I remember an old sitcom, The Jeffersons, where the character George Jefferson was the perfect son to his mother.  She would even say that from time to time.  The problem was that she never had a problem with George, but she always had a problem with George's wife, Louise.   A mother is like the lead off runner a the relay race.  In time, she hands the baton of leadership off to her husband and they work together raising their son.  When a new woman comes into the picture as wife to the son, the mother takes on a new role.  They all have the potential for closeness, harmony, love, and respect or for conflict, power struggles, and confrontation.  If a mother feels her son can do no wrong, and lets the daughter-in-law know this, trouble is on the horizon.    The mother is living in denial.  She probably believes that her son is perfect because any indication that he is imperfect is a direct reflection of flaws in her parenting. 

Oftentimes, a mother may seek some sort of fulfillment through her son's marriage because of frustrations that occurred in her own marriage or because of a frustation that stems from her having never been married to the son's father.  In the sitcom, Louise was always blamed by her mother-in-law for George's problems.  So, oftentimes when a son doesn't do what mom expects him to do, it is the daughter-in-law who will become responsible for any shortcomings of her husband. 

When I was in high school one of my least favorite sports to participate in was track and field.  I had to participate in many different events and among the most dreaded was relay racing.  The relay race caused you to be dependent upon the ability of the other person to either pass or receive the baton.  A mother will sometimes not pass the baton off in the right way to a father.  Instead she maintains the role of leadership.  By refusing to pass off the baton of leadership, even when there is no father present in the son's life, a developing male fails to become the leader that he was purposed to be.  The problem is not always in the mother, but the lack of participation of a father in a child's life is like the runner who doesn't know how to receive the baton in the right way.  The children suffer from this malfunctioning team and are unable to complete the race with a win.  When we learn how to work together to reach the finish line everyone benefits from knowing that they played their part to the best of their ability.

A few nights ago, as I began to minister, I reminded the audience of some of the limitations of the devil.  Often times we speak of him as if he can be everywhere at the same time.  We make him omnipresent and that is simply not true; he is not deity.  He is not like God even though he wants us to think that that is true.  He even said to himself that he would be like the Most high.  He cannot be like God.  He is a fallen angel and like all other angels in the Bible, they can only be in one place at one time. 

So, how is he able to counterfeit this ability?  The Bible tells us in Rev 12 that he drew a third of an innumerable number of angels with him.  We are also told in Ephesians 6:12 concerning the hierarchy or structure of the enemy's camp.  We are warned not to be ignorant of his methods.  I think that it is very important that, as a believer, you and I know that there is no neutral ground.  Once you name the name of Jesus you become a target for his attacks.  In this case, the more you know about your enemy and his limitations the better you will be able to withstand him.

As a younger Christian, I asked myself this question many times and I seldom received an understandable answer.  In the scriptures, God's voice traveled a range of volumes and intensities, depending on the situation.  He thundered when defending His people.  After a windstorm, earthquake, and fire, He whispered to Elijah at the mouth of a cave.  At that time, i wondered what would be the nature of His voice if He spoke to me personally?

In one sense, we all have to know and identify God's voice on our own.  He speaks uniquely to each of us, and from experience, we learn whether we are hearing our own imagination or even the deceptive voice of the enemy.  At the same time, it helps to learn how other believers discern God's voice and what prompts them to act on what they have heard.  When people say, 'God told me this', there have been times when I have asked them:  "How do you know He told you?"  The answers that I have received over the years have been somewhat vague for the most part.  While some people are able to describe specific feelings and signs that identify God's voice to them, others are not as descriptive at all.

From my experiences, a two pronged pattern seems to commonly emerge concerning the voice of God.  Sometimes the Holy Spirit impresses a thought upon our minds and stirs our heart.  If He speaks to the mind, it is usually a thought that intrudes upon the brain and is very different from what we have been thinking about.  It produces a distinct quality that causes us to say, 'I wouldn't have thought of that myself,' and it suddenly gives us enlightenment into people or situations.  If the Holy Spirit speaks to the heart, it is often through a nudge that compels us to action or a sense of restraint that warns us not move forward.  The mind and the heart can also be in sync with a thought that agrees with a inner impression. 

This doesn't have the same impact as the thunder and it isn't a windstorm, earthquake, or fire, but it is nonetheless the powerful voice of the God who is speaking to you.

