Tuesday, July 30, 2013

GET UP AND HANDLE YOUR BUSINESS!!


Praise the Lord, everybody, because He is worthy to be praised!!! I pray everyone is enjoying Gods blessing. God is doing a new thing in my life each and every day it seems. My wife and I are at this point living from day to day by faith and loving it, just waiting on Him for our daily bread.

A little while ago while I sat wondering why God was allowing all these trials to come our way He brought me to the book of Joshua chapter 10. I read the first nine verses about the defeat of Israel's army at Ai and how distraught Joshua was and how he fasted and prayed to ask God "why" and this is what He answered, Joshua 10:10-12 10 And the Lord said unto Joshua, Get thee up; wherefore liest thou thus upon thy face?

11 Israel hath sinned, and they have also transgressed my covenant which I commanded them: for they have even taken of the accursed thing, and have also stolen, and dissembled also, and they have put it even among their own stuff.

12 Therefore the children of Israel could not stand before their enemies, but turned their backs before their enemies, because they were accursed: neither will I be with you anymore, except ye destroy the accursed from among you.

Have you ever found yourself going through something and you're not getting the victory you expected over the situation, so you start fasting, praying and then crying out to God. After a while, you begin to think your prayers are not getting through and then God says to you what He basically said to Joshua " get up and handle your business, there's sin in the camp!"

All the praying and fasting in the world can't help, Joshua had to get up and deal with the sin. I began to check myself for sins. Sins like drug abuse, adultery, stealing etc. are easy to identify but as was the case with Achan some are hidden away and not obvious to others and often justified in the eyes of the sinner. I found myself to have been disobedient on a number of occasions when I heard God speak and did not carry out what I was assigned to do. This is rebellion and Gods word says "rebellion" is as the sin of "witchcraft" and "stubbornness" is as "iniquity and idolatry", I had to change, I claim I know His voice so then I must be obedient when He speaks. There is no justification for disobedience. Thanks be to God I don't have to do to myself what Joshua had to do to Achan and his family, I just have purposed in my heart to be obedient and I have asked God to help me with this.

The body of Christ in America finds itself having this same problem. Every time something happens in this country that knocks us out of our comfort zone, like 9/11 or Katrina we turn to God in droves. Years later we find ourselves still caught up in the war on terrorism and the weather is more unpredictable than ever. sexual immorality is the new normal and We seek God for answers and it seems like He's not listening. The Church the moral compass of this country is ineffective, THERE IS SIN IN THE CAMP and God is saying "GET UP AND HANDLE YOUR BUSINESS!"

. The Church in America has lost its way. We have compromised and politically corrected ourselves to the point where Gods word is so watered down that what we teach and preach is at times borderline sin at best and heretical at least. We need to stop trying to simulate the world and start assimilating the world for Christ. We’ve got to get back to sound doctrine and stand flat-footed against the winds of change and the Anti-Christ spirit that is growing in this country. Let’s get back to calling sin what it is, SIN, and root it out of the Church.

We are the Church, so we must each examine ourselves and recognize our sins, by the way, disobedience is not the only thing I found in my life but with Gods help they are no longer in my "camp" I put them on the altar to be burned by Holy Ghost fire. So get up handle your business and be effective for God.

              God bless you all, Brother Darrell, speaking off the wall        





  

Friday, July 19, 2013

SAY WHAT YOU MEAN, MEAN WHAT YOU SAY!!


Praise the Lord everybody because He is worthy to be praised! I'm walking in victory, hallelujah!! Back in the day there was this hit song called "walking in rhythm" a big R+B hit we used to groove to, but now I'm walking in victory and loving it. Everyday my goal is to walk in rhythm with the Holy Spirit of God. Today I can say that my conscience is clear between myself and God and myself and Man, what a great feeling.

A while back God began to deal with me about something that I'd like to share with you all today. He asked me one day "who are you seeking to please?" A simple question that I could not answer truthfully without admitting that at the time I was a people pleaser.
Galatians 1:10(NIV) STATES, 10) Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.

Apostle Paul was definitely not a people pleaser.

