Christian Common Sense: 21 Knowledge Keys To Start Improving Your Life Today (Part 2)

"My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge..." -Hosea 4:6

In the past few weeks when speaking to me, God has placed extra emphasis on obtaining wisdom, not just for myself and my own life, but to share with those who have an ear to listen and a heart to come closer to Him. The Holy Spirit began to talk to me about some common things that we as believers can work on immediately to bring us into greater communion with the Lord & into greater cooperation with our sisters and brothers in Christ. He gave me a total of 21 all together and the part 1 post covered the first 5. Below are the next 8 keys.

Key 6

Receiving the promises of God will require that your faith be tested first, usually through God calling for a spiritual sacrifice. A great example of this is found in the story of Abraham and Isaac. Note that the sacrifice God called for in that situation was not something that was harmful or hurtful to Abraham's person. Nor did God require something that Abraham would have been eager to give up.  He asked for a good thing that He himself had blessed Abraham with and that Abraham was entitled to have. (Scripture Reference - Genesis 22)

Key 7

Don't fear going into personal spiritual battles alone in the natural realm. (without other people on your side) Sometimes God will ordain the fight against your enemies to be just you and Him, along with the heavenly host of war angels assigned to your life. In most cases, this is to avoid having human beings take any credit for your victory. God wants 100% of the Glory as your deliverer! (Scripture Reference - 1 Samuel 17:40-47)

Key 8

There is no big mystery in finding your Godly purpose. As believers in Jesus Christ, we all have the same one: to be a reflection of Him in the earth. How He uses you to accomplish that purpose is based on your unique spiritual and natural gifts & life experiences. (Scripture Reference - 1 Peter 2:9)

Key 9

Jesus is less concerned with your denomination and is more concerned with your demonstration. As a believer, are you sharing the love of Christ with the world through your life? (Scripture Reference - 1 Corinthians 12:12-13)

Key 10

Do not let anyone discourage you from pursuing abundance through God! God's will is that all His children would live a life of abundance - fully supplied with the things that we need and with the desires of our hearts when we delight in Him. Learn to be content in transitioning times, but always hope and exercise your faith for what God has promised in His Word. (Scripture Reference - John 10:10; Psalm 37:4)


Key 11
When sharing or teaching Bible wisdom, do so with gentleness and love. Teaching through accusation or condemnation will turn away the ears of the people who need to hear what you have to say the most. It is good to pray that you decrease and God increase in every situation where you are delivering His Word or wisdom. (Scripture Reference - Galatians 6:1 *the Amplified version of this verse explains it perfectly)


Key 12
You do not have to participate in every debate or get involved in every conflict that comes your way. Don't take the bait! Beware of contentious spirits that seek to disturb your peace and save your energy for warfare that matters. Sometimes silence is the most forceful thing that you can "say!" (Scripture Reference - Proverbs 15:18)


Key 13
It becomes easier to forgive spiteful people when you remember that your battle is not against them, but the spirit at work through them. They are being used to hurt you by the evil at work in their lives and when you move beyond the initial emotional reaction to the offense, you will realize that they are victims in the situation. You are free to move forward while they are bound by bitterness and anger. (Scripture Reference - Ephesians 6:12)

Did any of these resonate with you? Leave a comment below and tell me your thoughts. Feel free to share the post if you feel like it could help someone. The final 8 are posted HERE.

Breaking Down The Barriers: How Do I Forgive & Claim My Healing?

As I continue to work on "Discovering The Shepherd," I think about the many things that hinder Christian believers from experiencing the fullness of their relationship with God, particularly His love and His favor. In fact, one of the main reasons that I am writing this book is to help believers gain understanding of their relationship with the Shepherd of the Psalm. My hope is that with this understanding, every reader of the book will be drawn into deeper relationship with God and will get to the place where they are living in His fullness.

Recently in prayer, I asked the Lord to reveal to me one of the main things that was standing in the way of this happening in the life of every Christian believer and He answered very simply, "Forgiveness." This really resonated in my spirit because you need only turn on your local news to get a glimpse of how wounded people are inside. Childhood wounds, relationship wounds, abuse wounds, divorce wounds... choose any of those and you can probably name 10 people suffering right now from one or more of these issues. No matter what the nature of the wound is, the story is always the same: someone at some point caused the person harm and left them wounded.

So what does this have to do with forgiveness? Well, Jesus specifically instructs us to forgive those who have hurt us and I believe He pointed this out to me as a major hindrance for believers because He sees that we really struggle with keeping this instruction. In fact, the topic became so deep that I ended up writing a complete new study on it that I want to share with you. Here's what the study covers:

*WHAT EXACTLY IS FORGIVENESS? (I think you may find that it's not exactly what you think it is)
*WHY SHOULD I FORGIVE & HOW DOES IT BENEFIT ME?
*WHY CAN'T I JUST TAKE REVENGE?
*HOW EXACTLY DO I FORGIVE?
*ARE THERE EASY STEPS THAT I CAN TAKE TO GET STARTED?

For this study, I would like to take a week and interact with you each day through video and written notes in order to break down each of these topics. I also have an Amazon best selling book on forgiveness from a wonderful Christian author that I would like to give each participant. Is this something that would interest you? Do you need help understanding forgiveness or getting started with the process? I am currently still writing volume 3 of "Discovering The Shepherd," but I am willing to take time to set this course up if it will be helpful to someone who is ready to be healed from past hurts and move on to a more fulfilled future in God.

IF YOU WOULD BE INTERESTED IN HAVING A FORGIVENESS COURSE STUDY, please submit your information via the form below. If there is enough interest, I will go ahead and set the course up. It will take place online and will be accessible from any computer or device with internet capabilities. I look forward to sharing all the information that I have with you and I thank you for allowing me to be a part of your journey to a closer relationship with the Shepherd!

*EVENT CLOSED*