The Seven Biblical Principles

ou must have inorder to get your

There are seven mandatory

things you must have in order

to get your prayers answered.

Starting Your Day With Jesus

LIFEstyle Series

By Mel D Westbrook MBTh

Starting Your Day With Jesus LIFEstyle Series

The Book Introduction

Version: 25.10.2

Using The Truth/Prayer Pages

Jesus will be teaching you a truth then lead you into praying for that truth. Each page has power truths and power prayers. Today read about the purpose of Power Truths. Then, tomorrow read about the purpose of Power Prayers. From then on, you will read three Truth/Prayer Pages each day for five days. Please read the purpose of Power Truths today. NOTE: This is a five-day program; you skip Saturday and Sunday.

The Purpose Of “Power Truths”

Week One Day One

What Is Your Original Purpose?

This introduction is used in all the “Starting Your Day With Jesus LIFEstyle Series” studies and prayers. If you have read this introduction before, it may seem repetitious. But, it is vital that you stay aware of where Jesus is taking you and what you are doing to get there.

What kinds of people are you having to deal with every day? Do you find that, as a Christian, it hard to do what Jesus wants your relationships to be? With the kind of people you have to deal with, how does He expect you to treat people with unity, truth, compassion, fairness, and love? How do these things work in business, dating, marriage, a family, or with an enemy or adversary? How do you take what you learn in the Bible and apply it to the way you live life? How do you do it in such a way it actually empowers you to succeed in life in a better way than ever before? You and Jesus will be able to solve these issues together here.

Does The Bible Help With Your Life?

Have you ever read a requirement in the Bible, and wondered what would happen if you applied it to your business or a relationship? What would happen to your business or your friends if you went around just telling them the truth? It can look like you would be a lot more successful if you mainly concentrated on your needs, likes, preferences, and interests. To start loving others and concentrating on their needs, can appear to hurt your goals, plans, and future; but, it actually enhances them. Wisdom from Jesus will make the difference.

What makes you win in life? What causes people to want to be around you? Why would someone want to do business with you, marry you, be your friend, or stop being your enemy? What kind of a person would you need to be to win at life and it make you and those around you happy. What is Jesus, the truths of the Bible, and Christianity offering that would make your life so much better that you wish you had lived that way all of your life?

Did You Know There Are Two Lifestyles?

There are two approaches to life; one involves dishonesty and the other involves honesty. One involves selfishness and the other involves love. One involves goals that end at death and the other wins now and in eternity. One involves loving things and using people and the other involves loving people and using things. One involves following the teachings of the world and the other involves following the teachings of Jesus. The thing about these two lifestyles is, one abuses people and the other blesses, helps, befriends, and cares about people.

Would You Like To Grow With Jesus?

What if you are already too busy to add one more thing to your life? What if you already have a full schedule? What if you are already doing as much as possible trying to have a relationship with God? Why would you add something like this to your busy schedule?

It’s true you can’t just stop your life to let Jesus teach you. But, would reading and praying over three pages a day really be that hard? Rather than a simple “thought for the day” or some self-help concept, what if Jesus took you into steady, continued growth in your relationship with Him? What if He took you into incredible principles and taught you how to succeed at everything you do? Studying a truth and then praying and asking Jesus to put it in your life is a powerful way of making your life so much better than it has ever been.

How Is The Bible Relevant To Your Every Day Life?

What about your life? Would you like Jesus to teach you how to succeed in a business, a marriage, a family, a career, or your life? Are you willing to let Him help you grow in your relationship with Him? Have you ever considered how wise Jesus is? What would happen if you included Him in all the decisions of your day? He will help you think of incredible things that will enhance your plans. You can simply read and pray through three pages a day for five days a week and Jesus will help you learn how to walk and talk with Him all day long.

What about your happiness? Have you ever thought a certain thing or person would make you happy and it didn’t? Have you ever got something that made you happy for a while and then it gradually lost its excitement? How would you like Jesus to guide you into those things that bring true happiness that lasts for a lifetime? How about starting your day with happiness?

What Is Your System For Life?

What is life all about? Jesus and the Bible are like turning on the light in a dark room. Most people are trying to “feel” their way through life. They are trying to imagine and guess what life is all about. They find themselves going down dead-end paths, running into obstacles, and falling over things they weren’t able to see. Jesus is the light of the world. He illuminates the issues and circumstances you face so you can see and understand what you are dealing with. This is called truth. On each page, you will be letting Jesus teach you a truth and then empower you to pray and invite Him to put it into the attitudes, character, and behavior of your life. That is worth the little time it takes to read and pray three pages a day.

Do You Know What Causes You To Win Or Lose?

What about your success? Did you know there are certain areas of your attitudes and character that are causing you to win or lose at life? These two things are Jesus’ priority. He knows that if you have bad attitudes, you will fail. How is your character? You may feel like your attitudes and character are pretty good. Have you ever had to deal with a person who seemed to be unaware of their faults? Their people-skills were poor; but, they didn’t seem to know it. It is difficult for us to see our own faults. Jesus will lovingly and gently help you improve.

Who do you like? Do you like those who are trying to use you to get what they want? Do you like those who lie to you so you will meet their needs? Do you like those who will cheat you, if they think they can get by with it? Do you like those who talk down to you because they think they are superior to you? Improving your attitudes and character are how Jesus helps you treat people the way you like being treated. When they find out that you are real and trustworthy, it becomes much easier for them to be around you. Jesus wants to teach you how. Win/win relationships are all about doing to others what you want them doing to you.

Your Team

Jesus’ people are praying that you are blessed in a special way. They are praying that you have a close relationship with Jesus.

People Are Praying This For You:

Eph 1:16-17 (NIV) I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may GIVE YOU the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know Him better.

Eph 1:18-19a (NIV) I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which He has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and His incomparably great power for us who believe.

Eph 1:19b-21 (NIV) That power is like the working of His mighty strength, which He exerted in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come.

Note: Your Life-Map Record Sheets are at the end of this book. It is very helpful for keeping a record of where you left off. It would be good to print it and keep it filled out as you progress through these chapters.

This concludes your reading and studying today.

The Purpose Of “Power Prayers”

Week One Day Two

Living Life For A Purpose

How Do You Turn Information Into A Lifestyle?

If you were a hoarder, you would fill your house with all kinds of things. They may be very useful; but, you would have forgotten why you obtained them. Working on your LIFEstyle is about using what you learn, and living life as God gives it to you. This keeps you from just “hoarding” a bunch of information.

Let’s say you got a degree and was licensed as a professional. What if you worked at a fast-food place, getting minimum wages, while getting your education, degree, and license? But, suppose you kept working as a fast-food worker after you paid the price, learned the information, earned the degree, and were licensed to take advantage of your training. You didn’t make the changes in your LIFEstyle. Jesus’ methods keep this from happening.

What Makes Jesus’ Truths Different?

Have you seen people going on a strict diet, lose a lot of weight, but later gain it all back? They didn’t make dieting and exercise a part of their lifestyle. Your lifestyle is permanently changed by you “doing what it takes” to get where you need to go so you can continue living there. By exposing yourself to Jesus’ principles, you develop a lifestyle.

How can Jesus take three-page chapters and turn those principles into a new lifestyle for you? First, He helps you understand His truths. Then He helps you ask Him to put those truths into your life by providing you relevant prayers based on those truths. Plus, He helps you be thinking about what you studied and prayed about. All during your day, He helps you see how you can use His principles in your daily life.

How Does Jesus’ Life Help Your Life?

A baby goes through many stages in becoming an adult; they try to pattern their life after adults. If they saw how much smaller, weaker, and untrained they were, they might get discouraged and not try. You have been born again; this time you were born into the family of God. You started out as a spiritual infant. As a beginner child of God, you are to become a mature, trained, adult child of God. Jesus will help you grow into all these things.

Jesus is your pattern for adulthood; But, you must see Him as your example. Jesus is the Creator of the universe; He is God; of course He is able to do what He did. As a spiritual beginner, you may see how small, weak, and untrained you are; you may not be willing to try. You may not know you are to be a spiritual adult someday by following Jesus’ examples and training. Jesus can get you ready to live in God’s Kingdom by helping you now.

What Is Jesus Trying To Teach You?

If a baby doesn’t innately know the reason they have a small version of an adult body, they won’t develop properly. They must desire to watch, practice, grow, and gradually learn how to live life as an adult. You are never going to be God; but, you are a child of God; you are to watch Jesus, practice, grow, and gradually learn how to live life as a spiritual adult. Jesus IS God; but, it is still His desire to show you how to live His adult, Jesus-life as a child of God.

You were born as a human so you could have a body and a life to be trained with. It is a limited life because your attitudes and character haven’t been developed to a place where you can be trusted with supernatural, God-sized power. If you yield to Jesus’ training, your attitudes and character will be developed properly. Then Jesus will gradually give you opportunities to work together with Him. He and you will be able to train and help those around you to experience Jesus’ power and truths in their life.

Are You Ready To Learn How To Live The Jesus-Life?

Ask Jesus to help you understand vital truth issues. Like in the rest of these things in this book, spiritual understanding only comes from Jesus. If you read and understand these things, you can be sure it is because Jesus is empowering you to understand. If you read and don’t understand, all you have to do is ask Jesus to help you understand. If you pray and still don’t understand, then ask Jesus to help you bring it back up when He is ready to explain it to you.

1. Be Born Into It

John 3:3 (NIV) In reply Jesus declared, “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.” You know what human birth looks like; it is a small version of a human, starting out for the first time on this planet. They usually have all the physical equipment, but, don’t know how to use it or take advantage of it. They have a lot of growing to do physically, mentally, spirituality, and in experiences. They have a long way to go to be an adult human; but, they seem to have the desire, hope, and determination to get the job done.

You were born again; your second birth made you God’s child, a member of His family, and a citizen in His Kingdom. Now you need to allow all of this become a reality in your heart and mind. You know you have been born into it. Now allow Jesus to help you know the other things you need to know.

2. Know You Are Born Again For Eternity

1 Pet 1:23 (NIV) For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. Being born again is different from being born as a human. The human “seed” of your parents produced a life that is perishable and heading for death. You do all that growing physically, mentally, and in experiences; but, if you aren’t born again, you lose it all at death. Being born again through the “seed” of God is imperishable; you live forever. But like human birth, you have some growing to do; you start from spiritual infancy and mature into an adult child of God.

3. Trade Your Human Life For Jesus’ Life

Gal 2:20 (NIV) I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself for me. If you want to, you can spend all your time learning how to succeed as a human. If you do, you will forfeit your eternal Jesus-training. As an untrained Christian, you will enter into eternity with very little spiritual skills, abilities, experiences, or training. Your opportunities will be extremely limited. However, even if you only give Jesus a few minutes of your time each day, He will use it to help you succeed now and for eternity in many ways.

As a child of God, you have some growing to do. Jesus will help you learn to live in the spirit realm where your Father lives. As a new born-again beginner, you don’t know much about this new realm. But, Jesus provides you examples through His life and teaching. He will teach and show you what an adult child of God looks like. It will take a lifetime to learn; but all of it will work now and last for eternity. Let Jesus show you how to trade your life for His.

4. Trade One LIFEstyle For Another

John 14:12 (NIV) I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in Me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.

What if a young child didn’t see their parents as someone they were to pattern after? What if they thought they could never be like them? That is what happens to a lot of Christians. They don’t understand the lifestyle Jesus is trying to give them. Yes, Jesus is God; but, He lived His life as a human, spiritual adult. He did it so you can accept His lifestyle as yours.

5. Trade One Inheritance For Another

Rom 8:17 (NIV) Now if we are children, then we are heirs--heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in His sufferings in order that we may also share in His glory. What if you see the Bible and Jesus’ life as not have anything to do with your life now? How would it affect your life if you knew your life now was influencing your eternal inheritance? What if you found out that you could be making investments in eternity by living a certain way here? Did you know that your success here affects your success in eternity?

6. Appreciate Your New Birth And New Inheritance

Now if we are children, then we are heirs: What did you inherit when you became a child of God? Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when He appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is (1 John 3:2). Just like a human child will automatically grow up looking a lot like their parents, there are parts of you that are automatic in Christian growth. But, there are skills, knowledge, experiences, abilities, and training your parents have that you didn’t get.

7. Take Advantage Of Your New Birth And New Inheritance

Now if we are children, then we are heirs--heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ: Not all of Christianity is automatic; a human baby inherits their characteristics from their parents. But, what they do with them is up to them. That is the way Christianity is; you inherited God and His provisions. That is automatic; but, what you do with all this is the next big issue.

You aren’t here just to learn how to live as a human, you are mostly here to learn how to live as a spirit being. You are to let Jesus use the things you learn about living as a human to teach you about living as God’s child. You have applied yourself to learning a lot about being human; and, you have applied yourself to learning how to live as God’s child. Now it is time to start living as a child of God.

8. “Do What It Takes”

If you need a drink, you have learned how “to do what it takes” to get one. If you need to chew some food, you know how to do it. If you need to pick something up, you have learned the process of accomplishing that. But, do you know how to hunger and thirst after righteousness? Do you know how to “chew” spiritual truths? Do you know how to move spiritual issues from one place to another? Learning how to walk in the Spirit, digest God’s truth, have eyes and ears that can see and hear what Jesus is teaching, is what you are dealing with now.

A Prayer For You To Always Pray For Yourself And Others

Jesus’ people are praying Ephesians 1:17-23 for you. It contains such vital requests before God that it has converted into a prayer for you and those around you. As others pray it for you, please join them by praying this modified prayer for yourself and your friends.

I keep asking that the God of my Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give me the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that I may know Him better.

I pray also that the eyes of my heart may be enlightened in order that I may know the hope to which He has called me, the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and His incomparably great power for me, who believes. Jesus, help me see, know, and understand the hope, the riches, and this power.

That power is like the working of His mighty strength, which He exerted in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under His feet and appointed Him to be head over everything for the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him Who fills everything in every way. Jesus, I ask that I would receive a full revelation and vision into all this power that is available to me; and, I ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.

It would be good for you to pray this prayer for yourself and those around you regularly.

This concludes your reading and studying today.

The Seven Biblical Principles Truth/Prayer Pages

Version 25.10.2

Chapter One

What Takes Me From Knowing To Living?

Week One Day Three

What Makes A True Expert?

What if an instructor in a college class represented themselves as an expert? Let’s say you were required to take their course for your degree. So, you signed up, started taking it, and found out that they were a total failure in that area of life. As you checked out their life, you found they had a lot of degrees; but, none of that training and information was helping them with life.

Jesus, I often assume that those who know a lot of information are experts. Help me see that, God doesn’t look at it that way; He calls people hypocrites who don’t apply the information to their own lives. If what they know isn’t working for them, it either isn’t good information or it isn’t applied information. Show me that even if information is good, if a person is refusing to apply it, or, if they don’t know how to apply it to their life, they still lack an important truth. Since they haven’t applied it to their own life, they can’t teach others how to apply it.

Who Is A True Expert?

You need people who can truly help you. You already have a lot of information. You need information you can apply to your life and it give you results. The Bible has provided you with people who have successfully lived the life they presented. They were handpicked by God to tell you how to live life. God looked inside their heart and life and knew for a fact they were real and qualified to write His words in the Bible. He empowered them to write these principles in the Bible because He knew they would only tell you the truth straight from Him.

Jesus, show me that the people in the Bible were special people who had special qualifications. They were people who were willing to only write what You wanted written. Help me see that the Bible comes straight from You, with incredible power. Help me understand that it is like a water pipe that is totally clean inside so the water flowing through it will be totally clean. Teach me that the Bible is not only the truth, it provides me with the power to live it.

How Do You Experience The Power To Live Life?

The Bible is filled with wonderful provisions and promises of God. Salvation makes God and His provisions available to every Christian. However, God and His provisions come to you through seven major Bible principles that must be applied or you live without those provisions. They enhance The Three Keys in that they deal with your qualifications for asking, seeking, and knocking. They are seven mandatory issues that God requires of you.

Jesus, show me that if I had a lot of money in a vault and didn’t know the combination for opening it, I couldn’t access it. You provided incredible things to bless and enhance my life; help me gain access to them. Teach me each one of these seven things, so I can access Your wonderful blessings and miracles. Let these seven principles and The Three Keys To All Of Christianity increase the depth of my relationship with You.

What Are The Seven Biblical Principles?

These Bible principles are: desire, study, pray, believe, love, take faith-action, and be thankful.

1. DESIRE is vital because God’s honor of your God-given free will makes; He won’t give you anything you don’t desire. And, you won’t pursue anything you don’t want.

2. STUDYING your Bible is vital because you can’t desire things you don’t know exist; so, Jesus uses it to help you discover what God has available for you to want.

3. PRAYER is vital because God won’t give you anything you don’t ask for. James 4:2b (NIV) You do not have, because you do not ask God. Studying your Bible tells you what to pray for. And prayer is your way of telling God you desire them. It opens the door for Him to give you the things you need.

4. BELIEVING through Jesus’ faith is vital because it is impossible to please God without it. Heb 11:6 (NIV) And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him. Faith is your attitude toward God; it decides whether or not you believe God is telling you the truth in His Bible.

5. LOVE is vital because without it your life and accomplishments are meaningless. 1 Cor 13:1-3 (NIV) If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

6. FAITH-ACTION is vital because it is where you actually get into your life those things you need and pray for. It takes those things in the Bible and transfers them from your mind into the performance of your life. You become those things you previously only knew and understood. Luke 6:46-47 (NIV) Why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not DO what I say? I will show you what he is like who comes to Me and hears My words and puts them into practice.

7. THANKFUL is vital because Jesus will be giving you many wonderful things so as to build a close relationship with you. If you take His blessings, miracles, and answers to prayer for granted, then you aren’t allowing all these gifts to help build that close relationship. So, He may stop answering your prayers until you become thankful.

This concludes your reading and studying today.

Chapter Two

How Do I Go From Knowing To Living?

Week One Day Four

Who Is The Expert In Your Life?

Luke 6:46-49 (NIV) “Why do you call Me (Jesus), ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say? I will show you what he is like who comes to Me and hears My words and puts them into practice. He is like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built.

But the one who hears My words and does not put them into practice is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed and its destruction was complete.”

The Three Steps Into Living The Life: I will show you what he is like who comes to Me and hears My words and puts them into practice.

1. I will show you what he is like who comes to Me:

Jesus, teach me that most important thing I must do is come to You. You are the way and the truth and the life (John 14:6) for me. I want to know the way to go; so, help me come to You. I want know the truth about how to live life; so, help me come to You. I want to have the life that counts for eternity; so, help me come to You.

2. I will show you what he is like who comes to Me and hears my words:

Jesus, teach me that the second thing is to hear Your words. You said in John 6:63 (NIV): “The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life.” Help me allow You to speak to me; help me receive Your Spirit so He will give me eternal life. Help me hear Your words.

3. I will show you what he is like who comes to Me and hears My words and puts them into practice:

Jesus, teach me that the third thing is I must put them into practice. John 8:31-32 (NIV) To the Jews who had believed Him, Jesus said, “If you hold to My teaching, you are really My disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” Help me with all the problems and issues I face every day. Show me that if I am going to be truly successful in life, I must win over these problems and issues. Help me realize that I can’t just know the truth; I must be set free by the truth. Help me accept the fact that the only way I am going to be set free by the truths is for me to put them into practice.

Why The Seven Biblical Principles?

What helps you come to Jesus, hear His words, and put them into practice? What is the first thing you must know so you will come to Him, listen to Him, and then do what He tells you to do? First, you must realize that Jesus waits for you to allow Him to do those things you need Him to do. Rev 3:20 (NIV) Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice AND opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with Me. You have to hear His voice and open the door. Or, He will keep standing at the door of your life and knock.

Jesus, help me understand that there are seven things You wait and look for. If I don’t do them, You won’t work with me, in me, for me, to me and through me. You wait for me to desire the things I need from You. You wait for me to study the Bible and discover all You offer. You wait for me to pray and ask for those things that are in the Bible. You wait for me to look to You for the faith to believe I have the things the Bible told me about. You wait for me to desire, study, pray, and believe for them through motivations of love. Then, You wait for me to practice living on the basis of the fact that I have them installed in my life (faith-action). Then, once I have started receiving the benefits, answers, blessing, and miracles from these Biblical principles, You require me to be thankful.

RESULTS

Many have read, studied, and learned what the Bible says. They can quote the Bible, teach it, preach about it, and talk knowledgeably about what they think it means. But, they don’t live on the basis of its benefits or requirements. They aren’t experiencing the things Jesus did when He was living here. They only apply Bible principles in church or around other Christians.

Jesus, let Christianity and the Bible empower me to live victoriously all during my day. Since, the Seven Biblical Principles show me what is blocking Your provisions, teach me how to get Your Bible working in my daily activities. Let them point out where I need Your healing. Use them to reveal the areas in my attitudes and character that need Your transformation. Help me be receptive to these seven principles’ evaluations. Let them show my spiritual needs so I can bring them to You for being replaced with those things You want me to have.

Opinions Or Truth

Jesus knows what you should be thinking, feeling, saying, and doing all day long. He knows what you should do next. He knows what your next assignment should be. He knows where you should put your next effort. And He knows what your next goal and plan should be. You just have to know how to join Jesus in living your life. You just have to know how to get Jesus to start helping you plan your day. You just need to know how to apply The Seven Biblical Principles to the thoughts, feelings, words, and deeds of your day so you can win at life.

Jesus, I know You know everything; I know You understand how life works; I know You have the wisdom necessary to make my life the best it can possibly be; and I know You have the foreknowledge that provides You with a complete knowledge about what is going to happen in my future. Help me know how to get these things into my thoughts, feelings, words, and activities. Empower me to live Your life in and through me.

What Do You Want?

Jesus, help me desire those things that You know would make me happy. Guide me into the study of Your Word so I will know what will take me into that happiness. Help me start praying for those things that bring true happiness. Give me faith so I will be able to start believing I have those things You know will bring Your kind of happiness. Help me not be selfish; help me yield my heart to Your love; help me be willing to share this happiness with those around me. Empower me to start taking faith-action and start living on the basis of the happiness Your faith has put into my heart and life. Then as You hear and answer these prayers, help me be thankful for the fact that Christianity and these seven Biblical Principles work in the full aspects of my life.

Jesus sent you the Holy Spirit to help you desire and get, study and understand, pray and receive, get faith and believe, have love and yield to it, and have and live on the basis of all the right things through faith-action. The Bible is going to show you powerful answers so you can thank God for all these incredible provisions.

This concludes your reading and studying today.

Chapter Three

Why Should I Apply The Seven Biblical Principles?

Week One Day Five

The Holy Spirit’s Seven Biblical Principles With Jesus

The problem you face with getting Jesus’ help with anything is understanding how life with Jesus works. If you don’t know about these rules that govern your relationship with Jesus, it will be very confusing, frustrating, and can even be something that causes you to doubt Him.

· You have to learn that Jesus honors your God-given free will all the time; He will only do what you desire Him to do.

The next thing you need to understand is, He will only use Bible principles you are familiar with; if you haven’t studied and learned a Bible principle, He won’t use it.
Another thing you need to know is, He won’t help you with anything you don’t pray and ask Him to help you with; you have to pray and invite Him into your situation with life.
After that, you have to learn how to wait for Him to give you His faith you need so you can believe and be sure He has given you His power to win over your issues with life.
Then you have to do everything based on god’s love. If you try to get Jesus to help you with something that is selfish and only beneficial to you, He won’t do it.
From there, you have to actually do it, if you know it, understand it, and know how to apply it but don’t do it, you will fail at life; you must take faith-action.
But, even though faith-action is bringing all these special supernatural results to you, you have not reached the end of your responsibilities to God. He expects you to be thankful for all those things you have been receiving from Him.

The big issue is that the Holy Spirit has the power to help you fulfill these Seven Biblical Principles. Since He lives in you, you have direct access to these seven principles. The Scriptures below will show you what He has available for you to apply The Three Keys to.

Desire

Rom 8:5 (NIV) Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.

Rom 8:27 (NIV) And He Who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will.

Jesus, teach me that the Holy Spirit’s desires are Your and my Father’s desires. When I get His desires, I have Your desires influencing what I want. I ask You to give me the desires of the Holy Spirit so I can fulfill the first of The Seven Biblical Principles. Help me so desire them that You are willing to help me live a close and intimate relationship with You.

Study

John 16:13-15 (NIV) But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on His own; He will speak only what He hears, and He will tell you what is yet to come. He will bring glory to Me by taking from what is Mine and making it known to you. All that belongs to the Father is Mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is Mine and make it known to you.

Jesus, make it clear to me that study is useless without knowing the Bible meaning. And, help me understand that I only know its meaning through the Holy Spirit. Without Him I don’t know what it is talking about, or, I will get a wrong concept. Teach me that “He will guide you into all truth” means He opens my heart and mind to truth. And You are that truth (John 14:6). Show me that through the Bible, He is guiding me into the Jesus-life. I can’t live the Bible; You and I have to do it together. Show me that the more I yield to the meaning of the Bible, that the Holy Spirit gives me, the more I am yielding to You and Your way of life.

Pray

Jesus, let my prayers be answered because the Holy Spirit is helping me find out what I need to be praying for. Let Him empower me to start praying for all the right things. Let Him use the Bible information to help me know the truth. Then let Him give me the meaning so I can understand the truth. Then let Him explain to me how to yield to it so I can have the wisdom of the truth. Then let Him give me the power so I can pray for and live the truth.

Believe

John 16:14 (NIV) He (the Spirit) will bring glory to Me by taking from what is Mine and making it known to you. This is how you get Jesus’ faith so you can believe.

Rom 8:16 (NIV) The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. That is Spirit-to-spirit communication which goes far beyond words.

Jesus, help me yield to the Holy Spirit as He connects me to your faith. When you speak faith into me, let me realize that He is my connection to You. I thank You for giving me the Holy Spirit at salvation so all these wonderful things can happen to me. It is so awesome that I now have God, the Holy Spirit, in direct contact with my spirit. Help me totally yield to Him so He can put all You have to offer into me and my life.

Love

Rom 5:5 (NIV) And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, Whom He has given us.

John 15:9-10 (NIV) As the Father has loved Me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you obey My commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed My Father’s commands and remain in His love.

Jesus, I thank You for giving me the Holy Spirit and for Him putting God’s love into my heart. Help me learn how to yield to Your love on a daily basis. Now help me yield to the Holy Spirit as He teach me what Your love looks like and how to get it applied to the daily situations of my life. Let the Holy Spirit empower me to remain in You, Your Word, and Your love.

Faith-Action

Jesus, let the Holy Spirit’s leading give me power to do what I could not do before. Let Him lead me into Your life that has the power to do the right things and stop doing the wrong things. Teach me that it is by the Spirit’s leading that I take faith-action. Let the Scriptures in this study teach me how to apply The Seven Biblical Principles to my Bible. Show me that without the Holy Spirit, I don’t get the power and guidance into these principles.

Thankful

1 Cor 15:57 (NIV) But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus, help me see everything You do for me and thank You for it. Help me notice every good thing that comes my way and know it came from You. James 1:17 (NIV) Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, Who does not change like shifting shadows. Help me thank You for them all.

How To Succeed At Life

If you are going to be able to live a life of true success, happiness, purpose, and results, you are going to have to desire (want what God has to offer), study (learn the truths of the Bible), pray (ask God for His help), believe (have faith that God is telling you the truth), love (for yourself, others, and God), take faith-action (live on the basis of the facts), and be thankful (appreciate all God has done for you).

To be able to have God and His provisions is what Christianity is all about. With The Three Keys To All Of Christianity and The Seven Biblical Principles, you are set on a path to having a power-relationship with God that no other plan can provide. They are the tools that take the truths of the Bible and make them available to you.

This concludes your reading and studying for the week.

Chapter Four

How Do I Apply The Seven Biblical Principles?

Week Two Day One

The Seven Scriptures That Show The Requirements

Desire

Rom 7:15 (NIV) I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. This is the desire the Holy Spirit put in you concerning sin and righteousness. He is empowering you to want to do righteous things and hate sinning.

Jesus, You gave me the right kind of desire at salvation. But, as with everything You give me, I have to choose to yield to it. Show me that the desires of the Holy Spirit are the same as those I got at salvation. Help me listen to Him as He speaks to my conscience. Help me understand His relationship to my conscience. Help me realize that it is necessary for me to yield to it so I can have life in You. Let my conscience and desires lead me into life in You.

Study

2 Tim 2:15 (AKJV) Study to show yourself approved to God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

Jesus, as I read the Bible, I have opinions as to what each verse means. But, help me lay each opinion down before You. Teach me how to yield to the leadership and training of the Holy Spirit. Show me how to allow Him to guide me into all truth. If I don’t know how to hear Him and His interpretations, help me understand that You have given me a lot of experiences with Him speaking to my conscience. Help me realize that He has been speaking and trying to train me most of my life. Let me learn how to listen from these experiences.

Pray

Rom 8:26-27 (NIV) In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And He Who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will.

Jesus, I do not know what I ought to pray for; I am sure there are a lot of things I need that I don’t know I need. I know there are a lot of things I need to be praying for; but, I don’t know what they are or how to pray for them. Help me start praying for things that are inspired by the Holy Spirit. Help me get a special understanding from You that empowers me to start praying for things that would typically be way over my head. Let me pray in such a way that I don’t miss out on anything You have to offer.

Believe

Jesus, my relationship with God is dependent on faith. Everything about Christianity involves faith. Help me keep my eyes fixed on You so I can have the faith I need to believe all of Your truths. Use my perfect record, so I can have a direct contact and relationship with You. Author and perfect my faith for all I need. Give me Your faith that is powerful and consistent.

Love

1 Cor 13:4-8a (NIV) Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.

Jesus, if I don’t yield to Your love, I will never be able to remain connected to You. Help me know how to always yield to Your love in my thoughts, feelings, words, and deeds. Teach me how to think thoughts that represent Your love. Empower me to have feelings that come from Your heart. Give me words to say that express what You want said. Help me yield to Your life so I can do what You want done.

Faith-Action

James 2:18 (NIV) But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.” Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do. Ask Jesus to help you live (take action) on the basis of the facts or truths of His Word.

Jesus, I want to live all those things I read in the Bible. I want to have You join me and help me live the way You live. Once You have given me Your faith to empower me to believe, help me take faith-action on it. Let the Bible come alive in my life so I can live the way You want to live in and through me. Give me Your life so I can live the Jesus-life.

Thankful

Jesus, all my life I wanted to be able to live all those things in the Bible. But, so much of the time I didn’t know how to get them active inside me. Help me be thankful for these teachings You have provided me. Help me appreciate the fact that You have given me the tools to get Your Word into my life. Empower me to be thrilled with all You are doing for me here.

Rom 1:21 (NIV) For although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.

Luke 17:15-16 (NIV) One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked Him--and he was a Samaritan.

Children Of God Need Tools

A Whole New Way Of Doing Things

1 Cor 2:2-5 (NIV) For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power. You are God’s child; you have a lot to learn about being a child of God. You have a lot to learn about living in the spirit realm. And, you have a lot to learn about living in God’s family and in His eternal Kingdom.

Jesus, help me be a cooperative child of God. Set me free from being a spoiled, rebellious, disrespectful, unappreciative, and disobedient child. Help me understand why I am having to learn and develop in all these areas so I can better cooperate with Your training.

Understanding The Requirements Of Eternal Life

1 Cor 2:6-10 (NIV) We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. No, we speak of God’s secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began.

None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. However, as it is written: “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him”--but God has revealed it to us by His Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.

Jesus, it has taken me a long time to learn how to do a lot of the human things I now do routinely. I have had to be trained, practice, fail, make mistakes, try things out, and experiment with this human life. It hasn’t been easy for me to grow up and live as an adult human. But, I have learned the rules, laws, requirements, and systems. I may not like them, want to obey them, or know what they all are; but, if I want to live here, I will learn them and live by them. Help me realize that this is what God is requiring of me as His child. Help me learn how to live in the spirit realm and become a mature, adult child of God.

Eph 4:11-13 (NIV) It was He (Jesus) Who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

Eph 4:14 (NIV) Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming.

This concludes your reading and studying today.

Chapter Five

How Do I Apply The Biblical Principle Of Desire?

Learning About The Nature Of A Desire

Week Two Day Two

The Weakness Of Desire

Rom 7:15 (NIV) I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. This sounds like a person who isn’t living the Christian life. They aren’t doing the good the Holy Spirit is speaking into their conscience. Not only that, they are going beyond not doing good things for themselves and other people. They are doing wrong, bad, and even evil things to themselves and those around them; they are doing things they hate!

Rom 7:16 (NIV) And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. Jesus, when I struggle like this, help me always agree that the law is good. Keep me from refusing to do the right things. Help me always want to do the right things. I know the difference between right and wrong, good and bad, righteousness and evil. But, I am not someone who hurts people on purpose. I don’t want to hurt them but sometimes I do it anyway. Help me stop hurting myself, other people, and Your plan.

The Difference Between Drive And Desire

Rom 7:17 (NIV) As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. It’s one thing to do something accidently and do it while out of control. Out of control comes from addiction, habits, or being untrained in an area. Addicted people may intensely want something but be forced to not do it. They can intensely hate something but do it anyway. Addiction forces you to do it. The drives, urges, demands, and cravings of their body forces them to not do certain things they want to do, and forces them to do things they hate.

