Do you still have a "Man Pleasing Spirit" keeping you from the fullness of God?

I was recently shown this video by my wife. We watched it together and then discussed it afterward. We both agreed that we want "that...what he has...freedom to praise Him". We want to be so free in Christ that we could praise Him anywhere...anytime.

If you don't already have this as a part of your recurring prayer terminology, please consider adding it...

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"Father...please take a 'man pleasing spirit' away from me...completely so that I can be free"
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What is it that keeps us from talking boldly about our God in a restaurant when we know others can here us?

Why do we change the station on the radio when a friend or co-worker that is not a Christian gets in our car.

Whatever it is for each and every one of us that prevents us from giving God His deserving recognition and praise openly in public places, needs to be addressed. Christ died so that we could be free from the cares and fears of this world.

I am sharing this burden because:
God has heard my prayers and he has, throught the power of the Holy Spirit, freed me from the majority of my "fear of man." On the other hand...there are still times when I know I should "cry out" to God and something in me chooses to refrain. I believe that there is still a "man pleasing spirit" operating in certain areas of my walk.

True freedom in Christ is the freedom from any fear of man. We have the right to be free from the fear of what anyone else thinks. The enemy is a master of instilling fear in our heart because he hates it when we openly praise our King! This is all the more reason to DO IT and put our powerless enemy in his place.

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Apostle & Prophets...Are they for the modern church?

I wanted to share a link to a great article I came across today.

I know there are still a lot of arguments going on in some circles on the validity of whether or not Apostles & Prophets are for the modern day church.

If you click on the link below and take the time to read through this article, you will probably be pretty surprised by the content.

I found it to be a very strong approach being that it was all backed by scripture as well as some stunning insight into the priority of the "Five Fold Ministry" and how many times the different ministries were mentioned in the New Testament. Enjoy...

Here is a little teaser:

• The word “apostle(s)” occurs 85 times in the New Testament.
• The word “prophet(s)” occurs over 150 times in the New Testament, about 20 of those occurrences referring distinctly to prophets in the Church Age.
• The word “teacher(s)” occurs 125 times in the New Testament.

How many times do you think the words "evangelist" and "pastor" are mentioned? Read the article and be prepared to be shocked!

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Apostles & Prophets - by Jim Feeney, PhD
LINK TO THE ARTICLE

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Spiritual Warfare

I was just sent a link to this video. Visual application is so powerful! We forget sometimes that there is an ongoing battle in the spiritual realm for our souls. Notice in the video that as soon as she made a decision to move towards God, He battled on her behalf and eventually came to her rescue completely. God wants what is best for us, but the enemy does such a great job of distracting us and wooing us with the things of the world. We fall for it and end up empty and miserable. God was there all along and will come to our rescue if we make up our mind to seek Him.

2 Chronicles 16:9 - For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him.

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