By REV. TIMOTHY L. MELTON, PASTOR
CHEROKEE PENTECOSTAL HOLINESS CHURCH
And so dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God
because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—
the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him.
“Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God
transform you into a new person by changing the way you think.
Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.
Romans 12:1-2 (NLT)
God is also teaching us that we will need to develop a faith that can keep growing within us, to cover more territory, more specific needs and areas within our lives. We may already have developed a faith for His saving of us, spiritually and also bodily, in case of accidents in this fallen world, or faith for His healing of us. Have we also developed more of a trusting faith necessary for Him to meet a suddenly large, looming financial need? Have we ever had to learn to trust Him for next month’s mortgage payment or rent? Build faith and the trusting of Him on your previous experience of His Goodness to you.
Do we see this? He wants us to trust Him as our only Source for all things in our lives. He is the God Who is for us, and is with us. He desires for us to come, honestly, to Him. All things necessary for our health, happiness, for our fulfillment of our life’s expectancy for a career, for family, should be from Him. He sees and knows our future, ahead of time. He also knows our present and our pasts. Why not trust Him more?
Roman’s 12;1-2 is the Word for a ‘reasonable amount’ of faith, the least amount which is still acceptable—and something which we can build upon, too. There may be a need to develop or begin to grow an ‘uncommon’ faith within today’s ever-darkening world! We also must keep our shield of Faith at the ready. We are to keep holding faith up as a shield from all incoming darts (wounding words or actions).
Growing or developing our faith is to be a life-long endeavor. He is expecting each believer to “be able to act just like God, to speak just like God, using the very Words which He has already spoken to and for us and are found within His Word. His Words, His promises to us, won’t ever return to us as void or empty promises. Even the heavens echo with the Truth of God! Trust in what He has already said.
We are to live as a ‘living sacrifice.’ We are to build a ‘hedge’ protecting us, by not conforming to the world, not allowing our thought processes to be changed or altered from what He has said in His written Word. From the beginning in Genesis 1, there were, and still are, only two natural human genders on Earth, males and females. We are to believe this, and this is also in agreement with good science.
But, be ye transformed, excited. He is training us to think in accordance with His revelation knowledge! In Psalms, hymns, we can share what God has been saying to us. We are not perfect. We each need Jesus. Whom we are listening to is the One we should always follow. Listening to God, is wisdom. He is the Creator!
Read John 8: 42-44; 1 John 3:10; Phil. 2:4-5; 2 Corin. 4:16; Col. 3:1-16; Josh. 1:8-9; and Romans 8:6.
In today’s world, we had best be refocusing our attention on God, reading the Bible, as any other focus could actually ruin our whole day. God promises His Word can prove what is the good, acceptable, and Perfect Will of God.
Read Amos 3:3 (NLT), We are to have sensitivity to the Will of God and to the plight of others. Otherwise, our lives can end up being like a train wreck. “Can two people walk together without agreeing on the direction?” Whenever the Church has not followed what God has said, or renewed their minds to the question of ‘What does God think?” The Mind and Body of Christ is to be the embodiment of the Anointing which comes together so we can participate in all necessary things: like the healing of cancer, COVID must die. Rise up, Church! From hearers, become doers!
