Fun Glimpses

 

March 2, 2023

Trusting God

 

3 John, Verse 2 tells us, “Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.”  That’s our heavenly Father telling us that He wants us to prosper in all categories.  That would be in all categories: body, soul and spirit.  That has always made a big impression on my mind.  Each morning I try to remember to thank God for a healthy body and a sound mind.  That must be available because God just told us, “…in all things…”

An unhealthy body is not a sound body and it’s very distracting. So often people work and go about their business with an unhealthy body.  If you go into any Pharmacy, you can see that it’s very disconcerting.

Jesus Christ always worked with two major things: God’s Word and his believing in that Word.  In Mark 5:25-29 is the record of a woman sick of an issue of blood (12 years). She had come to the end of her rope, so to speak.  Her believing got her to the point of her deciding that just touching Jesus’ clothes would make her whole. She touched them and she was made whole.  No words were exchanged until the woman explained herself and then Jesus told her in Verse 34 that her believing had made her whole.

I’m sure that some of us have minor infirmities and existing pains that have been with us a long time. Perhaps our morale gets low at times.  The best thing I can suggest is to keep praying for deliverance and stay positive. It’s easy to get negative if you don’t get healed of something in what you feel should be a timely manner.

If you’re believing isn’t there at the moment, that’s ok!  I wouldn’t imagine you could get much more in need than the man in Acts 3 who was born lame. That’s what he had to deal with every day of his life up until that moment. At some point he must have pushed everything aside and along with the spiritual presence of Peter and John, decided that it was time.  He was delivered and it caused a lot of commotion because healing by the Word of God and not by the medicine of that time, surely got people’s attention.

It says in Verse 11 of that chapter that the people greatly wondered.

These records are to us to give us hope, showing us what is available.  The senses matter a lot to us, because we were born into them.  However, they do not matter to God.  The senses can be your enemy when it comes to building believing in God’s Word and looking for His deliverance.

2 Corinthians 5:7 tells us, “(for we walk by faith, not by sight:).” Walking by sight is walking by the senses and the senses will often let you down: because the senses are senses and walking by believing is spiritual and God is spirit, so they can’t get along.

So it is when we’re dealing with the imperfections of the body. Our culture doesn’t understand that the bottom line of all sickness is spiritual.  Its roots are in the curse of Genesis 3:14 “…thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field:” At that point a major problem began with our physical bodies and our physical surroundings. However, the problem will someday be fixed and we’re very grateful for that.

There will come a time when we don’t have to deal with all the dealings. Revelation 21:4 tells us, “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.”

Romans 8:18 tells us, “For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.”

At this point in Revelation 21 we will have new bodies, death will be done away with and we will live in God’s pure righteousness. No matter what we go through physically now, our bodies will  someday be glorified and perfect and eternal. I think that’s a pretty good deal.

Funglimpses to all!  Thanks for reading. Respectfully submitted. Will Grove

January 21, 2023

Understanding God’s Word

John 4:24 declares, “God is a spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.”  The “a” should be removed.  God is not one spirit amongst all the other spirits.  He is the one true God!  You can’t see spirit with the physical five senses.  Many people accept that there is spirit life and nature, but they still have a hard time with the truth that life is spiritual.

The Bible is the revealed Word and will of God and it declares God’s love and purpose for man and it explains the accomplished works of His Son, Jesus Christ.  I have always been thankful that when I get shaky on God’s Word and become doubtful, there are certain Biblical truths I can always turn to.

2 Timothy 3:16,17 tells us, “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness; That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.”  All scripture is given by revelation from God.  So it’s either God’s Word or it’s not.  That makes for an easy decision.

2 Peter 1:20,21 tells us, “Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.  For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.”  God gave His Word to holy men who had the spirit either on them or in them (depending on the period of time).  It was the absolute Word of God and they made no mistakes.

This is arguable in the secular world, but they don’t believe God’s Word to begin with and thus don’t understand how a man or woman could have spirit and write words from God.  All we have to do is believe what we read and it makes life so much easier.

2

Jesus Christ said in John 6:63, “It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you. They are spirit and they are life.”  Jesus Christ always did the Father’s will and always spoke the words that God gave to him.

