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The last article was about “Top Notch Living” which was about having one main comprehensive resolution for this coming year, and that is to be filled with and led by the Holy Spirit. If we get this first peg in the right hole, all the rest of our life will fall into good and proper order. With this, through the finished work of Jesus Christ, we can tap in to all the goodness of God that is in place for our benefit and for the benefit of others. That was for the question “what”, now the question is, “how” can I be filled with and led by the Holy Spirit?

Proverbs 3:6 says if we will “acknowledge” or accept and recognize God in all our ways, he will direct our path. Jesus said if we hunger and thirst after righteousness, we will be filled (Matthew 5:6). If we pursue all that God has for us with no resistance to him, we will be filled. By believing that God is good and has good things for us according to the promises of his Word, we are free to receive what he gives the way he gives it. With this faith operating, we will yield to God’s working in our life trusting him to fill and guide us in the life he has for us. The early disciples followed this pattern after Jesus went back into heaven and they began being filled with the Spirit with supernatural evidence in their lives on the day of Pentecost (Acts 1 & 2). Then throughout the book of Acts, which is the history of the very beginning of the church, we read how both groups and individuals were filled with and led by the Holy Spirit. They experienced supernatural languages, boldness in sharing the gospel, healings, miracles, and signs and wonders with whole towns and regions being influenced by the resurrected Jesus Christ. They were truly experiencing “top notch living” in a wonderful way. They also experienced persecution from the religious status quo, which always comes with the territory if we are going to press in to all the good things of God. As they believed God’s Word and yielded themselves to the moving of God in their lives, they saw the goodness, power and works of God in their own personal lives and in the lives of those around them.

It’s a personal pursuit. God meets us where we are with life-changing, delivering power through the work and name of Jesus. With that he sets our feet on a new path in which we can be filled with and led by the Holy Spirit enabling us to live in the goodness and presence of God on a daily basis. That is top notch living for the coming year and in all years beyond.

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My brother and I grew up on an egg farm at Poyen, AR. With 12,000 layers and 9,000 eggs a day at peak production, we had plenty to do every day. We did not have the elaborate automated systems as is prevalent today. We did have an electric auger that conveyed the chicken feed from the silo to the working area. We also had little electric buckets that heated the water that sat on an agitating base that we sat a basket of eggs in to get them mostly clean. The rest of the cleaning had to be done by hand.

With chickens came spilled feed and rats and mice and with rats and mice came snakes, lots of snakes. I have always been interested in nature things. I studied it as a boy. Snakes to me were just another creature to study, especially to know which ones are poisonous and which are not. I have always had a thing to catch critters, and snakes were no different. I would catch black snakes, rat snakes, and even copperheads. I would kill the copperheads and make hat bands out of the skin.

My brother Joe did not see a snake as a creature of mere curiosity. Like many people, he saw a snake as a monster of mortal terror. Joe is 4 years my senior. He would always win any altercation we had if I tried to fight him myself. But I had a way to get him back. I would go catch a black snake and then I was the boss. I would run Joe all over the farm. I had the equalizer that put me in control for the moment, and, for future threats of vengeance.

Life in general, circumstances, people, and the devil, will all whip up on us if we allow it. It will bully us until we are backed into a corner if we don’t know what our equalizer is in the Lord. Jesus fulfilled a covenant with God with his own spilled blood to bless us and be with us in dominion and power. He has accepted us as a brother and a sister and seated us together with him in heavenly places above all power of the devil. He has given his Word and his Spirit to guide us in life and assist us in every way. All this is in place for every person who will repent and believe his Word and receive his Spirit to follow his way. When life, sickness, and the devil are pushing and fighting us, we need to learn to stand in faith on the Word of God without budging and use our equalizer in the name of Jesus. By believing and speaking and obeying the Word, we don’t have to just cower down and take it. We can run sin, sickness, and sorry circumstances all over the farm and take our joy and peace in the Lord each day. (Ephesians 1).

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The plan my wife and I discussed was to have a row of dark red crepe myrtles along the fence that runs on the east side of our property. That would provide low maintenance long season color in that part of the yard. That discussion was weeks, even months, ago.

We would see rows of crepe myrtles around town to observe the style they were pruned to and the spacing. Some are bare trunk trees and some are bushed up from the ground. We recently went to a hardware store to pick up some materials for a job, and they also sell plants and flowers. We decided to go see what was in the garden department. They had about 13 crepe myrtles that had dark red flowers and dark leafed foliage and beautiful, for $19.98 a pot. “Wow”, we said, “this is exactly what we are wanting.” They did not have a special sale price, they just had the tag on them $19.98. I asked the attendant if we bought 10 of them, would they give us a special deal. She said “Yes, I heard the manager offer someone 50% off. I can do that.” We took the deal and got $200 worth of plants for $100. Had I not asked, we would have paid full price.

