What Is The Mortar That Holds All Things Together In Our Lives?

When you build something with bricks it is strong.  Even the big bad wolf couldn't huff and puff and knock that house down.   But what if you try to build a brick house and leave out the mortar?    That house would crumble very easy.    We are a house being built, a body so to speak.   Living cells each one ajoined to another called the Body of Christ.    Ephesians the 4 chapter tells us what God uses for mortar to join us one to another so that the body of Christ is complete and strong.    Because of lack of this mortar the Body of Christ is weak today, and without this mortar we labor in VAIN.

Ephesians 4: 15-16   Rather, yspeaking the truth in love, we are to zgrow up in every way into him who is athe head, into Christ, 16 bfrom whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, cwhen each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

Love is how God builds up the body.  Love is the mortar that holds our churches together, our lives together our societies together.  Love is the mortar.   When there is a lack of love lives fall apart, churches fall apart, socities fall apart.  God IS LOVE!   And He who does not love is NOT from God, neither has he known God!  

When there is a lack of love there is always a bucket load of selfishness and rebellion.   We learn in preschool to share, to care, to help, to give, to play fair but how often do we lack these things in life.  How often do we lack these things in our homes, our churches, our societies.   God teaches us to love one another, but religion and man-made philosophies put ME at the center instead of God.  

The Bible says that in the last days that mankinds love would grown cold, and that their hearts would fail for fear.  You see even here, love is the key, because perfect love cast our fear!

Whatever you are lacking today, missing, or confused about love is the answer.  When we walk in love we walk in the Spirit of Christ, for love does NO HARM to it's neighbor!

Today ask God to renew your first love.   Ask Him to renew your first love for Him and bring your focus back on the love of the Father.  Receive the Fathers grace and mercy and than extend that same grace and mercy to your fellow man.   For he who loves much has also been forgiven of much.

The Key is to Follow God

What happens when the river of God is not flowing inside of you?   Just like a stagnent pool of water we get clogged up with things that contaminate the water.   We have been studying the things that need to be cleaned out of our hearts and lives so that the spirit of God can flow inside of us.  What does this river of life inside of us bring to our lives?  Peace, joy, gentleness, kindness, patience, long suffering, goodness...all the good things of God.  Even if  you know Christ Jesus as your Savior if the flow of the Spirit of God is locked up inside of you it will block the good things of God from reaching your life.  These things are all delivered to us by the HOLY SPIRIT that dwells inside of us, but the enemy wants to block that flow.   We have studied these six things thaat will block that flow.

1. Guilt and shame.   We must learn to forgive ourselves
2.  Condemnation.  We must let go of our past mistakes and realize that God loves us and has forgiven us too.
3.  A Lack of Love.  Hurts and painful experiences can make us withhold our selves from reaching out to                 others in love.   Love can hurt, but if we do not love, than God cannot flow through our lives.
4.  Illusions and lies.  The worse kind of lie is the lies that we  tell ourselves
5.  Aggravations and frustrations that steal our joy and peace.
6.  Overcome our Fears

Today we are going to conclude this study with the seventh thing that I have found that will block the flow of God and that is a heart that goes after worldly things.  

Matthew 6:25 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.

That sounds like Jesus is talking in riddles, but he is not talking in riddles but giving us the key to life.  He is laying the principle foundation here that if you lose your life to the cause of God, you will find life has found you.   But if you hang onto your life, you will find that true life has passed you by.   It is really simple to understand.   Some people go through this life without really living.  

You must let go of your life, your worldly attachments, your people, your plans, your likes and dislikes, your ways.   We must lay those things down for spiritual enlightenment, God's people, God's plans, God's likes and dislikes, and God's ways and then you will find life.

I have walked with God long enough to experience this Scriputre in my life.

I let go of career, the pursut if money, the pursuit of happiness, the pursuit of wordly possessions to do the will of God when I was young.   I pursued him with all my heart, all my soul, and all my strength.

