also talked to the man and gave him a prescription. He said, “I want you to take this prescription with you. It is Biblical. Use it during the day, tomorrow. I believe it will get you through.” He asked the man to turn in his Bible to Philippians 4:13 and said, “I want you to read this to me now, out loud over the phone, and I want you to read it all day long tomorrow.” It says: “I can do all things through God who strengthens me.”

They read it together. Then he asked the man to write it down and carry it with him. As he faced his challenges, he could pull out his card and realize the Truth that he was not alone; God was with him and would work with him and through him, to bring him through the day.

Right before that important meeting, he read the verse. Imagine yourself reading this before something you have BIG to do in your life. “I can do all things through God who strengthens me.” The man read this probably 200 times during that day.

He reported later on that he came out fine, just as we will, when we realize that we are not alone. The pole vaulter who started to visualize things over the bar was awarded that athletic scholarship. And we will get what we want in our lives too.

Here are 10 powerful steps to help us overcome an inferior interior thinking.

1. Formulate and stamp indelibly on your mind a mental picture of yourself as succeeding.

So often we do not do this. If we are sick, we picture ourselves getting sicker. If we are going for a job interview, we picture the rejection we feel we are going to receive. Instead, picture yourself as succeeding with God. Hold this picture. Do not allow any other picture to come into your mind. Never permit this picture of you as a success to fade. Your mind will seek to develop this picture. The inner mind is like a photographic plate, but most carry an image of lack.

Never picture yourself as failing, in any way. Never doubt the reality of your NEW mental image. The mind always tries to complete what it pictures, so always picture success, no matter how things seem to be going in the moment.

2. Whenever a negative thought comes into your mind concerning your own personal power, deliberately voice a positive thought to cancel it out.

3. Do not build up obstacles in your imagination.

Depreciate every so-called obstacle. Minimize them. Difficulties are just barriers in your imagination that need to be overcome.

4. Do not be awestruck by other people.

We go through life tending to compare ourselves to other people. Remember, you are unique. If you were to compare your fingerprint with someone else’s fingerprint, you would see two different fingerprints.

Also, remember that the same spirit of God that was in the greatest people who have ever lived IS INSIDE OF YOU, waiting, urging you to become a winner in this game we call life.

God does not want you to become another person. It would not serve God’s purpose. God wants you to become the best you that you can possibly be.

5. Repeat the following ten times a day (Romans 8:31): “If God is for us, who is against us?”

6. Get a good friend or a competent counselor with whom you can discuss your life – a witness to your life.

Talk to someone. Share your feelings about your inferior interior thinking. Through talking with this person, try to discover where this inferiority complex originated. Perhaps it was your childhood. Recognize the cause inside of you, and then eliminate it – through prayer.

7. Repeat the following ten times a day (Philippians 4:13): “I can do all things through God who strengthens me.” Then, at the end of the statement, add the word “now.”

God is complete in you, right now. You can do all things if you rely on God’s Spirit with you, right now. Allow it to come through your consciousness.

8. Make a true estimate of your own abilities, and then raise it by 25%.

We are our own greatest critics. As good as we think we can be or do, we can be and do better with God’s help. You cannot even imagine the power of God in you that can work through you. You cannot even imagine what God can do inside of your mind.

9. Put everything in God’s hands and believe that, with God, ALL is possible right now.

10. Remind yourself that God is with you, and nothing can defeat you. Believe that you can receive power from God right now.

There was a gentleman, aboard a cruise ship. He was not having a good time. He was there to try to save his marriage, but it was failing because the man was so plagued with worries. He could not have a good time, or enjoy his wife and children, because worrying was the main activity of his life, every day.

Finally, his family was thoroughly exasperated. He had said, “I’ll go on this on this cruise with you. I’m going to try to change.” But it had become such a habit that, moment-by-moment, he continued to worry. We always take ourselves with us wherever we go!

At that point, he realized how serious it had become.

He talked to the one of the ministers on board and said, “You have to help me. Is there anything I can do to rid myself of these worries?” The minister and the man walked to the back of the ship. As they stood there and looked down at the water, they could see the huge wake the propeller was making in the water.

The minister said, “Every night before you go to bed for the next 7 days, I want you to walk here to the back of the ship, and mentally throw off every concern in your life. Then watch those concerns being chewed up by the propeller and drowned in the wake.”

The man thought that was a ridiculous thing to do, but he was desperate. So, every night, of the seven-day cruise he went to the back of the ship and dumped out every worry he had. The first night, he was there for an hour and fifteen minutes, dumping out every worry that was in his mind.

He was surprised; he felt better; he felt relieved. By the end of the cruise, he felt like a new man; he felt like something spiritually special was happening inside of him.

So many times, we let the joy of life slip away because we fret, worry, and fume over things. Most of the time, we do this more out of habit than what is actually happening in our lives in any moment.

Here is a description of fretting and fuming.

The word “fume” means to boil up, blow off, emit vapor, be agitated, be distraught, and to seethe.

The word “fret” is equally descriptive. It is like a half-whine or a half-cry. We continue doing this, and we do it to those we love the most.

People especially seem to do this to their spouses. We tend to half-cry or half-whine, especially when we have a cold and we want to be taken care of.

In Psalm 37:1, it says: “Do not fret.” We half-cry, half-whine about what is ahead of us. The problem is that this sets up our mental condition for the whole day. We have to take responsibility to stop this, once and for all, and allow the ALL power of God to come through us.

So many of us are on such a fast pace – physically and emotionally. We have to slow the tempo inside of ourselves and become quiet again. We need to allow the sounds of God in the stillness to come through us so we can feel the joy of God.

It is impossible to have peace in our soul if the pace is SO accelerated inside of you. God, inside of you, works slowly, steadily, and quietly. God says in effect, “Go ahead if you must. Go as fast as you want. When you are worn out and fatigued, come back to Me, and I will heal you.” But why not accept that help from the very beginning? Why do we have to wait? Life can be so rich if we will slow down just a bit, and live and move and have our being in God, in each moment.

God, inside of you, moves in stillness. God moves, slowly, in a perfectly organized manner. The wise tempo is at God’s rate. When things are done at God’s rate, things are done correctly and without rushing.

A man shared this insight: “Recently, I was walking in the woods. There is nothing that renews a person like a walk-in nature. There is a wonderful silence there. Yet, the woods are not really silent. Wind was blowing through the trees; leaves were rustling; small animals were scurrying about, doing their daily business. It felt so good to be in tune with God’s nature.

“Then, as I am literally reaching euphoria, some people come along, carrying a boom box. They are carrying their synthetic noise with them at the top volume. They were missing everything that’s good about life in the moment.”

We are like that so many times. We may not bring a boom box, but we bring our interior thoughts that are playing at a loud volume. We just need to slow the tempo of our emotions and get in tune with God.

There was a time, when I was driving with someone who was complaining about something going on in his life, and I said, “WOW! Did you see that hillside back there with all the flowers?”

He said, “What hillside?” I knew enough to pull to the side of the road, turn around, go back, get out of the car and see the hillside; take time to see the beauty in your life.

The man, who a moment before was complaining was NOW overcome by the beauty of God.

Life is so incredibly beautiful and so good. If we will just slow the tempo down a bit, magical things happen inside of us – an inner power comes to us in the stillness that is the foundation for us to believe in life.

We need to develop a calm philosophy of living. I am reminded about what it says in Psalm 23 [paraphrased]: The Lord is your shepherd. You shall not want.

What do you want? Do you want more courage and strength? Do you want to feel positive about who you are in your life?

God makes you lie down in green pastures and leads you beside the still waters. God restores your soul. God leads you in right paths, for God’s namesake– God’s (nature’s) sake.

