It’s interesting how Jesus speaks to us through His Word, through conversations, even through comic strips! Today, a lesson we all need to learn came out both in a conversation I had and in a comic strip I read: Go forward with Jesus, even if it means leaving others behind. If we want victory over our failures to draw closer to and become more like Jesus, sometimes we must move forward regardless of what others do.
The moment we wait for those we love and/or others in our lives to grow before we do, we’ve effectively given them control of our lives. And who would you rather have control your life, Jesus or them?
If you believe Jesus is the source of all you need to be secure, significant and loved, you’ve only one option – follow Him wherever He takes you. In order to this, however, we must learn how to love on, not attempt to change, those around us until they’re ready to go forward.
Your job is to keep in step with the Spirit (Galatians 5:25). Love on others and leave the changing to Him.
Set Free Now“W”w

I was in Pasadena today ministering with a friend. He was sensing some spiritual warfare issues that needed to be resolved in a particular town and wanted some back up.
Our journey took us to a tunnel. It opened over water, but went back into deep darkness. I felt compelled to keep going deeper and deeper into this darkness. After 50′ I started feeling a little uneasy. Should I go on or turn back to the light at the tunnel opening? It was then I remembered that I had a flashlight on my phone. One of those “duh” moments.
Yet even after turning it on, I still felt that same uneasiness. I had a light, but the darkness was so dark I couldn’t see more than ten feet at a time. My mind began to think, “There could be someone in the back and I could be walking into a very bad situation.”
So I began to give myself all kinds of excuses and reasons to turn around and head back to the tunnel entrance. It was then I heard Jesus say, “What do you have to fear?” My head became clear. I immediately turned around and walked to the back of the tunnel, which finally ended with a hugely graffitied wall.
No one was back there. The Lord reminded me of what He told Joshua, “Be strong. Be courageous. I will give you every step you place your foot.”
Victory was had when I shut out the other voices to hear only Jesus’. I conquered a fear and overcame all the excuses by following what Jesus said to do.
My friends, what fear must you overcome to experience victory? What excuses or valid reasons must you turn around from to know the thrill of victory first hand?
Victory over your negative character traits or drugs of choice comes by going through the dark times with the light of God’s word (specific lie fighting truths) and listening to your Jesus telling you to keep going forward.
I gotta tell ya that victory over the darkness in my life and in my friend’s ministry sure felt good.
Set Free Now”W“w

There is something you use every day that you can never get back. Time. We all have the same amount of it. The question before us each day is, “How are we going to use it?”
There is a Jewish saying that goes, “The day is short, but there’s a lot of work.” Each day is full of choices to draw closer to the source of everything you need in life – Jesus. How will you use your day?
Choose to exercise the truths the Spirit has already given you. Choose to become who the Spirit is transforming you into – Christ. It’s way worth it.
Set Fre”E” Nowww

Yesterday I challenged my new batch of biblical worldview students. I said for many of them this would be an entirely new way of thinking. They were not going to “get it” simply by taking the class as I was only introducing God’s process of how to think through daily life using His Word.
They were going to need to re-read my book so they could refresh themselves on the biblical tools/truths I was teaching them how to use. They could sign-up for my blog and get further insights into the Set Free Nowww principles. I told them I needed the blog information for myself!
We are fish swimming in a cesspool where the fish die if the filter stops working. The enemy never stops trying to infiltrate our minds as he knows it’s the only way to control us. We can’t shut him up! We can, however, as secure children of God, filter the polluted water, his thinking, through the FREEdom process. We can replace the stinking thinking with fresh truths.
As long as we are on this polluted planet, we must keep using these tools to filter every thought. The moment you stop, the moment you think you’ve arrived or have them down pat, is the moment you begin the decent backwards. The enemy never stops lying to you so keep your filters running. It’s the only way to walk and stay free from your drugs of choice to become more like Jesus!
Set “FREE” Nowww

Encounter Jesus – Touch a Life – who needs to hear what you’ve just read?

Work Monday. Work Tuesday. Work Wednesday. Work Thursday. Work Friday. Work Saturday. Work Sunday. Work Monday. Work Tuesday. Work, nothing but work. If you live this way, what have you wired your brain to do? Work. What is the meaning of this life? Work.
Then Christ invades your work world. Now, what does your work programmed brain want to add to your life? A work based religion. Yet, Jesus came to bring us relief from that work based thinking (Hebrews 4:1-3). Jesus was asked in John 6:28, “What must we do to do the works God requires?” His answer was, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one He has sent.” Belief in what Jesus did and will do in and through you brings rest!
It’s quite interesting that the 4th Commandment is to have a weekly Sabbath or rest. Six days you would work. And one you would rest. Work then rest. Belief then rest.
I love how one author explained the Sabbath. The Sabbath “uniquely elevated the human being. For nearly all of human history, life consisted overwhelmingly of work. In effect, humans were beasts of burden. This commandment changed all that by insisting that people cease working one day out of seven. It also reminds people that they were meant to be free. Remember that slaves cannot have a Sabbath; only free men and women can. Unless necessary for survival, people who choose to work seven days a week were and are essentially slaves — slaves to work or perhaps to money, but slaves nonetheless.”
God used the Sabbath as a picture of Jesus (Col. 2:16-19), the One who came to set us free from the slavery of work (Gal. 5:1) and to elevate us to sonship (John 1:12). Learn to rest in Jesus throughout your day as you go about your daily work. Learn to take a day off to rest (relax from your to-do lists) as a reminder of what Jesus did and is doing for you – giving you the ability to rest in His love, rest in His provision, and rest in being a secure child of God who knows where they’re heading because of whose hands they are in.
“S”et Free Nowww