Charles Stanley sermon on a Discerning Spirit

I'm getting caught up on recent sermons by some of my favorite preachers.

Charles Stanley recently delivered a message that I learned a lot from entitled,
"The Power of A Discerning Spirit."

You can watch it online at:
http://intouch.org/broadcast/video-archives/content/topic/the_power_of_a_discerning_spirit_video

Dr. Stanley also has excellent sermon notes/outlines available on his
site Intouch.org.

Learning When to Move Forward

Another lesson God taught me in 2010, which continues into this new year:

Sometimes the Holy Spirit will stop you from going in the wrong direction, even when you think you're doing God's will, or have His blessing to continue.

There are times when God directs us by stopping some opportunities so that we will focus on the path He's prepared for us. If you're hard-headed & move forward, doing things your way instead of His way, you'll mess up every time.

Acts 16:6-10

 ⁶ Paul and his companions traveled throughout the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia. ⁷ When they came to the border of Mysia, they tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to. ⁸ So they passed by Mysia and went down to Troas. ⁹ During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” ¹⁰ After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.
From BibleGateWay.com

Day 32--Faith, Not Fear: HELP WANTED

October is breast cancer awareness month.

To read and see inspirational stories about breast cancer survivors, check out my other blog, Recession Resurrection.

You can learn more about early breast cancer detection, treatment options, and how you can get involved, at the American Cancer Society site:

http://www.cancer.org/Cancer/news/Features/what-you-can-do-about-breast-cancer

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CLICK HERE for a printer-friendly PDF file of this devotional.  
You can find links to each devotional on our Web site. 
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Welcome to Day 32 of our Bible based, Christ focused devotional.

Purpose: With so many people suffering during these tough economic times, I wanted to create a daily devotional which would promote faith in God as a solution to overcoming anger and fear.

Each devotional will provide a daily passage of Scripture for you to reflect on throughout the day. In addition, an “Action Item” will assign a daily, simple task to help you address your fears with faith and move forward with God's plans for you.

Thank you and God bless you for reading this devotional--please share it with others!

Steve Kendall
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DAY 32: HELP WANTED

TODAY'S SCRIPTURE FOR REFLECTION:

If you love me, you will do as I command. Then I will ask the Father to send you the Holy Spirit who will help you and always be with you. The Spirit will show you what is true. The people of this world cannot accept the Spirit, because they don't see or know him. But you know the Spirit, who is with you and will keep on living in you. John 14:15-17 (Contemporary English Version)

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OPENING PRAYER:   In your opening prayer, in addition to anything else you want to pray about, ask God to reveal the Holy Spirit to you so that He may be a helper to you as you tackle life’s problems.

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Help Wanted

I woke up around 4 a.m. with lots of energy.  Well, I imagined I had a lot of energy. I drifted back to sleep and woke up again for good a few hours later and that imagined energy was nowhere to be found.

I had a lot to do today and thought, “How am I gonna get all of this done?” My next thought was, “You can’t do it by yourself. You need help.”

The only type of help that would truly overcome my health limitations could only come from God in the form of the Holy Spirit, which is referred to as the “Holy Ghost,” in some translations.

Before Jesus died he told his disciples that He would not leave them alone. He promised to send the “Parakletos,” which is the Biblical Greek word for “helper,” “comforter,” “one who advocates on your behalf.

When you accept Jesus as your Savior, you receive the Holy Spirit, which becomes active within you.

I didn’t fully understand the concept of the Holy Spirit until a few years ago. Thanks to my pastor, Dr. Lucius M. Dalton’s Bible study of the Book of Acts, I came to grow in understanding about the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

It can be a puzzling concept to understand initially, but when you think about the fact that nothing is too difficult for God, you can see the wisdom in how He set up what is known as the Trinity: The Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Dr. Charles Stanley, in his Sunday broadcast of InTouch, discussed the Holy Spirit in detail.  Dr. Stanley does a far better job than I ever could of explaining all of this and I highly recommend his sermon.

To listen to Dr. Stanley’s sermon, “Walking In The Holy Spirit,”go to: http://www.intouch.org/broadcast/audio-archives

Look for Oct. 25, 2010

The video version of “Walking In The Holy Spirit” can be found at:

http://www.intouch.org/broadcast/video-archives

Dr. Stanley’s sermon notes on this topic:

http://intouch.org/resources/sermon-outlines/content/topic/walking_in_the_holy_spirit_sermon_outline

PDF of Dr. Stanley’s notes about “Walking In the Spirit”

http://intouch.org/Content/1/LP100425.pdf

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ACTION ITEM:  Get out a blank piece of paper. List your current problems.  On the back, make a new list of folks you want to pray for on a daily basis.

Each day forward, pray that the Holy Spirit will guide and help you to deal with your problems and ask Him to be of comfort to those on your prayer list.

Until tomorrow, have a blessed day!
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CLOSING PRAYER: For the remainder of our devotions, please pray about whatever the Lord places in your heart and mind. I also ask that you pray for me as well. I pray daily for everyone who comes in contact with these devotions and feel blessed as a result.

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STAY IN TOUCH:  You are cordially invited to share how things are going with you and our devotions thus far. I welcome comments and suggestions as well. You can reach me via Facebook or my personal email address: Steve@BibleStudyCafe.com

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FREE STUFF FOR YOU!

Stop by sometime soon to visit my ministry Web site, Bible Study Café, and download free stuff including a prayer journal. Join Bible Study Café on Facebook and follow my twitches and tweets on Twitter.

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A TRUE RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD:

If you would like a relationship with God, the only way to do it is through His son, Jesus Christ. This is supported in the Bible: Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. --John 14:6 (King James Version) 

We begin this relationship by first accepting Jesus. Click Here for a link to more info.