God will lead you in the right career moves and in the right personal moves in your life. There will not be mistakes, if we slow down and think about where we are going.

Even though you may walk through the darkest valley, where things are not going well, God will make things go well and you will fear no evil, for you are with God. God’s rod and staff will comfort you.

God, You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. That means, no matter what we face, even people who do not like us, we have a feast prepared before us of ideas and good thoughts that will feed our interior. The table prepared for us will feed our soul.

Your head is anointed with oil. Your cup overflows. Surely, goodness and mercy shall follow you all the days of your life, and you will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

For the next 24 hours, I ask you to deliberately speak in positive terms about everything in your life. I ask you to speak, positively, about your job, your health, your relationships, your marriage, and your future.

GO OUT OF YOUR WAY to speak, optimistically, about everything. The pessimistic way does not work – it NEVER did. Talk positively.

After doing this for 24 hours, I ask you to make it a new habit throughout the whole week. You will be well on your way to a permanent interior change. You are going to find out that you have formed a new positive interior, and that what you were thinking before about wasn’t realistic at all but was pessimistic. You will find out that what you are thinking about NOW is coming to pass.

You must feed your mind as you feed your body. To make your mind healthy, you must feed it nourishing and wholesome thoughts. Therefore, this very hour, you begin to shift from negative thoughts to positive thoughts, in EVERY area of your life.

For the next six months. I ask you to take your Bible, go through the New Testament, and highlight every sentence about faith. As you do so, it will begin building in you–not as words written 2,000 years ago, but words about you, NOW.

After you underline all these passages, I ask you to commit one per day to memory, and know it is the absolute positive Truth about who you are. (For example, look up Mark 11:22-24.)

Make a list of all your friends and acquaintances. Then, out of that list, choose the most positive friend and spend time with him or her. See what they have, and let it wear off on you. Once you have it (and you will, quicker than you think), LET YOUR LIGHT SHINE – spread some of that light around.

I’d like you to join me in a moment of prayer:

God, today I desire to cast out and eliminate inferior interior thinking inside of me, once and for all. Dear God, I acknowledge these inferior feelings are not true of me, and I ask that I will, at a soul level, realize the Truth. I ask for a better and more successful life. Help me, dear God, to cast out those old, unhealthy thoughts. I ask for an infilling of new, vital, dynamic, faith-filled thoughts. I pray for an inflow of new thoughts.

Re-make me, dear God, and my life, in Your image.

In Jesus Christ’s name … Amen.

PRAYER / MEDITATION__________________________

The greatest gift we can ever give to ourselves is to know, in this moment, that God is with us. We are not alone. We are positive about our lives. We are filled with God’s strength and security. Our faith, wisely, is in God.

Rest in the silence of prayer …

God is my steady, eternal resource. My soul is one with the Spirit of God, and this Spirit cannot want for anything. There is, no longer, anything in me that feels incomplete, inferior, or insecure. My whole being is satisfied and fulfilled. I know what I want to do and to be. God, with Your help, I have the faith to begin. As I begin, I know that I will not be doing this alone; You will begin with me.

Rest in the silence of prayer …

Dear God, with You, I will have the courage to keep on keeping on, because You will empower me every step of the way and guide my feet as they take the next step. I trust in You completely, and I know as I trust, my courage strengthens, broadens, and increases. I have courage.

I now have the faith to begin and the courage to keep on. Dear God, I have the understanding to know what I desire and work toward: I am ready. You are with me; you are a part of my mind and body. You have given me dreams and have not left me alone with my dreams. You are with me, making me equal to every dream and every situation. God, I thank You for being a part of my life and my future.

Rest in the silence of prayer …

Dear God, You are my strength. No matter what today looks like, I will have the strength to go forward because Your strength is empowering me. Your strength is in my feet, my legs, my hips, my back, my arms, and my hands. Within my mind is the wisdom of God.

God’s strength is in my emotions. I am happy. Right now, a movement of God is working its way through every atom and cell.

Today, I am concentrating, in prayer, on that indefinable feeling of being complete and perfect in our own being. This is not only occurring in the future but is complete now. I am with the Divine perfection, and whole, right where I am.

Through the power of Jesus Christ, I decree that I am in God and God is in me. I am complete. I am whole.

Accept this now, in the silence of prayer …

Yes, God, I am positive about my life. I am filled with strength and security.

Yes, God, my faith is in You.

In Jesus Christ’s name we pray … Amen

Since 1999 – The worldwide PRAYER PLACE inside the Internet, serving well over 1,000,000 every day. Welcoming all faiths, excluding no one. Reaching the ends of the earth with the positive message of God. Not connected to any church, Positive Christianity is a Prayer Ministry without walls, physical or denominational, that the world can instantly access and use without cost.

ARCHIVES of recent Positive Daily Inspiration is available on our homepage; use anything you wish.

FREE Encyclopedia of Prayers: http://www.positivechristianity.org/prayersearch.php

NEED PRAYER? Click here – if you have a prayer need, Positive Christianity will start praying with you, daily, for an entire month. There Is Never a Charge for Prayer.

DONATIONS Thank You for helping us with this great free work for ministers of every faith:
Instant online donation:
https://positivechristianity.net/donation-tithe/
By mail: Positive Christianity Box 7993 Woodlands, TX 77387

GOD BLESS YOU,
Christopher Ian Chenoweth
Positive Christianity Ministry | Box 7993, Woodlands, TX 77387

Read More
15Feb

POSITIVE WRITTEN SERMON – The Final Mission of Jesus

POSITIVE WRITTEN SERMON - The Final Mission of Jesus

Time Sensitivity: none

A FREE GIFT FOR CLERGY

Positive Written Sermons is a FREE service of Positive Christianity to those ACTIVE IN CLERGY MINISTRY to ease your burdens in ministry. Each positive sermon is non-denominational; feel free to tailor to your denominational needs, or personal style. We consider our sermons to be 90% complete; they await your personal stories and anecdotes.

Also, great lesson material available free daily – get Positive Daily Inspiration direct in your email inbox every morning. Text POSITIVEMINISTRY to 22828 to easy, free subscribe.

_____________________________________

This message is for people of all religions. It is a powerful message. It is a message of Jesus Christ.

The final mission of Jesus was to introduce the Holy Spirit into your mind, into your body, and into your life.

Let me share with you John 14:15-21, 23-26. It is the promise of the Holy Spirit to you.

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another [Counselor], to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him, nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you. I will not leave you orphaned; … “

I will not leave you orphaned. Many times, we have felt orphaned.

The Bible says that we are children of God, but many have felt orphaned before?

The promise of God is, “I will not leave you orphaned.” I am with you at all times.

“I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you.

In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will. On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.

They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.”

“Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; and the word that you hear is not mine but is from the Father who sent me.”

Jesus says, “Listen, I am not the one talking here. Something is talking through me. I am hearing it for the first time also.”

“I have said these things to you while I am still with you. But the [Counselor], the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name (nature), will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you.”

Jesus told His followers that after the ascension they were to go to the upper room in Jerusalem. He says the same thing to you. The upper room is a high, peaceful place of consciousness inside of you. Think of yourself – you are the temple of the living God.

Where is the upper room today? It is inside of you. You can visit the upper room at any time, and have that experience with God.

This is where the Holy Spirit comes, where the Holy Spirit descends upon you and you find new power.

We possess a dynamic power beyond anything we can imagine.

A few years ago, Sir Oliver Lodge was quoted as saying this: “There is energy enough in one cubic inch of ether to run a forty-horsepower engine for 40 million years.”

I like that. The power that is available to us in God is beyond all human conception.

It is beyond our comprehension, even for those who are in the ministry because as much as we know, there is so much more to God. There is more to our realization of this Power that can come to us at any time.