It was difficult when all my friends were out partying and 'enjoying' life and making plans to be richer and following the desires of their heart.  It was difficult to lay down my life to pray, fast and do only the things that God wanted me to do.   But I did those things anyway.  I remember when I was 28 years old I was on an extended fast.   During this fast the enemy came to me and said, "You are young, why not go out and enjoy your youth?  Why do you want to deny yourself and suffer like this when you could be enjoying your life right now?"   It took me back a bit when the enemy said this to me.  But, a few moments later I responded, "I am living the life I want to live, I am laying down my youth and my strength to do the will of God."

     Now that I am older,  many of my friends have had their lives fall apart over and over again, but God has added back to me everything  that I laid down.   Career, possessions, wealth, peace of mind, and my children have all matured and served the Lord.   I didn't pursue happiness, I laid down my life for the purposes of God and it was hard to do.   But now happiness pursues me, wealth pursues me, peace pursues me.  Everywhere I turn and in everything I do I am blessed and prosper.    Plenty of storms have hit my life, but God has brought me through each one more prosperous.  Instead of my life falling apart, each storm has made me stronger!

What do you do if you are older now and you have never really laid down your life like that, and everything is a mess?   It is ironic but this is true.  The more mess your life is in the harder it is to lay  it down and have faith that God will build it back up again!  Why?  Because if you quit living for your life now and live for the will of God most of what you have now will fall apart comepletely.
And that is difficult to live down.   And it will feel like you are losing your life that you have  built.     You have to trust what Jesus said, "If you LOSE your life, you will find it again.  But if you hang on to your life you will LOSE it."    The only way your are ever going to find peace, and prosperity and the good life is to lay your life down, but to lay it down you will lose everything.  It is difficult to understand, but the way out is down,   full surrender to God is likely to stip you of all you have now, but with God you will receive back far more in the end than what you have lost.

The Steps To Overcoming Your Fears

For several day we have been talking about the things that can block the flow of God in our lives.    This is so important because healing comes from this flow.   Prosperity comes from this flow.   Blessings come from this flow.  Joy, peace, life, patience...all that we need from God comes from the flow of God that resides in us through the Holy Spirit.   Jesus said rivers of living water would flow from the person that believes upon him, but we have to make sure that nothing can block that flow.  I have identified seven things that will try to stop up the flow of God in your life and hinder his promises.    We have studied 5 of them.  They were...

1. Guilt and shame.   We must learn to forgive ourselves
2.  Condemnation.  We must let go of our past mistakes and realize that God loves us and has forgiven us too.
3.  A Lack of Love.  Hurts and painful experiences can make us withhold our selves from reaching out to                 others in love.   Love can hurt, but if we do not love, than God cannot flow through our lives.
4.  Illusions and lies.  The worse kind of lie is the lies that we  tell ourselves
5.  Aggravations and frustrations that steal our joy and peace.

Who you handle these five things will determine your attitude in life.   A bad attitude will keep you in darkness even if you know Jesus as you Savior.   When we come to Christ and we trust Him and obey His Word it will being light into our lives.  Joy, peace, security, trust.    But, when we allow things that shouldn't be in our lives to drive our lives we are blocking the flow of God from manefesting in us.  This keep us in bondage and in darkness as well.  

The last two things are the most important things.   They are overcoming our fears, and letting go of this world.   Today we are going to talk about overcoming our fears.

Look at the first five things we talked about primarily our fears come from these things.  We feel fear because of our past and it brings condmnation and guilt.    We fear we are not loved, or appreciated and we hide behind walls of suspicion.   We lie to ourselves and create illusions where we do not see our need to repent and then our bad actions come back to haunt us and we think we are receiving bad things that we don't deserve.    It makes us feel like a victim in which we have no control, as if we do good, but only bad comes to us in return.    This makes fear rage out of control in our lives.   We become aggrivated and frustrated that things and people are not what we want them to be, and we fear we will never find what we are looking for in life.    FEAR hides behind all of these things.  Other sources of fear come when we don't have enough to live on, and we aren't sure what we are going to do.   Or fear that the worse will happen instead of the best.  