John 8:29 tells us, “And he that sent me is with me: the Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him.”  Jesus Christ mastered God’s Word, and he was a man just like we are.  What a great example! He just decided what he was going to do and he did it.  He didn’t make life complicated.  We tend to complicate life when we go outside the simplicity of God’s Word.

Mark 1:11 “And there came a voice from heaven, saying, Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” God was always pleased with His Son Jesus Christ because Jesus’s only business was to be about his Father’s  business. (Luke 2:49)  It is available for us to stand well pleasing before God.  All we have to do is put on the mind of Christ as we go about our daily business.

God wants us to have fun in this life doing what we do, and He will help us to make godly decisions in our affairs.  The discipline is keeping Him in mind.  It’s very easy to forget about God’s grace and love when we find ourselves in stressful situations.  It becomes especially challenging when we have to handle the stress of others who do not believe God’s Word.

As Paul went about his ministry he was constantly confronted with stressful situations and Jesus Christ was often confronted by stressful situations: people wanting to stone him or throw him off a cliff.  However, if you follow those records, you’ll see that he just gathered himself and walked right out of those situations.  That’s walking with God!  You have to believe that you can do that because you can do that!

Here’s a great one to take home with you: Philippians 4:6,7: “Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.  And the peace of God which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”

The promises of God are fun to work when you know and believe that they did not come from someone’s fantasy but from the one true God.  God  loves us very much and will do anything, according to His Word, to see that we are blessed and peaceful.

Funglimpses to all!  Thanks for reading.  Respectfully submitted.  Will Grove

October 18, 2022

How Beautiful It is

Romans 10:15b says: “How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things.”  I might add how beautiful it is when people who are born of God’s spirit get together to fellowship with one another.  They are certainly bringing glad tidings of good things to one another.  It is very important for believers to build up one another with glad tidings.

In Acts 2, we see the result of a great number of believers, who did not have the written Epistles coming together in fellowship.  Vs 46, “And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat (food) with gladness and singleness of heart.”

We recently had a large gathering of believers in the Atlanta area getting together for a weekend in such a manner.  These people came from many different areas, but the one thin they all have in common was that they love God and they love being with God’s people.  Fellowship is very important.  You’re usually going to be around someone; why not make it someone who will build you up with God’s Word?

There are lots of people who are denominational church goers and they believe certain things about the God of the Scriptures.  Let me define “believer” as I have used it several times. My personal definition of a “believer” is someone who is born again of God’s spirit and endeavors to work God’s Word to the best of their ability and who also speaks in tongues and understands the importance of operating the manifestations of the spirit and speaking in tongues.

One of the things that separates us from church goers and other Christian groups is what God calls the Mystery.

Colossians 1:27 describes the Mystery: “To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”

Ephesians 3:6 defines the Mystery: “That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel.”

The ‘Christ in you’ is very important because it’s what God wanted and He had Paul write about it in all the Church Epistles.  It encompasses a full understanding of what God accomplished in Christ Jesus.  Even though it wasn’t written down at the time, people received holy spirit and were able to manifest power from on high.

So it is with many of us today.  We want to work God’s Word to the best of our ability and operate the manifestations of spirit, especially speaking in tongues. We believe that the scriptures teach in 1 Corinthians 12, among other places, that speaking in tongues is perfect prayer to God.  It is a spiritual matter and it’s available to be understood.  Those of us who were together two weeks ago to fellowship with one another and to hear God’s Word being taught desire to understand spiritual things and we like being together.

Like sports fans or people with activities who are parts of clubs, we have one big thing in common.  Being with people of like faith is fun, healthy and necessary to do, if you want to keep your mind set in the Body of Christ. It’s very difficult to maintain fellowship with God and be a social hermit.

Paul tells us in 1 Thessalonians 2:17, “But we, brethren, being taken from you for a short time in presence, not in heart, endeavored the more abundantly to see your face with great desire.”  They were anxious to see the believers. Even if you don’t have a lot of physical things in common, you still have God’s Word, and that’s the greatest thing you can talk about.

Acts 5:20 tells us, “Go, stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words of this life.”  That will always be a primary admonition to us from God until Jesus Christ returns to gather his Church.  Go, stand and speak all the words of this life.

That’s what anybody who has a mind for God should want to hear; all the words of this life.  God’s Words builds up, it heals, it restores and it comforts.  We will always need comfort.

