Call Received – Freedom in the New Year – Purity 1159

 

Call Received –  Freedom in the New Year  – Purity 1159

Purity 1159 09/29/2023  Purity 1159 Podcast

Purity 1159 on YouTube:

Good morning,

Today’s photo of a long stretch of dirt and gravel roadway
stretching into the distance to an almost ghostly fog-covered horizon comes to
us from yours truly as I captured this photo, which includes my canine pal,
Harley with his nose to the ground, last Saturday morning as we took an extended
stroll across the flat farmland fields just off of Waite Road in Easton
NY.  

Well, It’s Friday – Let’s Thank the Lord! For He is
good! –  and before yesterday my plans
for 2024 were as foggy as the horizon in today’s photo. With my training with
Deeper Walk International scheduled to conclude in early December, I have
pondered “What’s Next?” at various times this year and didn’t really have a
definitive vision for the future. 

With that said, I have committed myself to lead the
Celebrate Freedom Growth Group into a “second season” as we have made arrangements
with the Starpoint Church leadership to have a space at the church to continue
that “good work” into 2024. 

But as for “what else” there will be in 2024, I wasn’t
really sure and frankly, I am still not sure about the direction I will be
walking in in 2024 in terms of developing a “life coach” or “prayer ministry”
practice.

 The goal for
my life is to serve in a ministry role full time but I am still discerning how,
when, and where that will happen.  With
the latest, financial pitfalls of auto repair expenses and now household water
repairs – it appears my well’s pump isn’t working as my household’s water
system has been acting strangely over the last 2 weeks and I have been waiting
for today for the Culligan Man to check it out – but last night I noticed “the
pump thingy” was running non-stop – and when I tapped the water tank it sounded
like I was hitting a steel drum of a Jamaican Reggae band. So with more
financial chaos – I am not ungrateful for the corporate job I have that makes
these expenses not as dire as they could be.

Anyway, one of the options for serving the Lord in ministry
in 2024 has been to serving as an online discipleship course facilitator for
Freedom In Christ Ministries. I loved serving in that ministry in 2022 and at the
beginning of this year but had to take a break from it to get equipped, and hopefully
certified, with Deeper Walk International as a prayer minister.   Sue Huber, FICM’s national online course
director supported me in that decision when I applied to enter Deeper Walk’s SOM
but has made it clear that I would be welcomed back if I felt called to return
as course facilitator for FICM.  

After the challenges of Deeper Walk’s program and
leading the Celebrate Freedom Growth Group in this current season, I was on the
fence about whether or not I would go back to being a course facilitator for FICM
because of Celebrate Freedom and the possibilities of starting some type of
part time “discipling”,  “coaching” or “prayer
ministry” venture.  

But yesterday, after a long day’s work, I rushed
home to mow the lawn at River House and while I mowed and listened to worship
music – I got the call from the Lord that not only knocked me “off the fence” with
my decision about serving FICM again but filled me with the passion to proclaim
that “we’re doing this!”  

So I hereby announce that, Lord willing, I will be
leading another Freedom in Christ Course for FICM – online beginning in January
of 2024!  

I was “filled with the Spirit” last night as I mowed
and was just convicted to continue to “tell my story” and encourage the body of
Christ to discover who they are in Christ and to experience their freedom!   As I worshipped and mowed, I was overcome with
emotion as I felt the “unction” to serve.  

Sue Huber sent out an email stating to the current
and previous facilitators yesterday indicating that for planning purposes she
would like to know who is being called to serve by next week. When I saw it, I
wasn’t sure if that was going to be me or not – but after I received “the call”
last night. I’m all in and looking forward to seeing what the Lord will do with
another online Freedom in Christ course in 2024!

The reason I blog, the reason I podcast is because
the Lord set me free in a very dramatic and progressive way.  I have an experiential knowledge and understanding
of who God is and what He can do in our lives when we surrender to Him, humbly,
in faith, and decide to follow Him with the way we live.  And I believe that my purpose for living is
to tell everyone I can about how faith in Jesus saves you and gives you the
power to be the person God created you to be. Our faith in Christ gives us
meaning and purpose and only those who fail to walk by faith in the power of
the Holy Spirit and to seek God’s purpose for their lives could claim that “God
didn’t help me” or “God didn’t heal me”. 
Physical conditions aside – faith in Christ gives us eternal life and
the joy of our salvation and new life in Christ should compel and propel us
into a life of discipleship where we learn continuously and serve where we are
called. 