Fear precedes tragedy, follows tragedy and is found in the middle of tragedy.  So fear is past, present and future and in some people it controls everything they think and do. 

Here are some steps to overcoming fear

1.  You must face your fears.  Hiding from them only makes them grow larger.

2.  Never act of fear, always act on faith.   Someone may say, "What about fear of God?"   Better to act on your faith in God than on  your fear of Him!     The fear of God is just the beginning of widsom, so we need to grow up in our relationship with God and act on faith in him which is much better than acting on fear of him.   Here is an example of that:   God is always offering reward for obedience and punishment for disobedience.   It would be the same as you saying, "Clean your room and we will go to McDonald's, but if you don't clean it, you are getting grounded."  Acting on faith is when you clean the room because you are confident of the reward.   Acting on fear would be cleaning the room because  you don't want grounded.   Don't allow punishment to rule your life always being afraid that God will strike you.  Keep  your eyes on his rewards and act in faith and your relationship with God will be a much more postive and rewarding experience.  

3.  Don't base you decisions on fear.   People are afraid to give, afraid to love.  afraid to move. afraid to climb. afraid to trust God and take him at his Word.   Come on now, God has not given us a spirit of fear but of Love, peace and a sound mind!  

4.  Keep your heart and mind on the good things, and don't think about the bad.   Whatsoever things are good, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever ever things are of a good report...Think on these things!

5.  Let faith arise in your heart.   TRUST in God and having enough faith to OBEY HIS WORD are the things that will allow you to overcome fears.l

And remember that fear can also be a spirit.    And spirits of fear must be broken off your life.  

Let's pray.   IN the name of Jesus I bind and break that spirit of fear off of your life.  Lift off of them now in Jesus name.   Every anxiety, stress and fearful spirit will leave you NOW in Jesus name.  I pray the peace and faith of God to rise up in your heart and life right now, today, in Jesus name.  amen.  

The w

Having the Mind and Attitude of Christ Jesus

Is there anything more important than the flow of the Holy Spirit in your life?   There shouldn't be anything more important than this.   We have been studying the seven things that I have found that will block the flow of the Holy Spirit in your life.  When the Holy Spirit moves like a river through your life it brings life, health and peace, all the abundance of God.    When that flow is blocked you will feel alienated from God, dry, empty as if God is a million miles away.  

So far we have studied five things that will stop the flow of God inside us

1. Guilt and shame.   We must learn to forgive ourselves
2.  Condemnation.  We must let go of our past mistakes and realize that God loves us and has forgiven us too.
3.  A Lack of Love.  Hurts and painful experiences can make us withhold our selves from reaching out to                 others in love.   Love can hurt, but if we do not love, than God cannot flow through our lives.
4.  Illusions and lies.  The worse kind of lie is the lies that we  tell ourselves
5.  Aggravations and frustrations that steal our joy and peace. 

Today we are going to look at the attitude or our minds.   Whatever attitude we have impacts our whole life and the wrong kind of attitude will block the flow of God in our lives.

What are some of the wrong attitudes that are prevalent in society today?
an unthankful attitude, a bitter attitude, resentful, unforgiving, full of revenge,  offended attitude, take offence easily, looking for reasons to find fault, selfish attitudes

What attitude should we have?   We should have the same mind as Christ Jesus, though he was entitled to everything, he laid down everything to love others and save them from destruction.

Philippians 2:5 Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:

6 Who, being in the form of God, thought it not a thing to be grasped to be equal with God:

7 But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:

8 And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

9 Therefore God also has highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name:

10 That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;


11 And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

The number one attitude in people today is a prideful attitude.   Look at the attitude Jesus had, it was an attitude of humility.  If the KING of KINGS and LORD of LORDS had to humble himself why should we  think that we do not have to do the same? 

