-- In His Strength: December 2008 www.superfluousbanter.org

In His Strength

I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength --- Philippians 4:13

Friday, December 12, 2008

CH 14: Destined to Become Great

Regardless of where you were raised or born, you have been destined to become great.

Whatever God has called you to do, if you are being obedient to His call, then you are walking in greatness!

...You need to begin to see yourself doing great things.

Isaiah 54:17 - nothing formed against you can prosper

TIME TO DREAM

When you recognize the gift God has placed inside you and begin to walk in it, God will begin to open doors for you like never before.

There is nothing God cannot do.

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Thursday, December 11, 2008

CH 13: How to Use Your Gift

...the most effective way of growing your gift is to use it

God used my gift to make room for me and our ministry when we gave it away.

Your gift will make room for you.

Offer what GOd has given you, and what God has blessed you with.

Matthew 10:8 - Freely you have received, now freely give.

Galatians 6:7 - ...whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.

God has always been faithful to take care of my needs and my desires. He will take care of my business, if I take care of His.

God operates on a different level than the world does.

When people do you wrong, just put them in God's hands. "Father, i commit thi sperson (situation) into Your hands".

Grudges...dream-killers, gift-dividers.

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Tuesday, December 09, 2008

CH 12: How to Win in Life

Don't put God on a timeline
When Abraham became inpatient, he brought despair and heartache into his life.
How many times have you quit before saw God come through for you? God always sees the end, the finished product

Protect the gift
You are a gift from God. God has found somonein you that He can share His secrets, His plans, and His assets with.
Once you yeild yoursef to God to be used, ...you are now valuable and are considered a dangerous threat to the enemy.

Write the vision
Hab. 2:2
Writing down what you are believing God for keeps it before your face all the time.

Don't talk doubt or unbelief
(whether it takes 22 years or 50 years)

Always keep the fire burning
Always believing God for greater and greater things.
When God knows He can trust you to believe Him and stand in faith for things, He is eager to give you more to believe for

Always have faith turned on
I never want to be a bench player

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CH 11: It's Your Turn

He wants to bless you because you are His child

what are you believing God for?

Sickness does not have to run your life and determine what you can and cannot do.

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Monday, December 08, 2008

CH 10: A Miracle Working God

Rick Reyna - God, we need a bigger sound system
God - Can you believe me for it?

I believed God for the new truck.
For the next four months, I would thank God for that truck every day.

That is the point where a lot of people get confused. They think God has called on them to make things happen. He has called us to walk by faith and let Him do the rest.

Habakuk 2:2 Write the vision and make it plain on tablets that he may run who reads it
Write the vision and what it takes to fulfill it.

When you are doing what God wants you to do, He will not only give you what you need, but what you want.

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Sunday, December 07, 2008

Sunday Sermon

Pastor David Phillips - Acts 1:12 - 14

How Can God take ordinary people and use them in a profound way?
How did they get to a place where God could literally flow through them?

What they did to position themselves so that the supernatural ministry of the Holy Spirit could go through them to carry the gospel everywhere

Lord, do I have the right desire or passion that I ought to have?

vs. 12
join together in prayer

In ministry, it doesnt matter if you have alot in terms of technology or finances, the Holy Spirit superceeds them all.

1. The disiples were totally committed to God's plan.
Luke 24:49
wait until I do something in you
Acts 1:4,12
When God is working in our lives, He doesn't tell us everything thats going to happen in our future. He gradually shows us His will as we obey Him. (The hang-up for most Christians)
This is where God starts with us
Speaks to our hearts
presses upon us to spend more time with Him
Seekin grelationship with us
THE beginning of ALL ministry
John 15:4
We've Got to spend time with Him (prayer)
(Are we living obediently OR conveniently?)
1John 3:21,22
Answered prayer = doing what we know the will of God is
God is calling us to a deeper level of devotion, commitment
Am I doing the things that require the least amount of effort?

