September 2016 Spirit Food

Once you are presented with what the Word of God has to say about an issue, you are responsible for receiving His love, grace, & favor; and the gift of His righteousness. Remember, you are greatly blessed, highly favored, and deeply loved by your Heavenly Father.

This month let’s focus on partaking of God’s rest and refreshing.

Isaiah 28:11–12 - For with stammering lips and another tongue He will speak to this people, to whom He said, “This is the rest with which you may cause the weary to rest,” and, “This is the refreshing”...

To counter stress, many people resort to tobacco, alcohol or tranquilizers. These things, besides having harmful side effects, are costly and often lead to addictions.

God has something better for us. It is powerful, costs us nothing and has no harmful side effects. He calls it “the rest” and “the refreshing”. What is He referring to? Speaking in tongues— “For with stammering lips and another tongue…”

People on medication for years (depending on the medication), are more likely to have a plethora of problems: severe depression, suicidal thoughts, insomnia, chronic sinusitis, gastritis, weight gain, panic attacks, and the list could go on.

Many Christians simply do not understand that when they asked Jesus to come into their heart and made Him LORD of their life, the Holy Spirit moved into their being and made them a new creation in Christ! Christians need to comprehend that as God is a trinity being, mankind was created in His image and we are also a trinity beings; meaning: each man, woman, and child has a spirit, soul (mind, will, and emotions), and body (I call it an “earth suit”).

When you were born into this world as we know it, you were born into a world in which sin exists. Basically, your earthly spirit within was unknowledgeable of the things of God. He enabled you to have the breath of life when you were born into this world, however, your earthly spirit remained unknowledgeable until you learned about Jesus. As you grew, and learned about Jesus, you began to have an understanding that life had meaning and the creator of the world as we know it has a plan for each of His creations!

When you accepted Jesus as the LORD in your life, The Holy Spirit (part of God’s trinity), came to dwell on the inside of you! We refer to this as being “born again” because His Spirit joined your spirit bringing your carnal human spirit to life (the knowledge and acceptance of Him)! This happened because you heard of Jesus somehow … either by preaching, a song, an article you read somewhere, someone sharing, or through your own investigation. Regardless, the fact remains, the measure of faith came within you by you becoming knowledgeable about Jesus enough to make a decision to accept Him as the LORD of your life.

From that point in your life forward, it’s a matter of developing a relationship with Him, learning how deep His love is for you, and acting on following the leading of His Spirit within you; enabling you to live a healthy, prosperous, life while here on this earth.

One of the ways we develop this relationship with Our Heavenly Father is through His written word (the Bible) and prayer. Prayer is a matter of verbally communicating with Our Heavenly Father. Jesus is our intercessor, and our advocate. When we pray in our known tongue, we pray with the knowledge we have on an issue. When the Holy Spirit came into our being, He has provided us with a heavenly prayer language. This heavenly prayer language is referred to in some circles as unknown tongues because our mind hasn’t been trained in that specific language. As with accepting Jesus as the LORD of your life, faith in using this gift comes from the knowledge of it, believing the ability of it exists to you as a believer, and acting upon that believing.

Once your knowledge, understanding and faith is sufficient in this area, Our Heavenly Father (through the Holy Spirit) will begin prompting you to pray in tongues as often as you desire. When you respond to the prompting of the Holy Spirit (which resides within you), you’ll be amazed by the results. The moment you start to pray in tongues, even though it may be just a few syllables, you’ll feel a rest, and a peace come over you like you may have never experienced before. This should encourage you to pray in tongues more. And the more you pray in tongues, the more rest and peace you’ll feel.

Through praying in tongues regularly, God delivers His believers from a host of long-term illnesses. This is the rest and the refreshing which God has promised us.

It is unfortunate that many believers have not been made more knowledgeable of God’s love outside of basic salvation (John 3:16 and accepting Jesus as Lord, so they will not go to hell); as there can be so much more to the relationship with Almighty God than that.

This is one of the reasons why Our Heavenly Father through the leading of the Holy Spirit has directed me to produce the “Spirit Food” series of articles on a monthly basis. As he requested of Peter John 21:15 - “Feed my lambs”, then in John 21:16 – “Shepherd my sheep”, and in John 21:17 - “Feed my sheep”. Notice it did not say “beat” (many preachers continuously point out to congregations how bad mankind is), but feed. Lambs refer to new believers/creations in Christ (our Redeemer), who need to be instructed in the things of God and His perfect will for our lives while we live in this world. “Shepherd my sheep” refers to providing Godly counsel and continuing education, preaching and teaching Our Heavenly Father’s love and grace revealed in the Bible. “Feed my sheep” also implies there is always more revelation knowledge available, enabling a more intimate relationship with Our Heavenly Father.

As we grow in His knowledge and perfect will for our lives, we should be becoming healthier and stronger each day.

You will not lose out when you take time to sit down and read or listen to God’s Word concerning His love and grace towards you. Your health and well-being will be blessed. (Proverbs 4:22) So take time today to meditate on His Word. It will make your way prosperous (Joshua 1:8–9), and give you divine health and good success!

Proverbs 4:20–21- “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;”

Understand and comprehend: one thing is needful to reign in this life, and that one thing is to believe that when you give time to God’s Word first, God will take care of all your needs. It is a “mind set” you need … to believe that your Heavenly Father loves you so much, He will arrange for all of your needs to be met. Believe that what Jesus did for mankind on the cross (paying the price for all of mankinds sin, past, present and future) made you righteous in God’s eyes, and that Our Heavenly Father’s grace (undeserved favor in every situation), is bestowed upon you. With this “mind set”, you will reign in this life, in every area!

You can meditate on a scripture while accomplishing other things … the reality is, you think about a lot of different things throughout the day while doing other things. So, instead of having worried thoughts about a situation focus your mind on a verse of scripture you read first thing in the morning. Mutter it over and over thinking about it, and allow the Holy Spirit residing within you reveal to you His truth regarding how that verse can apply in your life.

Heavenly Father, your Word says in Romans 10:9-10- “that if I confess with my mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in my heart that You raised Him from the dead, that I would be saved. For with the heart one believes unto salvation.” I believe your Word, Heavenly Father, and confess Jesus Christ (the anointed one and His anointing) as Lord of my life now. I believe that You raised Him from the dead. I confess that I was a sinner, but now I’ve been saved by Your grace, and in Your thoughts, I am now in right standing with You. I denounce Satan and all he stands for. Write my name in the Lamb’s book of Life. In Jesus Name. Amen (so be it).

Congratulations! If this is your first time praying this prayer, please write and let us know!

Should you decide to give and financially support this ministry with gifts given in faith, I join my faith with yours to see the devourer rebuked (Malachi 3:11) and for you to receive a harvest; pressed down, shaken together and running over (Luke 6:38). Please remember to name your seed!

Dr. Mark Krom, Ph.D., D.Psy

Minister/Clinical Pastoral Psychologist