BELIEVE IN HIM, OR LIVE FOR HIM?

BELIEVE IN HIM, OR LIVE FOR HIM?

At the end of a video my friend Jerry sent me, there was a statement that arrested my attention: “The question is not, ‘Do you believe in God,’ but ‘Are you living for Him?’” The speaker confirmed the fact that the devil believes in God, and we see proof in the Bible. When Jesus was tempted by the devil, the devil quoted scripture to Jesus to try to trick him. The devil “saith unto him, ‘If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, . . . .” (Matt. 4:6). 

 

In James 2:19, the Apostle James tells us this truth: “Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble.” Believing in the true God is great, but living for Him takes faithfulness and determination to follow through to the end. Are we strong enough and are we willing? Yes, we are.

 

Living for God and yielding to the leadership of Jesus Christ, is the only thing that makes real sense in this world. Family is great, yes, and happiness is great, yes. But when it’s all over, what do we have to show for our lives, if we’ve said no to the opportunity to walk on the side of the one who created us and loves us more than anyone?

 

Let’s step up to Jesus today and ask what we can do for him. We ask for the blessing of what it says in Phillipians 2:13: “God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.” Just for today. Do tomorrow when it gets here.

 

“Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof” (Matt. 6:34). And Psalm 118:24 tells us: “This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.”

 

Love, Carolyn

You can get my publications on Amazon: Great keys to living a Christian life every day. I’m starting to get the chapters together for WINGS: A Journey in Faith Volume 3. https://www.amazon.com/s?k=BOOKS+BY+cAROLYN+mOLICA&crid=16D4X7I4BV76Z&sprefix=books+by+carolyn+molic%2Caps%2C450&ref=nb_sb_noss

 

OUR UNIQUE AND SPECIAL ABILITIES COME FROM GOD

OUR UNIQUE AND SPECIAL ABILITIES COME FROM GOD

If you’ve tapped into certain talents you were born with, and you’ve made great strides in life, that’s wonderful. But never make the mistake of thinking your talents or special abilities originate with you. If you’re good at something, give God the glory. Give Him credit for putting certain wonderful, inventive, creative, and insightful abilities in you, and give Him the thanks.

 

The older I get, the humbler I get. A while back someone told me, “You’re a much better gardener than I am.” It wasn’t as much of a statement of fact, but rather, a concession speech, as if we were competing. I was flabbergasted! I had no idea this person was competing with me—over gardening? I got that furrowed brow look, “What?? That’s nuts!”

 

Gardening is a pleasure for me, a pastime, a hobby. The fact that things grow for me is not because of my great skill, but because of God. He loves me, and I love Him, and so my garden grows. God gives me the insight and the direction, and I just follow and have fun. It works the same with my painting.

 

I didn’t even start painting as a career until I was 40-years old, and I don’t have a degree in art. The Lord Jesus gives me the ability to see the way an artist sees. He’s the one who put me on jobs with prestigious clients—projects other painters would be jealous of. But for me, it’s not about the client; it’s about the challenge and fun of succeeding in the painting itself. It’s the Lord who puts the “how to” in me. From my viewpoint, I’m never in competition with anyone, because I know the Lord is my source and promoter, and I look to Him. I don’t have to compete.

 

If it seems that people are trying to compete with you, don’t let it bother you. Be happy with who you are. You are only in a position that others may covet because God put you there. He can do it for them too.

 

Psalm 75:5-7 tells us promotion is from the Lord: “Lift not up your horn on high: speak not with a stiff neck. For promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south. But God is the judge: he putteth down one, and setteth up another.”

 

David was a great warrior because God made him that way. And Saul started off with the God-given ability to be a great King, but Saul got covetous of what David had, and it drove him to mental illness and possession by evil spirits. 1 Samuel 18: 6-12 tells us:

 

“When the victorious Israelite army was returning home after David had killed the Philistine, women from all the towns of Israel came out to meet King Saul. They sang and danced for joy with tambourines and cymbals.

 

“This was their song: ‘Saul has killed his thousands, and David his ten thousands!’

 

“This made Saul very angry. ‘What’s this?’ he said. ‘They credit David with ten thousands and me with only thousands. Next they’ll be making him their king!’

 

“So from that time on Saul kept a jealous eye on David. The very next day a tormenting spirit from God overwhelmed Saul, and he began to rave in his house like a madman.

 

“David was playing the harp, as he did each day. But Saul had a spear in his hand, and he suddenly hurled it at David, intending to pin him to the wall. But David escaped him twice.

 

“Saul was then afraid of David, for the Lord was with David and had turned away from Saul.”