Jesus, help me understand the difference between addiction and habits. Teach me that a habit doesn’t force me to do things. With a habit, I may desire to keep doing wrong because it’s the way I have always done them. With habits, when something happens to me, I may react a certain way automatically. I may desire to do it differently; but, before I even think about it, I am doing it my old way. But, teach me that with an addiction, I am being forced to do what my body wants me to do. I can decide, commit, promise, make up my mind, and give it my best efforts and fail. The addiction must be dealt with through the power of Jesus’ healing.

The Necessity Of Desire

Rom 7:18 (NIV) I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. A person who is living a certain way and wants to stay there, will typically not change. If a person doesn’t have one good thing in their life, but, they don’t care or actually like their condition, they will remain there. The lack of desire to change a bad habit or be free from an addiction seals it in.

Jesus, even though I can’t change my condition, help me keep wanting out. Show me that my lack of ability to change for the good isn’t as important as my desire to change. If I am addicted, or in a rut and fall into the same habit over and over again, or untrained and don’t have any alternative choices, if I want to change, You will honor that desire and train and empower me to change. My want or desire is what You are looking for.

The Value Of Desire

Rom 7:19 (NIV) For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do--this I keep on doing. Living in a bad situation for a long period of time can cause you to give up. Living in a situation that isn’t as good as you would like, can cause you to give in. Things always being the way they are over a long period of time can cause you to accept “the inevitable.” When you cease to desire to have a better life, you have not only accepted your current situation, you have just closed the door on God’s help; you have lost your desire.

Gal 6:9 (NIV) Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Jesus, teach me that giving up, becoming weary, getting sick of always failing, losing hope, and accepting the bad situation, kills my desire to get Your help. Just because I cannot carry it out, doesn’t mean You can’t. But, help me see that if I get to the place where I no longer desire Your help, You won’t force Your help on me.

You Must Identify A Second Desire

Rom 7:20 (NIV) Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. This describes two conflictive desires in the same person.

Now if I do what I do not want to do: An addicted person understands this situation very well. A person who is in the habit of doing things a certain way understands it too. And, it is a situation that an untrained person understands even though they don’t have any idea what they would do differently. The addicted person does what they do not want to do because their body forces them to. The person who is in the habit of doing things a certain way does what they do not want to do because they are in the habit of doing it that way. The untrained person does what they do not want to do because they don’t know any other way of doing it.

Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it: Jesus, help me see that, no one outside of You, truly understands this situation. Teach me that there are those who excuse themselves, forgive themselves, justify themselves, and try to make it not be their fault; but, all that does is harden their conscience. Help me not go right on doing wrong, bad, and evil things while not feeling guilty about it. Help me not hurt people but, refuse to own up to it. Teach me that if I do what I do not want to do, then and only then is it no longer I who do it. But, if I am doing bad things that I want to do, then it is me doing it.

You Must Yield To A Desire To Do Good

Rom 7:21 (NIV) So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. This desire Jesus gave you at salvation doesn’t have the power to change your behavior. But, it has the power to head you in the right direction. It can’t transform your life; but, it gives you the attitude God is looking for; and, He can transform your life.

Evil is right there with me: This isn’t something you were taught in one of your career classes. The world teaches you that humans are basically good. They tell you that your good character has been contaminated by parents, society, and bad experiences in life. The truth is, you are born with a sinful nature living in your body. That is the evil that is right there with you.

Jesus, show me that whether I am aggressive or passive-aggressive, I will attack people who have what I want. Whether I attack them physically, mentally, emotionally, financially, or relationally, I will take action. Whether I am open about it or work behind the scenes, I will go after what I want. Whether I use kindness or hatred, I will have an agenda that favors my own best interests. Make it clear to me that it isn’t until You give me a new desire that I actually want to do good. Help me realize that prior to salvation, the Holy Spirit influenced my conscience trying to get me desiring to do good. But, that wasn’t my desire; it was the Holy Spirit’s influence on my conscience. Help me yield to Your new desire in me.

Getting A Desire To Do Good

Rom 7:22-23 (NIV) For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; But I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. At salvation you got a second desire; it was a delight in the things of God. But, your old desire for selfishness, self-centeredness, and self-preference remained in your body. Now you have a desire in your body and a desire in you, a spirit being. When you have two desires, things get confusing. When your body keeps its old desire and your inner being or spirit gets a new one, you get a conflict of desires. You have to know which desire represents you and which one doesn’t.

Jesus, before you teach me how to fight or handle my old desire in my body, teach me how to identify which desire is mine and which one is from my body. Show me that all I have to do to identify my desire is to examine the criteria described in Romans 7:22. You are telling me that in my inner being my delight is in God’s law. Make it clear to me that anytime I identify this desire, that is me, that is my spirit, that is my inner being. Help me see that my desire will always be in conflict with my body’s desire.

Having A Desire That Helps With The Problem

Rom 7:24 (NIV) What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? When you get a desire that empowers you to cry out to God for help, it has served a vital purpose. When you are living the Romans 7:15-23 life, you have done everything you know or have learned to do. Some of it helped and some didn’t. It helps to learn what won’t work. You have learned what not to do; but, that doesn’t take you into what to do.

What a wretched man I am: Jesus, help me realize that my new desire does cause me problems. It does give me conflictive desires with my body; but, it is an awakening. Show me that for the first time, I have a desire that is helping to point me to God and all He has to offer. For the first time, my desire is the same as the desire of the Holy Spirit. For the first time, I agree with what He has been speaking into my conscience. For the first time, I have a desire that is leading me into all the things You provided through Your death and resurrection. I thank You so much for doing this in my desires, as a spirit being.

Having A Desire That Wants To Pray

What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me: This was the moment your desire pointed you toward God. After you had tried every technique you had learned from the world, you made your first prayer request to God for spiritual growth. Your first prayer was for salvation; but this was your first prayer for spiritual growth. You stopped trying to show God what you could do for Him; and, you started asking Him to show you what He would do for you.

This concludes your reading and studying today.

Chapter Six

How Do I Apply The Biblical Principle Of Desire?

Learning About Spiritual Influence

Week Two Day Three

The Holy Spirit’s Biblical Principle Of Desire

Getting A Mind-Set

Rom 8:5-6 (NIV) Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace.

Getting The Wrong Type Of Desire

Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires: It is as simple as you walking along and seeing something and suddenly wanting it. From that moment on, you feel this drive to do what it takes to pursue it. You want it; and, you start making plans for how you would go about getting it. Prior to you seeing it and desiring it, it didn’t have any effect on the goals, plans, and decisions of your life. But, when you decided you wanted it, it became very influential on what you did during your day.

The mind of sinful man is death: Jesus, help me realize that being led away from God and the things of God happens as I am walking through life. Guide me, as I see things and decide whether or not I want them all during my day. Protect me from those gradual processes that start seeping into my thoughts, plans, and goals. Protect me from things that slowly steer me in wrong directions until I find myself heading away from God and His provisions.

Getting The Right Type Of Desire

Those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires: If you desire what the Holy Spirit desires then that desire will lead you into God and what He has to offer. But, what would you have to do to get such a desire? Your body has a “natural” interest in getting those things that are earthly and worldly. It is constantly trying to lure you into doing those things that bring it feelings of pleasure. Whether it is a matter of it pushing you into things that bring extreme pleasure or luring you into just trying to feel good about yourself, you are being pulled into human pursuits rather than godly pursuits.

The mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace. Jesus, let this verse be my decision to want God and what He offers. I want happiness, pleasure, peace, joy, excitement, acceptance, appreciation, respect, love, and all kinds of good feelings. And, I also want to be free from any pain, disappointment, rejection, unhappiness, or failure. But, I want all of this to flow through You. You alone can give me things and set me free from things the right way.

Desiring But Not Getting

Those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires: Being led into God and the things of God is a gradual process just like being led away from Him is. Having a mind-set is a process; it is something you start getting moment-by-moment and issue-by-issue. You can’t just decide your mind is going to be set on the desires of the Holy Spirit and not on your sinful nature. It takes place as you stand facing a decision, a reaction to something someone did, or an action you are about to take. At that moment, you choose whether it will be a decision, reaction, or action based on the desires in your sinful nature or on the desires of the Holy Spirit; and, the way you make your choice also matters.

Rom 7:15 (NIV) I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. The way this Christian is trying to bring about spiritual results is by using all their human and worldly training . Some Christians will spend the rest of their lives trying to get world training, world systems, and human effort to bring them spiritual, godly results. They never accept the truth of Romans 7:18 (NIV): “I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.”

Jesus, teach me what is and what isn’t based on Your power. Teach me how to recognize world training, world systems, and human effort. Help me replace all of them with Your way of doing things. Help me accept that I don’t have anything to offer my Christian life. And, help me know that I cannot carry anything out in the spirit realm by my world training, world systems, or human effort. Help me use The Three Keys to be set free from these things.

Desiring And Getting

Rom 8:3-4 (NIV) For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending His Own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so He condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.

For what the law was powerless to do: Desiring something and not getting it, creates disappointment, frustration, confusion, and feelings of hopelessness and helplessness. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do (Rom 7:15). This is typical of all new and untrained Christians; we all face this dilemma. What is the law and this typical situation trying to accomplish in you? It is trying to bring you to this place: What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death (Rom 7:24)? It isn’t until you desire to cry out to God that Christianity starts to change your behavior.

Jesus, every time I desire something and don’t get it from You, help me see that it is because You are trying to bring me to the place where I cry out to You. Help me realize that, if I cry out to You, You will protect me from those desires that aren’t good for me. And, You will empower me to learn how to get those things that are good for me. Help me always bring my desires to You rather than trying to get them fulfilled through the law or my efforts.

Desires Influenced By The Holy Spirit

For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature: At the point of salvation, you started agreeing with God’s laws. Rom 7:22 (NIV) For in my inner being I delight in God’s law. From that point on, when the Holy Spirit spoke to your conscience and caused you to feel guilty about something, you wanted to do the right thing. But, that desire was weakened by the sinful nature. So, even though you desired to obey the Holy Spirit’s law through your conscience, you experienced Romans 7:15-25.

Jesus, first of all, help me understand that my conscience is good. Help me respect and appreciate the guilt the Holy Spirit creates in it. Help me keep desiring to do those things He is influencing my conscience to feel. Secondly, help me realize that these laws in my conscience cannot be obeyed through my efforts. Help me always bring the issues of my conscience to You. Give me Your power to obey Your laws The Holy Spirit puts in my conscience and He points out in Your Word.

From Influence To Power

For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending His Own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering: The Holy Spirit makes you feel guilty; He does not make you guilty! Feeling guilty through the Holy Spirit is an emotion that causes you to feel bad about what you said or did. But, the sin offering of Jesus keeps you from being guilty. To be guilty would condemn you to eternal separation from God. Feeling guilty is an experience that draws you closer to God. The Holy Spirit makes your conscience feel guilt so you will cry out to Jesus for His help with your problem.

Jesus, help me understand my conscience; help me understand the feelings of guilt that the Holy Spirit creates there. Help me not allow Satan to use it to try to make me guilty before You. Help me know that there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. Help me yield to Your power-attitude of mourning over things I say and do.

Guilt From The Holy Spirit Can Be A Desire

And so He condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit: Just like you go around seeing things you want and desiring them, your conscience and the Bible give you better things to see and desire. What should you desire? What should you go through your day and discover that it is something you want? Mat 6:33 (NIV) But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Allow this verse to change the subjects you bring up in your prayers.

Jesus, I want a new set of influences on my desires. Show me all Your provisions so I can start desiring them. Let my conscience and the Bible guide me away from those things I shouldn’t desire. And, let them guide me into seeing and desiring those things that are good for me and those around me.

This concludes your reading and studying today.

Chapter Seven

How Do I Apply The Biblical Principle Of Study?

Studying As A Beginner

Week Two Day Four

Jesus is now dealing with how you get the best results in your life. You saw that God won’t do anything that isn’t good for you and those around you. But, you have also seen that He won’t do these good things if you don’t want them and ask for them. The Seven Biblical Principles lead you into getting those good things God wants to give you and things you have always wanted and needed. But, you used the wrong procedures for getting them; you sometimes had wrong motives for wanting them; and, you used the wrong provisions for trying to fulfill them.

“Desire” Working Together With “Study”

Jesus, there was a time in my life where I didn’t know God could provide healing, miracles, blessings, and a great and wonderful relationship. I didn’t know how to get the wonderful things of God. I didn’t know how to find out what is available to me. Teach me that the first two Biblical Principles, desire and study, empower me to discover them and a better relationship with my Father. Teach me that the more I desire something from God, the more I study the Bible; and the more I ask, the more it helps me get the right things.

Studies That Get Results

Developing A Desire

1. Your first step into getting anything is to desire to find out what is available from God.

2. Then you need to get to the place where you desire to have it.

3. Then you have to desire to know how to get it.

4. Then you have to use that desire to “do what it takes” to get it.

Jesus, help me appreciate the wonderful things God caused to be written in the Bible. Show me He did it to create knowledge, desire, and results in me, so I will take the steps I need to take to get them (results). Help me see that desire inspires my study; and, study increases and directs my desires. Teach me that the more intense my desire, the more excited I get about studying. The more I study, the more I see what is available for me to desire and get.

Owning A Bible Isn’t Enough

2 Tim 3:16-17 (NIV) All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. The Bible is the answer for you getting everything you have ever wanted. Not those things you thought you wanted; not those things you tried to use to get what you wanted. You wanted happiness, pleasure, enjoyment, esteem, confidence, and freedom from pain. So, you used a bunch of tools the world taught you to use to get them. You were clear on what you wanted; you just weren’t just misled on how to go about getting them.

Jesus, help me always realize that the Bible contains the answers for how to get everything I have always wanted. But, help me see that it isn’t a book that can be read like all the other books I have read. Show me that sometime I read it and found it hard to appreciate and understand. So, I either read it out of duty or didn’t read it at all. Let me read it and enjoy it.

Reading The Bible Isn’t Enough

2 Tim 2:15 (AKJV) Study to show yourself approved to God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. You need to be able to use the truths in the Bible; but, no one read their Bible for the first time and knew how to use it. Since we start out as spiritual infants, the Bible is like a steak or a whole carrot. You wouldn’t feed your new born baby solid food. But, we often feed our new born-again baby solid foods. Since you have been a human for a long time, you can assume you got born again fully grown and developed.

Luke 18:17 (NIV) I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it. Jesus, teach me that it is mandatory that I accept the fact that being born again starts me as a brand-new being. Teach me that Romans 7:15-25 is about new and untrained Christians trying to use their human abilities, training, talents, and skills to live in the spirit realm. Show me that it isn’t until they finally get frustrated enough to come as a little child that they get the first four power-attitudes from the Beatitudes.

Reading The Bible Like A Human Book Isn’t Enough

Heb 4:12 (NIV) For the word of God is living and active (powerful). Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. This isn’t a human book; this is the Book of God. It doesn’t just give you information for your brain to store. It doesn’t just present human words that are telling you what you must do. It is a powerful Book that creates miracles, transformation, healing, and supernatural results in you.

Jesus, show me that studying the Bible can produce the results I want. But, I have to desire it to make those changes in me. I have to study it the right way so that it creates those changes in me. I have to pray and ask God to make that passage in the Bible change me. I have to read and study it in faith so I can believe it did create that change in me. I have to yield to God’s love so it will be a love-change in me. I have to start living on the basis of the fact that I am changed in that area by taking faith-action with You. And, I have to be thankful, as You produce the results in me.

Reading The Bible Without A Purpose Isn’t Enough

John 5:39-40 (NIV) You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about Me, yet you refuse to come to Me to have life. What do you want from God? Why is it that you are reading and studying the Bible? Are you studying it with your purpose in mind? Or, are you allowing Jesus to guide you into those things He wants to teach and create in you? Diligently studying the Scriptures sounds like a good thing; but, because of their desire, they weren’t helped.

Jesus, help me see that the people You were talking about in this verse had their minds made up. They were studying the Scriptures; but, they were looking for what they wanted to learn. Help me come as a little child and study under Your supervision. You know the step-by-step way of making sure I learn what I need to learn, when I need to learn it.

New And Untrained Christians Shouldn’t Always Study Alone

1 Th 2:6-8 (NIV) We were not looking for praise from men, not from you or anyone else. As apostles of Christ we could have been a burden to you, but we were gentle among you, like a mother caring for her little children. We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well, because you had become so dear to us.

Jesus, let me be helped by mature Christians who are already applying The Seven Biblical Principles. Let me be helped by mature Christians who have discovered those verses that taught them how to get the things God has to offer. Let me be helped by those who love me enough to share with me all they had learned and have applied to their lives. Then, help me do this with others who need the same training from me.

2 Tim 2:15 (AKJV) Study to show yourself approved to God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

Being approved by God is like getting a degree, a certification, or a license. Just like you would have to fulfill all the requirements to become a veterinarian, you have to “do what it takes” to get God’s approval. But, unlike studying to become a professional, studying the Bible doesn’t come from all your efforts. It is like the effort of eating; eating gives you the power to do more eating and more living. If you don’t put out the simple effort of eating, you will lose the power to eat or do anything else in life; you will die. The more Bible you read, the more power you get to study it. The more study you do, the more power you get to live a great and successful life.

The Results Of Your Study

Study to show yourself approved to God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed: Those who have gone through the training on The Seven Biblical Principles have found the keys to the results the Bible promises. They didn’t just learn a bunch of information; they experienced major and wonderful changes in their lives. They know these principles work because they have experienced their power and transformation; results prove reality and truth.

Jesus, if I read a book just to know the information, I don’t get the benefits of it. Unless I apply the information to my life, I just learn new information. Help me not just teach life-changing information but not live it myself; the Bible would call me a hypocrite. I would be “acting” like I am something I’m not. Show me that just because I know the information and can teach it doesn’t mean I’m living it. But, if I apply The Seven Biblical Principles to Bible truths, I get the promises and provisions of God operating in my life.

This concludes your reading and studying today.

Chapter Eight

How Do I Apply The Biblical Principle Of Study?

Studying For Maturity

Week Two Day Five

Looking For Something That Works

2 Tim 3:16-17 (NIV) All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. Advertisements tell you all about what a particular product can do for you. They go on and on about all the things you can do with it; but, they never seem to get around to telling you how to do those things. Without directions, instructions, recipes, and step-by-step information, all you know is what could be, if only you knew how. This can happen to you without The Three Keys and The Seven Biblical Principles.

Jesus, help me not be mad at God because He didn’t do something I wanted Him to do. Help me not use human solutions for things I need supernatural help with. Even when I tried and tried to follow the Bible and go with God’s help and it seemed like it never happened, help me not quit. Help me not give up on Biblical solutions and start applying the world’s “solutions” to the situation. Help me not run my business, marriage, family, friendships, and life using human techniques because I couldn’t get the Bible to work for me.

Getting The Necessities Of Life

You must have clothes, food, money to pay your bills, and a place to stay at night. If you can’t get the Biblical principles to help you get them, you can’t just live without them. So, “you do what everyone else is doing.” Since human training and systems “seem” to be working for you, you may not see any need to make changes. This causes you to leave the Bible and it principles and go with the systems and training of the world.

Mat 6:30 (NIV) If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Jesus, You are sure God will come through for me; You are saying it is me who is struggling with believing this truth. Give me Your faith so I can believe this truth.

Mat 6:31-32 (NIV) So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. Jesus, show me God is aware of all my needs.

Mat 6:33 (NIV) But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Jesus, help me “do what it takes” to get Him to meet my needs. Help me put my priority on God’s Kingdom and His righteousness by studying the Bible and learning all that You want to teach and empower me to live.

Getting The Real Necessities Of Life

If that is how God clothes the grass of the field: Jesus, You supply dirt, water, sun, and all kinds of things for the grass of the field; however, my needs are a lot more complicated than that. But, help me see this truth: “Will He not much more clothe you?” Show me in the Bible that there is something I need first before I can succeed. You know what that something is; You know I can’t live and win without it; help me discover what this priority is.

If you worry, saying, ‘What shall I eat?’ or ‘What shall I drink?’ or ‘What shall I wear?’, then your goal is established and your plans will be patterned after that goal. What if you listen to Jesus through the Bible and don’t allow what you eat, drink, wear, and sleep in to be your goal? What if He teaches you how to seek first His kingdom and His righteousness? What if you allow Him to teach you, through the Word, to make it a business principle, a marriage principle, a family principle, a friendship principle, and a life principle?

Finding Out What The Real Necessities Of Life Are

The Seven Biblical Principles are desire, study, pray, believe, love, faith-action, and being thankful. But, they can be human driven, world motivated, and selfishly used. Jesus knows you can take anything He teaches and make it fit what you think. There are “religious” people who take His teachings and so twist them until they become unusable in their everyday lives. There are humanists who take Scriptures and twist them until they look just like the world teaches.

Jesus, help me not use The Seven Biblical Principles for human, worldly, selfish purposes. Help me seek first His (God’s) kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things…be given to me as well. Show me there is a better way for me to get what I need to eat, drink, wear, and sleep in without just concentrating on me. Help me seek first His (God’s) kingdom and His righteousness, so it can change my heart, mind, and life. Empower me to start cooperating, caring about, working with, and helping others get their needs met. Let Your righteousness so transform me that I am connected to God’s knowledge, foreknowledge, understanding, and wisdom. Help me live my life according to the principles of the Bible.

Comparing Necessities Of Life

Have you ever worked for someone or some company that used you so they could reach their goals? Have you ever done business with someone who didn’t care what you were going through? Have you ever seen a commercial that indicated that their product would do more for you than it actually did? Have you ever had someone try to get something from you for as low a price as possible? Have you ever had someone try to sell you something for as high a price as possible? What if you listen to Jesus, through the Bible, and allow Him to remove these world systems from you? What if you allow Him to replace them with His teachings and systems?

There is a way for you to get God’s righteousness and power to succeed at everything you do. There is a way for you to live life where all these things will be given to you as well. This way is explained to you in John 16:13-15; it tells you about a way where God teaches you special life-principles from the Bible that take care of your spiritual and physical needs.

Jesus, take control over my study material; empower me to allow You to not only teach me Your truths, help me allow You to apply them to my daily living. Jesus, sometimes I read the Bible and don’t understand what You are saying. You say things that are way over my ability to see how I can put them into practice. Help me allow You to take control over my life so I can learn how all this works. Show me how to get the very best training from the Bible as I study. Show me how to get win/win procedures operating in my life.

Finding What Jesus Considers Necessities Of Life

John 16:13-15 (NIV) But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on His own; He will speak only what He hears, and He will tell you what is yet to come. He will bring glory to Me by taking from what is Mine and making it known to you. All that belongs to the Father is Mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is Mine and make it known to you.

If Jesus were to guide your desires, what would you want? If He were to decide what you studied, what would He have you study? If He were to tell you what you need to pray for, what would He choose? If He became your only source of faith, what would He empower you to believe? If He were to show you how to yield to God’s love, what would it look like in your business, marriage, dating, family, friendships, and with strangers? If He were to take over your life through faith-action, what would He do with it? He would take you into the Bible and lead you into truth. He would give you miracles and blessing that would inspire thankfulness.

Jesus, lead me into the truths of Your Word; help me not just study the Bible using my brain and my mind. Give me the meaning that You want me to have. Let the Bible come alive through the leadership and the power of the Holy Spirit. Let me receive the truth that is in the human words on its pages. Help me yield to Your Holy Spirit so He can reveal to me the truth and the life that comes from each word, sentence, and paragraph. Speak faith into me so I can believe everything the Holy Spirit is trying to teach me.

Getting Jesus’ Truths About The Necessities Of Life

2 Tim 2:15 (AKJV) Study to show yourself approved to God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. John 16:13-15 is telling you how the Holy Spirit is going to be explaining the meaning of every verse in the Bible. It is showing you how a submission to Jesus’ Holy Spirit is going to help you not only read and study the Bible, He will be giving you the meaning so you will be able to know exactly what Jesus wants you to do. Then all these things will be given to you as well.

Jesus, teach me that the Holy Spirit won’t be able to guide me into all truth, if I don’t read and study the Bible. Empower me to give it my time and effort; let me spend a lot of time being exposed to it. Lead me into those things that I need right now in my life. Help me yield to Your Holy Spirit so He can guide me into those truths that I need for each situation I face all during my day. Help me be ready to live out Your truths from Your Word. Let every day be a walk in the truths of the Bible.

This concludes your reading and studying for this week.

Chapter Nine

How Do I Apply The Biblical Principle Of Prayer?

Praying To Your Heavenly Father

Week Three Day One

After you have allowed God to develop a desire in you for getting all those things He has to offer, and after you have learned the importance of studying the Bible, the next issue is to learn to pray and carry on conversations with God.

Choosing Your Parent

Rom 8:13-14 (NIV) For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.

Jesus, Your salvation and justification made God my heavenly Father. Help me understand that they gave me a spiritual birth that made me His child, a member in His family and a citizen of His Kingdom. Show me that being born again does something that my natural birth didn’t provide. It gave me the right and privilege to choose who my parent was going to be.

The Unsaved And The Seven Biblical Principles

Rom 10:13 (NIV) For, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

You became receptive to Jesus by using parts of The Seven Biblical Principles. You looked at your life and realized that you needed a change; that created a new desire in you. You started looking around to see what your options were and discovered that God offered you help. That required a certain amount of study on your part. During this time, you even sent out a prayer for help to God; then a messenger from God came.

The Gospel Message And The Seven Biblical Principles

Someone came to you and presented Jesus as your answer:

1. Through their presentation, you started desiring what Jesus had to offer.

2. As you listened to their presentation, you were studying together with them concerning salvation, justification, and their benefits.

3. When they led you into the Lord’s prayer or a “sinner’s prayer,” you applied the third Biblical principle of praying.

4. Through the good news message, that they presented to you, you received faith from Jesus; and, you used that faith to believe you had salvation and justification.

5. At that moment, the Holy Spirit poured God’s love into your heart.

6. Then, you took faith-action and started practicing living the Christian life. You started living on the basis of the fact that Jesus gave you salvation and justification.

7. From there Jesus started doing wonderful things in your life that you needed to be sure and be thankful for, give Him credit for, and appreciate.

These Principles Work For All Of Christianity

Jesus, thank You for helping me see I was involved in The Seven Biblical Principles on the first day of my life with You. This friend led me step-by-step into these vital principles and the result was…salvation into eternal life. But, the sad thing was, I didn’t notice these seven Biblical steps they were using with me. They used them without identifying them as being vital to all of my Christianity. Help me start teaching my friends how to start using them and keep using them. Help us make them a major part of our lives.

Prayer Is Calling Out To God For Help

Rom 10:13 (NIV) For, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

Now that you are a Christian, you are to continue to use these seven principles to help you be able to take advantage of Jesus’ salvation. You are to grow in your desires as you study the Scriptures in the Bible. Once you come across verses that present things you want and need, it is a time for you to start praying and asking God for them.

Jesus, teach me that prayer transitions me from self-dependency to God-dependency. Show me that, that isn’t an easy journey for me. When I prayed “the sinner’s prayer” or prayed the Lord’s prayer, I was calling out to God for His help. Rather than me looking to myself or other forms of help, I started looking to God. The more I prayed, the more I came to God for His help.

Self-Confidence Or God-Confidence

James 4:8a (NIV) Come near to God and He will come near to you. Some people don’t become Christians until they are old. Even though many of them have heard the good news message, they weren’t willing to pray because it required them to look to God for His help. The only way many people are willing to accept God’s help is if they can decide when, where, why, what, and how God helps them. Since God honors our God-given free will, they remain outside God’s provisions. James 4:2b (NIV) You do not have, because you do not ask God.

James 4:3 (NIV) When you ask (pray), you do not receive, because you ask (pray) with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. Jesus, help me not pray prayers that are based on what I think God should do for me. Help them be based on a desire for God’s will to be accomplished in my life. Show me that if I pray without being influenced by the study of the Bible, I will find myself asking for things that would actually hurt me and those around me.

Building God-Confidence

Rom 8:15 (NIV) For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by Him we cry, “Abba, Father.” Becoming a child of God is all about a wonderful, dynamic, and loving relationship. However, you don’t come into it feeling the love, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and gentleness of God. You may come to God as a test; you may have come to Him testing to see what kind of a God He is. When you pray, you may be “checking” to see whether or not He passes your test.

For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear: Jesus, set me free from testing God; teach me that the Holy Spirit came inside me so I can feel the love, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and gentleness of God. Make it clear to me that He isn’t trying to convince me with words of proof; He is speaking directly to my heart. He is replacing my old spirit of fear with Himself. He is helping me love and trust my heavenly Father by giving me emotions that embrace that relationship. He is convincing my heart.

Experiencing God-Confidence

But you received the Spirit of sonship: As you feel the love, joy, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and gentleness of God, you start realizing God is your Father and you are His child. As that relationship becomes clear to you, you start to realize why God does everything for you for free. He does everything He does for you because He loves you. You are His child and He has a special love for you because of it. Being born again is like parents having a baby. God watches you be born as His child and loves you as your Father.

For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by Him we cry, “Abba, Father.” Jesus, help me yield to the Holy Spirit as He builds a love relationship between me and God. Help me talk to Him because He is my Father and I love Him. Let this change everything in my prayer. Let my relationship be built on conversations of love and unity. I am His child; help me pray based on that fact.

Experiencing God-Confidence And God-Esteem Through Love

Rom 8:16 (NIV) The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. This is Spirit-to-spirit communication. You aren’t just learning your way into loving God. You aren’t just being convinced that you should love God. The Holy Spirit is giving you God’s love to love God with. Rom 5:5b (NIV) God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, Whom He has given us. This is an emotion that you can yield to on a spirit level.

The Basis Of Your Relationship With Your Heavenly Father

Mat 7:7-8 (NIV) Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. As you experience the love God has for you, it helps you obey His requirements. Since you know He loves you more than you love yourself, you realize that obeying His requirements are the very best for you.

Mat 7:9-10 (NIV) Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? Jesus, if I have found some humans I can trust, show me how much more I can trust God to not give me something bad when I ask for good.

Mat 7:11 (NIV) If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask Him! Jesus, speak this into my heart and mind. Make sure I believe that God will answer all my prayers that I ask for that are good.

This concludes your reading and studying today.

Chapter Ten

How Do I Apply The Biblical Principle Of Prayer?

Praying Under Holy Spirit Influence

Week Three Day Two

What Is The Good News?

Mark 16:15 (NIV) He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation.” You hear about the gospel message of good news. You are told to go tell everyone the good news. But, what is the good news? The good news is: Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through Whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God (Rom 5:1-2). That is good news!

Jesus, the good news is, I can now talk to God anytime I want. You have given me direct access to Him; and now, I can come to Him and have a relationship with Him. Your Holy Spirit is telling me I am God’s child. Help me see that, that is why He answers my prayers.

The Relationship Of Having Access

Mat 7:11 (NIV) If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask Him! If you pray and don’t get results, you will typically try to find another solution. You may stop looking to your Father and go back to looking to yourself and other humans. You may pray periodically; but, it could be based on a hope that this time God will come through and help you; that damages your access because you didn’t understand the “good” principle.

We have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand: The access or direct communication with your Father is now open; but, it has definite requirements to it. You have gained access by faith; it is totally under Jesus’ control. He only gives you faith for those things that are good. How much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask Him! He won’t give you anything that isn’t good for you and those around you.

Access Through Jesus

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God: Jesus, help me realize that the first thing that had to happen to me was for me to stop being separated from God. If there is some kind of sin or barrier that exists between me and Him, I can’t go to Him and talk to Him. But now, I have peace with God through You, our Lord Jesus Christ. You opened the door for me to go to Him and talk with Him; that is good news!

The Seven Biblical Principles only work with things that are God’s will. If you try to use them on things that aren’t good for you or those around you, your prayer to God is hindered; and, Jesus won’t give you faith for it. You only have a relationship for those things that are good.

Access Through The Right Kind Of Desire

Jesus, if I desire something that will hurt me but I think it is good, I will pray for it. I will ask God for it and expect Him to give it to me. When I ask and I don’t get it, I am often hurt, disappointed, and feel rejected. Then I will often try to find some other source for getting something God knows is going to hurt me and those around me. Help me stop this process; give me faith and trust in my heavenly Father to only give me those things that are good.

Access Through The Right Kind Of Study

Jesus, if I study world principles and expose myself to their philosophies, then I will desire the wrong things. If I fail to read and study the Bible, then I will establish my relationship with God based on wrong information. Help realize that God has put all the good information in the Bible; and, if I pray for those things, I will move into good supplies, resources, and people. When the Bible points me in the right direction, help me pray, look to God, and trust Him for getting my needs met. But, if God doesn’t answer my prayers like I want Him to, help me go back to studying the Bible to find out what to pray for.

Access Through The Right Kind Of Prayer

We have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand: Jesus, I am finally in the good graces of my heavenly Father. I am finally able to talk to Him anytime I want. I am finally starting to use spiritual principles to get my goals, needs, questions, and problems addressed. Help me not be like a child who is trying to get their parents to let them do something the parents know will hurt them. Teach me that He gives me good things I don’t actually deserve. Help me accept grace as a God-concept; I only get good things even though I don’t deserve them.

Prayer Assistance

Rom 8:26-27 (NIV) In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And He Who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will.

