Loving the LORD With All My Mind May 29 2012

Teaching myself to think...to meditate...to contemplate on what the LORD would have me do...is a skill that is not easy to obtain.  It takes much effort!

I find that the battle for the mind grows stronger and harder as we approach the coming of the LORD!

I've know the Word for along time that says, "Out of the issues of your heart, the mouth speaks."

In other words, wherever I have my heart...my mouth tells the tale.

I'm very concerned about the Moms, wives, and women today...more so, we females, because we set the pace in our homes...

I was where many of them are in my young married years...

I slept as long as I could in the mornings...even when I had children in school...readied them for school and then wasted a lot of precious time on the mundane...

I watched game shows...and soap operas...a lot of time on t.v...or...

I talked on the phone...I mean for hours...if anyone would talk to me.

Every once in awhile, I would read my Bible...or talk about spiritual things...

I knew what sign I was born under...did a little yoga...and was addicted to some soap operas...read some magazines...and books...

I let hours go by with out spending any time with the LORD!

When I was 24 years old, I made sure I was saved...I was re-baptized...and I began marching to a new drummer...

I wanted so much to be sold-out for the LORD!  I wanted so much to love the LORD and to serve Him with all my heart, soul, and mind...

I went more faithfully to Church...mostly just me and my children...

I began seeking out people who seemed to have what I didn't have.

I marched against the ERA...and met some women who seemed really strange to me...as they seemed to have a very intimate relationship with the LORD...much more than I did...

They were also much more confident that God answered their prayers.

After the ERA was defeated, I spent 7 or more years, studying the Word, and praying...but not early in the day...I'd do it while my older sons were in school...and my baby was napping or playing in the same room...

I was meeting at least once a week with sisters and friends, leading a Bible Study...and attending Church several times a week...

I was closer but  still not consistent...I was a part time prayer warrior and I believed in God's healing power through prayer and laying on of hands...but I would have to prepare for a day or more in order to go pray with people...which I did for several years...

I became a teacher in 1991...and it was about 2000, when things really changed...from part-time to full-time...

I had already been praying early for several years...at least 15 minutes or more...before I went to work.  I was the prayer director in my Sunday School Class...

I prayed with people at school or anywhere...but the anointing was strong after I had spent time in the Word...fasting or not...but preparing to minister...

Then, revelation came!!! I mean that the revealed Word...or application of it to me...came to me...

It was through some teaching...listening to tapes of Ken Copeland...and some spending time with ones who believed this way...that I began to walk in the revealed Truth!

It is the Word that is anointed.  Jesus...the Word in flesh...was the Christ...the anointed...and Christians...are to be anointed...in the Word!!

The more I'm in the Word...the more flow of the Holy Spirit in me...and pouring out of me on others...

Wow!!!

Can I find support for this in the Word? Yes, I can! If I could not, then, you should not believe me.  If I am not aligned with the Word of God, then, I am a liar.

"My son, give attention to my words; Incline your ear to my sayings.
Do not let them depart from your eyes; Keep them in the midst of your heart;
For they are life to those who find them, and health to all their flesh.
"Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life." Proverbs 4:20-23

What sayings? What words? The Word of God!!

Are we looking for divine health? Are we looking for prosperity?

Where is it found?  At the doctor or in a magazine? How do we prosper?

Guard the Word...Keep your heart...with all diligence...

So many people are afraid...or they are distressed...or depressed...

"When wisdom enters your heart, and knowledge is pleasant to your soul,
Discretion will preserve you; understanding will keep you,
To deliver you from the way of evil, from the man who speaks perverse things,
From those who leave the paths of uprightness to walk in the ways of darkness;
Who rejoice in doing evil, and delight in the perversity of the wicked." Proverbs 2:10-14

How do we stay safe?  How do we please God? We allow wisdom to enter...we hide God's Word in our hearts that we not sin against Him.

