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Correct Thinking is “God Thinking”

10/27/2013

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God has ordained and guarantees that we live a disease-free and prosperous life in Christ.  This blessed life is experienced by each individual as he or she learns and reaches the state of knowing God’s truths regarding it.  St. John 8:31-32 declare, “Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him,  if ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”  Known truth inside us makes us free, not truth in the Bible lying on our table at home.  The state of knowing is reached by hearing, meditation and continued practice of truth.. Therefore, to experience the abundant life in Christ, we must acquire in-depth insight into God’s words and an appreciation for the “work” of thinking them to receive manifestations of His blessings. 

God is a Spirit. His words are “spiritual Thoughts” that came out of Him. Remember, God thought before He spoke and created Heaven and earth and the things in them. He also created our spirit as the part of our being that holds thoughts that we acquire and know.  I Corinthians 2:11declares, “For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God.”  We must come to know God’s thoughts to receive His blessings.

We receive God’s words into our spirit by hearing them. (Romans 10:17)  Technically, we receive His Thoughts, which are embodied in His words.  He gives us His thoughts to think, abandoning our natural thoughts. For God’s Thoughts are higher than ours as well as those of Satan. (Isaiah 55:7-9)   This is important to understand. God’s Thoughts have “dominion” over both natural and satanic thinking.  Satan operates in a domain of spiritual darkness. He conceives wicked imaginations and develops devices that bring sickness, disease, turmoil, lack, etc. into people’s lives.  However, his thoughts are lower than God’s thoughts. In Christ, we simply submit to God’s Thoughts, resist the devil with them and he flees from us. (James 4:7) 

Also, God’s thoughts are destined to come to pass or manifest. Isaiah 14:24 declares, “The Lord of hosts hath sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand.”  This Promise from God gives us a firm conviction of seeing His blessings manifest in our lives. God has promised us health; He has promised us abundance.  As God has thought and we receive His thoughts and think them only, He performs to fulfill them in our lives.  God Bless


Pastor Leroy Rankin
http://www.christabundantlifeministries.org

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The Mystery of Imaginations

5/4/2013

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A key element in the heart of Believers in Christ that determines the level of their blessings from God is their imagination. Imagination is part of thinking. It is the power of the mind to form a mental image of something.  Every individual possesses an imagination and can conceive ideas, plans, etc.  What must be understood is that without Christ, the imagination is wicked. When Adam sinned against God in the Garden of Eden, partaking of the knowledge of good and evil, he became vain in his imagination and his heart was darkened. Since all of mankind came from Adam, we were born with vain or wicked imaginations. (Romans 1:21)   

Here is a mystery. To imagine means, in part, is “to plan a behavior.” The power of the image formed in the heart produces an intention to say something or do something. (Hebrews 4:12)  Then, intention moves an individual to act in a specific way: we intend to say hurting or evil things to others or we intend to do evil deeds. Through intention, a plan evolves which guides the words and behavior.  Herein is the effectiveness of Satan. He uses imaginations to rob God’s people of blessings that they are to rightfully inherit as His heirs. He uses “thoughts” to enter a person and make that individual think (plot) and do evil against another. Psalm 62:3 declares, “How long will ye imagine mischief against a man? Ye shall be slain all of you: a bowing wall shall ye be, and as a tottering fence.”  Satan entered Judas Iscariot’s heart through a “thought” and Judas went and betrayed Jesus to be crucified. (Luke 22:1-6)  When one imagines a wicked device against another and carries it out, that individual is literally walking in darkness.  The “light blessings” of God will not come upon darkness. 

What God does is examines the imaginations of our thoughts and decides to release blessings into our lives.  I Chronicles 28:9 declares, “And thou Solomon, my son, know thou the God of thy father and serve him with a perfect heart and a willing mind: for the Lord searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts: if thou seek him, he will be found of thee, but if thou forsake him, he will cast thee off for ever.”  God hates the heart that devises wicked imaginations against others. (Proverbs 6:16-18)

 In Christ, we are to inherit God’s blessings only by walking in good works toward others. Satan seeks to rob us of our inheritance by using lying imaginations against the knowledge of truth operating within us. Given this reality, we must effectively fight imaginations, win and then inherit our blessings.  II Corinthians 10:4-5 declare, “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.  Remember, we must win “thought battles” and inherit God’s glory.  God Bless.

From Pastor Leroy Rankin 
http://www.christabundantlifeministries.org

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April 27th, 2013

4/27/2013

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Our Heart determines the Flow of God’s Blessings

The state of an individual’s heart is a determinate of receiving and enjoying the blessings that God has provided for an abundant life in Christ.  Inside the heart reside four spiritual elements in which an individual’s spirit daily walks. They are: (l) thoughts, (2) imaginations, (3) desires and (4) ways. From these proceed the words that we speak and the patterns of our daily behavior; this is considered our walking. St. Matthew 12:34-35 declares, “O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.” 