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Although we don’t like to admit it, we all occasionally run into dead end places in our lives where we don’t know what to say, what to do, where to turn, or even how to pray.  Sometimes it seems like we’ve hit a dead end.  In other words, it seems like everything is finished, over, and done with!  If you’ve ever been in a place like this, you know what a hard place this can be!

I remember coming to a dead end when we were in the midst of one of our building programs.   What the building inspector was demanding was going to cost us about a $100,000 more than we budgeted to spend.  Sometimes when you come to a dead end, it seems like you can’t go forward but turning around is not an option either.  One of the worst things that we can do in a dead end situation is to become a bone on your own and try to figure your own way out.  I chose to reveal it to congregation and encouraged them to pray for a breakthrough in the situation.  The end results was that God made a way out of no way. The Bible says that God is no respecter of persons.  If He did that for me He will do it for you.  God has a purpose for dead ends in our lives.  It doesn’t always mean the end but it sometimes marks the beginning of a new season if we will persevere and not take defeat as an option.

Through these kinds of experiences, you and I discover that in our own strength, we are no match for some of life’s problems.  That’s why we must learn to depend on the power and wisdom of God! The apostle Paul tell us that he, too, went through this kind of learning experience when he found himself face-to-face with life-threatening situations in his own ministry.  In 2 Corinthians 1:9, he says, “But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead.”  Paul was definitely at one of those dead end places that we’re talking about. In fact, the situation he faces was so bad that he compared it to a sentence of death. 

But in spite of how it looked, Paul didn’t die, nor did he fail at fulfilling the job God had given him.  It may have looked like it was the end of the road, but it was really the beginning of a new supernatural flow of divine power into Paul’s life.  That’s why he went on to say that through it all, he learned not to trust in himself, but in God who raises the dead.

When you don’t know what else to do and when you have no one else to turn to, that’s usually when God’s resurrection power begins to operate in you to the greatest measure!  You see, there’s no such thing as no hope.  If you learn to rely on him, that dead end place in your life that you’re facing right now can become a new beginning!  

Today. I want to go a little further into James 1:21.  I want you to particularly look at the words “Filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness.”  Since James tells us that we must remove and discard from our lives whatever is meant by these two concepts, it is imperative that we understand exactly what he is talking about.

The Greek word for “filthiness” describes filth that is obnoxiously filthy.  The man pictured in James 2:2 is described in this same way.  In this verse, James described two categories of people who attended the Early Church—those who were nice in appearance and those who were filthy dirty.  About these categories, James wrote, “For if there come unto your assembly a man with a gold ring, and in goodly apparel, then there come also a man in vile raiment.”

That word vile at the end of this verse and the word filthiness in James 1:21 come from the same Greek word.   James 2:2 portrays a man whose body and clothes are so encrusted with filth that he emits a disgusting odor to everyone nearby.  Have you ever been around a person who smelled that badly? 

This is the same Greek word James uses in James 1:21 when he describes believers who have bad attitudes!  In other words, when a believer is being pessimistic, downbeat, negative, uncooperative, gloomy, cynical, or indifferent, it just stinks to God.  Nothing stinks worse than an attitude of a grumpy and pessimistic person.  In fact, a person with a bad attitude emits such a distasteful aroma that it will literally drive people away from him!  This person has to make the decision to “lay apart all filthiness”—which in this case is not referring to dirty clothes, but the stinking and repulsive attitude he carries in his life.

 You need to take your own temperature and see where you stand.

James 1:21 could be interpreted to mean: “You must make the choice to remove those filthy, stinking garments from your life. To permanently lay them down and then deliberately push them out of your range forever…”  Are you struggling with a sin today?  Does a wrong attitude keep you trying to conquer your life?  If so, you must begin to look at that sin or wrong attitude like an old set of filthy clothes that isn’t fit for you to wear anymore. They are tired, worn out, don’t fit right, or just out of style.  Someone could look at them and know that they need to be thrown out.   Make a decision to step out of every destructive area of your life that has held you captive.  Once you make that decision, the Holy Spirit will give you power to carry it out and never look back!

When James says to “lay apart” all filthiness from our lives, he is telling us to first acknowledge what is wrong and then to take appropriate measures to remove those areas from our lives.  If you are going to get free and stay free, it won’t happen by accident.  You must start taking steps to remove those negative things from your life—to lay then down and push them so far away that you’ll never be able to reach them again!