2. The disciples were in community with God's people
Acts 1:12,14 (Luke 8:2), Mark 15:40
waiting in the presence of God for a unity of spirit
homothumadon - same temperature, same passion
they all wanted a moving of God
("Lord, whatever it is You want to do in this place, that is what we want!")
Hunger, thirst, desire for God to move
Jesus was moved with compassion because He saw them as a sheep without a sheperd (we need to do the same)
Want what God has for you

3. They were consitent to pray for God's power
Acts 1:14
constantly - it'sall they know, all they do
not one day on the next day off
2:42, 6:4,
Eph. 6:18, Col. 4:2, Phil. 4:6, 1Thess. 5:17

How can God take a group of people who have done nothing signifiant in theoir lives, put them in a position where they are filled with the Holy Spirit, and then send them out to change the world. (points 1 - 3)
What is the priority of my life?
Pastor Kirby John Caldwell - There are two great moments in a persons life, the moment you were born and the moment you realize why you were born.
Want these three things more than anything

Lord, I lay myself on the altar. There has got to be more. I don't really know what the purpose of my life is. Use me in a profound way, empower me with Your Spirit. I want to be open, yieled to You.

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Friday, December 05, 2008

CH 9: Time to Launch Out

...God has a funny way of launhing you out to fulfill your dream.

....it looks like the bottom is ready to fall out of your life adn your haning on by a thread. Thats the time when you need to press into God even more.

Dig deeper into the Word of God, find scripures of faith and promise to speak over your life and over your situation.

Surround yourself with positive things, positive people.

Refuse to walk in fear! Refuse to walk in doubt adn don't let it even come out of your mouth!

Give out of your need and sow seed into the Kingdom of God

When you start hearing the devil talk...you have to shut his voice out of your life. His job is to crush your dreams before they even start. Just because you don't see something happening in the natural, physical world, doesn't mean God is not moving.

It's when you don't see nothing happening...is when God is really doing the most.

God knew we needed a truck, we just kept busy doign God's will and let Him take are of the logistics.

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Wednesday, December 03, 2008

CH 7: Body Double

I remembered all the other voices who told me tha I wasn't going to amount to anything, who said I ould never become anything great because I was a Mexican. But here I was in Hollywood, about to star in a movie as Al Pacino's photo double. God had already done great things in my life and He was continuing to do more miracles every single day.

God gave me a dream! God gave me a desire!

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CH 8: "A Mobile What?"

"Rick, for now, your time in Hollywood is over."
Just like that...and I knew my work there was done. God took the passion and desire out of me to be there and I felt a release in my spirit to go on to other things.

I just knew there was someting new God was doing in me. I recognized the pattern God had set in my life.

...I began to pray about what God would have us do next.

God - "I want you to believe me for..."

...I had gained the confidence for what God had called me to do.

My faith was not at a hundred-thousand-dollar level yet.

Listening to the voice of the enemy can rob you of your destiny

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Monday, December 01, 2008

CH 6: A Closed Door or an Open Opportunity

When my dad sold his truck, I assumed this so called gift of doing Rally's was over...."Maybe there is something else God wants me to do."
Now it seemed that part of my life was done...or was it?

I beame a star for Jesus, even with only one line. I believed I was a star because I believed God allowed me to land that part and I did it!

DEATH OF A DREAM
Dreamt of going to Hollywood
Pastor shuts it down - "God did not call you to Hollywood"
Throws that dream in the trash
Pastor also pulls him from Youth Ministry
Believes pastor that God had not called him.

.....but we were wrong. God had other plans.

REBIRTH of a DREAM
(could God be allowing my dreams to die, only to raise them up at a"better" time?)

"... I feel this desire burning inside me again". (after switching churches)

Pastor - "I believe that within thirty days a door is going to open up for you in Hollywood".

Together we believed God was able to do anythign He promised us because we belonged to Him.

God - "...if I have called you, no one can uncall you. I fI gave you that word, that word is going to stick." "I am the God who is able to open every door."

"God, if this is from You, only You can open up this door!"

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