The FLOT Line Show

Our Lord depended upon the Holy Spirit to guide and strengthen Him, give Him insight, and empower Him while he lived here on earth. This is the same thing we need to do! Our Lord used the 10 problem-solving devices when He operated in the devil’s world and these same resources are available to you to use. “Let this mind be in you that was also in Christ Jesus” (Phil 2:5). A Christian who gets into perpetual carnality and doesn’t use rebound gets into revisionism. If you don’t use rebound to recover from sin you will begin to slide into revisionism. Those in revisionism can’t be distinguished from the unbeliever. You can’t think clearly in reversionism, and it leads to operation boomerang and the frantic search for happiness. You can recover from revisionism. Go to God the Father in prayer and admit your sin. Then get into God’s Word and grow. This will remove the scar tissue that has built up in your soul. “Happiness belongs to those who hear My Father’s Word and keep it” (Luke 11:28).

Spirituality is being filled with the Holy Spirit. At any moment, you are controlled by the Holy Spirit or by your sin nature. Your volition decides. Our foundation is Jesus Christ. “For another foundation can no man lay than that which is laid which is Christ Jesus” (1 Cor 3:11-16). Substitute spirituality is you trying to impress God with how good you are, by how you act, or by what you do. This is human good, “wood, hay and straw” which will be burned at the Judgment Seat of Christ. Substitute spirituality is emotionalism. The Christian life is lived in your thoughts, not your emotions. “Let this mind be in you that was also in Christ Jesus” (Phil 2:5).

One of the predominant lust patterns of the sin nature is power lust. Power politics is using human solutions to try and make society better. Human solutions are no solutions. Pivot politics adheres to the principles of freedom and advocates the function of the laws of divine establishment. You can be part of the solution to what our nation needs by being a part of the pivot—the group of mature believers who God recognizes as His people. “If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves and pray and search for Me, and turn from their evil ways, then I will hear their prayer and heal their land” (2 Chron 7:14).

Truth is the Word of God. God’s Word provides our absolute standards for living the Christian way of life. “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). We operate by faith, and we verify everything with Scripture. What the Bible says should drive your decision-making. Spirituality is absolute. If you are filled with the Holy Spirit, you are spiritual. If you aren’t, you are carnal. At any time in your life, you are either one or the other. Salvation is absolute. All it takes is faith alone in Christ alone. “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Rom 10:13).

You strengthen your spiritual heart when you exercise your spiritual life. “For bodily discipline is only of little profit, but godliness is profitable for all things, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come” (1 Tim 4:8). Godliness means the advanced spiritual life, growing to spiritual maturity. It combines being filled with the Holy Spirit, consistently learning God’s Word, and obeying it. This takes self-discipline. “Discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness” (1 Tim 4:7). Godliness strengthens the heart. “Seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence” (2 Pet 1:3).

“I am looking for those who know Me and understand Me” (Jer 9:23). God is looking for those who are serious about growing to spiritual maturity. Those who consistently study and apply God’s Word. As go the spiritual lives of Christians in a nation, so goes the nation. Knowledge of God is on a serious decline in this nation. We have turned our back on God. This will bring divine discipline. “There is no truth, no mercy, and knowledge of God in the land” (Hosea 4:1-6). Does this sound like America today? “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Since you have rejected knowledge, I will reject you from being a priest [nation] for Me. Because you have forgotten the laws of your God, I will also forget your children.”

America is in trouble. God is giving us some wake-up calls because as a nation we are focused on the gifts and not the Giver. “Each person’s ways are clearly seen by the Lord and He surveys all of His actions” (Prov 5:21). Satan uses all possible means to discredit the Word of God, discourage us and defeat us from ever reaching spiritual maturity. We need a spiritual revival in our nation and it starts with you. Can America be healed? Yes. It depends on you and your spiritual life. God promises, “If My people that are called by My name will humble themselves and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways then I will hear their prayer and heal their land” (2 Chron 7:14).

Jesus Christ says all it takes to be saved is the faith of a mustard seed. The small mustard seed is the truth of the gospel. “God so loved the world that He gave His uniquely born Son so that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). As a Christian, you are part of the Body of Christ. This is your family tree. Your family tree traces back to the Lord Jesus Christ! “For as the body is one and has many members and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit [the Holy Spirit] we are all baptized into one body [the Body of Christ] whether we be Jews or Greeks, whether we be bond or free, and we have all been made to drink into one Spirit. For the body is not one member but many members.” (1 Cor 12:12-14). The gospel seed that Jesus Christ planted has grown into a large tree, a living organism, the Church, the Body of Christ.

