Go Forth!

There are a lot of people that have been dealing with challenges in their lives. Many think that the challenges have been due to the economy or maybe even just another part of living life. These challenges have not been without purpose in your life, these challenges were actually a time of testing and trial.

Deuteronomy 8:2-4 (The Message)
Remember every road that GOD led you on for those forty years in the wilderness, pushing you to your limits, testing you so that he would know what you were made of, whether you would keep his commandments or not. He put you through hard times. He made you go hungry. Then he fed you with manna, something neither you nor your parents knew anything about, so you would learn that men and women don't live by bread only; we live by every word that comes from GOD's mouth.

When we are tested and tried it doesn’t mean that we’re living outside of the will of God or that we’ve done something wrong to upset God. The testing and trial is actually a representation of quite the opposite. During the testing and trials in your life consider yourself blessed…

James 1:2-4 (The Message)
Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don't try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way.

The testing and trials are to grow and mature you as His child and to refine you in his ways…

1 Peter 1:6-7 (The Message)
I know how great this makes you feel, even though you have to put up with every kind of aggravation in the meantime. Pure gold put in the fire comes out of it proved pure; genuine faith put through this suffering comes out proved genuine. When Jesus wraps this all up, it's your faith, not your gold, that God will have on display as evidence of his victory.

1 Peter 4:12-13 (The Message)
Friends, when life gets really difficult, don't jump to the conclusion that God isn't on the job. Instead, be glad that you are in the very thick of what Christ experienced. This is a spiritual refining process, with glory just around the corner.

I’ve been getting over the past week or so that many have been tested and many have been proved. So now it is time for us to go forth and do what God has called us to. What has God put on your heart concerning your life? Has God been speaking to you about going back to school, if so apply to the one He leads you to and study what He desires you to study. Has God put a passion in your heart to advance in the company you work for, go ahead and inquiry or apply for that promotion. Has God been speaking to you about launching out and starting your own business, if so start to prepare yourself to be an entrepreneur.

There is so much that God has placed on the hearts of His people all over the world and the command now is to GO FORTH! Now there is a big difference between going forth and just being in agreement with God about the plans for your life. The person that goes forth isn’t moved by what they see, the person that goes forth is confident in God that He will do what He said he would do, the person that goes forth let’s nothing deter them from achieving the promise. The person that goes forth actually does something when the command is spoken.

If Noah never built the ark than it would have never been built by him. If Moses never lifted his staff and commanded the water to part than the Red Sea would have never been parted by him. If David never charged Goliath than maybe David wouldn’t have been a King and such an influential person in the Bible. If you never act on the promise that God has put in your heart than that’s exactly where it’s going to stay, in your heart.

The way may look impossible or even downright scary. There may be giants in the land or people that have more knowledge than you, more money than you, and more experience than you. Whatever the situation looks like ahead just remember that it is what God has promised you and God never fails on a promise. Stay the course and claim what it is that God has for you.

Amen.

Daryle Houston II
Kingdom Vizion Ministries
www.kingdomvizion.org

Living By the Word in All Occasions, With All Men

The dictionary definition of forgive is to cease to feel resentment against an offender, i.e., to pardon ones enemies.

Matthew 18:21-22 "Then Peter came to Him and said, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven."

Today I want to talk about forgiveness. There are things going on in our own lives with people in our families, in our personal relationships, within our communities, and in our nation that may be causing us offense and pain. It's not easy to feel these things or deal with these things when they happen, but as Believers there are some things we must do when these situations occur. First we must first pray to God about it. Second, we have to forgive. Third, we have to love them no matter what happens, even if we don't want to, even if it's hard to, even when they have different ideas or beliefs, even if they offend us, even when they cause us great hurt or pain. We do this not because we feel like it, but because we choose to live by the whole Word of God, not just parts; and in all occasions, not just when it's convenient to us. If we choose to not do these things then we are not acting any different than the world. If we walk in bitterness, resentment, hate, judgment, and unforgiveness, then we are not being the light of the world as God has called us to be (Matthew 5:14). Let us remember even hanging on the cross Christ forgave (Luke 23:34), those that had done unspeakable things to Him, and as Believers we must do the same with ALL men. Let us remember while we were yet sinners Christ forgave us (Romans 5:8), and He gave His son for ALL of us (John 3:16).