See if you haven't heard lately...I mean very recently...either from a friend...or someone in Bible Study...or Sunday School...or on the phone...making excuses for why they don't have time for the Word...

I hear every one making time for something else...for a person...a group of people...for family...me time...reading magazines, novels, playing games (challenging and mindless), and reading love novels, etc.,...the same people saying they have not time to pray or read the WORD.

If we have time for anything else, we have time for the Word.  That may be offensive to you, and I hate to be offensive to anyone...

But, we are a people who want to be entertained...we have soooo much that we do not appreciate what we have...

I hear people say they are bored all the time...I see adults playing games on their smart phones or texting...when they stop at a red light...or while they are talking with friends...

Confusing to me...since I don't get bored.

There's always something for me to do...I'm not looking for entertainment...for someone else to do the work for me...

I love learning to do and then doing what I learn.  I'm the eternal student, I guess.

I'm learning even today...along with you...if you'll learn with me...God says, the fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge...

What is that? Am I to tremble or be terrified and run from my God. No...of course not...but it does mean that I am to recognize His magesty and to worship it! 

I am to do whatever He says for me to do.  God is my creator...He is the potter and I am the clay...

In other words, it is not up to me.  I am not in charge...and no matter what I do...kicking, screaming, and squirming...He's the Shepherd and I'm the sheep...I'm His bond-servant...He's my Master!

"But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it.
See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil,  in that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, His statutes, and His judgments, that you may live and multiply; and the Lord your God will bless you in the land which you go to possess. But if your heart turns away so that you do not hear, and are drawn away, and worship other gods and serve them, I announce to you today that you shall surely perish."Deuteronomy 30:14-18

Now, if we put the 3 scriptures that I've posted here...we see that the WORD leads, guides, lights the path, speaks to me when I lie down and when I get up...is hidden in my heart that I not sin.

Now, there's power in the Blood of  the Lamb, and we over come by that Blood and the word of our testimony...

Are we all overcomers!??

I believe that we all have the potential...if we have asked Jesus to save us...if we've repented from our wicked way...to overcome...

However, I know that we all know people about us...those that have received Christ somewhere along their life...but they are depressed...sullen...even in despair...

Why is that? If what God has written us above is the Truth...and not a lie...then, why are we not taking our God at His Word?  Why are we not abiding in Him...and His Word abiding in us ...that we ask whatever we will and it will be done for us...

Do you believe this?   If so, why?   If not, why???

I'm reading about Loving the LORD with all my Mind,  in a book by Elizabeth George.  Today, by email I received Daily Prayer from Germaine Copeland...

It was about the LORD wanting my soul to prosper!!

What does that mean? My soul is the part of me that is my mind and my will.  The Word says that it is the LORD's will that I prosper as my soul prospers.

If I am depressed, distraught, or thinking on perverted things, then my soul...my mind and will...are not prospering.  I am being robbed of my birthright!

As a child of God...as a Christian...I have the potential in me...the power to overcome! 

However, if I continue feeding my mind on trash...on unhealthy information...whether it's scarey about murder or vampires or aliens....or whether it is about unhealthy relationships outside of marriage (between one man and one woman) ...

Even if I spend your time...and my mind...wishing I was somewhere else...or that I was someone else...in magazines...or pretty homes...or pretty people...

Never satisfied with what the LORD has blessed us with!! Never able to bloom where we are planted...

Complaining like those who left Egypt...remember what God allowed to happen...they were bitten by snakes...

I've gotten very interested in my older age...in my more mature walk in the Spirit also...that it's all up to me...

I can choose where to place my thoughts...I can choose peace ...I can choose to see from the full glass instead of the empty glass...

I actually can say to my mind when it begins to think thoughts that are harmful to me...or that cause me stress...I can say, "I'm not going there...and not go there."

It's up to me to look into the Word and to read the truth about His promises...and then, to think on things that are True...

I have to choose what is a good report...and think on the good report like the good news of the Gospel...and refuse to think on the bad report...to think on Jesus bearing all my sins and diseases on the cross...and not think on what the doctor has said...

