Separated From Evil

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evil, God, Jesus, love, Separate, Truth

This world is full of evil. Jesus said in praying to the Father in John 17:15, “I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of this world, but that thou shouldest keep them from evil.” How will the Father keep us from evil? Jesus tells us how in verse 17. “Sanctify them through thy Truth, Thy Word is Truth.” Jesus Christ is the living Word of God and the Word of God is the Truth that will sanctify or separate us from all the evil that’s in the world.

Evil is of the devil. It is right there in his name. Jesus called him a murderer, a liar, and the father of lies. Therefore, we can say that all evil is based on lies. Evil entered the world because Eve believed the lie the devil told her in the Garden of Eden. If you are doing anything evil whether morally, ethically, or physically it is because you have believed a lie. Somewhere at sometime you believed the lies the devil has told you. And know this, you will continue to be imprisoned by the evil that you are doing until you know the Truth. Jesus said, “And ye shall know the Truth and the Truth shall make you free.” John 8:32.

The devil will tell you lies about who you are, what you have and what you can do. He’ll tell you that you are not loved. That your mother doesn’t love you, your father doesn’t love you and most of all that God doesn’t love you. When you believe these lies not only will you practice evil, but evil in the form of sickness, disease, depression and other mental illnesses will come upon you. All of these are evils in world from the devil. Now here is the good news! John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but should have everlasting life.” That’s the Truth! Believe it and hold on to it because it is the Truth that set you free. It doesn’t matter what your background is, whether you’ve been abandon or abused. Knowing this Truth will set you free from the lies of the devil and all the evil that is in the world.

Take The Challenge – Longsuffering

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deborah chandler ministries, fruits of the Spirit, kindness, longsuffering, love, never give up, patience, take the challenge

Hi there,

So far we have covered three major fruits of the Spirit, Love, Joy and Peace.  Each of these fruits not only represents our hearts towards God but His heart towards us.  God loves us, joys over us and is at peace with us.  Being attached to the vine is being attached to His love, joy and peace.  He gives to us from Himself.  We in turn give to others what we receive from Him.  Therefore, the magnitude of our relationship with God is the magnitude of our relationship with other people or the more I receive His love, joy and peace , the more I’m able to give His love, joy and peace.

This week’s challenge is one that just might put a frown on your face because no one wants to suffer let alone suffer long.  But I encourage you to remember that fruits are produced in us by the Holy Spirit.  It’s not what we have to do it’s what we have to let flow through us.  So let’s look at longsuffering.

First, longsuffering doesn’t mean that you allow yourself to be a push over and let people walk all over you while you lay there and suffer.  No, that’s a person that’s insecure and lacking in confidence.  Neither does it mean that we suffer long with anything that the enemy does because we’ve been given victory over him through Christ.  The kind of longsuffering that the Holy Spirit produces in us comes out of love and love is power.   God was and is longsuffering with us because He loves us.   We in turn are longsuffering with other people because we know God’s love.    Whenever we’re ready to give up and cut people out of our lives it’s knowing the love of God that enables us to be longsuffering especially when people keep doing the same thing over and over again.  Paul in writing about love said, “love suffereth long and is kind…” (2 Cor. 13:4).  So we don’t suffer long with a bad attitude but with the heart of God which is love, joy and peace.

Maybe you’ve already come to the point where you’ve given up on someone and vowed never to deal with that person again.  Maybe it’s your son or daughter or husband or wife.  This week I challenge you to see how much God loves you.  How when you were a sinner Christ died for you and never gave up on you. How he suffers long with you because of His love for you and allow the Holy Spirit to flow through you that fruit of longsuffering.  The choice is yours.

Take The Challenge!

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challenge, criticize, deborah chandler ministries, fruits of the Spirit, love, walk in love

Every day we are faced with challenges.  Some of them we are ready to take and others we’re not so ready.  Ready or not challenge is coming and how we face them will reveal to us our level of growth or where we need to grow.  So challenge is good because it causes us to grow. And if you are serious about your development you won’t necessarily wait for the challenge to come to you, you will challenge yourself.

Paul said in Philippians 3:11-12 “If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.  Not as through I had already attained, either were already perfect; but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.”  Paul wasn’t going to sit back passively and wait for the challenge to come to him he said “but I follow after” or I will pursue.  What was Paul going to pursue? He was going to pursue the life that Jesus died for him to have.

Pursing the God life is pursuing the person of Jesus Christ.  His love, His joy, His peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance or the fruits of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22-23).  The fruits of the Spirit is the character and life of Christ produced in us by the Holy Spirit.  And as long as we live in this world we will be challenged in these areas because we were created with free will.  We can either allow the Holy Spirit to flow Christ’s life through us or we can hold back and continue to live our own natural life.  The choice is ours.