At the moment of salvation, you became a member of the body of Christ. “For by means of the Holy Spirit are we all baptized into one body” (1 Cor 12:13). As a member of the body of Christ, you have unique assets our Lord Jesus Christ passed on to you to live your spiritual life. You must stay filled with the Holy Spirit to have the empowerment of the Holy Spirit to guide you using these assets. This is the only way to live the supernatural Christian life. The body of Christ is comprised of believers and is a living organism. It’s the universal Church, the body of Christ, in distinction to a local church. You are in Christ!

Prayer is instant communication with God. Prayer is thought. “Whoever shall call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ shall be saved” (Rom 10:13). You will short-circuit your prayer and it won’t be heard if you have unconfessed sin in your life. “If I regard inquiry in my heart, the Lord will not hear me” (Ps 66:18). Part of the Holy Spirit’s ministry to you is to be the facilitator between you and God the Father in prayer. But if you have unconfessed sin in your life the empowerment of the Holy Spirit can’t work. “The Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we don’t know what to pray as we should, but the Holy Spirit prays for us with groaning that cannot be expressed in words” (Rom 8:26). Prayer is the most wonderful way you can express your appreciation for what God does for you.

Our objective, running the race, is to lift up Jesus Christ our Savior and to proclaim God’s Word as truth and infallible to those who would hear it and listen. Authority orientation is critical if you want to grow up spiritually. “Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God” is the way to survive in the devil’s world (1 Pet 5:6). Respond, don’t react. “Be strong and of good courage” (Deut 31:7). Client nations are formed on divine establishment principles including freedom, marriage, family and nationalism. You can see by looking at these that there is a great fracture in America today. People are preoccupied with the gifts and have forgotten the Giver. We need to heed “I command you this day to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways and to keep His mandates” (Deut 30:15-16). Pray and ask God for provision and protection and strength to defeat our enemies so we may carry on as a free nation and evangelize the world by sending out missionaries. The final mandate in Deut 30:20, “That you may love the Lord your God, you may obey His voice, and you may cleave to Him, for He is your life.”

God will use spiritual quiet professionals (SPQ) to deliver this nation. SQPs put their spiritual lives as priority number one. They understand the mechanics of the spiritual life and gain divine wisdom, insight and discernment by growing to spiritual maturity. Knowledge and application of God’s Word gives them strength. The SQP is a powerful witness through lifestyle. “Do not be hasty in word or impulsive in thought to bring up a matter in the presence of God. For God is in heaven and you are on earth; therefore, let your words be few” (Eccl 5:2). Blameless, integrity and self-sufficiency are traits. “Mark the blameless man and behold the upright; for the man of peace will have a posterity” (Ps 37:37). As goes your spiritual life, so goes the history of this nation.

Human viewpoint thinking is prevalent in America today. Divine viewpoint has been shoved aside. America has been going downhill ever since the Word of God started getting rejected in the public. We have discarded the rules found in the Bible. This is why it is critical you finish the race. This is your personal sense of destiny, your goal. To achieve it you must have a personal love for God because this is your motivational virtue to be faithful. “If we love Him we will obey Him” (1 John 5:3). And John says, “We love Him because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19). The Christian life is lived in the soul. You are competing with yourself, your volition, whether you will be obedient to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Whether we will replicate His life by means of renovating our thinking. God doesn’t need us. We need Him to finish the race. There’s only one thing that can change the decline of our nation and that is a national revival. This is only going to happen when enough people turn back to His Word (2 Chron 7:14).

As the core group of mature believers shrinks, client nation America is in peril. America has an authority orientation problem. Unthankful, unforgiving, slanders and no self-control are terms used in the Bible to describe the people of a nation in decline. “Having a form of godliness but denying the power” (2 Tim 3:5). Paul warns us, “Turn away from these, they are ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth” (2 Tim 3:5-7). Believers must not be distracted or captured by the details of life. You must finish the race. You must pass the baton of the Word of God to the next generation. You may be sick and hurting and wishing to go to heaven but remember it’s not God’s time yet. He has a plan for you. He is still using you. Your children and your grandchildren must see the importance of the Word of God is in your life. They must see your fidelity of faith and your stance in truth. The race is not over until you put the baton in their hands.