Jesus says to you, (this is Jesus talking directly to you this morning), that all power should be given to you. This carries with it the idea in your life of unlimited capacity. For mastery and dominion on over all the circumstances in your life, you need the power of the Holy Spirit.

There is a tremendous, unused, yet undeveloped power available to you at all times.

This is the power of the Holy Spirit.

It does not come into expression, though, until you call upon it. Now, anyone who has felt the baptism of the Holy Spirit can tell you that it is a beautiful and extra-ordinary experience. Jesus knew you needed a personal helper, a very individual helper. This individual helper is yours this day. It is the power of the Holy Spirit.

People often ask, “Who is this Holy Spirit? What is this power that has been given to us by Jesus Christ?”

The apostles knew the Holy Spirit as the third person in the trinity. The Father is always the first, the Son is second, and the Holy Spirit is third. God is everywhere present. You have God’s Word speaking in you right now. It has spoken in you in the past. This Word says to you, “My child, with me you can get through this. With me, you can be healed.”

You have heard that Word. Now, your human mind might have taken over, and said, “Oh, that’s nonsense. I won’t have any part of that!” And that’s your free-will do that. But you have heard the Word that was given birth by the Mind of God. You can work with the Word. You can also speak to yourself the Word of God through the power of your own spoken word.

The Holy Spirit is the movement of that Holy/Whole activity of God inside of you, outside of you, into manifestation and demonstration. The terms Father and Son express an eternal relationship. The Holy Spirit is the infinite “breath” of God, as the Son is the infinite “Word.” God is located anywhere you recognize God. If you, this morning, recognize that you are not alone, that you are not orphaned, that you have a power that is with you, you are recognizing, not this church or this sermon, but you are recognizing God and God’s power directly. It seals you to an identification that forever changes you, and who you think you are. It seals within you an idea that you are more than flesh and bones, that you are not out there alone trying to recreate everything, and rebuild the wheel. You are immersed in God’s help that is ever-present and available to you right now.

To the extent that you and I identify ourselves with this Mind of God, the only source of existence, we become Spirit in expression, until finally the union is so perfect that it attains a perfection. That is the time we can say with Jesus Christ, “I and the Father are one.” In making your demonstrations, you work with the conviction in your heart that you are one with God. In the times of silence, you know that you are one with God, and you know that all will be revealed to you.

In the Bible, ideas are symbolized by fish. An idea is an original, a primary,
or an unlimited thought of being. In God Mind, it is the eternal word, or the logos. In the idea – are involved all the potentialities that are and can be evolved through you. Ideas are catching. We are all heavily charged with ideas. You are charged with ideas right now that could change your life; ideas that can revolutionize your existence.

You are charged with them. When these ideas are released, they spring forth and pass from mind to mind, being recorded as they fly. When they are expressed, the whole of humankind is lifted up.

You cannot find God without lifting up everyone around you because of what you are radiating in your consciousness. These true ideas are charged with an uplifting Spirit. You are bringing Divine ideas into manifestation just by your willingness to sit here this morning and accept some of these ideas for yourself, as yourself, and for others through yourself.

Jesus said that we are co-existing with God. Jesus said that we are interacting, inter-communicating with God at all times. He also said that there is a highness to this experience.

The highness is to receive the Holy Spirit. “He breathed on them and said unto them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.'” Listen to the power of the spoken word for you this morning.

In the presence and the power of the Christ, you proclaim your perfection. Through Jesus Christ, you are the master of every realm of consciousness in your being. Through Jesus Christ, you enter into a full and complete understanding of how to handle all states of consciousness inside of you to the glory of God. You are illumined with the light of Spirit.

You bring every thought into captivity, to the obedience of the Christ. You commit all your works unto God’s good, and your purposes are established. Every plane of consciousness in you is transformed by the renewing of your mind.

And so it is. Amen.

The power of the spoken word lies within every one of us. We can begin by freeing the little, small ideas we have, and fill our minds with thoughts of God’s plenty. We must realize that all power is given to us in heaven and on earth, as Jesus said. He told His apostles that they should receive power when the Holy Spirit had come upon them. They were told to go to that upper room, within us we find the upper consciousness where spiritual forces begin the formation of new ideas.

After you get into the spiritual consciousness and receive the quickening, speak the word with authority and with power, concentrating the attention on the power center in the throat. When the soul makes complete union with God Mind, there is always an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. This is the true glorification, which comes by the acknowledgment that God is with me; true glorification, the acknowledgment by the God that the Child is indeed lifted up and glorified.

Thus you can be assured of an inner guide that is willing to direct you. We are talking about you individually; you, the individual sitting here this morning, not the disciples 2,000 years ago. This is more than a possible possibility.

This is an assurance given to you. There is an inner guide with you, that is willing to direct you, and speak through you. But you must be open and receptive in your mind and listen to this wonderful helper.

When you let the Holy Spirit come into your full awareness, God’s perfect plan will unfold in your life. All the good thoughts, words, and prayers are put into action with power and authority. The Holy Spirit is important to anyone who has a need of healing. We all need to be filled, and refilled, with an outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

As we open ourselves to the Holy Spirit, we are renewed, healed, and restored in mind, body, and soul.

The Holy Spirit will take over when you let it speak through you, lead you, heal you, and fill your heart with love, compassion, and understanding. Since the Holy Spirit represents God in action, we need to use this power to act through us, to heal us, and to speak through us. When we have prayed and asked the Holy Spirit to take over, it’s going to flood our whole being, not so much with excessive emotional feeling, but as a warm, loving presence that literally speaks and acts through us.

Act as if you already have the Holy Spirit.

The person who would have fruit from the tree of life, must reach up and get it. He, or she must aspire to it first, and then in prayer, and true word, act as if he had already received it; he must go right ahead living the Gospel, healing the sick [basically in today’s life, most of the healing of the sick is healing yourself] and doing other commandments of the Master, exactly as if he were already filled with the Holy Spirit. When the disciples of Jesus wanted to forbid those, who were doing works in his name, he said, ‘Forbid them not.’ So everyone who goes ahead and does the very best he knows in the name of the Most High Good, will be by virtue of their works draw down upon himself the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

What is this going to give you? It is going to give you an inner “revelation of your power and the possibilities of your own being. It is the light that is going to bring to your notice the inner mechanism of your soul and body. Where your eyes have seen only flesh, blood, and bones, the searchlight of the Holy Spirit discloses the presence of secret springs and living streams of energy and life. You will awaken from your dream of only 5 senses consciousness and begin to visit the different rooms in the temple in which you live, but you know so little about with a whole new eye of realization of what this temple is. You are permitted to do so through the light which lighteth every human, coming into the world.

Let us pray. Listen to these words, because I am talking directly to your spiritual consciousness.

I am talking directly to you, your mind, and your body. The word of Truth in you is not idle, but it is quietly spreading from point to point and the process will continue until your whole consciousness is vitalized by the Holy Spirit. The rejuvenating power of the Holy Spirit is now at work inside of you, in every atom and function of your body. It is making you alive. You are radiant with life and wholeness. There is an inspiration of the Holy Spirit that is right now reaching to the individual depth of your soul, and it satisfies your every need.

We pray, this morning, in the Holy Spirit, the whole spirit of God. We turn problems over to the Holy Spirit.

We are able to relax and let the Holy Spirit direct the outworking. The comforting, sustaining presence of the Holy Spirit is now uplifting you. It is strengthening you. You are feeling a power, you are feeling a strengthening now, in this place, and it’s nothing I am doing, or you are doing; it is the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is expressing itself through you. It is touching you and all that concerns you. It is bringing order and harmony into your life and work. The Holy Spirit is taking command of your affairs, and you are prospered through new avenues of supply. This loving, powerful action of the Holy Spirit is taking command in your body, and you are renewed and restored.

