2010 A Year Of Rest And Completion

Philippians 1:6 Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.
A new year and a new decade is upon us. As we enter into 2010 we all have some unfinished work in us. We have dreams and visions of the future. We have promises to be fulfilled, and God desires to perform those things within our lives. He has begun this work and he will perform it.
In 2010 I believe it can be a year of “Rest and Completion”, if we will allow God to work in our lives. We need to rest in the fact that we can’t make these things happen on our own. Too many times we are struggling to try and make things happen. The scripture makes it clear who will perform these things. God! We simply need to believe that God will do what his word says he will do. We often say we believe and then we go out to try to make it happen on our own. We fail in our attempts and become very frustrated. No! Our job is to believe him, and rest in knowing that he will perform what he said he would do. If we will do this it will take much of our stress out of our lives and we will find we will be much more fulfilled and at peace.
Let’s look at Psalms 138:8, “ The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me….” What concerns you? The unfinished dreams, visions, goals, and promises that God has spoken to you? Yes! We all are concerned. Scripture says here that he will perfect those things that concerns us. The word perfect means to bring to completion. So, those dreams, visions, goals, and promises shall be completed. As we focus our attention on God’s word this year, let us rest in him. What he begun he will perform and complete. Yes, 2010 can be a year of “Rest and Completion”!

Resisting The Enemy

James 4:7 “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.”
There are all kinds of temptations and thoughts that can be very tempting. We have to understand the devil uses these carnal things to tempt you, to try to get you ensnared by one of these devices. So, we need to understand the underlying lust of these things comes from the devil. But, there is good news, we can overcome these temptations through Christ. As a new Christian I learned from this scripture if I would stay in resistance to the devil and his devices, that I could overcome anything. It is really pretty simple, resist the devil and he will flee. You have to have the attitude that you are not just going to try this, but you are not going to give up. If the enemy sees that you are half heartily resisting he will stand his ground until you give into his temptation. But, it is when he sees you are determined not to give in to his temptation, he will then turn and flee.
One thing we need to understand, we are not to try and resist the devil using just our own strong wills. If you do you will find out that you are not strong enough to resist the devil in your own strength. No, this scripture say’s for us to submit to God. We need his amazing grace. By his grace we can stand against the devil and resist him. You know, this scripture says that the devil will flee from you when you resist him. This indicates that when the devil sees a Christian standing and resisting temptation, he sees someone empowered by God and flees away with terror. Take your place in Christ and resist the devil and he will flee.

Four Steps To Fulfilled Vision

Proverbs 29:18 Where there is no vision, the people perish….
Scripture tells us here if we don’t have vision we will perish. The word perish simply means a slow way of dying. Without vision we kind of dry up and die. It is an agonizing way to die. Don’t ever underestimate the power of vision. Vision gives meaning to life. I remember when my grandparents retired and sold their variety store. They had owned that store for many years. They knew most of the people in the little town that they lived in and where they operated their store. It had been a big part of their life. When they sold the store, their way of living drastically changed. They didn’t know what to do with themselves. They sat at home with nothing to do. It didn’t take long and their health began to fail them. They had a vision for years and worked with it on a daily basis. It was a wellspring of life to them. When they retired, they should have refired in another direction. In other words when we retire, it doesn’t mean we quit living, but we get another vision and start something else. We should always have vision, goals, and dreams. The secret to a long fulfilling life is having a vision for life.
There are four steps that we can take to fulfill the vision that God has given us.
The first step is meditation. When we take time to meditate God’s word and pray, then we can begin to learn what is the will of God for our life. I have learned over the years that the greater your prayer life is, the greater your vision will be. When we spend time praying and meditating the word of God, God will begin to speak to us. Usually God speaks to us in that still small voice. This is why the scripture tells us in Psalms 46:10 that we must be still and know God. We have to make time with God. We have to put that busy lifestyle to the side where we can get alone with him. Have you ever noticed that we can paint a picture in a persons mind with words? Many times this is how God will speak to us. We may not realize that he is speaking, but we begin to see things in our minds and our hearts. This is how we get vision. As we pray and meditate God begins to speak, and we see it on the canvas of our hearts. As we continue to pray every day and God continues to bring this same vision back over and over again, we then can rest assured that this is God’s vision and dream for us. It is exciting to know that we are hearing from God and that we know his vision for our lives.
The second step is inspiration. With meditation comes inspiration. When we have taken the time to pray and seek the Lord through meditation, then we will hear and have inspiration. Through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit we now have vision. So, with meditation comes inspiration.
The third step is motivation. When you have the inspiration of the Holy Spirit you become motivated. You want to go to work and begin to see God’s vision fulfilled. We have to wait on God’s timing and make sure we are not trying to make something happen. We have to wait on God. We have had meditation, inspiration, and now we have motivation. At this point we really are beginning to see the vision in our heart in a stronger way. We are excited and sometimes don’t know what to do with ourselves. Motivation breathes fresh life to the vision and helps us stay encouraged through the process of seeing the vision fulfilled.
The fourth and final step is gratification. We had meditation, inspiration, motivation, and now gratification. It is so gratifying to take hold and live in the vision that God gave us. After dreaming God’s dreams, having his vision for my life, and many times standing on the promise for a long time, it is like a dream come true. It is gratifying to say the least.
Meditation, Inspiration, Motivation, and Gratification, the four steps to fulfilled vision.

