Who's in Charge: Living Life in the Spirit

Chapter 1

Honor Jesus

Honor Is a very powerful word and it carries with it many applications. Obedience and Respect is its cousins or should I say family member. Let us not forget Authority you see without this last one the rest have no power, will not, and cannot be properly enforced. Example and point: a police officer trying to direct traffic, however, without being delegated the authority to support his decision. In addition, neither does he have the respect of the people to do his job. I do believe that if he does not remove himself from the path of the traffic he may be injured. Even though he wanted to do something good, he was out of place and did not have the authority to enforce what he was trying to accomplish. What I am trying to get you to understand is in order to perform what you are trying to accomplish you must first wait on your assignment. Whoever delegates you that assignment he must himself have the power and be in the right position to give this kind of authority to you, then and only then can he give you the power or authority to perform that assigned task.

"The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, because He has anointed Me (Jesus) to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent me

[Note: He sent Jesus and He means just what He said, He sent Jesus; anyone else that you follow is simply idols and demon worship.]

To heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed; to proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD"

(Luke 4:18-20 NKJV)

Now Power without purpose, authority, and direction can cause you and me a lot of trouble because there are many who do things simply because they have been authorized the power to perform the appointed assignment. However, they think they can use this authority as they see fit, Woe! That is operating outside of the will of God. He never gives you power to do with it as you please.

Let us look into ourselves

The best way to do this is enter into your homes and observe how you are accepted. When you give anyone in your home an assignment how is it received, how is it performed, what is the attitude of the person receiving the instructions? Will they do what you have asked of them according to how they view you, in other words how have you been treating them? When you return home and find what you told them to do was either not completed or performed incorrectly, something is wrong but with whom? This is the million-dollar question is it not? Do they respond to what you say because you are in charge, do they respond to you because you are very abusive, are they afraid of you (fear) because of what you will do to them, or is it that they do not want a whipping or to be punished? Do they just throw something together to get you off their back; do they do it to get something out of you? On the other hand do they do as you have ask of them because they respect and love you, which is it which way is better?

Now let us look into ourselves and see if we are the cause of the disrespect. When you gave the assignment, did you give it because you are in charge? Did you give good instructions were they easy to understand? Did you choose your words carefully or did you just say do this and do that! Did you speak it in love not as one who says, just do it because I said so? Did they do it because they love you and they know you love them? Do they really love pleasing you, and why because you will reward them? On the other hand, if they know you love them they will do it because of love. By this, they know you give of yourself on their behalf because you love them. You build desires in their heart; they trust what you tell them and they know if they do what you have told them they will not fail because you always do what you have spoken.

[It is sad to say though that there are many in the house of our God who presume that because they are the preacher that they are exempt, so they do as they please and expect you to say nothing]

You always back your word. Is that not what God does? You have no reason to doubt Him. Then my question is – do you want to be received in this fashion, then what are you doing about it?

If you are as I am, there is a feeling of unrest if in your own home, you have no respect it is your place of refuge and your place of rest the place where you are re-energized and know you will receive love. In this day and time that is not a given in our homes. You must understand that some of your worst enemies dwell in your own house and you know them by name. They say that they love you and yet they destroy your name because of sinful works in which they are involved. If any man thirst after righteousness he had better look to Jesus for any other source will fail you, and do you not fail yourself yes you do.

There are many testimonies that start with someone putting their full trust in a friend. They tell everyone they know how they failed them at the time of their greatest need. Let us be honest about the problem you failed yourself and them you ask them to do what Jesus has said the Holy Spirit will do for you but you would not ask or wait on the Holy Spirit, that is not their fault that is your fault. Who told you to put all of your trust in your friends? They have problems just as you do. Surely, Jesus did not tell you to do that. He only told us what the Father told Him to tell us. Put all of your trust in Him and Him only. For my namesake I am going to come and teach you myself.