Mark 11:25 (NCV) When you are praying, if you are angry with someone, forgive him so that your Father in heaven will also forgive your sins.

Colossians 3:12-14 (Message Bible) So, chosen by God for this new life of love, dress in the wardrobe God picked out for you: compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength, discipline. Be even-tempered, content with second place, quick to forgive an offense. Forgive as quickly and completely as the Master forgave you. And regardless of what else you put on, wear love. It's your basic, all-purpose garment. Never be without it.

Romans 12:14 (NIV) Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.

Luke 6:35-38 (NLT) “Love your enemies! Do good to them. Lend to them without expecting to be repaid. Then your reward from heaven will be very great, and you will truly be acting as children of the Most High, for he is kind to those who are unthankful and wicked. You must be compassionate, just as your Father is compassionate. “Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn others, or it will all come back against you. Forgive others, and you will be forgiven. Give, and you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full—pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over, and poured into your lap. The amount you give will determine the amount you get back.

Matthew 5:43-48 (Message Bible) "You're familiar with the old written law, 'Love your friend,' and its unwritten companion, 'Hate your enemy.' I'm challenging that. I'm telling you to love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the energies of prayer, for then you are working out of your true selves, your God-created selves. This is what God does. He gives his best—the sun to warm and the rain to nourish—to everyone, regardless: the good and bad, the nice and nasty. If all you do is love the lovable, do you expect a bonus? Anybody can do that. If you simply say hello to those who greet you, do you expect a medal? Any run-of-the-mill sinner does that. "In a word, what I'm saying is, Grow up. You're kingdom subjects. Now live like it. Live out your God-created identity. Live generously and graciously toward others, the way God lives toward you."

Tracy Houston
Kingdom Vizion Ministries
www.kingdomvizion.org

Start to Build

Proverbs 24:27 (NKJV)
Prepare your outside work, make it fit for yourself in the field; and afterward build your house.

There are many people that are confessing the blessings of God upon their lives but there are few who will actually prepare themselves for the blessing. You may wonder what I am talking about; you may even feel that receiving blessings from God require us only to believe that we receive when we pray. True when we pray we must believe we receive because no one will receive anything from God if they are wavering in their faith. James 1:7-8 (NKJV)

There are thousands of blessings in the Bible that we are entitled to. Today I really just want to focus on the economic blessing or in other words, finances. Now there are a lot of people that have been praying and believing God to bless them financially. This has been a desire of your heart for many years, but for some reason you still seem to struggle in this area. Let’s take a deeper look into that, well we know that God has not forgotten about you, we know that He desires his children to live abundantly, so why have you not seen any manifestation of your desire?

The title of this writing is “Start to Build” this signifies that there is something on your end that must be accomplished before you can receive this desire of yours. God needs to first of all know that He can trust you with wealth. Just as surely as wealth can be a blessing it can also very well be a temptation.

1. What are your motives for desiring to have wealth is it so you can bless others or more mainly bless yourself? Is it wrong for a Christian to buy a $100,000 car, absolutely not, but what is your driving force to be wealthy?

2. Are you faithful with the little you have right now? Do you honor God with your finances (tithes & offerings) or are you one of those people that say when I get rich I’m going to give a million dollars. Well if you can’t give $10 now than the chances of you giving a million are slim to none.

Luke 16:10 (NKJV)
He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much.

3.Are you financially responsible? Is your reason for wanting more because you don’t have enough now? Well before you make that statement have you analyzed where you’re spending the majority of your money? Do you eat out five times a week, do you go to the mall every weekend, and do you give yourself a weekly budget? Maybe the reason you never have enough is because you don’t track your spending and you do a lot of unnecessary spending. Try trimming the fat in your finances and see what you come up with. There are some people who really don’t have enough but I’ll cover that issue at another time.

4.Do you listen to God and follow His instructions when He speaks? This is a big one, because if you have a hard time obeying God with the little finances now how will it be when you have much? You never know, God may tell you to give half of your fortune away, now if your heart is mature you would obey even though it still may be a tough thing to do. If your heart is attached to the wealth then this is something you might ignore. Where your treasure is there your heart will be also. Matthew 6:21 (NKJV)

5.Are you in a season of spiritual development? During the times where God is growing us and maturing us in certain areas of our lives, it may seem we are lacking but in fact we are being stretched and our faith is being tested to see what our hearts produce an abundance of.