There are too many people pleaser's in the body of Christ, I know because again I was once counted among that number. God began to deal with me over ten years ago concerning this. I found myself on many occasions sitting around with non-believers nodding my head in agreement with them about things that I knew I did not agree with and God did not agree with, from adultery and fornication to stealing and lying. and not standing up for what I really believed, just to fit in with the group. Then I would go home angry with myself because I let them believe I agreed with them when I did not.

 Peer pressure, loneliness and low self esteem are terrible things and have no place in the body of Christ. How can we give the proper witness to non-believers if we are not able to stand up and proclaim what we believe in. I should have declared my faith in Jesus Christ and been a bold witness for Christ.

 We can’t try and please man and serve God, It won’t work. We must as believers stand on Gods word, say what we mean and mean what we say and in this way we can please and serve God, and at the same time influence men to follow us as we follow Christ. Now When the conversation turns to fornication, porno, adultery etc. I excuse myself from the conversation and I tell them why, I no longer contribute to the negativity by being passive, now I bring a positive to the negative, light to the darkness.

Next time you find yourself passively condoning sinful behavior, open your mouth and declare who's you are and whom you serve!
            God bless you all, Brother Darrell, speaking off the wall

Wednesday, July 10, 2013

I CAN'T SHUT IT DOWN PART 2: THE PURPOSE DRIVEN CHRISTIAN


Praise the Lord everybody, fore He is worthy to be praised!! I can't tell you how excited I am about what God is doing in my life and my ministry. My wife and I are still waiting on healing and a release of finances but we are growing in our faith everyday. Talking about living by faith and actually doing it are two different things, we thank Him for the growth.

All these things have caused me to look back on what God has called me to do, what is my purpose in Christ? Focusing on that purpose that assignment keeps me from looking to the left or to the right, both filled with the distractions of this world. Nehemiah was a purpose driven christian. Nehemiah 6:1-4 states   Now it came to pass when Sanballat, and Tobiah, and Geshem the Arabian, and the rest of our enemies, heard that I had builded the wall, and that there was no breach left therein; (though at that time I had not set up the doors upon the gates;)
That Sanballat and Geshem sent unto me, saying, Come, let us meet together in some one of the villages in the plain of Ono. But they thought to do me mischief.
And I sent messengers unto them, saying, I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down: why should the work cease, whilst I leave it, and come down to you?
Yet they sent unto me four times after this sort; and I answered them after the same manner

Nehemiah new he was charged with the rebuilding of the walls of Judah and he would not be deterred.
A lot of us know what God has charged us with, what our callings are but we somehow never got started or we came down off the wall to deal with some trumped up distraction orchestrated by the enemy or we got tired of "well doing" and abandoned our task.

I know because it happened to me years ago when I was a new convert giving my all to God in full time ministry at a place called "The Upper Room" in NYC. an out reach for the homeless. I came down off the wall after being tricked by the enemy and it took me years to get back on task, back on the wall. This blog is the first of many steps to get back up on that wall.

I had to remember my purpose, what I was doing and why I was doing it.
I fell off the wall because I was not fully committed for various reasons, Nehemiah was fully committed to seeing the job through to the end. He could have fallen for the tricks of his enemies, he could of come down for a break, he was  ALMOST finished.but he finished the work and he and his people were blessed. 
Nehemiah 6:15+16 states 15 So the wall was finished in the twenty and fifth day of the month Elul, in fifty and two days.

16 And it came to pass, that when all our enemies heard thereof, and all the heathen that were about us saw these things, they were much cast down in their own eyes: for they perceived that this work was wrought of our God.

His enemies lost heart because they saw he was committed to Gods work and that God was committed to helping him. The time has come for staying on the wall, staying on task, the task that God has charged YOU with. If your up there stay up there but if you have fallen off like I did or come down and wandered away on your own for whatever reason remember your purpose, what God has called you to do. Say to yourself "I want to be a purpose driven Christian like Nehemiah". When I am tempted I say "why should I come down? 
I'm doing a good work and why should that stop?"

So let's all remember our purpose and get back up and stay on the wall till our work is done, Amen!
                            God bless you all, Brother Darrell, speaking off the wall