SPIRITUAL STAMINA

For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. – Romans 8: 6

Let’s face facts and admit to our self that when we walk only by our five senses, life is really boring. Many times people turn to drugs or alcohol, or gambling or anything to give them a thrill. It’s like a walking death. I remember what that was like before I learned about the Word of God.

But in contrast to that way of living, we can choose to be spiritually minded, which results in life and peace. I should mention that this is life to the fullest. Now we know that many people would love to have as much stamina as they possibly can. This can be referred to as energy, which allows us to live life without being tired or depressed or bored. Well, Romans 8: 6 tells us about the carnal mind and about the spiritual mind. But why are things like this? This is a teaching website which gives you answers and keys to the more than abundant life. Let us let God and His Word answer that question for us.

Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. – Romans 8: 7

God states this as simply as He can because He wants us to understand how important it is to walk by the Spirit of God. We can only know God by His words, so we must understand and study God’s Words. This is common sense. But in verse seven, God specifically states a fact that we must know. And that is the fact that the carnal mind, which is composed only of the five senses, is at conflict with the true God. Why is this true? For it is not subject, or comes under the jurisdiction of the laws of God, which is God’s Word. Then God finishes the Scripture by saying, neither indeed can be. In other words, it is impossible for this to happen. When we operate only by the five senses, we do what the world tells us to do. We should know by now that the god of this world is the devil himself. And all that he does is to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. He will give you a counterfeit stamina which will let you down just when you need the power the most. So the carnal mind is in conflict with the true God. It is that simple. And the spiritual mind is in alignment and harmony with the true God. If God is going to give you life to its fullest degree, then we are never going to run out of the stamina that we need.

It is so simple. I wish I could reach out and tell this to you right to your face. You have free will to walk by the five senses, or to walk by the spirit of God. Why would you make the wrong choice? It is because you are tempted by the world. I am going to go back in my Bible and show you some of the Scriptures that back up what I just said.

I said to you at the present time that this world is run and controlled by the devil himself.

In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. – II Corinthians 4: 4

For the present time and until Jesus Christ returns for the second time, the devil is the god of this world and he wants you to live only by your five senses. If you decide to live a spiritually minded life, this eventually defeats him. So the Scripture clearly states that this god blinds or deceives the minds of them who choose not to believe. He will get people to operate by their five senses and they will eventually be defeated no matter what they try to accomplish. I want you to take notice of something else that is said in this Scripture. It says that Christ is the image of God. It does not say that Jesus Christ is God.

Secondly, I mentioned that all that this devil does is to steal and to kill and to destroy.

The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. – John 10: 10

The thief is just another word for the devil himself and the Scripture states clearly what his ministry is and that is to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. How does he accomplish this? He does it by getting people to live by the five senses which is the same thing as having a carnal mind. In contrast to this, I feel it is surely important to mention the second part of this verse. I [Jesus Christ] am come into this world so that the ones who believe in him might have life and that they might have that life more abundantly. To live by the spirit of God and His Word gives you an inner hope for the future and for the present moment. We should do our best to live for the present moment. But when Jesus Christ returns for the second time and he’s coming back, there is going to be what is referred to as the third heaven and earth. There will be no sickness and no sadness, and there will be no death, and there will be no devil. Now that is a world that is surely something to look forward to.

Let me stop here for an instant. Don’t you think that this would make you look forward to so many different things? Do you not think that this would help you to have more stamina to go on in the face of some difficulties? Every believer faces tribulation at times and tribulation can be referred to as mental pressure. It happens to me and it will happen to you. The knowledge of the present and future where you live your life in a spiritual manner gives you the stamina to take on any opportunity. You begin to feel that nothing can defeat you if you just have faith and perseverance when times seem to get tough.

Now I would like to show you why we should be living life according to God’s Word. And let me say something I’ve said many times. Do you not think that the creator of life knows how to live it? Of course He knows the best way to live life because He created life.

Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. – Ecclesiastes 12: 13

When I first learned this verse, I was about as excited as can be to get such a fantastic answer to why we were supposed to live by God’s Word. This verse says that this is the whole duty of man. That means we were designed to walk and to live by God’s Word. God set this up for us and all we have to do is believe and act on it and we will live the more than abundant life with a massive amount of stamina which I have referred to as spiritual stamina. The verse says that we are to respect God and to keep His commandments, again, because we were designed to do this. God made us that way. When we go off into the five senses and live only by those five senses, we honestly disobey God by our own free will. God gave us all free will so that we weren’t like robots and had to love Him and had to listen to Him. God gave everything that He created free will so that they can choose to love and to worship Him freely and without being forced to do so. Some people don’t realize that even the angels have free will and so does the devil himself. That is why Lucifer rebelled against God in heaven so long ago. He had free will as an Angel to listen to God Almighty or to rebel against him. He chose the latter. That’s his problem. So we need to live by God’s commandments to have spiritual stamina beyond what we can even imagine. Because, if we, by our own free will decide to rebel and not listen to the true God, we will live a life of misery. I can tell you this is true because I was there. When I found God’s Word, I was so full of joy, I had to calm myself down. I witnessed to people all the time and signed people up for biblical research classes. I still get that excited even when I sit here at a computer and speak the words that I’m speaking. I honestly believe that they made voice-activated software just so I could run this website. No, it’s not perfect, but neither is anything in this world. That’s why we can achieve this great life that God has promised us because inherent in this type of lifestyle are great benefits and I’m just going to stress one and that is called forbearance which is better known as patience. I’m going to show this to you right now from the Word.

But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. -- Galatians 5: 22, 23

Many of us do not completely understand this Scripture so I’m going to share it with you to the fullest of my knowledge. First of all, the fruit of the spirit is referred to as fruit that is in one clump. The fruit of the spirit of a believer determines the quality of life of that believer. In simpler terms, it is the result of a believer’s walk and renewed mind in the Word. The more a believer studies and applies God’s Word, the more of the fruit of the spirit that he manifests in his or her life. You can see they are all positive attributes and there are nine of them. At the last part of verse 23, it says that against those there is no such law. God is saying that this part of His Word cannot be changed along with the rest of His Word. I should mention to you that it does not matter whether we believe the Word or not, it is still truth.

Now let’s go to only one fruit of the spirit and that is long-suffering. This is better known and easily understood to the human mind as being patience. If we have a lot of patience, we will have more spiritual stamina to withstand the enemy and all of his devices. I can always spot someone who studies the Word every day and who prays every day. This person has spiritual stamina and is more alive than most people that you meet. Now we already mentioned how a person gets this stamina and it is by studying and applying God’s Word every day in a person’s life. I wanted to bring this Scripture up to you to introduce you to those nine fruit of the spirit – one of them which is patience. Patience applies directly to our teaching. We can all use more patience than we have, I know this is true in my case. I have so much zeal and enthusiasm for God’s Word, that sometimes I get overexcited and I do not have enough patience to pace myself even when I’m doing a teaching. I am working on overcoming that and taking a rest once in a while and going back and checking my teaching as I go along. A patient person is one who is cool and who is always in control. Everyone admires a person who has a lot of patience and just stays calm in the midst of any circumstance. Don’t you want to be like that? Then you will study God’s Word and renew your mind to act upon what He says and not what the world says you should do. Remember, there is always a counterfeit to what the true God does and in the next teaching I’m going to teach exactly about that force that is second in power to God. Watch out for that teaching. I am sure you are going to recognize the title.

I would like now to compare God’s way of living from Galatians as to the world’s way also mentioned in Galatians in the same chapter. Let’s get right to it.

Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ had made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. -- Galatians 5: 1

A more literal translation of the beginning of that verse, which as you always know I will do for you, is to ‘stand forth or fast boldly with a fearless mind’ wherewith Jesus Christ has made us free and do not be entangled again with the yoke of bondage, which is referring to the law. Now why is this law mentioned? Because Jesus Christ came to do away with the law and to start a new administration called the grace administration. I had mentioned to you time and time again that you must read the teaching called The Seven Administrations. When you are living under the law which is the Old Testament, you are living under sin. The devil wants you to do this. That way he has a legal right over you as a believer even if you are born again. You should understand by now that we must be in fellowship with God. Fellowship is a fluctuating state where if we sin, we are out of fellowship with God and He cannot help us unless we confess it. But in contrast to all of this God wants us to stand forth with a fearless mind because Christ has made us free. He has delivered us from the law and He is telling us not to be entangled again with that law. If we stay in fellowship and it is an absolute must that we do, then we can stand fearlessly in the midst of all the negatives of this world and we do it with a fearless mind. This will definitely increase your spiritual stamina. It’s really quite simple, isn’t it? I am running this teaching from the top of my heart. I really have absolutely nothing prepared ahead of time. This sometimes throws the enemy for a loop. He has no idea where I’m going next so I hope this teaching is blessing you. I am simply perusing through the Church epistles and looking for Scriptures to support this idea of spiritual stamina.

By checking my research Bible, I remember a principle that I was once taught. So often it is so easy to violate this principle that it makes me angry that sometimes I still do it. It goes like this. Any time we have a plan to do something, where should we go first? The answer is obvious. We should go to God and ask him whether our idea is a good one and get His approval. Otherwise, when we don’t do this, we just spin our wheels. Did you ever get stuck with mud in a car? I did. You just sit there and you spin your wheels and you could damage a transmission at the same time. So many times I myself have gone ahead with some of my ideas and I just seem to forget to pray to God about the idea before I even started it. This is a dangerous situation and I am warning you never to do it. Let’s take a look at the Word.