In this acceptance this morning, you accept this power. I pray that it only accelerates and expands in you as this day goes on. As this service ends, nothing is going to end in you. The experience and the religious service is continuing in the true church of Christ which is the temple of the living Lord, your physical body temple.

In Jesus Christ’s name … Amen.

Prayer/Meditation____________________________________

As you rest in the presence of God, listen to these words of the Psalmist.

“Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend to heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, You are there. If I take the wings of the morning and settle at the farthest limits of the sea, even there Your hand shall lead me, and Your right hand shall hold me” Psalms 139:7-10.

Feel, now, a special leading of the Spirit. These words of the Psalmist express his faith in the guiding, protecting presence of God. They inspire us even more when we realize that the author was writing during a time of conflict and great danger.

God is your help, right now.

Rest in the silence of prayer …

God is with you no matter what your facing.
You do not face it alone.
God’s help is ever-present.
God is your inspiration.
Place yourself, your loved ones, and your friends in God’s loving care.
Entrust the day to God’s keeping and acknowledge God’s protecting Spirit from this attitude of calm, poise and prayer.

Rest in the silence of prayer …

This minute you are gaining new strength and power.
You are having the realization of the assurance, a conviction, and a realization that you, your life, and all you hold dear are safe and secure in God’s loving presence.
Realize that you live, move, and have your being in God.
This brings you to a sense of peace and security.
If you have thoughts of fear or pain this day, realize that you abide eternally in the protecting presence of God.

Rest in the silence of prayer …

Dear God, this minute as never before, I am giving myself to You. I am putting my whole trust in You, not only for myself, but for my loved ones and friends. I know that everyone, including myself, is safe and secure. I know, God, that You are watching over us, shielding us, and guiding us. Fill me now with wisdom to know this, and good judgment to always choose this way. Fill me with the guidance to bring me safely through every experience.

“Whither shall I go from Thy Spirit, or whither shall I flee from Thy Presence.”

Rest in the silence of prayer …

God’s presence is instantly available to you right now.
The presence of God, Divine intelligence within your mind, gives an instant answer to every thought.
Your mind is poised in God.
It is established in a citadel of strength against which nothing can prevail.
God’s promise of protection is standing in you.
God is answering your prayer.
There is faith and trust inside of you.
The eternal God is your dwelling place.
Underneath are the everlasting arms.

Rest, now, for a moment in the silence and feel the presence of God …

You feel a sense of peace that comes from power, the power of God within you blessing you, protecting you, radiating from you to bless and protect others.
You are in God’s loving care.
Your family and your friends are in the same care.

You are all safe in God’s loving care, and you are blessed and secure.
The light of God surrounds you.
The love of God enfolds you.
The power of God protects you.
The presence of God watches over you.
Wherever you are, God is!
In this moment, we pray.
In this moment, we know.

Through the power of Jesus Christ … Amen.

Since 1999 – The worldwide PRAYER PLACE inside the Internet, serving well over 1,000,000 every day. Welcoming all faiths, excluding no one. Reaching the ends of the earth with the positive message of God. Not connected to any church, Positive Christianity is a Prayer Ministry without walls, physical or denominational, that the world can instantly access and use without cost.

ARCHIVES of recent Positive Daily Inspiration is available on our homepage; use anything you wish.

FREE Encyclopedia of Prayers: http://www.positivechristianity.org/prayersearch.php

NEED PRAYER? Click here – if you have a prayer need, Positive Christianity will start praying with you, daily, for an entire month. There Is Never a Charge for Prayer.

DONATIONS Thank You for helping us with this great free work for ministers of every faith:
Instant online donation:
https://positivechristianity.net/donation-tithe/
By mail: Positive Christianity Box 7993 Woodlands, TX 77387

GOD BLESS YOU,
Christopher Ian Chenoweth

Read More
08Feb

POSITIVE WRITTEN SERMON – A Pearl of Great Price

POSITIVE WRITTEN SERMON - A Pearl of Great Price

Time Sensitivity: none

A FREE GIFT FOR CLERGY

Positive Written Sermons is a FREE service of Positive Christianity to those ACTIVE IN CLERGY MINISTRY to ease your burdens in ministry. Each positive sermon is non-denominational; feel free to tailor to your denominational needs, or personal style. We consider our sermons to be 90% complete; they await your personal stories and anecdotes.

Also, great lesson material available free daily – get Positive Daily Inspiration direct in your email inbox every morning. Text POSITIVEMINISTRY to 22828 to easy, free subscribe.

_____________________________________

[Drink a glass of water] Ah … the nectar of life. Just think of it. It is something that is readily available to us. As we drink it, it pours into our being and gives us life. God is even more readily available to us and gives us life. God gives us so much to be grateful for, so much to pour into our being and to remind us of what life is and what it is all about.

When I was a child I used to love stories of buried treasure. Grown men have spent their whole lives looking for treasures, but few find them.

Christ told the parable of a merchant in search of fine pearls, who when he had found one truly great one, sold all that he had and bought the pearl – ever since known as the “pearl of great price.” What Christ refers to in the parable, of course, is the Kingdom of God. And lest we confuse anyone – the Kingdom means everything – God and all that you could possibly desire.

Of course the problem about searching for Great Pearls is that they are only found among many false pearls, and many pearls of far lesser value. More than the “needle in the haystack” – it is finding a pearl among pearls – even if all pearls are not alike.

It is easy at some point to say, “Well, after all, a pearl is a pearl, and even if this pearl is not THAT pearl, it’s still a pearl.” Which, of course, is all true, but beside the point. You wouldn’t sell all that you have in order to buy just ANY pearl. And, in truth, as the parable is structured, no other pearl will do.

Some say that there are no Great Pearls to be found among us, just lots of lesser pearls. And the point is to pick the best and know that when everything is said and done, God will turn your poor pearl into the Great Pearl and everything will be fine in the end.

Why speak of a pearl of great price if there was no pearl to be found? Why speak of selling everything in order to possess it, if it is actually as common as gravel along the side of the road?

The pearl of great price exists and is worth all that a human has.

Jesus tells the story in Matthew 13:44-46:

“The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure, buried in the field, that a man found and reburied. Then in his joy he goes and sells everything he has and buys that field.

Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls. When he found one priceless pearl he went and sold everything he had, and bought it.”

In the First Century Mediterranean world, pearls were highly prized and sought after in such far away seas as the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf, and the Indian Ocean. The merchant in the story is portrayed as traveling around to such places in search of pearls.

In the parable, the pearl discussed symbolizes the kingdom of God. This symbolism is well placed considering the value pearls held throughout antiquity. In the first century Mediterranean world, pearls often symbolized the highest good. According to Pliny the Elder (first century A.D.) pearls were considered the most valuable of goods, having ‘the first place’ and ‘topmost rank among all things of price’. Therefore, at the time this parable was spoken people would have better appreciated the magnificence of the Kingdom of God due to Jesus’ use of the imagery implicated in comparing the kingdom to a pearl of great value. It would be like referring to something valuable today as pure gold.

To His followers, the merchant served to describe themselves as disciples, and the pearl so earnestly sought represented the kingdom. Therefore, the parable operated to teach the people their relationship to the Kingdom of God. Today, this parable talks directly to you.

Once the pearl, or the kingdom, was found, “the [merchant’s] only proper response was to sell all else in possession for the sake of the greater worth of possessing the kingdom”

Therefore, “the kingdom is like a small, inconspicuous pearl – but one of incalculable value that, once discovered, calls for unrestrained response in the form of absolute discipleship”.