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness: Jesus, if I pray, and pray, and pray, and “don’t get my prayers answered,” I typically blame God and the system of prayer. I think God isn’t answering my prayers, or, prayer doesn’t work “for me.” So, I assume I am going to have to get my needs met “some other way.” But, help me realize that God is answering my prayers! He is saying, no! Then help me find out why He is saying no.

Your Problem With Prayer

We do not know what we ought to pray for: Most people don’t know or agree with this truth. They are sure they know exactly what they need. Most people pray with confidence rather than faith. They are confident they know what God should do for them. So, they tell Him what to do for them. But, we do not know what we ought to pray for.

Jesus, help me pray under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Help me allow Him to intercede for me. Empower me to yield to His directions when I am praying. Teach me how to give Him control over how I pray, what I pray, when I pray, and where I pray. Let me get all the benefits of His intercession so I can get all those things I need from God.

Good, Holy Spirit Prayers

But the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express: Those people who accept the fact that they do not know what they ought to pray for, allow the Spirit to help them in their weakness. Those who don’t do this, will typically give up on talking with their heavenly Father. They will spend most of their time working on getting all their needs met through some other source. So, the greater part of their relationships are in spending time, efforts, and money with people who they think are meeting their needs.

Jesus, help me be one of those people who accepts the fact that I do not know what I ought to pray for. Teach me how to allow the Spirit to help me in my weakness. Teach me how to allow the Spirit Himself to intercede for me with groans that words cannot express. You know that my greatest needs are deep down in the hidden recesses of my heart. You know they are driving me to pray for things that will hurt me and those around me. Heal my heart so I will get a whole new desire and start praying for a whole new set of things.

God’s Will Is Only Good

And He Who searches our hearts (our heavenly Father) knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will: Once you allow this to happen, your prayers get answered positively. Your prayers not getting answered wasn’t a problem with God; it wasn’t a problem with the system of prayer; it was a problem with your weakness.

In accordance with God’s will: What is God’s will for your life? His will is for you to only get good things even though you don’t deserve them! Since you are His child, you get good things as an inheritance. You get good things as gifts because you are His child. God’s will is for you to yield to a gift, grace, mercy, and love relationship with Him. He wants you to give up trying to earn or deserve anything you receive from Him. He wants you to appreciate His generosity.

Ask Jesus to help you yield to the desires of the Holy Spirit (Rom 8:5), the study-training of the Holy Spirit (John 16:13-15), and the prayers of the Holy Spirit (Rom 8:26-27).

Jesus, help me have a mind-set that is locked into the desires of the Holy Spirit. Help me allow His desires to be my desires. Help me pray under His direction and guidance so I will be praying according to God’s will. Let me yield to the guidance and teaching of the Holy Spirit so I will have all truths to base my prayers on. Empower me to yield to the Holy Spirit so He is able to intercede for me in accordance to God’s will for my life.

This concludes your reading and studying today.

Chapter Eleven

How Do I Apply The Biblical Principle Of Believe?

Inspecting The Source

Week Three Day Three

The Development Of Your System

Even as a baby you were very much aware of what you wanted and needed. You start out with human systems and philosophies for getting those things you feel you have to have. You can watch young children apply various techniques as they interact with other children. It is interesting to watch different children use different methods for getting what they desire.

Jesus, as I become a teenager and an adult, I had established my own style for how to get those things I wanted. Help me see this root system everyone uses for trying to get their needs and wants met. Let James 4:1-3 take me through this core system. Help me compare it with the system of believing in God. Then set me free from my system and accept yours.

The Main Principles Of The World System

Looking To The Wrong motivators

James 4:1 (NIV) What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you?

Fighting And Quarreling Are The Wrong System

What causes fights and quarrels among you: Jesus, as I got older and more mature, I got more skilled and better equipped to disguise my motives and systems. But, my schemes and “negotiations” were about me trying to get others to do what I want them to do. Show me that fights, quarrels, disagreements, conflicts, arguments, separations, and divorce all come from a common source. Why do people sue one another. Why do they gossip against people? Why do they lie, cheat, and steal from each other? Why do they separate from people? And, why do they divorce one another? Show me that it is because they believe in themselves.

The Desires That Battle Within You Are The Wrong Desires

Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you: You were born with self-protection, self-identification, self-confidence, self-esteem, and selfish desires. You believe you are the expert and authority for what you need and should have. You won’t relax and look to God in faith, until you discover that He loves you more than you love yourself. He is working the hardest for getting the very best for you. And, He is using knowledge, understanding, wisdom, foreknowledge of the future, love, and power to help you get the very best. If you believe this about God, you will start getting ready to be set free from believing in yourself.

Believing In The Wrong Source

James 4:2 (NIV) You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God.

1. Believing In The Wrong Source Produces The Wrong Results

You want something but don’t get it: This is hard for you to believe. When you set out to get something and end up with it, you feel like you got what you wanted. But, you only got what you thought you wanted. You wanted happiness, pleasure, satisfaction, joy, peace, and love. But, you ended up with something that didn’t give you those things.

Jesus, help me believe You know what will give me happiness, pleasure, satisfaction, joy, peace, and love. Help me stop desiring things that will eventually hurt and disappoint me. Show me why I desire the right things and don’t get them. I can be very convinced (believe) I know the right thing to desire and the right way to go after it. Help me totally believe in You.

2. Believing In The Wrong Source Produces The Wrong Plan

You kill and covet: We assassinate people’s character; we destroy people’s reputations; we attack people’s esteem; we undermine people’s confidence; and we hurt them deeply as we try to force them to yield to those things we covet and envy about them. We don’t have to kill them physically in order for God to consider us murderers.

Jesus, teach me that believing in God keeps me from thinking others have what I want and need. Show me that I don’t have to have what others have in order to get what I need and want. God can provide me with the same kinds of things others have without me taking theirs.

3. Believing In The Wrong Source Produces The Wrong Goal

But you cannot have what you want: Many spend their life without discovering this principle. When you use the world’s system, you are never going to get what you want. That is because you are looking in the wrong direction. Most of those things you think you want aren’t what you need. The place where you think they are located is the wrong place for getting them.

Jesus, open my eyes of faith so I can see clearly what to go after, where to get it, how to go about getting it, and when is the best time to get it. Help me see that it is the difference between groping around in the darkness trying to find what I am looking for, and turning the lights on. Without God’s light shining on life, I find myself lost, confused, frustrated, and disappointed. Teach me that faith in myself is darkness; faith in God is the light to see clearly.

4. Believing In The Wrong Source Produces The Wrong System

You quarrel and fight: It would seem like we would try this method for a short period of time and then realize it doesn’t work. Many people use human, world systems all their lives and never get what they want. But, they never give up on trying to perfect this useless system. They keep quarreling and fighting and only end up making themselves and others miserable.

5. Believing In The Right Source Produces The Right System

You do not have, because you do not ask God: When you get to this truth, you start getting the results you are looking for. It’s hard giving up being your own best friend and trading self-esteem and self-confidence for God-esteem and God-confidence. But, that is the way to head in the right direction. You are starting to look to Jesus for His faith to believe.

Jesus, let this verse, about two types of faith, always be in the back of my mind. Teach me that the things coming through You are the only ones I can trust and get results from. You are the greatest “filter” I can possibly find for getting the very best. I get a lot of things that aren’t good for me. But, help me believe that what I get through faith in You is the very best for me.

Believing And Trusting The Wrong Motivations

James 4:3 (NIV) When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

1. Believing In The Right Method But Having The Wrong Motives

When you ask: Once you learn the importance of believing in God and getting everything from Him, you can still believe in what you think. You usually won’t ask God what is good for you; you believe you already know that. You will often tell Him what you want. That is split-faith.

2. Split Faith Still Gets The Wrong Results

You do not receive: Jesus, teach me that I don’t get what I think is best; and I don’t get the good thing because of how I would use it. When I “ask” You to give me some thing I think will be good for me and You refuse to do it, I typically believe You are refusing to give me something good. Help me not be confused and it cause me to withdraw my faith from You.

3. Split Faith Gives You Wrong Motives

Because you ask with wrong motives: Jesus, when I come with split faith, show me it causes me to try to manipulate You. I can reason with You, threaten You, get mad at You, and even leave You. But, show me the reason I am not getting them is because You know they are good, but, my use of them would hurt, damage, or even destroy me and those around me.

4. Split Faith Gives You The Wrong Plan

That you may spend what you get: Jesus, teach me that this happens when things could be good for me; but, what I would do with it wouldn’t. Help me not abuse great and wonderful things because I don’t know how to trust in You; help me use it for Your plan.

5. Split Faith Gives You The Wrong Goals

On Your pleasures: Jesus, help me see that You can give me a great business, job, marriage, family, career, or friendship. But, if I have inappropriate thoughts, feelings, words, and deeds, I can ruin a wonderful gift of God. I can even use it to damage myself. Help me grow in my spiritual abilities so Your gifts can come into my life and be a blessing to me.

This concludes your reading and studying today.

Chapter Twelve

How Do I Apply The Seven Biblical Principles’ Believe?

Believing Through Jesus’ Faith

Week Three Day Four

The Source Of Faith

Heb 12:2 (NIV) Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith, Who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Jesus gives you faith so you can believe you are saved and justified. He creates a knowledge that you are God’s child. The way He does this is to give you His Holy Spirit at salvation and justification. Then, from that point on, the Holy Spirit is speaking to your spirit, telling you, you are God’s child. Rom 8:16 (NIV) The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. He gives you a continuous flow of Jesus’ faith to believe this fact.

Jesus, help me yield to this faith message from Your Holy Spirit. Help me learn what this faith feels like, how it helps me know I am saved, and how it gives me the power to believe I am God’s child. Empower me to concentrate on this experience in my heart and mind. Let me learn from it so I can use this experience of faith to train me for other areas where I need faith. Work with me on this experience with Your faith so I can yield to You on other issues.

Choosing Where To Give Your Attention

Let us fix our eyes: Your eyes are fixed on something; you spend most of your time on a major concern. Look at the activities of your week; there was a central issue you dealt with all week. It could be money, a relationship, or a physical condition. When you concentrate on something, your eyes are fixed on it. It is where most of your time is spent; it is where you have your greatest concern or get the most pleasure; it is where your heart and mind are focusing.

Jesus, I want to focus and give You my attention. If I have put my faith and trust in money, set me free. If I have put my faith and trust in a person, deliver me from that dependency. If I have put my faith and trust in myself, help me give it up and look to You. If I have put my faith and trust in a job or career, help me give up that attitude. Empower me to fix my eyes on You. I want all my faith, trust, reliance, and dependency to be locked into You.

Your Door Into God And The Things Of God

Let us fix our eyes on Jesus: Fixing your eyes on Jesus connects you to all God’s provisions. John 14:6 (NIV) Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. Everything you get from God must come to you through faith. And, all your faith must come through Jesus. Heb 11:6 (NIV) And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him. Jesus’ faith pleases God.

Jesus, help me lock into You; help me remain in You and never disconnect. Heal my focus so I give You my attention and am able to concentrate on You. Set me free from distractions that try to pull my attention away from my eyes being fixed on You. As I face trials, temptations, pressures, and difficulties, help me keep my eyes away from their potential problems, power, or influence. Let me keep looking to how much bigger, more powerful, and loving You are.

The Right Faith For Believing Right

Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the Author: All faith that has the power to be pleasing to, acceptable by, and effective with God, originates from Jesus. When you want faith for some need, issue, or blessing, that must be the moment when you start praying to Jesus for His faith. Fixing your eyes on Jesus means you only pray to Him for His faith so you can believe for the right thing. You must keep waiting on Him until He gives you the faith you need.

Jesus, I see now that everything I get from God flows through You to me. Because You are the vine and I am a branch, all the faith I need to please God comes from You. Since You control all my abilities to have faith, I am only able to believe for those things that are God’s will. Help me appreciate this authoring of my faith. Let me only trust You for originating my faith; I want to keep my eyes off of myself, other people, Satan, and world philosophies. Help me keep my eyes fixed on You for getting the faith I need for believing for the right things.

The Right Kind Of Faith For The Right Kind Of Believing

Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter: Not only does Jesus control what He is willing to author by giving you the first part of faith to believe, He doesn’t just author or originate your faith for something, He perfects it. James 1:6-8 (NIV) But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does.

Faith from Jesus is constant; with His faith you are able to keep believing you are saved and a child of God. It empowers you to believe something and keep believing it for the rest of your life. This perfecting of your faith keeps you from having to come back for the same issue over and over again. Once you get Jesus’ faith for something, that issue is settled!

Jesus, help me stay in constant contact with You when You give me faith for something. Let me remain in You so You can constantly give me faith for that same issue. Let each element of faith You give me be like a river. Make that issue of faith in me produce a constant belief that never ever doubts. Let that issue get settled and stay settled for the rest of my life. Make that area of faith be permanent so I can move on to other areas where I need Your faith.

Jesus’ Faith Becomes Your Faith

Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith: Jesus’ object is to author and perfect your faith; He allows His faith to flow into you so you can use your God-given free will to yield to it or resist it. If you yield to Jesus’ faith, His faith becomes your faith.

In Mark 5:25-34, a woman had a bleeding problem for twelve years and was getting worse. She came to Jesus but wasn’t able to get close to Him so He could heal her. So, she reached out and touched His clothes and immediately her bleeding stopped. Jesus felt power flow out of Him and demanded that, that person identify themselves. So, the woman came and fell at His feet and, trembling with fear, told Him the whole truth. He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering (Mark 5:33b-34).”

Jesus, help me so yield to Your faith that it becomes my faith. Help me not resist Your faith as You speak it into me. Help me resist any efforts of Satan to cause me to doubt those things Your faith is helping me believe I have. Let the truths of the Bible stabilize my thinking and feeling so I will be totally receptive to every item of faith You give me.

The Power Of Jesus’ Faith In Your Faith

Heb 11:1 (NIV) Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. Jesus’ faith does this to your heart and mind. When He speaks His faith into you, it empowers you to be sure and certain about something you hope for. Even though you haven’t taken faith-action and started living on the basis of it, you are certain of what you do not see.

Jesus, help me receive a flow of Your faith into my heart and mind. Let it be a river of faith that leads and guides me into Your will for my life. Empower me to believe those things You are teaching me from the Bible. Speak faith into me through every word the Bible says. Let You faith become my faith so I can be sure and certain and trust You for everything I need.

Going From Hope To Being Sure

Now faith is being sure of what we hope for: Jesus, help me know what Your faith feels like as it comes into my faith. When I feel sure rather than just hoping, that is You speaking faith into my faith. Help me recognize it and act on the basis of it. As I yield to it, help me know I have what I have been desiring, studying about, and praying for. Help me see that I am then ready for faith-action. Then once faith-action comes, help me be thankful for the miracle.

Going From The Invisible To The Visible

Now faith is being…certain of what we do not see: When Jesus speaks faith into you, you experience the reality of what you need but don’t have. This verse is telling you that this is how you get your needs met. God’s provisions are already created. They are what you are to believe. You can’t believe something that doesn’t exist. You must believe it is already provided. Hope believes in things God says He will do later. Faith believes what God says He has already done. Hope and faith require you to believe God is telling you the truth.

Jesus, help me receive Your faith that makes me certain that You, my heavenly Father, the Holy Spirit, and the Bible are telling me the truth. And, give me Your faith so I can know that You want me to have that truth in my life at that time. I want You to control when I get each provision God has already created for me.

This concludes your reading and studying today.

Chapter Thirteen

How Do I Apply The Biblical Principle Of Love?

Yielding To God’s Love

Week Three Day Five

You Yield To God’s Love, If You Accept His Love

Rom 5:8 (NIV) But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Before you can love God, yourself, and other people, you must allow God to love you. He loves you; but, you don’t always accept that love as a fact. If you don’t believe God loves you more than you love yourself, you can’t give yourself over to Him. You won’t be able to desire what He has to offer, study what He has to say, pray for His help, or look to Jesus for His faith to help you believe you have something. Your whole relationship with God is dependent on you accepting this truth that He loves you.

You Yield To God’s Love, If You Believe In His Power

Phil 4:19 (NIV) And my God will meet all your needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus. Jesus, what causes me to desire the things of God? I frequently look to God for those things I want and need that I don’t think I can provide for myself. When I have tried everything I know to try, and it doesn’t work for me, then I start looking toward You. But, I don’t always turn to You for help with a tough issue; sometimes I turn to other humans. But, after trying everything else, when I realize that, if I am going to get help in that area, it is going to take a miracle, then I finally turn to You. Set me free from this attitude.

You Yield To God’s Love, If You Believe In His Love

John 3:16 (NIV) For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. You have seen that faith in yourself keeps you from having faith in God. But, why do you have such a strong faith in yourself? Is it because you are so wise, powerful, and incredibly capable? No, you realize you have a lot of weaknesses, make a lot of mistakes, and can’t do a lot of things for yourself. But, you can believe you love yourself and are the most qualified to make the decisions for your life.

Jesus, help me find out that God loves me more than I love myself. Let that help me turn my life over to You. Show me that if I don’t believe this, I will only turn some of my life over to You. I will turn to You for those things I can’t provide for myself. I will want some of Your provisions, miracles, blessings, and eternal salvation. But, for the rest of the things in my life, I will trust, believe, rely, and depend on myself and the other humans I choose.

You Yield To God’s Love, If You Believe In His Superiority

Isa 55:8-9 (NIV) “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways,” declares the LORD. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.”

Even those people who know God is smarter, more powerful, and has much greater provisions, won’t completely put their faith, trust, dependency, and reliance on God. If they still believe that they love and care about themselves more than God, then there will always be this wall between them and Him.

Jesus, make it clear to me that if I don’t believe in Your greatness, I may want You to supply me with Your knowledge, Your foreknowledge of the future, Your understanding, Your wisdom, Your power, and Your provisions. But, I may want You to just give all of it to me so I can decide how I want to use them. Help me totally believe in the greatness of Your love.

You Yield To God’s Love, If You Believe In His Generosity

John 17:22-23 (NIV) I (Jesus) have given them the glory that You gave Me, that they may be one as We are one: I in them and You in Me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that You sent Me and have loved them even as You have loved Me.

Jesus, teach me that my ability to apply The Seven Biblical Principles is very dependent on how I feel about God’s generous love. Without this truth setting me free, my desires for what He has to offer will be with reservation, suspicion, and caution. When I study His Bible, I won’t believe His is making His promises apply to me. When I pray, I will only ask Him for those things I think I deserve. When I decide what to believe Him for, it will be within the boundaries of my not-so-important things. I will only cautiously open my heart of love to Him. My faith-action with Him will be guarded. And, I will have difficulty being thankful.

If You Yield To God’s Love, You Will Get Its Benefits

Rom 5:5 (NIV) And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, Whom He has given us. Jesus, teach me that God’s love is in my heart and mind where I can use my God-given free will to decide what to do with it. It is there so I can love God, love myself, and love my neighbors (all those around me) as myself. But, help me see that it is also there so I can allow it to help me accept the magnitude of God’s love for me as a person. John 15:12 (NIV) My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.

Victory Through God-Esteem And Confidence

Jesus has provided a study on Romans 8:31-39. This study is titled: “Victory Through God-Esteem And Confidence.” It covers this vital issue concerning God’s love for you in a lot of detail. So, take a quick look at these powerful verses here. You will be able to take advantage of the full study later. All these verses have been taken from the New International Version of the Bible.

Romans Chapter Eight:

V 31a What, then, shall we say in response to this?

V 31b If God is for us, who can be against us?

V 32 He Who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all--how will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things?

V 33 Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God Who justifies.

V 34 Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, Who died--more than that, Who was raised to life--is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.

V 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?

Jesus, help me pray over these questions until You put Your faith in me. Help me believe that God’s love for me is greater than my love for myself. Vs 36-37 As it is written: “For Your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him Who loved us. As I am facing all of life’s issues, help me know how much God loves me.

You know how much God loves you because The Seven Biblical Principles do this:

1. They point you toward desiring those things God wants you to have.

2. They point you toward studying those things God tells you about in the Bible.

3. They point you toward praying and asking God for everything you need and want.

4. They point you toward fixing your eyes on Jesus so He can give you the faith to believe God has given you those things the Bible pointed out for you.

5. They point you toward loving yourself, others, and God with the love God gave you.

6. They point you toward taking faith-action by joining Jesus and living life with Him.

7. They point you toward seeing how great God’s love is and feeling a great thankfulness for it all.

Jesus, help me understand that, if I don’t know how much God loves me, I won’t want these things being pointed out for me. I will believe in me. My self-esteem and self-confidence will point me toward believing in my love for myself. Give me God-esteem and God confidence so I can be led into allowing The Seven Biblical Principles to point me toward the love of God for me.

Vs 38-39 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. The Seven Biblical Principles applied to Romans 8:31-39, help you be convinced that nothing will be able to separate you from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. This will help you base your entire life on the fact that God loves you more than you love yourself.

This concludes your reading and studying for this week.

Chapter Fourteen

How Do I Apply The Biblical Principle Of Love?

Directing Your Heart With Love

Week Four Day One

The Power To Direct Your Heart

Rom 5:5 (NIV) And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, Whom He has given us.

1. You Have The Power To Direct Your Heart By Receiving God’s Love

God has poured out His love: Jesus, this is such a great gift; the power and influence of God’s love gives me the potential of a totally successful life. Let its power motivate me to always move in the right directions. Help my thoughts and emotions be empowered by it to always do the right things and avoid all the wrong things. Help me realize that God’s love is what sets Him apart from all other beings; He has absolute power, authority, and control; but, is perfect in all His decisions and actions. Help me yield to His kind of love.

2. You Have The Power To Direct Your Heart By Gaining An Influence Over It

God has poured out His love into our hearts: Jesus, since my heart is the control center for who I am, and even though I was the one who programed it to enforce certain rules, beliefs, systems, and plans, I can’t adjust or delete them. Now it is controlling me with strong positive and negative emotions. They are pushing me in the direction of these preprogrammed laws. Empower me to use God’s love to “invade” this control center and change it for good things.

3. You Have The Power To Direct Your Heart By Being Provided A Tutor

God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit: Jesus, I was the one who messed up my heart in the first place. It wouldn’t be much help, if I were given control over my heart without some kind of training. 2 Tim 3:16-17 (NIV) All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. I ask You to use the Bible and the Holy Spirit’s Scriptural interpretation, to teach me how to bring my heart under the control of God’s love. Help me do this moment-by-moment all during my day.

4. You Have The Power To Direct Your Heart By Having A New Choice

God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, Whom He has given us: Jesus, I know the Holy Spirit is inside me communicating with me Spirit-to-spirit. This is a powerful method of communication that doesn’t require words. He causes thoughts and feelings to come into my mind and heart. But, I have to decide whether or not I will yield to them. Empower me know when ideas and feelings are from Him and always use them.

5. You Have The Power To Direct Your Heart By Learning The Potential

1 Corinthians 13:4-8a explains the power-characteristics of God’s love. The list there explains what God’s love has the power to provide you. The Holy Spirit, working together with God’s love, provides you with the potential of you taking advantage of being born again and having a new life. 2 Cor 5:17 (NIV) Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! Ask Jesus to help you take full advantage of this new life.

Jesus, along with this new life You gave me, comes a whole new way of living it. Just like a new human, born into this world, has to learn how that life works, so do I. I, who have been born again, have to learn how this life works. Help me realize that I can’t take human rules, systems, and methods and apply them to the spirit realm. Help me use the human life for examples on how my new life works. But, help me not transfer my old methods over and try to use them to live this new life. Help me learn this whole new way of doing things.

6. You Have The Power To Direct Your Heart By Applying The Tools With Love

Why does one person use a knife to cut a tumor out of a hurting person and another person use one to kill someone? It all has to do with what is in a person’s heart. Without love, we will try to use The Seven Biblical Principles for wrong, bad, or evil. You need to yield to God’s love in each of them. If your desires, studies, prayers, believing, love, faith-action and thankfulness leave out God’s love, you will be motivated by a selfish, human love. Pray that Jesus helps you use His love.

Jesus, I can fool myself into thinking I am applying these seven principles out of love; but, my heart can deceive me. It can disguise its real reason for why I am applying them. I can convince myself that I am being benevolent to others, when in actuality I am trying to meet a special need for myself. Help me not treat people nice, do special things for them, make them think I really care, and “win a few points with them,” just so I can “collect on the debt” later. Set me free from human techniques and human love.

Controlling The Uncontrollable

Here’s The Problem

Jer 17:9-10 (NIV) The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? “I the LORD search the heart and examine the mind, to reward a man according to his conduct, according to what his deeds deserve.”

Jesus, You know how much my heart is hurting my relationships with other people. You know why I struggle with success in life. Help me with my heart so I can succeed in marriage, family, business, my career, my friends, and those who have become my enemies. Pour Your love into these relationships as I think, feel, talk, and act. Help me live a life around them and with them that demonstrates how You can change a human life through love.

Here’s The Solution

Rom 12:1 (NIV)

Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God--this is your spiritual act of worship. The Holy Spirit is offering you the power of God’s love to be used as a steering mechanism to empower you to take control over your heart. Your normal, typical reactions to a situation will pop up in your heart and mind. You can simply do what you have always done and refuse the Holy Spirit’s help. Or, you can stop, wait, and pray! Ask Jesus for His Holy Spirit to give you the power to pause, wait, and ask for additional input from Him.

Jesus, I pray that at the moment I start to interact with any relationship, help me offer my body as a living sacrifice and not as an instrument of wrong, bad, or evil. Give me Your love-power to make my mouth, tongue, and body treat people with Your love. Let the feelings of my heart, the thoughts of my mind, the words of my mouth, and the deeds of my body demonstrate a pure flow of Your love.

Here’s The Choice

Rom 12:2 (NIV) Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is--His good, pleasing and perfect will.

Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world: Jesus, the world taught me how to react to all kinds of situations. I patterned after TV programs, people around me, and books. I learned from “leaders” and “friends,” and developed some techniques of my own. Keep me from yielding to these human patterns, reactions, responses, and habits. Help me listen for a new pattern from You. Show me how to know and pattern after Your will in Your Word.

But be transformed by the renewing of your mind: Jesus, help me spend this time getting ready for every situation rather than waiting and just reacting to them. Let the Holy Spirit take me through His seven Biblical principles and get me ready. Teach me how to do this: “if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God (Rom 8:13-14).”

Here’s The Ability And Power

Jesus said in Acts 1:8 (NIV): “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Ask Jesus to help you start taking advantage of the power of the Spirit.

If by the Spirit you: Jesus, help me live the power-life the Spirit gives me, so people will experience, through me, the life You give. Apply The Seven Biblical Principles to my life through Your Holy Spirit power. Help me not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of my mind. Help me be trained and ready for the situations of life and be ready to react by the Spirit.

This concludes your reading and studying today.

Chapter Fifteen

How Do I Apply The Biblical Principle Of Faith-Action?

Living On The Basis Of The Fact

Week Four Day Two

Trading Opinions For Truth

If you only want to think, believe, and apply those things that get results, then you are ready for basing your life on truth. If you will give up some of those things you have “always believed” and exchange them for truth, you will be ready to apply faith-action to your life.

Faith-Action Produces The Jesus-Life

James 2:14 (NIV) What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Faith-action is a vital part of Christianity; how you behave in your relationships with others is what Jesus is all about. John 15:10-12 (NIV) If you obey My commands, you will remain in My love, just as I have obeyed My Father’s commands and remain in His love. I have told you this so that My joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.

Faith-Action Demonstrates The Jesus-Life

James 2:15-16 (NIV) Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, “Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? Jesus, You taught me what it looks like to live the Jesus-life in the book, “The Jesus Life. Now You are showing me how faith-action is the moment where I actually live it. Your life changes how I live and how I treat the people around me. Teach me that faith-action is where I react to people with Your influence.

Faith-Action Brings The Jesus-Life Into Your Life

James 2:17 (NIV) In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. The Bible is an alive and powerful Book; but, its power remains in the Book until you join Jesus and start receiving the power to live those things He tries to speak into you. It is good that you fix your eyes on Him for His faith. But, the reason He spoke that faith into you was so you would be empowered to believe you have that result given to you. Once you have the results, your next responsibility is to live on the basis of the fact that you have it.

Faith-Action Becomes The Deeds Of The Jesus-Life

James 2:18 (NIV) But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.” Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do. Jesus, if all I could do was read the Bible and see the great provisions and relationships of God, help me see that I would live a life of wishful thinking. If all I could do is read Your commands but couldn’t live them, show me that I would never be Your follower. If all I could do was live a life like I had before salvation, help me realize that all I would have, was disappointment and failure.

Jesus, our Father, the Holy Spirit, and the Bible are all about transformation, creation, miracles, and God-sized blessings. Faith-action takes you into using, living on the basis of, and practicing taking advantage of the transformation, creation, miracles, and God-sized blessings. Let Jesus show you how to take faith-action so you can live on the basis of them.

Christianity Is Real

James 2:20 (NIV) You foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? Jesus, take me far beyond my moment of faith. Teach me that faith is vital for me getting God’s things. But, show me that faith is just the door into all God has to offer. If it doesn’t empower me, transform me, bless me, and heal me, help me see that I am left with faith in something that doesn’t produce. Show me that it is up to me to know what faith is. Teach me that it is me believing that God is telling me the truth. And, since it is the truth, then I can live on the basis of it.

Jesus Gives You The Power To Take Faith-Action

James 2:21 (NIV) Was not our ancestor Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? This event is recorded in Genesis 22:1-14. It was a challenging moment for Abraham to be willing to offer his son on the altar. But, Abraham opened the door for God to offer His Son on the cross. If Abraham only believed that God would save Isaac and didn’t take action, it would have been just a theory or a ritual that he was involved in. He would have never experienced the miracle of Isaac’s deliverance from death.

Jesus, show me that if Abraham was told by God to offer Isaac on the altar and God only spoke words to Abraham, then Abraham would be one of the greatest people on earth. But, teach me that Abraham didn’t do what he did with his own faith. Abraham’s relationship with God was so yielded and submitted that he was able to receive more than words. Abraham believed what he believed and did what he did because God spoke faith and power into him. Help me understand that, that is why Abraham was able to obey God.

Faith-Action Is You Yielding To The Power From Jesus

James 2:22 (NIV) You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. Praise God you don’t have to face the assignment that was given to Abraham. But, you will be getting some pretty big ones, as you progress in your life. Being successful in life puts some real challenges before you. And, your assignment is for you to win over every one of them. Faith-action spoken into your heart and mind gives you Jesus’ power to accomplish everything that you have to face.

The End Result Of Faith-Action Is Success

James 2:23 (NIV) And the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and he was called God’s friend. Every challenge you face and use The Seven Biblical Principles on, brings a life of success. The first five, open the doors for you to have everything you need so you can succeed. Once desire, study, prayer, believing, and love are in place, you and Jesus are ready to go out and get the job done.

Jesus, help me be able to apply faith-action to those desires the Bible provides me. Together help me receive, through study, those truths for how life really works. Let You and the Holy Spirit be interceding with me as I pray and intercede for myself. Then I ask You to not only speak faith into me, I ask You to give me the power to base my life of those things You empower me to believe. After I have allowed You to check my motives for love, help me join You and go out and do those things I was given the power to do; then help me to be thankful.

You Start And Continue With Faith-Action

James 2:24 (NIV) You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone. Just because your Christian life, as a new or untrained Christian, starts off with a justification that provides you with a perfect record, just because you start off being justified by believing and doing what you are told in Romans 10:9-10, doesn’t mean that, that is the end of your faith and deeds. Jesus wants to empower you with a life of faith-action.

Faith-Action Brings The Benefits And Rewards

James 2:25 (NIV) In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction?

This event is recorded in Joshua 2:1-21. Rahab had heard reports of the great things God was doing for the nation of Israel. After hearing, she believed these reports and declared from her own heart and mouth: “When we heard of it, our hearts melted and everyone’s courage failed because of you, for the LORD your God is God in heaven above and on the earth below (Josh 2:11).”

Jesus, help me understand that Rahab took faith-action when she hid the spies and sent them off in a different direction. Show me that if she had just made her great statement of faith and then refused to get involved, she wouldn’t have been saved from that disaster.

Josh 6:16-17 (NIV) The seventh time around, when the priests sounded the trumpet blast, Joshua commanded the people, “Shout! For the LORD has given you the city! The city and all that is in it are to be devoted to the LORD. Only Rahab the prostitute and all who are with her in her house shall be spared, because she hid the spies we sent.

Without Faith-Action You Faith Is Dead

James 2:26 (NIV) As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead. Jesus, help me see that the reason You speak faith into me is so I will feel and know I have that thing You have given me. So, once I know it in my mind and feel it in my heart, help me know I have the power to live on the basis of the fact that I have it. You have empowered me to know and feel something that I may not be able to see. But, teach me that, that which is invisible only become visible when I take the action You have given me the power to take.

This concludes your reading and studying today.

Chapter Sixteen

How Do I Apply The Biblical Principle Of Faith-Action?

The New And Untrained Christian’s Perspective

Week Four Day Three

Faith-Action From The New And Untrained Christian’s Perspective

Let Jesus take you through this study and prayer again but from the new and untrained Christian’s situation. Faith-action is absent in the Romans 7:15-24 Christian life. They fail because they use world training and human effort, and because they don’t know how to take faith-action through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Your First Faith-Actions Are Limited

James 2:14 (NIV) What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Romans 7:15 (NIV) I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. Here the new and untrained Christians are producing only one good deed--their want and hate. But, because of their perfect record through Jesus, God is crediting them with good deeds. But now, it is vital that they use their relationship with God and start asking, seeking, and knocking.