When the pivot shrinks, the client nation is in trouble. The trouble comes from the spin-off of believers who get distracted and get into self-absorption substituting ritual for reality. The justice of God will meet out judgment on this nation if the next generation doesn’t take the baton and carry on the torch of truth. “He who has My Word let him speak it faithfully because My Word is like a fire and like a hammer” (Jer 23:28-29). Very few understand the mechanics of the Christian life. You can’t live in the devil’s world in a blind condition. This is why it is critical to learn and apply God’s Word. “Your word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path” (Ps 119:105). Personal love for God is what motivated you to be obedient. “If we love Him we will obey Him and His Mandates are not hard” (1 John 5:3). We are in the end times of client nation America having the protection and the blessing of God if we continue on the course we’re on.

The pivot is the core group of mature believers. As goes the pivot, so goes the nation. America is God’s designated client nation now. If America is going to survive as a free nation it depends on two things: the older generation of mature believers finishing the race and the next generation picking up the baton. Study, learn and grow. This is how you advance in the Christian life and become the person God wants you to be. “Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God” (Rom 10:7). If you’re not hearing the Word of God taught by a well-qualified pastor you are not going to grow. God has only one problem-solving way of thinking—divine viewpoint acquired by learning to think as Christ thought. Satan seeks to defeat America by veiling the gospel and through deception and distraction. His objective is to shut down the light so the next generation doesn’t believe In the Lord Jesus Christ. Many people are afraid to be alone and are lonely. Time alone with God is very critical, especially if you want to have a prayer life. This is how Jesus Christ spent His time when He was here on earth, “Now in the morning, having risen before daylight, He went out and departed to a solitary place and there He prayed” (Mark 1:35).

Learn to handle sin and evil and have the discernment to identify both. Grace is the genius of God. Evil is Satan’s counterfeit of God’s grace. Evil sounds good, looks good, but is the opposite of grace. Evil is very deceptive. Arrogance will destroy you. “If a man thinks himself to be something when he is nothing, he deceives himself” (Gal 6:3). Be aware of your arrogance tendencies and counter them with spiritual growth. Be aware a lack of divine wisdom is a problem and you can get ahead or get behind God. Your goal is to stay in step with God. Once your relationship with God becomes priority number one and everything else lines up behind it, then you will have the greatest happiness the world has ever known. Another problem in the spiritual life is the failure to understand spirituality as an absolute. At any time you are either in fellowship with God filled with the Holy Spirit or you are in carnality with unconfessed sin in your life. Spirituality and carnality are absolutes. Understanding and using God’s 10 problem-solving devices becomes the real key to you living your Christian life because if you don’t live it God’s way, you’re going to get frustrated.

The sin nature is a problem. Whatever trend or lust pattern your sin nature has, if your volition feeds it then you’re going to go there. This is why the filling of the Holy Spirit is so critical along with taking in the Word of God on a consistent basis. A problem Christians face is attempting to execute God’s plan through human power rather than through divine power. It won’t work because it’s a supernatural plan and requires supernatural power. Another problem is ignorance of Biblical doctrine especially regarding the Biblical mandates of love. “If you love Me you will obey Me” (1 John 5:3). The most serious problem in the malfunction of the spiritual life is failure to grow, failure to execute the protocol plan of God, and failure to make it the number one priority in their lives. “Study to show thyself approved unto God a workman that needeth not to be ashamed but rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Tim 2:15).

When a Christian doesn’t recognize arrogance in his life, it’s a mental flaw that neutralizes spiritual growth. Many have hang-ups with certain sins or with people and this derails their spiritual lives. “Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins” (1 Pet 4:8). Studying God’s Word is how to counter mental flaws. It will show you where you are hypersensitive or arrogant. You must deal with it to advance spiritually and become the person God wants you to be. “Greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:4). Psalm 119 provides the keys to success in our spiritual life: walk, keep and seek.

Placing relationships with people over our relationship with God is a significant problem for many. Our number one objective is to grow to spiritual maturity so we can glorify God to the maximum. “Daily they searched the Scripture” (Acts 17:11). Another problem is how you learn. You can’t teach yourself to spiritual maturity. You must grow from the ministry of a well-qualified pastor. Hearing and keeping the Word of God on a consistent basis is what brings spiritual momentum. “Happiness belongs to those people who hear My Word and keep it” (Luke 11:27-28). God gives us testing as an opportunity to apply the spiritual skills we’ve learned and to accelerate our growth. Evaluate your life in the light of the Word of God to stay objective. “A person’s pride will humiliate him but a humble spirit gains honor” (Prov 29:23). This requires humility. And humility is required before you can reach spiritual maturity.