Through this parable, Jesus not only reveals the paramount worth of the kingdom of God, but also the idea that “a true disciple makes an immense commitment to the Kingdom” in face of this worth. All else seems valueless compared with that surpassing worth. No price is too great to pay … . Thus it is with the kingdom of God. The effect of the joyful news is overpowering; it fills the heart with gladness; it makes life’s whole aim the oneness with God.

Let me tell you a true story about a woman who had a dream one night:

In that dream, she found herself in what looked to be a large church building in a long line of people. As she approached the front of the line, she saw people going before an altar or a table of some kind, kneeling and receiving communion. A wafer was placed on the tip of the tongue and a sip of wine was given to each by a man standing behind the table in a long, white robe. As she looked at those people, they had a bit of a blank look on their faces, as if they were going through the motion of getting in touch with God, and then they blankly walked back out into their mundane world and existence.

As she got to the front of the line, she got ready to do what needed to be done to receive her communion. As she began to kneel before the table, the man behind the table said, “No, no, stand up.” She stood up. He looked at her and said, “You know what life is all about, don’t you?” The words just came pouring out of her mouth as she said, “Oh, yes, I know what life is all about. I know that we are born into this world for one purpose and one purpose only, and that is to know and to experience God. I know that whatever happens to us in life, whatever we experience, is meant to bring us closer to that knowing and that experience of God.”

He smiled. As she opened her mouth to receive communion, (because now she thought she was ready), he handed her a pearl. He placed that pearl ever so gently in the palm of her hand.

He said, “You are ready. Now go and choose.”

Choose what?

It occurred to her as she contemplated this dream a little further, that life is filled with cycles of getting in touch with God, cycles of knowing all that we can be, and then going back out into our mundane existence and getting overcome with life, cycles of making new choices and then falling back into the very patterns that will not allow us to live up to those choices, cycles of coming to church or retreats or going on vacation, and touching that inner inspiration that tells us what we are, and then going back into the world and hearing of earthquakes and illness and war and poverty, and dealing with family squabbles and taxes and career and financial pressures, and getting weighed back down.

What is my pearl of great price? She asked herself.

We must ask ourselves this too.

I tend to hold with these words of Paul (from the book of II Corinthians):

“Now, the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit.” [II Corinthians 3:17-18]

Life is a progressive movement from one degree of glory to the next, so with each event (as similar as it may be to others that occur in our lives), we get an even greater glimpse, an even clearer look, into that mirror which images the Spirit of God.

The key is knowing that that is what is going on. How do we know this?

Rather than going blindly with that veil over our faces, through the rituals of life and existence, we can remove the veil and reach for that pearl.

Jesus taught about a pearl in a beautiful and wonderful parable, which we’ve heard over and over again. There is a reason for this – because it is a pearl of great price. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls. On finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all he had and bought it. Short, succinct, to the point.

In the realm of the absolute, the pearl of great price is our oneness with God, our complete and whole communion (common-union with God, as the Creators children), who we are, the truth of who we are – our complete, joyful, oneness with God.

And, to sell all we have in order to buy (take possession of it). First in mind we have to sell off ALL our worries, our doubts, fears and our anxieties. We must release it all so we can take possession of that that is holy and perfect.

It speaks to our spiritual conscious awareness. The pearl of great price reflects the Holy truth of our oneness with God.

Now, we have available to us a multitude of Divine ideas. All we have to do is choose one – just one. We must incorporate this into our life and become it.

One Divine idea to take, as an active theme to your whole life, for example, “Serenity.”

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

This, as many of you know, is the Serenity Prayer.

The pearl of great price has to be uncovered and rediscovered DAILY not just once.

A man used this idea and even found peace in 25F. Twenty-five F was the Delta airplane seat he sat in all the way from Boston back to Dallas, after going to a friend’s wedding. In a 757, there are not any rows behind 25F. It is right up there against the bulkhead, next to the rattling engine. This 25F was something special. It came complete with a crooked seat cushion, and a bent tray table. When the person in front of the man, who had the luxury of leaning back, leaned back, the table went right into the man’s stomach, in 25F. And the window was so dirty that you could only see though a third of it.

Well, he was angry. “How dare they do this to me? After all, I’m a Frequent Flyer.” He was ready to call the stewardess and pull out his Frequent Flyer card and ask for first class. But he could see the plane filling up. As the curtain remained open to first class, he saw every seat in front of him filling up.

Then the Serenity Prayer came to the man’s mind.

God, grant me the ability to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. He saw every seat full and he knew he could not change it, so he accepted it. He decided to relax for the rest of the flight. Then, the plane took off.

He said, to put it in the words of an anonymous poet, the plane lifted and it seemed for a great instant that earth and sky parted. As we rose into that cloudless expanse, he gained a new perception of the world. It may have been out of one-third of a window, but he gained a new perception – one idea, the pearl of great price.

What is the pearl? It is action, which calls us to express our oneness with God in THAT moment.

I heard a psychologist once say that we often make wish to make changes in our life we often focus on what is missing in us, of what we lack and how we’re lacking. We’re lacking thinness; we’re lacking companionship; we’re lacking money; we’re lacking things; we’re lacking jobs; we’re lacking this, or that, or the other thing.

We will never obtain something, if our main focus is the lack of it.

However, if we choose one thing, just one pearl, one special spiritual gift to give ourselves, seeking God’s help, then everything else will fall into place.

This is what it means to sell ALL that you have and go for that pearl of great price. You see, the realm of spiritual awareness means to focus your mind, your heart, and all your thoughts, consciously, on the idea of your oneness of God. The realm of expression means to give your life to the fulfillment of the gift you are giving yourself.

One pearl, and all else falls beautifully into place.

Jesus said it another way. It is another saying we know so well. “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and God’s righteousness, and all things shall be added unto you.”

There that woman was, in a dream, the pearl in her hand. The man had said, “You are ready. Go now and choose.” As he said that, she realized that the church she was in was more than just a building; it was a realm where many souls come when they have had enough of the world to close themselves in and work to get back in touch with God.

The veil was lifted as she became consciously aware of God’s truth of life that had spoken of itself in that dream. Life is about knowing and experiencing God. We can do this. We can break those endless cycles in which we feel stuck by knowing our oneness with God, by choosing just one single idea that reflects that oneness. No matter what comes up, no matter what happens to us or when, we bring ourselves gently back into focus with that idea.

By choosing our pearl of great price, and as we reach for that pearl and watch it being placed in our hand, it will begin to radiate and glow with a wonderful spiritual light that will light up our world.

God bless you!

PRAYER / MEDITATION_____________________________

Let us pray,

As we rest in the presence of God, let us spiritually continue our inner walk with the Lord. We follow Christ. You fill your soul, as you see yourself walking in the presence of the Christ.

It is a beautiful setting – one that calls uniquely to your soul, one of your choosing. As you look out over this setting, a new day is breaking spiritually in your life.

With the eye of the mind, you see the sun as it lifts itself over the horizon. You feel its warmth fill your being. In the glory of this moment, you close your eyes and let the light enfold you.

Rest in the silence of prayer …

Something begins to stir and rise within your own soul. A small point of light rising out of the darkness of fear and doubt, his growing ever larger, growing ever-more radiant as its rays reach into every part of your soul.

Rest in the silence of prayer …

This precious light of the Christ is filled with life. This precious light of the Christ is filled with love. This precious light of the Christ is filled with peace. It now fills your soul, your body, and your being.

For a moment of silent gratitude, you meditate on Serenity … Serenity … Serenity

Feel the Serenity of God as you rest. Let go and let God in the silence of prayer …

Rest in the silence of prayer …

Take a deep breath. Know that something has awakened in you. A dawn has broken in you that has never been there before. It calls you forth to know who you are. Jesus said you too are a child of the living God.