Jesus, I thank You for giving me a perfect record so I have time for learning how to take faith-action for more than just having a good desire. Help me grow from good attitudes and character into behavior that comes from You and the Bible. Let my actions and deeds be increased and transformed into those You want for my life. Give me Your life that manifests the type of behavior that You want to live through me.

Faith-Action Or Just Words

James 2:15-16 (NIV) Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, “Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? Rom 7:18 (NIV) I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. New and untrained Christians want to take faith-action but find out that all their human efforts and world training can’t produce it. But this prayer will.

Jesus, help me understand this principle; it isn’t me just being encouraging, kind, and friendly. Help me join You and take the actions of faith that produce encouraging, kind, and friendly deeds. Show me how to cooperate with Your principles in such a way that they flow through my life as results and productions of actual help.

Faith-Action Brings The Jesus-Life Into Your Life

James 2:17 (NIV) In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. Rom 7:19 (NIV) For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do--this I keep on doing.

Jesus, Your love was demonstrated by the actions of You coming from the great and wonderful things of heaven to join us in the ravages and suffering of earth. Rather than just speaking encouraging and supportive words to us, You came to earth and joined us in our suffering. Help me yield to Your attitudes and character so I will be willing to give up those things that have dominated my behavior. Put Your way of life into my life.

Faith-Action Becomes The Deeds Of The Jesus-Life

James 2:18 (NIV) But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.” Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do. Rom 7:20 (NIV) Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

Jesus, help me realize that Romans 7:15-25 will continue to be my life if I don’t learn how to join You. Help me be trained by Your Word so I can do more than just wish, want, or desire to do the right things in my relationships. Empower me and teach me how to live a life that is successful and victorious. Give me the desire to go beyond human kindness and human love. Let me move into Your way of life that truly meets the needs of us all.

Christianity Is Real

James 2:20 (NIV) You foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? Rom 7:22-23 (NIV) For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members.

Jesus, I don’t just want to read the Bible and then go out and live like I lived before. Help me read it, believe it, and live it; let it flow into my life until it brings great and real changes in the way I feel, think, talk, and live. Then let it flow through me into the reality of the lives of those around me. Help me over come my body and live on the basis of my inner being.

Jesus Gives You The Power To Take Faith-Action

James 2:21 (NIV) Was not our ancestor Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? Rom 7:24 (NIV) What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? This is where the new and untrained Christians cry out to God for help to live like Abraham. It typically won’t be these words; but, they will realize that faith-action isn’t going to take place in their life without additional help from God.

Jesus, I want You to speak faith and action into me. I realize that I will never live like Abraham on my own. Help me not just look at Abraham and admire him; help me open my heart to Your power like he did. Put Your abilities and power into me like You did for Abraham. Let me live a victorious, successful life like he did.

Faith-Action Is You Yielding To The Power From Jesus

James 2:22 (NIV) You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. Rom 8:1-2 (NIV) Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.

Abraham yielded to a special relationship with God. He opened His heart to times of worship and appreciation for God. He listened to God and allowed God to take charge of his life. He became so yielded to God that God was able to speak great faith and power into him. The reason Abraham did all the great things he did was because of his relationship with God. What Jesus did for you made you great in God.

Jesus, help me see what made Abraham so successful in life. Help me learn from Abraham without thinking it was because Abraham was so great. Help me see that he was just a regular human like me. But, he made godly decisions that transformed his life. Help me realize that all I have to do to get what Abraham had: is to put my trust in You. You made Abraham great; and, you can help me gain the same kind of success.

The End Result Of Faith-Action Is Success

James 2:23 (NIV) And the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and he was called God’s friend. Rom 8:13-14 (NIV) For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.

Jesus, let me learn from people like Abraham. Rather than seeing them as being better people than me, help me see that they humbled themselves before You. Let me see You in Abraham’s life-results. Help me see that He applied the same principles You are having me apply. Show me I can have the same kind of results, if I do what he did. Help me start applying Romans 8:13-14 so I can live as a child of God. I believe you are empowering me to put to death the misdeeds of the body so I can take faith-action and actually help people.

Without Faith-Action Your Faith Is Dead

James 2:26 (NIV) As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead. Jesus, when You speak faith into me so I can believe that I have something. I ask that You to also give me the power to join You and act on it. Help me live on the basis of the fact that I have what You have given me faith for. Protect me from rebellion, neglect, fear, social pressure, or ignorance. Let me yield to everything You give me faith for and respond with faith-action. Help me yield to You and cooperate with what You want to do.

This concludes your reading and studying today.

Chapter Seventeen

How Do I Apply The Biblical Principle Of Thankfulness?

Saved From Wickedness

Week Four Day Four

Appreciation Decides Your Future

Rom 1:18 (NIV) The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness. This is either where we were living or where you were headed. The predominate message of these people is wickedness that suppresses the truth. The predominate message of those who are blessed by God is, they are so thankful that they tell everyone they can about how great God is. Not only do they allow God to set them free from wickedness, they live a life of righteousness.

Jesus, I thank You for setting me free from wickedness and the damage it was doing to me and those I engaged with. Thank You for helping me experience righteousness and being able to share it with those people around me. Rather than me damaging myself and others, I am now able to live a life that is a blessing and a help to me and other people.

Your Reasons For Thankfulness

Rom 1:19 (NIV) Since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. Your first assignment was to know that God existed. So, Satan and those who are trying to suppress the truth by their wickedness have put an-all-out-effort to hide God’s existence. Heb 11:6 (NIV) And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.

Jesus, I thank You for making it clear to me that God exists. In spite of wicked people trying to prove that all Your creation came through evolution, You helped me see that it was You Who created me and all these things on this planet. Thank You for helping me see beyond all their efforts and know that You exist and have provided me with salvation and justification.

Being Thankful For God’s Creation

Rom 1:20 (NIV) For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities--His eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. God spoke to these wicked people who are suppressing the truth by their wickedness, and He spoke to you through His creation. He makes sure everyone know He exists. The so-called atheists knew God exists even if they have hardened their heart against the evidence. Knowing God exists was their first step into being born again and they suppressed it.

Jesus, I thank You for keeping me from hardening my heart against You speaking to me through Your creation. Even though these wicked people tried to hide You from me, You helped me know You exist and helped me know You love me. Teach me how to help others find You and see God through Your creation. Help me to counteract the efforts of these evil people and lead as many to You as is possible.

Being Thankful You Didn’t Do This

Rom 1:21 (NIV) For although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. No one gets missed on knowing God exists; but, they can be so attacked and pressured by the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, that they harden their heart to what God has shown them. They start doubting what they know and start believing a lie. Because of that, they have to be taken back to creation and shown the beauty and magnificence of it all. If they don’t, they will continue to go down this deadly path.

Jesus, it would have been so easy for me to stay in this group of people. I was surrounded by those who were either suppressing the truth or were suppressed by these wicked people. I was given major support for continuing in wickedness. I wasn’t given any alternative by any of these people. It wasn’t until You sent someone who had been set free from the suppression that I was given an opportunity to be put on another path. Thank You for sending that person.

A Three Step Process To Wickedness

1. God’s Creation Makes Him Known

For although they knew God: When you are dealing with someone who claims to know there is no God, you are dealing with a deceiver. When someone teaches or tries to convince you that all of God’s creation came through evolution, you are dealing with a wicked, evil person. Even if they no longer believe there is a God, they knew God.

Jesus, help me believe that You made sure all these people, who are now rejecting You, knew You exist. Help me see that they have their own reasons for not wanting to know You exist. Help me see that it is important to them to prove to themselves and to others that You don’t exist. Show me that it isn’t that they didn’t know, they just didn’t want it to be true. So, they did everything they could to prove to themselves that You don’t exist.

2. They Take God’s Glory To Themselves

They neither glorified Him as God: The whole secular humanism training program is all about stealing God’s glory. Rather than believing in Him, you believe in yourself. Rather than being forgiven by Him, you forgive yourself. Rather than realizing He gave you everything you have, you take the credit for it. 1 Cor 4:7 (NIV) For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?

Jesus, help me resist pride; help me see that giving You the glory and the credit for who I am, what I have, and what I can do is vital to my spiritual condition. Help me see how important it is that I don’t suppress the truth by my wickedness. Help me not do it by causing people to think that I am and do what I do through my own skills, abilities, talents, and efforts. Help me see that there is nothing good, that I have, that didn’t come from You. James 1:17 (NIV) Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, Who does not change like shifting shadows.

3. They Don’t Appreciate The Good They Received

Nor gave thanks to Him: As you can see, being thankful heads you upward instead of heading down the path these people are going. Once these people knew God existed, they were responsible for giving Him glory and giving Him thanks. Being thankful is a mandatory requirement of God. If you are struggling with getting your prayers answered positively, this could be one of the reasons. Since God has been doing all these wonderful things to you, for you, with you, in you, and through you, have you been thankful and given Him the glory?

Jesus, protect me from being unthankful. Help me see that I need to allow my heart to be filled with appreciation for everything You do for me. Fill my mind with a memory of how wonderful You have been to me. Help me never take anything for granted. Help me never minimize Your love, grace, generosity, mercy, and blessings. Help me never give the glory and praise to anyone else for what You do. Help me not take the credit for who I am and what I can do. Show me that You are giving me everything good.

The Results Of Taking These Steps

Rom 1:22 (NIV) Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools. These people can see the complex world, universe, and all those things on the planet and claim they happened without any intelligence whatsoever. They “believe” no one came up with the idea, invented, or designed all the animals, trees, birds, reptiles, bushes, spiders and bugs on the planet. Even though evolution requires there to be a gradual mutation from one species to another, they can’t see that there are big gaps between everything. They can’t see that even among trees there is no gradual mutation between a pine tree and a peach tree. They claimed to be wise and they became fools.

Jesus, I thank You that You saved me from all this foolishness. Thank You for helping me give up my resistance to Your existence. Thank You for helping me be willing to accept the fact that those things I wanted to do were sins. You helped me see that my body is animalistic and would pursue pleasure at all costs. You helped me see that the end of those things my body craved would eventually destroy me. And even though I had to give them up, You helped me find a love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control that brought great miracles and blessings into my life.

This concludes your reading and studying today.

Chapter Eighteen

How Do I Apply The Biblical Principle Of Thankfulness?

Saved For Righteousness

Week Four Day Five

How To Head In The Opposite Direction

Rom 1:21 (NIV) For although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.

Your objective is to go in the opposite direction. The way to righteousness is to know God, give glory to God, and be thankful for God. When that happens, your thinking doesn’t become futile and your heart doesn’t become foolish; nor is your heart darkened. 1 John 1:7 (NIV) But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, purifies us from all sin. Sin is why these people are suffering.

Jesus, I can see much better what You saved me from. I see the path I was heading down and am grateful for the life You gave me. Since I was surrounded by so many people who were heading down that dark path, You worked a miracle in me. Thank You for saving me from continuing in that direction. Thank You for turning me around and heading me in the opposite direction. Help me to see more of what You saved me from and what You saved me to.

Training The Next Generation

Rom 1:22-23 (NIV) Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. If you look at the cartoons, toys, and books of the world’s heroes, if you examine the video games that are being created, the ancient gods of the old world are being presented to our children (images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles). Jesus is saving you and your family from all these things that are corrupting others.

Jesus, I thank You for saving me from making idols and gods of things, images, and people. Help me share Your saving power with those around me and especially the younger generations. Help me share with them the heroes of the Old and New Testament that influence their attitudes and character in a godly direction.

Thankful For Truth

Rom 1:24 (NIV) Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. When you have the truth, you are able to see what is good and what is wrong, bad, and evil. When you have the power of Jesus, you are able to resist pornography, homosexuality, perversion, and orgies. Your life heads you into a family life with normal human relationships that don’t involve extreme pleasure that addicts your body.

Jesus, thank You for helping me see how life is supposed to be lived. Thank You for the truth about marriage, family, gender, and sexual activity. Thank You for properly labelling everything so I would know what is deadly, harmful, and demeaning and what is good, beneficial, a blessing, and a spiritually healthy way to live. Thank You for labelling wrong, bad, and evil things as sins. Thank You for labelling right, good, and righteous things as righteousness. I am no long wandering around without guidance; You gave me the truth.

Thankful For Power

Rom 1:25 (NIV) They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator--Who is forever praised. Amen. Jesus empowered you to exchange a lie for the truth. He helped you see and identify lies and reject them for the truth. Because of Jesus, your life is heading in the opposite direction from where it was heading. Jesus gave you the power to resist lies and embrace truth. John 8:31-32 (NIV) To the Jews who had believed Him, Jesus said, “If you hold to My teaching, you are really My disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

Jesus, I thank You for the power to be set free and live in that freedom. As I go about my day, You have given me power to choose to do the godly thing and resist the worldly thing moment-by-moment and issue-by-issue. All day long, Your power is leading me down a path of decisions that are taking me into righteousness. Each decision I make, during my day, are spiritual steps that take me to a destination of right, good, and righteousness; and, I thank You for that power that is giving me a successful Christian life.

Thankful For No Gender Confusion

Rom 1:26-27 (NIV) Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.

Jesus, I can see how confusing it is when I lack truth. Since I have You and the Bible, it is clear to me that God doesn’t make mistakes. He didn’t put me in the wrong body; He knew me before I was formed in my mother’s womb. Through foreknowledge and predestination, He put me on this planet at the right time in the right place for me to have the best possibility for spending eternity with Him. He chose my body, my gender, my race, my parents, and my place and time on this planet; and, He did it perfectly. Thank You for giving me this truth.

Thankful For God’s Foreknowledge And Predestination

Rom 8:28-30 (NIV) And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose. For those God foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those He predestined, He also called; those He called, He also justified; those He justified, He also glorified.

Jesus, thank You for sharing this wonderful truth with me. Let me share it with those who are dissatisfied with their lives, their gender, their body, their parents, their circumstances, or their future. I know You know what You are doing. I know You love me more than I love myself. I know You never make mistakes because You know everything. The past, the present, and the future are all completely clear to You. Help me share these wonderful truths with others.

Thankful For Truth Retention

Rom 1:28 (NIV) Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, He gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. As you keep exposing yourself to the knowledge of God, He is keeping you from a depraved mind. Instead, He has given you the mind of Jesus. 1 Cor 2:16 (NIV) For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ. That is why you understand the Bible; that is why you understand spiritual things; that is why you can be led into all truths by the Holy Spirit.

Jesus, I would be confused, frustrated, misled, and powerless. I wouldn’t be able to see, identify, or understand any of Your truths. You are pouring all Your powerful truths into the mind of Christ and I am understanding what You are saying. Thank You for taking me in the opposite direction of a depraved mind. Thank You for giving me clarity, understanding, assurance, and stability. Thank You for helping me think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God.

Thankful For A Godly Life

Rom 1:29-30 (NIV) They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents.

Rom 1:31-32 (NIV) They are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.

Jesus, that was going to be me! Thank You for turning me around and heading me in the opposite direction. Help me see these things and have a greater thankfulness than ever before. Help me see that You not only saved me from those wrong, bad, and evil things I had done and was doing, You saved me from all of this too. You stopped me at that place where I was and kept me from moving forward. I thank You for saving me from what I would have been.

This concludes your reading and studying for this week.

Chapter Nineteen

How Do I Unlock Eight Doors?

Week Five Day One

Eight Power-Attitudes With Eight Blessing From God’s Love: Mat 5:3-12

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.

The Barrier Between You And Great Things

Rom 7:18 (NIV) I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. This is a new or untrained Christian who has inherited incredible wealth. But, the wealth is locked up in a huge “vault.” The blessings of God are in a “vault” with eight locked doors. They are locked up so no one else can steal them from you. When you are mature enough to use the wealth wisely, you get seven combination words. You can enter seven codes into each lock and “that door ” will open. Once the “door” is open, a wonderful blessing of God becomes yours from behind that “door.”

Jesus, make it clear to me that the “vault” is called The Eight Power-Attitudes Of God. The first “door” is poor in spirit. The second “door” is mourning. The third “door” is meekness. The fourth “door” is hungering and thirsting for righteousness. The fifth “door” is mercy. The sixth “door” is pure in heart. The seventh “door” is peacemaker. The eighth “door” is persecution. Help me see that from that moment on, I will be able to start benefiting and using all that wealth (blessings) behind each “vault door.”

Examining A Door

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. What blessing is this first “vault door” keeping you from getting? What if you didn’t know this blessing existed? You would have The Seven Biblical Principle’s codes for unlocking “something” but wouldn’t know what it was. What if you didn’t understand that opening the door of being poor in spirit would make the kingdom of heaven yours? The way to open the poor in spirit door is to apply The Seven Biblical Principles to this power-attitude from God. The Seven Biblical Principles help you become poor in spirit. Causing you to get the blessing: Yours is the kingdom of heaven.

Jesus, teach me that these seven “codes,” in The Seven Biblical Principles, transform me into being poor in spirit. And, being poor in spirit gives me access to the wealth of: “for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Teach me that the blessings of God are the wealth; the power-attitudes are the “vault doors” into that wealth; and, The Seven Biblical Principles are the combination words that unlock those “vault doors” to all that wealth.

Why Bother?

A lot of Christians don’t want to put out the effort it takes to learn all these things. As far as they are concerned, they have eternal life and that’s all they care about. But, unfortunately, mature Christians are failing them; they aren’t being taught what is about to happen to them in eternity. Let Jesus give you a look at two final exams every person on earth needs to consider.

The Christian’s Two Final Exams

Deciding Who Is Saved And Who Isn’t

Matthew 25:31-46 is Jesus’ description of a time where He will reveal who are and who aren’t true members of God’s family and citizens in His Kingdom. All people who have been born on this planet will stand before Jesus and He will divide them up like a shepherd divides up his sheep and his goats. Mat 25:33-34 (NIV) He will put the sheep on His right and the goats on His left. Then the King will say to those on His right, “Come, you who are blessed by My Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.” These are those who are true Christian.

Then Jesus will address those on His left; they are those who are not Christians. Mat 25:41 (NIV) Then He will say to those on His left, “Depart from Me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.”

T he Criteria For Passing The First Exam

Mat 25:35-36 (NIV) For I was hungry and you gave Me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave Me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited Me in, I needed clothes and you clothed Me, I was sick and you looked after Me, I was in prison and you came to visit Me.’ Jesus, help me “do what it takes” to fulfill this. Show me that whatever I did for one of the least of these Your brothers I did for You.

The Criteria For Passing The Second Exam

Deciding Who Was Sanctified And How Much

There will be an additional exam for Christians; some Christians just fall back on salvation and justification and don’t do much of anything to improve their relationships with themselves and other people. They are just glad their relationship with God is good, but, don’t care that much about their relationship with people.

Looking at the rules for your second exam:

1 Cor 3:10-15 (NIV) By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should be careful how he builds. For no one can lay any foundation other than the One already laid, which is Jesus Christ. Jesus, help me only allow You to be my foundation for my life.

If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because The Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man’s work. If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames. Jesus, help me build my life-house out of gold, silver, and costly stones and not wood, hay or straw. Help me live my life in such a way that what I do here counts for eternity. Teach me the rules for the Christian’s final exam.

Here Are The Rules For The Christian’s Final Exam

Rule One: You Must Have Jesus As Your Foundation

For no one can lay any foundation other than the One already laid, which is Jesus Christ. This is salvation and justification they help you pass the first exam; the only issue here is for you to not allow anyone to replace Jesus with some other god, person, or thing.

Rule Two: Flammability And Quality Are The Test Issues

If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because The Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man’s work. Jesus, teach me that true Christians start out with the condition presented in Romans 7:15-25. They desire to get their life built out of gold, silver, and costly stones. But, show me that without going through the process of sanctification (spiritual growth), their Christian life is only built out of wood, hay or straw. Teach me that sanctification makes it possible for me to have the wood, hay or straw transformed into gold, silver, and costly stones.

Rule Three: You Can Accumulate Rewards

If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames. The person who gets rewards has salvation, justification, and sanctification; the one escaping through the flames only has salvation and justification.

Jesus, help me become proficient in using The Seven Biblical Principles on God’s power-attitude “doors.” Help me get Your power-attitudes that give me access to the blessings of God. Let them give me access into the blessings of God so my work is turned into gold, silver, and costly stones. Teach me that I am God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for me to do (Eph 2:10).

This concludes your reading and studying today.

Chapter Twenty

How Do The Seven Truths Unlock Eight Doors?

Week Five Day Two

Learning What Good Things Look Like

Jesus taught you that God will only give you things that are good for you and those around you. You can’t use The Seven Biblical Principles to get God to give you anything He knows isn’t good for you and those around you. So, what are good things? They are things that provide you with the blessings of God. But, the blessing of God come through eight power-attitudes you must have before He will give you these eight blessings. Let Jesus show them to you again.

Eight Power-Attitudes And Eight Blessing From God’s Love: Mat 5:3-12

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.

Don’t Miss The Point

Without The Seven Biblical Principles, you could read this list and miss the whole point. You could read it and be wondering how a person could get these power-attitudes of God and be blessed by God. You could memorize these verses, quote them to others, use them in a lesson, and preach them to a large group of people. But, you could end up still not blessed by God and not qualify for the blessing that power-attitude from God would have blessed you with.

Blessings Through God’s Power-Attitudes

Blessed are: All eight of God’s power-attitudes start out with “blessed are.” In other words, they are the doors into the blessings of God. How do you get God and all He has to offer? You must “do what it takes” to get those things that follow the “blessed are” words; so, what is the power-attitude door called that opens into the first blessing of God? It is called: Poor in spirt. So what do The Seven Biblical Principles have to do to help you get that blessing? They have to help you become poor in spirit. That is like opening the door to that blessing. Once you become poor in spirit, the Bible says: Theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

1. Each Door Is Only An Access To One Blessing

Blessed are: Jesus, Show me that I must have each power-attitude before that blessing comes my way. Help me see each attitude as providing me with access to each blessing. Show me that the power-attitude isn’t the blessing, it is the opening to that blessing. Help me see that there is a spiritual condition that each power-attitude solves so I can get that blessing. Help me understand that as long as I don’t have that power-attitude door open, that blessing will not be mine. Show me that the seven principles are the keys lead me into opening each door.

2. Each Door Opens To A Specific Purpose

Blessed are the: Jesus, show me how to become each power-attitude. Empower me to use desire, study, pray, believe, love, faith-action and thankfulness to become each power-attitude. Help me do this with all eight power-attitude items. Help me do it until they are all a part of my attitudes and I have experienced all of God’s blessings. Help me allow The Seven Biblical Principles to identify all problems that are keeping me from accessing each of these blessings.

3. Experiencing Code Failure

Jesus, help realize that if I don’t desire to have a power-attitude, then You won’t force it on me. If I don’t study and find out what that power-attitude is and what it will do for me, then I won’t desire it or know how to become it. If I don’t pray and ask You to empower me with it, I won’t be inviting You to do it to me. If I don’t look to You to speak faith into me so I can believe God has given it to me, I will never know I am ready to use faith-action. If I don’t yield to God’s love, then everything else I do will be useless. If I don’t base my life on the fact that You gave me that power-attitude, then I won’t practice taking faith-action and live it. If I am not thankful, then You will stop giving me these types of things.

4. Experiencing Results-Failure

Jesus, show me what happens to a person who doesn’t “do what it takes” to have all of God’s power-attitudes. Help me see that they don’t get the blessings that come from them. Help me start getting the results of being blessed by God, and give me the success that comes into my life from them. Let The Seven Biblical Principles lead me into every one of them.

WARNING: We all start out with these items credited to our record through salvation and justification. But, God expects you to learn how to apply The Seven Biblical Principles to these power-attitudes so they become a reality (sanctification) in your relationship with yourself, others, and Him. You start with a life built out of wood, hay, or straw (salvation and justification). Your goal is to get it built out of gold, silver, and costly stones (sanctification).

New And Untrained Christians

Jesus, I started out with the attitudes presented in Romans 7:15-25. You gave me a desire to get my life built out of gold, silver, and costly stones. Help me go through the process of sanctification so my life won’t only be built out of wood, hay or straw. Let Your sanctification-process, make it possible for me to have the wood, hay or straw transformed into gold, silver, and costly stones. Teach me how to receive all of God’s power-attitudes.

Getting Wood, Hay, And Straw Transformed

Rom 12:1-2 (NIV) Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God--this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is--His good, pleasing and perfect will.

Offer Your Bodies As Living Sacrifices

Your body is causing you to produce wood, hay, and straw. It needs to be brought under the control of the Holy Spirit. It has a sinful nature that you have been constantly having to deal with as a new and untrained Christian. The reason you went through the struggles of Romans 7:15-25, was because you were using those techniques you learned from the world. They were the only procedures and systems you had been trained in. But, now you are being trained by Jesus to use spiritual, Biblical procedures that will work in Christianity.

Jesus, help me learn how to use The Seven Biblical Principles in place of all those things I was taught by the world. Help me see that they are my new tools for turning my effort into gold, silver, and precious stones. Help me give the same or even greater attention and commitment to them as I gave to learning the world’s methods. Let these principles become my only way of approaching the issues of my life. Empower me to become trained, skilled, experienced, and talented in them. Show me that they empower me store treasure in heaven.

Do Not Conform Any Longer To The Pattern Of This World

Your goal is to replace the patterns and methods you were taught by the world. Take special notice that they focused your eyes on you and other humans. Notice how they didn’t take into account God’s supernatural abilities and provisions. You didn’t learn that God is your source of everything you need. As you reject conformity to the world’s patterns, you start to look to those requirements that God and the Bible lay out for you.

Jesus, my faith was only in what humans were able to do. That kept me from exercising my faith in You. My faith in world systems only provided me with practicing faith in myself and human system. I experienced “results” for applying their principles to my life. That caused me to believe in those systems. Help me open my heart to the way you do things. Let me experience the results that only You can give. Help me be transformed by Your ways.

Be Transformed By The Renewing Of Your Mind

Jesus, I need my whole way of thinking transformed. I am so trained, convinced, and experienced in world training that I don’t even know when I am leaning on it. Let your supernatural work cleanse my mind and empower it to be conformed to the truths of the Bible. Help me believe in these new tools that can empower me to access the total blessings you have for me. Teach me how to use The Seven Biblical Principles with a transformed mind.

This concludes your reading and studying today.

Chapter Twenty-One

How Do I Get The Seven Truths To Unlock Eight Doors?

Week Five Day Three

Getting Wood, Hay, And Straw

Transformed Into Gold, Silver, And Costly Stones

Applying The Seven Biblical Principles to presenting your body as a living sacrifice. Rom 12:1-2 (NIV) Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God--this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is--His good, pleasing and perfect will. Let Jesus help you get this done which helps you yield to the Eight Power-Attitudes Of God. Then they will help you keep your body under your control.

Desire

Rom 7:15 (NIV) I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. Your desire is right; but, you must pray that it is empowered by the Spirit.

Jesus, I thank You for giving me this wonderful desire to want to do good to myself, other people, and Your plan. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, help me desire to become all those power-attitudes of God, so I can desire to offer my body as a living sacrifice.

Study

Rom 7:16 (NIV) And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. Your study of God’s law is right; but, you must pray that the Spirit explains how to apply it.

Jesus, help me go beyond agreeing that the law is good. Let Your Spirit guide me into applying it. Teach me, empower me, and transform me into a person who has God’s power-attitudes. Let me receive them so I can know how to offer my body as a living sacrifice.

Pray

Rom 7:24 (NIV) What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Your prayer is right; but, you must specifically invite Jesus to help you with your body.

Jesus, help me not just ask, who will rescue me from this body of death? Help me look at You and Your power-attitudes and allow You to move me into being rescued from this body of death. Let Your power-attitudes help me offer this body of death as a living sacrifice.

Believe

Rom 7:25 (NIV) Thanks be to God--through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin. What you believe is right; but, now let Jesus give you faith to believe, so you can take faith-action.

Jesus, You will help me with this body of death. Give me faith to receive these power-attitudes that will deliver me from this this body of death. Let me believe I have each of these power-attitudes so I can offer this body of death as a living sacrifice.

Love

Rom 7:22 (NIV) For in my inner being I delight in God’s law. Your love is right; but, Jesus must help you yield to God’s love.

Jesus, empower me to live my life on the basis of Your love. Help me love people enough, so I will become these eight power-attitudes of God. Then let those power-attitudes empower me to offer my body as a living sacrifice. Let me do that so I can provide people with win/win plans, provisions, and projects.

Faith-Action

Rom 7:18 (NIV) I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. Your faith-action needs training on working together with the Holy Spirit so you can live it. Ask Jesus to help you learn how to work together with the Holy Spirit to offer your body as a living sacrifice.

Jesus, let me totally yield to the Holy Spirit and these Eight power-attitudes Of God, so I can offer my body as a living sacrifice. Help me take faith-action on every one of these eight power-attitude items, so I can be let by Your Holy Spirit into victorious Christian living.

Romans Chapter Eight Training

Thankful

Rom 8:13-14 (NIV) For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. New and untrained Christians must be trained how to cooperate with the Holy Spirit. They must learn how to apply The Holy Spirit’s Seven Biblical Principles to the Eight Power-Attitudes Of God. As this happens, you get all the blessings God listed in the Power-Attitude list. Now, it is time for you to appreciate all these things Jesus has given you. Since He gave them to you through study and prayer, thank Him for His generosity.

Jesus, as I read the list of the blessings from the Eight Power-Attitudes Of God, help me read it with faith and thanksgiving. Help me realize that You have heard and answered each prayer I just prayed. I as I take faith-action that is based on the fact that You did hear and answer these prayers, help me praise and thank You that these are now mine. Help me read them and see what I now have working in my life here and in eternity and give You all my worship.

Your Eight Blessings Of God

Pray and ask Jesus to empower you to take advantage of these eight blessings that you now have in your life: Blessing number one: Theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessing number two: They will be comforted. Blessing number three: They will inherit the earth. Blessing number four: They will be filled. Blessing number five: They will be shown mercy. Blessing number six: They will see God. Blessing number seven: They will be called sons of God. Blessing number eight: Theirs is the kingdom of heaven and great is your reward in heaven.

Jesus, let me “do what it takes” to take faith-action and live on the basis of the fact that I now have these wonderful blessings. Thank You for leading me through the doors of these power-attitudes so I could receive each one of these blessings. Show me how each power-attitude and each blessing will be helping me grow spiritually.

Jesus, teach me the meaning and purpose of each power-attitude. Let me cooperate with each one so I can live on the basis of all eight blessings. Help me see that the power-attitudes and the blessings are going to make it possible for me to live a powerful life with You. The power-attitude doors are making possible each of the eight blessings from God. And, they are turning my behavior into gold, silver, and precious stones that count for all eternity.

Looking At The Blessings

Theirs is the kingdom of heaven: This is where you want to spend eternity. Being poor in spirit makes that happen.

They will be comforted: While you are still on earth, you will face a lot of challenges. Being blessed with Jesus’ comfort is going to help you face issues with a great attitude.

They will inherit the earth: Even though the full aspects of this won’t happen until you are in eternity, your successes while you are living here will be a part of this blessing.

They will be filled: Being filled with righteousness is the power to win at life. It helps you treat yourself and others in a way that your relationships are very beneficial to you and others.

They will be shown mercy: You are never going to be perfect; you will always do or say things that deserve punishment. Mercy will keep you from getting what you deserve.

They will see God: That is your number one goal! He is better, more wonderful, and more exciting than all the other things you will get in eternity. He will be your greatest blessing.

They will be called sons of God: This is why you are inheriting and being blessed with God and the things of God. All these things are a Father’s gifts to His children.

Theirs is the kingdom of heaven and great is your reward in heaven: This is why you are going to get great opportunities, positions, and power in eternity. You are investing in it.

This concludes your reading and studying today.

Chapter Twenty-Two

What Just Happened To You?

Week Five Day Four

Moving Through The Doors

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven: Being poor in spirit makes you receptive to truth. Jesus is getting you ready for spending eternity in the Kingdom of heaven. Needless to say, you have a lot to learn about living in the Kingdom of heaven. Being poor in spirit opens the door to your heart and helps you be open to all Jesus wants to teach you about the Kingdom of heaven. It is already yours, you just need to learn to live in it.

Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted: You have things in your life that you must allow Jesus to remove. Unless you are willing to mourn over them, repent of them, and let them go, He won’t force you to give them up. They will remain in your life causing you great pain and difficulty until you allow the power-attitude of mourning help you give them up.

Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth: You have a lot of world training, personal opinions, and satanic influences that are a part of your belief system. Meekness will empower you to give them up and make God and the Bible your final authority.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled: You won’t always be excited about reading your Bible, going to church, attending small groups, listening to good Christian music, reading good Christian books, and spending time with these studies and prayers. But, as you yield to this power-attitude, all that will change.

Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy: The only moment you can show someone mercy is when they don’t deserve it. The major moment when you don’t want to be merciful is when someone doesn’t deserve it. They did something that you really didn’t like. But, when you yield to this power-attitude, you will set them and yourself in a position for receiving mercy.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God: If God let one sin, one contaminant into His eternal Kingdom, it would destroy it. Right now, a pure heart has been credited to your record with God. But, as you yield to this power-attitude, you will see God more and more as you take advantage of it. God’s power-attitude of purity will help you be purified.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God: This power-attitude helps people see what a child of God looks like. Your wisdom, love, and relational abilities will bring peace and unity to those around you. This will give you opportunities to explain that you are getting all of these abilities because you are God’s child.

Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you: This power-attitude is your security that you will finish the course. It empowers you to not be moved by what people think, say, or do. You are able to be totally sold out to Jesus.

Maintaining The Power-Attitudes

Christianity and the Eight Power-Attitudes Of God

Christianity is lived moment-by-moment and issue-by-issue. You don’t have to take advantage of the fact that you have moved into the Eight Power-Attitudes of God. Nothing you get from God forces you to take advantage of them. He always honors your God-given free will. So, it is important to not just get the blessings in the Eight Power-Attitudes Of God. Then next things is to take advantage of them. As you are going about your day, will you use the Power-Attitudes? Or, will you go back to the way you were living before?

Diagnosing Your Willingness Through The Seven Biblical Principles

· DESIRE: Do you want your attitudes changed? That sounds like you didn’t get them changed. But, just because they got changed doesn’t mean they must stay changed.

Jesus, use this Biblical principle to diagnose my desire. As I go about my day, help me choose to use my being poor in spirit. Help me be teachable by You all day long.

· STUDY: Do the blessings listed in the Power-Attitudes inspire you to be willing to constantly search the Scriptures to find out more about mourning? If the Bible requires you to give things up, will you obey those Scriptures so you live based on the rewards?

Jesus, let the Power-Attitudes inspire me to study Your Word for how I can use mourning to set me free from those things resisting the blessings You have given me.

· PRAY: If you find out there are things that sound too hard, too confining, too demanding, or too difficult, will you yield to meekness anyway? Will you ask God to be God in your life and make the final decision for what you believe, do and say?

Jesus, help me be meek enough to not pray prayers for things that God and Bible say aren’t good for me or those around me. Help me be meek enough to accept God and the Bible’s authority and pray for those things that I must have to win at life.

· BELIEVE: If Jesus won’t give you the faith for one of the power-attitudes until you start hungering and thirsting for righteousness, will you apply The Three Keys To All Of Christianity to the issue until Jesus gives you the faith to believe you have what you have been asking for, seeking, and knocking on the doors of opportunity for?

Jesus, help me be willing to allow You to give me faith for hungering and thirsting for righteousness. Help me fix my eyes on You for the faith You want to give me.

· LOVE: If mercy starts requiring you to love people in spite of who they are and what they have done to you, will you be willing to apply The Three Keys To All Of Christianity to the issue until Jesus empowers you to love them and be merciful anyway?

Jesus, set me free from selfishness, greed, lust, covetousness, and pride. Help me love and be merciful to others as I love myself and as I want mercy from You.

· FAITH-ACTION: If being pure in heart means Jesus takes you into situations where you are afraid, uncomfortable, offended, persecuted, or tempted, will you be willing to join Jesus and go there anyway? Will you trust Him to keep your heart pure?

Jesus help me move forward as soon as you give me the faith to believe I have those things I have been praying for. Join me in faith-action in areas where my pure heart is challenged. Help me trust You when I am in areas that pressure me with temptation.

· THANKFUL: If Jesus blesses you with being a peacemaker and gives you the blessings from it, will you accept them, benefit from them, ask Him for more from them and forget to be thankful? Jesus can stop answering your prayers because you aren’t thankful.

Why Is This Locked

Being Locked Out Of The Blessings Of God

The Seven Biblical Principles are diagnostic tools that help you find out why The Three Keys To All Of Christianity aren’t working. If you ask for more growth in one of the Power-Attitude items and it doesn’t happen, The Seven Biblical Principles take you over the seven mandatory requirements of Jesus. This will help you identify the problem and get it fixed.

The Eight Power-Attitudes Of God Are Locked

Jesus, make it clear to me that to You, attitudes and character are the most important of all my qualifications. Teach me that, that is why I need to unlock and go through the Power-Attitude doors; they provide me with the right kind of attitudes. Teach me that, that is why God only blesses people with His great wealth and blessings who go through these doors. Help me see that as I keep going through these Power-Attitude doors, major changes are being made in my attitudes and character; and, that changes my behavior.

This concludes your reading and studying today.

Chapter Twenty-Three

What Just Happened To You?

Week Five Day Five

What If Christianity Didn’t Have Seven Biblical Principles?

DESIRE: What happens to your relationship with God if He starts giving you things you don’t want? What if God didn’t care what you wanted, He just forced you to have what He decided was best for you? Why didn’t God make you a slave or a robot instead of His child?

Jesus, I thank You for not forcing things on me just because You know they are best for me. Help me see how important it is for me to be able to make my own decisions. Let me see that important line between me giving You control and You taking control.

STUDY: What kind of a relationship would you have with God, if He made you only read and study the Bible and nothing else? If God controlled what you exposed yourself to, then it would change the whole configuration of who you are to God and Who He is to you. He allows you to decide whether or not you read and study His Word, and whether or not you live it.

Jesus, help me see how important it is for me to study the Bible. Show me why You won’t make me study it; show me that You will empower me to study it, if I ask You to. Teach me how this type of relationship is a relationship of love rather than a relationship of law.

PRAY: What kind of a God would force things on you without you even asking Him for them? If your relationship with Him wasn’t permission-based, then you could force Him to do what you wanted. It wouldn’t matter whether or not it was good for you. And, He could use His knowledge, foreknowledge of the future, understanding, wisdom, and power to force His will and plans on you without you inviting Him into the situations of your life.

Jesus, I want this relationship of love rather than law. Help me cooperate with it by praying and asking You for everything. Help me not forget to pray; help me not expect anything from You without me praying for it. Help me appreciate this permission-based relationship.

BELIEVE: What if you didn’t need Jesus’ faith to believe and get things from Him? What if you could use your faith and believe and get whatever you wanted? Even if it wasn’t good for you, your faith would produce it? What kind of things would you end up with if Jesus wasn’t protecting you by controlling what you could believe for?

Jesus, there is so much I don’t know that You know. Help me see how important it is for me to believe You are telling me the truth. Show me how much this belief is based on me loving God enough to believe in His honesty and integrity. Give me a faith that is motivated by my love, respect, and appreciation for how wonderful God is.

LOVE: What if God didn’t love you and didn’t care whether you loved Him? What if you could just have a business relationship with Him? What if He just left you in your sinful condition and wouldn’t send His Son to die for you? What if you couldn’t establish a personal relationship with Him? What if He didn’t allow you to pray to Him and Him talk to you?

Jesus, Your attitudes toward me are the ones I want to have toward You. Help me not try to have a mechanical or business relationship with You. I want to learn how to do everything I do because of love rather than convenience. Show me how much better love is than a relationship that lacks care, concern, and compassion.

FAITH-ACTION: What if God made you a lot of promises but you never got any of them? What if you were constantly learning about God and His provisions, but, you never had a way to get them? What if your life was filled with failure but there was never a way to overcome it?

Jesus, I ask You to join me in this journey through the power-attitudes. Help me take advantage of every one of them by You and me working together. Empower me live each power-attitude until I am able to enter into the fulness of each blessing.

THANKFUL: What if you weren’t able to see that God loved you and wanted a relationship with you? What if you just got all His blessings, miracles, healings, and provisions and took them for granted. What if He did all kinds of wonderful things for you but you never noticed?

Jesus, You didn’t have to make things be so wonderful. You didn’t have to be so generous and kind. You didn’t have to make everything available to me as a free gift. You could have withheld all of it and kept it all for Yourself. Help me be thankful and appreciative for all the great blessings You have made available through these power-attitudes.

You Understand The Importance Of Free Will

You don’t want people sending things you didn’t order; you don’t want people deciding what is best for you; you don’t want to be controlled by others; you don’t like being told what to do; you don’t like being forced; and you don’t like being treated disrespectful or without value. The Seven Biblical Principles mostly have to do with your God-given free will. But, they also have to do with God’s free will too. Ask Jesus to help you understand and appreciate this.

Jesus, teach me how wonderful Your attitudes are. Help me see what kind of attitudes You could have had if You had wanted to. Help me see how great You really are and how You are wanting me to follow Your example. Let me yield to You and Your love; give me Your power-attitudes so I can live a generous and loving life with myself, others, and with Your plan. Guide me into the relationship that The Seven Biblical Principles unlock and produce.

Now that you see God’s love and generosity, let Jesus show you how to move on into all your heavenly Father has to offer. Pray for a heart that is more receptive to God and His provisions. Keep moving forward into all God has to offer. Here’s the Ephesians 1:17-23 prayer.

Steps Into God’s Way To Wealth And Power

Eph 1:18-19a (NIV) I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which He has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and His incomparably great power for us who believe.

1. Yield To A New Way Of Seeing Things

I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened: Jesus, help me see that there is a way for me to look at life and success that sacrifice me and all my relationships. I can have philosophies and beliefs that use my life up and spend all my time on things that I will lose when I die. Enlighten my heart to what hope, riches, and power really are.

2. Get A New Hope And Dream

In order that you may know the hope: Jesus, show me that I have hopes and dreams that motivate me and drive the way I spend my day. I invest time, effort, and resources on certain things that I consider valuable and important. Help me look at life and go after those things that will matter now and in eternity. Influence my hopes and dreams.

3. Pick The Right Plan

To which He has called you: Jesus, there is a goal and a plan I have for myself; there are goals and plans others have for me; but show me that there is a goal and a plan God has called me to. Once I reach the end of my life, see to it that I chose the goal and plan that was the very best for me. Teach me that now is the time to choose how I am going to spend my life and how I am going to spend eternity. Join me in developing a plan for reaching that goal.

4. Identify True Riches

The riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints: 1 Tim 6:18-19 (NIV) Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life. Jesus, teach me when I am really rich. Teach me what riches are. Teach me what to consider valuable and important in life.

5. Identify The Right Kind Of Power

His incomparably great power for us who believe: What would you do, if you were in control over everyone around you? How would you use that power and authority? How would you feel about those you had power over? Would you love them and want to help them; or, would you use them and abuse them?

Jesus, teach me that The Seven Biblical Principles must first work on me, my character, and my attitudes before I can use them to build relationships with others. Show me that these seven principles only work for me if I am willing to open the doors to the power-attitudes of God and allow them to change me from the inside out. Show me that who I am, controls how I use hope, riches, and power; and, who I am, controls what I consider to be hope, riches, and power. Let the power-attitudes be the eight things that control who I am and what I think.

This concludes your reading and studying for this week.

Chapter Twenty-Four

How Do I Head In The Right Direction?

Seven Steps In The Right Direction

Week Six Day One

1. You Head In The Right Direction When You Face The Problems

The Seven Biblical Principles move your desires into desires to treat yourself and other people the right way (righteousness). God’s Power-Attitudes transform your desires into reality. The blessings that come through the power-attitudes give you resources that bless you and make you a blessing to other people. But, there are problems that try to keep these things from happening.

Jesus, help me use The Seven Biblical Principles on the right things. Help me not try to use other principles to experience the wonderful things You have to offer. Help me see the importance to using The Seven Biblical Principles to keep the eight power-attitudes doors open so I can keep the blessings coming. I need them to keep flowing into my life.

If you wanted to go into your house but the door was locked, you could just put your key in the lock and unlock it. But, what if you were at the wrong house? The key wouldn’t work. Or, what if you had the wrong key? You would be locked out. Jesus’ study on The Seven Biblical Principles makes sure you have the right keys; and, His study on the power-attitudes makes sure you are keeping the right doors unlocked. You must keep them available to you.

2. You Head In The Right Direction When You Learn The Communication Problem

Suppose you are trying to train your dog to roll over; one of the first things you face is communication. Your dog may have great attitudes and want to please you with all his heart; but, if he doesn’t understand what you want, he can’t even try to roll over.

Jesus, help me realize that You speak a language that is far advanced over mine. You think thoughts and have feelings that are as high as the heaven is over the earth (Isaiah 55:8-9). But, even though I can’t think or feel with the magnitude of brilliance and wisdom, help me grasp the meaning so I can obey You. Give me the Spirit of wisdom and revelation so I can know and understand You better (Ephesians 1:17-23).

God has awesome things for you; but it is going to take certain attitudes and certain procedures in order for you to be able to get them and live by them. God’s language consists of love and righteousness; you can frequently speak selfishness and human effort. When God tries to help you get the things you need, you can think you need one thing while God knows you need other things. The Scriptures Jesus is teaching you will help you get on the same page with God. It’s like taking a class on how to communicate with your dog and your dog communicate with you.

3. You Head In The Right Direction When You Understand The Decision Problem

Who is running your life? Who makes most of the decisions for what you do during the day? Who do you consider to be the authority and leader for what you do? Is there someone you feel can hurt you, punish you, or separate themselves from you, if you decide to “do what it takes” to join the Jesus-life? Do they qualify for having this kind of control over you?

Jesus, help me not allow people to control my life. Empower me to only allow You to influence and guide me. Be my authority and final decision for who I am and what I do. Give me the determination to do those things You desire regardless of what other people think. Help me not yield to what others can do to me. Let me care much more about what You can do to me, with me, for me, in me, and through me.

Who do you accept as being a person you trust? Who do you consider their advice to be the best for you? Who do you consult, when you have a problem or question? Who is having the greatest impact on how you think, feel, talk, and act? Who are you patterning your life after? After you have studied and listened to all kinds of other opinions and thoughts, who makes the final decision for you? Do they qualify for having this kind of influence over you?

4. You Head In The Right Direction When You Address The Activity Problem

There are plans and goals that are right for you. They can help you experience the greatest amount of happiness, satisfaction, joy, pleasure, feelings of success and accomplishment in life. There are decisions that are right for you. They can bring the greatest rewards and blessings possible. There are attitude and character qualities that if you embrace them, will help you become the most useful, desirable, needed, appreciated, and loved person you can possibly be.

Jesus, evaluate my goals, plans, decisions, attitudes, and character. Show me that they drive me, guide me, and structure my day. Give me Your goals, plans, decisions, attitudes, and character qualities. Show me which ones You want me to have and help me embrace them as mine. Empower me to yield to them and appreciate the great value they offer me.

As you go through your day, you may not realize it, but you are using goals, plans, decisions, attitudes, and character qualities all day long. It is like throwing a rock into a lake. Ripples flow out from the impact and show you how these seven things effect your day. Some of your activities don’t produce big ripples in your life immediately. They take a while to show up as consequences or rewards. Who can help you set the right goals, produce the right plans, make the right decisions, and do them with the right attitudes and character?

5. You Head In The Right Direction When You Settle The Right And Wrong Problem

What if you were able to travel one thousand miles in one hour? You might feel like you had accomplished a great feat. But, what if you went that one thousand miles in the wrong direction? There are things that are right for you and there are things that are wrong for you. Sins are those things that are wrong for you. Righteous things are right for you. However, there are specific things that aren’t good for some people but are great for others.

Jesus, help me allow You to take me far beyond being set free from sinning and the misdeeds of my body. Show me that Your life is offering me a way that is exciting, powerful, successful, and victorious. Reveal Your principles for successful dating, marriage, family, business, career, and friendships. Help me see that Christianity, the Bible, You, the Holy Spirit, and my heavenly Father have much more to offer than just the forgiveness of sins.

Some Christians are only concerned with sin issues. They try to make sure they don’t break any of God’s laws as it relates to sins. They don’t realize that God is a source of much more than you not sinning. It is true that Jesus died for your sins; but, He didn’t stay dead! Jesus rose from the dead to give you a whole new life. He can help you avoid goals, plans, decisions, attitudes, and character traits that are wrong for you; and, He can lead you into the right ones.

6. You Head In The Right Direction When You Get Help With The Relationship Problem

Suppose you had a large company with a board of directors. You were the owner and president of the company; but, you looked to your board for advice for your goals, plans, decisions, and policies for the company and its employees. It would matter a great deal as to who those members were. Their attitudes, character, qualifications, and relationships would matter.

Jesus, help me consult You before I establish relationships. Help me know the kind of people I’m talking to, doing business with, listening to, and allowing to have an influence on me. Help me find people and build relationships with people with good character and attitudes.

Good and qualified people give good, qualified advice; good people who are not qualified give well-meaning advice but it can be wrong. Qualified bad people use their qualified abilities to give you advice that is good for them but bad for you. When you develop relationships, those relationships will influence you one way or the other. Which people offer you a relationship that is both good and qualified? Have you given this relationship issue your priority?

7. You Head In The Right Direction When You Believe Jesus Solves These Problems

Jesus loves you more than you love yourself; He has the power, wisdom, abilities, authority, love, and desire to help you live life in the right direction. If you want Him to, He will help you set your goals, make the right plans and decisions, and have the best attitudes and character.

Jesus, help me realize how much You want to bless me and those around me. Show me that You caused these power-attitudes to be recorded so I could have all these blessings in my life. You have given me the power-attitude names so I can use The Seven Biblical Principles to keep them unlocked, have them, and use them to gain access to all these blessing You listed.

Jesus, help me appreciate the fact that You alone can solve the problems in my life; You alone can teach me how to win at life; You alone can show me how help others; and You alone can make me have much better relationships. Empower me to fully cooperate with You so I can be the kind of person I need to be. Let all Your great provisions flow in and through me so others can see how great You are.

This concludes your reading and studying today.

Chapter Twenty-Five

How Do I Head In The Right Direction?

Living On The Basis Of The Power-Attitudes

Week Six Day Two

The Nature Of The Power-Attitudes

Jesus is telling you to yield to some very interesting attitudes. He says you will be blessed, if you yield to them. But, if you really look at what these attitudes are, they appear to be pretty negative, down grading, and humbling. Why would He want you to yield to such things?

DESIRE: Why would you desire to be poor in spirit, to mourn, to be meek, to hunger and thirst for righteousness, to be merciful, to be pure in heart, to be peacemakers, and to be willing to be persecuted because of righteousness? But, if you don’t desire them, you know God will never make you keep yielding to them. Ask Jesus to help you keep desiring them.

Jesus, the world has been trying to build up my self-esteem and self-confidence. You seem to be trying to get me to feel humility and a lack self-esteem and confidence. Show me why I need to allow You to put these attitudes in me that seem to be undermining who I am and what I can do. Help me see the importance of this principle so I can keep desiring them for myself.

STUDY: Why would you be willing to learn what these power-attitudes of God are all about? When the world is trying to get you to believe in yourself, why would you study concepts that seem to be diminishing your faith in yourself? What is God trying to accomplish in you?

Jesus, show me, in the Bible, why I need these power-attitudes. As I study, give me Scriptures that teach me a better way to see myself. Let me understand why the world’s teachings are wrong. Show me what these power-attitudes will keep doing for me, if I keep yielding to them. Empower me to learn what they mean and how to get the most out of them.

PRAY: Why would you ask God to make you more dependent and in need, when the world is teaching you that you are all you need. How are you going to compete with forceful people, when you are asking God to help you be poor in spirit, mourn, and be meek?

Jesus, You won’t give me anything I don’t ask for. And, if I don’t understand why I need it, I won’t ask for it. Help me see that the weaker, more open, and more yielded I am, the more of Your power flows in and through me. Help me see that Your power is better than mine.

BELIEVE: Why would you want to starting believing you are inadequate for the assignment, when the world is teaching you that there is nothing you can’t do or be? How are you going to win at life, if you don’t believe you can do anything you put your mind to? What is wrong with believing in yourself? Why shouldn’t you have self-esteem and self-confidence.

Jesus, help me believe in You. Help me have God-confidence and God-esteem. Help me believe You are adequate to do more through me than I would ever be able to do on my own. Help me believe in Your knowledge, foreknowledge of the future, understanding, wisdom, and power. Help me yield to all the supernatural things You will do in and through me.

LOVE: Why would you want to love yourself, other people and God enough to yield to becoming poor in spirit, willing to mourn, willing to be meek, willing to hunger and thirst for righteousness, willing to be merciful, willing to be pure in heart, willing to be one of His peacemakers, and willing to be persecuted because of righteousness?

Jesus, help me see that these power-attitudes aren’t just coming into my life so I can be blessed. They are also so I can be a pure avenue through which You can flow into others. Help me know these attitudes are changing me into being able to yield to Your love. They have the power to create attitudes in me that allow You to bless others supernaturally.

FAITH-ACTION: Why would you involve yourself in doing things that you didn’t get any credit for? Why would you give Jesus all the credit? Why would you spend all your time only doing those things that Jesus wanted you to do and not doing those things you wanted to do?

Jesus, help me see the importance of these power-attitudes, so I will keep desiring them, studying about them, praying for more of them, looking to You to give me the faith to believe I am getting more of them, wanting them to be a part of my love, and allowing them to become more and more a part of my everyday activities. Help me keep opening my heart and mind to all of these things so I can be a part all you are doing in and through me.

THANKFUL: Why would you be thankful for being diminished, humbled, emptied, weakened, and yielded? Why would you appreciate having self-esteem and self-confidence taken away from you? Why would you give God praise for making you transparent so people can’t see you? What would cause you to give glory to God for removing you from the results?

Jesus, help me see that I can’t help people. Teach me how important it is that I constantly point them to You. Show me that I and the people around me need to see what You can do, how You can bless, how You can heal, and how You can save. Help me get out of Your way so I am no longer an element of resistance, obstruction, contamination, and distraction. Help me be so transparent that You are able to do a perfect work in me and others.

The Blessings Are Connected To The Attitudes

As you go about your day, you will either yield to a blessing or miss out on it. As you make a decision or take an action, it will be open to God’s blessings or not. Keep this in mind:

Blessing 1: Theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessing 2: They will be comforted. Blessing 3: They will inherit the earth. Blessing 4: They will be filled. Blessing 5: They will be shown mercy. Blessing 6: They will see God. Blessing 7: They will be called sons of God. Blessing 8: Theirs is the kingdom of heaven and great is your reward in heaven.

Rom 8:17 (NIV) Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in His sufferings in order that we may also share in His glory. These power-attitudes are giving you access into a major part of all your inheritance. It is one thing to be heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ and another thing to know how to take advantage of that fact. Jesus is showing you the way, the truth, and the life into it.

Jesus, I want to learn how to live on the basis of my inheritance. Help me keep the doors to all these “vaults” open that contain the elements of my inheritance in God with You. Help me not just read about them, wish I understood them better, and could yield to them more. Help me move into them and live them. Help me share them with all those around me.

Power-Attitudes That Lead Into Humility

It is true that yielding to these power-attitude items starts off with you having to face your real self. You have spent a lot of time in the past trying to make you feel good about yourself. The world has “helped” you justify wrong, bad, and even evil things you have done. You have learned how to explain away fault, guilt, responsibility, and wrong that might cause you pain.

Jesus, when You ask me to face myself and my past, I don’t know how to handle being poor in spirit, mourning, being meek, hungering and thirsting for righteousness, being merciful, being pure in heart, being peacemakers, and being willing to be persecuted because of righteousness. Train me how to respond to these kinds of attitudes. Help me to learn how to yield to them and let them be my attitudes so I can be blessed by You.

A Change Of Attitude

Rom 8:18 (NIV) I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. Is it possible for you to get to this place? Could Jesus help you see all the blessings, rewards, and glory that He wants to come your way, if you consider that your present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in you? Doing these studies and prayers, attending church, going to small groups, listening to good Christian music, reading good Christian books, and reading your Bible all take time and effort. Sharing Jesus with people can cause you to lose friends and have people persecute you.

The Power-Attitudes

Jesus, help me realize that the more I expose myself to the Bible, the more I yield to the training of the Holy Spirit and allow Him to explain these power-attitudes to me, and the more I allow Him to use The Seven Biblical Principles to bring me into faith-action, the more I will keep seeing the blessings of God flowing into me. Keep teaching me more and more about The Seven Biblical Principles so I will be able to keep the doors to the power-attitudes open to the blessings of my inheritance in You.

This concludes your reading and studying today.

Chapter Twenty-Six

How Do I Deal With Who I Am?

The Realities Of The Truth

Week Six Day Three

Starting With The Foundation

What if you built a big beautiful house on sand? All your time, effort, and money would be wasted on it because it lacked a good foundation. Suppose you trained a person and worked with them for years helping them get to the top of your company so they could help you with some very important ventures. But, when they finally got into the positions of authority and power, you discovered they were dishonest and totally selfish.

Jesus, help me not have the character flaws of being willing to take shortcuts, bend the rules, tell “white” lies, withhold important information, mislead people, do what is only best for me, and make careless decisions. Show me that if I work hard on my education, develop my career, build a lot of relationships, accumulate a lot of wealth, but don’t get my attitudes and character improved, it is like building a big beautiful house on sand.

1. The Power-Attitudes Are The Transformers Of Your Heart And Mind

Attitudes and character reside in your heart and mind. The wonderful blessings of God are responding to your heart and mind. The power-attitudes are God’s power to change your heart and mind so you will keep becoming more and more open to His training and transformation.

Jesus, help see that being poor in spirit helps my heart and mind be open to Your teaching. If I am not poor in spirit, they are resistant, suspicious, doubtful, critical, and argumentative against what You are trying to teach me. Help me see that my attitudes and character being changed are dependent on me continuously yielding to God’s power-attitude of me always remaining poor in spirit all day long.

2. Moving Into The Realities Of The Truth

As you go through your day, if you use The Seven Biblical Principles to keep accessing God’s eight power-attitudes, eight blessings will come to you from God. These eight blessings will come as eight areas of healing in your heart and mind. You will be able to think and feel positive, encouraging emotions that lead you in the right directions. You will be able to see clearly what is best for you and what isn’t. Your day will be blessed by God all day long.

Jesus, help me see that if I have bad things in my heart and mind, my attitudes and character will lead me into actions and decisions during my day that won’t bring the blessings of God. Help me see that I must allow You to show me these bad things so You can help me mourn, repent, and be healing in my heart and mind. Help the decisions and actions of my day be free from bad attitudes and character due to things I haven’t mourned and repented of.

3. Embracing The Realities Of The Truth

As you are facing the issues of your day, if you base your choices and decisions on your opinions, belief-system, the way you have always done it, or world training, meekness will be closed. Meekness is being meek before God. You are allowing Him to be the final authority for your choices and decisions as you proceed to go forward in your day. Meekness empowers you to make godly choices and decisions no matter what the cost.

Jesus, I want the blessings of God flowing into each day as I make my choices and decisions. Help me not fear what decisions and choices God will have me make. Help me see that if I lose a job, a friend, an opportunity, or a deal, He had me do that because He had a much better job, friend, opportunity, or deal waiting for me to make the right decision. Show me that the only way I can get the blessings of God is to be meek before Him.

4. Reaping The Benefits Of The Realities Of The Truth

As you get ready for your day, there are some things that you are going to know. God has some information and some power that you will need so you can handle the issues of your day. Because He has foreknowledge of the future, He wants to give you some provisions that will be specifically designed to help you make the right decisions and take the right actions.

Jesus, before I start my day, help me hunger and thirst for righteousness. Help me open my heart and mind to You so You can give me specific righteousness-guidance for my day. Since I don’t know what I will face but You do, empower me with the righteous decisions and righteous actions, so I will only do those things that are right, good, and righteous.

5. Sharing The Benefits Of The Realities Of The Truth

The decisions and actions you take during your day don’t just affect you. People will do and say things that you aren’t going to like. As you stand there deciding how you are going to react to them, there is a merciful response and there is a human response. Jesus is ready to give you wisdom and love so you can respond with a brilliant and powerful response.

Jesus, as I and people around me interact, what I say and do to them sets the tone for our relationship at that moment. If I don’t yield to Your power-mercy, I will say and do wrong things. Help me see that I might feel like I reacted properly for the situation. But, help me see that it is like the ripples in a pond, there will be attitudes, feelings, and decision that the other person will make that can affect or relationship for a long time. Help me be merciful.

6. Being The Benefits Of The Realities Of The Truth

Who you are sets the tone for what you do and say. As you talk and interact with the people around you during your day, if you are yielding to a pure heart, the people around you will be blessed and encouraged. Because of God’s power-attitude that is empowering your heart and mind, the way you treat yourself and the people you are working with will have a much better day. You are the reason why you think, feel, say, and do the things people experience.

Jesus, help me with the motives behind how I think, feel, talk, act. Let God’s power-attitude of me being pure in heart flow through me. Let it purify my motives behind by behavior. Keep me from having greed, covetousness, envy, pride, lust, or sin influencing anything I do with people during my day. Let my day be filled with pure decisions and actions all day long.

7. Spreading The Benefits Of The Realities Of The Truth

When you are dealing with people, there will be problems, conflicts, gossiping, backbiting, strife, lying, cheating, stealing, and many other relationship-damaging things. As these things happen with the people around you during your day, Jesus can help you be constantly yielding to God’s power-attitude of you being a peacemaker.

Jesus, as I go about my day, I will see all kinds of people-interactions that aren’t loving or kind. Even when they are doing the right thing, often they aren’t doing it the right way. I know I can’t be running interference in all of these issues. So, give me Your wisdom and help me be yielding to God’s power-attitude of a peacemaker. Let me use great wisdom and love as You show me when and how to help with people-relationships around me during my day.

8. Protecting The Benefits Of The Realities Of The Truth

Even when you are doing the right thing, even when you are trying to help out of love, even when you are doing exactly what Jesus is wanting you to do, people will insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you (Mat 5:12). God’s power-attitude of empowering you to be willing to be persecuted will keep you from doing the wrong thing. It will keep you from responding in the wrong way. It will keep you from ceasing to be willing to do the right, good, and righteous things all day long.

Jesus, persecution can be a powerful influence on my attitudes and character. Empower me with God’s power-attitude of me being willing to be persecuted. Give me the attitudes and character that will never change course from what is right, good, and righteous. Let it empower me to never let it cause me to yield to what is wrong, bad, or evil. No matter how bad it gets, help me yield to God’s power-attitude of being willing to be persecuted and live on the basis of the realities of the truth.

This concludes your reading and studying today.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

How Do I Deal With Who I Am?

The Realities Of The Truth

Week Six Day Four

The Seven Biblical Principles Are The Keys To Your Heart, Mind, And Attitudes

Jesus, I want to live on the basis of God’s Eight Power-Attitudes all during my day for the rest of my life. Teach me how to use The Seven Biblical Principles to keep me empowered as I go through my day. I want to always be ready and yielded to these awesome influences of the power-attitudes on the attitudes and character of my heart and mind. Teach me what it takes to get their benefits so I can get the blessings that come through them.

These seven principles help you fulfill the requirements of Jesus:

DESIRE: Things will happen to you during your day where you won’t want to go with God’s power-attitudes. Your body will flare up when someone mistreats you. Greed will come from the sinful nature of your body and try to push you into making a deal that isn’t godly. Life-habits will automatically be your first reaction to a situation.

Jesus, empower my desire so I am not influenced by my body, the world, or the devil. Help me go through my day with Your power-desire to always make decisions and take actions that are Biblical, win/win, and receptive to God’s Eight Power-Attitudes.

STUDY: As you go through your day, you will face a situation where you can’t think of a Scripture that applies to it. You will need to spend some time doing Biblical research until you find a Biblical principle that guides you concerning what to do. As much as is possible, don’t make a decision or take an action until you get Biblical guidance.

Jesus, I always want to be yielded to God’s Eight Power-Attitudes. I want to always be obedient to the requirements of the Bible. Help me not take an action or make a decision until I have a Scripture and the Biblical principle that tells me how to handle that situation.

PRAY: Sometimes things will happen so rapidly at a time during your day that you will feel like you don’t have time to pray and ask Jesus what, how, when, where, and to whom you take action or make a decision. But, it really isn’t all that hard to invite Jesus into the situation.

Jesus, help me automatically turn my thoughts into prayers. Rather than thinking, “What should I do?”, help me think, “Jesus, what should I do?” Rather than going over all my options, help me look to You for what You see as options. Let it be something that I keep doing all day long so I get into the habit of including You in every thought I have.

BELIEVE: If you forget to include Jesus in a decision, believe that He will help you remember, if you keep asking Him to help you. Even if you fail to yield to one of God’s power-attitudes, you must believe that Jesus will transform you, if you keep asking Him to help you yield. Even if you make a decision or take an action that is wrong, you must believe that if you keep asking, Jesus will help you make less and less mistakes, as you practice including Him in your day.

Jesus, help me see how I must believe in order to get where I want to go. Help me see that I will make a lot of mistakes, as I keep practicing these Biblical procedures. Show me that I must live by faith and not by sight to get where I need to go. Empower me to believe that You will transform me in every area of my life, if I keep applying the Three Keys to my life.

LOVE: You probably aren’t used to going around loving business people. You may not feel like you can conduct business transactions based on love. But, Jesus expects that to be the motivation behind every thing you do with yourself and all the people you come in contact with. Love must be the motivating factor for all the transactions of your life.

Jesus, since I am not used to involving love in my business transactions, help me see how that would work. Help me see that it may not involve me going around hugging everyone. But, it does involve me treating them with love. Give me incredible wisdom, so I can come up with ways of demonstrating love even with strangers.

FAITH-ACTION: As you go through your day, you need to let Jesus make adjustments to your normal activities. The decisions and actions you routinely make may not have all the spiritual qualities He wants them to have. Some routines, He will want to completely replace. And, some decisions and actions He will want to add to your routines; pray for flexibility.