Distractions stop you from growing in the Christian life. Wasted time is a serious problem. “For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the actual words of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food.” (Heb 5:12) You face four dangers: Placing our relationships with people over our relationship with God. Attempting to execute God’s plan with our human power. “Be filled with the Holy Spirit" (Eph 5:18). Ignorance of the Biblical mandate of love. “If you love Me you will keep my mandates and they are not hard” (1 John 5:3).

We all have frustrations and flaws. Some flaws are inherited, and some are acquired. Flaws affect our lives and the decisions we make because they affect our thinking. “For that which I want to do, I don’t do, but the things that I hate to do, those are the things I do” (Rom 7:15). Nothing you can do in life will negate your salvation. Once saved, always saved. That’s eternal security. The problem is in guilt, we fail to forgive ourselves. Guilt is a sin. You’re going to fail. We all do. The key is to name the sin to God, pick yourself up, and keep moving ahead, taking in the Word of God and applying it in your life. Keep advancing in the spiritual life. “Forgetting those things which are behind me I reach forward to those things which are ahead” (Phil 3:13).

Use the faith-rest drill to calm yourself in the storms of life. Fear causes you to focus on yourself, but faith puts the focus on God and His Word. If the Lord Jesus Christ can calm the storm in the middle of the Sea of Galilee, can He not calm your storms and deliver you as well? He will—if you trust Him, stay filled with the Holy Spirit, keep your eyes on the facts and off of yourself, and don’t let fear take control. “My God shall supply all of your needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus” (Phil 4:19). The Holy Spirit gives you strength by recalling the Word of God you have stored in your soul.

God is looking for pivot potential. Those of you who will stand in the gap. “I looked for somebody to stand in the hedge between Me and the people and to make up the gap in the land but I could not find even one” (Ezek 22:30). A pivot is a core group of mature believers that God uses to sustain a nation. You manifest the light to a nation in darkness. You are the salt that preserves the nation. Through your spiritual life, your prayers, your blessing by association, your nation survives. You can’t be a member of the pivot if you compromise on God’s truth or serve another god. To be pivot potential you can’t be afraid to stand in the gap. God raised up Gideon, the mighty man of valor. “The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor” (Judges 6:12). God uses prepared people, people that are alert, ready and equipped with the Word of God stored in their souls. God is counting on you to be a part of the pivot. We are facing unbelievable tests in the coming years and unless you reach spiritual maturity, unless you represent Jesus Christ to your generation, the next generation won’t have a chance. Are you serious enough about your spiritual life to realize the awesome responsibility God has given you?

God has given you many operational assets to live your spiritual life. the Bible, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and Jesus Christ, and pastor-teachers are all grace resources you have. If you don’t use these resources and can’t concentrate on the teaching of God’s Word your spiritual life will be a waste. “Those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil” (Heb 5:14). Solomon explains, “When wisdom enters your heart and knowledge is pleasant to your soul, then discretion will preserve you and understanding will keep you” (Prov 2:10-11). The heart is the real you. Your spiritual life is fueled by what you think. You are to think as Christ thought. “Let this mind be in you that was also in Christ Jesus” (Phil 2:5).

Easter is a time to celebrate the power of Jesus Christ’s resurrection and eternal security through faith in His finished work on the cross. “Behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Cor 6:2). Easter is also a time to recognize the significance of your spiritual life and reflect upon what will happen after your resurrection. As a believer, your spiritual life will be evaluated at the Judgment Seat of Christ. Will your evaluation be filled with human works that will be burned up as wood, hay, and stubble, or with rewardable divine assets of gold, silver, and precious stones? (1 Cor 3:11-15) The goal is to hear Jesus Christ say, “‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter the joy of your master.’” (Matt 25:23)

A Christian who yields to the temptations of their sinful nature and stays out of fellowship with God goes into reversionism. If you’re in reversionism you can’t grow spiritually. You’ll become hypersensitive and prolonged involvement in the cosmic system will lead to a frantic search for happiness. “They are lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God” (2 Pet 3:4).

It is never too late to recover from prolonged carnality. Use Rebound (problem-solving device number one), to get back in fellowship with God, and resume your spiritual life.