So if you are a “depressed, angry, unforgiving, bored,
or addicted- carnal Christian”, repent and seek to come in line with truth of
what the Lord has done for you and start walking by faith to remove those
burdens from your life and seek the purpose and call the Lord has put on your
life.  

Our life in Christ changes everything. He makes us
new and if you don’t feel new or haven’t changed – you need to surrender,
repent, and follow Him.  

The life God has for us when we follow Jesus is
defined by love, peace, and joy and includes a deep desire to share the
freedom, victory, and new life that He has so graciously given us.  So keep walking and talking with God and what
is foggy will be come cleared as you progressively move out of the darkness of
your former life in the world and step into His magnificent light!   

——————————————————————————————–

Today’s
Bible verse comes to us from “The Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling” By
John G. Kruis.

(
While Bible verses on various topics of Counseling can be found with a quick Google
search, we encourage you to purchase this resource to support the late author’s
work. (https://www.amazon.com/Quick-Scripture-Reference-Counseling-Kruis-ebook/dp/B00CIUJZT2?ref_=ast_author_dp )

This
morning’s meditation verse comes from the section on Anger, Hot Temper.

Proverbs 30:33 (ESV)
³³  For pressing milk produces
curds, pressing the nose produces blood, and pressing anger produces strife.

Today’s
verse falls under the ninth point of our counseling reference guide resource’s
section on Anger,
Hot Temper

 9. Control Yourself

Today’s verse is the third
of three verses of scripture that our resource provides to encourage us to
control ourselves. And rather than presenting them all at once, we are doing
them “one at a time, one day at a time. 

Today’s verse presents some
curious “facts of life” as a basis to warn us from “pressing anger”.  

Although my countryside
home is in the heart of farmland and has a massive dairy operation up the road (they
got lots of cows anyway), I have no earthly or divinely inspired idea about the
process of “pressing milk” to make curds. I have enjoyed cheese curds – deep fried
– but how they are produced is a complete mystery to me. But I’m not a “farmer,
dairyman, or curd maker” so I don’t need to know and because I know that the
word of God is true – I can take it on faith that when done properly – pressing
milk leads to curds.   If I doubted it, I
am sure that – because God’s word is true – if I investigated the matter. I
would find the evidence to support this claim. Pressing milk makes curds.  

However, I have no curiosity
about investigating the Bible’s claim that pressing the nose produces
blood.  I’ve seen bloody noses and the
violence of men enough to easily imagine that if I were to press a nose vigorously
it would produce blood – and I frankly don’t want to be on either side of that
equation! But the claim is true all the same.  

So it follows that it is
also true that if we “press anger” strife will be produced.  And while curds could be a good thing, bloody
noses and strife are not good things. So I won’t be pressing my nose – or anger
because I don’t want those negative consequences in my life.  

The Bible’s wisdom can be
simple or profound, but we should definitely know that it is true, and it
should be followed. So avoid strife, and possibly a bloody nose, by relenting –
by not pressing our anger.   

God calls us to a life of
peace, love, and joy not a life of anger, strife, and bloody noses.  So don’t press your anger into strife.

——————————————————————–

As always, I invite all to go to mt4christ.org where I
always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to
assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk.

Today we continue sharing from  The Holy Spirit By A.W. Pink.

As always, I share this information for educational
purposes and encourage you all to purchase A.W. Pink’s books for your own
private study and to support his work.  This resource is available online
for $0.99 (https://www.amazon.com/Holy-Spirit-Arthur-Pink-Collection-ebook/dp/B008CM5292/ref=sr_1_3?crid=AHKAQOM39CTN&keywords=a.w.+pink+the+holy+spirit&qid=1684376225&sprefix=a.w.+pink+the+holy+spirit+%2Caps%2C96&sr=8-3) 