But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me:

(John 15:26 NKJV)

The word of God told us not to lean unto our own understanding if I am wrong write and let me know. Why do we do this and then blame others for our failures, because they were not ready when we needed them the most they cannot live up to our expectations. You think when you call they are suppose to get up stop what they are doing and get over there where you are and do your bidding, because you are sick. Who do you think you are? My friend that is crazy. What is so very wrong about this testimony is that it is damaging others in the body of Jesus Christ? They are having a hard time themselves but they still went out of their way to help you! They wanted to be in the will of God. You never even considered that they were not doing too good themselves. Your concern was only about yourself; they looked at your situation and considered not their own when in reality their needs were greater than yours were.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

(2 Corinthians 1:3-4 NKJV)

Scripture says lean not unto your own understanding.

Misplaced honor

God has not appointed another man or woman to be your deliverer, only Jesus. Moreover, it is time to stop putting all of your trust in others, what is wrong with you? Do you know that this type of worship is out of place and is disrespectful to the Holy Spirit of God?

But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in My name, He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.

(John 14:26 KJV)

Are you thinking right, if you are thinking right why are you blaming others for your problems? We get angry when people do not keep their promises with us when in reality we do not keep the promises that we make with ourselves. Yes we are to bare one another’s burdens but not to the point of you thinking someone has let you down. Only Jesus is perfect in taking care of our problems. How many times have you failed your own self, and how many times have you told yourself you were going to do something and did not? You are probably going to tell me that’s different, no it is actually worse if you cannot trust yourself to take care of you why are you putting that pressure on others, tell me why? Are you getting angry when others cannot do what you ask of them? Stop putting pressure on others for failing you — when the culprit is you!

Men and women shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeded out of the mouth of God.

Now the first thing you and I need to do is change our way of talking and thinking.

A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.

(James 1:8 KJV)

Why is this so? Because they will not make quality decisions they more than likely are either unsure of themselves or are afraid of other people opinions they feel inadequate for whatever it is they are asking or have need of. One moment they say yes the next moment they change their mind and says no. They do not know exactly what they want they cannot be trusted with making big decisions or solving complex problems. Now let us keep this in mind, we are talking about born again believers. What every believer must understand is that the laws or attitude of the world does not govern us.

Make the Master proud of you by being good citizens. Respect the authorities, whatever their level; they are God’s emissaries for keeping order. It is God’s will that by doing good, you might cure the ignorance of the fools who think you’re a danger to society. Exercise your freedom by serving God, not by breaking the rules. Treat everyone you meet with dignity. Love your spiritual family. Revere God. Respect the government.

(1 Peter 2:13-17 MSG)

We come under a higher authority the Word of God is the foundation that produced the worlds and all that is within them. You are a child of the Most High God through the blood sacrifice of His Son Jesus. What am I trying to say? That old attitude of Oh woe is me, nobody cares about me; that is selfish. We must be careful how we exalt our needs above others as well as having an attitude that says the church is supposed to take care of your every need. In the house of God, all things work by faith not self-pity. This does not refer to a person who is really in need of help because they cannot help themselves, but there are those who are not willing to seek the Holy Spirit for answers for their problems. How long must He dwell inside of us before we ask Him and trust Him to bless the desires of our hearts. The Holy Spirit is the one who will bring these things to pass. However, without Him you can forget about going forth living the life of Jesus in this earth, forget it. It will not work!

Chapter 2

Transforming Your Thinking

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God.

(Romans 12:1-2 KJV)

You are no longer that old man you use to be that man is dead unless you give him life again.

So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ (Jesus) merely from a human point of view. How differently we know him now! This means that anyone who belongs to Christ (Jesus) has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to Himself through Christ (Jesus). And God has given us this task of reconciling people to Him.