But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. -- James 1: 4

If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraided not; and it shall be given him. -- James 1: 5

This is perfect because we go back to the subject of patience and it says to let patience have her perfect work so that you may be perfect and complete wanting nothing in this life. Now God tells us how to have this patience pertaining to our wisdom. He says to ask Him and He will give it to us without a second thought. Can you imagine this? Can you imagine how many times we take on some type of task and we never go to God first and ask Him? It is a dilemma for many believers but let’s face it, it’s not a difficult thing to do. We must renew our mind to ask God every time and we will not spin our wheels. Many of our ideas and thoughts are not God’s Will so when we go to carry them out, everything goes wrong and we can’t understand it. It is because we have not gone to God to give us the wisdom that we need to either carry out this task, or to wait a while before beginning it, or to carry it out later in the future. This is a major principle in the Word of God. It is a diamond that God has put there for us. We need to respect and honor God for what He tells us. You see that it is the Word that is so simple. We, as believers complicate this Word and when we do, everything seems to go wrong. Many of us blame God – it is an easy thing to do. But it is not God’s fault and you must realize this all of the time. You must search for areas in your life where you are not renewing your mind to the Word. This, very well, may be one of those areas.

Now let’s go back one more Scripture in James which should help you understand this overall subject.

Knowing this that the trying of your faith worketh patience. James 1: 3

God is trying to show you what will increase your patience, which of course increases your spiritual stamina. He is talking about your faith. This word faith must be understood as the word ‘pistis’ in Greek and it means believing. When you work your mind to be able to believe more and more of God’s Word, it builds patience in your mind. So God is going back to the basics of believing which results in all things such as patience. Then God goes on to say to let patience have her perfect work. Just let it do its thing. That way you will be perfect and you will want nothing. Then God goes into His principle about asking Him for wisdom which is what you will need to carry out your spiritual stamina as a result of your believing. Do you see all the things that are encompassed in just three Scriptures? Don’t try to master everything at one time. Just work one principle at a time. Since the subject of patience is really quite important to obtaining spiritual stamina, let us go on in the book of James and go over three more Scriptures so that we understand how important it is to believe and not to waiver back and forth in our mind and to change our minds from one day to another. Watch how God puts this.

But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. A double minded man is unstable in all his ways. –James 1: 6 – 8

This should be rather amazing to a believer. God is saying that a believer should ask by believing and should have nothing in his mind wavering or having any doubt. For he that is doubtful is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed back and forth. God wants us not to be like that man who wavers back and forth. Let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord. Then God refers to a man like this as being double minded. And He says a double minded man is unstable in all his ways. That’s really amazing. I’ve heard it said but I don’t believe that’s what the reference means that an unstable double minded man is like a schizophrenic. However I honestly don’t feel that that is the analogy that God is making. How many times do we make decisions and in the next day we wake up and we make another decision and later that day we make another decision? There is one thing I learned in the great ministry in which I studied and that is to never second guess your decisions. When you make a decision stick by it. Do not second guess it. Do not be double minded and waiver back and forth because you will never get anything from God if you think in that manner. And you will surely not have patience and peace within which as we know always gives us the stamina that we need to go on. We cannot be nervous and worrying about this and changing our mind every second. We must have a steady-state in our mind to be patient to have spiritual stamina.

To sum this teaching up, we must be strong in our knowledge of God’s Word. It must be part of our everyday life and we must study and learn and take the time that God deserves. Too many people’s surprise, we owe God one seventh of our time. That’s over three hours per day. If you pray in the spirit much during the day and study a good half hour in the morning and pray for at least 15 minutes with your understanding, you can be very close to that one seventh. If we only knew what God would truly do for us if we carried out His Will every day, we would be thrilled to give God this amount of time. In fact we would give Him more than this time. The enemy is hard at work to distract you and to get you conformed to this world and he’s doing a good job of it. When you watch television, do you see anything about God? When you listen to the radio in all the songs that you hear, do hear much of anything about God? The enemy is hiding at the present time and he is pulling all the stamina away from the believer because the believer is being tricked. First of all he is being tricked into thinking that the devil is not even anywhere to be found. This is a most dangerous way of thinking. Once the enemy hides, that’s when he’s really up to something. I will tell you right now that he is in hiding. On a positive note, just keep your head up into the Word and keep studying and keep trying and God who sees this effort will reward you for all the things that you do pertaining to Him.

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