Jesus taught about prayer saying, “Ask, and it shall be given you…for every one that asketh receiveth.” Jesus said if you ask, it shall be given to you, not maybe, but it shall be given you. He said every one, not some, but every one that asks receives. He then went on to give the illustration that if a child asks a good father for bread to eat, he will not give that child a rock. If the child asks for some fish, a good father will not give him a snake. If the child asks for an egg, a good father will not give him a scorpion. Then Jesus gave the point of the lesson: If a good natural father gives good things to his hungry child, so much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to his spiritually hungry children (Luke 11:9-13). God desires for every believer to have the power and the beauty of the supernatural operation of the Holy Spirit in his or her life all season long.

It is the Holy Spirit who is given to magnify Jesus is our lives so that we live in his resurrection power on a daily basis. He is our Helper, our Comforter, and our Guide to go with us through every trial and every triumph of our life. In him is supernatural power for supernatural accomplishments. You can read about it in the Book. But you don’t have this unless you ask for it and expect to receive. That’s what Jesus taught. Believe and receive from Jesus.

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For some time I have been looking for a certain kind of work shirt that I really like. Years ago I had purchased some at Walmart, but in checking there, both locally and in different towns, I have not been able to find what I am looking for.

One day I remembered how when growing up, when you wanted to find something, you would get out the Sears catalog and find all styles and sizes. I thought, “I’ll just stop in Sears and look at one of their clothes catalogs and find just what I am looking for.” When I stopped and inquired I was shocked to learn that the last published Sears catalog was in 1992. I was even shown a copy of the last issue. They don’t print catalogs anymore. It is all online. My first thought when I learned this was, “Boy! Am I behind times or what!” I know that the internet is the going thing, but since 1992! I even said out loud, “Wow! Where have I been!” It was just hard to believe that major stores don’t print catalogs anymore. That’s the way it was done all my years of growing up. But now, there is a new way, and if I am going to get the goods I had better go with the new way.

One of the prophets of old spoke of God doing “a new thing” and that there was going to be a new way (Isaiah 43:19). From the beginning of time God has revealed himself to man through creation and through the law. True to the prophet’s prediction, Jesus came on the scene and revealed the way of a personal relationship with God through faith in the Word and by walking in the power of the Holy Spirit. This new way was fully revealed on the day of Pentecost when the church started operating in the same resurrection power in which Jesus himself walked when he was on earth. The new way gets the job done just like Jesus did it. It wasn’t “church as usual”, and “the way we’ve always done it.” It took some change on some people’s part, and those who were not willing to change went without.

The good news is that if we are willing to change, we can step into the “new thing” that God is doing. When we get “online with God”, we will find that indeed Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. As we receive and walk in his Word and his Spirit by faith, he will supply our needs in every way abundantly above all we are able to ask or think. It is by the supernatural power that works in us by being born again and filled with the Holy Spirit (Hebrews 13:8,9; Ephesians 3:20). We are either online or outdated.
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With a menagerie of birds and animals on the place. I was always collecting stuff
with which to build pens, sheds, etc. One day I was investigating a goose nest under a stack of old roofing tin, and I raised up some of the pieces of the tin to discover a huge nest of baby copperhead snakes held within the confines of their big fat momma curled up around them . I gently eased the layers of back down and with heart pounding, I ran and got my pump 20 guage shotgun that held six shots. I thought, “I’m gonna take care of these babies before they get away!” I got back and eased the tin up again and quickly propped it against the building and stepped back with gun at hip, unloading the whole thing on them. Much to my surprise, all my “rifleman” shooting technique did was blow live little snakes all around the area! Now I had little snakes crawling everywhere, in all directions, and a big live momma snake still laying there, and an empty gun in hand! By the time I found a hoe or something to kill them, I think some had gotten away, but I did get some of them.