Allow the state to be a day of great celebration. It is right and good to celebrate in prayer for your awareness is on the complete possibilities of God.

Rejoice! Feel great joy as you acknowledge an awareness of God. Feel the spirit of life that is always with you, filling you with the promise of new and better things to come. Thank God because we have so much to look forward to, many new joys to experience. Through a new birth in your awareness, like Jesus you know your Divine connection and oneness with God.

The Spirit of Christ is reborn in us, and every cell of our being sings with new life and new awareness.

Know this truth of God is with you, now and always, as God’s light shines through you and as you. In your heart, in that quiet space, say to yourself,

“Thank You, God!”

Rest in the silence of prayer …

And so it is … In Jesus Christ’s name … Amen.

Since 1999 – The worldwide PRAYER PLACE inside the Internet, serving well over 1,000,000 every day. Welcoming all faiths, excluding no one. Reaching the ends of the earth with the positive message of God. Not connected to any church, Positive Christianity is a Prayer Ministry without walls, physical or denominational, that the world can instantly access and use without cost.

ARCHIVES of recent Positive Daily Inspiration is available on our homepage; use anything you wish.

FREE Encyclopedia of Prayers: http://www.positivechristianity.org/prayersearch.php

NEED PRAYER? Click here – if you have a prayer need, Positive Christianity will start praying with you, daily, for an entire month. There Is Never a Charge for Prayer.

DONATIONS Thank You for helping us with this great free work for ministers of every faith:
Instant online donation:
https://positivechristianity.net/donation-tithe/
By mail: Positive Christianity Box 7993 Woodlands, TX 77387

GOD BLESS YOU,
Christopher Ian Chenoweth

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01Feb

POSITIVE WRITTEN SERMON – Prayer should be An Exciting Adventure

POSITIVE WRITTEN SERMON - Prayer should be An Exciting Adventure

Time Sensitivity: none

A FREE GIFT FOR CLERGY

Positive Written Sermons is a FREE service of Positive Christianity to those ACTIVE IN CLERGY MINISTRY to ease your burdens in ministry. Each positive sermon is non-denominational; feel free to tailor to your denominational needs, or personal style. We consider our sermons to be 90% complete; they await your personal stories and anecdotes.

Also, great lesson material available free daily – get Positive Daily Inspiration direct in your email inbox every morning. Text POSITIVEMINISTRY to 22828 to easy, free subscribe.

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“To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing.” Martin Luther King, Jr.

Dorothy Bernard said, “Courage is fear that has said its prayers.” Prayer changes you. Like Martin Luther said, “Pray, and let God worry.”

Jesus said in Mark 11:23-24, “Have faith in God. Truly I tell you, if you say to this mountain, “Be taken up and thrown into the sea,” and if you do not doubt in your heart but believe that what you say will come to pass, it will be done for you. So, I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”

A man tells a story of his grandmother. When Grandma was much younger than she is now, she lived on a small farm hundreds of miles from a big city. Her nearest neighbors were so far away she scarcely ever saw them.

Sometimes she would feel very lonely, especially when her husband was working far from home and she was left alone with the children for weeks on end.

Sometimes food would get scarce, and the children would have to go on short rations until their daddy got back with fresh supplies.

One bad winter he didn’t get back when he said he would, and the food ran out.

Grandma was worried. She hated to see the children suffer. Gladly would she have driven to the nearest village to buy food, but there was no way for her to get there. Her husband had the horse and cart.

She could not telephone for help, because farmhouses didn’t have telephones in those days. So, the last little bit of food was eaten, and Grandma wondered what would happen if her husband did not return soon. Next morning she went to the flour barrel and looked in. It was empty. This meant there would be nothing to eat for breakfast.

At this moment Grandma remembered another barrel that belonged to a woman like her, and how the prophet Elijah promised that if she would put God first, the barrel would never be empty.

She knelt by the barrel and prayed.

“I’ve always tried to put You first, dear God. I have paid my tithe and brought up my children to love You. Now we are in great need, and I claim the same promise.”

As she prayed a voice seemed to say to her, “Bang the barrel!” So, she stood up and banged it, good and hard, with the flour dipper. Then she looked inside. There was flour at the bottom. Quite a lot, in fact; at least enough to make a nice little breakfast for everybody. Next day Grandma banged the barrel again, and once more found flour at the bottom of it, this time enough to make a pan of biscuits. The third day she banged it again, and still more flour came.

The day after that she banged it again.

Believe it or not, she kept on banging that barrel for a whole month, and without fail always found enough flour at the bottom to give them something to eat. She was still banging it when her husband arrived home with fresh supplies of food. He laughed when he heard the story, but she did not.

To her it was something very precious. Ever after she would remember 1 Kings 17:14, “The barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the oil fail, until the day that the Lord sendeth rain upon the earth.”

She had claimed God’s promise, and God had kept it, as God always does.

Would it happen? What do you think? Do you believe what Jesus said about mountain moving faith? Or are you like some people in the world who think that in order to have great things happen in life through prayer, you have to have an “in” with God? That somehow, you have to be just a little bit better than what you are right now?

After all, most of us tend to think that big prayers are the privilege of those who are just a little bit holier than us.

The criterion for answered prayer has to do with your attitude toward your oneness with God.

What we ask (as Jesus spoke of) with faith in our hearts, we will receive. Having faith is not really that difficult. Stop and think about it for a minute. We all have faith IN SOMETHING, even though sometimes we do not call it faith because we misuse it. We may have our greatest faith in the worst possible outcome that we worry about.

Jesus told us we must have faith. Jesus tells us to have faith in God, and that which you desire will be yours. Wherever you focus your attention, that is what you begin to draw to you.

So, if we have that kind of enthusiastic attention-drawing ability toward God instead of focusing on the potential negative events, we are on our way to a truly faith-filled God blessed life.

Mark 11:23, Jesus said, “If you do not doubt in your heart, but believe that what you say will come to pass, it will be done for you. “When you pray, do you doubt in your heart? Most of us have doubted.

The Truth of God is we cannot get away from God’s support and love. We are a living part of it. We all have the support and love of God every minute of every day. The spiritual quest is to act like it, to believe it.

Free-will is a spiritual law of life. We are free to accept our good or to reject it. It is up to us to accept it. You see, even God will not break that gift, it is one of our purposes in life to learn to use our free-will in oneness with God’s will.

If you choose to believe in God, God will give. If you choose to believe that God is eager, willing, and wanting to give you your good in life, then you are open and receptive to God’s good.

But if we choose to believe that God will not, then we are creating that circumstance for our life.

Only you can assure your good, and only you can stop it – you will block yourself off from your source of new creative life, inspiration, and help.

Prayer is an inside job. Your faith in God and belief in yourself as a child of God make the connection between your life and God. The connection makes the completeness.

Jesus said in Mark 11:24, “So I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe you have received it, and it will be yours.” I want you to listen to these words, carefully, because Jesus did NOT say, “You have to believe that you will receive it;” He said, “Believe that you HAVE received it.” Do you see the difference?

Most of us believe (at the best) THAT SOMEDAY we will have our prayers answered. Jesus is saying to us: “Stop it! Believe that your prayers have been answered already.” Take that step out on faith. Make your prayer an adventure. Believe that you already have it, and it will be yours.

Let me tell you a true story, There was once a woman who lived a life of sickness. When she was young woman growing up, she had this belief because she had been told by her parents and her doctors that she had an inherited tendency toward consumption, and that consumption would, ultimately, shorten her life. She experienced illness, difficulty breathing, and problems with her health for many years.

It was her prayer that she would be healed. But it was not until she understood this spiritual law and claimed that she was already healed and thanked God for it in gratitude – without having to see it in her body, without having to see the results of it up front, that she KNEW she was healed.

