My message title, as we head into the 4th of July, is ... *.....Pre-conditioned for Victory... I believe this country was predestined to be the center for the spread of Christianity to the world. But someone had to fight for the transition, from the old form of government, which would allow for the freedoms which could make that possible. The new information that made that possible is called the Constitution of the United States of America. When I’m reading a story, I like to know the author, and some history about them, but I also like to cheat and look at the end to see how it turns out, then it’s easier to handle all the drama that is part of the story. When you know the outcome, it’s easier to walk through the plot, and make it through the good times and the bad times.
Like the guy who was watching a football game with a friend. He said, I’ll bet you $1,000 on the Red Skins. In that particular game, no one was betting on the Red Skins, because Joe Theismann wasjust starting his winning streak, so the friend says, “you’re on, I’ll take your money from you”. Sure enough the Red Skins won. What the friend didn’t know was that it was a replay of the game, and the guy was willing to bet $1,000 on Redskins, because he hadalready seen the outcome of the game. (The back of God’sbook says we win) Our victory is assured before the battle begins. Jesus said “Before you call I will answer and before you cry out, I will hear”....Jesus bet his life on our victory, because He already won our victory and handed it to us! It’s like watching a replay! Mark 4:38, we read the disciples’ words “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?”
Fear and unbelief will pre-condition us for failure, or at least it will diminish our ability to reach our potential. What happens is that fear, doubt and unbelief will bring us under the law of condemnation and death to our hopes and dreams, and will bring us under the power of the destroyer.
Your doctor will tell you that if daddy had cancer you are pre-conditioned to get it too. Your grandpa had heart trouble, so you are pre-conditioned to get it too. Your mamma was crazy, so you’re going to be crazy too! Life wants to put labels on us and itcan either destroy us, or make us stronger, wiser and more determined! And a lot is determined by whither we walk in the natural mind, or if we fill our minds with the thoughts of Christ and what He promised we could have. The curse that came into this world through the fall when Satan entered the garden, has no place for mercy, peace, grace or favor....It is without love, joy, and hope. Satan wants us to think.... We’re not good enough, We’re not talented enough, We’re not knowledgeable enough, you’re not qualified, so, why try, it hasn’t happened so why do you think it will ever happen? You’re bailing out the boat and more water keeps coming in to replace what you bailed out. Stop letting your fear do the talking. Jesus didn’t help them bail out the boat, He focused on overcoming and rebuking the storm. Stop the storm and nobody has to bail.
Jesus was pre-conditioned to overwhelm the storm, instead of allowing the storm to overwhelm him. Matthew gives us a principle to use in pre-conditioning our mind for victory..... When Jesus said “Oh ye of little faith, He was teaching the disciples to get rid of the bucket,because as they received new information, it would change how they dealt with the storm.
They were only conditioned to ride out the storm and hope for the best, but Jesus took everything up a notch...He was transforming their minds. Matthew 6:33 “Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well’. This scripture pre-conditions us to know that... No matter how low we are. He can pick us up. No matter how dirty we are. He can clean us up.
No matter how broken we are. He can bind us up .
No matter how financially broke you are. He can bring us out.
No matter how far we are. He can bring us back.
No matter how sad we are. He can cheer us up.
No matter how empty we are. He can fill us up.
No matter how lost we are. He can connect us back to the Father !
We don’t have to get stuck on that page, we can turn the page....What if while you were crunching numbers in the budget, and seeing more red ink than black, and while you were struggling with where the money was going to come from, and how the gas bill, the electric bill, the water bill, the groceries, and the house payment were ever going to be paid.. You declare, “I have put the Lord first, so all these things shall be added unto me”....!
The Truth will change your perspective....Jesus said “If you know the truth, it will set you free”.... But Truth will do you no good if you don’t give action to it! How about, while you were struggling with victory over heart problems, back or joint problems, muscle cramps and pains, head aches, stomach trouble, cancer, tumors, skin disorders, blood disorders, and various infirmities and other physical conditions.... Or maybe it’s problems in the family, in relationships, on the job, legal issues, court dates, juggling schedules, and trying to keep your sanity... You declare, “I have put the Lord first, so this victory shall be added unto me”....!.
You declare truth, “I have been preconditioned for victory”....! Look at it again....Matthew 6:33 “But seek first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you”. Stop wrestling with what’s already yours.... Someone say“AHA!!”
Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart”.
God wants to pre-conditioned us for that moment when He honors His word and comes through and makes a way where there is no way, no matter how it may look in the natural. A basket ball player will shoot thousands of free throw shots, to prepare for the moment in the game when the game is down to 2 points and he is standing on the free throw line....and it’s sink or swim.
A Quarterback will throw a football countless times, from every possible direction, standing and running, long and short, to prepare for that moment when it is the final inning, and the last play of the game, and the team is 6 points behind with the clock ticking.
A professional golfer will hit sand trap shots, shots from the woods, from high grass, and from every conceivable hazard he may encounter, so that when he’s 3 shots down and it’s all on the line, his preconditioning comes through and allows him to not only finish well, but to win!
We also are being preconditioned to come through at the last moment, when the odds are against us and the pressure is on!