When these elements are evil, they prevent God from releasing His blessings. The reason is that they are ruled by Satan who opposes God: they are of his domain which is spiritual darkness. God never releases blessings upon Satan. Second, evil elements in an individual’s heart cause it to be filthy – filthy thoughts, filthy imaginations, filthy desires, etc.  The blessings of God are holy and do not come upon a heart of filthiness. St. Mark 7:20-23 declare, “And he said, That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders. Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: All these evil things come from within and defile the man.”

God is Holy and His blessings are the same. Our heart, then, has to be cleansed to receive from Him. The Holy   Spirit fosters the cleansing process.  His job is to guide us into God’s word which cleanses. Jesus declares in St. John 15:3, “Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.” We receive truth, submit to it and obey it. The cleansing power of truth is released in our heart through this process, eradicating filthiness. II Corinthians 7:1 states, “Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.”

The “fear of the Lord” is a respect for God and His holiness. With this mindset and attitude within our heart, we proceed to depart from all evil thoughts, ways and doings, to good. This guarantees us of receiving healing for our bodies and prosperity in our professional endeavors.  The reason is that the Lord searches the heart and releases blessings based upon the cleanness of our thoughts, desires and ways.  Jeremiah 17:10 declares, “I the Lord search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings”  Isaiah 57:18 declares, “I have seen his ways, and will heal him: I will lead him also, and restore comforts unto him and to his mourners.”  Be assured that a clean heart fosters the confidence of a continued flow of blessings from our Heavenly Father. God Bless.

From Pastor Leroy Rankin
http://www.christabundantlifeministries.org
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Gods Transfer His Strength to us in Difficulty.

1/18/2013

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Almighty God is a Spirit who masterfully created Heaven and earth and everything in them.  The Strength with which He worked to create, and works today, is Supernatural: it is called His Might.  Those who accept Jesus Christ as Lord of their lives have the blessed privilege of receiving His Might and being strong in it. Ephesians 6:12 declares, “Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.”  The Might of the Lord is stronger than any spiritual force existing on earth since it created all things.  We must keep this truth in mind. We can, indeed, become strong in His Might. The great mystery is how it is accomplished. 

Receiving the Might of the Lord is a spiritual process that is accomplished by the Holy Spirit.  He is called the Spirit of the Lord. (II Corinthians 3:17) He was sent from Heaven to dwell inside our hearts and minister God’s Might to us.  He ministers it to our spirit, which is called our “Inner Man.” Ephesians 3:16 declares, “That he would grant you according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man.  Notice that God grants us to be strengthened; this means that we receive the action of strengthening. He gives us the privilege of receiving Strength “transfer” from the Holy Spirit.   

A part of the mystery of Might transfer is the state that our spirit must enter for it to take place: it is a state of “spiritual weakness.”  II Corinthians 12:9-10 declare, “And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.”  Therefore, challenges are ordained to come into our lives. Do not be afraid of them. They will possess power to weaken our inner man through (1) pain, (2) care and (3) sorrow over time. (Proverbs 15:13) God’s Will is for us to gain His Strength during these challenges. We must see that they come only to produce the weak state for us to receive Supernatural Strength transfer.

Therefore, our focus is always on the Holy Spirit, not on the challenge.  The Holy Spirit is always present; He will transfer Strength sufficient to endure every negative force that is presented. We must trust in (1) the mission and (2) the work of the Holy Spirit within us during times of difficulty. Do not become weary, think Supernatural Strength transfer. God Bless.  


From Pastor Leroy Rankin
http://www.christabundantlifeministries.org

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Believe in the Manifestations of God’s Love

1/13/2013

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Almighty God is a Spirit and He is Love.  As believers in Christ we must believe in the comprehensive Love of God, the flow of that Love toward us and its manifestations in our lives.  I John 4:9-10 declare, “In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”

First, we see that God showed Love toward us when we were separated from Him. We were sinners, alienated from God and His enemies in our minds.  (Colossians 1:21) God “acted” toward us out of His Love Nature. He knew that we were His enemies, yet He was mindful of us with great compassion. We were bound in sin and its consequences of sickness, disease poverty, etc.  We needed saving but could in no way save ourselves. He commended His Love toward us when we were in this state. We did absolutely nothing to deserve it; it was unconditional Love. (Romans 5:8) 

God showed great mercy toward the entire world. He gave His only Son to “bless” the lives of humanity.  The work of Christ on Calvary was the demonstration and manifestation of God’s great love. Christ took our sicknesses, diseases and sins and paid the full penalty for them all. This “act of Love” redeemed mankind from the curse of God’s Law.  Galatians 3:13 declares, “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.”

Further, Christ’s sacrifice established a “New Covenant” under which we could be justified before God, as though we never sinned; and be reconciled to Him as “sons of God.” Those who accept Jesus Christ as Lord of their lives receive this love bestowed upon them. I John 3:1-2 declare, “Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. 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.”  As sons of God, His love has given us the right and privilege to reign in life jointly with Christ with dominion over all of the powers of darkness operating in the earth realm.   What great love the Father hath shown to humanity.  Understand and receive all of it today by Faith. God Bless.


From Pastor Leroy Rankin
http://www.christabundantlifeministries.org
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