1 Thessalonians 4:18 “Wherefore comfort one another with these words.”  So go out and comfort one another.

Funglimpses to all!  Thanks for reading.  Respectfully submitted!  Will Grove

 

 

 

 

 

June 2, 2022

 

Be Ye Anxious For Nothing

Philippians 4:6 says “Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.”

In this verse, “careful” is translated in the context as anxious or distracted to the point of being fearful.  In other words, be anxious for nothing or don’t be fearful about anything.  Quite often this is easier said than done because  the mind has to direct this.

Anxiousness can lead to fear and fear prevents us from being as productive as we’d like to be. Everybody has to deal with fear and some deal with it easier than others: although some are very good at hiding it.  In Matthew 14:25-31 is a record of Peter walking on the water. Reading the record one could be fascinated with the miracle of defying gravity. A spiritual work is a spiritual work and it’s wonderful that in this situation, we see Peter operating manifestations to respond to Jesus Christ’s invitation to join him on the water.  The revelation was there and he acted on it.

The record does end in Verse 30 with Peter becoming distracted with the circumstances and with his believing dropping.  This record does show us that it is available to believe to the point of walking on water and in the same time period, to let it get away from you.  Peter could have walked back to the boat with Jesus, but unfortunately, his fear prevented him from doing so.

The record however, does not tell us that he spent time in self condemnation because his believing dropped.

There are scores of records in the Old Testament and the Church Epistles that encourage us to work past the anxiousness that produces fear.

2 Timothy 1:7 “For God hath not given us a spirit of fear; but of power, and love, and of a sound mind.”  This promise is a keystone for people born again of God’s spirit.  The world is moved greatly by fear.  It’s such a way of life that the common man, even those born again, but not knowing any better, just flow with it.

In Acts 27, Paul was in a ship in the Mediterranean in the midst of a typhoon.  The typhoon extended itself for quite a while.  There were 275 people with him in the ship who were dealing with helplessness.  In Verse 20, we read, “And when neither sun or stars in many days appeared, and no small tempest lay on us, all hope that we should be saved was taken away.”

This was a very challenging time for Paul, because not only did he have to deal with the temptation of anxiousness, but he had to deal with the intense fear surrounding him.  It’s not like he could just walk away; it was very tight quarters.

Yet, in Verses 22-25, God gave him hope through revelation, telling him that nobody was going to die.  In Verse 26, “Wherefore sirs, be of good cheer: for I believe God, that it shall be even as it was told me.”  That’s pretty good encouragement, wouldn’t you say?

So it is with us.  God is a faithful and personal God and He will work with our strengths and weaknesses.  We read in 1 Samuel 30:6, that in a moment of great distress, David encouraged himself in the Lord.  When we have anxious moments we need to encourage ourselves in the Lord.  There is no reason we have to fear their fear and be afraid.

So, let’s not be anxious, but let’s encourage ourselves in the Lord.

Funglimpses to all.  Thanks for reading.  Respectfully submitted!  Will Grove

 

 

February 26, 2022

 

Being Peaceful, in the Midst of Unpeacefulness

With the chaotic nature of our world in this day and time, a wonderful skill to have in your personal inventory is the ability to be peaceful and remain peaceful.

Jesus said in John 14:27: “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”

A definition of “peace” is “absence of disturbance” – “tranquility”

Peace is not an automatic thing because the world around us has been at war since the days of Adam and Eve.  When Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden, that was the beginning of disturbance for mankind, indicated by thorns  and thistles in Genesis 3:18.  Thorns and thistles hurt when you get stuck by them just as wars hurt because they disturb and destroy.

However, Jesus Christ would not have made that statement had it not been true.  Peace is a state of inner calm that has to be worked on because it will not be supported from worldly sources.  Noah practiced peace in his life for it took him many years to build the Ark under God’s direction and he had to stay focused all that time in the midst of the chaos of his times.

Fear will steal our peace.  Psalms 34:4 tells us, “I sought the Lord and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.”  It’s absolutely got to be God that does  this, because we are not capable of ourselves to manage the onslaught of negatives that comes our way at times.

Elijah the prophet was on the run for a bit of his life because a woman named Jezebel, who was a Queen, wanted to kill him.  She had the resources to do it.  That would be a reason to be unpeaceful: having someone who was worldly powerful wanting to do away with you.

