Timing is so important! If you are going to be successful in dance, you must be able to respond to rhythm and timing. It’s the same in the Spirit. People who don’t understand God’s timing can become spiritually spastic, trying to make the right things happen at the wrong time. They don’t get His rhythm – and everyone can tell they are out of step. They birth things prematurely, threatening the very lives of their God-given dreams.
T. D. Jakes
Daily Christian Quote Website
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Seasons don’t last forever. Wounds heal. Circumstances change. Wisdom overtakes foolishness. Doors that once slammed in your face open with favor. But you may not notice if you’re not paying attention. Lift your weary head and look around. Like they did for Noah, the waters of adversity are drying up, and God is placing you on dry ground. Rid yourself of that negativity and believe again!
While extremely sensitive as to the slightest approach to slander, you must also guard against an extreme into which some people fall who, in their desire to speak evil of no one, actually uphold and speak well of vice. If you have to do with one who is unquestionably a slanderer, do not excuse him by calling him frank and free-spoken; do not call one who is notoriously vain, liberal and elegant; do not call dangerous levities mere simplicity; do not screen disobedience under the name of zeal; or arrogance, of frankness; or evil intimacy, of friendship. No, my friends, we must never, in our wish to shun slander, foster or flatter vice in others: but we must call evil evil, and sin sin, and so doing we shall serve God’s glory.
It is important that we allow the Bible to speak to us so that when people give us counsel that contradicts truth, we will be able to instantly discern their advice as false. In a world that has become averse to absolutes, we must remember that God’s Word is truth. It is not watered down or out of fashion. We must keep it close to our hearts if we are going to engage self-discipline and be trees planted by streams of water.
Sin will not come to you saying, “I am sin.” It would do little harm if it did. Sin always seems good and pleasant and desirable at the time of commission. Oh Get wisdom! Get discernment
We make a good start when we listen to God speak to us. This requires attentiveness and concentration. God does not speak in competition with other speakers, so he does not raise his voice or hire an advertising agency or public relations firm to work out a strategy to get us to listen. Because he speaks in his own voice, not in imitation of voices that we are more used to, many people never hear him. But he speaks all the same.
We are not called to be parrots, unquestioningly repeating whatever we learn from a favorite teacher. Instead, we are to exercise wisdom and discernment, continually asking questions, weighing answers, seeking understanding, and grounding our beliefs within the context of God’s Word and the wisdom of Christian tradition.
Satan’s arsenal consists of such things as fear, worry, doubt, and self-pity. Every one of these weapons robs us of peace and leaves us troubled inside. Do you want to discern where the enemy is coming against you? In the network of your relationships, wherever you do not have peace, you have war. Conversely, wherever you have victory, you have peace. When Satan hurls his darts against you, the more peace you have during adversity, the more truly you are walking in Christ’s victory.
This isn’t the Day of Judgment. This is the day of great mercy. The Day of Judgment is in His hands. The day of mercy is in ours. All of us who received His forgiveness have done so because of His mercy. All we’re praying is, “God, I know I’m no better than the people of this city. Please show them the same undeserved mercy You’ve shown to me.” God longs to extend His mercy to people who no longer recognize the difference between their right hand and their left. (See Jonah 4:11.) That is not a derogatory remark about their intelligence. Far from it. It’s a statement about the ability of the majority to distinguish between right and wrong.
Christian who receives the word has as much responsibility to judge the word as the one who gave it because both the giver and receiver have the same Holy Spirit living inside them.