Begin to confess these words:  ‘Every area of my life that needs to change, I want the Word of God to reveal it to me.  Rather than act like a victim that cannot do anything about myself or my circumstances I declare that today I will start the process of acknowledging my sin and removing those attitudes, actions, and sins that are unworthy of who God has called me to be.  Not only can I be free, I will be free.  I will be all that God intended for me to be!’  Keep these thoughts in the forefront of your mind and ask God for the manifestation as throw those filthy things out and walk it out.

The Right Way To Deal With Wrong Attitudes...James 1:21...I'm sure that you have read or may have heard me over a period of time when I have said that your attitude in life determines your altitude in life. Things that happen to us in the course of life have the potential to leave us with a bitter taste in our mouth. Today, I want to draw your attention to the words "lay aside" in this scripture. These words are taken from two Greek words. The first means 'away' and the second word means 'to place or to lay something down'. When these two words are compounded together they give a picture of someone who is laying something down at the same time that he or she is pushing it away from them. So this compound word means to lay something down and to push it away far beyond reach.

Last week, we took part of our Singles' ministry to a summit in VA Beach. While we were there we ate at a seafood buffet. When you are eating a buffet meal it is easy to sinfully indulge in eating too much. So an example of this word would be to suddenly realize what you are doing and instead of diving into extra crab legs you choose instead to not go back to the buffet table and then deliberately push away from yourself that which you have left lest you should overindulge one too many times. This is the idea that James uses when he tells us to lay apart all filthiness from our lives. There are attitudes in our lives that we already know are not right, but it is up to us to lay them aside and push them away. You have to learn how to do that if you are going to succeed in life.

In New Testament times, the words 'lay apart' were frequently used to describe someone taking off their dirty clothes at the end of the day.  How do you deal with your dirty clothes?  Do you take them off and put them away in a clothes' hamper?  The book of James uses this illustration to explain how you must deal with wrong attitudes and actions in your life.  If you have the wrong attitudes you are going to do the wrong things.  Just as you wouldn't go to bed in dirty clothes at night, neither should you go to bed with the wrong attitudes. 

The Bible tells us to be angry, but sin not.  Let not the sun go down on your wrath.  What that means is that we must quickly deal with anger because anger will most definitely produce a wrong attitude.  You have got to deal with these bad attitudes like you would deal with an old set of dirty clothes.  It is also important to realize that dirty clothes just don't fall off and you definitely don't want to sleep in them.  To get them off you have got to push buttons through buttonholes, unzip zippers, and slip the clothes off your arms and legs one piece at a time.  Dirty clothes don't automatically come off just because they are dirty.  They will only come off if you do something purposeful to remove them.

This is exactly what James had in mind when he tells us to lay apart all the filthiness of our lives.  He is telling us to first acknowledge what is wrong and then to take appropriate measures to quickly remove any areas of weakness.  If you are going to get free and stay free, it won't happen by accident.  You must start taking steps to remove those negative things from your life; to lay them down and push then so far away that you will never be able to reach them again.  Are you struggling with anger, jealousy, envy, or some issue that is producing negative attitudes in your life today?  Does a wrong attitude keep trying to derail your life? If so, you must begin to take notice of this issue or attitude like an old set of clothes that aren't worthy for you to wear anymore.  Make the decision to step out of every destructive area of your life that has held you captive.  I believe that once you make that decision Holy Spirit will give you the power to carry it out. 

Some people are just lazy which is why they never see anything accomplished with their lives.  They blame that lack of success on this, that, and everything but themselves, but God is no respecter of persons.  What He does for one He will do for all.  Hebrews 11:6 says, "But without faith it is impossible to please him; for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him."

The key factors that make the difference are not about God, but about a person's level of determination and his/her willingness to do whatever is necessary to achieve a goal.  This is a hard fact to face, but ultimately we are all responsible for our success, or lack of success.  We all possess the same promises, the same faith, the same power, the same spirit, and the same Jesus who sits at the right hand of God to make intercession for us.  The main thing that determines who succeeds and who doesn't succeed is our attitude.  You have to want success in order to get it.  It doesn't float on clouds and it takes hard work to achieve it.  Because most people are willing to do only average work they reap average results.