She said it took her body a couple of years to catch up, but when it did, she was not sick again.

A wonderful positive affirmative prayer! I am healed NOW – it will just take my body a little time to catch up.

Healing is not just about what is happening in the body; perhaps more important, it is about what is happening in the mind and the heart in our active positive faith. It is about what we accept as the Truth of God about our own being. Once we accept that wholeness, the body must naturally respond. The body will follow because the body follows what we believe and what we know is the truth of our being.

When you pray, remember to accept with absolute assurance that the highest and best answer to your prayer is already yours. Asking in faith is the act of plugging yourself into God’s Divine Source, immediately and instantly (like plugging a lamp into the electric socket in the wall) provides you with the power and God goodness necessary to fulfill that desire.

But we must make the choice to believe in our prayers, to believe in God, to believe in what Jesus has told us – ask believing and it shall be yours – believe that what you have asked for has already happened, and it will be yours.

It is God’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. All you have to do is ask and accept the answer ahead of time.

Like the woman in the story, accept the healing, and then allow the body to catch up.

Every prayer we utter should be the beginning of an exciting adventure.

We cannot fathom what wonders God has in store for us, but can accept and give thanks for those wonders.

I would say to you this morning, as you pray may God bless you. May you let go and let God be God in your life. Then hang on, friends, because you are in for the God blessed adventure of a lifetime.

God bless you!

PRAYER / MEDITATION__________________________

In the silence of prayer … God is here.

Let us each one, gently, quietly, move into that secret place Jesus spoke of, into the closet of our minds and hearts, into that place where there is nothing and no one, except yourself, and God.

Nothing can disturb the calm peace of your soul here in this secret place. Nothing can distract your attention. Nothing can take your attention away, for here is the place from whence all good of God comes. Here is the place your healing awaits. Here is the place of pure prayer – nothing less – oneness with God, a total and complete spiritual awareness of my oneness with God.

And in this secret, silent place of prayer, the deepest desires of your heart and mind are laid on the altar and given to God, in the total realization that it is not I but God who does the work – God who brings you new realization of your God-given good.

Rest in the silence of prayer …

That which you have been desiring, the gift of God, is wanting to express through you. Acknowledge it and accept it, in faith into the care and keeping of God you place this now. If there is a healing waiting to manifest in your life, acknowledge that healing now and know it is already yours for you are a child of God, a child of the Infinite, an expression of the Creator.

Acknowledge this, give thanks for it, and release any care or concern now and forever more.

Rest in the silence of prayer …

It is God’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom, dear one. It is God’s good pleasure to give you the gifts of God. Though you may not know how these gifts will manifest in your life, know within your heart of hearts without question that this manifestation IS coming right now. That gift is coming into your life even as we pray, for it is God’s good pleasure.

Rest in the silence of prayer …

We thank God that this is so.

We rejoice and know this in the name and through the power of Jesus Christ … Amen.

Since 1999 – The worldwide PRAYER PLACE inside the Internet, serving well over 1,000,000 every day. Welcoming all faiths, excluding no one. Reaching the ends of the earth with the positive message of God. Not connected to any church, Positive Christianity is a Prayer Ministry without walls, physical or denominational, that the world can instantly access and use without cost.

ARCHIVES of recent Positive Daily Inspiration is available on our homepage; use anything you wish.

FREE Encyclopedia of Prayers: http://www.positivechristianity.org/prayersearch.php

NEED PRAYER? Click here – if you have a prayer need, Positive Christianity will start praying with you, daily, for an entire month. There Is Never a Charge for Prayer.

DONATIONS Thank You for helping us with this great free work for ministers of every faith:
Instant online donation:
https://positivechristianity.net/donation-tithe/
By mail: Positive Christianity Box 7993 Woodlands, TX 77387

GOD BLESS YOU,
Christopher Ian Chenoweth

Read More
25Jan

POSITIVE WRITTEN SERMON – Nothing to Fear

POSITIVE WRITTEN SERMON - Nothing to Fear

Time Sensitivity: none

A FREE GIFT FOR CLERGY

Positive Written Sermons is a FREE service of Positive Christianity to those ACTIVE IN CLERGY MINISTRY to ease your burdens in ministry. Each positive sermon is non-denominational; feel free to tailor to your denominational needs, or personal style. We consider our sermons to be 90% complete; they await your personal stories and anecdotes.

Also, great lesson material available free daily – get Positive Daily Inspiration direct in your email inbox every morning. Text POSITIVEMINISTRY to 22828 to easy, free subscribe.

_____________________________________

It is good to know as spiritual people that God never tricks us, but instead always treats us to better than expected results. Better than anticipated answers to prayer.

With an awareness of God with us, there is never anything to fear.

Most fears in life are pretend fears.

Fear in life is the darkroom where negatives are developed.

Marie Curie said, rightly, “Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood.”

An elementary school teacher, in California, was trying to help her children deal with their fears after a big earthquake. She had them draw pictures portraying their impressions or feelings. Most showed scenes of destruction. But one youngster’s picture was puzzling. It showed pointed objects sticking up above blue water. Asked to explain, the little girl said, “Oh, those are the after-sharks.” When you are afraid, the water is filled with “after-sharks.”

One woman said, “I dread going to the dentist. Once, to ease my tension, I listed my middle name as ‘Wimp.'” The receptionist read it, laughed and assured me that many patients felt the same way.

Half an hour later, the receptionist came into the waiting room. Looking directly at me, she said, smiling, “The doctor will now see the wimp.” Three other people got up with me.

Do you remember yourself as a child around this time of year?

Many people in this room are baby boomers.

There are many wonderful childhood memories we all have.

One 65-year-old man said*, “I will never forget my childhood bedtime ritual in the 1950’s.”

“Every night I would climb the stairs and go down the hallway to my bedroom.

Now, usually, I had to do this with my parents, because I just knew something lived under the bed; something lived in the closet. And it was there, waiting to get me. I was an only child, so every night, we’d go through the same thing. We would check all the rooms and make sure this monster did not come and attack me at night. We would check under the bed and in the closet. And after we had gone through this ritual that lasted as long as it possibly could, I asked my parents to leave the light on in the hallway. Eventually, after calling downstairs several more times for some excuse to get my parents up to my room again, I would finally fall asleep.

“Morning would come and it was like a victory, because I had made it through the night. The monster did not get me. I ran down those stairs, stepped on the old brown carpeting with my pajamas that had feet in them. My pajamas would always have some sort of animal on the feet, so when I walked, it looked like two animals were going along in my old cotton pajamas. This is the way it was in Ohio, at that time, with children.

“I would go downstairs and sit in front of this big, blonde-wood Motorola television set. It was about as big as this lectern, and it had a screen about as big as one of your hymnals. It would flicker while I would watch whatever there was to watch on television, during those early days of black and white TV.

“I was proud BECAUSE I MADE IT THROUGH THE NIGHT.”

In our Bible:

“A community leader came to see Zachariah, hoping to find peace of mind, and ease for his burden. The man was troubled by a repetitive dream that he did not understand.

“Zachariah, in my dream, I have traveled a long distance and am finally arriving at a great city. But, at the entrance to the city, I am met by a tall soldier who says that I must answer two questions before I am admitted. Will you help me?”

Zachariah nodded.

“The first question the soldier asks is, ‘What supports the walls of the city?'”

“That is easy,” said Jacob. “Fear supports the walls of the city.”

“But what supports the fear?” asked the man in his second question.

“The walls,” answered Jacob. “The fears we cannot climb become our walls.”

Eleanor Roosevelt once said, “You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, ‘I have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.’ You must do the thing you think you cannot do.”