However, Elijah was faithful to God, he loved God and God took care of him.

In 1 Kings 19, God gave him directions to take care of himself and he obeyed. In Verse 12, it tells us, “And after the earthquake a fire: but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice.”  That voice was God giving Elijah the comfort and directive he needed to move on.

Peace is something that we have to work on.

Colossians 3:15: And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the  which also ye are  called in one body; and be ye thankful.”

There are many artificial sources of peace: drugs and alcohol being two popular ones along with types of meditation.  However, God is the giver of true peace and the giver of every positive thing we can imagine.  God has done the giving, it’s available to us.  We now have to do the receiving, which means we have to act on it.  It’s not automatic! It’s not always an easy thing to do.  Quite often things that are important to us require effort  to receive.

One trick of the Adversary is to put the fear of lack before us.  So often people fear certain situations because they are concerned that those situations will interfere with their life style.  So often we have routines and perhaps if those routines are threatened we become unpeaceful.  This is a trick of the Adversary to get us distracted from God’s Word.

It takes work and discipline to stand up to this because it’s always going to be there until Christ returns.  For the most part you’re going to have to hold your own hand when you deal with this.  Believers can comfort you and speak the Word to you, but you have to control your mind.

Ephesians 1:3 tells us, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.”

We are blessed with all spiritual blessings whatever that might be.  I have no idea what “all” is but I know it’s big and I’m sure at the return I’ll see.  In the meantime, let’s work on being peaceful!

Funglimpses to all!  Thanks for reading. Respectfully submitted.  Will Grove

 

January 6, 2012

You’ve  Got It…Let’s Use It

 

A great reality for any Christian man or woman is the fact that they stand out in the world.

Colossians 1:27 says: “To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”

Yes, Christians stand out and believing Christians really stand out.  God never intended for men and women who have the spirit of God in Christ in them to just be a part of the population of this world.  The world, as beautiful as the scenery may be, is a mess because the Devil has inspired people who love his kingdoms to make it ugly.

The God Who created the heavens and the earth is the same God Who put the spirit of God in Christ in anybody who makes Jesus Christ Lord in their lives and believes God raised Him from the dead. Unfortunately, there are millions of people in this world who have done just that who haven’t any idea of what they have spiritually.

In John 14:12: Jesus Christ declares, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.”

Imagine being able to do the works that Jesus Christ did.  It’s available.  And Jesus would have been the first person to tell you that it takes believing.  Jesus Christ was the greatest believer of all time and we have the faith of Jesus Christ which makes it available for us to believe as He did.  Now it is available, from the Day of Pentecost on to this moment.

There is some work to be done, however.  The Adversary couldn’t stop Jesus Christ from doing what he did, because he believed to do it and God backed him up.  Jesus Christ knew about the methods of the Devil, which is to steal, kill and destroy.

The majority of Christians today do not know about those methods because the people who teach them don’t know and a many of them don’t believe or care.  Knowing those methods is important so as not to allow the Devil  to steal our peace and the reality of our righteousness from us with his distractions.

God has made us righteous and beautiful in His sight.  He knows every hair on our head and every thought in our hearts.  He made us originally, and He made us to have fellowship with Him.

Ephesians tells us in 1:3 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:”

God has blessed us with all spiritual blessings. Now the work begins and it’s fun work.  It’s not a burden and it shouldn’t be a burden; it’s physically and spiritually rewarding.  We’ve been relying on our senses all our lives, so making the transition from the physical to the spiritual is a big leap, because you can’t see spirit.  It might be challenging for some people, but even so, the reward is sound mental health.  When your mind is healthy and sound, how rewarding is that?

The reality is we can talk to God and God can talk to us.  God loves that. One of His greatest joys is to have fellowship with His children.

1 John 1:3: “That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.”  Fellowship with God is a great key to mental and physical health.

We read that God blesses us with all spiritual blessings and part of that is knowing who we are in Christ and that’s a whole lot better than what we had without Christ in us.  We can worship God in spirit and in truth.  That is something Jesus Christ could not do, because it was not available.  That alone should make you very excited.

