Faith, Intimacy, & Overcoming by Our Testimony

Hello KVM family we want to invite you to check out our latest message called Faith, Intimacy, & Overcoming by our testimony... www.kingdomvizion.org/sermons.html

We pray you enjoy it, and may it bless and encourage you!

Daryle & Tracy Houston
Kingdom Vizion Ministries
www.kingdomvizion.org

What Do You Really Need??

Philippians 4-19 (NKJV)
And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

Every Christian knows this scripture; I think it is one of the most popular in the church today. There are a lot of “needs” in the body of Christ and this scripture has been used as the “need buster”. Today I want to delve a little further into what we really need and how we are perceiving in our minds what we need and comparing that to what God thinks we need.

Let’s take a look at what Paul wrote in Philippians 4:10-13 (KJV):

But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly, that now at the last your care of me hath flourished again; wherein ye were also careful, but ye lacked opportunity. 11Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. 12I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: everywhere and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. 13I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.

What Paul is saying here is that whatever state he is in he has learned to be content. Even though he might have lacked some things he was never in a state of want or poverty as it is defined. Well you might ask, how someone can say that if they are poor and hungry? My life and your life is nothing without a true revelation of a relationship with God. It’s not based on the external but rather the internal. Paul can say such things because nothing else mattered in his external life that could sway his relationship with God; just as long as he was connected to the True Vine he was nourished. You can only understand this concept with God’s wisdom.

Paul said he knows how to live with little and he knows how to live in abundance, and that in everything and in everyplace he is instructed to be full and to be hungry. Yes, he said instructed. Why would God instruct someone to be hungry? One thing about Paul is that he was a traveler and he had to come in contact with many different people, personalities, and situations. Through all of this he learned how to associate with the humble and not be high-minded. So even though sometimes he was hungry he was content and not fearful that he was not blessed because of what he was experiencing. Proverbs 4:13 (NKJV): Take firm hold of instruction, do not let go; Keep her for she is your life.

Ok now let’s bring it back to 2010 and your life, evaluate your life and your situation and think of all the things that you think you need. Are you lonely and want to be married, do you need a new car, do you need a job, do you need a miracle? Whatever it is you can think of, I want you to start looking at what you perceive as a need and evaluate it using Gods wisdom. Why is this situation the way it is, what can I learn from this, and can I learn to be content with my “need”? When it all comes down to it this need that you think is in your life may actually be ordained by God to make you stronger in your trust in Him.

The majority of believers here in America are taught that if you’re lacking something in your life then it’s not God. Well as we read from Paul this is not true, just because you are lacking something in the natural doesn’t mean that you are not blessed and that God is not with you. Abundance is based upon what you have on the inside first and not always so much as to how much money you have or what kind of car you drive. It may just be a challenge to get you to see that in whatever natural state you are in you should be content. Does this mean that we ought to get used to living a life in lack, absolutely not. Indeed God does want us to live in abundance and will grant us the desires of our hearts according to Psalm 37:4, but first He wants to make sure that our hearts are desiring the right thing and not just desiring everything that we think we need according to what we see with our natural eyes.

I pray this has been a blessing to you.

Daryle Houston II
Kingdom Vizion Ministries
www.kingdomvizion.org

Stay Connected

Hello KVM family we wanted to invite you all to listen to the latest message Daryle preached called "Stay Connected" we pray it is a blessing to you! You can check it out by clicking the following link... http://www.kingdomvizion.org/sermons.html

Daryle & Tracy Houston
Kingdom Vizion Ministries
www.kingdomvizion.org

Obedience

When it comes to obedience it’s not always the easiest thing for us to do. For many of us giving up control of our lives and consenting and having faith in God is downright scary, because it’s so hard to perceive with our natural minds. For many years some of us have been making our own decisions about our lives and not to even say some of those decisions were bad, they may have even provided you prosperity in your life. To give up total control of your life can be a daunting task. When we obey God’s will for our lives that’s exactly what we are doing, we are laying our own wants and desires down and trusting in Him to lead our lives into our God-given destinies. This is easier said than done because God doesn’t think like you and I, and his instructions can be very strange, not making a bit of sense to us.

Sometimes God will give us a step to take, but we don’t understand it and it seems completely irrational, or it seems like its taking us the complete opposite direction of where we think we should be going. Sometimes the action takes us way past our comfort zones. Sometimes it looks like by taking the action we might lose something, or take us out of the way of our dreams we had for our lives. When it comes to these times when God is giving us an instruction it is imperative to our lives, and possibly the lives of others that we follow the instructions that He has given us. Let’s look at Jesus as our example…

Philippians 2:7-8 (NCV)
But he gave up his place with God and made himself nothing. He was born as a man and became like a servant. And when he was living as a man, he humbled himself and was fully obedient to God, even when that caused his death—death on a cross.