Deuteronomy 29:29 says, “The secret things belong unto the Lord our God; but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.” In other words, whatever God reveals to us we have the responsibility to do something about it.  So if you know God has been talking to you about walking in love, than it’s your responsibility to pursue Christ’s life for that area of your life.

One of the areas I’ve been challenged with is not being critical.  To be critical is to find fault with or point out the faults of others.   To find fault with something or someone means that there is a standard that you are measuring that person or thing by.  Trust me this is not an easy thing to overcome, it definitely takes the Holy Spirit because most of the time we confuse being critical with giving good advice.  Especially when no one has asked us for our so-called “good advice.”  Being critical also means that you think you’re better than the person you’re criticizing.  I told you it wasn’t easy (Ouch!). For example, let’s say you fancy yourself a good cook and you’re husband takes you out to eat at one of the finest restaurant in town but instead of enjoying the evening out and the meal you began to criticize the food.  You might say something like “the steak is good but they could have added more seasoning.”  Or you see a woman walking on the street and you say “her outfit is nice but I wouldn’t have worn those shoes.” It all seems innocent enough but powerfully poisonous to our peace and joy.   Being critical is a challenge to walk in love.

Jesus left us this commandment, “This is my commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you” (John 15:12).  Jesus loved us so much that he died for us.  Even on the cross instead of criticizing and judging He said, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do” (Lk. 23:34).  The love of God sees no faults and knows nothing against.  The love of God sees the old self as being dead.  Therefore, if I know that I’m dead than the only standard that I can use against another is Christ because I’m dead to self and alive to Christ.  His life, His love sees no faults or knows nothing against.  So now if I see a woman on the street it’s no longer “I wouldn’t wear those shoes with that dress” it’s “what a lovely dress and shoes” because Christ sees no faults.  But this only happens as I continuously pursue His life and allow the Holy Spirit to flow through me.  Am I tempted to criticize? Yes.  But remember the choice is ours whether to yield or not.  I can chose to yield to the temptation or yield to the Holy Spirit.

I want us to challenge ourselves to challenge ourselves to grow.  For nine weeks we will look at the fruits of the Spirit found in Galatians 5:22-23 and challenge ourselves in each of these areas.  I know it won’t be easy but the Holy Spirit is in us to help us.   Our first fruit challenge, you guessed it, is Love.   Maybe the Lord has revealed something to you related to walking in love or you just want to develop in your love walk.  This week I challenge you to pursue the love of Christ.  Whether it’s in showing love to others or in your relationship with God.   Maybe it’s doing a study or reading a book on the love of Christ.  Whatever it takes for you to grow in love, I challenge you to do it.

For these challenges  I’ve created a new category called ‘Take The Challenge’ this way you’ll have easy access to each challenge. And don’t forget  I want to hear from you.  Let me know how God has challenged you or how you’ve challenged yourself in your love walk.   Okay, that’s it.  Get set, ready, grow in Love!

Always Sweet

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Forgiveness, grace, Let go of the pass, love, move forward, Sweet, Sweetness

Matthew 9:17

“Neither do men put, new wine into old bottles else the bottles break, and the wine runneth out, and the bottles perish; but they put new wine into new bottles, and both are preserved.

God never wants us to have mixture of old and new or law and grace in our lives.  That’s why He did away with the old to give us His new covenant of grace.  When we revert back to the old covenant in any measure we are mixing the old with the new which cause the new to lose its sweetness.

To preserve the sweetness of the juice people would strain or boil the juice, bottle it and place it in a cool area.  Fresh wineskins were required because they would be free from all residual fermenting matter such as mature yeast cells.  If placed in old wineskins, new wine would more easily begin to ferment because of the yeast cells which remained in the old wineskins thus causing the loss of the new wine and the wineskins.  Therefore, the old was done away with so that the new alone would remain.  The new covenant of grace retains its sweetness when it is grace and grace alone, no mixture.