There is power in believing prayer to deal with situations and to deal with the
enemy of our soul. We can shoot from the hip and just produce a lot of hot air, or
we can learn to aim the word of God at a specific target in faith and put that thing to rest. Our basis of faith is the work that Jesus Christ accomplished for us. The word says Jesus is our “great high priest” who understands our weaknesses and frailties because he was tempted with the same stuff we have to deal with, but he never sinned. So when we come to him and submit our failings to his cleansing blood, and rely on his goodness and his faith, then his power is given to aim right on the situation so we can deal with it with his help. Jesus taught that what things you desire, believe that you receive them when you pray, and you will have them, as long as you are not carrying any unforgiveness in your heart. Unforgiveness will stop the operation of your faith (Mark 11: 22-26). Having prayed in such a way, then you hold your confession of receipt of what you prayed and you don’t back down. On the basis of Jesus, we are to come boldly to God to find mercy and grace to find help in time of need (Hebrews 4: 14-16). You don’t have to just sit there and let the snakes grow up to bite you later. Take aim and shoot to kill!

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It seems there is no sweeter sleep than lying down in the back seat of a car while traveling as a kid. I can remember back before seat belts (thank God for seat belts today), that we would go on a road trip of some kind and I would get in the back seat of the car and oh how good it felt to lay down in that moving, jostling car and drift off into blissful sleep. Such rest was so comforting and so complete. It certainly made a lasting memory for me!

There is a sweet and complete rest available to every person traveling on this road of life. There are many kinds of religion, there are myriads of beliefs and different slants on beliefs, and of course there is no end to the differences in everyone’s personal opinions. In all these variables, there is no real resting place. Who is right, who is wrong? It is confusion. But, there is one factor that does not change that is solid as a rock. It is established forever for every person whether we believe it or not. It has nothing to do with what we can do for God, but rather, what God has done for us. God saw our condition of sin separating us from him and established a blood covenant through the blood that was spilled from his Son Jesus Christ. This is a permanently fixed legal agreement in the universe. God has sworn by the blood of Jesus to take our sins away and write his laws in our hearts and minds to enable us to know him. This is a done deal. It is ours to receive or reject. When we plug in to this and stay plugged in, it will light up our life and give sweet inward peace and rest. If we are not plugged in to this, we remain in the darkness of being separated from God now and for all eternity. In such separation there is no real peace or rest. But, hearing the good news of what Jesus has done for us and turning from sin to commit our life to him is the faith that plugs us in. Then, when we wake up at the end of the journey and see Jesus face-to-face, it won’t be an encounter of eternal judgment and of not knowing him. By plugging in to God’s eternal covenant, we can enjoy his presence each day here and now, and on that day we can wake up in the refreshing of being in his presence forever. (Hebrews 6:16,17; 8:10-13; 10:16-39)

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When all the seats in the room are taken, and you get out of your seat so another can sit there, you have given place to them. Keep that in mind…“The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, to depart from the snares of death…By humility and the fear of the Lord are riches, and honor, and life” (Proverbs 14:27; 22:4). “Fear” in the original Hebrew language of the scriptures, means “reverence.” To truly reverence someone is to defer to them or give place to them. To live in the fear of God, to reverence God, is to defer to or to give place to him. Since the Holy Spirit is the agency of God who is with us in this earth realm, we must conclude that to truly reverence God means that we defer to or give place to the Holy Spirit in our lives. Paraphrase: To give place to the Holy Spirit is a gushing fountain of life springing up to depart from the snares of death…by humbly giving place to the Holy Spirit brings riches, and honor, and life.

If there is one goal we should have, it should be to give place to the Holy Spirit in our lives. By yielding to God’s Spirit in our life, we realize forgiveness and release from sin through what Jesus did for us. By yielding to the Spirit we can walk in God’s power which will guide us and enable us to do his will in the earth. Being sensitive to the Holy Spirit is important to keep us “awake” spiritually to what the Lord is working in our lives. Jesus spoke about a time in which “everything goes” so that many are ensnared in ways that lead away from the Lord. Without the fear of God operating in our lives, we are lulled to sleep spiritually, allowing all sorts of stuff in our life for which we will give account in the day of the Lord. There will be a day of reckoning. If we make a firm decision to walk in God’s ways instead of our own, and commit ourselves to doing just that, the blood of Jesus can cleanse us of our sin, the Spirit of God can empower us, and we can begin turning our life around to doing his will. Jesus said it is not those who just say, “Lord, Lord”, who enter into the kingdom of heaven, but those who do the will of the Father who are in heaven (Matthew 7:21-23). It is very important that we cultivate the fear of God in our lives. It is for our eternal life. “Have a seat, Sir.”