Rebound: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous, so that He will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9)

Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ endured six illegal trials including beatings and horrid treatment before being sentenced to death by crucifixion. He never complained. “We have turned everyone to his own way and God the Father hath laid on God the Son the inquiry of us all. Jesus Christ was oppressed. He was afflicted and yet He opened not His mouth” (Is 53:3-7). When Jesus completed God the Father’s plan to go to the cross and bear the sins of the world, taking our place, He said “It is finished.” Believing in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross is how you get to heaven. Jesus Christ, the anointed Savior of the world, was crucified for you.

You can glorify God far more when you keep your mouth shut than when you run your mouth. Make this a principle in your life. Never judge another person. “Do not judge lest you be judged because, with the measure you measure, it will be measured back to you again” (Matt 7:12). Don’t stick your nose in another person’s business. Be careful what you say about others. Use impersonal love. This is the same love that God used with you. You should be greasy spots right now—you’re not because God loves us. He demonstrated love for you when He sent His Son, our Savior the Lord Jesus Christ, to go to the cross and pay the penalty for our sins. “A soothing tongue is a tree of life but a deceitful tongue breaks the spirit” (Prov 15:4).

A Christian who stays out of fellowship with God, who backslides and goes into reversionism, yields to the temptations of the sin nature. This shorts out the protocol plan of God. “They are lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God” (2 Pet 3:4). If you’re in reversionism you can’t grow spiritually. You’ll become hypersensitive and involvement in the cosmic system will lead to a frantic search for happiness. God will never abandon you. You may have turned your back on Him but He will never turn His back on you. God saved you. God gave you a destiny but you have moved into reversionism and lost sight of the objective. It is never too late to recover from prolonged carnality. Do it now. Use rebound, confess your sin, get back in fellowship with God and resume your spiritual life.

America will not survive much longer if we continue to spurn God and His Word, and not listen to His mandates and warnings. “The fool takes no pleasure in understanding” (Ps 18:12). The chaos we are experiencing is a result of unchecked sin natures. As the Lord looked upon His creation and upon the hearts of man, this is what He said, “Every inclination of the thoughts of their minds was on evil” (Gen 6:5). Evil is the system of Satan. Satan loves to impugn the name of God. You are the answer to what’s wrong in America. As goes your spiritual life, so goes our great nation.” I searched for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand in the gap before Me for the land so I would not destroy it, but I found none” (Ezek 22:30).

God mandates ‘No Fear.’ “Do not fear, I am with you” (Is 41:10). Worry is not a way of thinking for a Christian. We must think with a divine viewpoint. Pick up the shield of faith. Stand behind the promises of God. Focus on His solution and not the problem—the solution is to orient and adjust to the plan of God. “Worry in the heart of a man weighs it down, but a good word produces a superabundance of happiness” (Prov 12:25). God provides logistical grace for you. He keeps you alive. You are not to worry. “Cast all your burdens on the Lord, He will sustain you” (Ps 55:22).

Spiritual life failure has consequences—our nation is in decline and under God’s discipline. “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge” (Hosea 4:6). It starts with you if you want God to guarantee His blessing on America, and your children and grandchildren. As your spiritual life goes, so goes your life, family, and the nation. “I [God] searched for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand in the gap before Me for the land, so that I would not destroy it” (Ezek 22:30). Will you be the one God finds to stand in the gap?

Relax even in the face of adversity knowing God has promised you logistical grace provisions. Faith-rest is a tremendous problem-solving device. “This I recall to mind and therefore I have confidence. It is through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning, great is His faithfulness” (Lam 3:21-23). “Lay up for yourself treasures in heaven” (1 Cor 3:11-16). Treasures in heaven are the blessings God bestows on winner believers, those who grow to spiritual maturity and glorify God to the maximum. Keep your spiritual life as your top priority and money won’t be a distraction. Jesus Christ wants us to remember never to be a slave to money. “Let your lifestyle be free from the love of money. Keep on being content with what you have.” (Heb 13:5). Wealth can keep a person from seeing the need for salvation. “What shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul?” (Mark 8:36).