When I was in the military years ago, I quickly found out that in the beginning stages it was a place where you could do average work day after day and get by.  What I found out was that there were some promotions that came automatically because of your time in service but the higher promotions came because of hard work and diligence.  To achieve super results, one must do super work, be deeply committed to the task, and be willing to do whatever is necessary to realize goals and aspirations.

Hebrews 11:6 says that God is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.  According to this verse, even God rewards diligence.  In fact, He only rewards those who diligently seek Him which means people with a lazy--lethargic, do nothing, take it easy--attitude will never be greatly rewarded by the Lord.  This verse says that God rewards the diligent seeker.  Diligence is required for any success. 

The phrase "diligently seek" is taken from a Greek word that means to zealously seek for something with all your heart, all your strength, and all your might.  It presents a picture of one who seeks something so passionately and earnestly that he literally exhausts all of his power in his search.  Because this word portrays such an determinant effort, the ideal of being hardworking, busy, constant, and persistent in one's devotion to what he or she is doing is also included.  What this tells us about Hebrews 11:6, is that God is a reward of those who put all their heart, strength, and might into seeking Him.  Those who are so committed in their search that they are willing to exhaust all of their natural powers in their search for Him, they are the ones who will find what they are seeking. 

You see, you have to be diligent to be rewarded by God.  So, it should be no surprise that diligence is going to be required in order for you to succeed in every area of life.  It is just a fact that the lazy, neglectful attitude will never get you where you need to go.  If you take your life's assignment lightly and approach it with a casual, easy-going, take it easy, relaxed attitude, you will never go far in the fulfillment of your call or your dream. 

Have you ever gone after something that you thought was the will of God for your life only to find out that obstacles seem to keep you from doing what you thought God wanted you to do?  If you have, you need not feel alone because many of us have been in the very same place.  Even the apostle Paul felt this way from time to time.  In 1 Thessalonians 2:18, the apostle Paul said, "Wherefore, we would have come to you even I Paul once and again, but Satan hindered us." 

So, what should you do in times like these?  I want you to particularly notice the word hindered in that verse.  It comes from a Greek word that was originally used to describe a road so deteriorated and broken up that it was impassable.  It means to cut in two; to impede. 

When I was a kid, I had a friend who lived down a dirt road that was almost impassable after we received a hard rain.  The road was too full of deep ruts and holes to continue our journey.  As a result, we would have to turn around and go back or find another mode of transportation to get to where we wanted to go.  Well, that is exactly the image the word hindered portrays to us.  Paul used this word to describe hindering forces that kept him from going to see the Thessalonians.  There is no doubt that this means that Paul was on his way to see them, not once, but twice, but the journey became so filled with danger and unexpected bumps that he had to turn around and go back and rethink his strategy on how he was going to get to the church at Thessalonica.

I am sure that you can think of a time when you encountered something like this on your journey, but the Greek word that is used here means even more than this.  It was also used in ancient times in an athletic sense.  It was used to portray the moment when a runner comes along side another runner and literally elbows him out of the race.  Although the second runner was running a good race, he is shoved out of the way by the aggression of his fellow runner.  As a result of this action, the runner who was elbowed losses the winning edge he previously held. 

This means that Paul really understood Satan's tactics.  The enemy had tried to make use of dangerous and unexpected bumps along the way to throw Paul off track and to elbow him out of his spiritual race.  In fact, Paul was convinced that Satan had specifically orchestrated these unforeseen and unanticipated hassles to keep him from getting to the church at Thessalonica.  When these two ideas are combined together the primary idea of the word hindered becomes that of an impasse so severe that it prohibits you from going where you need to go, or of an aggressor who unkindly elbows you off course in your spiritual race.   

When something happens that seems to keep you from doing the will of God remember that you are not the first to encounter such difficulties.  Others have been in the same predicament.  In time, however; the devil's attacks ceased and the way for them to move ahead became clear.  In the same way, you can be sure that God is going to empower you and give you the wisdom you need to get you where you need to go.  Don't give up!  It ain't over until God says it's over.  Don't throw in the towel just because you run up on some kind of problem.  The devil has never had the last word on anything; and he is not going to have the last word on this situation either.  Regardless of what the devil has tried to do, it is time for you to remember that what God has promised shall come to pass as you hold fast to your faith in Him.