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“A Few Good Men”
The United States Marine Corp has a saying that they are “Looking For A Few Good Men”. The idea behind that saying is that they will take a few good men and turn them into great Marines. This is a good slogan with a good meaning behind it. But I wonder what would happen if a bus load of scoundrels, dirt bags, low life’s, drug and alcohol addicts, criminals and killers showed up at the recruiting office at the same time? Would the Marines’ turn them away because they weren’t a few and they weren’t “good” men? The Kingdom of God has a totally different slogan – “Whoever will come and find mercy, grace, and forgiveness”. You don’t have to be good, perfect or clean for Jesus to invite you to join His family. HE will do the job of forgiving you and cleaning you up once you accept His invitation. He will not just make you a good man, but He will make you a new creation that is a Godly man. It amazes me that Jesus intentionally seeks to save those who are lost. He died on a cross to redeem all of mankind – the good, the bad, the horrible, the terrible, and the ugly. Those whom the Marines and most of the rest of the world would reject are the very ones that Jesus can redeem and give them a new start. Jesus ALWAYS accepts us, but He doesn’t accept our sin. But instead of rejecting us because of our sin, when we confess our sin to Him, He washes it away and treats us like it never happened. The Bible is full of characters that were sinful in every way possible. But when they became a part of God’s family, they turned into the very Bible heroes that we read about and admire. Don’t wait until you think that you are good enough or that you have cleaned your act up enough to come to Jesus. He will accept you as you are, but He won’t leave you that way. He will forgive you, redeem you, and begin the process of making you a new creation that can be used in His Kingdom. The Bible reminds us in Isaiah 1:18 that “Come now, let’s settle this,” says the LORD. “Though your sins are like scarlet, I will make them as white as snow.” Not only does He cleanse us of our sins, but He also doesn’t remember them anymore. So that dirty rotten scoundrel has a new start with a new desire to not be the old evil person that they were. Aren’t you glad that we don’t have to be “good enough” to be accepted by God. He takes us, as we are, and makes us into something new, Holy, righteous, redeemed, born again, Child of God. In love with Jesus – Gary Mimbs
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“Not Today Satan”
I have heard people who were going through spiritual battles use the expression out loud, “Not Today Satan”. This is not a magical chant or phrase. It carries with it the power and authority that every up to date born again believer has. They are, (I hope), claiming Spiritual authority to tell Satan to flee James 4:7 (Submit yourself to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you) or leave them alone. But I am afraid that many times we use a similar phrase, even though we would most never say it out loud or even want to admit that we use it. Sometimes when God, through the Holy Spirit, speaks to our heart about doing or not doing something, in our spirit we will say, “Not today God. I know that I should do or not do this thing that you are directing me in, but I chose to exercise my free will and NOT do or not do that thing that you are speaking to me about”. We take great pride in saying outload, “Not today Satan”, but we say silently to God, “not today”. We exercise our spiritual authority when we claim James 4:7. We #1 Submit to God. #2 Resist the Devil. #3 Claim that he has to flee from us. But when we say not to God, we are NOT submitting to Him. We are claiming our selfish free will to disobey Him and sin against Him through our disobedience. There are consequences to claiming your Spiritual authority and also for disobeying God. When we claim our Spiritual authority God works through and empowers us to take Spiritual action against the Devil. The Bible says that he HAS to flee. He has no option because the Spiritual authority that you are claiming is more powerful than he is. Praise the Lord. But when you, in your own spirit and power, claim your right to say “not today” to God, you have followed the power of the devil and sinned against God. There is spiritual warfare going on all the time and you have to choose to submit to God and receive His power or submit to the devil and follow his disobedience. To follow him is to face the consequences that are the price of sin. This will eventually wind up in defeat in some area of your life that you are disobedient in. I challenge you to submit yourself to God and claim your spiritual authority, because if you are NOT submitted to Him, then you can say, “Not today Satan” and he will laugh at you because you have NO authority over Him. He won’t flee but will attack you even harder because he knows that there is sin in your life that is blocking your connection with the Father. Before you claim Spiritual authority to tell Satan to flee, confess any known sin and be restored to the right relationship with God. This gives you the power and authority over Satan and He WILL have to flee. Satan won’t flee forever, and he will be looking for the next opportunity to attack you. So stay prayed up, confessed up, and submitted up and God will fight your battles for you. In love with Jesus –Gary Mimbs The Overall View.
Our church had a children’s mission day at our church on a Saturday. We had plenty of help and after I started the event with prayer, I didn’t have a lot of other things to do. I decided to man the security desk. This is something that I never get to do as I am either preaching on Sunday and teaching on Wednesdays. I found this to be fascinating. We have a 16-camera high tech security system that gives us audio and video of pretty much every part of our property that covers a city block and a half. I could see events going on in every part of the church as well as monitor the outside of the property. It was amazing watching the 16 cameras and seeing people moving around like an ant colony. I could see the workers leading the children in games, the cooks in the kitchen, the people in every room on both floors of the building. I could watch all of the cars coming and going in the parking lot. This experience gave me a glimpse of possibly the way that God is looking down on the Earth. He can see all over the world and watches people doing what they are doing – good and bad. He can see missionaries in Africa spreading the light of Jesus in the darkest places. He can see people every Sunday in churches around the world lifting up praise to Him. Some of the things that He sees bring glory and honor to Him and other things that He sees break His heart. A lot of times when I encounter people I will ask them, “Are you being haave (Southern for being good)? Some people will say no and I remind them that Jesus is watching. The Bible suggests that each one of us has a recording angel that is keeping records of all that we do – good and bad – sinful and not. It also tells us that even our secret thoughts are recorded. So instead of Big Brother (The Government) watching you – God is watching you. Most everyone that I saw on the 16 monitor screens that Saturday had no idea that I was watching them. I saw people enjoying life and ministering to kids in sharing the love of God. It made my heart glad to see this group of people doing all that could to make this event a success. I know that it pleases the heart of God when we do all that we can even when we don’t know that people are watching. In love with Jesus – Gary Mimbs Inner Wishing?
I was in conversation with someone, and I was telling them about a situation in our family. The person said to me that the family member that we were discussing must have had an inner wishing about the event that happened. As I listened, I figured out the person was meaning to say that the family member had experienced an intuition. Intuition is defined as (knowledge from) an ability to understand or know something immediately based on your feelings rather than facts. As I thought about what the person had said in using the term inner wishing it made me chuckle. How many times have we had feelings that gave us some insight into a situation? Other times we have an inner wishing that something will happen. Intuition is based on gaining knowledge from feelings. Inner wishing is based on a desire for something to happen so thus we act on trying to make the wish come true. What some people call intuition I would credit to the leading of the Holy Spirit. I have had incidents in my life where the Holy Spirit gave me knowledge and direction that I didn’t have any facts to know it from. The Holy Spirit is more than a feeling; it is a personal guide, friend, counselor, comforter, conviction provider, and the list goes on and on. The Holy Spirit is Jesus living inside of me. That is a whole lot more than intuition or even inner wishing. It is amazing that the God who created the universe wants to have a personal relationship with us and even live inside of us and fellowship with us. In order for the Holy Spirit to reside in our heart we must #1 Invite Him in by being saved. #2 Keep our hearts clean and not allow anything that would defile our hearts to invite Him to remain there. Light (The Holy Spirit) and darkness will not stay in the same place. #3 Surrender to the Lordship of the Holy Spirit and obey everything that He commands us to do. I pray that you have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit resides in your heart. It is so much more than just an intuition or an inner wishing. It is a powerful force that can keep you from sin. In love with Jesus – Gary Mimbs |
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