James 1:2-3 (NKJV)
My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.

God hasn’t forgotten about your prayers and desires, but if you’re looking for a financial break through one must be prepared to receive it and also manage it. If you read the story of Joseph you will see how God blessed him abundantly. Joseph was a commodities broker in his day, and because God trusted Him, He essentially gave Joseph control over all of the entire financial system in his land. Joseph was the head guy in charge over Wall Street. Everyone bought from Joseph which made him a very rich man. Joseph didn’t get to that position over night, he had to be built up before God entrusted him with so much, and because he was faithful and responsible he was blessed.

Would God trust you with $1,000,000 if you can’t efficiently manage $100?

Daryle Houston II
Kingdom Vizion Ministries
www.kingdomvizion.org

Where Does Your Peace Come From?

I just started working for a new company over the past couple of weeks. This position allows me to talk to people all over the country to see how our company can benefit their lives and what their trying to pursue for their futures. Some of the questions that I normally ask to gauge their needs usually refer to the topic of what will increase their happiness. After talking to people all over America the same responses always seem to be evident throughout the conversation no matter their location.

The response that I usually hear is this; having more money and a better job will make me happy and being able to do the things that I want to do in life without any worries. To someone that is not a believer in Christ and not mature in the things of God, this seems like a pretty valid response. I mean with the economy the way it is and people losing jobs or already out of work, of course this will bring people the peace and reassurance they need in life, right? Wrong!

The responses from the people have shown me that all over the country people are crying out for peace and rest in their lives. There are so many people that are weary and ready to give up because they have no peace in their lives. All of their lives they have been taught that your peace comes from a nice cushy job with a 401k plan that you can tap into when you retire. Now that the systems of the world have failed once again people are literally hopeless looking for what they were taught since childhood that would give them peace, and rest, in life.

Job 3:24-26 (Message Bible)
"Instead of bread I get groans for my supper, then leave the table and vomit my anguish. The worst of my fears has come true, what I've dreaded most has happened. My repose is shattered, my peace destroyed. No rest for me, ever—death has invaded life."

We all know the story of Job; we know that he went through a lot, and that he lost a lot. In the above passage Job is pretty much saying that his peace was in all the things he had and now that they are all gone he feels that he has lost his good standing with God and the peace he once had is no more. Well that’s a good thing, because the peace that Job had before was an imitation and not the peace given by God. If it were the peace given by God then no situation in life would have been able to take it away from him. Job goes through a lot but in the end he finally gets it.

So how can we equate this in today’s society? Let’s do a quick self analysis, can you think of any situation in your life that could potentially steal your peace and send you down a path of fear, doubt, and worrying? It may be the loss of your job, the loss of your entire savings and retirement accounts, or even the loss of your spouse. Now all of these things are unfortunate and I’m not saying that if something like this were to take place in your life that you should be happy go lucky. I’m just saying how would you respond in an unfortunate situation? Would you blame God, yourself, the economy, the person next door, and not have faith in God to carry you through like the children of Israel? Or would you say to yourself, “You know what, this situation is unfortunate and I am hurt by it but I will not let it steal my peace that God has given, and with His help I will overcome.

Psalm 29:11 (The Message Bible)
God makes his people strong. God gives his people peace.

Because we are Gods children and He loves us dearly we are made strong, and His peace is freely given to us. A peace that the world can’t comprehend and a peace that we ourselves cannot understand. During the past year God put Tracy and I into the course of Peace 101. During this past year we were both unemployed and I was the only one receiving unemployment. Times were tough and just because we were unemployed doesn’t mean that the bills were on hold. There were times when I would be completely at ease and there were times when I would be a mess. Through it all my faith in God increased and the peace of God had no choice but to reign in my life. In the end I said you know what “Whether we have or don’t have, I will continue to rejoice because what I have on the inside of me is priceless”. We would tell people our situation and their faces would drop in astonishment because they couldn’t understand 1. How we were surviving and 2. Why we seemed so joyful all the time.

Mark 9:49-50 (The Message Bible)
"Everyone's going through a refining fire sooner or later, but you'll be well-preserved, protected from the eternal flames. Be preservatives yourselves. Preserve the peace."