In order to receive all the new from the grace of God, you must first receive His grace for the old.  You must first receive grace for your old life in order to receive a new life in Christ.  This means receiving grace for all you pass mistakes, failures and hurts. Yes, hurts.  Hurts can hide deep inside you and can fester for years when you don’t receive God’s grace of forgiveness.  God forgives us and He gives us His grace to forgive one another and ourselves.  As a believer if you are not receiving God’s grace to forgive you’re mixing the old with the new and the new has lost its sweetness to you. How? When you allow unforgiveness to live in you, you lose your peace and joy.  You no longer taste the sweetness of grace because of the old.  Maybe you’re gone through divorce and you’ve never let go of the hurt.  God’s grace is there to heal you of all the pass mistakes, failures and hurts.  Or maybe you’ve been offended by people who said they were your friends and you’re finding it hard to make new friends.  Luke 5:39 says “No man also having drunk old wine straightway desireth new; for he saith, the old is better.” God himself forgives us our sins and remembers them no more so that all that remain is our new life in Christ and He gives us the grace to do the same because He wants that new relationship to always be sweet.  It will be when there is no remembrance of the old.  Love knows nothing against. Love lets go of the old to retain the sweetness of grace.

Introduced To Love

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God's Love, happiness, health, Introduced to love, Jesus Love, life, love

Romans 5:8

“But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

The word commendeth means to place together or introduce on person to another.  When we were at our absolute worst God introduced us to His love.

The love of God is power.  Its power to change your condition whatever it may be.  Love is the power to change ashes to beauty, pain to joy, loneliness to comfort, sickness to health, poverty to riches and confusion to peace. Whatever your condition Love is the remedy.

Notice what God did when we were at our worst He introduced us to His love and what was once unrighteous was made righteous by love. Even in the beginning when God wanted to see change He used Love.  The world was created by Love.

Do you know that you can do the same thing?  You can change any adverse situation in your life by using love.  Not your love but God’s love and God’s love is Jesus Christ.  When you introduce your problems to Jesus they have to flee.

Now you might be saying “I’ve got some people I’d like to change.”  Well, the love remedy works on all kinds of people.  If you are a believer you can testify to that.  One day you were  ”…fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others” (Ephesians 2:3). Then one day you were introduced to love and were made alive together with Christ.  Your condition changed you moved from death to life, from darkness to light.  No matter how bad they may seem just introduce them to love, introduce them to Jesus because He is the power of God to salvation.  “…Freely you have received, freely give” (Matt. 10:8).

Jesus Christ is the remedy.  It’s His beauty for your ashes, His joy for your pain, His comfort for your loneliness, His body for your sickness, His riches for your poverty, His peace for your confusion, His life for your life.  Use Him and watch your condition change.

God’s Grace Abounds Towards You!

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abounding grace, abounds, deliverance, favor, God, grace, help, Jesus, love, provision

2 Corinthians 9:8

“And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work.”

Nothing can stop God’s grace towards you, nothing.  God is able to cause His grace to continuously increase in your life so that no matter what crops up in your life His grace is there to provide.  In other words you will never be without His grace.

Here is what this really means to us.  It means that unemployment can’t stop His grace of provision; sickness can’t stop His grace of healing; depression can’t stop His grace of joy and tribulation and persecution can’t stop His grace of deliverance.  Nothing can stop His grace from flowing in your life.  Romans 8:35 says, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?”  Paul goes on to say in verse 37 “Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that love us.”  God commended His love toward us when He gave us His Son and God doesn’t give and take back. Even amidst all these things God’s grace abounds towards us.

Therefore, stop thinking that God doesn’t see, hear and know your situation.  He does and He is providing for you.  Throughout Israel’s journey in the wilderness God’s grace was abounding towards them.  Their clothes didn’t get old, their shoes didn’t wear out, and they had food to eat and water to drink right in the midst of the desert because God’s grace was abounding towards them. But they were too busy complaining instead of looking for God’s grace.

Take the time today to see how God’s grace is abounding toward you in your situation. If you are unemployed and believing for a job, don’t look at what you don’t have, look for God’s grace instead.  See how God’s grace is providing for you in the midst of your situation.  When you do you will see that you always having all sufficiency in all things are able to abound in every good work.

By Faith You Can Forgive!

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faith, Forgive, Forgiveness, Hinder, Jesus forgave, love, Torment

Luke 17:6

“And the Lord said.  If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you.”

After Jesus gave the parable of the rich man and Larzaus, He said to his disciples, “It is impossible but that offences will come; but woe unto him, through whom thy come!” (Luke 17:1).

Throughout our lives here on planted earth there will be someone that will offend us or that we may offend but through faith we are able to forgive.

When we hold unforgiveness in our hearts it can affect our physical bodies and cause all kinds of ailments.  I know of three sisters that had been fighting amongst themselves for a period of time and because of there bitterness and anger towards one another each sister suffered terrible illness, two of them had cancer.  This was not God’s plan for them, they are all believers.  You can come to a point when you are offended  where you don’t even remember what it was that offended you all you remember is the bitterness and hurt that you’ve been carrying in your heart.  The enemy loves it when we don’t forgive one another because it’s an open door for him to hinder us in our lives.