I have to choose to rejoice at all times...no one can douse me with JOY...I have to put on the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness to leave...

I have to speak things that be not as though they are...in order to speak Faith...Faith is the evidence of things not seen...the substance of things hoped for...

I have to declare by Faith...in order to overcome...because I overcome by the Blood of the Lamb and the word of my testimony...

I am to be judged by my words...and my actions...and amazingly...

If our thoughts are clean and pure...then our words are clean and pure...and our actions are clan and pure...

Out of the issues of our heart, the mouth speaks...

Create in me a clean heart O LORD...and all things will begin to come into place...

For I think what is in my heart...and then, I speak what is in my heart...

What am I to hide in my heart?  The WORD!! 

Why?  That I not sin against God.

So simple and yet we just stumble all over it!!!  

I have a challenge for you...

You know how in weight watchers'...the diet...you are to write down every single bite of what you eat...in order to measure.  Once you begin taking charge of the intake...then, there is weight loss.

Well, we are on a diet...we all are!  We feed our minds on something all the time...

I challenge all of us to measure what we're "eating" mentally...

Measure it...input = output ....

For example...5 minutes reading the Bible ... an hour in a novel...

10 minutes singing a Christian song...an hour of a game...1 hour exercising my flesh...

20 minutes of prayer...2 hours watching television...etc....

We all have the same 24 hours.  There's no such thing as seeing if we have time to do something...

We inevitably will not have time, if we play that game...

There's never time left over...just like money...you tithe first...or you won't be able to tithe...

Like a dog chasing its tail...not ever enough....

The same with time to read the Bible or pray...

You may do it one day...or maybe a week...or month...but if you are not laying down boundaries...and setting a certain time that can't be changed...not matter what....you won't be able to do what I'm doing...

I soon enter my 10th year of praying the prayer blanket every day....

And, you know, I love it more and more!!  At first I had to take time...and it was not a pretty sight...I was a late person...I had to make myself go to bed...in order to get up...

I had to do it...I had known to do it for a long time...but until I did it ...over and over and over....and, then, remarkably, it was 1st priority in my life!

This very morning...we began with 3...and the third person who is on faithfully every day...had to get off at her normal time...but no one came on to pray aloud...one was on listening and agreeing which was wonderful...

When that used to happen, I might seem overwhelmed and my prayer partner, Emily, might also...but instead, after all these years...of our Faithful God...doing mighty miracles and pulling down strongholds...over and over...

Now, when we have more to do...it means, we are getting more helpings of this precious meal...the WORD!! Our Bread of Life!!!  

I find myself, more stirred...with more stamina...after feeding on so much Word!!!

It is health to all my flesh!!! 

Woo Hoo!!!

OK, now, you've been challenged...

Measure the amount of time you spend on each thing...each category...

You might say, "Teddi, you need to have more fun!"  or, "You need to get more sleep."  Or, "You need more exercise."

I would have to say to you, that He renews my strength...my youth like an eagle...that an exercise in Godliness...in Holiness. ..is much more favored by God than a marathon.  

I'm not saying not to do other things...I'm saying measure your input...You want prosperity?

You want success?  Where are you lax in the things of the LORD?

You may be in Church...and even receiving some good food...every time the door opens...but if You are not dwelling in the Secret Place of the Most High daily...seeking the Kingdom first daily...then, there will be need in your life...

Habakkuk tells us that to build our own homes instead of the House of the LORD causes our pockets to have holes in them.  Do you have holes in your pockets?

I can't outgive God!! If I give Him my self...my time...my talents...my money...then, He takes what I give and He blesses and He multiplies what I give Him!


He molds and makes!!


He's in charge!!!

If I continue to say, "I'll do that when I finish what I'm doing now...it won't ever happen..."

We aren't promised tomorrow.  Today is the Day of Salvation!! 

Let's make the most of every day!!!

Love you!

Teddi