Distractions

Be careful [anxious or distracted] for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. -- Philippians 4: 6

Again, I am going to teach you about a simple subject that has great importance. Whether you know it or not, you do now, distractions are from the god of this world. When you’re trying to concentrate on something that is important, many times a distraction will come along. We may think this is normal and that’s how the world works. But it is not a normal situation when we are distracted from goals that we set.

Let’s take a very simple situation where a person is making an attempt to lose some weight. Now how simple can that be? I’m sure many, many readers have been in this situation. Did you ever notice how well you may be doing at first? And then it seems, out of nowhere, a problem arises. You become disgusted because you are trying so hard to do the right thing and this problem hinders you in some way from getting you to continue to lose the weight that you desire. God tells us how to counter this by saying that pertaining to anything and everything, we should pray to Him and be thankful that He will take the time to help us get back on track once we have made our requests known unto Him. God always requires one thing from us and that is believing. When we go to God for help, we must believe beyond a shadow of doubt that He is going to help us. [See above Scripture]

Before I move on to another very basic Scripture but again extremely important, I want to tell you one thing that will either comfort you or agitate you in some way. No one is perfect but you should strive to be perfect, and if you make mistakes, it’s only natural. Did you know that it’s wrong to be in a hurry no matter what you do in this life? God never wants you to be anxious for any single thing that you experience or want. That word in the above verse which is ‘careful’ is Old English and that means that you should not be anxious or distracted. Let’s move on to another very basic Scripture that tells you that you do have the ability to live life and not be distracted. This takes great discipline and a great knowledge of God’s Word. Now God would never tell you this unless it was not available to accomplish in your life. Let me get to the Scripture.

I can do all things through Christ which [who] strengthens me. -- Philippians 4: 13

As I have done many times in the past and I will do it again, I will give you a more literal translation of this verse according to usage.

I am ready for everything and equal to anything through him who infuses inner strength into me.

That’s quite a powerful statement, would you not say? Who is the one that strengthens you? The Scriptures say that we should put on the mind of Christ. Jesus Christ always did the Will of the true God, so if we put on the mind of Christ, it is really the same thing as putting on the mind of God. And where do we find the mind of God? In His Word, of course.

For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ. – I Corinthians 2: 16

The Scripture is saying that you can only know the mind of the Lord if God instructs you. God is His Word so you must study Him. Jesus Christ always did the Father’s Will so he imitated and obeyed what God taught him. So if you study the mind of God, you are in turn putting on the mind of Christ. Hence, “But we have the mind of Christ.” I am being slightly redundant on purpose.

So as I said in my previous teaching, if you are not studying God’s Word, and I don’t mean to be rude to you, but you might as well quit because you’re never going to make any headway. You’re never going to be able to do all things through Christ who strengthens you because you don’t even know who Christ is. You have to study the Word and that includes the Gospels which tell you what Jesus Christ was like and how he thought about different things and especially how he reacted to so many situations. Many people think that they can just go to church and many people think that they can make a small prayer once in a while and then they want to walk with the power of God. Well it ain’t gonna’ happen brother. A lot of people think that to study the Bible they need to be religious. Am I religious? I don’t think so. I make some mistakes once in a while and I do some things that are questionable. If I go down the highway and someone pulls next to me with a type of race car, and I am in my Corvette, well glory hallelujah - it’s drag race time. Is that the correct thing to do? I still wonder. If there’s no one anywhere on the highways, are we doing something wrong? Well. We are definitely breaking the law and that’s not a good thing to do because if you get caught it’s time to reach deep in your wallet and hopefully you can keep your driver’s license. With the car that I own right now, I only did this once. And maybe I’m sorry to say, but I got quite a thrill out of it. And I wanted to tell my competitor to take a good look at the front of my car, because they were never going to see it again – and they didn’t. I’m letting you know that I’m human just like you and we’re all sick of our privacy being taken away from us, not only on this computer, but when we walk on the streets. There are cameras everywhere recording what you are doing and I do not believe this is the true God’s Will. I am entitled to my opinion. How about you?

