The War on Principles

God Morning Believers!

Week one of the Sacred Season of Success (S3) has come and gone and week two is well underway. Praises to God for the marvelous things He has done! I pray that you began week two with a renewed sense of purpose, clarity, power, and peace to carry you through the next 12 days. God is healing, transforming, and preparing us for His purposes and His glory.

Someone emailed me and said they had been praying last week about the attitudes, behaviors, habits, ways of believers that displeased God. They were unsure if God had given them a revelation of these and they asked me for examples. You might be asking the same question...Can We Talk?! 

Certainly we are all aware that God is not pleased with sin. Most of us know sin when we see it, especially in the lives of others? Why is that? What may not always be obvious are those behaviors, attitudes, habits and ways that remain unchecked and unaddressed for years as we travel this road of salvation. As sanctified believers we should always be on guard and in the process of eliminating these behaviors from our lives because they keep us bound, damage our testimony, and prevent us from looking and acting like Jesus. I provided a very short list below.

Grumbling and complaining

Discontent

Anger and rage

Fanning the flames of other's anger

Bitterness

Unforgiveness

Gossip

Critical and judgemental spirits
Lacking integrity
Worrying
Making Excuses
Always blaming others for our issues (no personal accountability)


I believe that God is teaching us to manage our emotions. Those emotions that spill out onto others causing them hurt while accomplishing nothing. Settle down! One example of this is the notion of fighting for the "principle of the matter." Oh you know, so you have done this before, right?!

How often have you said or heard someone say "it's the principle of the thing". Very often we allow "the principle" of the matter to move us right out of our sanctification process and right out of the will of God. For example, we have all had someone ask us to do something at the last minute. We might get all worked up about this request, start grumbling and complaining already knowing that we are or are not going to complete the request. This may also happen when someone promises to deliver something and then backs out or delivers part of what they promised, leaving us in a lurch. Our behavior and attitude about the situation is often related to the principle, not to the request or disappointment. Meanwhile the behavior or attitude we display does not please God and may leave others, particularly unbelievers questioning our relationship with Him.

We have to stop fighting the war on principle. It is ONE that can never be WON on our salvation journey. It only serves to delay our sanctification by distracting us and getting us off course. Satan loves to distract us and a principle war is a great weapon in his arsenal to divide us through some unnecessary and trivial conflict.

Think about all the times you waged the war on principles. Did you win? Was God pleased with your war waging tactics, countenance, and language?

God wants us to fight where fighting matters...fighting for the souls of the lost.

Are you fighting a war of principles right now? Are you the cheerleader in someone else's war on principles? Is it really worth it?

Let Jesus Lead
Aqua

An Unfolding Relationship With God- Guest Blogger Michelle Copeland

God morning! Yes, it has been awhile since I posted or even had a guest blogger. I wanted to share this email (daily inspiration) that I received from my sistah and friend, who just happens to also be my sister-in-law for more than 20 years. (My brother is a blessed man!)

Michelle shares her perspective on hearing from God. This piece spoke to me because so many people ask when we talk about hearing from God " How do I know it is God speaking?" Well, you have know Him and be in relationship with Him to hear Him speak and know that it is Him (and not your own ideas and desires leading you). So the next questions might be " How do I prepare to hear from God and What do I do once I have heard?" I am glad you asked, Can We Talk?!

Good morning saints! In all thy ways acknowledge Him and He will direct thy path.

''The way of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn, which shines even brighter until the full bright of day''.(Proverbs 4:18)

I've come to know that one of the best things about hearing God's voice is that it is progressive. It's not a skill that we can master; it can be an unfolding relationship we enjoy. As the relationship unfolds, we learn to communicate with him more often, more deeply, and more effectively; we learn to follow the holy-spirit more closely; we learn to pray with more confidence; and we learn to hear His voice more clearly.

Have you ever been happy in your relationship with God, feeling that is was going quite well for a while and then, for no apparent reason, you start to feel restless, bored, distracted and unsatisfied? Have you ever felt a nagging in your spirit that something was just not right about your fellowship with God, or you had a stirring inside of you to do somethings differently? Most of the time when we experience such impressions, it's the Holy-Spirit trying to tell us something.

The inner man (your spirit, the part of you that communes with God) knows when something is not right in your prayer life, because the Holy- Spirit lives within your spirit and will let you know when something needs to change in your relationship with God. When this happens you must to have it in your mind to be obedient, and be bold enough to follow the Holy-Spirit. God knows when we are ready for more and is urging us on to a deeper place of communing with Him and hearing His voice. Our great and wonderful God is always on the move and He desires us to move with Him. God would not have our relationship with Him to remain the same. I'm learning for myself through studying His word, that there is so much more about God that I must learn in order to better my relationship with Him.

Knowing God and being able to hear from Him is the way for us to know what plans He has for us.

How is your relationship with God progressing? Can you hear Him when He speaks? When He speaks are you listening? When He speaks are you bold in the way you respond to the Holy-Spirit? Most importantly, Are you choosing to be in the light of His righteousness and obedience ?

In God's Love, Sis. Michelle

Michelle and her daughter, Cierra