We know He is with us, so....It’s not about what happens to us, it’s how we respond to it. So having done all, we can stand, because we know how great our Lord is. We know that we are being trained to reign in life, so we continue bring into subjection the enemy that is within ourselves!
Without preconditioning your mind, your body, and your spirit, you will not make it to the other side, and if you make it, it will be “when the saints come dragging in, instead of when they come marching in”!!!
2 Timothy 1:7 “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind”.
Romans 12:2 “Do not conform to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—His good, pleasing and perfect will”.
Our God tells us that He has a plan already in place that will assure victory in whatever we’re facing. A plan is already in place that will give us hope AND a future.
The more we listen, the more He speaks. The closer we get, the better we hear.
It’s the same way in EVERY relationship!!! Friendships fail because nobody is listening. Marriages fail because no one is listening, relationships and careers fail because no one is paying attention.
In the 12th Chapter of Genesis, God gave Abraham (the Father of Faith) 3 commands that would pre-condition him for a transformed life.
(1) Get out of your lesser place, you’re not where you’re supposed to be. Get out from under the world’s pre-conditioning that you have come under.
(2) Leave your in-laws and outlaws and nosy-laws and cousin cheap-as, aunt poor-as, uncle lazy-as and brother lying-as. (that’s not king James) But, it’s time to have new influences in your life, Abraham!
(3) Leave behind what you have learned and inherited, which binds you to this world’s anti-God system, leave your status quo, and your pre-conceived thinking behind, that is not of God. Leave your stinking thinking and get a check-up from the neck-up, and I will show you a new way of living. It’s time to break the old mold!
Abraham was being pre-conditioned by the world to fail, but allowed God to pre-condition Him to reach his potential.
He didn’t just go to another place, He went to another level and another REALM. THE REALM OF THE SUPERNATURAL!
I will enter His gates with thanksgiving in my heart, I will enter His courts with praise. I will say this is the new day the Lord has made.....
You were spiritually born again and you made Jesus Lord of your life, through your belief and confession. DON’T STOP NOW!
Like Abraham, get out of that old place and old thinking and receive new information so you can enter the level he has always had prepared for you and given unto you, before you got there.
The new motor homes are built for people who want to experience the great outdoors without leaving the house. They want something different as long as they can take all the same things with them. They want something new without changing anything....
You’re moving to a new level and a new realm. You understand that God has a plan for your life. You know things have to change.You don’t know exactly how to accomplish everything, and often, you struggle between your new life and your old life. You’re letting go of some things but struggling with other things....Butyou’re doing the drill, you’re going through your stuff, and you’re sorting things out. You are preconditioning yourself for victory.....and you now have two piles, the old pile of what wasand the new pile that is how it’s going to be. (That’s a big step right there) BUT DON’T STOP THERE!
(Philippians 2:5) “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus”. In this exhortation the apostle Paul is telling the people of God, “Let—the very thinking of Jesus—be your thinking also. It’s now about “How does the Lord see this problem, how does he approach this situation”? How would He sort all of this out. His mindset is the one we all are to seek and activate now.”
Say this with me.....”Father God, as I surrender to You, move me to the next level, so that I can achieve my potential in the new realm that I am moving into! I choose to accept the mind of Christ that I have been given! I choose to see things as You see them so that I may walk in the realm of what I presentlysee as impossible. I accept, receive and put on the Mind of Christ”!!
If I get a new credit card, I have to ACTIVATE it with updatedinformation, or it is useless to me. I have to activate the mind of Christ in my mind and spirit. Credit cards have limits, but God’s promises are only limited by our ability to receive it. Let this mind be in you which was in Christ, is saying to us..... “Take the limits off!”
With increasing UNDERSTANDING comes increasing POWER!
With increasing POWER comes increasing AUTHORITY! With increasing AUTHORITY comes increasing MANIFESTATIONS!
What was ruling you, you are now ruling over. Wholeness, joy and eternal hope now reign in your life.
We can’t remain who we were and enter into the abundance of the Kingdom of God.. IT’S TIME TO TAKE OUT THE TRASH of stinking thinking! Of wasted time worrying, of sleepless nights and unprofitable actions and habits. Make way for a new way of thinking....
The Kingdom of God isn’t coming, it is already here. It’s flooding our being right now. We can live and operate in the kingdom because the kingdom has already become available to us.
1st Corinthians 3:18 “And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit”.
Each day there are so many who are stepping through into the next level of the life God has for them. To see into the spiritual, is to walk in the supernatural. To have the mind of Christ, we must leave limited thinking, small vision, fearful living, and a doubtful mind behind us. (Abraham had to leave that place of faulty thinking and limited living to enter the promised land, long before there was a promised land.)
We have to see and know God’s ways before we can WALK IN God’s ways. That’s about practice, practice, practice. Isaiah made it clear... His ways are not our ways and His thoughts are not our thoughts, for even as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are His ways higher than our ways and His thoughts higher than our thoughts”..... God said His ways were HIGHER, He didn’t say they were impossible to see and know!The mind of Christ is the ability to discern things of the Spirit as Jesus did. It is about thinking as Jesus did, in our relationships, and our places of influence and responsibilities. To pray, “thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven,” is to pray that we, will also be an irresistible force in the earth by the presence of God. Make up your mind that you will not be limited by anything that has happened to you in the past! You’re stepping through to the new thing. They hurt you....move on... They lied about you... move on....You were treated unjustly....move on....