Be serious about your Christian life. Learn and live God’s Word to be prepared for the disaster that is coming. “Neither will you be afraid of destruction when it comes” (Job 5:21). Acquiring the mind of Christ will give you a stable mind. Applying it brings a relaxed mental attitude. God will provide your logistical daily needs. This is a divine promise. “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. He will provide your needs” (Matt 6:33). You have the two greatest supernatural powers in the world - the Holy Spirit and the Bible. Use them! This is your strength. This is where you get direction. Remember, “Greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world” (1 John 4:4). You have a ringside seat observing the pending disaster. Keep your mind on the Lord Jesus Christ. Stand still and watch God deliver you.

The spiritually mature believer can live his life as unto the Lord and not as unto man. “Whatever you do, do it from your soul as unto the Lord and not unto man” (Col 3:23). You grow to spiritual maturity by coming to understand God’s plan and consistently functioning in it. You get to know God through Christ and understand God through the ministry of the Holy Spirit and Scripture as enlightened by a well-qualified pastor. Growing to spiritual maturity is the basis for blessings in time and rewards in eternity. God provides everything needed to grow up spiritually through His grace provisions. “Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Pet 3:18).

Spirituality is absolute. You are either filled with the Holy Spirit or you are in carnality controlled by your sin nature. Spirituality is related to the filling of the Holy Spirit. Spiritual maturity is related to the content of the Word of God in your soul. Maturity is relative. To glorify God in this life you need to grow up spiritually. In maturity you have a maximum application of God’s Word in your life, this is wisdom, and you have maximum trust in God, this is faith. “These things I have spoken to you that My joy might be in you” (John 15:11). A maturing Christian is filled with the Holy Spirit and taking in the Word of God daily—learning, growing and applying. “Let this mind be in you that was also in Christ Jesus” (Phil 2:5). You have to learn to think with the mind of Christ and apply it if you’re ever going to glorify God.

Your spiritual life is the anchor that holds your country together. As God blesses you, the blessings overflow into the lives of others in your periphery. Spirituality is a relationship with God the Holy Spirit. Spirituality is absolute. You are either in fellowship controlled by the Holy Spirit or in carnality controlled by the sin nature. “For if you live after the flesh you will die. But if you put to death the deeds of the body by means of the Holy Spirit, you will live” (Rom 9:13). You have a choice of who controls your life—the Holy Spirit or the sin nature. You decide. Spirituality is being filled with the Holy Spirit. Spiritual maturity is being filled with the Holy Spirit and having a maximum amount of Biblical knowledge in your soul. You must be spiritual before you can become a spiritually mature believer.

Spiritual growth is a lifelong process. You don’t graduate from the Christian life. You must keep plugging. Emotions will not carry you. “As a man thinks in his heart so he is” (Prov 23:7). You grow from learning the mechanics of the Christian life from the teaching of the Word of God. The key to growing is staying under the control of the Holy Spirit, not your sin nature. “Reason you also yourself to be dead to sin but alive to God through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom 6:11). The inward battle between the Holy Spirit and your sin nature will be never-ending.

To win in the Christian life you need to understand what the will of God is for your life. God commands you to study His Word and grow spiritually. “I am looking for those who know Me and understand Me” (Jer 9:23). We worship God by staying filled with the Holy Spirit and learning and applying the truth of the Word of God in our lives. “Those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth” (John 4:24). The Holy Spirit that dwells in you is the very same Holy Spirit that sustained our Lord Jesus Christ and guided Him during His time on earth. You have all the power you need to live the Christian life if you will tap into the power of the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

Your values must come from the Bible. Your trust must be in the Lord. “It is better to trust in the Lord than to put your confidence in man” (Ps 118:8-9). Nations rise and fall based on the power of God and His plan. The power of Christianity is invisible and spiritual. To be a good Christian you need to stay filled with the Holy Spirit and grow spiritually. “He who gives attention to the Word shall find good and blessed is he who trusts in the Lord” (Prov 16:20). We are facing a disaster in this nation if we do not get with it spiritually.

America is in serious trouble. We have put our trust in the strength of man and not God. “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and who makes flesh his strength and whose heart turns away from the Lord” (Jer 17:5). No individual can change the course of our nation. Only we believers can if we prioritize growing to spiritual maturity. We need to put our trust in God, not man. If God is proclaimed, if His name is lifted up, if His Word is taught in the pulpits and studied across this nation, then America can continue to be the land of the free. “Blessed be the man who trusts in the Lord and whose trust is the Lord” (Jer 17:7). President George Washington said, “It is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits and humbly to implore His protection and favor.” Jesus Christ controls history. “He created all things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible. He existed before everything and He holds everything together” (Col 1:16-17).