However, the Bible teaches us that  we are to forgive one another even as Christ has forgiven us (Col 3:13).  I know you might be saying “but you don’t know what they’ve done to me.”  Listen, if you are a believer you have Jesus’ divine faith in you to forgive those who have offended you.  You can forgive them by faith.  Jesus said “if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed ye might say unto this sycamine tree, be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you.”

By faith by the faith of Jesus Christ in you, you can say I forgive those who have offended me and have every trace of bitterness be plucked up by the root out of you and be planted in the sea where it can no longer torment and hinder you life.

God’s Hands Are Open To You!

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gave, gift, God, hands, Jesus, love, Loved, Open, Opened, Receive

Luke 12:32
“Fear not little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”
God wanted so much for you and I to be blessed that He gave us His only begotten Son Jesus Christ.  And the magnitude of His death is the magnitude of how much God wanted to receive.

God’s hands are open towards us, they are always open towards us. The gift that God gave continues to give and give and keeps on giving all you need to do is receive.

The devil wants you to believe that God’s hands are closed, that God is withholding what you need.  He wants you to believe that God has it but He’s just not giving it to you.  And that God is blessing some very special people but when it comes to you, well God is still thinking whether or not to bless you.  Listen, the devil is a LIAR always has been and always will be.  First of all if God’s hands were closed what He has already given is more than we will ever need.  He gave us Jesus Christ His only begotten Son.  Romans 8:32 says, “He that spared not His own Son but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” See how much God wants you to have all?  See how open His hand is toward you? Another lie the devil tells is that God’s got what you need and He will give it to you in His own sweet time in other words you may have to wait for years and years and years to get it even though you need it right now.  The devil always wants you to see God as a cruel Father not the loving, caring, concerned Father that He is.  Before the foundations of the world God gave us Jesus (1 Pet 1:18-20).

My child God loves you and He never wants you to beg or plead with Him for what you want  or need.  It’s His good pleasure to give you the kingdom.  He opened His hands to show you His heart receive it all today in Jesus name.

Power To Live!

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death, dying, gave, giving, life, love, mediate, power, revelation

2 Corinthians 4:10

“Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.”

When we receive Christ we receive His death for our life and we receive His Spirit into our reborn spirits.  And His life is there in us in for us to use to live.  We don’t just receive His life for our salvation and then put Him on the shelf in our hearts, behind glass doors and keep Him clean and dusted off as we would a trophy.  No, His life is for us to live!  The life of Christ is power!   1 Corinthians 1:24 says “…Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God.”  Power is the ability to act, it’s God’s supernatural, miracle working ability. It’s the same power that God used when He raised Jesus from the dead (Eph.1:19-20).   His life is power to live!

Likewise the same way His life is power to live, His death is power to destroy.  In His death He destroyed principalities and powers and made a show of them openly triumphing over them in it (Col. 2:14-15).  In His death He destroyed the body of sin that we should no longer be servants to sin (Rom. 6:6).  In His death He redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us (Gal. 3:13).  And in His death He took all of our sicknesses and diseases and by His stripes we were healed (1 Pet. 2:24).  We received His death before we received His life.

Therefore, it is the revelation of the cross in us, what was accomplished for us through the dying of our Lord Jesus that releases the life of our Lord Jesus in us.  Galatians 2:20, “I am crucified with Christ nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”  Now, that my friends is Power!

Think Of The Father’s Love

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compassion, God, help, Jesus, love, mediate, strength, think

John 3:16

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

Whenever I am faced with a situation or circumstance in life that could cause me to feel down I think of the Father’s love for me.  And as I mediate on His love for me, it releases in me His strength.

In the natural when you know that someone loves you, you know that that person has your back.  You know that you can call on them anytime and they will do whatever they can do to help you because they love you. Well, how much more our heavenly Father?  Isaiah 49:15-16 says, “Can a women forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee. Behold I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me.”

However, the enemy doesn’t want you to think on God’s love for you, he wants you to think that you are all alone and nobody cares and God loves everybody but you.  He knows that if he can get you to think like that he can get you to feel like that.  His plan is to drain you of your strength and make you feel weak and hopeless.  Your thinking affects how you feel.  Change your thinking and change how you feel.

Instead mediate on the love God has for you.  Think of how God loved you so much  He gave you His Son as surety that every term of the new covenant will be fulfilled in your life (Heb 7:22).  Think of how it please the Father to bruise His Son to save you (Isa 53:10).  Hear his voice saying I love you so much that I given you my only begotten Son.