The Power of Praise

Acts 16:25-26, “ And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them. And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one’s bands were loosed.”
We have all experienced a midnight hour. Our midnight hour was probably not near as extreme as Paul’s and Silas’s midnight hour. Paul and Silas were beaten, then thrown into prison and their feet were put into the stocks. They didn’t feel like praying and singing. It probably was the last thing they felt like doing. They did something that was sacrificial. This was no doubt what the bible refers to as the sacrifice of praise. But, where there is praise, there is power! It tells us that suddenly there was a earthquake, that the prison was shaken, that the doors were opened, and every one was set free. When we begin to praise God, then suddenly God begins to work in our situation. What looks impossible with man, God comes into our circumstances for our behalf and turns everything around. Through praise we are made free!
It is through praise that we begin to experience the power of God. Even Jesus taught in the Lord’s prayer that we begin prayer first with praise. In Matthew 6:9 it says, “After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in Heaven, Hallowed be thy name.” The word Hallowed means to give praise. Jesus was saying to praise God before you begin to give him your petitions. In essence, praise escorts you into the presence of God. In psalms it says we enter his gates with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise. With praise we bring God into our situation. The book of Psalms tells us that God inhabits our praise. In other words, he comes and moves amongst us when we offer praise to him. There is power in praise!

How To Get Vision For Life

“How To Get Vision For Life”
By Pastor Rickey Hunt

Many times I have people ask me how they can know the will of God for their lives. I tell them they must get alone and spend time in prayer. Psalms 46:10 tells us to be still and know that I am God… Jesus was our example. Although he was very busy ministering to the people, often he would leave the crowds and go up to the mountain alone to pray. It was during these times that Jesus learned how to hear from the Father God. We also have to draw away from the busyness of life to be able to hear from God. How does God speak? It is usually in that still small voice. In a very quite way. That is why we have to get alone and get still and listen. Prayer is not just giving God all of our petitions, but it is also us being quiet to hear what he might say to us.
Sometimes that still small voice is not heard, but we might begin to see what he is saying. With words we can paint a picture. If I describe the day as being a bright sun shiny day with the wind blowing through the leaves and the leaves are beginning to fall, you not only heard my words, but you began to see these things in your mind. Jesus is an artist painting pictures on the canvas of your heart with that still small voice. One day in 1984, when I was a new Christian, I was praying and I began to get on myself because I thought I had lost my focus and began to daydream. But, I noticed that this so called daydream was the same thoughts that had come to my mind for the last several days when I was praying. At that point I began to learn when God begins to speak to us while praying that it is often seen and not just heard. This is how we get vision for life. Even Jesus said in John 5:19 that he does what he seeth the Father do… It is through prayer that we begin to see and have vision for life.

Entering Into Our Promised Land

“Entering Into Our Promise Land”
By Pastor Rickey Hunt

When God brought the children of Israel out of Egypt, he promised them that he would give them a land of their own. We refer today to that land as the nation of Israel. This was their promise land. Deuteronomy 11:31 reads “For ye shall pass over Jordan to go in to possess the land which the Lord your God giveth you, and ye shall possess it, and dwell therein.” This was the beginning of the journey to the promise land. This promise said that they would possess it and that they would dwell in it. With this promise they began their journey. What they didn’t know until later was that there were giants in the promise land. These giants were not only big in stature, but they also were intimidating by what they said. Remember what Goliath spoke to David. Goliath spoke words to David to intimidate him and to cause him to fear. It didn’t work with David. David didn’t listen to the giant, but he knew his God would bring him through to victory. On the other hand, 10 out of 12 spies that were sent to spy out the land were intimidated by these giants. We should all be on a journey to our promise land, but we need to be aware that we will encounter giants on the way to this promise land. These giants will also be big in stature and they will also speak words against us to try and put fear upon us. We have to be like David and not fear, but run to the battle and defeat these giants that stand in our way. We must stay focused on the promise and know that we shall possess it and dwell in that promise land.

Being Led By The Spirit Of God

Being Led By The Spirit Of God
By Pastor Rickey Hunt

Romans 8:14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
I remember as a new Christian praying one day, “Lord speak to me in a way that I can understand”. At that time I didn’t know how to hear God. I wanted to hear the Lord and be able to get his direction in my life. As I prayed that prayer that day I had faith that God had heard my prayer and was able to speak to me in a way that I could understand. There was one particular prayer request that I had. It was concerning a bible conference that I was invited to go to. Just a few days later I woke up in the middle of the night after I had a dream. In this dream I saw a cloud open up and I saw a man teaching the word of God. As I pondered on this dream, I didn’t know what it meant and soon went back to sleep. Well a few days later on Sunday morning my friend that had invited me to the conference handed me a brochure of the conference. As I opened the brochure I immediately saw the pictures of the speakers. In the line up of speakers I saw the man that I had seen in my dream. I already felt good about going to this conference, but I knew God was speaking to me in a way that I would understand. He answered my prayer. I went to this conference and was blessed. Probably the greatest blessing in this, was I knew God had spoken to me in a way that I could understand. From this point on I knew God could make his will known unto me no matter what. Does God speak to me in visions and dreams all the time? No, he does not. Most of the time I have that knowing in my spirit that this is the way that the Lord is leading. In Romans 8:16 it says that the Holy Spirit bears witness with our spirit. Many times we refer to this as having that know that we know that we know feeling in our spirit. Be confident as we pray and study God’s word that we can be led by the Spirit.