Has My Free Access Before God Being Denied??

Free Access Before God Denied???
I was having my time with God when a scripture jumped out at me. It made me think about how my approach before God has been. The scripture is in Ephesians 3:12 and it says;
In whom, because of our faith in Him, we dare to have the boldness (courage and confidence) of free access (an unreserved approach to God with freedom and without fear).

So as I am reading the verse I realise that I am not that confident before God. I am not unreserved in my approach to God all the time. But we are meant to come to God in boldness and in confidence without fear.
But why do a lot of us come to Him afraid and unsure? Something is very wrong if we can’t. I want to come to the Lord in boldness and confidence all the time. He is my Father. He really loves me. I want to be unreserved in my approach to Him without fear or doubt.

As I was thinking about all this there were a few things that came to mind. I am fearful in my approach to God because of sin. I know God says I am forgiven when I confess my sin but sometimes I think He is still angry with me. Are you in the same boat? Is there sin that you have committed that you think God cannot forgive? God is true to His word when He says He has forgiven us. God wants us to come to Him boldly.

The other thing that could be a hinderance is having a lack of faith that God hears our prayers. But He does. The word says He delights in our prayers. He loves the prayer of a righteous man. He hears your prayers. He doesn’t disregard them.
The goal is to come to God in boldness and confidence without fear. We need to have an unreserved approach to God. He is our Father who loves us deeply.

The key is coming to God in faith. It is because of our faith that we come to Him in confidence and boldness. It is through faith that we eradicate fear and doubt.

We have free access to God by faith. Let us go to Him in boldness.

Rolain.P

I Saw Wisdom Fight Strength!!!!

Who would win between Wisdom and Strength? Wisdom is not as physically defined as Strength. Wisdom does not rely on muscles to win a fight. Wisdom relies on what he knows. Strength on the other hand relies on brute strength to win. In past battles that has proved key. But here we are, Wisdom vs Strength.
What do you rely on when things get tough? Do you rely on brute strength to get yourself out of fixes or do you rely on the wisdom of God?
The Word of God makes it very clear who would win. Let us take a look at some scriptures.

Proverbs 24:5 says; A wise man is strong and is better than a strong man, and a man of knowledge increases and strengthens his power

Proverbs 21:22 says; A wise man scales the city walls of the mighty and brings down the stronghold in whicb they trust.

Ecclesiastes 9:16 says; But I say that wisdom is better than might, though the poor man’s wisdom is despised and his words are not heeded.

As you can see, Wisdom is the winner, godly wisdom! Seek wisdom from on high. Don’t rely on your own strength. Your strength will fail you. As I end I want to show you one more scripture about wisdom. It is an amazing scripture. It is in Proverbs 24:3,4. I will read it from the Amplified Bible.

Through skillful and godly Wisdom is a house (a life, a home, a family) built, and by understanding it is established [on a sound and good foundation],
And by knowledge shall its chambers [of every area] be filled with all precious and pleasant riches.

We build our lives, homes and families through Godly Wisdom! That is how important it is. We cannot build anything worthwhile without godly wisdom.

Rolain.P

I Saw Wisdom Fight Strength!!!!

Who would win between Wisdom and Strength? Wisdom is not as physically defined as Strength. Wisdom does not rely on muscles to win a fight. Wisdom relies on what he knows. Strength on the other hand relies on brute strength to win. In past battles that has proved key. But here we are, Wisdom vs Strength.
What do you rely on when things get tough? Do you rely on brute strength to get yourself out of fixes or do you rely on the wisdom of God?
The Word of God makes it very clear who would win. Let us take a look at some scriptures.

Proverbs 24:5 says; A wise man is strong and is better than a strong man, and a man of knowledge increases and strengthens his power

Proverbs 21:22 says; A wise man scales the city walls of the mighty and brings down the stronghold in whicb they trust.

Ecclesiastes 9:16 says; But I say that wisdom is better than might, though the poor man’s wisdom is despised and his words are not heeded.

As you can see, Wisdom is the winner, godly wisdom! Seek wisdom from on high. Don’t rely on your own strength. Your strength will fail you. As I end I want to show you one more scripture about wisdom. It is an amazing scripture. It is in Proverbs 24:3,4. I will read it from the Amplified Bible.

Through skillful and godly Wisdom is a house (a life, a home, a family) built, and by understanding it is established [on a sound and good foundation],
And by knowledge shall its chambers [of every area] be filled with all precious and pleasant riches.