 

Saul was stubborn. Instead of being happy with the talents God gave him, He wanted what David had. But he couldn’t have it and because of his stubborn ambition, he also lost his kingship. 1 Samuel 15:23 says: “For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity [sin in your ancestors, passed down to you] and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, he hath also rejected thee from being king.”

 

Meanwhile, God showed David how to avoid Saul, and David kept his heart in the Lord.

 

So don’t worry if you feel others may be a little jealous of you. Just keep looking to Jesus and be happy with yourself. Let’s be humble and thankful because all the good things we are, came from Him. Other people don’t need to be covetous. They can be just as happy as we are if they just do what we do—humbling ourselves to Him in everything we do and in every decision.

 

1 Peter 5:6 is the best step to promotion: “Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time.” It’s God’s Word. It always works.

 

Love, Carolyn

 

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SHADRACH, THE BLIND MAN, AND FAITH

SHADRACH, THE BLIND MAN, AND FAITH

Do you have the kind of faith that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego had (Daniel 1-3) when they were thrown into a pit of fire and came out untouched? “Upon whose bodies the fire had no power, nor was an hair of their head singed, neither were their coats changed, nor the smell of fire had passed on them.” Or do you have the faith of the man who was born blind, who came to Jesus and received his sight? (John 9: 1-7). Many years ago, when faced with death, I told the man who was pointing a gun at my face, to put it down in the name of Jesus Christ, and the man put it down.

 

Lately I’ve been thinking about my faith. There are things I have faith for, things that no one can talk me out of, but then there are other things where my faith is not nearly so strong. I think that’s probably pretty typical for most of us. I knew there was a verse where God lets us know that our faith can grow, so I decided to take a closer look at that verse, and start confessing it daily. Here’s what I found:

 

“We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is meet, because that your faith groweth exceedingly, and the charity of every one of you all toward each other aboundeth” (2 Thess. 1:3).

 

I’m only going to go over three words, and you can look up the rest in the Concordance. (All of these definitions are found in the Strong’s Concordance to the Bible – the book or online).

 

The first word I want to look at is the word “faith.” What is it, according to the original spiritual download from God to Paul? Paul got this message and wrote it in the Greek language. In Greek the word “faith” is translated as follows: It means “conviction of truth,” “assurance of belief.” In other words, it’s what we are totally convinced of, what we are absolutely assured of. Faith are those things we are “confident of,” convinced of,” what we “rely on by inward certainty.”

 

Our faith is our “persuasion of the truthfulness of God and our reliance upon Christ.” By definition, it is a “yielding to.”

 

When we look honestly at our thoughts, and then our subsequent actions, we may find that sometimes we don’t think or act according to our faith in God or in the Lord Jesus. Instead, we go on to think and do, and problem-solve, without consulting by faith with our Lord on the matters that concern us. But God knows how hard it is in our world to always do what He instructs in 2 Corinthians 10:5: “casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.”

 

Because we are not always great at doing 2 Corinthians 10:5, God gives us a promise, something to pray for, back in 2 Thessalonians 1:3. He says our faith can grow! He says: “groweth exceedingly.” In Greek it is only one word “huperauxano.” It is translated: “to increase above ordinary degree, to enlarge, over and above, superior, above and beyond, very highly, and very chiefest.”  And isn’t that how we want our faith to be?!

 

We want our faith to grow to the highest level we can possibly have. We want to be as huge in faith as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, as huge in faith as the man born blind, as gigantic as the faith of Daniel when he was thrown to the lions, as powerful as the faith of the woman who had been bleeding for twelve years and one touch of Jesus healed her completely.

 

“And, behold, a woman, which was diseased with an issue of blood twelve years, came behind him, and touched the hem of his garment: for she said within herself, ‘If I may but touch his garment, I shall be whole.’ But Jesus turned him about, and when he saw her, he said:

 

“’Daughter, be of good comfort; thy faith hath made thee whole.” And the woman was made whole from that hour” (Matt. 9: 20-22).

 

These people from the Bible had the kind of faith we all want to have, and have in abundance. Let’s start to call it in with our words. Let’s put claim to what God says is ours: “Our faith groweth exceedingly.” What an exciting time to be alive. Maybe you’d like to take a little time this week to read those records I mentioned here.

Include your Heavenly Father in everything! Happy Fathers’ Day!