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As a young boy living on the farm, I was around wasps and wasp nests a lot. It was kind of a sport for me to take a slender stick about two inches wide, about a quarter of an inch thick, and about two feet long, and go stir up a wasp nest. When the wasps would start flying around, the idea was to use the slender paddle to swat the wasps and kill them. If I killed one, that was a point for me. If I was stung by one, that was a point for them. The object was to stir them up just enough to make a few of them fly around so I could swat them until the whole nest was wiped out. It was a sport that would get the adrenalin flowing and greatly exercise ones quick reactions. Now days I still enjoy a little rumble with these winged stingers. Just today, at this writing, of three wasps that I needed to deal with in a work situation, one stung me, I killed one, and the other one left. So the game was tied. I have never heard of killing wasps to be a national sport, but for a kid on the farm looking for some high level excitement, it filled the bill.

Playing with wasps is one thing, but there is a stinger that you don’t want to play with, and that is the sting of death. “The sting of death is sin…” (1 Corinthians 16:56). If you have not committed your life and your eternity to Jesus Christ, trusting what he has done for you to be sufficient preparation for you to meet God in eternity, then you are playing with a wasp whose sting can take you out forever. You don’t want to spend eternity separated from God in hell. Whether you believe in hell or not, when you slip into eternity, you will find out the reality of what Jesus believed and taught. He believed in hell and he taught the reality of it, and, he taught us all — be prepared! Don’t play with the wasp of death. Do business with the Lord. Turn from your way of thinking and receive what he did for you for yourself. Then you can say with the apostle: “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory…But thanks be unto God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:55,57). Through faith in Jesus, death is stinger-less!

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God has one program consisting of three parts, to preach, pour, and present: Preach the gospel, pour the Spirit into believing vessels, and present the total salvation available through Jesus Christ to every person on the globe.

Preach the gospel, the good news. In this, the finished work of Jesus for every person is proclaimed so that sins are forgiven, sicknesses are healed, demons are cast out, and on certain occasions, the dead are raised – “freely you have received, freely give” (Matthew 10: 7, 8). There is water baptism which is the believers’ public identification with Christ showing their old life is buried and they are now raised into a new life with one purpose, to do the will of God. Baptism is administered immediately or soon after one’s commitment to Christ by another believer and follower of Christ. There is daily fellowship and “breaking bread” together which includes “communion” in which is the purpose of the broken body and the shed blood of the Lord remembered. In this there is a daily personal examination to overcome sin, divisions, and schisms so that we remain one united body in agreement in Christ. It also helps remind us that his broken body has healed our sicknesses and his shed blood has removed our sin.

Pour the Spirit into believing vessels. In this, the supernatural power of God fills and is allowed to rest on the physical body of the believer for strength, guidance, and comfort. Also, the Spirit provides supernatural “gifts” or “manifestations” in order to carry out the will of God in the face of a supernatural enemy.

Present Christ to every person on the globe. In this, there is discipleship training to train others to train others in a process of duplication. These three basic elements and practices are taught and transmitted to others for them to live in this way and teach and transmit to others the same way. This is how it all started, and as we continue in simply carrying out God’s program, God’s kingdom on earth will spread and people’s lives will be enriched, all to the glory of God and praise to the name of Jesus.

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As we all get older, and our steps get slower, it is not a time to quit believing for the best, but to put the pedal to the metal in our faith and press on in to the regions beyond. Isn’t it true, as a rule, that when we are sickest, we generally take more medicine and seek more remedy? This principle applies concerning our faith as well.

Rocks, probably the size of a grapefruit and larger, pummeled the Apostle Paul until he lay unconscious without any movement, apparently dead. With that the people drug him out of the city supposing that he was dead. (He would have been an ER case today for sure). However, as he lay on the ground outside the city, the disciples came to him and just stood around him. It did not say they prayed or anything; they just stood around him. As they stood there, Paul got up from lying on the ground and went back into the same city in which he had just been stoned and drug out as dead (Acts 14:19,20). He had a power working in him that went beyond the natural. He had the supernatural Spirit of God residing in him that gave his mortal body supernatural life. Paul told about this power when he wrote to the Romans, saying that if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken (give life to) your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwells in you (Romans 8:11). To arrive at this understanding, Paul had no doubt read Isaiah 40: 29-31 that says that God gives power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increases strength, and they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. He also had probably read Psalms 103:5 saying that God satisfies your mouth with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagles. Here’s the deal. When the steps get slow and the body hardly goes, that’s the time to increase the dose. Let your faith lay hold on the Word more and more. Think on it, speak it, declare it into your life and your body. You might not be drug out of the city as dead and left there to rot, but whatever you are facing, having the Word operating in your life more and more sure won’t hurt anything, and it can sure help a lot. We all need all the help we can get!

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