Many times, we have gotten into situations where we would like to hide, in order TO NOT FACE OUR FEARS. Many times, we have gotten ourselves into a corner and we do not know how to get out. We, seriously, do not know, in human mind, how to get ourselves out of a fearful problem. Many times, we have gotten into situations in our personal lives, our homes, our work, our business, our career, where it appears in our eyes, like a ghost house.

It is good, that we, as humans, can have a time of conquering our base fears.

First, we can have an event in your life that scares you.

What is that? It could be a change. There is an unknown ahead of you and you do not know how to get across the bridge to where you want to go. Or it could be that you are alone? You feel alone. You feel separated from God and from other people, and you do not know how to get back into the flow again, you are in a experience and you’re filled with fear.

GOD IS WITH YOU, HELPING YOU TO GET THROUGH YOUR YOUR NIGHT!

Second, fear goes into Thanksgiving. That is when we realize, again, that God is here and God is with us.

Then, third, we go to a new birth.

Never walk alone, accept the help that is available directly to you from God and Jesus Christ.

If the fear you are dealing with today is allowed to proceed to the realization of God in your own spiritual thanksgiving, you will have new birth. You will have a new life. You will get beyond your fear. You will get beyond where you are today, and you will have a whole new experience of being, that will be better than anything you have ever dealt with.

You may wonder how you are going to get past your fear. Well, let us talk about that.

Go to God in prayer, and ask for the help. Realize you are not doing it alone. Then, while you are in the experience, you will be so thankful because you will realize you are not doing it alone, then, you have a new spiritual birth.

In that new birth, you can go beyond anywhere you thought you could go every time with God’s help.

Some people prefer to stay in the fear experience of their lives. You may know people who stayed in their fears. They opt for that; it is their choice. They opt to stay in a fearful situation inside of themselves and never go beyond that. And some people even stay in the thanksgiving of the past, where they are thankful ONLY for things of the past. They can see that clearly, but they cannot seem to be thankful for today, the present.

It is those people who go beyond, who go from the fear, to God, to the new birth of awareness of God protection who are TOTALLY ALIVE.

For many people, if they see two holes in the ground and one hole is filled with snakes and the other hole is dark, they will jump in the hole that is filled with snakes, because, at least, they know what to expect. It’s true. It is sad. It is human nature. If you are this way in ANY area of your life, realize this is time to ask God for help.

You can go beyond fears with God’s help, to courage, strength, and protection. You can jump in the other hole called unknown and you can know it’s going to be okay because God is with you.

As we move, we are all moving into the unknown future. We will not have fear of the unknown if we know that God is going ahead of us, and preparing the good that will await us there. No longer will we build the bridge before we see the creek. We won’t try to say, “Oh, I’m going to hit this obstacle and I need this kind of bridge,” and all of a sudden, we’ve constructed a bridge in our minds, that is like the Golden Gate Bridge – over a creek. We have no need for a bridge of that type or magnitude. Possibly, we could just wade across the creek.

My scripture today is from Luke 11:14. I want to share it with you because it talks about getting rid of the scary things that are inside of you and me.

“Now Jesus was casting out a demon that was mute.”

Imagine, for a minute, that I am Jesus and you have a demon inside of you. That demon could be a lot of things, MAYBE a bad habit, a sickness, a feeling that you cannot accomplish what you need to do, a feeling that nobody loves you.

“When the demon had gone out, the one who had been mute, spoke, and the crowds were amazed.

But some of them said, ‘He casts out demons by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons.’ Others, to test him, kept demanding from him a sign from heaven. But he knew what they were thinking and said to them, ‘every kingdom divided against itself becomes a desert, and house falls on house. If Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand?'”

The word Satan, in first century Christianity means “inner tester.” Let us say someone has a serious alcohol problem. It is tearing his life apart. What Jesus is saying is this person can’t go into a bar, get a drink with a friend of his, who has a problem just as bad as his, and talk together and get rid of their habit? No. Satan cannot cast out Satan. It can’t happen.

Jesus said, “Now, if I cast out the demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your exorcists cast them out? Therefore, they will be your judges. But if it is by the finger of God that I cast out the demons, then the kingdom of God has come to you.

When a strong man, fully armed, guards his castle, his property is safe. But when one stronger than he attacks him and overpowers him, he takes away his armor in which he trusted and divides his plunder. Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.”

What Jesus is saying here is that we need to go from our personal Halloweens to an experience of God and have true new birth in awareness.

If I have a fear inside of me, I can’t get rid of that fear with another fear.

I have to get rid of it WITH God.

I can say, “By the authority of God with me, RIGHT NOW, through the power of the spoken word, I’m NOT going to have this fear in my life, anymore. I refuse it. I evict you from my thinking by the authority of God.”

I then solve my problem from a higher level of mind than I created it. I wipe out the fear that is inside of me by a higher level of spiritual faith than that which was in me when I created the fear. It works every time. I go from my inner, imagined fears to safety of the real God in thanksgiving. I realize something has happened and I have new birth of conscious awareness.

All of us have been, or are right now, or will someday be, in something that we consider “a hellish experience.”

But it is how we deal with an experience more than the experience itself that is important.

Acknowledge in that moment, while you’re there, or as soon as possible, you can gather in all your thoughts and acknowledge God. Otherwise, you are scattered to the winds and are defenseless.

We accept the leading of God to the NEW life in God.

We Overcome.

Daily worship in the spiritual cathedral inside of you.

There comes a time when I have to empty out myself and all that baggage I have packed for so many years, and accept a new infilling of God-strength.

I enter into a new consciousness. I jump into new belief with great vigor.

It is natural for you to be healthy. It is natural for you to have well-being. It is natural for you to have a foundation of spirituality when you are going through the scary things of life. It is natural for you to have joy and a smile on your face. This he is your own personal gift of God given to you as your birthright. Anything else is unnatural.

God bless you!

PRAYER / MEDITATION____________________________

I invite you to join me in a special prayer time, that all of the world’s populations will have the privilege of joining in – a prayer that knows God IS WITH US right now.

Join me in a prayer that realizes that God is not far off, but right here, present, with us, and inside of us.

Prepare with a moment of silence in prayer …

Dear God, You are with me, surrounding me this moment. I come to You, and lay before You, on the altar of my being, the fears that are present in my mind; my beliefs that are in error about myself – about who I am, and about what I can become.

I come today to realize, with Your mind, working through mine, that I am more than just flesh and bones. God, today I consent to a spiritual infilling of Your Whole Spirit.

I consent to a feeling of well-being.

Rest in the silence of prayer …

Dear God, I know I have the potential to become more than my present human fears.

But in order to do so, I have to empty myself. Therefore, in this moment, I am here to empty myself. I am emptying myself now of all fear and all anger inside of me. I ask that any anger that may have been held for years, stored in compartments of my mind, that I am not even aware of, can be emptied now – spiritually cleaned out, refreshed, renewed, revitalized, and regenerated by You, dear, wonderful God.

Rest in the silence of prayer …

The presence of God is with me NOW. The presence of God is causing a quickening in my mind and body. The presence of God is working gently, evenly, continuously, effortlessly throughout my being and my life.

Dear God, I give you – me, my life, all the little details I am involved in. I have been in a maze, but now I see.

Now, in the silence of prayer, I straighten out that maze and make my crooked ways straight.

Rest in the silence of prayer …

There is a peace inside of me. It’s only the beginning, but it is growing; it is inside of me.

There is a well-being that is created by God, the Creator, inside of me. There is a harmony that is in perfect balance inside of me and through me, touching my life. It is happening now. Every thought inside of my mind is under the dominion of God’s perfect Divine mind.

I say, thank You God.

In the name and through the power of Jesus Christ.

Amen.

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