Here Jesus showed us the greatest act of obedience. What God was asking Him to endure was not something that in his humanity he wanted to endure, as you can see…

Luke 22:42 (NLT) “Father, if you are willing, please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.”

But the key in that scripture is that He said “I want your will to be done, not mine.” Even though He didn’t want to endure the suffering that He was going to go through, He knew the importance of following the will of God and because He followed the will of God we all have salvation available to us today. So each time God gives you an instruction in life, whether it doesn’t make sense, or takes you out of your comfort zone, or causes discomfort, I want you to remember Jesus, and just make the choice as He did to take that step and trust God.

Proverbs 3:5-6 (CEV) With all your heart you must trust the LORD and not your own judgment. Always let him lead you, and he will clear the road for you to follow.

The most important thing in your life with Christ is instruction.

Proverbs 4:13 (NKJV)
Take firm hold of instruction, do not let go: Keep her, for she is your life.

In anything you do whether it be for God or for yourself you need instruction. If you have no instruction than you have no direction and no direction will lead you just wandering through this life on a road to nowhere.

The best instruction we can obtain is from God through His Word. His instruction will lead to a place in your life that you can’t even dream of. Though you may not understand the instruction from time to time, all you’ve got to do is obey it and all will be well. If you obey Gods instructions you are telling Him that you have faith in Him and we all know that without faith it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6). So have faith in God and obey his instructions and you can’t go wrong.

Daryle & Tracy Houston
Kingdom Vizion Ministries
www.kingdomvizion.org

Are You Wondering or Walking?

According to dictionary.com the word “wonder” if used as a verb can mean “to think or speculate curiously”. Have you ever asked a question like this; I wonder what my purpose in life is?

What I’ve been getting lately is that there are too many believers wondering about what God wants them to do instead of just walking into that purpose. As a society most of us have been taught since childhood to have all of your ducks in a row before you launch out and try to accomplish something. We have been taught to always have a plan B in-case plan A falls through. Now I’m not knocking having a plan at all, I actually support the idea but when it comes to something as critical as following Gods plan for your life, the plan has already been laid out and all that we must do is walk in the ways of God and everything will align.

See, when we get too focused on trying to seek God about everything He has planned for our future we get distracted and can find ourselves in a very confusing or even depressing state of mind and a stagnant state because we have stopped walking and started wondering. My advice to someone that is in this predicament is to stop trying to figure out what’s in-store and just walk into it. Live life abundantly, trust God and know that you’re walking into something good, if you can’t figure out what to do next, make the best decision you have available using the wisdom of God and keep walking because your answer may be two steps ahead of you. We have to know as children of God that He is our plan A and He can’t fail therefore we need not a plan B just as long as we’re walking with an honest heart concerning the principals of the Kingdom of God.

Psalm 84:11 (NKJV)
For the Lord God is a sun and shield; The Lord will give grace and glory; No good thing will He withhold From those who walk uprightly.

So what does God want for your future, I don’t know, you probably don’t know and you know what, that is ok because if God told you, you probably wouldn’t believe it. Just focus on what He has planned for you today, right now, and let God guide you into whatever it is He has for you.

If you’re someone that has been doing nothing because you think God has something specific for you to do, guess what you are absolutely correct; but it won’t come unless you’re doing something. What good are you to the Kingdom of God if you’re not doing anything for it? So unless God has told you otherwise, let’s get active. Time is a precious gift that God gives us every day and we must be diligent on how we use it. There must be an equal balance, don’t be that person that wastes all of it doing nothing waiting on a miracle, and don’t be that person that wastes all of it doing too much trying to be that miracle to everyone and everything. In the times we live in now it is very critical that we begin to tap into Gods wisdom in everything we do, from the least to the greatest because it’s very easy to get distracted with all of the things going on around us.

It all boils down to just trusting and believing in God that He has our backs. In the book of Daniel, did Daniel stop worshiping God because the decree was signed? No, he trusted God so much that he put his life on the line for what He believed in and God honored his faith and shut the mouths of the Lions in the den. Our situations aren’t even life and death and yet we still wonder if God is God and if what He says is true. I’m guilty of this also. So today I repent of my wrong thinking and I ask God to forgive me of my sins and to also forgive my people of theirs. As the true church we must able to face and most importantly admit to ourselves where we have gone astray in our thinking and/or actions. We must operate as ONE body in Christ if we are to accomplish all that God has for us. It’s time to grow.

Daryle Houston
Kingdom Vizion Ministries
www.kingdomvizion.org