Faith-action is the end result to the first five Biblical principles you applied to God’s power-attitudes, The Three Keys, and your situations of life. Therefore, it must be filled with the results of godly desire, Biblical study, passionate prayer, Jesus’ faith-inspired believing, God’s love, and ultimately--thankfulness.

Jesus, help me trust you with the routines of my day. Even though they have become a normal part of my day, help me be flexible. Help me realize that You may want to change them, remove some of them, add others, and interrupt some of them. Help me be willing to stop my routine when You speak to me to spend some time with someone. Help me realize that people are much more important that getting a job done.

THANKFUL: When Jesus starts changing things, you may not want your life, your routines, your habits, and your lifestyle rearranged. You may feel a need for stability, similarity, familiarity, and security. But, Jesus is helping you turn the wood, hay, and straw, that you are using to build your spiritual life, into gold, silver, and precious stones; and, you need to appreciate it. He can take a day and make a few adjustments in it and give it complete eternal perspective and purpose; and you need to be thankful for that too.

Jesus, help me see that it can be a smile, a kind word, a pause to acknowledge someone, a change in motivation, or an apology that can turn wood, hay, and straw into gold, silver, and precious stones. But, if there is a major change You want me to make, empower me to make it. Help me see that living my day in such a way that it counts for eternity is much more important than any other priority I have. Help me appreciate what it is You are doing for me.

Jesus, help me see all of this change, development, improvement, and adjustments, as being things I need to see as blessings, miracles, and love from You. Help me look at it all, understand what You are doing, and appreciate it. Give me incredible wisdom to be able to see that even the little changes You make in me are things that are going ripple throughout eternity. Help me praise You, thank You, and worship You for all You are doing to me, for me, with me, in me, and through me.

The Three Toolsets

When you read and study the Bible, the things that keep you from just wishing, hoping, desiring, and trying to get them are, three toolsets that take everything in the Bible and make them available to you. Things in the Bible won’t rub off on you, they won’t gradually seep into you, and they won’t force their way into your life. So, Jesus is making you familiar with three toolsets that empower you to get all the benefits, blessings, miracles, and promises of God.

The Three Keys To All Of Christianity Toolset

These three tools, in this toolset, are to be used to get everything in the Bible. They are your first initial attempt at pursuing all of the wonderful things of God. If your attitudes and character are in their proper condition, all you will have to do is apply one or all of them and it will happen. But, if important aspects of your attitudes and character are not in proper conditions, you will experience Three Key failure. However, because Jesus has provided you with additional toolsets, they will come to your rescue.

The Seven Biblical Principles Toolset

The toolset you are studying now has many aspects to it. One of those aspects is diagnostics. When you fail to get results from The Three Keys, The Seven Biblical Principles will help you find if it is your desire that is causing the failure, it is your lack of knowing a particular truth that you haven’t studied yet, it is because you asked but you prayed for the wrong thing or prayed the wrong way, it is because you haven’t waited on Jesus until He gave you the faith to believe for it, it is because you are asking for it selfishly rather that in love, it is because you actually got it but haven’t yet taken faith-action, or it is because Jesus has given you a lot of wonderful things already and you weren’t thankful.

God’s Eight Power-Attitudes Toolset

As Jesus has shown you, these eight tools are the major tools that work on any inadequacy in your attitudes and character. If you applied The Three Keys and went over The Seven Biblical Principles and still haven’t received your answer to prayer, then this is definitely your problem.

This concludes your reading and studying today.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

How Do I Get A Power-Relationship?

Power Through Perseverance

Week Six Day Five

The Seven Biblical Principles Diagnose Your Heart, Mind, Character, And Attitudes

Phil 4:19 (NIV) And my God will meet all your needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus. Suppose you have a pressing need and you take this Scripture before God and ask Him to meet this need. You wait for a while and nothing happens; instead, the need gets greater. You believe it is a legitimate need that should qualify for a miracle of God. But, no answer comes your way. So, you decide to use The Seven Biblical Principles to check it out.

These seven principles help you fulfill the requirements of Jesus:

1. DESIRE: Do you really want this need met? Or, is it just something that would be nice if God did it for you? You present your desire before God and are assured that you do have a legitimate desire for this need to be met. So, you move to the next principle.

2. STUDY: Is there a truth missing that you need to be aware of? Do you have a Scripture that says God will meet this need? Yes, you feel that Philippians 4:19 is a perfect Scripture for assuring you that God will meet your need.

3. PRAY: Have you prayed a specific prayer and presented a specific need to God? Did you apply the seek key to the prayer and made sure you asked with sincerity and intensity? Do you have a “plan B” where, if God doesn’t meet the need, you have another way of getting that need met? God will typically let you get your need met somewhere else.

You look your heart over and you are convinced that you prayed specifically for a specific need. You are applying the seek key to the ask key and have been empowered to pray sincerely and with intensity. You have no other plans for getting that need met. If Jesus doesn’t meet it, then it won’t get met. So, you move on to the next principle.

4. BELIEVE: Has Jesus spoken faith into you, making you sure and certain that you have the answer to your need on its way (Heb 11:1)? If not, then you need to wait before Jesus until He gives you to faith to believe you have your answer. You check out your heart and realize you aren’t sure and certain. So, you now know you need to spend some more time with Jesus asking Him to speak faith into your heart.

5. LOVE: In the meantime, while you are waiting for Jesus to speak specific faith into your heart for your specific need, bring the issue of love before Jesus. Are you trying to get this need met out of selfishness? This can keep you from getting Jesus’ faith so you can believe. But, you bring it before Jesus; and, He indicates that you have a desire to share what you have and get with others. So, you know that faith isn’t being held up and the answer to your prayer isn’t being held up because you aren’t yielding to God’s love.

6. FAITH-ACTION: You realize that you can’t take faith-action until Jesus speaks faith into you. So, you know this isn’t the problem.

7. THANKFUL: Has Jesus done anything for you already and you didn’t thank Him for it? If there are other answers or blessings that you didn’t express appreciation for, that can stop other answers and blessings. So, you ask Jesus and He reminds you of several instances where He answered your prayers and you took them for granted. That solves the mystery; you know that this is definite one issue that is hindering your prayer.

Learning Is Different From Living

John 8:32 (NIV) Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. You must learn a truth first, but you must live that truth to be set free. The Seven Biblical Principles will help you desire a truth, study and learn what that truth is, pray and ask God to apply that truth to you, wait on Jesus to give you faith to believe God has given you that truth, allow that truth to be used in love, then you take faith-action and live in the freedom that truth produced. After that, you spend time thanking God for giving that truth to you and empowering you to live it.

Jesus, Your Bible is filled with incredible truths. Like the power-attitudes, there are so many truths that would set me free in so many areas. Help me learn how to apply The Seven Biblical Principles to each and every truth in Your Bible. Help me be willing to allow these seven principles to diagnose my attitudes and character so I can qualify for every truth I read in the Bible. Give me the patience and obedience to yield to these principles.

This Is Living

James 1:2-4 (NIV) Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. Would you like to be mature and complete, not lacking anything? All you need is to face a trial and then consider it pure joy. But, you may fail the very first diagnostic requirement of The Seven Biblical Principles of desire. You may not want to consider a trial with pure joy. You may not even want a trial in the first place.

Jesus, I know not to pray for a trial to come my way; those come naturally. But, get me ready for the trials that come my way. Let me be considering it pure joy when the trials of many kinds come my way. When I don’t feel pure joy, help me use The Seven Biblical Principles to find out why I’m not experiencing pure joy.

This Is Freedom Through Truth

Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance: Knowing something in your mind and feeling pure joy in your heart are two different things. Just because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance, doesn’t bring pure joy to your heart. That is going to take a miracle. And, you can apply The Three Keys To All Of Christianity to this situation and it is highly possible that you still won’t experience pure joy. Why? Because you may not desire to feel pure joy about the trial; you are upset Jesus let you have a trial.

Jesus, help me see that there are truths that I may not desire to be put in my life. Show me that when that happens, the ask key won’t work because I am lacking one of Your seven mandatory requirements. Help me realize that until all seven of those requirements are fulfilled in me, The Three Keys To All Christianity won’t work.

This Is Freedom Being Produced Through Truth

Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work: You will have to be convinced, by Jesus, that the answer to you winning over a trial that comes your way, whether you want it or not, is through perseverance. Once He convinces you that you need perseverance it will help you move into desire. You may not have pure joy yet; but, you have fulfilled the first mandatory requirement of the seven principles.

Jesus, this is somewhat confusing; but, help me see that many of the things I had to learn as a human were like this. At first, many things didn’t make sense to me but I soon mastered them. Help me understand that You will empower me to become skilled, talented, experienced, trained, and mature as an adult child of God, if I learn how win over trials.

This Is The Results Of Truth Setting You Free

Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything: Jesus made it clear that in this world you will have trouble (John 16:33). So, when you do, this is how you win over every trial you face. Right now, Jesus is helping you desire pure joy, you are studying about where to use pure joy, you are praying that Jesus would help you get pure joy, now it is a matter of you waiting on Jesus to give you faith so you can believe you have pure joy.

Jesus, I now come to You asking that you would give me Your faith so I can believe I have pure joy in my heart. Let it fill my heart so it is ready to empower me to face trials of many kinds. Help me keep looking to You to author my faith and perfect it so I can believe pure joy is filling my heart and ready for my next trial. I thank You for hearing and answering my prayer. Thank You for helping me be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

This concludes your reading and studying for this week.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

How Do I Get A Power-Relationship?

Caring For Jesus

Week Seven Day One

Influential People

You can see a lot of the things you do in life as being neutral. They seem to not involve right or wrong, good or bad, or righteousness or evil. If you sell something, you can see it as just a “business” deal. But, Jesus sees everything as a righteousness issue.

Mat 25:35-36 (NIV) For I (Jesus) was hungry and you gave Me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave Me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited Me in, I needed clothes and you clothed Me, I was sick and you looked after Me, I was in prison and you came to visit Me.’ Just simple issues of life are looked at this way by Jesus.

Mat 25:40 (NIV) The King (Jesus) will reply, “I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of Mine, you did for Me.” Mat 25:45 (NIV) “He (Jesus) will reply, “I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for Me.” Jesus, help me see that what I do to other and what I don’t do to others You take it personal. Help me see that relationship issues aren’t neutral.

Hurting People

Eph 6:7 (NIV) Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men. Jesus wants to involve you in His supernatural life so He can bless and prosper you. But, He wants to do it through a heart that is yielding to His love; that changes relationships

Jesus, my business transactions usually don’t involve much of a relationship. I can have transactions with lots of people and not know much of anything about any of them. There are times when I don’t know and may not even care about how they are doing. Help me unlock all Your blessings so I can be blessed and be a tremendous blessing to these people.

Jesus Is The Hurting Person

Mat 25:42-43 (NIV) For I was hungry and you gave Me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave Me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite Me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe Me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after Me.’

Just simple issues of life are looked at this way by Jesus.

Jesus, I can see that I need to start applying The Three Keys and The Seven Biblical Principles to every aspect of my life. There are a lot of times in my day when I don’t treat people like they are You. Help me see how I would react if You were interacting with me all day long. Help me see that You are watching all my interactions with people and taking them personal.

Where Are These People?

You can see these people, Jesus talked about, as being unique. You may not see them as being people at the grocery store. You can see them as people who are isolated, alone, trapped at home, destitute, or homeless. You can figure that if they are out shopping, they must be able to take care of their own needs. Jesus is talking about the human needs of everyone. He sees all of them as trapped and enslaved to a life that makes them spend all their time trying to make it through the day. He has a way for you to be used to set them free from the slavery of the world.

Jesus, we all get hungry, thirsty, are a stranger to some people, need clothes, and get sick. We all can be a prisoner to the demands of life and the needs of our body. Rom 7:23 (NIV) But I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. Use these physical and spiritual needs to show me the obvious places where I should be helping people.

Why Can’t They Take Care Of Themselves?

You had to get a job; you had to buy insurance; you had to handle your money wisely; you can’t expect someone to feed you, clothe you, be your friend, and make sure you get the care you need. Why shouldn’t everyone else have to do what you are doing?

It isn’t just having money Jesus is talking about. Jesus didn’t just minister and help the poor; His disciples had “good” jobs. He found them fully fed, clothed, with plenty of friends, healthy, and free from being in prison. They had their own jobs, were taking care of their own needs, and were seemingly doing just fine on their own; but, they needed His help. What was Jesus offering to such “well cared for” people that they didn’t already have?

Mat 9:36 (NIV) When He saw the crowds, He had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Jesus, You helped everyone in all walks of life. You went to the homes of very successful, very popular, wealthy people and helped them with their needs. You reached out to those who were very busy taking care of their own lives and helped them. Help me realize that it didn’t matter whether they had a job, money, insurance, friends, food, clothing, medication, or a good lawyer to get them out of prison, You are saying, in Matthew 25:31-46, that I am to help everyone.

What Can’t Money Buy?

When He saw the crowds: As you go about your daily life, Jesus is wanting you to see the crowds. Most of them “seem” to be getting along fine; most of them “think” they are getting their needs met with money. But, there is something that money can’t do for a person. There is something that a job, a marriage, a business, a career, a sport, a club, a friendship, or a large savings account can’t do. If you aren’t loved, you are not really living life. I was thirsty and you gave Me something to drink. There are people who are passing out water bottles to people. Are they doing what Jesus was talking about? Not necessarily!

When He saw the crowds, He had compassion on them: Jesus, as I go about my daily life, help me see the crowds and have compassion on them. Show me what is the potential difference between a crowd and a family gathering. Help me see that in a family gathering, “potentially” there could be friendship, love, relationships, compassion, cooperation, unity, and concern. But in a crowd, people can be lonely, separated, lost, unloved, and a stranger to everyone around them. Teach me that the way the world works, I can have business partners, a marriage partner, friends, members in a club, team members, and no one care about me. I can be hungry, thirsty, a stranger, a prisoner, or needing clothes and no one notice.

I Want To Care

For I (Jesus) was hungry and you gave Me something to eat: Jesus, let me see that if I keep using The Three Keys, You will help me see people’s hunger through the eyes of compassion and love. When I help someone with food, You will help me to not just provide food. You will help me provide friendship, respect, love, fellowship, and compassion. Give me Your training and wisdom so I can know how to better provide food.

I was thirsty and you gave Me something to drink: Jesus, when I keep using The Three Keys, You will help me not just pass out bottles of water. You will help me see their relational needs. You will help me pray for their deeper needs. Help me be there providing people’s physical needs so I can be there when they need a true friend.

I was a stranger and you invited Me in: Jesus, when I keep using The Three Keys, You will help me realize that a lot of the people I do business with, associate with, and even partner with are actually strangers. I typically maintain casual relationships that only allow surface friendships. Help me be open and share who I am and what I am willing to be to them.

I needed clothes and you clothed Me: Jesus, when I keep using The Three Keys, You will help me go beyond owning a clothing or thrift store. You will help me be different from those who go through the motions of helping. Let true companionship, friendships, relationships, and care come through me by reaching out to the needs of these people.

I was sick and you looked after Me: Jesus, when I keep using The Three Keys, You will give me time to help when people are sick. You will help me not just want them to take advantage of the world’s systems for dealing with sickness. You will get me out of the place where I think people just have to take care of their own selves during these times. Let me use these opportunities as a chance to demonstrate your love and kindness to them.

I was in prison and you came to visit Me: Jesus, this is an issue that can be more difficult to respond to. This takes extra effort to get involved in those who are having trouble with the law. Help me use The Three Keys to get wisdom and guidance on how You want me involved in reaching out to those incarcerated for criminal activities. But, help me not just ignore it and leave it up to You to show me what to do. Help me to keep asking, seeking, and knocking on the doors of opportunity to be able to help even them.

This concludes your reading and studying today.

Chapter Thirty

What Is So Important About Desire?

Week Seven Day Two

Desire

Why Am I Able To Choose?

Gen 1:26-27 (NIV) Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, in Our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

God didn’t make you look like Him physically. He made you like Him by giving you a free will, self-awareness, self-identification, and autonomy. He empowered you to be in charge of yourself so you could decide who you desire to be and what you desire to believe. Even if you are in situations where you are being forced to do certain things, on the inside you will maintain your own opinions and desires. The Bible consists of God trying to help you freely desire and choose Him. But, all of God’s works comes to you as an effort to reason with your desires.

Jesus, help me learn how to submit my desires over to You. I thank You for giving me my free will. However, I want to choose to give it to You so You can lead me into living those things that are the very best for me and those around me. Help me realize that You and the Bible are leading me into a wonderful way of life; but, Your leadership is just being offered.

Why Aren’t God And I On The Same Page?

God knows what is right or wrong, good or bad, righteous or evil. In the Bible, He labelled wrong, bad, and evil things sins so you would know what to accept and what not to get involved in. And, He gave you a conscience so the Holy Spirit could keep you informed as to what was good for you and what was not. But, you often disagreed with the Bible and your conscience.

Prov 16:25 (NIV) There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end, it leads to death. You, on the other hand, can desire things that are deadly, while thinking they are the best thing on the planet. That puts a lot of your prayers, wants, wishes, and desires out of place with your heavenly Father. Your ability to be sure you know what is best for you can lead you into the deadliest things possible. If you don’t realize that your desires are capable of doing this, you will put your total trust in them. You will do what the world is advising you to do—trust your heart. But, your heart is deceitful and your body will mislead you.

Jesus, help me realize that the way I look at things isn’t based on truth and reality. Also, help me understand that only God can see things the way they really are. Help me trust His desires so I can submit my desires to Him. Help me believe that I can be totally convinced that something is good for me and it be the worst possible thing for me.

Why Won’t God Give Me Those Things I Desire?

Mat 7:11 (NIV) If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask Him! As you might suspect, your opinions, as to what is good, and God’s knowledge of what is good for you and those around you, are different. That means you can pray a lot of prayers that don’t get answered the way you want them to. And, it all comes down to what it is you desire. But, since you think what you are praying for is the best thing on the whole planet, you can get confused, frustrated, mad, or rejective of God.

Jesus, help me believe that God will only treat me based on good. Show me that what ever He does in response to my prayers is because it is the very best response. Let me be totally convinced that this is true regardless of what I think about the issue. If my desires are very intense and determined to go in another way, help me come to You and let You help me bring them under Your control. I don’t want to ruin my life because of ignorance or stubbornness.

Why Do I Feel Bad About Certain Things?

John 16:8 (NIV) When He (the Holy Spirit) comes, He will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment. Sometimes your desire isn’t clear. You can want something and start to get it and find yourself feeling bad at the same time. This is a situation where your desire is in conflict with God’s desire. God gave you a conscience so you wouldn’t just be like an animal with survival instincts that would allow you kill others just so you could live. You have the ability to want to protect weak and handicapped people. However, if you are pushed into a corner, you will typically choose you over anyone else.

Jesus, help me appreciate the work the Holy Spirit is doing in my conscience. If I feel even the slightest check in my conscience, let me run to You for evaluation. Help me not put anything above my safety and wellbeing. Keep me from selling out for something that looks good to me but will, in the long run, be detrimental. Thank You for sending Your Holy Spirit into this world and putting Him inside me so I can feel His guidance into truth.

What If I Don’t Desire To Feel Bad About Certain Things?

1 Tim 4:2 (NIV) Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron. There is almost always a way for you to get what you desire if you want it bad enough. There are people who want to get things that God and the Bible are against. But, they don’t want to feel bad about having them. So, they push their conscience down and resist it with such force that it is no longer making them feel bad about things that are sins. They can do wrong, bad, and evil while feeling good about it.

Jesus, protect me from resisting my conscience. Help me understand that every time I refuse to listen to it, I am suppressing the work of the Holy Spirit. Show me that, if I harden my conscience, it is like losing my hearing. I am becoming deaf to the voice of the Holy Spirit. Instead, give me acute hearing; make my spiritual ears be very sensitive to the slightest word the Holy Spirit wants to speak into my conscience.

What About Evil People’s Desires?

Rom 1:21-22 (NIV) For although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools. These people’s desires are corrupt, evil, perverted, and animalistic. They are giving themselves over to extreme pleasure: The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery (excessive indulgence in sensual pleasures); idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God (Gal 5:19-21).

Jesus, now that I know God, help me glorify Him as God; and, empower me to always be thankful. Help me be constantly aware of every miracle He works in my life. Let me see even the smallest good thing He does for me. And, help me thank Him, praise Him, and worship Him for His goodness and love for me.

How Do You Get Desires That Are Like God’s?

When you want something, you start from a level of desire based on a human perspective. It is easy to want something that sounds incredibly wonderful that God sees tremendous problems with. When you don’t get it, you can be very disappointed. But God just saved your life! It isn’t until you realize that you need to allow God to guide your desires that you get your mind set on what the Spirit desires. As you study the Bible and yield to Jesus, you find out what you should be desiring. Then you apply The Three Keys To All Of Christianity to your desires. If your desires don’t properly change, then you apply The Seven Biblical Principles and let Jesus use them to help you find out why your desires didn’t change.

Jesus, help me learn how to use The Three Keys and The Seven Biblical Principles to take me into those desires that are in keeping with Your Holy Spirit. Empower me to live in accordance with the Spirit so I can have my mind set on what the Spirit desires. If my desires don’t conform to the desires of the Holy Spirit, help me immediately come to You and allow You to take me step-by-step through The Seven Biblical Principles until I can see where I am falling short on being totally submitted to the desires of the Holy Spirit.

This concludes your reading and studying today.

Chapter Thirty-One

What Is So Important About Study?

Week Seven Day Three

Study

What Is My Responsibility As I Study?

2 Tim 2:15 (AKJV) Study to show yourself approved to God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. If you don’t know what God is offering, you won’t know it exists. If you don’t know how to get it, you will live without it. And, if you don’t know how to use it, you will have it but not be able to take faith-action and live on the basis of it. Study helps you be able to desire the things in the Bible, pray for them, believe you have received them, yield to God’s love in regard to them, take faith-action on them, and then be thankful to God for being so loving and generous. Study is vital to all seven principles.

Jesus, help me always read, study, and pray over the Bible. Empower me to read it cover-to-cover on a regular basis. Also help me to apply myself to these studies and prayers so I can focus in on those things that a World Changer has to concentrate on. Help me do this in order to be trained in deeper and more involved truths. Help me see that as I grow, I need better- and-better-quality spiritual food. Show me that I can’t eat spiritual junk food and be able to live the life You have called me into. I can’t eat spiritual baby food and grow properly.

Why Do I Need To Read, Study, And Pray Over The Bible?

2 Tim 3:16-17 (NIV) All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful (powerful) for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. This is God’s Book! It alone is God-breathed.

Jesus, give me a respect for the Bible. Awaken my heart to the fact that it is God’s Book. Help me to read, study, and pray over it with a seriousness that helps me accept it is empowering, transforming, and liberating. Empower me to concentrate, focus, and honor every word I read. Let it be the spiritual food that alone is able to feed a child of God.

Where Else Am I Going To Get This Kind Of Help?

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful (powerful) for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness: This is where you get truth! And, this is where you get the thoughts and feelings of almighty God! Out of all the human thoughts and reasonings you are being constantly exposed to, reality, facts, and true information come from the Bible. It is the light that shines on the way things really are. It is the power to enable you to treat yourself, others, and God with only good. You can’t live any differently than all the rest of humans without its teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.

Jesus, help me get all the Bible has to offer me. Use it to teach me, rebuke me, correct me, and train me in righteousness. Help me have a great hunger and thirst for it to do a complete work in me, as You use it in my life. Help me not disagree with it, ignore any of it, or neglect reading, studying, and praying over it. Thank You for hearing and answering this prayer.

How Do I Get Equipped For Life?

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful (powerful) for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work: There is no other book that can do this for you. As you go through these times with Jesus, He will take those verses that apply to this stage in your life, and make sure you are learning them, understanding them, helped to apply them, and then He makes sure you are living them.

Jesus, teach me that the big issue with this verse is whether or not I allow God’s Word to teach me, rebuke me, correct me, and train me in righteousness. Help me understand that if it doesn’t, I will remain in the condition that is hurting me. Help me be thoroughly equipped for every good work. I want everything the Bible has to offer me.

How Do I Resist Sin?

Psa 119:11 (NIV) I have hidden Your word in my heart that I might not sin against You.

Reading the Bible, studying the Bible, and memorizing Scriptures is very important. But, the major objective is living the Bible. It is true you can’t live it, if you haven’t read it. You can’t live it, if you haven’t adequately studied it. It is very helpful to be able to quote it, as you are practicing living it. But, hiding it in your heart is much deeper that any of these things. Once God’s Word is in your heart, it becomes a part of who you are.

Jesus, my heart is a real mystery to me. I can’t access it, reason with it, change its feelings, or make it stop influencing me in ways I don’t want it to. Let me experience the hiding of your Word in my heart. Help me see how my heart is changed and empowered, once your Word goes in and becomes a part of how it feels. Let it bring healing to those damaged areas where it is causing me to feel things that I have already got the victory over in my mind.

How Does The Bible Help Me With My Circumstances?

Psa 119:105 (NIV) Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.

Just as much as the Bible helps you with your attitudes and character, it also helps you with those things outside of you. If you can see where you are headed, if you can see what you are about to run into, and if you can see what to avoid out in front of you, you can live a much better life.

Mat 15:14 (NIV) Leave them; they are blind guides. If a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a pit. In this case, it isn’t a matter of the absence of light, it is an eye problem. The reason many are spiritually blind is because they have their eyes closed. So, they can’t see what is coming their way.

Jesus, I have things happen to me out in life that I can’t control. I run into situations that I should have avoided. I have opportunities that I should have taken advantage of. Show me that I can have the light of your Word shine on my life and circumstances and help me see what is going on. Show me that all I have to do is study and allow Your Word to teach me how to understand what I am seeing and I will navigate life much better.

The Bible

If you are not studying the Bible, you are not seeking the answers to your problems and issues, not getting help with your goals and plans, and not getting the truths that set you free. If you are reading and studying the Bible, then you are seeking the truths that will solve these struggles.

It’s your responsibility to read and study the Bible so you can keep learning more and more truths.

· If you allow the Bible to guide your desires, your times of Bible study will help you want the right things.

· If you study the Bible, your times of study will be times of learning what truths are available to you.

· If you study the Bible and allow it to guide how and what to pray for, you will be praying for the truths that have the power to set you free.

· If you study and allow Jesus to speak the power of faith into you through the Bible, you will believe you have the right things.

· If you study and allow the Bible to explain what God’s love is and how to yield to it, your study will be moving you into the right reasons for why you do what you do with the truths you get.

· If you study and allow the Bible to show you what faith-action looks like, your study will guide you into living the life of success as you join Jesus in living His life.

· If you study and allow the Bible to help you be thankful, your study will guide you into a close and intimate relationship with your heavenly Father.

But, you need Jesus’ power to help you apply yourself to this study; and, the next step for getting that power is to ask for it (prayer).

Jesus, help me see the vital necessity of study and the application of The Seven Biblical Principles to those verses that you are wanting to install in my life. Help me see that there are seven major things that can be wrong in me that would keep me from getting that truth in my life. Help me not neglect using these seven principles when I study something and ask for it and it doesn’t happen. Help me not just give up. Help me find out what is wrong.

This concludes your reading and studying today.

Chapter Thirty-Two

What Is So Important About Prayer?

Week Seven Day Four

Pray

How Can This Verse Fail?

Mat 7:7 (NIV) Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. These are The Three Keys To All Of Christianity, and are like the Lord’s prayer. However, if applied without spiritual requirements in place, they fail to bring results. The main spiritual requirement in Matthew 7:7-11 requires that your “ask” be Biblical. If you are asking, seeking, or knocking trying to get something that God knows isn’t good for you or those around you, these Three Keys won’t work.

Mat 7:11 (NIV) If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask Him! Jesus, help me understand that prayer doesn’t open the door to whatever I ask for. Teach me that You are a wise, loving God Who controls the answers to my prayers based on that wisdom and love. Help me respect and honor Your decisions in response to my prayers.

Why Do I Have To Remain In Order For This Verse To Work?

John 15:7 (NIV) If you remain in Me and My words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. As you remain in Jesus, life becomes so much clearer to you. Your priorities move into those things that really matter. You start experiencing Jesus’ love and start yielding to loving others. He cleanses you from all your human effort and erroneous world training. Your thinking and emotions get healed. All of this influences whatever you wish, so that your prayers are extremely centered into the will of God.

Jesus, help me wish for those things that are Your top priority. Help me realize that I need to remain in You so my thoughts and feelings are clear and centered in You. Thank You for not answering so many of my prayers that would have damaged my life and the lives of others. Let me fully trust in what the Bible tells me to pray for. Give me those things that would enhance and bless my life rather than confuse and mislead me.

Why Can’t I Use My Faith?

Mark 11:24 (AKJV) Therefore I say unto you, What things soever you desire, when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you shall have them. This one can really be confusing. It can sound like all you have to do is desire anything you want and all you have to do is use your human faith to get it. But, the way Jesus protects you from using this to hurt and damage yourself is by requiring that your faith come through Him. You must use His faith; and, you only get His faith when your prayer is in line with the will of God.

Jesus, since James 1:6-7 (NIV) says: But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord. I thank You for requiring Your faith that doesn’t doubt for a second. I would try to use my faith using Scriptures that sound like I am in control of Your mighty power and provisions. I would have hurt myself and so many people. Thank You for making sure that I am under Your supervision and training. I need You to be involved in everything I think, feel, say, and do. Thank You for controlling my prayers by controlling faith.

What If I Still Use World Training?

James 4:1 (NIV) What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? Prior to salvation, you used every technique you could find to get what you wanted. You studied other people’s procedures by observation, reading their books, and taking their classes. You and those other people didn’t put it in these terms, but, you were trying to learn how to manipulate people. The person with the greatest manipulative powers and skills was the most “successful.” None of it involved praying and asking God.

Jesus, if I still am using manipulation to try to get what I desire, heal me. Help me give up all human effort and world training so I can have a pure line of resources coming from God. Help me not get one thing through any other method than prayer. Be my filter that keeps all resources from coming into my life that haven’t been evaluated by You. I put my trust in Your decisions and Your approval. Set me free from thinking I know what I need.

What If I Forget To Ask God?

James 4:2 (NIV) You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. Your main problem is, you have two conflictive methods in your brain. Salvation doesn’t erase all your memories of your past. And it doesn’t get rid of all the memories of all the pleasures you have experienced from sin. John 8:36 (NIV) So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. This freedom means you now have both worlds in front of you.

While you were in sin, you only had one choice. Satan took your God-given free will away from you. The only freedom you had was your right to call out to God for help. Satan couldn’t take that away from you. But, now that you have been born again, your freedom requires you to make one of two choices. Do you want to make your relationship with God permanent? Or, do you want to go back to all those things you still have recorded in your brain?

Jesus, I want to give up all my past life. I thank You for leaving all my memories intact. I thank You for allowing me to be free to make this one last, final decision. I choose to make Christianity my permanent way of life. I give all my past experiences and memories over for You to cleanse me of. Help me submit all my human effort and world training to You. I now pray and ask You to set me free from it all so I can ask God for everything I want and need.

What If I Want The Right Thing For The Wrong Reason?

James 4:3 (NIV) When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. This is where “love” in The Seven Biblical Principles comes in. If your prayer is selfish, then that keeps you from getting a positive answer from your ask. Take a look at “The Lord’s Prayer.”

Mat 6:9-13 (NIV) This, then, is how you should pray: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name, Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.” This prayer includes everyone. Selfish prayers are rejected by God. You don’t have to always include these pronouns into your prayers. But, it does mean this concept must be in the motive for your ask.

Jesus, when I pray, help me always pray with myself and others in mind. Help me care about the fact that others need most everything I need. So, when I pray, help me do what You did in Your prayer. Let me take a look at my needs and understand that they are typical of everyone else’s needs. Help me grow, not so I am the only beneficiary, but so I can share my breakthroughs with others.

The Necessity Of Prayer

1. Praying Helps With Spiritual Growth

Jesus, it is hard for me to believe I can’t just make up my mind to read and study my Bible every day. But, I will soon find out I start skipping it. Days, weeks, and months can go by and all of a sudden, I realize I am no longer reading my Bible. Why? Show me that this is why: James 4:2b (NIV) You do not have, because you do not ask God.

2. Praying Helps With Getting Your Needs Met

Jesus, I am used to just deciding to do something and being able to do it. Prayer is an unusual thing for me to use to get my needs met. Looking to You for supplying my daily needs is totally different from me just deciding to get a job, make some money, buy what I want, and decide how to use it. Teach me this principle: Mat 7:11b (NIV) How much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask Him! Help me always pray and ask!

3. Praying Helps With Your Decisions

Jesus, prayer is so different from me making my own decisions. I’m used to thinking, talking with other people, doing research, comparing the pros and cons, and then making my own decision as to what I want to do. Including You in the matter is sometimes foreign to me. Teach me that even though prayer isn’t a natural part of my life-process, it is the way for me to invite You into all the aspects of my life. Teach me that everything I get through You will always be good for me, will be the very best, will come at the right time, and will come the right way. Rom 8:28 (NIV) And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.

This concludes your reading and studying today.

Chapter Thirty-Three

What Is So Important About Believing?

Week Seven Day Five

Believe

What Are My First Two Steps Of Faith?