With Christ in us we can deal with the darkness of this world.  Ephesians 6:11 tells us, “Put on the whole armour of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.”  “Wiles” are devices.  God’s Word will teach you about those devices and how to deal with them.  James 4:7 tells us, “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”

God’s Word tells us these things so that we can determine our own destiny.  That destiny should be a wonderful and true relationship with our heavenly Father.  So you see, we’ve got it and we should want to be the believers who, like the seed that fell on good soil, bring forth as much fruit as we possibly can.

There are too many avenues of activity in the world that make fun of the one true God and dishonor the things that He’s made available to us.  The title of the song, “We’ve  a Story to Tell to the Nations” is right on, because the nations start first of all with you and then your next door neighbor and then your everyday friends.  So we do have a story to tell to the nations.  It’s so true.  We’ve got it and we need to use it.

Thanks for reading.  Respectfully submitted.  Will Grove

 

 

 

November 2, 2021

 

Why Is It Called the Mystery…and Why is It Important?

Recently we had a large gathering of Christian believers from near and far who came to Atlanta to hear God’s Word in what we call an Advance.  The theme of the Advance was called ‘The Great Mystery’.

For years I have heard teachings on the topic of the Mystery, but it wasn’t until recently, nearly 47 years later that it started to dawn on me how important the Mystery really is. In Colossians 1:26,27: “Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”

The mystery was hid from ages and generations.  The prophets of old did not know what the mystery was and that is very significant to our lives today. Why?

1 Corinthians 2:7,8: “But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory: Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.”

Jesus Christ was God’s plan for defeating the Adversary and for our redemption.  The principle key for anybody to be born again of God’s spirit is to believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  To have a resurrection, you have to be dead. If the Devil had known that God was going to raise Jesus Christ from the dead after 3 days and nights in the grave, he wouldn’t have crucified Him.  Now anybody who makes Jesus Christ Lord in his life and believes that God raised Him from the dead receives eternal life spirit that cannot be marred or lost.  What a great truth!

The Devil absolutely does not want millions of people moving about with God’s spirit in them.  The Mystery opens up all these great truths.  The prophets of old saw the sufferings of Christ and the glory that would eventually follow, but they didn’t know what was in between the sandwich.  God hid it because He didn’t want the Devil interfering.

Here we are with “…Christ in us, the hope of glory”.  The next thing for us to do is to find out all that is involved with the Christ in us.  We have the 9 manifestations of the spirit that are available to us and our new birth realities, which include our sonship rights.  Realities are in a way responsibilities.  Our primary responsibility is to God: to love Him with all we have and then to love ourselves and then our brothers and sisters in Christ.  We also need to develop an understanding and expectation of the hope of Christ’s return.

The more we build a love of Christ’s return the greater will be the release of stress in our lives, which means the more peaceful we will be . 2 Timothy 1:7 ‘For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.”  That’s what God gives and when we build His Word in our lives and look at the return of His Son, the stress thins out and we will be much more at peace.

There’s a song called “The Family of God”.  The first line of the song is , “I’m so glad I’m a part of the family of God…”  We should be glad we’re in the Family of God.  It’s one group of people, who when they are living the love of God, won’t let you down.  The Family of God needs to go on to the next generation as well.  It’s certainly doing that in this area and in other areas as well.  The younger people need to use their energy to keep things moving.  That’s a godly responsibility.

Ephesians 6:1 “Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right.”  Assuming your parents are wonderful believers, children are to follow the example set down regarding working God’s word in their lives.  We don’t want the Mystery to die out like it did in the 1^st Century.

All of this and more was covered in less than 2 days at our Advance.  How wonderful it was to be with almost 200 people who love the things of God, are speaking in tongues and looking forward to Christ’s return.  There is a section toward the end of Acts 2 that for me summarizes the weekend and all that it held.

Acts 2:41-47 “Then they that gladly received his word were baptized;

And the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls. And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and in fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers. And fear came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles. And all that believed were together, and had all thing common; And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men.  And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart. Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.”

That’s sounds pretty good to me.  I’m glad I was a part of it.

Thanks for reading.  Respectfully submitted.  Will Grove

 

August 18, 2021

 

Neither Fear Ye Their Fear

 

God made the human mind to love Him and to worship and serve Him without fear or anxiety.  Man started off that way.  Unfortunately, it didn’t last very long, because as we see in Genesis 3:10, both Adam and Eve made bad decisions which immediately brought fear into their lives.  Because they allowed sin into their lives, which brought fear, they felt shame about being naked before God.