(2 Corinthians 5:16-18 NLT)

The questions we have been asked these past years by the faith teachers comes up again, do you know what you have become inside of this new birth? Many Christian Believers do not have the slightest idea of what has transpired in their lives. Many of us are being defeated because of wrong teaching and some think that you are supposing to struggle in this life. Why you believe that I really do not have the answer, only you as an individual know the answer. I do not believe that we all were taught that way, but I do believe that many of us have adopted that way of thinking because we were taught or accepted it as a fact that we should give and not expect to receive from God.

All blessing your very life is a ministry of the gospel of Jesus and His anointing.

What is the problem, why are we not prospering in the gospel that Jesus taught, because we have a bunch of bad teaching in our heart, let us be honest about the Word. The Word of God is true and there is no maybe about what the Word has to say about you and me. You will have to come to grip with what the Word has to say about you. What you need to do is kick that old teaching out the door it has no value and do not be conformed to this world, but you be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good, acceptable, and perfect will of God.

Another problem that many of us face is the gossip that we receive from others they are angry with God because they did not receive what they thought God should have done for them.

The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; but while the man slept, his enemy came, sowed tares among the wheat and went his way; but when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop the tares also appeared. So the servants of the owner came and said to him, Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’ He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The servants said to him, ‘Do you want us then to go and gather them up?’ But he said, ‘No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, first gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.’

Without the faith that is required for growing your seed, you will just be digging in the sand. The first thing you will have to do is kick out all of your old fears that interfere with your faith. Stop holding on to things of unbelief and get away from those who refuse to take God at His Word. You are going to have to clean house; you need to ask the Holy Spirit to separate you from the agents of Satan that he has placed between you and the Word of God. In order for the devil to keep you under the bondage of untruths, he must send his agents to discourage you with all of their sad stories of doubt filled with fear. You see doubt comes through hearing the word of Satan. Now this may sound as if I am copying the word of God, and I am because if faith did not work why would Satan send his agent to try to change your way of thinking, because he knows that it is impossible to please God without faith. What you need to do is open up your mind so that your imagination can take over as pertaining to our Jesus that you may know whom God really is, and the working of God the Holy Spirit and what He will do for those who really love Jesus and keep His Word.

For I determined not to know anything among you, except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of power: That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.

(1 Corinthians 2:2-5 NKJV)

Chapter 3

What is Going On?

Now if you want to know the truth, there is only one way for a believer to attain the understanding of the will that Jesus left us by instructions of the Father. When Jesus left here, he left a manual and a will all in one and the purpose of it was to teach us God’s will for His children, Jew and gentile born again believers. He also left us with a great commission inside of His manual for us to win the lost.

I think you should know that the Father left us very good instructions and we are some of those lost that He was talking about but there are many more and by walking in love we will by the instructions of the Holy Ghost proceed forward that we may finish the race and gain the prize.

For me it is to see Jesus and the Father in heaven. Do not worry about the Holy Spirit He is the one who is bringing us home that means He is with you all the time, so how about you listening to what He has to say to you. You are not alone and by the way, God has assigned an angel to be with you also.

This thing called FAITH

Some say they believe and trust God yet so many others refuse to believe and receive Jesus, however, that is their loss, which is all I can say about that for right now.

Now we have a very big problem here. Many of you have been trying to gain faith through what you have been hearing without putting it to work. Let us get to the point now if you will not study the Word of God then you cannot attain what you need from the Will or Manual (God’s Word - the Bible), which is filled with the will of God. The word of God is full of His promises, blessing, curses, heaven and hell. Nevertheless, if you will not go into the word and acquire the necessary tools for getting the job done, then you will be forever living yet doing without. There are no reasons for you to live desiring God’s gifts to you, because you cannot possess the blessing for you have not obeyed.

