“Gird Up” Your Mind
by Joyce Meyer – posted September 23, 2015
Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
– 1 Peter 1:13 NKJV
You and I aren’t accustomed to hearing the phrase “gird up” today. But in biblical times both men and women wore long, skirt-like outfits. If they tried to run in those clothes, there was a good chance they could get tangled up in the long fabrics and stumble. When they needed to move quickly, they gathered the material of their garments and pulled it up so they could walk or run freely. They would “gird up” their clothing.
When the Bible tells us to “gird up the loins” of our minds, I believe it means to get our minds off of everything that would cause us to stumble as we run the race God has set before us. I think it may also refer to concentrating on the thing at hand rather than allowing our thoughts to wander all over the place. God has a good plan for each of us, but we must walk the path that leads us to it.
Focus and concentration are both real challenges in our world today. We have a great deal of information coming at us all the time, and to keep our minds on what our purpose is requires great determination, and even training.
You might get up on Monday and fully intend to start your day by spending time with God in prayer and Bible study. Then you intend to get three specific projects finished that day. You need to go to the grocery store, get some maintenance done on your car, and finish cleaning out a closet that you started working on last week. Your intention is good, but if you don’t focus on those projects, you will surely be pulled away by other things or people. Girding up your mind is another way of saying “stay focused on what you need to do.”
Trust in Him Have you developed an ability to concentrate and focus on what you need to do? In order to stay on God’s track for your life, you must keep focused and trust Him to be your guide.
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Isaiah 61:6–7, NIV
And you will be called priests of the Lord…You will feed on the wealth of nations, and in their riches you will boast. Instead of their shame My people will receive a double portion…they will inherit a double portion in their land…
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You are called “priests of the Lord” because Jesus has cleansed you with His blood and made you kings and priests to God. (Revelation 1:5–6) And as priests of the Lord, God says to you, “You will feed on the wealth of nations, and in their riches you will boast.” And you will “inherit a double portion in their land”.
This promise came true for a church member who received his double portion while working for one of the top American companies in Singapore. Within a short time, he received two pay increments. And within just two years, he received an unexpected promotion to a senior position in the company. It was unexpected because the norm to qualify for such a promotion in the company was four years.
He was also named the recipient of a privileged stock award worth a five-figure sum, the net value of which was likely to double, judging by the then prevailing bullish stock market. He acknowledged that it was certainly God’s favor because past awardees were a very small number of top management personnel who had made significant contributions to the company. And only an even smaller per cent of their worldwide employees had ever received this prestigious award. He was only the second recipient, besides his boss, in the Singapore office to receive it.
This church member literally inherited a double portion because he put his trust in the Lord and in His Word.
Beloved, believe God when He says that His people will receive a double portion. This double portion includes blessings of favor, fruitfulness, success and health. In fact, the people around you will look at you and your descendants, and acknowledge that you are a people that the Lord has blessed!
Thought For The Day
As priests of the Lord, you have a double-portion inheritance.
Only Christ’s Atonement Satisfies God
Sep 22, 2015
Today, Jews still observe Yom Kippur or the Day of Atonement. As the name suggests, it is a day set aside to make atonement for one’s sins. But for Christians, this beautiful feast points to Jesus and what He did for us on the cross. Because of His sacrifice, all our sins have already been perfectly atoned for. That is why, should we sin, we know that “we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous”. And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins.
Now, it does not say that if anyone repents, we have an Advocate with the Father. It says that if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father. The moment a child of God sins, straightaway, his Advocate, Jesus Christ, goes into action to pray for and protect him.
What about repentance then?
The word “repentance” is metanoia in the Greek, which means to change one’s mind. For example, you used to believe that Jesus was just a good man. Then one day, you repented and believed that He is the Son of the living God, who died for your sins and rose again on the third day, and you gladly took Him as your Savior.
Bible repentance is not this idea of hitting or punishing yourself to atone for your sins. Don’t turn it into a human work, like the man who went to a priest to confess his sins. When they were done, the priest asked the man, “By the way, what do you do for a living?” The man replied, “I’m a contortionist,” and proceeded to give a demonstration. Another man came along wanting to confess his sins. When he saw the contortionist all twisted up on the ground, he said, “If this is repentance, forget it!” and ran off!
My friend, there is no need to climb the Himalayas or whip your back bloody to atone for your sins. No amount of self-punishment or crying can atone for them. Your sins have already been punished fully in the body of Jesus. Only His finished work satisfies God. So change your mind and simply believe that Jesus alone is the propitiation for your sins!
Thought For The Day
No amount of self-punishment can atone for your sins. Just rest in the truth that Jesus alone is the propitiation for your sins!
WHEN PIGS ARE WISER
Memorise: And always, night and day, he was in the mountains, and in the tombs, crying, and cutting himself with stones. Mark 5:5
Read: Mark 5:1-13, 5 And they came over unto the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gadarenes.
2 And when he was come out of the ship, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit,
3 Who had his dwelling among the tombs; and no man could bind him, no, not with chains:
4 Because that he had been often bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been plucked asunder by him, and the fetters broken in pieces: neither could any man tame him.
5 And always, night and day, he was in the mountains, and in the tombs, crying, and cutting himself with stones.
6 But when he saw Jesus afar off, he ran and worshipped him,
7 And cried with a loud voice, and said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the most high God? I adjure thee by God, that thou torment me not.
8 For he said unto him, Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit.
9 And he asked him, What is thy name? And he answered, saying, My name is Legion: for we are many.
10 And he besought him much that he would not send them away out of the country.
11 Now there was there nigh unto the mountains a great herd of swine feeding.
12 And all the devils besought him, saying, Send us into the swine, that we may enter into them.
13 And forthwith Jesus gave them leave. And the unclean spirits went out, and entered into the swine: and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the sea, (they were about two thousand;) and were choked in the sea.