In Geneses 2:31, it says: “And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed”.  In Genesis 3, they became ashamed and afraid.  What a difference!  Here we have the first usage of ‘fear’ in the Bible.  That is exactly where we don’t want to be.

Outside of the basic natural fears that a human has in the way of self preservation, fear brings nothing but destruction.  It never builds up, it only tears down and each one of us has to deal with it.

Isaiah 8:12 tell us: “…neither fear ye their fear nor be afraid.”

This is a great encouragement, and it also means it is available.  Group fear is one of the most effective movers in our national culture and in the world.  We may have our minds steady and on course for large periods of time, but then things happen and the movers and controllers of fear bring a wave of it in our direction and we are greatly affected: sometimes “freaked out” as it is called.

2 Timothy 1:7 tells us: “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.”

Power, love and a sound mind are what Adam and Eve originally had untampered for a period of time until they decided to experiment and that cost them and us that purity.  Now we have to fight to claim the peace that we have from God for it tells us in Ephesians 6:11: “Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the Devil.” The fight is to claim in our minds what we already have spiritually. And we are certainly in the midst of the wiles of the Devil.

Jesus Christ was constantly having to deal with the wiles of the Devil.  In Luke 4, he aggravated a group of people in a synagogue when he spoke God’s Word and in Verse 30, it says, “But he passing through the midst of them went his way.”  They wanted to throw him off a cliff, but he kept his head on his heavenly Father and handled the situation spiritually.  He could have panicked, but he didn’t.

There is certainly the opportunity to panic, as with the latest “2^nd wave of fear” from the COVID situation but we don’t have to. All of that is designed by the Devil and his friends and its purpose is to disrupt our lives: nothing less.  Our greatest defense against all this is keeping our head in God’s Word and prayer.

Jesus spoke to Peter in Luke 22:31,32a and told him, “And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not…:” What a great mind picture: your brain being sifted as wheat!  That is a spiritual situation and I don’t want it happening to me.  I don’t want to be a part of the rank and file who have no choice but to accept the Adversary’s sifting because they don’t understand that life is spiritual.

We might have to deal with all this stuff that is going around but we don’t have to allow it to sift us as wheat.  That’s why God exhorts us to put on the whole armor of God.  We need it every day in every way.  Our prayer life needs to be bigger than ever.

1 Thessalonians 5:17: “Pray without ceasing.”  Those of us who can pray to God in the understanding and know how to speak in tongues have the advantage because the Devil absolutely hates speaking in tongues. He knows it will disrupt his fun. Never underestimate the power of speaking in tongues.  God will honor our prayers and He will take care of us, because He loves us.  We need to honor God by keeping our minds peaceful in the midst of unrest and exhorting one another with God’s peace and love.  We have the true advantage because we are God’s people trying to actively work His Word in our lives.  It’s a wonderful way to go!

Thanks for reading.  Respectfully submitted.  Will Grove

 

 

February 5, 2021

We Win!  Now…And in the End

 

There are many things that a person who is born again of God’s spirit can enjoy and utilize in this life: the joy of eternal life, peace with God, operating the manifestations of the spirit, to name a few.  Along with this, it’s been said that the anchor of a Christian’s soul is the hope of Christ’s return.

1 Thessalonians 1:10: And to wait for His Son from heaven, Whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus, Which delivered us from the wrath to come.

What does “wait” mean?  Just that!  To wait with patient endurance is not necessarily an easy thing to do in this day and time nor has it been in any day or time.  To wait with patient endurance is the result of having worked God’s Word in your life faithfully to the end that it’s important to you to realize the hope of Christ’s return.

2 Timothy 2:15:  Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

Very few Christians put forth a diligent effort to show themselves approved to God and you can tell this from the amount of fear and negativism that we have in our society. They do not understand the urgency of putting forth a diligent effort to rightly divide God’s Word. This could partly be due to the fact that they have not been taught. A Christian’s rights and privileges are not generally known by the organized Church.

Romans 8:37: Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us.

A conqueror is a winner of something, somewhere!  That means we are winners now!

If we are faithful in our study, we will see that the one thing that we, as Christians, are to joyfully await is the return of Christ.  Someday we will be changed with new bodies: spiritual bodies such as Jesus Christ’s resurrected body.  Then we will see the fullness of the victory!  As it tells us in 1 John 3:2, “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see him as He is.”