Heb 11:6 (NIV) And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe (1) that He exists and (2) that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him. This verse makes it clear that believing is vital to all Christians. From a very foundational level, every person everywhere has two things they have to be helped to believe. They have to believe them in order to be able to come to God and get His help.

Jesus, help me base my life on these two steps. Empower me to believe God exists and rewards me when I earnestly seek Him. Help me never waver on these two requirements of God. Help me be pleasing to Him by having Your faith that never doubts these two truths. Let me live every moment of my life based on His existence and that He will reward me when I diligently, earnestly seek Him. Help me pursue life with these two truths locked in my faith.

What Are The Reasons For These Two Steps?

Because anyone who comes to Him must believe:

1. That He exists.

2. That He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.

Can you come to God, if you don’t even believe that He exists? Will you come to God, if you don’t believe that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him? Believing these two things makes a huge difference in your relationship with God. Many Christians know God can do wonderful things for them. But, they don’t know whether or not He is interested, willing, or going to do all those things He knows is good for them and those around them.

Jesus, because I have prayed things that didn’t fulfill the mandatory requirement of The Seven Biblical Principles, I didn’t get my prayer answered the way I wanted God to. This caused me to think something was wrong with the procedure of prayer. So, I stopped believing in the fact that God rewards those who earnestly seek Him. Help me get back into faith in that area. I now realize it was me that was keeping my prayers from being answered positively.

Do I Believe God Always Tells The Truth?

You are required to believe God rewards those who earnestly seek Him. If you don’t believe this, then you won’t trust Him or His Bible enough to base your decisions, your needs and wants, and the control over your circumstances on Him. There are various experiences you have gone through that challenge this belief that God rewards those who earnestly seek Him.

Jesus, I can pray and not get what I asked for; I can believe for things and not see them come into being; I can learn things in the Bible and not get them happening for me; and, I can try to base my life on the truths of the Bible and find that the world system “seems” to work better. Let The Seven Biblical Principles diagnose all those times and help me see why I didn’t get results. Help me see that there are always Biblical reasons for why my prayer failed.

When Do I Know I Have Jesus’ Faith?

Faith is to simply believe that God is telling you the truth all the time; faith is to believe in His honesty and integrity. If you believe in God’s honesty and integrity, and if you wonder why your faith isn’t working, you will automatically assume it is a problem with you and not with God. But, you don’t have to stay in confusion. You can pray over each of The Seven Biblical Principles and Jesus will show you where you are missing a mandatory requirement.

Jesus, this definition of what faith is makes it obvious why God is offended when I don’t believe. I am acting like He is a liar, when I read something in the Bible and don’t believe it. Help me always come to You and ask for, seek in the Bible, and knock on the doors of opportunity to get faith so I can know I have those things I am pursing. If they don’t come to me like I think they should, help me bring them to You so You can take me through the seven mandatory things that must be in place.

How Do I Know When Jesus Has Given Me The Power To Believe?

Heb 11:1 (NIV) Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. When you first tried your legs learning how to walk, you often failed. Not because you didn’t believe in your legs but because you lacked the skill. As you kept trying to walk, practice helped you get better at believing you could walk and get more skill at walking.

Jesus, help me understand that when I am sure and when I am certain, that is my evidence that You have given me faith to believe I have what I have been waiting on You to speak faith into me for. Help not just wait; help me to be going over The Seven Biblical Principles with You so there won’t be anything in me that is resisting Your faith. Give me the patience to work on those issues I need to become real from the Bible. Help me realize that I need to “do what it takes” so I can start living Biblical truths. Help me not stop pursuing Your truths.

Where Does Practice Come Into My Faith-Growth?

If you doubted your legs rather than your skill, you wouldn’t have learned how to walk. Now, after years of experience with walking on your legs, you use them with great faith. As long as you keep having faith in God, practice will give you experiences. Those experiences will teach you how to look to Jesus for His faith to get things accomplished; it is much stronger than yours. As you believe in Jesus’ faith and Jesus’ skills with faith, you will experience success in life through believing that God is telling you the truth.

Jesus, help me realize that it is my skill that is lacking rather than my ability to believe. Help me understand that Your faith will empower my ability to believe. I will be able to believe as I trust in Your ability to empower my belief. Help me not get frustrated with my ability to believe. Help me see that I just need to practice taking faith-action based on the faith you have put in me. When I fail and fall down, help me get up and keep living on the basis of the fact that You did give me faith to believe.

Procedures Worth Pursuing

Mark 11:24 (AKJV) Therefore I say unto you, What things soever you desire, when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you shall have them. When Jesus speaks faith into you, that is the power to believe. It is a supernatural experience that changes your faith. But, there must be a target that you are wanting to believe you have. What things soever you desire is the target.

The target issue must exist inside the mandatory requirements of The Seven Biblical Principles.

· If you desire something that isn’t based on your Biblical study, Jesus won’t speak faith in you for it so you can believe you have it.

· If your desire isn’t expressed to Jesus through prayer, you haven’t invited Jesus into the target issue of your desire. Therefore, He won’t speak faith into you, so you can believe you have it.

· If your desire isn’t expressed to Jesus through motives of love for others, then Jesus won’t speak faith in you for it, so you can believe you have it.

· If your desire isn’t a target issue that you will be willing to take faith-action on, then Jesus won’t speak faith in you for it, so you can believe you have it.

But, once you and Jesus get these things taken care of, He will speak faith into you and you will be sure and certain (Heb 11:1) that His faith has been spoken into you. And, you will know that you have that thing you have been asking for.

Jesus, help me keep going over these procedures until I understand how to start getting Biblically based provisions in my life. Help me be willing to put the kind of effort into learning how to do spiritual things as I have put into learning how to do physical, worldly things. Give me a desire, a commitment, and a determination that pursues the things of God that are superior to all I have used to pursue my skills, talents, world training, and the practice that I put in them. Show me that these things are much more important and valuable than anything I have ever pursued before.

This concludes your reading and studying for this week.

Chapter Thirty-Four

What Is So Important About Love?

Week Eight Day One

The Love Check

1. Am I Selfish?

James 4:1 (NIV) What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? Is it just about you or should you take into consideration what others need too? Where are your desires coming from? Are they motivated by selfishness or a love for yourself and other people? Selfishness takes things away from others and gives it to you. Love gets wonderful provisions from God and shares them with others. Jesus’ system is a win/win system. You love your neighbor as yourself. And, you love your neighbor as yourself.

Jesus, show me that I can only have temporary friends, long distance relationships, or casual acquaintances, if I am selfish. Teach me that selfishness causes me to only be able to see things from my perspective. I will do things that are the best for me, even if they are not good for those involved with me. I will take the best of everything, be first at everything, and take the most of everything. Teach me that, that interferes with me having a lot of friends; and, it keeps me from having close friends.

2. Do I Have Self-Confidence And Self-Esteem?

James 4:2 (NIV) You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. God’s love comes into your heart through Jesus’ salvation; but, it only functions inside your relationship with Jesus. He alone can help you feel what other people are going through. He helps you only want those things that are good for you and for other people (win/win). Through God’s love, your happiness is enhanced by the happiness of others. Through God’s love, you measure your success by how much you are able to help others succeed.

Jesus, help me always realize that I am not my own answer; I need God. What kind of efforts am I putting forth? Are they human efforts, like those described in James 4:2; or, are they the application of The Seven Biblical Principles that bring about the power-relationship with God? Teach me that James 4:2 presents the two approaches to life: Human effort or a relationship with God. Let my relationship with God always involve me asking Him for those things I want and need. Show me that asking moves me away from human effort into the realm of the Spirit, which moves me into the realm of love.

3. Do I Only Look For Self-Satisfaction?

James 4:3 (NIV) When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. What are you planning on doing with the things you get from God? Selfishness hoards those things you get. It is like a dam that allows water to flow in but won’t allow it to flow out. Love shares them with others so you can get even more from God. It is like a river that allows water to flow out so that more water can flow in. Love helps you become a river, so you can be a part of the flow of God.

Jesus, help me understand that whether it is in business, marriage, friendship, family, or with strangers, I am either getting things from people, so as to have, or I am getting them from people in order to give. Show me that hoarders keep everything they get; people with a heart of love, share what they have with others who have needs. Help me qualify and evaluate those I help; but, if someone has a legitimate need, I want to use my resources to help them.

The Loveless Life

1. Impressive Speech

1 Cor 13:1 (NIV) If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. You can say all kinds of nice things, powerful things, wise things, and even true things, but, if they aren’t coming from a heart of love, it will mean nothing at the end of your life. God grades, measures, and rewards you based on this hidden agenda from your heart. He wants you to say what you say because you are yielding to His love.

Jesus, help my kind words be coming from love. Help me say what I say be because I love them and not for what I can get out of them. Let me be able to see from other people’s perspective and not just my own. Give me words of love that meet their needs.

2. Impressive Abilities

1 Cor 13:2 (NIV) If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. You can accumulate all kinds of gifts, talents, skills, abilities, possessions, money, popularity, prestige, positions, pleasure, power, and accomplishments; but, if it isn’t gained through love and for the purposes of love, it will profit you nothing. You will use your accomplishments, skills, and power to take from others and make yourself more important and wealthier; that hurts you and that hurts people. Do you have love; or, do you have things?

Jesus, help me receive all Your spiritual gifts of prophecy, mysteries, knowledge, and faith with love. Help me receive them into a heart that is filled with love for myself, other people, and God. Help me have and use these things because I want the very best for others.

3. Impressive Gifts And Sacrifices

1 Cor 13:3 (NIV) If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing. Generosity and sacrifices that send the wrong message aren’t motivated by love and mean nothing. If all your sacrifices point to your greatness and “humility,” then you pull their attention away from God; He is the only One Who can help people. Pride, boasting, drawing other’s attention, and great acts of benevolence impress people with you; but, you aren’t the answer to their needs. This distraction keeps them from looking to Jesus for the help that is vital to them.

Jesus, this is a very precise thing. Help me see that I can be extremely generous and self-sacrificing while getting all the credit for it. Help me make all these sacrifices because You are working in and through me to others. Let them see Your work in me as being Your love.

Dealing With The Right Thing

The Right Things For The Wrong Reasons

You may smile, know all those around you by name, promise to do all kinds of wonderful things for them, and be friendly to all of them, but, if you are doing it so as to get your way and only meet your needs, then all your good is really being done without love.

The Right Things For The Right Reasons

God is love; God cares more about love than anything else; and God doesn’t just talk about love, say loving things, and “act” like He loves you; He demonstrates it. But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Rom 5:8). That is love in action!

Jesus, help me see that love that comes from God heals, transforms lives into great lives, cooperates, shares, supports, unifies, blesses, and provides win/win opportunities. It takes the right things and uses God’s way of life to accomplish the right results. It is motivated from inside of me and flows out of me from there. It is real, dependable, trustworthy, sincere, honest, and faithful.

Love And The Seven Biblical Principles

DESIRE: Do you love people enough to want to only have win/win relationships?

STUDY: How does 1 Corinthians 13:1-3 show what to do, but to make sure you do it in love?

PRAY: What kind of prayers are selfish and what kind are prayers that include love?

BELIEVE: Are you trying to love people or are you letting Jesus empower you to love them?

LOVE: Do you know how to yield to God’s love?

FAITH-ACTION: Do you know how to demonstrate love rather than just feel love?

THANKFUL: Do you know how to demonstrate love for God by appreciating what He is doing to you, for you, in you, with you, and through you?

This concludes your reading and studying today.

Chapter Thirty-Five

What Is So Important About Faith-Action?

Why Am I Doing All This?

Week Eight Day Two

Faith-Action

The Things I Need To See About Faith-Action

1. I Must See The need For Faith-Action

Luke 6:46-47 (NIV) Why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say? I will show you what he is like who comes to Me and hears My words and puts them into practice. Jesus is telling you what to do when you read the Bible.

Jesus, help me come to You, hear Your words, and put them into practice. Help me learn how to get faith from You and then live based on the fact that I have what You gave me the faith to know I have it. Protect me from learning Biblical things and not practice living them.

Luke 6:48 (NIV) He is like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built. When you read Jesus’ words by reading your Bible, you must not read it casually. You must dig down deep until you are in contact with Jesus.

Jesus, help me see that when I read my Bible, I have to stop and ask You to put that truth in my life. Help me desire it, study it until I know what it means, pray for it, let You speak faith in me so I can believe I have it, get it because I love others, put it into practice through faith-action, and then when they start living the life with Jesus, they are thankful.

Luke 6:49 (NIV) But the one who hears My words and does not put them into practice is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed and its destruction was complete. This is failure.

Jesus, help me not neglect digging down deep into Your words, the Bible. Help me not feel like all this digging is too much, too hard, or too complicated. Show me that I do a lot more complicated things in my job, career, hobbies, and life in general. Help me “do what it takes.”

2. I Must See The Causes For No Faith-Action

Some people don’t put Jesus’ words into practice because they are unsaved and haven’t heard His words yet. Some don’t put Jesus’ words into practice because they are new or untrained Christians and don’t know how yet. Others don’t put Jesus’ words into practice because they are unwilling to allow Jesus’ words to have an effect on them.

Jesus, I have been hearing Your words for quite a while now. I am no longer a new or untrained Christian. Help me be willing to allow Your words to have a very powerful effect on me and my life. Help me always “do what it takes” to put Your words into practice.

3. I Must Understand New Christians

New Christians are failing but are guiltless because Jesus gave them justification and it credited them as putting His words into practice on their record. This is a grace period where they are allowed to have time to learn how to apply The Seven Biblical Principles to their life.

Jesus, I thank You for all those things that You are crediting to my record as if I am already putting them into practice. But, help me start actually putting them into practice because I am being hurt by not doing them; and I am hurting others and God’s reputation because of it.

4. I Must Understand Untrained Christians

There are two kinds of untrained Christians: those who are untrained on purpose and those not being given an opportunity to be trained. Some try to apply The Seven Biblical Principles but don’t yet know how. But, as long as they are reading and studying their Bibles, even though they haven’t discovered The Seven Biblical Principles yet, Jesus sees to it they get trained.

Jesus, help me not resist any training You want to give me. And, help me not neglect any new or untrained Christians I meet. Help me be motivated to grow spiritually out of love for myself, other people, and God. Help me grow so I can help others grow.

5. I Must See The Difference In Knowledge, Understanding, Wisdom, And Living It

It is so sad to see many Christians come up to faith-action and then stop right there. They keep hoping that their intense desire for God will make the changes and produce the results. They hope that their knowledge about Christianity will change their life; they hope that their understanding of Christianity will do it; they hope that their wisdom of how to apply it to their lives will make the changes. But, they never take faith-action and practice living it.

Getting To The Actual Results

· Desire To Study: Jesus, let desire help me start praying to You (asking); and, let it help me start reading and studying my Bible (seeking). Show me that by it, I gain Your knowledge, understanding, and wisdom. But let Romans 7:15-25 make it clear to me that desire alone isn’t powerful enough to get the job done.

· Study For Knowledge: Jesus, teach me that knowledge about God helps me know Who He is, what He is providing, and what He made available to me. It gives me the information on how to go about applying it to my life. But, make it clear to me that it is still just information for as long as I don’t actually apply it.

· Study For Understanding: Jesus, teach me that understanding God and the things of God help me have the meaning of all the knowledge I have gained about God. Understanding takes information and makes its meaning clear to me. Without this, there are a lot of areas of misunderstanding concerning what the Bible actually means. Show me that once I have understanding, it becomes clear to me what God is trying to say to me. But, this doesn’t put it into the behavior and activities of my life.

· Study For Wisdom: Jesus, teach me that wisdom helps me understand and know how to apply all the knowledge and understanding I have gained about God and the things of God. Wisdom takes me as close as I can get to applying the Bible to my life without me actually living it. Help me see that it opens my mind and heart to the realization of what it is going to take to start living what the Bible and God are providing. But, show me that until faith-action is taken, I know how to apply it but am not actually doing it.

None of these four things, as great as they are, put more of God and the things of God into your life. You have to have them; but, you remain in the grace period where they are credited to your record. But, they are not flowing through your life into your relationships with yourself and other people. You are not yet putting them into practice.

It Takes All Five Things

To come to Jesus, hear His words, and put them into practice, which is to take faith-action.

1. Jesus, help me desire with all my heart (seek) to apply the Bible (Rom 7:15-25).

2. Help me know what the Bible says.

3. Help me understand what the Bible means concerning what You have taught me.

4. Help me have the wisdom to know how I should apply what I understand to my life.

5. Then help me take faith-action and start practicing doing it, so I can be like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock.

James 2:17 (NIV) In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. You must join Jesus in the Jesus-life and allow it to flow through your behavior. Faith-action is why you do all the other things of “doing what it takes.” Faith-action produces the Jesus-life from the Bible in your life. Faith-action produces all the provisions and benefits of God in your life. You desire a miracle of God; you study and find out what it is going to take to get it; you pray and ask for it; you wait on Jesus until He speaks faith into you telling you, you have it; you believe you have it; you are doing all of this because you love yourself, other people, and God; you then move into the way of getting it. You join Jesus in taking faith-action and start living on the basis of the fact that you have it. From that moment on, that miracle is yours. And, be sure you stop and thank God for that miracle!

This concludes your reading and studying today.

Chapter Thirty-Six

What Is So Important About Faith-Action?

You Need Practice

Week Eight Day Three

Steps To Living On The Basis Of The Facts: Faith-Action

Gal 3:11 (NIV) Clearly no one is justified before God by the law, because, “The righteous will live by faith.”

1. Don’t Try To Do The Right Thing Yourself

Clearly no one is justified before God by the law: The law requires you to live it by your human effort and not by faith and trust in the power of God. If you try doing that, you will fail. Rom 8:3 (NIV) For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending His Own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so He condemned sin in sinful man.

Jesus, help me realize that as I read the Bible and then go live my day, I am not going to be using my human efforts to live it. But, it is so easy for me to slip into trying to do the right thing. All my life I have been trying to do the right thing. Help me be set free from it so I can take faith-action by living by faith in You. Help me learn an entirely new way of living.

2. Don’t Expect Jesus To Do The Right Thing For You

If you are expecting Jesus to just do it for you, you will fail. Rom 8:13 (NIV) For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live. Jesus is trying to teach you how to live by faith but not where He takes over your life. He has a way for by the Spirit you live by faith.

Jesus, help me be ready to learn a whole new way of being trained to live by faith. Help me see that it is going to be different from anything I have ever experienced. Help me learn how to yield to the power of the Holy Spirit while living by faith. Help me see that I am going to be running my day, but not under my own power. Help me see that I am going to be running my day, while yielding to You.

3. Join Jesus And Do Things As One

Here is how Christianity works: John 15:4-5 (NIV) Remain in Me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in Me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in Me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from Me you can do nothing. This makes you and Jesus one.

Jesus, help me see that this will be a training on how to take faith-action while living my life, during my day, as one with You. I will be yielding to the power of the Holy Spirit; my God-given free will, will still going to be intact; and You and I will be living my life together. You know how to live the principles of the Bible; and, You will be living them with me.

4. Accept A New System Of Training

Suppose you were trying to learn how to ride a bicycle. If your parent took the bike and rode it for you, it would cheat you out of learning how to ride it. If they just let go and let you keep falling all the time, that would discourage and hurt you. If they held on too tight, that would keep you from being able to practice what it takes to keep your balance. So, Jesus is going to get on the bike with you; and, you and He will ride it together; but, you and He are one.

Jesus, help me see that according to John 15:5, Your teaching method is to bring me into You and You enter into me (remains in Me and I in him). Help me see why I need a lot of practice. I have been used to being told what to do and then try it. Show me that Your method of training is superior. I am getting a chance to experience You doing these things

5. Learn How To Walk In Faith With Jesus

Rom 1:17 (AKJV) For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, “The just shall live by faith.” This is you and Jesus taking faith-action together. You are learning how to live by faith; but, you are learning it while remaining in Jesus, and Jesus remaining in you. This kind of faith-action has a faith Jesus spoke into you that this is His will. It is also a faith that empowers you to trust in Him to do it together as one.

For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: Jesus, teach me that it is like walking; I use two legs to carry me from one step to the next. I put my weight on one leg and push forward while lifting the other leg and extending it to a new forward position. Then I use the front leg to get me ready to take my next step. Show me that like I go from leg to leg walking my way to my destination, that is how You and I go from faith to faith.

6. Accept A Life Of Walking In Faith

As it is written, the just shall live by faith: Your life, in Jesus, moves from one faith-action to the next, like spiritual legs. Your faith is in Jesus; you yield to His ideas and feelings in your mind and heart. You value and respect what He says. You totally trust Him, His love, and His abilities. Your and His “legs” of faith-action are taking you and Him into a life of success after success. Each decision of your day, you allow Jesus to empower you to live by faith in Him.

Jesus, once I get guidance from Scriptures and ideas You cause to pop up in my mind, help me be ready for the next step of faith-action. Help me yield to Your ideas because of my faith and trust in You. Let me see that faith-action is me walking or living by faith in You.

Jesus, show me that I am now going to take faith-action because I believe, as truth, those things You tell me. Teach me that when I yield my actions to that truth, it gives me something to stand on. I am able to believe in that truth and yield my behavior, decisions, reactions, and plans on You. Once I succeed in that truth, I am ready to base my next faith-action on Your next truth; and that is how we will keep moving forward.

7. Practice Taking Faith-Action

Did you really hear from Jesus when you felt a Scripture applied to your situation? Did you really hear from Jesus when a “seemingly” great idea popped into your mind? The answer is, maybe you did; maybe you didn’t. Now that isn’t what you wanted to hear! This is where the word “practice” comes into the picture. You are encouraged to practice taking faith-action.

Jesus, teach me that walking in faith with You requires practice plus failure, practice and misunderstandings, practice with some success, and practice while never giving up. As I read a verse, in the Bible, and think You are telling me to do something a certain way, doesn’t make it true. Just because I read it in the Bible doesn’t mean I heard the correct meaning from You. Show me that just because I got an idea that “seems” to be brilliant, doesn’t mean it was from You. But, You will help me take faith-action and learn more about hearing You.

8. Practice, Practice, Practice Taking Faith-Action

No matter what it is you are trying to learn to do, if you are afraid to make mistakes, it will keep you from going ahead and giving it a try. You are in Jesus and Jesus is in you; but, yielding to that relationship presents a problem. You are still in charge! You didn’t lose your God-given free will. You can refuse to yield to Jesus’ ideas; you can add to Jesus’ Biblical interpretations; and you can misunderstand what Jesus wants you to yield to; but, you will learn.

Rom 8:28 (NIV) And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose. Jesus, teach me that I can’t fall or fail because You are in me and I am in You. You make it all work together for good. I trust You to protect me as I practice faith-action. Help me learn how to totally yield to everything You says and do. Help me get better at hearing You. Help me get better at understanding what You means. And, help me get better at living by faith in You.

9. Be Thankful Every Time You Get A Breakthrough

As you are practicing, you will gradually get good at various spiritual things. Sometimes the breakthrough comes so gradually that you don’t know when it actually happened. So, it can cause you to just move on and not stop and praise God for the victory. Ask Jesus to help you be on the lookout for breakthroughs that come so slow and gradual that you fail to express your thankfulness for the wonderful miracle that Jesus finally produced in your life.

Jesus, help me watch out for wonderful breakthroughs that don’t manifest themselves right away. Help me be praising and thanking You all during the process of getting the breakthrough. As it get little victories in an issue, help me be noticing and praising You for it.

This concludes your reading and studying today.

Chapter Thirty-Seven

What Is So Important About Faith-Action?

You Need Faith

Week Eight Day Four

T he Facts About Your Relationship

Rom 7:15 (NIV) I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. Jesus, help me understand that as long as I want to do the right thing and hate doing the wrong thing , You will tell me to keep my trust in You and to keep practicing faith-action.

Rom 8:28 (NIV) And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose. Jesus, show me that as long as I desire to listen and yield to You, You will force those errors, mistakes, misunderstanding, bad decisions, and lapses in good judgment in my efforts to take faith-action to keep working for my good.

Rom 8:31 (NIV) What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for you, who can be against you? Jesus, teach me that as long as I put You first in my life, no one will be able to keep me from succeeding in life by taking faith-action with You.

Rom 8:32 (NIV) He Who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all--how will He not also, along with Him, graciously give you all things? Jesus, help me realize that as long as I keep doing these studies and praying these prayers, You will see to it that my faith-action will bring me the things I need.

Rom 8:33 (NIV) Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God Who justifies. Jesus, make it clear to me that as long as I keep knocking on the doors of opportunity to share You with others then take faith-action to share, You will protect me from those who react with persecution.

Rom 8:34 (NIV) Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, Who died--more than that, Who was raised to life--is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for you. Jesus, as I am taking faith-action, help me be aware that Satan will try to criticize me, condemn me, tell me that I am doing the wrong thing, and try to discourage me from living on the basis of the fact that You are empowering me to win.

Rom 8:35 (NIV) Who shall separate you from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? Jesus, as I practice taking faith-action, help me realize that the reason I am going to get good at yielding to You is, You love me and are protecting me from all these things.

Rom 8:36 (NIV) As it is written: “For Your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” Jesus, when things look like all is lost, things can’t possibly get worse, or I am going to be defeated in my faith-action, help me understand that I live by faith, not by sight (2 Cor 5:7 NIV).

Rom 8:37 (NIV) No, in all these things you are more than conquerors through Him Who loved you. Jesus, let my faith-action be based on this Scripture. Help me see that with me in You and You in me, I don’t just barely win, I am more than conquerors through You Who loved me.

Rom 8:38-39 (NIV) For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate me from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus my Lord. Jesus, help me take faith-action with this conviction. Make me be convinced of these things as I take faith-action on those things You are leading me into.

Base Your Life And Your Faith-Action On This

These verses in Romans 8:31-39 help you move into a type of faith-action that is powerful and totally trusting in Jesus. If you add these verses to your life, they will help you have a faith in Jesus that yields to Him when He wants to take action. I won’t matter what kind of action it is. You will remain in Jesus and He will remain in you.

Jesus, help me not get discouraged, frustrated, self-critical, or mad. Help me keep in mind that this is me “doing what it takes” to learn how to yield You in faith-action. Give me the faith to do faith-action. Help me believe I will finally get good at yielding to You and win.

Be Willing To Learn Some Things Slowly

There is always a “learning curve” in anything you are trying to do for the first time. Jesus knows how to do it; you don’t. Jesus is wanting to flow through you and reveal how to do it; but you don’t know how to yield. Jesus is always patient; you, not so much. Jesus wants you to relax and trust Him; you want to do it right the first time. Jesus is flowing in and through you; but, you get in the way. He is giving you great ideas; but, you add some of your ideas to them. This is a training time for you to learn how to allow Jesus to live His life through you.

Jesus, help me learn how to yield to You, as You teach me how to let you flow through my thoughts, feelings, words, and deeds. As I go through my day, help me feel Your influence indicating that You are wanting to move in a certain direction. Help me be sensitive to it.

Know You Are The One Who Must Learn These Things

John 15:5 (NIV) I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in Me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from Me you can do nothing. It is a very new concept: you are still in control, Jesus will only help you think a certain thought, and there will be other thoughts in your mind. It will be up to you to pause and see where Jesus’ thought takes you. In the midst of other feelings there will a feeling that is Biblical and like Jesus. It will be up to you to allow that feeling to grow in your heart. At first, it will be strange and unusual. But, as you practice listening and yielding to Jesus, you will get better at it.

Gal 2:20 (NIV) I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself for me. This is the main explanation for faith-action. If you yield to Jesus, it will be you no longer living. If you keep yielding to Jesus, He will live in you. From that point on, the life you live in the body, you live by faith in the Son of God, Who loved you and gave Himself for you.

Jesus, help me believe that You are teaching me what yielding to You looks like all during my day. Help me see that, as I am making decisions and taking actions, You will start giving me ways to yield to You. Help me take Your ideas, feelings, words, and deed and allow them to be the things I yield to at that moment.

Don’t Give Up!

Gal 6:9 (NIV) Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time you will reap a harvest if you do not give up. When you make mistakes, fail to understand, try to take over, fail to cooperate, and do a lot of other “wrong” things, the lack of results through faith-action will provide you with just the right amount of disappointment. It will help you keep wanting to find the right way. But, Jesus will also give you just enough rewards so you will keep trying.

Jesus, help me not try to improve on Your system, take over, or fail to cooperate with You. Help me believe in the way You are treating me. Show me that I will get good, skilled, talented, trained, and experienced at faith-action, if I will just trust You.

This concludes your reading and studying today.

Chapter Thirty-Eight

What Is So Important About Faith-Action?

You Need Want And Hate

Week Eight Day Five

How Should I Feel About My Failures?

Rom 7:15 (NIV) I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. Here is a person who is just starting out trying to learn how to take faith-action. They are trying to live a successful life while making a lot of mistakes, failing, misunderstanding, using their world training, using human effort, and a whole lot of other wrong methods. Your want and desire are some of the most important attitudes that God looks for. As long as you keep praying and asking Jesus to empower you to want to do the right things and hate doing the wrong things, you are still on the right track with God.

Jesus, help me understand that when I want to live righteously and hate doing unrighteous things, that is what you are looking for in my attitudes. Then as I learn more and more about being able to take faith-action and live on the basis of righteousness, it will be the dominate activity of my behavior. Let me always have this want and hate for the rest of my life.

How Should I Feel About My Perfect Record?

Rom 7:18 (NIV) I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. Jesus is helping you do all the right things. But, He knows you need time to learn how to do them. So, in the meantime, you must not just accept the fact that you cannot carry it out. You must realize that you are hurting yourself, other people, and God’s plan, when you don’t carry it out. Just because you have a perfect record with God, and just because it is typical for new and untrained Christians to not be able to carry it out, doesn’t mean you can feel good about it.

Jesus, help me not misunderstand my responsibility to my want and hate. Empower me to want to do right, good, and righteous things. And empower me to hate doing wrong, bad, and evil things. Help me see that spiritual growth is dealing with how I treat myself, other people, and God. Help me see that the reason You provided me a perfect record was so I could have direct access to You and all Your power to start living a life of righteousness.

How Do I Keep My Want And Hate?

Keeping your want and hate is where The Three Keys To All Of Christianity come in. As you see how important want and hate are, you make them a major request to God. Since you know it is God’s will for you to want to do righteous things and to hate doing unrighteous things, you know that when you ask, you are asking for something good from God (Mat 7:11). But, if you do something the Bible speaks against and you don’t feel a real hate for it, you need to go through The Seven Biblical Principles and find out what is weakening your hate.

Jesus, help me ask for Your supernatural want and hate. Help me not try to produce them myself. Help me seek the Scriptures for those that motivate want and hate. Help me be motivated by want and hate so I can knock on the doors of opportunity to share freedom from unrighteousness and a life of righteousness through others getting want and hate.

How Do I Use The Three Keys On Want And Hate?

Want and hate are desires. Want is the desire to do right, good, and righteous things. Hate is the desire to not do wrong, bad, or evil things. If your want or hate start weaking, that is your signal that you have a problem. But, you can have more than one problem with the seven mandatory requirements from Jesus. Ask Jesus to show you what they are.

Jesus, help me understand that my want and hate must always remain intense. Help me not just use the ask key to pray for them. Help me use the seek key to empower me to ask with intensity and passion. Help me search the Scriptures for those truths that help me want to live a righteous life and hate sinning, making mistakes, and hurting other people.

How Do The Seven Biblical Principles Relate To Want And Hate?

Since want and hate are desires, they are your first issue in The Seven Biblical Principles. They are your first step into taking faith-action and stopping hurting yourself, others, and God’s plan. They motivate you to let Jesus change your behavior so you can start doing those things that heal and bless you, other people, and your relationship with God.

Jesus, help me see that my attitudes toward doing good and not doing bad are vital to my relationship with You. But, help me understand that I must use The Three Keys and The Seven Biblical Principles to get helped. Help me trust them and not me trying to keep them strong. Teach me how to use them effectively so I don’t look to myself for solutions.

What Are Want And Hate For?

Doing right, good, and righteous things is what the Bible is all about. Not doing wrong, bad, and evil things are what salvation, justification, and sanctification are all about. Once you get your perfect record with God through salvation and justification, you need to get tools that will help you start improving your record with yourself and other people; that is sanctification (spiritual growth). Jesus gave you want and hate at salvation. They are the proof that you want to live the Christian life of loving God and your neighbor as yourself.

Jesus, help me see that want and hate are my proof that it is my desire to live the Christian life. Show me that if I don’t have them, then I don’t care about the fact that I am hurting myself, other people, and God’s plan. Keep reminding me that I received my perfect record with God, so I could be empowered to treat myself and others with love and righteousness.

How Do I Use The Seven Biblical Principles Through Want And Hate?

For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. Carrying it out is talking about doing what is good. That is also what want and hate are dealing with. They are helping you fulfill The Seven Biblical Principle’s requirements of doing what is good:

DESIRE: Want and hate are your desire for fulfilling these seven principles so you can carry it (doing good) out.

STUDY: They motivate your study so Jesus can teach you on how to carry it (doing good) out.

PRAY: They cause you to pray and invite Jesus to empower you to carry it (doing good) out.

BELIEVE: They motivate you to wait on Jesus to give you faith so you can believe you have the power to carry it (doing good) out.