A.W. Pink’s The Holy Spirit

27 – The Spirit Transforming

The
Unregenerate See It Not

Though the glory of the Lord be so plainly
revealed in the two-fold “glass” of the Law and the Gospel, yet the
unregenerate appreciate it not: concerning the one it is said, “But even unto
this day, when Moses is read, the veil is upon their heart” (2 Cor. 3:15); and
of the latter we read, “In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of
them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ, who is
the image of God, should shine unto them” (2 Cor. 4:4). The unregenerate are
blind to the loveliness of the Divine character: not that they have no eyes to
see with, but they have deliberately “closed them” (Matthew 13:15); not that
they are not intellectually convinced of the Divine perfections, but that their
hearts are unaffected thereby. It is
because man is a fallen depraved and vicious creature that he is not won by
“the beauty of holiness.”

“Except a man be born
again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3). Clearest possible proof of
this was furnished when the Word became flesh and tabernacled among men. Those
who had been “born of God” (John 1:13) could say, “We beheld His glory, the glory as of the Only begotten of the Father,
full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). But different indeed was it with those
who were left in their natural state—they, notwithstanding their education,
culture, and religion, were so far from discerning any form or comeliness in
Christ, that they cried, “Thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devil” (John 8:48).
Yet it is as plain as a sunbeam that the blindness of the Pharisees was due
neither to the lack of necessary faculties nor to the want of outward
opportunities, but entirely to the perverted state of their minds and the
depraved condition of their hearts—which was altogether of a criminal nature.

From what has just
been pointed out, then, it is plain when the Apostle declares, “but we all,
with open face beholding as in a
glass the glory of the Lord” (2 Cor. 3:18), that a miracle of grace had been
wrought in them. As spiritual blindness consists in an absence of relish for
holy beauty—which blindness is capable of being greatly increased and confirmed
through the exercise and influence of the various corruptions of a wicked
heart, and which Satan augments by all means in his power—so spiritual sight is
the soul’s delighting itself in Divine and spiritual things. In regeneration
there is begotten in the soul a holy taste so that the heart now goes out after
God and His Christ. This is referred to in Scripture in various ways. It is the
fulfillment of that promise “And the LORD thy God will circumcise thine heart,
and the heart of thy seed, to love
the LORD thy God” (Deut. 30:6).

This new relish for
spiritual things which is begotten in the soul by the immediate operations of
the Spirit is also the fulfillment of, “A new heart also will I give you, and a
new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your
flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh” (Ezek. 36:26); and of, “I will
give them an heart to know Me, that I am the LORD: and they shall be My people”
(Jer. 24:7). So also, “Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears
of the deaf shall be unstopped” (Isa. 35:5). Of Lydia we read, “Whose heart the
Lord opened, that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul” (Acts
16:14). To the Corinthian saints the Apostle wrote, “For God, who commanded the
light to shine out of darkness, hath
shined in our hearts” (2 Cor. 4:6). In consequence thereof, the happy
subjects of this work of Divine grace perceive and relish the holy character of
God and are enamored with His perfections.^[1]

—————————more tomorrow————————

Join our “Victory over the Darkness”, “The Bondage
Breaker”, “Freedom in Christ” series of Discipleship Classes via the
mt4christ247 podcast!

at https://mt4christ247.podbean.com, You can also find it on Apple podcasts

(https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-mt4christ247s-podcast/id1551615154). The mt4christ247 podcast is also available
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Audible.com. 

These teachings are also available on the
MT4Christ247 YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@MT4Christ247

Email me at mt4christ247@gmail.com to receive the class materials, share your progress, and
to be encouraged.

My wife, TammyLyn, also offers Christian
encouragement via her Ask Seek Knock blog (https://tammylynask.blogspot.com/ ),  her
Facebook Group: Ask, Seek, Knock (https://www.facebook.com/groups/529047851449098 ) and her podcast Ask, Seek, and Knock on
Podbean (https://feed.podbean.com/tammalyn78/feed.xml)

For those who require the assistance of a Deeper
Walk International Prayer Minister to experience healing or your freedom in
Christ, I highly recommend Christy Edge’s Life on the Edge Freedom Prayer
Ministry. You can schedule a session by going to : https://cedge216.wixsite.com/life-on-the-edge     

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Encouragement
for the Path of Christian Discipleship