We are winners now as we anticipate the return of Christ and then we see the culmination of that victory that we have in Christ when He returns to gather us together. This is certainly something to get excited about: to know that someday we will have bodies like Jesus Christ’s resurrected body.

Each day I pray for believers around the world, whoever they may be.  That means people who are born again of God’s spirit.  I specifically pray for those who are speaking in tongues and working God’s Word to the best of their ability: that means honestly – and for their prayers to be according to God’s Word.  I know those people are trying to study to stand approved and I know that God sees their hearts and will answer their prayers.

I don’t want to be one of those Christians who gets deflected from seeing the greatness of God’s Word by other ways of believing that do not allow the power of God in my life.

Romans 8:38, 39: For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come. Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

This is pretty good stuff.  There are a lot of things we may endure or face but still be intact in our relationship with God.  1 Thessalonians 1:10 also tells us that Jesus Christ has “delivered us from the wrath to come.”  That is something to look forward to.  So many people, probably most, have no idea which way things are going to swing when they fall asleep: that is to die.  What a great comfort to the soul to know that we are saved from the wrath which will be part of the next Administration and will be with Christ in glory.  What more do we need to know?

Yes!  We certainly are winners now and in the times to come!  Funglimpses to all!  Thanks for reading.  Respectfully submitted.  Will Grove

 

December 5, 2020

An Attitude of Gratitude Is Your Best State of Mind

It’s been a while since I’ve put any thoughts down on paper, because there’s so much to say, and yet, so often, I really don’t know what to say. I’ve lived through a lot of periods of modern American history since 1949, but I’m not sure I’ve lived through as much negativity and fear as I have in the past 10 months.

2 Timothy 1:7: tells us, “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.”

This promise is to people who are born again of God’s spirit, and yet I find it very difficult to claim at times. I’m working on it, but it can still be difficult. One of my biggest challenges is working on not fearing their fear. The fact of the matter is obviously that there are a lot more people who do not work this verse than there are that do. They will unknowingly transfer their fears to us, not realizing the power that fear has on the mind.

Fear does not come from God, it comes from the things of the world. What does come from God is power, love and a sound mind. It takes a sound mind to deal with the things one has to deal with, not only now but at any time.

We will always be dealing with the effects of other people’s fears. The ONLY way to combat that is to put on the things that bring power, love and a sound mind and that is only found in God’s wonderful Word!

Proverbs 29:25: tells us, “The fear of man bringeth a snare: but whoso putteth his trust in the Lord shall be safe.”

I learned this a long time ago in a class on the Bible that also taught me that fear defeats the promises of God. One of the biggest reasons we read the Bible and listen to it being taught is so that we can claim God’s promises. If fear is an impediment to claiming God’s promises, we need to work on warding off fear. Unfortunately, it’s not a one time deal. I think we’ve all learned that this has to be done daily, like eating or any other function of life.

We have to protect and strengthen our minds as well as our bodies.

Jeremiah 15:16: says, “Thy words were found and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart:…”

Jeremiah got it. He understood the spiritual battle. We as believers are always in a spiritual battle, and there are times when it is especially intense. This year has been one of those times. It’s given me time to reflect on the fact that God is ultimately in charge. And if, for no other reason, I am so glad that I can speak in tongues and make intercession as Romans 8:26, 27 talks about.

The man healed in the beginning of Acts 3 had to ward off fear and discouragement every day of his life up to that point because he was born crippled. He kept with it and he believed to be healed even growing up like that. The healing brought quite a bit of drama with it because the Devil didn’t like the power of God moving.

Many years ago a song came out that I made my own when things became especially challenging for me. It’s called “It’s Gotta Be God”. There is a short verse in it that has always been my go-to verse. It reads:

“When your heart is heavy, and your thoughts are less than kind, an attitude of gratitude is your best state of mind. Just count your many blessings and God’s perfect peace you will find.”

It still continues to be my go-to verse. You won’t hear a lot of it today, but amongst those of us who are born again of God’s spirit, I really think that an attitude of gratitude is a great state of mind. Looking forward to the return of Christ, and until then, looking forward to being with those members of the Body of Christ.

Funglimpses and all!   Thanks for reading. Respectfully submitted. Will Grove