Our stresses, anxieties, fears, depressions, fights and quarrels often is rooted in pride.   We must choose to trust, forgive, love and give.   Whatever we have done in the past, or others have done to us that keep us from doing these things will block the flow of God in our lives.   I must choose to trust God, I cannot take on a self sufficient attitude.    Why would I think that my plans, my worries, my fears and my efforts could make things work well in my life?   Yet, so many people want to 'handle' and 'manage' their own lives instead of turning them over to God.  

A wrong attitude will stop the flow of God in  your life every time.  But how do we get a right attitude.   There is only one way to have a correct attitude and that is to trust God and let go of your worries and fears.   Forgive yourself and others and let go of the past and all of it's mistakes.  Love deeply from the heart and give freely to your fellow mankind.      If you look at what I am taking about ATTITUDE, what makes up our attitude?   Your attitude is made up of how you handled the first 5 things we talked about.   You attitude is made up of how you handle guilt, shame and condemnation.  How you handle Love and forgiveness and how heartily you give to your fellow man.  Your attitude is determined by how well you handle challenging things in  your life that tend to aggravate and frustrate.    If we overcome these things we will have a correct attitude and then the flow of God will flow through our lives more freely. 

A bad attitude is like a dam.  It blocks the flow of God in your life.   Surrender your life to God and allow him to work on your attitude so that the flow of God can move through your life. 

How To Overcome Frustrations and Aggravations in Your Life!

We have been talking about the things that will block the flow of the Holy Spirit to your life.  Jesus said that if we believed in Him that out of our inner most being would flow rivers of living water.   But this flow can get blocked off and when it does we feel like God is a million miles away.  I have identified at least seven things in my life that can hinder that flow.   So far we have talked about four of those things:

1. Guilt and shame.   We must learn to forgive ourselves
2.  Condemnation.  We must let go of our past mistakes and realize that God loves us and has forgiven us too.
3.  A Lack of Love.  Hurts and painful experiences can make us withhold our selves from reaching out to others in love.   Love can hurt, but if we do not love, than God cannot flow through our lives.
4.  Illusions and lies.   The deception that we tell ourselves will keep us in darkness and only the truth will set us free.   We must be truthful to ourselves about ourselves.  How can we be honest with others if we are not honest with ourselves?

Today we are going to be looking at another thing that can block the flow of the Spirit in your life.   Frustrations and Aggravation!     We must have the determination and faith to rise above them.   I capitalized those two words for a reason!   Most of the time these two things come at us from our contact with someone else.   How many times have you got frustrated or aggravated with the people and everyone around you and just plain give up.   Oh this happen a lot, and the moment we give up is the ONLY way the devil wins in our lives.    We lose by forfeit because we were too aggravated and frustrated to keep RUNNING THE RACE!

It reminds me of the little widow in the Bible that kept going to the wicked judge for justice.   He refused to give her any justice at all.  Did she give up?   Did she quit going back?   Did she go into a rant and lay down and quit.  Absolutely not!   She kept running the race for justice!   She kept going back to the wicked judge each day asking for justice.   And what happened?  In the end even though the judge did not fear God or care about mankind, he gave her justice.   The judge said I will give her what she wants least she wear me out through her continual coming.  She flat out wore the judge out asking for justice until he gave it to her.

This is how life is most of the time.   Aggravations and frustrations will ALWAYS block the flow of the Spirit of God in your life and STOP UP the blessings of God.   So what do you have to do?   You have to learn to let go of your own understanding and trust that where there is something that isn't right that God is going to make it right IF YOU DON'T GIVE UP AND LOSE FAITH.   Often our wrongs are never righted because we give up, we get a bad attitude, we rant and rave instead of speaking words of faith and hope!  And sometimes it isn't other people that frustrate us but our own circumstances.   If you lack provision, don't let the frustration of that rule your heart and life.    If you lack health don't let the aggravation of that give you a defeated attitude.  If you lack good relationships in your life don't allow that to dominate your thinking!    You cannot allow anything to replace faith and hope inside of you.  Hang on to faith and hope with all you got, because even if you should lose everything else you have everything you need to rebuild when you have faith and hope and Love (which is God)    On the other hand, if you lose faith and hope, this will block the flow of the Spirit in your life and cut off your access to God.  When that happens, it doesn't matter what you have, it will not satisfy or prosper in anyway.