Bible in one year: Leviticus 8-9, 1st Corinthians 6:12-7:16
http://eaadeboye.com/audios/#
MESSAGE
It is great to experience deliverance from demons, but it is better to never be repossessed by them after being delivered. A better option than these is not to have being possessed by demons at all. If you have never been possessed by demons all your life, you do not know what God has done for you. These two things are common to all those who have been possessed before: they suffered great losses and went through hell. Take for instance the Gadarene demoniac in our Bible reading: what he would never do to himself in his right senses, he did while demons were inside him. He cut his body with sharp stones, bled and felt the pain, and yet he compulsively repeated this often. In other words, the demons in him told him to hurt his own body as if it was the body of an enemy, and he obeyed even though he felt the pain. The demons tried to use him to destroy himself. Do you know that even today, demonic spirits still compel their victims to destroy themselves? We should not be surprised of this, as Jesus in John 10:10a already revealed their mission to us:
“The thief cometh not, but to steal, and to kill, and to destroy:”
All over the world today, demons of addition gradually lure people into taking degenerative substances such as cocaine, heroin, Indian hemp, cigarettes, tobacco powder (snuff), etc. After a while, such people discover that they are unable to break away from these substances. The aim of these demonic spirits of addition is to destroy their bodies. In the same manner, these spirits get people into drinking alcohol, and before long, they become alcoholics. The operations of the demons of lust follow the same pattern. They get their victims into immorality, sodomy, lesbianism, and other sexual sins, so as to make them destroy themselves. 1st Corinthians 6:19 says:
“What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?”
The objective of these demons is to make their victims destroy their bodies to the extent that the Holy Spirit will not come near it, not to talk of entering in. unfortunately, do you know that some people are happy to harbour demons because of certain benefits they derive from them; for example, practitioners of witchcraft? The pigs that were at the receiving end of the demons cast out of the Gadarene demoniac were more sensible than such people. They preferred to drown rather than to allow demons inhabit them. Are you as wise as these pigs? If you have any spirit other than the Holy Spirit inside you, you need help through deliverance.
Action point
Ask God to deliver anyone under the manipulative influence of demons in your local church.
Reference: from open Heavens daily with Pastor E.A. Adeboye
WHEN PIGS ARE WISER
Memorise: And always, night and day, he was in the mountains, and in the tombs, crying, and cutting himself with stones. Mark 5:5
Read: Mark 5:1-13, 5 And they came over unto the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gadarenes.
2 And when he was come out of the ship, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit,
3 Who had his dwelling among the tombs; and no man could bind him, no, not with chains:
4 Because that he had been often bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been plucked asunder by him, and the fetters broken in pieces: neither could any man tame him.
5 And always, night and day, he was in the mountains, and in the tombs, crying, and cutting himself with stones.
6 But when he saw Jesus afar off, he ran and worshipped him,
7 And cried with a loud voice, and said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the most high God? I adjure thee by God, that thou torment me not.
8 For he said unto him, Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit.
9 And he asked him, What is thy name? And he answered, saying, My name is Legion: for we are many.
10 And he besought him much that he would not send them away out of the country.
11 Now there was there nigh unto the mountains a great herd of swine feeding.
12 And all the devils besought him, saying, Send us into the swine, that we may enter into them.
13 And forthwith Jesus gave them leave. And the unclean spirits went out, and entered into the swine: and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the sea, (they were about two thousand;) and were choked in the sea.
Bible in one year: Leviticus 8-9, 1st Corinthians 6:12-7:16
http://eaadeboye.com/audios/#
MESSAGE
It is great to experience deliverance from demons, but it is better to never be repossessed by them after being delivered. A better option than these is not to have being possessed by demons at all. If you have never been possessed by demons all your life, you do not know what God has done for you. These two things are common to all those who have been possessed before: they suffered great losses and went through hell. Take for instance the Gadarene demoniac in our Bible reading: what he would never do to himself in his right senses, he did while demons were inside him. He cut his body with sharp stones, bled and felt the pain, and yet he compulsively repeated this often. In other words, the demons in him told him to hurt his own body as if it was the body of an enemy, and he obeyed even though he felt the pain. The demons tried to use him to destroy himself. Do you know that even today, demonic spirits still compel their victims to destroy themselves? We should not be surprised of this, as Jesus in John 10:10a already revealed their mission to us:
“The thief cometh not, but to steal, and to kill, and to destroy:”
All over the world today, demons of addition gradually lure people into taking degenerative substances such as cocaine, heroin, Indian hemp, cigarettes, tobacco powder (snuff), etc. After a while, such people discover that they are unable to break away from these substances. The aim of these demonic spirits of addition is to destroy their bodies. In the same manner, these spirits get people into drinking alcohol, and before long, they become alcoholics. The operations of the demons of lust follow the same pattern. They get their victims into immorality, sodomy, lesbianism, and other sexual sins, so as to make them destroy themselves. 1st Corinthians 6:19 says:
“What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?”
The objective of these demons is to make their victims destroy their bodies to the extent that the Holy Spirit will not come near it, not to talk of entering in. unfortunately, do you know that some people are happy to harbour demons because of certain benefits they derive from them; for example, practitioners of witchcraft? The pigs that were at the receiving end of the demons cast out of the Gadarene demoniac were more sensible than such people. They preferred to drown rather than to allow demons inhabit them. Are you as wise as these pigs? If you have any spirit other than the Holy Spirit inside you, you need help through deliverance.
Action point
Ask God to deliver anyone under the manipulative influence of demons in your local church.
Reference: from open Heavens daily with Pastor E.A. Adeboye
