By TIMOTHY L. MELTON, PASTOR
(Transcribed by Myra Colgate)
Cherokee Pentecostal Holiness Church
Read Isaiah 37:30-32; John 1:16-17
“If a person is having problems loving their enemies, something’s not right. When one gets cut off in traffic, one doesn’t have to like that, but neither should they act a fool. Is it possible not to be like that? If one is rooted in the right place the fruit will work itself out. How can that happen? Look at one’s neighbor and say, he doesn’t always get it right, but he’s getting better and better.
A person can simply think, ‘because it is who I really am now—I am His and reconsider Him in everything as they make that next decision.
“One needs to understand, once one is grounded in the Word, grounded in the Church, grounded in faith, grounded in Him, our lives can, with His help, take on a whole different tenor, a whole different direction. It is only by taking it all in and believing what He’s said.
In applying the change in our focus onto Him and not just on ourselves, He can more easily remind us how to be or act more like Him. We will reconsider others as important too, not selfishly focusing only on ourselves.
One never acts out, when they realize ‘they don’t have to act out,’ They can choose to be more like Jesus instead. Amen? It won’t be so hard to work on it because it is now whom one wants to be more like. The decision becomes one’s own choice and we can be whomever we are free to choose to be like. It’ll be our own choice. Are we willing to work on this, being rooted and grounded in the Word in order to change?
If one is broke all the time, learn how to give. (Well, “if I can’t give because I don’t have enough, how does one change that?”) The promise God makes is “if one gives to others, then they will receive it back” because ‘He gives seed to the sowers.’ They plant it in someone else’s life, and it will grow and return back to them. Because one is generous to others, God returns it back generously to them as well. We can never out-give God! If one gives, they shall receive.
Jesus is a Healer, so one can have a few less doctor’s appointments and that alone can change one’s financial life, right? What if one needs to see a doctor? Go ahead and go see one. There’s no problem with that, but how many realize we go to the doctor or the pill alternative a whole lot faster than we run to the Lord for help? Amen? Being grounded means this isn’t just something we do on Sundays, it’s a way of living life the rest of the week, too. This is a Word from Heaven this morning and I’m glad you’re here. This is what God would tell people here Himself if He came down today. One can hear the Lord too, but one has to be already grounded in the Word to begin trusting what they are beginning to hear or are remembering.
“How do I do that?”
Pastor Tim explained, “I found out something pretty amazing when one gets in the Word. The Word gets into a person, when one spends time getting into the Word. The Word starts changing us when we don’t even quite realize it. Pick out a Book in the Word, even a short one. Read one of the letter books each day for a month, maybe more than once each day. See if God has started doing something different in your life and watch what happens. If one decides on the Book of John, every time someone says something, the Book of John may say something back to that person. Every time one gets into a similar situation in the Book of John, it may begin telling them, showing them how to handle that. What is happening?
Watch this. One’s own ‘root system’, your spiritual life, is getting grounded in something that’s providing ‘minerals’ (whatever is good) making one’s faith grow and providing Glory in the Word for that person. The problem can be when we don’t do that, because it does take time. So read only chapter one of John for 30 days instead, make it one’s own priority. ‘I do that myself because I know that’s where my strength comes from’ added Pastor Tim. ‘Once one gets grounded, they can’t help but produce good fruit. Amen. It can end up changing whole nations.’