Words of faith and hope in GOD will change any circumstance you are facing.  If you want the Holy Spirit to flow in your life you just LET GO of aggravation and frustrations and press forward toward the mark, run the race, keep a good attitude, and trust that God is making a WAY!

Peace, Security and Contentment Found In One Small Verse

Frustrations come.  But just because you feel that way doesn't mean you have to stay that way!  

We have been talking about the things that can stop the flow of the Holy Spirit in our lives.   Today I feel lead to share something else with you.  And later we will return to our teaching on the flow of the Holy Spirit in our lives.  I feel lead to share with you today out of Psalms 23.

Psalm 23:1 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

People are lost today.  They are at a loss with their relationships.  At a loss with their finances.  At a loss with their direction in life.   Just simply lost.    God compares us to sheep in the Bible.  We need  a Shepherd or we tend to get very lost.    The thing about sheep and their shepherds is that the sheep must learn to follow the voice of the shepherd so that they don't wander off and got lost.   Even is we accept Jesus as our Savior, we can get 'lost' in this life and confused, going the wrong direction because we did not obey the voice of God our Shepherd.    You have a Shepherd, listen to His voice.  Someone said to me, "I can never hear the voice of God."  I put a Bible in their hand and said, "Read this, it is the voice of God."

The psalmist went on to say, "I shall not want."   Well, there you have it.  The secret to life, happiness, love and living all in a nut shell...I shall not want.    People who are full of wants, always wanting this, that and the other thing are the most miserable people on the planet.  The key to life, and happiness is to learn to be content with what you have in this life.   Always wanting, and wanting and wanting more is called coveting.   Most of our wants stem up out of what we see other people have in their lives.   The Bible warns us not to covet.  It is one of the ten commandments which means it is important that we listen.  

FRUSTRATIONS often come up out of our wants in life.  We were helping a guy who had gotten out of jail one time, we gave him a job, and we were riding down the road together.   Everywhere he looked and everything he saw he wanted.  If we passed a boat, he would start in, I wish I had a boat like that, and then he would explain for a few minutes what he would do if he had a boat like that one.   Then we would see a nice car, and OH he wanted a car like that, and then he would expound on what he would do with a car like that one.  Then he would see a house, and of course he always wanted a house like that.   The next  thing I know he is frustrated and upset.   "What's wrong?" I asked.   "Oh, everything!" He replied.   He had talked about the things he wanted and didn't have until he talked himself into frustration and misery.  He had a wife who had patiently waited for him to get out of jail.  He had a house.  He had a car.  He had 3 beautiful children.  None of that satisfied him, he craved MORE, he was miserable.  He was full of covetousness, and he could not be satisfied.  He had more than most to be thankful more, yet, here he was full of wants.

Here in the first verse of Psalms 23, the LORD is my SHEPHERD,  (remember you must follow the voice of the shepherd and be obedient to HIS words)  I shall NOT want!   (remember you must learn to be content with what you have and not always be wanting all the time what you don't have)  If we can put this one verse into practice we have found peace and contentment and security all in ONE small verse.  Apply this verse to your heart and life today.

In closing, think about this for one moment.  That little sheep out there in the field, what makes it wander off and get lost in the first place?  It is all the things that little sheep thinks it wants that it don't have right there in front of it.   IT goes off looking for a bigger clump of grass, a greener neck of the woods.   A place of greater abundance than the field of the shepherd.   Don't let you WANTS lead you, let the SHEPHERD lead you today!

No More Illusions!

