Which side are you fighting from?

Have you wondered why you still have so many battles in your life even though you serve God faithfully? Did you think your life struggle was over when you gave your life to Christ? Did you think your sickness be gone, and your heartaches will mend? Why are you continually have troubles in life? Are these troubles ever end?

Everyone wishes the same. Nobody likes life issues and heartaches. The fact is God never promised that you wouldn’t have any problem. You don’t like uncomfortable, pains, and ongoing struggles. It’s understandable wishful thinking. What the bible says is quite the opposite.

Get rid of the complaining spirit!

Are you a complainer? Even if you aren’t, it’s not natural to you. The complaining spirit has embedded in the human soul since the sin came into humanity. You don’t have to practice to be a complainer because you were born with it. You could be complaining about anything from too cold, too hot, too little, too much, too loud, too quiet. You’ll never be satisfied if you don’t learn to be thankful.

Do you know God hates the complaining spirit? It bothers Him every word you complain. He was greatly displeased when the Israelites complained.

Ministry 101 – School of the Holy Spirit

Are you confident enough doing your ministry by educations and training you had? Or did you even have any schooling? It’s always a question of whether you need schooling or don’t to make your ministry successful. In the secular world, your history of education has ever questioned for finding a job or promotion. People will assume your quality of life and your being by looking at the list of education history. But God’s Kingdom principle is so much different than what the world expects. The bible says,

When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus. – Acts 4:13 NIV

Ministry 101 – Walk with them

One of your ministry purposes for the Kingdom is to bring people to Christ. You are called to share the good news. But sometimes, your ministry won’t end there. There are times you have to walk with people until their walk be established and steady. That’s called “Discipleship.” Are you committed to the people you minister?

Peter and John had a ministry opportunity at the temple gate that was called “Beautiful gate.” They brought a miracle of healing to a man who sat at that temple gate every day for many years, begging the gifts from people because he couldn’t walk since his birth. They commanded the man to walk in the name of Jesus, and he has healed completely.

Do you hear it?

Do you know how to hear the voice of God?

Do you hear it by your physical ears?

How do you know that was His voice?

If you don’t know how to answer those questions, you might have irritated by some believers’ comments by saying, “This morning God told me…” or “I sensed God is telling me…” The Bible says,

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. – John 10:27 ESV

Knowing someone’s voice requires a relationship. It’s not the relationship that you know who that person is, but a close relationship that’s close enough to heart the person’s voice. As your baby knows your voice, or your dog knows your voice differ from others, you would learn and understand your master’s voice.

Ministry 101 – Power

A lot of the people have almost any appliances that they need in their homes. It may not be everybody, but you have basic stuff that you use every day. They sure make your life easy to live. Can you imagine a life without the refrigerator or lights on the ceiling? All those things you live with every day, not really thinking they are in the house, are useless if they have not plugged into power. The things that have to use with power are meaningless without power.

Your Christian life and ministry life is the same way. It’s powerless and meaningless when you have not plugged into the power source.

The power of praise

Praise the Lord.

Praise the Lord, you his servants;
    praise the name of the Lord. – Psalm 113:1 NIV

The Bible commands you to praise the Lord! Do you know the power of praise? If the Word of God commands you to do so, there must be a reason for it.

Do you always feel like to praise God or worship Him? None of us do. Life is not easy, sometimes, like you want it to be. You have worries, concerns, challenges, and troubles. Even then, the Bible commands you to praise God. King David said, “ I WILL praise the Lord.” He had to decide whether he will be sorry for himself or choose to praise God during pain. How about you?

Ministry 101 – Is that your problem?

Who doesn’t want to be successful when you are in ministry? If God called you to do something for His Kingdom, you want to be your best and do outstanding work to bless God and His people. There’s nothing wrong with that.

But the problem sometimes is you don’t always see the results or outcome of your ministry right away. You would love to see what you did was practical and made an impact on somebody’s life. You might even feel that what’s worth if you can’t see the result. Let’s stop for a second and think.

Is that your problem?

What about him?

“What about him?”

Children often redirect parents or teachers’ attention to someone else when they get caught doing something that they shouldn’t be. Your sin-nature doesn’t like to carry any responsibility that you need to answer for it. It’s much easier to put it on someone else and make yourself look better. From the first man and the woman, Adam and Eve, human nature doesn’t like to take responsibility to yourself, but blame others or make them the center of the problem.

Jesus spoke strongly to his disciple, John, about this when he questioned.

I believe it when I see it!

“I believe it when I see it!”

How many times many of us said that in our daily lives? Some people say, “Seeing is believing.” Thomas, one of Jesus’ disciples, was just like many of us. He spent many days following Jesus, talked with Him, ate with Him, and ministered people with Him. But that was the exact words he said.

Now Thomas (also known as Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!”

But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.” – John 20:24-25 NIV

He said unless he can see Jesus with his eyes and touch Him with his hands, he won’t believe it. But that’s not what the bible says about faith. After he had close fellowship with Jesus, what did sweep him away to unbelief?