There are many times when you should be laconic—keep your mouth shut. Here are a few reasons. When you are angry or tempted to lie. “A short-tempered person acts stupidly and the person who plots evil is hated” (Prov 14:17). When you are tempted to pervert or twist the truth. Satan is the greatest twister of the truth in the world. Keep your mouth shut when you are tempted to straighten out a fool or speak without having all of the facts. Your job is to re-present Christ, not try to correct others. “Those who are wise store up knowledge but the mouth of a stubborn fool invites ruin” (Prov 10:14). Another reason to be laconic is when you are tempted to say more than you should. “Sin is unavoidable when there is much talk but whoever seals his lips is wise” (Prov 10:19). “The one who guards his words guards his life, but whoever is talkative will come to ruin” (Prov 13:3).

Many of the prayers people make are probably not answered because they are made while out of fellowship with the Holy Spirit. “If I regard inquiry in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.” If you have known sin in your life, the only prayer that’s going to be answered is 1 John 1:9, “If we confess our sin, He is faithful and just to forgive us.” Prayers must be offered in faith. “All things whatsoever you ask in prayer believing you shall receive” (Matt 21:22). If you are disobedient to God, your prayer won’t be answered. “And whatever we ask, we receive of Him, because we keep His mandates and we do those things that are pleasing in His sight” (1 John 3:22). Prayer won’t be answered if it’s motivated by power, money, approbation, or any other lust. “You ask and you receive not because you ask amiss so that you may consume it upon your lust” (James 4:2).

God is the voice of truth. He speaks to you through His Word, the Bible. “It is alive and powerful” (Heb 4:12). You have the shared power of God when you combine the power of the Holy Spirit living in you and the power of the Word of God. There are voices that you should not listen too. “Let no man deceive you with vain words” (Eph 5:6). Vain words are empty words void of truth. This is human viewpoint thinking. This is the thinking of the world. Divine viewpoint is truth, the light. This is why you need to acquire the mind of Christ. To have truth in your mind, in your soul. No man can solve the problems we face as a nation. The solution is a divine one. “Cursed in the man who trusts man” (Jer 17:5). As goes your spiritual life, so goes the course of our nation. If you neglect God and His Word, you are inviting disaster.

Spiritual independence is the first step of spiritual self-esteem. Stay in the Word and God the Holy Spirit will guide you. “Teach me Your way, O Lord, and lead me in a level path” (Ps 27:11). You will be able to make decisions on your own—not relying on others. Spiritual self-confidence means you won’t be intimidated by decisions. You will make good decisions and stand behind them. You will face every problem in your life with inner happiness. “Wait for the Lord; Be strong and let your heart take courage; Yes, wait for the Lord.” (27:14)

Your mission unto death (until you depart this life) is to lift up Christ. Tell the generations to come who He is, what He’s accomplished, and what He provides. Knowledge is understanding the Word of God, learning the protocol plan of God and how it works, and being victorious in this angelic conflict. “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Since you rejected knowledge, I will reject you” (Hosea 4:6). "Put on the armor of God … Stand against the strategy of the devil” (Eph 6:11-12).

God offers you a divine pardon from spending eternity in the Lake of Fire. “He that believes not, the wrath of God abides on him already” (John 3:36). We are all born spiritually dead and those who have not accepted God’s divine pardon by means of faith in the work of Jesus Christ remain dead. You need to be born again by accepting God’s divine pardon, accepting Jesus Christ as your Savior to have eternal life. Only your Savior can rescue you from the storms you face in life. You may not have control over much in life, but you do have control over your spiritual growth. If you want to become the person God intends for you to be you need to “Study to show thyself approved unto God a workman that who does not need to be ashamed” (2 Tim 2:15). God rewards integrity and when your thoughts honor Him when you have divine viewpoint thinking, then you become what God would call an invisible hero.

Christianity has nothing to do with emotion. Living the Christian life is about thinking. Only the knowledge of God’s Word in your soul will sustain you during life’s ups and downs. “Let this mind be in you that was also in Christ Jesus” (Phil 2:5). As you renovate your thinking you see life through a divine viewpoint rather than an emotional human viewpoint. “Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Rom 12:2). Often problems arise when you don’t think and act on your emotions. Your emotions were designed as appreciators in life, not to direct your intentions and actions. When you use your volition to override your conscience and you act on how you feel rather than on what you think, you are going to make bad decisions.