Romans 12:1-2 Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God- this is your spiritual act of worship. 2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is- His good, pleasing and perfect will”.
Romans is telling us that as we surrender our thinking and our feelings, we become pre-conditioned for Transformation. The word translated “transformed” is the word from which we get the English word “metamorphosis”. This is an inner change, which has observable outward manifestations.
Metamorphosis is actually beyond our understanding. We can only state plainly that a caterpillar will become a butterfly, we cannot explain why or how. It is the work of God. The caterpillar simply yields himself to the process. Likewise, we yield ourselves to God so that the work of transformation may have its way in us.
The OUTSIDE expresses and manifests what is on the INSIDE. It is the outflow of new promptings because we have a new sourcewhich pre-conditions us for the mind of Christ.
Why have some Christians transformed quite drastically, and rapidly, and others take a longer time or some never.
God started creation in a vacuum. But now His plan is that we give Him something to work with. He wants to partner with us. Our minds cannot be empty of the truth of His Word or He has nothing to honor, to bless or to fulfill. If we don’t choose what goes into our minds, Satan will choose for us! The bible says that in the last days, they were ever learning, but never coming into the knowledge of the truth.
Our spiritual well-being is a reflection of the ratio between the amount of time you spend in God’s Word and listening to Histruth, and the amount of time you are bombarded with the messages from the world through television, the internet and our environment. Is it more Google and gossip and grumbling, than the good news Gospel!
2 Corinthians 10:3-6 “For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. 4 The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, our weapons have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. 6 And we are ready to punish every act of disobedience, once our obedience is complete.”
There is great freedom, release and effectiveness that comes when we allow our minds to be pre-conditioned by the mind of Christ.
Let’s say that a friend agreed to meet you for dinner. You looked forward to it and changed your tight schedule to fit them in. You got to the restaurant early and waited. It was getting late, in fact, your friend did not show up at all.
You got upset, that’s another way of saying you got mad. You could not get them on the phone. No news, no phone calls, no message, nothing. You left the place steaming. You resolved to not speak to them even if they did call. “They are always like that” you tell yourself.
A few days go by and you get an “AAHA” moment. You meet their friend on the street and you find out that they were involved in an accident on the way to the restaurant and they were in the hospital.
At that instant, all your anger and toxic thinking just vaporized. Not only that, sympathy and compassion filled your heart in its place.
Can you see how our feelings can change instantly with new knowledge, information and understanding? There was a transformation of the mind with the new information and new actions were the results... now you want to go visit them in the hospital and see how you can help. All the old feelings of anger and toxic thinking are gone....The old is gone and something new and better took it’s place.
Yielding to the new information, has activated the new thinkingand then action took place to support it. Fill your mind with the truth of God’s Word. Read it, study it, memorize it, meditate on it and hear it as often as you can.
The old information will be replaced by new ways of thinking and acting....Here’s the process....
With each revelation of new information comes new thinking.
With increasing UNDERSTANDING comes increasing POWER!
With increasing POWER comes increasing AUTHORITY! With increasing AUTHORITY comes increasing MANIFESTATIONS or results!
What was ruling you, you are now ruling over. We are what wethink! We have what we activate. We can achieve what weactivate. We can become what we activate....So what are you activating? I pray that we will all have many “Aha” moments this coming week! As new information is about to be activated... to the glory of God!
In Christ, we truly are being Pre-conditioned for victory..... Our prayer today.....”Lord Jesus, when the winds of change are blowing strongly in my direction and nothing seems to be going according to plan, I know that You are protecting me from the very things, I thought were best for me, and You are making all things work together for my good. You have done it in the past and I know You will do it for me now. I will not allow the fear of change to consume me because my Faith in You is a strong tower and puts new boundaries in my life.
Lord my mind is set upon You, my eternal Rock. I know You will do what Yousay You will do, and I can anchor my faith in Your Word. Open the eyes of my spirit, Lord, so that I may be able to recognize the plans of the enemy and overturn it with Your higher plan. Nothing in this world escapes Your sight. You are the God that sees, that hears and will deliver me. I activate divine wisdom within me so that I will not be a slave to my flesh or be swayed by the carnal mind.
I choose long term spiritual well-being over instant gratification. I look forward to the victories and blessings that are ahead. And I declare and decree that all the changes in my life will push, mold, and shape me into a better person daily, as I leave my burdens at the foot of the cross and rise in obedience to You.
Lord, open my spirit to hear what Your Spirit is saying, as I allow You to operate in and through me. Father, today I activate the Holy Spirit as I become still in Your presence and receive discernment in all that I do. Rise up in me Lord, and take full and complete control of every aspect of my life. In Jesus name, amen”.
It has been well said that one thing is certain in life, and that is change... May we let go and move on into the changes which will continue to transform us, and allow us to go deeper and further into the transformed life He has waiting for all of us!