 

Love, Carolyn

See my publications on Amazon: Great keys to living a Christian life every day. I’m starting to get the chapters together for WINGS: A Journey in Faith Volume 3. https://www.amazon.com/s?k=BOOKS+BY+cAROLYN+mOLICA&crid=16D4X7I4BV76Z&sprefix=books+by+carolyn+molic%2Caps%2C450&ref=nb_sb_noss

 

GIDEON

GIDEON AND HIS SMALL BAND OF BIBLE HEROES

There are just some things we’re not going to be able to figure out or understand until we go through them. We’ve heard the phrase, “there’s a reason for everything.” But the second half of that should be, “but we don’t get to know all the reasons ahead of time.” That’s where trust comes in. The story of Gideon and his small band of Bible heroes teaches us about trusting God, doing what He says, and seeing the great results we never knew were going to be our destiny.

 

The Midianites were destroying the land. The Israelites were hiding in caves, and they were in poverty. Gideon was threshing some wheat to conceal it from the Midianites, when an angel came to him and said: “The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valour” (Judges 6:12). At the time, Gideon was only a young man, definitely not a man of valour. But God saw him differently from how he saw himself.

 

Then Gideon questioned: “Oh my Lord, if the Lord be with us, why then is all this befallen us? and where be all his miracles which our fathers told us of, saying, Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt? but now the Lord hath forsaken us, and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites” (v.13).

 

But the angel didn’t bother to explain why it was happening. He just told Gideon what to do next, and said: “Go in this thy might, and thou shalt save Israel from the hand of the Midianites: have not I sent thee?” (v.14)

 

“And he [Gideon] said unto him, ‘Oh my Lord, wherewith shall I save Israel? behold, my family is poor in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house.’ And the Lord said unto him, ‘Surely I will be with thee, and thou shalt smite the Midianites as one man’” (vv.15-16).

 

Thirty-two thousand men gathered to fight the Midianites, but God is not impressed by big numbers.

 

“The Lord said unto Gideon, ‘The people that are with thee are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel vaunt themselves against me, saying, ‘Mine own hand hath saved me.’

 

“Now therefore go to, proclaim in the ears of the people, saying, ‘Whosoever is fearful and afraid, let him return and depart early from mount Gilead’. And there returned of the people twenty and two thousand; and there remained ten thousand” (Judg. 7:2-3).

 

So, out of 32,000 men, 22,000 turned back! Now Gideon only had 10,000 to fight the multitude of Midianite warriors. But God knew something more about those men who remained. Though they may have thought they were ready to fight, God knew better. The Lord instructed Gideon to give the 10,000 men a simple test.

 

“And the Lord said unto Gideon, ‘The people are yet too many; bring them down unto the water, and I will try them for thee there: and it shall be, that of whom I say unto thee, This shall go with thee, the same shall go with thee; and of whomsoever I say unto thee, This shall not go with thee, the same shall not go.’

 

“So he brought down the people unto the water: and the Lord said unto Gideon, ‘Every one that lappeth of the water with his tongue, as a dog lappeth, him shalt thou set by himself; likewise every one that boweth down upon his knees to drink.”

 

“And the number of them that lapped, putting their hand to their mouth, were three hundred men: but all the rest of the people bowed down upon their knees to drink water.”

 

“And the Lord said unto Gideon, ‘By the three hundred men that lapped will I save you, and deliver the Midianites into thine hand: and let all the other people go every man unto his place” (vv.4-7). 

 

I never understood the big deal about two different ways of drinking water. But Chris, one of my work friends, explained it to me today. If a person goes down to drink water and brings it up to his mouth, he can still be on guard with his eyes looking out for the enemy. But if a person gets down on his knees and slurps the water, his eyes would not be looking out, but down! Out of the 10,000 men, only 300 were truly battle-ready!

 

Gideon may have been apprehensive, to say the least, about going against a multitude of blood-thirsty enemies with such a small number of men, but God knew what He was doing. Gideon trusted and obeyed, and he saved the whole nation of Israel.

 

“Thus was Midian subdued before the children of Israel, so that they lifted up their heads no more. And the country was in quietness forty years in the days of Gideon” (Judg. 8:28).

 

We have to get used to doing spiritual things without always having to know why. And if we sometimes feel we are less than able, welcome to the band of Bible heroes. It’s not about the big numbers; it’s about each one of us doing our small part to stay alert, to trust, and to obey THE Lord our God.

 

Love, Carolyn

 

GOD IS NOT FOR SALE - NO BRIBES

GOD IS NOT FOR SALE – NO BRIBES

Have you ever wondered why most churches do not pay taxes? Jesus was in favor of paying taxes. He sent Peter down to the lake to get the tax money. Jesus told him: “Go to the sea and throw in a hook, and take the first fish that comes up; and when you open its mouth, you will find a shekel. Take it and give it to them [to pay the temple tax] for you and me” (Matt. 17:27 AMP). The tax-exempt status of churches has a shady beginning. It’s been around for 70 years now. I would venture to say most churches today don’t even know how it began and definitely don’t realize the extent of the curse this seemingly innocent alliance continues to bring into their churches. But it’s time to open blind eyes and break free.