But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report? So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

(Romans 10:16-17 KJV)

The word of God cannot do anything for anyone when it sits on your living room table or in your bedroom closed, even when you hear the word you cannot receive it because you cannot witness to the word. If you will not put your faith to the test, you will never be able to use it. Spiritually you are not equipped. When the witness tells you that what you are hearing is not true you get deceived because you do not know His voice why, because you are looking for the wrong things. You read every body’s book about the word but the word of God itself. In other words, all you know is what somebody else told you about the word of God. What has the Holy Spirit told you? You will not study so you remain ignorant of His voice and His word.

Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. But shun profane and vain babblings: for they will increase unto more ungodliness.

(2 Tim 2:15-16 KJV)

You cannot associate with people who are always negative they tell you old stories about some of their friends who prayed for healing but died anyway. Understand one thing everybody has a story to tell about how a friend, mother or father did not receive healing and died. God’s Word is always true I do not care what kind of stories people tell.

Now you are finding out that the reason you cannot receive from God is that you do not know Him even though you are His child. The answer: stop reading every book you see and establish your very own relationship with the Holy Spirit. How can you know Him if you will not spend time with Him? I will tell you something else many of you are afraid of the Holy Spirit. You had better get over your fears and open yourself up to Him.

Now check this out if you will not spend time talking with Him then you cannot know Jesus! You may ask why, because the Holy Spirit is your teacher and guide in this walk with Jesus. Without His indwelling presence, you will not make it to the finish line. Do you know who brought you to the foot of the cross of Jesus?

But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. 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.

(John 14:26-27 KJV)

When the Holy Spirit is in control, you will not be in a state of panic you will not feel stressed out and you will have no reason to fear the spirits operating in the world because the great one dwells in you.

Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world.

(1 John 4:4 KJV)

Now here is where the problem lies with many believers, they think that their Father does not hear them when they pray but that is the biggest lie you have ever heard. Do you go to God begging Him for what you need as if He is an unjust God as though He is going to beat you for disturbing Him? That cannot be true but because of bad teaching; we have adopted many bad habits things that will kill your faith.

Many of us base our faith on what is happening around us as if God needs world events to bless you when in reality what you need to do is trust what God has to say about your situation and allow Him to bless you before the foundations of the world. Though the world’s system is falling apart, God’s system cannot fail. God gives you the power to get wealth. So what am I trying to get you to understand? God wants to bless you so that the world can see His goodness in His children who you are. God wants you to come to Him without acting as if He is going to beat you down for talking to Him boldly, which is what He wants you to do.

Seeing then that we have a great High Priest, that has passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God. Let us hold fast our profession. For we have not an High Priest which cannot be touched by our infirmities; but was in all points tempted as we are, and yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in [our] time of need.

(Hebrews 4:14-16 KJV)

Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice. Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand. Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your request be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

(Philippians 4:4-7 KJV)

We have embarked on a journey that requires us to depend not upon our own ability because if we did we would ultimately fail. We do not have enough weapons in our own arsenal to support us on this assignment. I know that many will tell you that Satan is powerless against you but you need to know that is not true. He is powerless against the Holy Spirit of God dwelling in you.

There are too many times that a believer has taken it upon himself to go into the enemy’s camp without permission and has faced defeat at the hands of Satan’s imps. You must understand you cannot just go wondering into the enemy’s camp without orders to do so. Many have not come out the way they went in, they went in as a believer and remain a backslider.

Chapter 4

Wait on the Assignment

Stay out of the enemies camp until the Holy Spirit has finished preparing you for the battle that is ahead, until then you are not going to take back anything Satan has stole from you. The captain of this ship is not you or your pastor it is Jesus and no one else so just stand still until it is time. How do you know when it is time? The Holy Ghost will tell you when and where He wants you to be.

You can have a renewed mind but still not be equipped with all the training you need for the battle ahead.

When I joined the military, the first thing I had to do was go to basic training to learn discipline and get in shape. While there, they taught me how to handle a weapon they then whipped me into shape and gave me a new identity. I was no longer a civilian I was more than just a soldier I became qualified in a certain skill that would allow me to repair a damaged aircraft. I also became a leader and directed my people in the way they