Power of Choice!  By James Lantz

      It may sound to simple to some, but our success comes by making right choices. We are living out the reward of our past decisions and actions. God has given us the freedom to choose life or death, the kingdom of God or the kingdom of darkness, to walk after the ways of the spirit or the ways of the flesh. God is so good! God desired to have us be a part of his royal family so much, that he paid the penalty for our sins with the blood of his Son Jesus. God loves us just as much as he does Jesus! (Se-lah – stop and meditate on that)  John 17:23  I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou (God) hast sent me (Jesus), and hast loved them (disciples – including us), as thou hast loved me.  Salvation is a choice! Believing is a choice! What we think about is a choice! What we say is a choice! Refusing to fear and refusing to speak fear is a choice! To worry is a choice, no anxiety can stay in us if we continue to think about what God has done for us. (Mental illness is just as real as physical sickness and Jesus bore that sickness for us as well.)  Ps. 107:20  He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.  This is a good scripture to rejoice about, because God will even heal us when we caused our own destruction. Now don’t misunderstand me, if we want to be well, we will have to change (repent). In Jesus earthly ministry the multitudes came to hear and be healed of their infirmities. When I hear people complain about their sickness and then want me to pray the prayer of faith for them to be healed without them doing what God say’s is just foolish. First of all, I am not the healer, second, God does not owe healing to anybody, it is a gift that is given to everyone who comes to him correctly (humbly and in faith). When we are expecting (believing) to receive something good from God we will be excited and rejoicing. Complaining is saying to God, this should not be happening to me and if I was you, I would do things differently. The truth is, God is more than gracious to all of us and we don’t deserve healing. Healing, like every other gift from God, is to be received by cooperating with spiritual laws. Complaining is a symptom of unbelief. That first generation of the children of Israel who came out of Egypt did not conform to spiritual law. They saw miracle after miracle and yet they would not believe what God had given them. When we received Jesus Christ `as the Lord of our life, we were delivered out of the kingdom of  darkness (Egypt) and brought into the kingdom of light (Canaan). There is a new way of operating in the kingdom of God! We walk by faith, putting off the works of darkness and putting on the new man in the image of Christ. The reason many people are depressed is because they are beliving (worrying) the lies of the devil, instead of what God said. Worry can actually overtake us if we fail to do what God say’s and the only way to get free is to do what he say’s.  Isaiah 26:3  Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.  The real difficulty people are having is wanting the benefits of salvation (love, joy, peace and blessings) but wanting to be their own Lord (boss).  Isaiah 48:22  There is no peace, saith the Lord, unto the wicked.  Humility and the fear of the Lord come before promotion and riches. I thank God for the privilage to choose salvation!  John 3:16 .  .  .  whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.  John 6:47  .  .  .  He that believeth on me hath everlasting life.  Mark 16:16  He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.  Acts 2:21  .  .  .  whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.  Notice that God has made provision for every person who believes and calls upon his name to be saved. You do not have to wonder if God wants you or if God is able to save you. Some let the devil confuse them concerning certain scriptures like, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. Now even a child would know that God would not hate someone before they were born for no reason and then tell us to love our enemies. God knows what people will choose before they are born.  Romans 9:15  For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy (the humble), and I will have compassion on whom (the repentant) I will have compassion.  If you study the scriptures, you will find that God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. Jacob was a deciever and a liar but he humbled himself and changed. He told God if you keep me I will tithe to you. Jacob valued the blessing of God but Esau despised the blessing of God. A humble person will acknowledge that what God gives is valuable and what God says is more important than what I think. Redemption is offered to everyone! Some will scoff ,walking after their own lusts, saying where is the promise of his coming? These people are willingly ignorant of the fact that God destroyed the earth once because of sin.  2 Pet. 3:9  The Lord is .  .  . longsuffering to usward, not willing that any (all who will humble themselves and believe) should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

    Predestination is not so hard to understand when we realize that God predestined that the church (those who come to God through believing in Jesus Christ) would become his children.  Ephesians 1:3 – 6  Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.  God, because of his great love for us, chose to have Jesus suffer with our penalty and give us His victory. God gives us a choice, obey and be blessed or disobey and suffer the consequences. God gave Adam a very simple command, don’t eat the fruit of this one tree. Saul of Tarsus was given a choice, stop persecuting me, or else. Saul made a choice to serve the Lord Jesus Christ that day on the road to Damascus. God gives us a choice, if you love me, you will obey me. Our attitude determines our altitude! Our decisions determine our direction and our direction determines our destiny! The word says we are not to allow ourselves to think like the world thinks. The world thinks according to the limitations of the flesh and the reasoning of the natural mind. The world does not think in terms of eternal consequences nor the grace granted to God’s covenant people. We are to renew our minds to think like he thinks! God thinks that all things are possible with Him. God thinks that we are joint heirs with Jesus Christ! God thinks that all we have to do is let our request be known unto him and it will be done. God thinks that we will preach this gospel to the whole world. God thinks that every human being is precious! The choices that we make are indicaters of what we believe. If we are believing something that is contrary to the word of the Lord, we need to change what we believe and think and do. If we choose the way of the flesh we are choosing death. He who refuses to embrace the word of the Lord and be a doer of it shall fall when the storms of life come. The one who believes the word of God and does what it says will prosper.  Pro. 3:1&2 My son, forget not my law; but let thine heart keep my commandments: for length of days, and long life, and peace, shall they add to thee.  Deut. 28:2  And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God.  There is no better offer anywhere than what God has offered us!  Ps. 112:1–3  Praise ye the Lord. Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord, that delighteth greatly in his commandments. His seed shall be mighty upon earth: the generation of the upright shall be blessed. Wealth and riches shall be in his house: and his righteousness endureth forever.   Delighteth means to incline, to bend, to be pleased with, desire, to be well pleased, to have pleasure, to will. As we desire to hear God’s word and do it, we will be pleased to bend our will and put God first. We do his word (his will) because we love him! If you know that you have been making wrong choices with your life and you would like to change you can begin with acknowledging your sin (repent).

     Genuine repentance means that you are going to change (begin making the right choices)! If you have not given your life to God. Pray  Dear God, I give my life to you and I make Jesus the Lord of my life! Rom. 10:9&10

 If you are a child of God but need cleansing pray the following.

• Ask the Lord to cleanse you from (name the sin) and receive your forgiveness! (1 John 1:9)   

• Commit to the proper choice or choices that are pleasing to the Lord! Ask God to help you!

• Make the adjustments in your life that will ensure you will carry out your commitments!