We build our lives, homes and families through Godly Wisdom! That is how important it is. We cannot build anything worthwhile without godly wisdom.

Rolain.P

5 Practical Things To Do To Get Closer To Your Purpose.

1 – Read Your Word: This is your starting point. One of the main ways God speaks to us is through His Word. His plan for your life is in the Word. Get hungry for the Word. It is the key.

2 – Pray: What is prayer? Prayer is simply talking to God. How much time do you spend talking to God? A relationship is pretty much ruined without proper communication and that holds true for your relationship with God. He knows what you going through but He wants you to speak to Him about it. He wants to hear what challenges you facing. He wants you to speak to Him about the deepest issues of your heart.
The thing is this, prayer is a sign of faith. When you come to God in prayer you are declaring your faith in Him.

3 – Do the small things faithfully: The best way to explain this step is with a scripture. Luke 2: 51, 52 says,
And He went down with them and came to Nazareth and was [habitually] obedient to them; and his mother kept and closely and persistantly guarded all these things in her heart.
And Jesus increased in wisdom (in broad and full understanding) and in stature and years, and in favour with God and man.

Jesus was the Son of God yet He submitted to His earthly parents. He could of just done His own thing but He didn’t. He was obedient to his parents. They were like any other parent in that time so I am guessing Jesus had chores to do, He was sent to the shops, He was probably asked to clean the house at times and so on. I am guessing He was reproved as well when He was naughty. But in the light of all these things we see that He was obedient to do the menial things. He was obedient to do the small things. To accomplish your destiny you will need to do the small things as well.

4 – Learn: If you know what you called to do there is a season of learning. There is a time to practice. You don’t get up one day and find yourself just doing great things. It starts with you practicing. You need to learn as much as you can about what you want to do. And there is a time to become skillfull at what you doing.
I would suggest you read as many books as you can. Speak to as many qualified people as you can. If possible get to do what you want to do part time. That will be a very eye opening experience for you.

5 – Have a Mentor: We all needs mentors. We have never been on this road before and that is why we need mentors because they have been on this road we have just started on. They can help us identify the traps we just can’t see. Because they have been on this road we have just started on they have acquired experience. We need that experience. We need the wisdom they have gained. Insanity is described as doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results. So a mentor keeps us from insanity because he or she keeps us from doing the same things that made them fail by showing us a different way. Do you have a mentor? A mentor is someone you trust and someone who you know will tell you the truth no matter what. He or she will not be afraid to confront you and show you the ugly parts of you. That is a true mentor.

And those are the 5 practical things you can do to get closer to your destiny. They will really help you on your journey to accomplishing your destiny.

Rolain.P

I Refuse. Part 2 – Prayer.

This is a continuation from a post I wrote called, I Refuse. In that post I wrote a few things that I was refusing in life. One of the things I refused was in the area of prayer. I refused to pray another empty prayer. I refused to pray and not expect an answer. The word says God delights in our prayers. He also hears our prayers. But do we believe that? Do we believe God can answer our prayers? I was reading a story in the bible which really highlighted what I was thinking. The story is in Acts 12. Peter has been arrested by Herod and he is going to be executed.
But in verse 5 it reads: So Peter was kept in prison, but fervent prayer for him was persistently made to God by the church (assembly).

The night before his execution an angel from God rescues him and leaves him in the middle of the street. It is only then that Peter realises that he has been delivered by God. The word then says:
When he, at a glance, became aware of this [comprehending all the elements of the case], he went to the house of Mary the mother of Mark, where a large number were assembled together and were praying. Acts 12:12.

The surprising thing is when he goes to the house, the people who are praying for his release do not believe he is the one knocking by the gate!
Look at what Acts 12:14,15 says:
And recognizing Peter’s voice, in her joy she failed to open the gate, but ran in and told the people that Peter was standing before the porch gate.
They said to her, You are crazy! But she persistently and strongly and confidently affirmed that it was the truth. They said, it is his angel!

How many of us are like that? I do that as well. I pray very cautiously a lot of the time. At times I pray for the sake of saying I prayed but not really believing God to answer. If you are in the same boat please know that God wants us to come to Him in faith. He wants us to know that He will answer our prayers. It is His desire to do that. So don’t hold back when you pray. Dare to ask God for great things. Dare to ask Him to bring to pass the dreams that He has given you that scare you. He is our Father. He delights in our prayers.
We refuse to pray another empty prayer from now on!!!

Rolain.P

The Secret of the Quiet Place.