LOVE: They yield to God’s love so you can stop hurting yourself, others, and God’s plan. And you do that because you know that if you start carrying it out, you will stop the words and deeds that hurt people. And, that starts the words and deeds that help people.

FAITH-ACTION: They motivate you to take faith-action because that is when you stop hurting yourself and others. And that is when you do what is good.

THANKFUL: Once you start doing what is good, that is the time to thank and praise God.

Jesus, I thank You for salvation and forgiveness of my past sins. I thank You for justification that gives me a perfect record with God. It gives me plenty of time to learn how to take faith-action. I thank You for the want to do the right things and the hate for doing the wrong things. I thank You for helping me know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose (Rom 8:28). I thank You for helping me keep practicing, practicing, practicing and not giving up.

Jesus Is On My Side

1 John 2:1 (NIV) My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have One Who speaks to the Father in our defense--Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. The objective is to only do good to yourself, other people, and to God’s plan. But, as you know, you will never be perfect while living on this planet. Jesus has given you justification so you can have the attitudes of Romans 7:15-25.

Jesus, speak to the Father in my defense when I accidently mess up. Speak to the Father in my defense even when I do it on purpose and then come back in sincerity and repent. Help me realize that justification is for those who are cooperating with You to learn how to live life with You. Help me always have the attitudes of Romans 7:15-25.

This concludes your reading and studying for the week.

Chapter Thirty-Nine

What Is So Important About Faith-Action?

You Need Righteousness

Week Nine Day One

What Are The Enemies Of My Want And Hate Attitudes?

1 John 1:9 (NIV) If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. Even if you are trying to take faith-action and you end up sinning, all you have to do is confess your sins. But, the enemy of the want and hate attitudes is, you have been trained by the world to try to cover it up, make yourself feel better about it, and try to justify why you “had” to do it that way. These world philosophies, if yielded to will kill the want and hate attitudes! If you convince yourself that you “didn’t do anything wrong,” you won’t repent.

If we confess our sins: Jesus, You evaluate all the right or wrong, good or bad, righteous or evil aspects. When the Holy Spirit causes me to feel even the slightest twinge or indication that I didn’t do the right thing, help me always repent! Help me come to You and ask You how You feel about what I did. Help me really want to know the right thing and constantly be open to Your evaluation. Help me keep strong and passionate want and hate attitudes!

What Does It Look Like To Be Justified with God?

Making mistakes, failing to do good, misunderstanding what the Bible says, and being wrong about what Jesus causes to pop up in your mind are all normal events in growing and maturing your Christian life. However, you can’t just make mistakes and ignore, justify, excuse, forgive or explain them away. You have salvation and justification; that opens the door for you to bring all your sins, failures, mistakes, and weaknesses to God. You bring them as one who has a perfect record with Him. But, you bring them because you want to live the right way.

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just: Jesus, help me not try to excuse a sin or mistake so I can live under Your justification. Help me always be real and truthful so I can be empowered to admit I did wrong, bad, or evil. Give me a strong want and hate so I can be empowered to desire to always do the right and good things to myself, other people, and Your plan. Thank You for justifying me with a perfect record, so I can come to You like this.

What Does It Look Like To Be In The Process Of Being Sanctified?

Now that salvation gave you forgiveness for all your past sins and justification gave you forgiveness for all your present and future sins, Jesus is using your perfect record with God and sanctification to empower, teach, and improve your record with yourself and others. They stop you from sinning, making mistakes, failing, and hurting yourself, others, and God’s plan. During your Romans 7:15-25 life you must apologize, repent, confess, and go make things right all the time; sanctification helps you take faith-action and not do it in the first place.

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness: Jesus, all my sins, failures, mistakes, or weaknesses are already covered by Your death. But, help me realize I still have to admit I did it; I have to accept that it was wrong, bad, or evil. Help me bring it to You to help me repent (make a U-turn). Help me bring it to You so I can find out where I went wrong and how to not make that error the next time. Help me go make certain things right with people I have hurt or mistreated. Show me that this is a learning process! Empower me to use The Seven Biblical Principles to help me finally get breakthroughs in these areas so I can take faith-action and stop doing them.

Keeping My Record Straight

How Am I Doing With Righteousness?

1 John 2:1 (NIV) My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have One Who speaks to the Father in our defense--Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. The Seven Biblical Principles mainly help you get your ask, seek, and knock keys functioning. When you apply one of them and don’t get the Biblical results that the Bible says you should, there are those areas located in The Seven Biblical Principles that are requirements, that if not fulfilled, will keep The Three Keys for working. When that happens, you live below the Biblical provisions Jesus bought for you with His death and resurrection.

Mat 6:33 (NIV) But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. One of the biggest areas where you must succeed is in living the righteous life. If that isn’t heading in the right direct, Jesus won’t typically help you with a lot of other things. He told you to seek first His kingdom and His righteousness. If you aren’t doing that, then you are disobeying His command. His attitude about you doing that is: John 14:15 (NIV) If you love Me, you will obey what I command. 1 John 2:1 is dealing with you living a righteous life all day long, every day.

My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin: Jesus, I want this in my life. Help me desire to always do the right things. Help me not excuse myself by thinking “no one is perfect.” I know I will make mistakes, and that You have given me a perfect record with You. But, I don’t want to misuse Your grace. Show me that going over The Seven Biblical Principles will reveal to me what is wrong. Let them help me stop doing the wrong things in the first place. Help me start doing the right things as a part of my new life.

What Is Going To Help Me With Righteousness?

You need to use The Three Keys and The Seven Biblical Principles on a real-life issue. Living a righteous life is the very best area for you to start practicing. Pick a recent event where you sinned, made a mistake, or did something that wasn’t actually win/win for all involved. Use something you prayed about before and are still struggling with it. If at all possible, use something you have asked for God’s help, used the seek key to search the Scriptures with intensity and concern for why you are still failing, and used the knock key because you wanted to win over it so you can help others. But, all these things failed to bring results.

Jesus, help me remember something where I am having trouble with living the righteous life. Help me use a sin, mistake, or selfish act that I need definite help with. But, help me not pick something that is my biggest and longest lasting issue. Help me start small and then work my way up to my most difficult righteousness-issue. Help me be honest, sincere, and open with You, as I pick something that is real and challenging. Empower me to learn how to use this issue to get good and skillful with The Three Keys and The Seven Biblical Principles.

What Do I Think Righteousness Is?

1 John 1:10 (NIV) If we claim we have not sinned, we make Him out to be a liar and His word has no place in our lives. Jesus can’t help you if you have a difference of opinion on what is wrong, bad, or evil. If you do something that you don’t think is wrong but Jesus does, He won’t help you get healed, delivered, or helped in that area. It will grow, get worse, hurt other people, and interfere with the answers to your prayers for other things. As you pick something to practice on, ask Jesus if there is anything that you haven’t acknowledge that it is wrong. Then you can use it to practice on.

Jesus, one reason I might be making You out to be a liar is where I have not embraced a Scripture that told me I was doing wrong. If I have read something and decided it didn’t apply to me but it did, help me go back and apply it to my life. Help me see why I skipped over it and didn’t allow it to influence my belief system. Help me see if there is a hardness in my heart. Help me see if there is an area in my conscience where I have become insensitive. Then help me bring the wrong that I did before you and repent of it and ask You to empower me to never do anything like it again.

Am I Getting Use To Making Mistakes?

Is there an attitude growing in your heart and mind that is causing you to not notice some of your mistakes? Are you starting to grade them on the curve by starting to think that some of them aren’t that bad? Is your goal to stop doing the wrong things you are doing? Or, have you started using repentance as your safety net for doing wrong now and getting forgiveness later?

My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have One Who speaks to the Father in our defense--Jesus Christ, the Righteous One: Jesus, I am thankful that You have provided Yourself and Your salvation and justification for me. I am thankful that You are right there speaking to the Father in my defense. But, I don’t want to just lean on all these great provisions and lose my desire to not make the error in the first place. I know I am going to make a lot of mistakes; I know I am going to have to do a lot of applying The Seven Biblical Principles to my life. But, help it be my goal and deepest desire to succeed in life through You and the life You provide me.

This concludes your reading and studying today.

Chapter Forty

What Is So Important About Faith-Action?

You Need The Seven Biblical Principles

Week Nine Day Two

What Do I Do Once I Pick A Problem To Practice On?

Once Jesus helps you pick a sin, shortcoming, mistake, or selfish act, you are ready to practice using The Seven Biblical Principles to find out why you did it in the first place and how to get forgiven and healed.

DESIRE

Why Did I Do Wrong?

My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin: Just as soon as you realize you have done something wrong, the first thing you want to take to Jesus is, did you do it on purpose? If you wanted to do something wrong, then the first application of the ask key is praying about why you wanted to do wrong. Let Jesus go over the circumstances and help you diagnose what “caused” you to want to do wrong and not hate it.

Mark 11:24 (AKJV) Therefore I say unto you, What things soever you desire, when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you shall have them. Jesus, when I make a mistake, fail, sin, or neglect to do something good, empower me not purposefully do wrong or neglect to do good. Give me those desires, delights, hatreds, and wants described in Romans 7:15-25. If I do something on purpose, help me see what I need to be healed of what motivated me to do wrong. Help me give that attitude to you for healing.

STUDY

Am I Reacting Biblically?

2 Tim 3:16-17 (NIV) All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. When you do something wrong, there are nonbiblical ways to react. You can try to hide it. You can decide it wasn’t your fault. You can use human effort and justify, forgive, explain, minimize, or try to forget it. You can see if others will help you decide it wasn’t wrong. But, you need to search the Scriptures honestly and openly to see what they say about what you did.

Jesus, lead me to Scriptures that deal directly with what I did. Help me be taught, rebuked, corrected, and trained in righteousness. Even if it turns out I didn’t do wrong, help me want to use that situation to get healing, deliverance, and spiritual growth into me. Help me not try to defend or protect myself. Help me read these verses with a desire to learn, pray, and grow.

PRAY

What Should I Pray For?

1 John 1:9 (NIV) If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. Start with an open heart. Ask Jesus to tell you what He thinks about what you did. Ask Him to protect you from nonbiblical attitudes and methods for dealing with what you did. Start with a repentant attitude and desire to be helped. Ask Him to help you do whatever you need to do to make all wrongs to be made right.

Jesus, it is difficult for me to not try to make myself feel good about everything I do. I typically feel that I am what I do. Thank You for showing me that my wrong deeds aren’t me; they are from my body (Rom 7:20-23). You separated me from them so You and I can start working on my bad thoughts, feelings, words, and deeds. Since they are from my body rather than me, help me work with You against every wrong, bad, or evil thing my body produces.

Jesus, help me not ignore, excuse, justify, or explain away things that are hurting me and the people around me. Since my bad behavior is not me, help me work with You to critique it, attack it, disapprove of it, and change it. Improve my behavior while my esteem, confidence, and value are based on the fact You love me. Change and improve me while I take advantage of my perfect record with You. Empower me to always bring to You anything the Spirit speaks to my conscience about. Thank You for this great work You are doing in me!

BELIEVE

When Do I Know I Have The Answer?

Heb 12:2 (NIV) Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith, Who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. You can desire to be forgiven and set free from ever committing a sin, making a mistake, or failing to do good. You can study the Scriptures on how to get Jesus’ power to overcome one of these things. And, you can pray and ask Jesus to forgive you and empower you to never do it again. But, if you don’t get His faith spoken into your heart so you can believe you have it, you will never know when to stop pursuing the answer to that need.

Jesus, I need Your faith so I can know when I have the forgiveness and power to never do that wrong again. Help me keep looking to You to put Your faith in me so I can know I have it. When You speak Your faith into my faith, I will let You check my love-motives and join me in taking faith-action. Help me not move until I have Your assurance and power to believe.

LOVE

What Was Missing When I Did Wrong?

A sin, mistake, neglect, or selfish act is a lack of love in your word or deed. But, because you have a perfect record with God, the Holy Spirit poured God’s love into you. However, even though you have God’s love available for every thought, feeling, word, or deed, God won’t force you to use it. Each moment in your day, you can either yield to God’s love before you say or do something, or you can resist it and do wrong, bad, or evil.

Rom 5:5 (NIV) And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, Whom He has given us. Jesus, show me I did wrong by not yielding to Your love from the Holy Spirit. Forgive me for not taking advantage of this wonderful power. Help me think, feel, say, and do godly things through its power. Help me avoid doing wrong. Help me repent and get reconciliation. Help me yield, choose, be motivated, and act through Your love for myself, other people, and God. Help me never do this kind of wrong again. And, help me make it right with the person or group I hurt.

FAITH-ACTION

What’s My Next Move?

Rom 10:17 (NIV) Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ. In the original language, the “word” of Christ is rhema or spoken word. Logos is a written word in the Bible. Rhema are words of faith Jesus speaks into you that make you sure and certain you have forgiveness and healing.

Heb 11:1 (NIV) Now faith is being sure of what you hope for and certain of what you do not see. Once Jesus has spoken faith into you, before you take faith-action, let Him check your motives to see if they are empowered by love. Faith-action must be powered by Jesus’ love.

James 2:17 (NIV) In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. Now it is time to take action. It is time to live on the basis of the fact that you are forgiven, healed, and go make it right with those you hurt.

THANKFUL

What’s My Last Move?

1 Cor 15:57 (NIV) But thanks be to God! He gives you the victory through your Lord Jesus Christ. It can be easy to do all the right things, so you can get the forgiveness, healing, and power to never make that mistake again. You can go on about your life feeling like everything is now in a right relationship with God. But, there is one more thing that must always exist in your relationship with Him. You must be thankful! Often, this is the reason why The Three Keys To All Of Christianity didn’t work. Jesus stops answering your prayers because He has already done a lot of things for you that you failed to stop and praise Him for.

Jesus, thank You for helping me desire to stop saying and doing wrong things. Thank You for helping my study deal with what I did, why I did it, and how I can be set free from doing it again. Thank You for helping my prayers for being forgiven, bring healing in that area of weakness, and empowering me to never do it again. Thank You for Your faith so I am able to believe that You forgave me, healed that weakness, and gave me the power to never do it again. Thank You for making ready to take faith-action. Thank You for joining me in living on the basis of the fact that I am forgiven, healed, and ready to go make it right with those I hurt. And, thank You for helping me stop and give You thanks, praise, worship, and glory for all You have, are, and will do for me.

This concludes your reading and studying today.

Chapter Forty-One

What Is So Important About Thankfulness?

Giving You Examples

Week Nine Day Three

What Not To Do

Rom 1:21 (NIV) For although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. From a negative stand point, you can see that a lack of thankfulness will head you into a very dark and evil place. So, it is in your best interest to head in the opposite direction.

Jesus, help me see that a lack of thankfulness is a very dangerous thing. Help me not know all of Your wonderful things and fail to glorify You as God and give You thanks. Help me see that this has to do with our relationship. It is a business relationship, if I just get what I need from You and walk off. Help me establish a greater and greater relationship through the process of worship, praise, giving you glory, and being thankful.

Thanking God For Your Food

Luke 9:16 (NIV) Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, He (Jesus) gave thanks and broke them. Then He gave them to the disciples to set before the people. This is Jesus’ example of showing God your appreciation for the food you have to eat. It isn’t a ritual or a thing you do because you have always done it. It is a heart-felt appreciation for the fact that you wouldn’t have food, if God didn’t see to it that it was available for you.

Jesus, help me not just take for granted that I have food. Even though I worked for the money to buy the food, help me see there were so many things You did to make that possible. You gave me a body that can eat food, can work to get food, and can benefit from that food. Show me that You put me in a place where there was food, where there was good food, and where there was plenty food. Help me be thankful, so I will stop and give thanks before I eat it.

A Good Reason To Be Thankful

Luke 17:12-17 (NIV) As He was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met Him. They stood at a distance and called out in a loud voice, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!” When He saw them, He said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were cleansed. One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked Him--and he was a Samaritan. Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine?

Jesus, help me not do this; help me not just be thankful in my mind. Help me see that I must give extra attention to coming back to You and giving You special thanks and appreciation.

Come Back And Be Thankful

One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked Him: There was an appreciation that this Samaritan leper felt in his heart; and, that was good. But, he didn’t let that thankfulness stop at him just feeling thankful. He made it an expression of thanksgiving to Jesus personally.

Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine”: Don’t you suppose that the other nine were extremely thankful that their leprosy was cleansed? However, it may not have been an appreciation that Jesus did it. They may not have cared who did it, they were just thankful it was done. But, even if they were thankful that Jesus did it, they were still not giving thanks to Jesus. Thankfulness starts as a feeling of appreciation and then is expressed as a thanksgiving to God.

Jesus, help me to not only be thankful that I was blessed, healed, or got my needs met, help me be thankful that it was You Who did it. Then help me express my thankfulness to You with my mouth and with my heart. Help me see that I must first feel thankful; then I must express my thankfulness to You. And then, I must express my thankfulness to those around me.

It Wasn’t God Who Did It

Luke 18:10-12 (NIV) Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: “God, I thank You that I am not like other men--robbers, evildoers, adulterers--or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.” God didn’t make this Pharisee prideful. The Pharisee wasn’t being pleasing to God for all those things he was thanking God for. This is a very typical case: We do something we think is great; and then in an effort to be humble, we try to give God the credit for it. It is only when God does it that He wants thanks for it.

Jesus, help me see that all these things this Pharisee listed were things he did to make himself look good. He did them all for his own reputation and prestige. You weren’t involved in any of the things he did for himself. Help me see that You didn’t even evaluate him with the same credit he was giving himself. Help me let You flow through me so that everything I say and do is from You. Then when I express thankfulness, it will be true and from a sincere heart.

Thanking God In Order To Benefit Others

John 11:41-42 (NIV) So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. I knew that You always hear Me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that You sent Me.” This is Jesus at the tomb of Lazareth. He is getting ready to raise Lazareth from the dead. But, He is giving thanks to God to help the people believe that He is the Messiah. This is why you are to share your breakthroughs with others. Jesus is the living Christ or Messiah. They must know that He is raised from the dead. As you tell them what the Living Christ did, it shows them that He is still working miracles.

Jesus, help me take every miracle, every blessing, every breakthrough, and every answered prayer and share it with those around me. Help me give You thanks and praise by telling others about what You did. Help me not miss one opportunity to express to others my appreciation for what You have done for me.

Thanking God For Others

Acts 28:15 (NIV) The brothers there had heard that we were coming, and they traveled as far as the Forum of Appius and the Three Taverns to meet us. At the sight of these men Paul thanked God and was encouraged. It was the men who had travelled all that way. They needed to be appreciated and thanked. But, it isn’t just that Christians to good things, it is also how they are able to do good things. It is because of the mighty work God did in their lives. So, it is important to appreciate the good deeds of people. And, it is also important to recognize and express your thanks to God for His transforming power that helped them do it.

Jesus, sometimes I just see the good things people do without seeing that they are Your handiwork. I know that I do an incredible amount of things only because You have changed me. Help me see You work in me and in others and give You thanks for it.

Thanking God For People In Front Of Them

Rom 1:8 (NIV) First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is being reported all over the world. When you thank God like this, you are giving God the credit for the wonderful work He had done in the person. You are giving them the good news of what you see in them; but, you are not bragging on them. They and you know they didn’t create these wonderful words and deeds in themselves. And, if you just praise the person, then they have to tell you that they didn’t do it in themselves. But, thanking God in front of them is a great way to encourage a person for how they have yielded to God.

Jesus, I thank You for showing me the way to point out how much a person has grown in You without embarrassing them. Help me thank You in front of them for the wonderful things You have done in and through them. Help me see You mighty work in them and then do this so as to help them see what I see. Then let them thank You for what I see in them.

Thanking God For Transforming A Friend

Rom 6:17 (NIV) But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. This was a good decision these people made. They deserve the credit for it; and, it is good for you to point out that they were wise in making it. However, as you know, God drew them, provided the gospel to them, spoke faith in them so they could believe, and saved them. They just accepted it.

Jesus, help me express my thankfulness to You in front of people for their wise decision and for Your supernatural involvement in their decision. Help me express it so as to give You glory and to join with them in their thankfulness. Help me inspire this thankfulness in them as a reminder of the awesome work You did in their past. Let it help them keep being thankful.

This concludes your reading and studying today.

Chapter Forty-Two

What Is So Important About Thankfulness?

You Need Your Prayers Answered

Week Nine Day Four

Thanks For God’s Provisions

Rom 7:25 (NIV) Thanks be to God--through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin. This is good news and bad news. At this point there is a provision; however, you haven’t taken advantage of it. This will be true for most of your life. The provisions of God will be categorized in two categories: Those you have taken advantage of already and those you haven’t. It takes a special power of Jesus to really be thankful for those you don’t have yet.

Jesus, help me express great thankfulness for all Your provisions that are still waiting for me to get them. Help me see that if I only appreciate them when they are benefiting me, I don’t really appreciate all You have done for me. You paid a great price of all these things that are still waiting for me to get. Help me express great thanks for You having already done them. So, all I have to do is “do what it takes” and they are right there ready for me to get them.

Thankful For What You Can And Can’t Do

Rom 14:5-6 (NIV) One man considers one day more sacred than another; another man considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. He who regards one day as special, does so to the Lord. He who eats meat, eats to the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who abstains, does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God. This requires an acceptance of God’s will; He allows you to do things others can’t because of their past. He won’t allow you to do other things because of your past. When you start comparing your Christian life with others, you can get unappreciative.

Jesus, help me to be thankful for those things You won’t allow me to do, even though you let others do them. Help me not become unthankful, unhappy, and dissatisfied. Help me be thankful for Your special love for me that shapes my Christianity in the best form for me. Help me be thankful for Your special love for others that shapes their Christianity in the best form for them. Help me be thankful for both of us and not envious.

Thankful For Being Able To Share Your Faith

1 Cor 1:4-6 (NIV) I always thank God for you because of His grace given you in Christ Jesus. For in Him you have been enriched in every way--in all your speaking and in all your knowledge--because our testimony about Christ was confirmed in you. This typically produces thankfulness. It is such a blessing to be able to lead someone to Jesus. Even when they have been a Christian for quite some time, keep praising God for them.

Jesus, I thank You for the knock key; it is such a privilege to have You open doors of opportunity for me to share You with others. Through the knock key, You lead me to people that You have already prepared their hearts for the message You gave me. This makes it possible for me to see so many people come to You because I am at the right place, at the right time, doing and saying the right things, to the right people. Thank You for giving me the privilege of being there when You transform their lives.

Thanksgiving Through Communion

1 Cor 10:16 (NIV) Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ? As you eat the bread and drink the cup of the Lord’s Super, it is an expression of thankfulness. You are taking out time to look at Jesus’ sacrifice and suffering that He did for you. This is an event that is way in the past; but, it is a provision that Jesus is expecting you to keep thanking and praising Him for.

Jesus, help me realize that Your sacrifice is something I am to express thanks for, for the rest of my life. Help me realize that I don’t have to wait until communion is served at church. I can get unleavened bread and grape juice and involve myself in giving You thanks and praise as often as I want to. Let this be a special time where I visualize the bread and cup as representing Your broken body and Your shed blood for me and be very thankful.

Thanks For Eternity

Thanks For The Resurrection

1 Cor 15:51 (NIV) Listen, I (Paul) tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed--in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. This life has a lot of challenges; but, because of your pursuit of Jesus and the Bible, you are not only looking forward to being in heaven, you are laying up treasures for that eternal life.

Jesus, help me be thankful for my salvation and justification. They were my door into Your eternal Kingdom. But, also help me to be thankful for being able to be successful in this life in such a way that I am able to enter into eternity with great rewards and advancements.

Thankful For Your New Glorified Body

1 Cor 15:53 (NIV) For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. This is you getting a new heavenly body. You can be very thankful you won’t be entering heaven with your old human body. Your new body will be as greatly improved as an acorn and an oak tree. Your human body is just a seed for your heavenly body.

Jesus, help me be so thankful for my eternal, immortal body that I make great investments in it. Help me see that my new body alone is worth all my sacrifices and sufferings, as I prepare for eternity. Help me feel so thankful for my heavenly body, that I am willing to do anything You ask me to do. Help me appreciate the fact that it is an eternal, immortal, heavenly body.

Thankful For Your Future Hope

1 Cor 15:54 (NIV) When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” You don’t live your life in fear of death. You don’t lose loved ones, as if you won’t see them again. You don’t succeed at this life, as if you will lose all your efforts when you die. You don’t see this life, as being the only one you get.

Jesus, help me be thankful for all the truths I have about life after death. I can feel the relaxation, hope, and freedom from the fear of death. Even when I am not thinking about these things, I go through my day with emotions that are living on the basis of these truths. My plans, goals, dreams, and expectations are secure in eternity.

Thankful For A New Law

1 Cor 15:55-56 (NIV) “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. You are now under the law of the Spirit of life that Jesus provided you (Rom 8:2). You aren’t going to fail to gain eternal life and all of God’s Kingdom blessings. Jesus has given you three toolsets that empower you to get all your prayers answered and all the requirements of the Bible in your life.

Jesus, I am free from the sting of death and the power of the Old Testament law. You have put me under a law that You are empowering me to live. Your law doesn’t require me to use human effort and human skill. If I run into a problem getting my prayers answered, You have given my tools that will help me find out why. Then I can turn to You and You will heal me in that area. I thank You for solving all these problems for me so I no longer fear death.

Thankful For The Victory

1 Cor 15:57 (NIV) But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus. Your acceptance of Jesus as your Savior, Lord, and King brought you more things to be thankful for than you can ever think of with your most positive expectations. Even those things the Bible is revealing to you don’t scratch the surface of what you are going to actually get.

1 Cor 2:9-10 (NIV) However, as it is written: “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him”--but God has revealed it to us by His Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. Here is the issue: God has revealed it to you, by His Spirit. It is a glimpse of the awesome things He is going to give you. Use that glimpse to inspire you to succeed in this life for eternity.

Jesus, give me a great view of my future so it can inspire a greater and greater thankfulness of what You have prepared for me. Let me see more of what I am investing in so I can put my heart into it with a greater effort and appreciation. Help me realize that my mind and my heart aren’t powerful enough to conceive of the great things You have prepared for me in eternity. Raise the power of my ability to be thankful so I can express it to You with all of my heart and mind. Thank You for preparing all these things for my eternal life.

This concludes your reading and studying today.

Chapter Forty-Three

The Holy Spirit

Week Nine Day Five

Where Do The Seven Biblical Principles Get Their Power?

The Seven Biblical Principles belong to the Holy Spirit. He gives them their power and produces their results in your life. Jesus explained that the Holy Spirit was coming to start His earthly ministry. Let Jesus explain to you what the Holy Spirit is doing in your life.

The Holy Spirit’s Earthly Ministry

John 16:13 (NIV) But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on His own; He will speak only what He hears, and He will tell you what is yet to come. This happened in Acts 2:4: Acts 2:1-4 (NIV) When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

Jesus Is Your Teacher Through Him

He will guide you into all truth: Jesus, show me that according to Acts 2:4, the Holy Spirit did exactly what You said He would in my life. Teach me that He is taking the Bible and not speak on His own; instead, He is speaking only what He hears, as He guides me into all truth by explaining the meaning. Let everything from You flow through Him into me.

He Is Your Time Clock For The Future

And He will tell you what is yet to come: The Book of Revelation is the Holy Spirit telling you what is yet to come. He also explained, throughout the Old and New Testaments, what is happening next. They are showing you where you are in time. It is a wonderful study; but, it can’t be presented at this time. However, be aware that the time-clock and calendar of God is located in the Bible through the Holy Spirit.

Jesus Communicates With You Through His Holy Spirit

John 16:14-15 (NIV) He will bring glory to Me by taking from what is Mine and making it known to you. All that belongs to the Father is Mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is Mine and make it known to you.

Jesus, help me always be aware that the Holy Spirit is inside me. Teach me that He is my connection to You and my Father. Show me the benefits of Spirit-to-spirit communication. Teach me that He, You, and my Father are one. You are in complete unity and harmony.

The Holy Spirit Is The Spirit Of Your Father And The Spirit Of Jesus

Rom 8:9 (NIV) You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. The Holy Spirit isn’t drawing attention to Himself; He is in you as the Spirit of Christ. He is your direct connection to all of Jesus and all of your heavenly Father. Salvation and justification brought the Holy Spirit into you. Then the Holy Spirit brought your heavenly Father and Jesus into you. You now have God inside you to guide you into all truth.

2 Cor 3:17 (NIV) Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. Jesus, help me see You and my Father in all the Holy Spirit is and does. Since He will not speak on His own, teach me that He is giving me You and my Father. I am now in direct contact my Father and You, so I can pray through the Holy Spirit to You.

The Jesus-Ministry Of The Holy Spirit

Rom 8:1-2 (NIV) Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus, the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.

Jesus, show me that by You coming back to earth through the Holy Spirit, You can live Your life in all Christians all over the planet. Teach me that the Holy Spirit’s ministry makes it possible for me to yield to Your Jesus-life. Minister through me while simultaneously doing the same thing through all the other Christians all over the world.

The Holy Spirit’s Seven Biblical Principles With Jesus

Desire

Rom 8:5 (NIV) Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. Jesus, since the Holy Spirit’s desires are Your and my Father’s desires, help me get His desires.

Study

Jesus, show me that study is useless without the Holy Spirit telling me what the Bible means. Help me see that without Him I don’t know what it is talking about, or, will get a wrong concept. Let Him guide me into all truth. Let Him open my heart and mind to truth; and, You are that truth (John 14:6). Let Him use the Bible to guide me into Your Jesus-life. Help me believe the Holy Spirit is in me explaining Your Biblical truth.

Pray

Rom 8:26-27 (NIV) In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And He Who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will. Jesus, show me that my prayers are answered because the Holy Spirit helps me know what to pray for. He uses the Bible to help me know the truth; then He gives me the meaning so I can understand the truth; then He helps me yield to the wisdom of the truth; then He helps me live the truth.

Believe

Heb 12:2a (NIV) Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith. Jesus, speak faith into me through the Holy Spirit. John 16:14 (NIV) He (the Spirit) will bring glory to Me by taking from what is Mine and making it known to you. Teach me that the Holy Spirit is in direct contact with my spirit. Rom 8:16 (NIV) The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Help me see that this is Spirit-to-spirit communication which goes far beyond words.

Love

Rom 5:5 (NIV) And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, Whom He has given us. Jesus, since the Holy Spirit gave me God’s love, I can yield to Your commands. John 15:10 (NIV) If you obey My commands, you will remain in My love, just as I have obeyed My Father’s commands and remain in His love. Since the Holy Spirit gave me Your love, He is empowering me to remain in You, Your Word, and Your love.

Faith-Action

Rom 8:13 (NIV) For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. Jesus, help me understand that the Holy Spirit’s leading gives me power to do what I couldn’t do before. Show me that His leading gives me Your life that has the power to do the right things and stop doing the wrong things. Teach me that it is by the Spirit’s leading that I take faith-action. Through You, the Scriptures in this study have taught me how to apply The Seven Biblical Principles. Without You working through the Holy Spirit, I wouldn’t get the power and guidance into these principles.

Thankful

1 Cor 2:11-12 (NIV) For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man’s spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit Who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. Jesus, show me that I must understand what You gave me in order to appreciate it. Help me yield to the Holy Spirit, so I can understand and thank You for everything that You make available to me.

Conclusion

God’s Seven Biblical Principles

You must realize that The Holy Spirit’s seven principles work. As you find yourself feeling more faith, more confidence, having better attitudes, experiencing more God-esteem and confidence, treating yourself better, getting along with others better, and feeling closer and more loved by God, it is because the Holy Spirit’s seven principles are getting the job done! You must stop and notice even the smallest improvements and give Him and His principles the credit, appreciation, and praise, so you will trust His seven Biblical principles in the future.

Your Team

Jesus’ people are praying and asking and seeking God’s grace, mercy, love, power, and success for your life. They are joining you in looking to Jesus for the meeting of all your needs. They are also joining you in knocking on the doors of opportunity by asking Him to help you take all the successes and breakthroughs you get and share them with the people around you. They are asking Jesus to give you love, knowledge, understanding, wisdom, and power to help others get the training and experiences you are getting. They will keep praying with you for a life here and an eternity later that is filled with the blessings and successes of God.

The Scriptures in “The Jesus Life” helped you see the importance of yielding to Jesus. They led you into a new goal for your life for having a great relationship with Him. The Scriptures in “The Seven Biblical Principles” help you get His life as your life. They help you yield to Jesus and the Bible; they help you “do what it takes” to live and benefit from the Jesus-life. Next, in “Vital Spiritual Attitudes,” you will be looking at the Scriptures in Matthew 5:3-12 called the Beatitudes. They are the ones you have already practiced on as you learned more about using The Seven Biblical Principles. They help you have God’s Eight Power-Attitudes of being completely open and receptive to the training, transformation, creation, miracles, and blessings from Jesus.

Don’t forget to ask yourself these questions during your day:

1. Did today’s study or prayers deal with anything in my life that I am not living yet?

2. Did today’s study or prayers deal with anything that I don't understand?

3. Did today’s study or prayers deal with anything that I don't agree with?

4. Did today’s study or prayers deal with anything that Jesus has given me a breakthrough or miracle on that I haven't adequately praised and thanked Him for?

5. Did today’s study or prayers deal with anything that I need to do additional study and prayer on?