 

In 1954, Lyndon Johnson was a senator for the United States. He was a 33^rd-degree mason under the influence of the Illuminati. The most formidable enemy to their plans for America would have been the church. To confront this, they enacted the availability for churches to incorporate into what’s called 501c3 status, also called the Johnson Act. It allowed the church tax-exempt status and other benefits in exchange for keeping their mouths shut about what was going on, especially in the political and social arena. In other words, it was a bribe, and the church took it.

 

Since this Johnson Act has been in play, many things have happened in America that could have been avoided. One example was in 1963 or ’64, when the government took prayer out of school. The church kept silent because they didn’t want to lose their tax-exempt status. Just because the church had more money to do good things with, because it didn’t have to pay taxes, doesn’t make it right. God is not for sale, and we must put a stop to the consequences of a law enacted and ratified with a bribe.

 

Like I said, most church leaders probably don’t even realize the seriousness of what they entered into when signing this contract, and it takes legal action to get out of it. But it is totally doable, and I pray that if you are a church leader, you start the process as soon as possible. (At the end of this article, I put a link where you can get help with the process.) What started as a bribe still affects good Christian people in the church, without us even knowing why.

 

The Bible has some strong things to say about taking a bribe. Ecclesiastes 7:7 tells us: “A bribe destroyeth the heart” (KJ21). I looked up the Hebrew word translated “heart” in this verse. It means “the innermost part, the soul of man, his mind, knowledge, thinking, memory, will, conscience, moral character, resolution, determination, understanding, and care.” If something can destroy what we care about, that’s bad!

 

Then I looked up the word for “destroy.” It means: “to go astray, be exterminated, vanished, or lost.” A bribe in the church can cause good people’s moral character to stray, their understanding lost, their resolution and determination exterminated. No wonder so many Christians have become apathetic regarding issues that concerned Jesus and should be concerning us as well.

 

Deuteronomy 16:19 says: “Neither take a bribe; for a bribe doth blind the eyes of the wise and pervert the words of the righteous.” Good people are twisting some of the basic principles of the Bible and compromising on truth. They’re not able to get accurate revelation from the Lord because it’s being filtered through perverted thinking patterns and, oftentimes, unknowingly.

 

Ephesians 6:12 says: “We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”

 

The rulers of the darkness of this world would love for the churches to continue to think that the tax-exempt status is a great thing because it provides for so much more money to do God’s will. But because of the gag order that goes along with it, the adversary has been way more powerful than he should be. He has deceived good churches and good church people into apathy.

 

The “darkness” in this verse is translated from the Greek word “skotos.” It means “blindness, where the soul has lost its perceptive powers.” That’s putting the church right where Satan wants it. By tricking churches into taking this Johnson Act bribe, the devil has put a veil on many people’s way of thinking and their perceptions are erroneous. We want to be able to perceive the things of life with a clear conscience, not tainted by association with sin.  

 

God can no longer put up with this. He wants us sharp, vital, involved, and making the truth matter. He wants us to make a positive, Christ-inspired impact on our country and world. While the churches are legally still under the influence of a bribe, we cannot do this to the full extent of what God desires.

 

Seventy years of a pack with evil is just too much! God has revealed it to us now because He loves us and trusts us so that we can be bold enough to stop the trend. If you are a church member, please talk to your church leaders to rise up to the boldness it will take to be free and pray for them. And if you are a pastor or church leader yourself, please consider my words and take steps into this new freedom for yourselves, your people, and the Lord’s sake. Here is one of the links to where you can get info on dissolving a 501c3 pact https://www.501c3.org/dissolving-a-501c3-nonprofit-a-comprehensive-guide.

 

Some of us believe that the IRS in the USA will soon be eliminated, which means many business practices will change, so some churches may decide to wait to see what new changes come about. Either way, all of us need to recognize that putting a church group under the restrictions of a 501c3 man-made law that dictates what a church leader can and cannot speak about, is not ok with God. The tax-free perk is not worth having to compromise on God’s Word at the whim of a government official.

 

We must repent of this 501c3 contract, whether or not we knew how the tax-exempt bribe took place. Jesus Christ is the only head of the body of Christ, and we cannot let any bribe with the government take his place.

 

Love, Carolyn