So getting back to God’s Word, we see that it is available to do all things according to the Word of God through Jesus Christ who strengthens us because we renewed our mind and our renewed mind is our key to power. It’s not that difficult to understand. In fact, it’s very simple as compared to figuring out all this software and different hardware on computers. I am having a little problem right now. I like to put my Scriptures in a purple tone and my PC is deciding to pick a weird color all by itself. I tell you many times computers are a device of the enemy. I will work this computer to the ground because I can teach the Word of God to you. I don’t ask any money and I couldn’t care less about money. By tithing when I was much younger, God saw to it that I had more money coming back to me that I know what to do with.

Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. -- II Timothy 2: 15

Now I always say not to take my word for it, but to listen to what God has to say and to do that, I must show it to you from God’s Word. Now watch the pattern here. By the way, I love to use that analogy referred to as patterns. The enemy also uses patterns often to steal, to destroy, and to kill. He counterfeits the patterns of the true God.

If you don’t study, you cannot renew your mind. If you don’t renew your mind, you have no power in your walk with God. If you don’t study and renew your mind, it is because you do not believe and you have no discipline. Without discipline, you have no freedom because discipline gives you great freedom. This is what I refer to as a patterns. It is God’s plan for us. Let us take a look at another very simple Scripture that many of us are not familiar with. Let’s examine the intricacies of God’s Word and at the same time, we will learn its purpose for us on this earth.

Here is another pattern of the true God that is simply dynamic. It concludes everything as to the reason we are here as per God’s guidance.

Let us hear the conclusion of the matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil. – Ecclesiastes 12: 13, 14

We were formed, made, and created to live by the Commandments that God set down. This is our complete purpose in this life. Can you imagine how fantastic that is? We were designed by God to live by and carry out His Will. When God says that we are to be distracted for nothing at all, that is the way that we should live. When you experience the power of God like I have, you don’t question what God says, you simply do it and then you see the results. Again, I am not perfect. By no means. I make mistakes and I forget some of God’s principles at times in my life. This is where the renewed mind comes in. The more that you renew your mind, the less mistakes you will make and the less principles of God you will forget. That is why the renewed mind is your key to power.

There’s a principal that I want to go over with you. It is simple, but extremely important to master. When you’re focusing on a goal, you must keep two factors in your mind at all times and here they are. You must be CLEAR and CONCERNED. Let’s go back to our very simple example concerning losing weight. Someone told me this and I was amazed that this person was able to make such a wise statement. It will surprise you to a certain extent and it may shock you because it is true. Losing weight is not that hard. Do you know what is really hard? It’s maintaining that weight. Why? Because we lose sight of the goal and we become distracted and we do not focus and we’re not clear and concerned any longer. We think we won and it goes to our head. But maintaining that weight loss that you worked so hard at is the key to total success and not failure. I have had this happen to me time and time again and I am fed up with it - totally fed up with it. When I hit my goal and I am so close even right now, I am going to make a concentrated effort to be clear and to stay concerned that I do not regain that weight. I was never to the point in my life where I could even hint the fact that I was obese. This never happened to me. I would always take control after 15 to 30 pounds overweight. But after I lost the weight, it might take 4 to 6 months or more and I will begin gaining weight once again. I lost my focus. I was distracted by the god of this world. And he s –c –s. That’s why you need the power from God and there is only one way you will get it and I told you what that was. Many times goals like this seem extremely difficult and they are. So I want to show you another Scripture from the book of Galatians that will ease your mind and give you some motivation to go on and not to quit. Because you always win if you never quit because the spirit of God in Christ in you is greater than the spirit that’s in the world.

And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. – Galatians 6: 9

I have learned that anything that comes too easy isn’t worth a damn dime. When you have to work for something, and then you accomplish it, you really appreciate it and it means much more to you than if it came to easy. God expects us to put up with a certain degree of tribulation which is mental pressure. He is saying in the above verse not to get to where you’re too tired when you’re trying to do to right thing. Take your time and do it right. In due season, and this means when God finds the exact right moment in time for you to succeed, you will then succeed. But there is a condition and remember that God is a respecter of conditions. We must not faint and this means that we should not give up in our mind. That’s where the battlefield is whether you know it or not. It is between the ears. Once we faint in our mind, we’ve had it. We will not accomplish our goals. So God is going over this in minute detail for you to show you that you are not to give up, because in time, you will win – you will succeed – if you don’t quit in your mind. Isn’t that amazing? I still get excited about the Word of God and I hope you do too because it is untouchable and it is perfect and it works every time with a mathematical exactness and with a scientific precision.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~