We live in a very fast moving world. We also live in a world where we are constantly being bombarded by information. If it is not television, its radio. If it’s not radio it is internet and so on and so on. My point is this, it is very hard to be silent. It is extremely difficult to just have uninterupted times of silence! But this is the thing, we need times of silence. They need to be a vital part of our lives.

In those times we meet God. In those times we get to offload all the baggage we have acquired. In those times we get to strip ourselves before God and be open about what we are facing. In those times we cry out to God. In those times we get strengthened to face other greater challenges.
So without those times we are in trouble. How many of us take time to spend with God? We need those times to learn how to hear God. So if we don’t have quiet times how can we survive?

The main reason we need to have a quiet time with God is to meet with Him!
So where are you? Do you have those times when you are silent before God, where you allow Him to deal with your heart and where you allow Him to speak to you and refresh you? If not make a decision to have that time. It will change your life as you do it.
He is waiting for you.

Rolain. P

Does Your Attitude Stink? Part 2.

I hope you enjoyed the first part of my post on attitudes. This is the conclusion. In my last post I said that attitudes are neither good or bad until you set a goal. And that is why we need goals in our lives. Goals are one of the ways we can detect negative attitudes.
What are you gravitating towards? Are you leaning towards the right things and leaning away from bad things?
When you lean away from things you block out information. So if you are leaning away from something that you are supposed to be leaning towards you are in trouble. Let me give you an example of what I mean:

I was applying to go for school in another country a few years back. I was excited about it. My attitude was positive. I was hard at work doing all I could to get ready until I was told that I needed to get injections. Not one but several! I hated injections. I was scared of them. So my attitude was negative. I never changed my attitude and things got worse. In the end I was willing to abandon going to school overseas because I had a bad attitude about injections! See how ridiculous that was. But thanks to God, He opened my eyes to the craziness of what I was doing. So I changed my attitude and got the injections I needed. And that is the danger of having a bad attitude. How many of you miss great opportunities because you have a bad attitude towards something you see in that opportunity?
The good news is, you can change your attitude. It is not too late.

Look and see what attitudes you have and test them. What are you leaning towards and leaning away from? Are your attitudes advancing you or are they hindering you?
Are they advancing you into what God has for you or are they blocking you from all the amazing things God has for you?
If you have a bad attitude about something that is essential to your life, you got two choices. You can either change the attitude or drop the goal? It is your choice. Remember, attitudes determine how far you go in life.

Rolain.P.

Does Your Attitude Stink? Part 1.

What is your attitude like? Do people like your attitude? Do YOU like your attitude? My mentor taught me an interesting way to look at attitudes and I would like to share it with you.
Your attitude in life is important. It will determine how far you go. There is a saying which goes like, your attitude determines your altitude. I agree with that. Let me describe how my mentor described attitude to me.

I want you to think of attitude in aeronautical terms. They talk about the attitude of a plane depending on where the wings are leaning towards. And that is what an attitude is. It is the direction in which you lean in a situation. If you lean towards it you are said to have a good attitude and if you are leaning away from it you are said to have a bad attitude.
So let me give you an example of of what I mean. I love classical music. I think it is amazing. I listen to it as much as I can. If I had a choice between classical music and jazz music I would choose classical. Can you see that I am leaning towards classical music and that is considered a good attitude. I don’t have a good attitude about jazz because I am leaning away from it. And that is what an attitude is.

Now please understand, attitudes are neither good or bad until you set a goal. I can lean away from jazz but it doesn’t matter because I don’t have a goal. Before the goal my attitude towards jazz is just that, an attitude. It is neither good or bad. On the other hand, what if I had a goal to study jazz music, my attitude towards it would then be considered bad. I would have to review it and change it. Leaning away from jazz would not work now because I have a goal. Do you see that. In part two I will conclude on attitudes.

Rolain.P

What Is The Definition Of Greatness?

What do you think the definition of greatness is? What are you doing that is great? Are you doing something that is making a difference in people’s lives?
To help me answer this question I am going to talk about two men who literally changed the world. They were both regarded as great men. They were both considered successful. But as you will see, their lived very different lives. My goal in this post is to help you decide what your definition of greatness is. By the end of this post I hope you will know how to define what true greatness really is.

The first man I am going to look at is Steve Jobs. I was sad when he died. I personally think he has changed the world for generations to come. He is a history maker. He has brought something that has changed peoples lives forever. He was considered a success. He was considered to be a great man.
But as I was thinking about him I could not shake off another thought. What if he never gave his life to Jesus Christ? I read his autobiography and it looks like he did not believe in Jesus. He was not a christian. So was he really great? Could we say he was a success? Is it not sad that even though he changed the world he may be in hell???
Is he an example of a great man?