You may be going through something in your life that is trying to steal your peace. The only way your peace can flee from you is if your give it away yourself. There is no situation that can steal what God gave you without your permission. Although situations may seem unfortunate, don’t get caught up in the why’s and why not’s; instead look at the situation and ask yourself is God trying to get something to me through this situation? The quicker you can mature and realize that nothing trumps God, the quicker you’ll be in your own Land of Canaan.

Don’t die in the wilderness like the children of Israel; you are overcomers and more than conquerors in Christ Jesus.

Daryle Houston II
Kingdom Vizion Ministries
www.kingdomvizion.org

According to My Word

Faith teaches us to believe in whom God is and what He has done and what is still yet to take place in your life. There’s a fine line in having faith in God’s Word and having faith in your own word. Many of us fail to make this connection because there were so many men and women in the Bible that used their faith in God to produce favorable results in their lives. So as Christians we walk through life having faith in whatever makes us smile at the moment, and sometimes we see manifestations and sometimes we do not. Why is that?

When was the last time you made a heavenly decree and stood on it using faith and maybe even some scriptures from the Bible as back up, and you haven’t seen anything happen yet? Well let’s take a look at it in more detail. First of all if the thing you are using your faith for is truly indeed from the Holy Spirit and you know it because you just got that feeling, and you haven’t seen the manifestation yet, keep praising and believing God. What about the thing that you may be using your faith for that is actually not from the Holy Spirit but from your own will?

As I mentioned in the last message I gave sometimes we ask God for things and believe God for things that will ultimately increase our own sense of security and comfort. Now, you’re probably asking “doesn’t God want us to be secure and comfortable? Sure He does, but not at the cost of your maturity in Christ. When we go through things as Christians some of us think that we might be out of Gods will because maybe we were taught that being a Christian was all roses and if we are going through challenges than it’s from the Devil and we need to reassess our lives in Christ. This is the farthest thing from the truth. The challenges in life are used to strengthen our legs for the walk in Christ. Everything goes through a struggle.

Picture a cocoon with a butter fly getting ready to emerge. You can see the butterfly struggling to get out and it’s not looking to good. So, you think “well what if I just helped it out of the cocoon so it didn’t have to struggle”. In fact if you did this the butterfly would die because the cocoon is designed to strengthen it. While inside the cocoon the butterfly is pressing to get out and every time it presses to get out it gets stronger and stronger. As a result of the effort a beautiful and complete butterfly emerges ready to fly. If you would have helped it, the butterfly would have been beautiful but not able to do what God designed it to do, and would have actually died.

1 Kings 17:1 (KJV)
And Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, As the Lord God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word.

We all know that Elijah was a man with faith and had a pure relationship with God. So sometimes when we speak things out of our mouths that we want to happen we might say “well Elijah said no rain but according to his word”, than we think that we can say whatever we want and it will happen. There are a few important parts about the scripture above, first is that Elijah was standing before God. Elijah was God’s representative only to deliver a message that was first given to him but not created by him.

When it comes to putting out decrees in the name of God we must make sure that it came from God first and not emotionally motivated by either a selfish desire in your life or a challenge or struggle that you are going through at the time. Sometimes the thing we’re desiring is for the good, but if it’s not given to you by God than it’s not time for it yet. We may think the thing we desire will help but in all actuality we may be helping the butterfly out of its cocoon. Am I saying that it is wrong to help others, ABSOLUTELY NOT! We all know that God is love and that love gives, I’m saying that in all of your actions let the Holy Spirit be the motivating factor and nothing else. God knows all and His thoughts are higher than our thoughts and His ways higher than our ways. We think in 3 dimensional standards, God thinks much higher than that. He already knows what will happen down the line.

The second important part of the scripture is where it says “according to my word”. This can sometimes be interpreted as “my own words”. We know that words are powerful, they are God given and they can either create or destroy. This can give many of us a God complex, where we think whatever I say goes. What I believe Elijah is really saying here is that there will be no rain until my God says it will be rain. We all know that in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. According to my word= According to my God.

With all this being said, let’s make sure we are truly connected with the Holy Spirit while we walk through life. Don’t make petitions to God out of emotion or selfish desire but instead let God speak to your spirit about what you really need in life, which will in the end profit you more than anything you could think of.

Daryle Houston II
Kingdom Vizion Ministries
www.kingdomvizion.org