Today we are going to talk about how lies will block the flow of the Holy Spirit in our lives.  It hurts when someone tells a lie about us, or to us, lies are destructive because they block the flow of truth, and truth is what sets us free.  Lies are keep us in darkness and bondage.  This is why it is so important that we do not lie to ourselves.  The worse kind of lies are the illusions we tell ourselves.   Illusions are the things in life that hinder us from fulfilling our dreams.

When we envision ourselves failing and always failing we have sealed our own fate!

When we do what is illegal and we think we won't get caught we set ourselves up for a fall.

When we violate God's Word and then we don't understand why our prayers are not answered we have robbed ourselves of the greatest blessings.

When we cheat on the people around us and then tell ourselves it is OK as long as we don't get caught we are going to see our it come crashing down around us eventually.

When we do what God says is wrong and tell ourselves it is OK, we are living a life of illusion and eventually reality comes crashing in and our world falls apart.

We keep ourselves in bondage when we begin living a lie.   It is the truth that will set us free.

John 8:31-32 So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, "If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine;  32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free."

Please hear me today.   We know the hurt and the damage that happens to us when other people lie to us, imagine the hurt and damage that we do to ourselves when we fall for an illusion and lie to ourselves!

1 John 2:21 I have not written unto you because you know not the truth, but because you know it, and that no lie is of the truth.

When we are living a life of illusion we block up the flow of the Holy Spirit in our life.  And often people who are around us can see the lie that we are living.   We must have truth in our inward parts, and live the truth through our lives, so that we can prevail.  The deception and lies that other people tell us are not as damaging to us as the lies we tell ourselves.

Carrying the Cross of Jesus

We have been talking about things that can block the flow of the Holy Spirit in our lives.   For Jesus said that whoever would believe in Him that out of His inner most being would flow rivers of living water.    That flow can be blocked and when that happens it feels like  our connection to God is broken.    So far we have studied two out of seven things that can block the flow.  First is condemnation.   We have to let go of our mistakes and short comings and accept ourselves, and value ourselves JUST LIKE WE ARE.    The second thing we studied is guilt.   We must move past carrying blame and shame and accept the grace and forgiveness of God.  If you spend a life time blaming yourself, non of that will change one thing.  Let go of the blame and shame and walk in the newness of the grace of God.  Today we are going to look at love.    A lack of giving love to others will block the flow of the Holy Spirit in your life.

1 John 4:16 And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love; and he that dwells in love dwells in God, and God in him.

God is love.  If we stop up the flow of love to our fellow man we have just dammed up our whole inner being so that God can no longer flow.  What are some of the things that cause us to withhold our love?   HURTS.  Hurts are the main reason that people stop the flow of love out to their fellow man.    The world understands this, songs talking about "love hurts" and "breaking hearts" and the disappointment and pain of relationships.   When we open up our hearts to others, it leaves us vulnerable, and there are many people that will not accept this.  They close their hearts, close their compassion, and refuse to let charity flow to their fellow man.   They become afraid to love.

1 John 4:18 
There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.


It was love that compelled Jesus to the cross.   And we are commanded to take up our cross and follow him.  Don't you think that Jesus was exposed and vulnerable while on the cross?  Yes.  He was all that and more.   It was a painful, terrible experience for sure.    What does it mean take up your cross and follow Him?   Does it mean to be killed or crucified as He.   It could come to that for some people, but for most of us it simply means to obey His Word, to love others as Christ loved us.

1 Peter 1:22 Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently:


Opening your heart to love others, forgiving others, helping others, even though you know they are going to stab you in the back in the end is the same as carrying the cross of Jesus.  Yes, love hurts.  Love makes us vulnerable.   Giving love and compassion to others requires us to lay down a portion of our lives for the sake of others, but this is our cross.

Luke 14:27 And whosoever does not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple.

As long as you are closed up, bitter, critical of mankind and unwilling to serve and help others you are blocking the flow of God from your life.

Open up the flow by forgiving, caring, reaching and giving.   amen.