The second man I want to talk about is Martin Luther King Jr. He was also considered a great man. He didn’t have much. He wasn’t as rich as Steve Jobs but he was considered a success. His work will last for generations and the world will never be the same because of him. He is truly a history maker.

So what is your definition of greatness? Who would you want to be if you could be either Steve Jobs or Martin Luther King Jr?

Personally I would chose Martin Luther King Jr. He had a heart for people. He was more than a humanitarian or a philanthropist. He was willing to die for the cause.
This is where I think the fundamental difference between the two men are. One man was concerned about advancing himself. Yes, his inventions would make life easier for people but it was for some people.
Martin Luther King Jr had a dream that involved people. And his vision was not about him. It was not about advancing and benefiting himself. Instead he had people in mind and that is what pushed him forward in the midst of trials and hardships.

What is your definition of greatness? Before you can accomplish greatness you need to have a clear idea of what it is. Is your vision focused around advancing you and making you great, or is it focused on people?
God’s purpose for your life is for other people. His purpose for you is to impact people. It is always about people. So with that, what is your definition of greatness?

Rolain.P

What are you seeking?

We live in a broken world. A world where negativity is the norm. You can hear it and see it everywhere. Media is fuelled by negativity. That is what sells. The more explicit and raw the material is the better. Our minds have been so seared by the negativity that we don’t flinch anymore. What was considered grotesque years ago is now normal. It is actually cool!! Bad, negative, doom has so infiltrated us that we have been blinded to what is really good.
The worst part of all this is that we stand by as our kids are being brainwashed by all the negativity in the world.
A friend once told me, as long as we live in this world we are being molded into it. We are being intergrated into it. And if we don’t do anything about it we will be lost in the world’s mold.
But God has saved us. He has set us apart from the world. No longer are we to conform to the pattern of the world. We live in this world but we are not part of it.

Now I come to the meat of the matter. The world has infiltrated us so much that we talk like the world. We even think like the world and behave like the world but that is not to be so.
What are we seeking as children of God? What do we expect as children of God? The world has infiltrated even this. We don’t really expect much anymore. We have been exposed to too much negativity that we don’t think we can expect good things all the time. But we can and should seek and expect good things to happen to us.
Let us look at a few scriptures that speak about this:
For thus says the Lord to the house of Israel: Seek Me [inquire for and of Me and require Me as you require food] and you shall live! Hosea 5:4

That is the first thing to seek. We need to seek God if we want to live. In this broken world we are to still seek Him. He is the key to life. But now as I read further I found something very interesting. We live in a broken world which is pushing us to conform to its mold. It has affected the way we see life. It has changed what we expect. It has changed the way we think and speak. But this next scripture helped me. It delivered me from that road. It says:
Seek (inquire for and require) good and not evil that you may live, and so the Lord, the God of Hosts, will be with you as you have said. Hosea 5:14
Wow! This verse is like the first one I shared but with a slight but significant difference. We are instructed to seek good and not evil if we are to live. I will say that again. WE ARE TO SEEK GOOD AND NOT EVIL IF WE ARE TO LIVE!!!
All our lives we are trained to seek and expect bad things. We are told to be “realistic”. But not anymore.
This is the thing, as we seek and expect good things we are seeking God and expecting Him! That is the truth that broke the lies the world had filled my mind with.
We need to train ourselves to seek and expect good things in our lives and in other peoples lives. It is so easy to expect doom and gloom but we are children of the light! God has called us so we can bring light into this dark world and we won’t be able to do that if we seek and expect bad things. It won’t happen if we are negative as well. So seek and expect God and understand that as you also seek and expect good things you are seeking God!

The last part of that verse says: “and so the Lord, the God of Hosts, will be with you as you have said”.
In my previous post I spoke about the power of your words and in this scripture we see it again. As we change what we seek and expect, it will be evident in how we speak. We will speak good things and we will speak life and God will do as we have spoken. He will deliver us because we have spoken it. He will save us because that is what we are speaking and expecting. So watch what you say.

As I end I will show you one last scripture:
He who diligently seeks good seeks [God’s] favour, but he who searches after evil, it shall come upon him. Proverbs 11:27

So let us seek God and let us seek and expect good things in our lives.

Rolain.P