Written by Tom Diller

 2 Corinthians 10:4-5 says, "The weapons of our warfare are not carnal (fleshly), but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ." Have you ever realized that we are in a spiritual war? Ephesians 6:11-12 says, that we are to "put on the whole armor of God that you maybe able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against rulers of darkness of this age, against spiritual host of wickedness in heavenly places."                        Ephesians 6:13-18,tells us to "take up the whole armor of God, that you maybe able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparatiopn of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the firey darts of the wicked one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God; praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit." As christians we need to realize that God has given us mighty weapons of warfare, and He has also given us the whole armor of God.The mighty weapons that Jesus has given us are The Name of Jesus, The Blood of Jesus, and The Word of God.   

Written by Tom Diller

           Another way you can know if you are hearing from God, is if what you are hearing agrees with the fruit of the Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit is the nature of Christ Jesus. It is found in Galations 5:22-23. It says,"But fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control. Against such there is no law. James 3:17says,:But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, and without hypocristy." also, the voice of God will not condem you. Rember John 3:17, " For God did not send His Son into the world to condem the world, but that the world through Him might be saved." Romans 8:1 says, " There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit." You see there are many voices in this world and we need to be able to recognize the right voice from the wrong voice. We need to develop a Godly discernment. I believe that we can have this discernment within us if we take time to read the bible. Remember what Jesus said, " My sheep hear My voice, and I know them and they follow me." John 10:27. And John 10:5 says,"Yet they will by no means follow a voice of a stranger, but will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of a stranger."

Written by Tom Diller

John 10:27-28, "My sheep hear my voice, I know them, and they follow Me.And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish;neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand."This is one of my favorite scriptures.Jesus said," My sheep hear My voice." Have you ever wondered what the voice of God sounds like? One of the best ways to describe what the voice of God sounds like is that, the voice of God sounds like His word.And the best way to hear His word is to read the bible. Reading the bible is really not that difficult to do. The sugestion that I could make,is to start reading all the Gospels, then Acts, then all the Epistles,and try to do this all in one year. After you have done this, take another year and do the same thing over again.Then you can explor the Old Testament.By doing this you will be saturating your spirit and mind with the word of God.Jesus said in John 18:37, "Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice."John14:17 says,"The Spirit of Truth, whom the world can not receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him, but you know Him,for He dwells with you and will be in you." John 14:26 says, "But the Helper,the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and will bring to your rememberance all things that I said to you."

Written by Tom Diller

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for , the evidence of things not seen, Hebrews 11:1.  In addition to love and forgiviness another very important brick in our christian foundation is faith.Hebrews 11:6 says, "without faith it is impossible to please Him." 2 Corinthians 5:7 says," for we walk by faith not by sight."With our intellect and our five senses we are able to relate to the natural world. and in the spiritual world (Gods Kingdom) we relate to it by faith. Everything we recieve from God is by faith. The following are some of the things we recieve from God by faith. 1. salvation (eternal life) 2. grace (Gods free gifts). 3. justification (declared not guilty). 4. sanctification (to make pure). 5.righteousness (right standing with God). 6. answered prayer and so much more.                Faith is like a muscle, if you want it to be strong, you have to use it. If I took my right arm and was always lifting weights with it, it would become very strong.However, if I used my left arm very little, it would become very weak. And so it is with faith. We need to use our faith on a daily basis. We should not wait until there is a crisis in our life before we begin to use our faith. The way to increase our faith is by reading the bible, because, " faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God." Romans 10:17. Ephesians 2:8-10," For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them." Works are important too. "For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also." James 2:26.Another powerful scripture that Jesus said about faith is in Luke 17:6, "If you have faith as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, Be pulled up by the roots and be planted in the sea, and it would obey you."And also Luke 17:19," arise, go your way. Your faith has made you well". All of the above scriptures can show you the importance of faith. 

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