Before all else, The Cure Church is a presence-driven church in Kansas City. Why? Because without the presence of God everything else is pointless. There isn’t even a reason for us to gather without God’s presence. This is what Kansas City needs the most.
I am so blessed to see what God is doing in our ministry. It’s really amazing to see people’s very character and personality radically changed by God. Some of us were in bondage to certain sins and Jesus set us free.
We need to remember the born again process. It’s the beginning of our Christian walk when we get saved. It’s never the end. I got saved in 1987 and I’m still in the beginning. The deeper I get into God the more he transforms me.
There are many choices we have to make in our walk with God. Many people, even in the Bible, received a touch from God but did not finish well. Do you want to obtain all God has for you beyond coming to church on a Sunday morning? There is a scripture that I am going to share that is small but for those who believe it is packed with power. Listen to this,
For as he thinks in his heart, so is he. Prov 23:7
The writer of Proverbs is very clear. How you think is how you are going to be. You will either have soaring thinking or sinking thinking. What you put in your mind and your heart is how you will respond.
Our thought life is so powerful. Everything in our culture is out to get our thought life. Let’s be real, with the internet, media, and television most of our thoughts can come from other people. If this is really true then it’s all the more important that we guard our thought life. This is why we have to be a presence-driven church in Kansas City.
Think about it. What causes a young Christian girl to marry someone who abuses her? What causes someone to finally get an interview for a job they have been praying for and then show up late? Why would someone constantly yell at their kids and speak critical words instead of encouraging them/ These things don’t make any sense yet they happen all of the time.
As a kid, I went to the circus all the time. I would see every animal caged except the elephant. Why is that? When elephants are young they get chained to a stake. They try to pull away but they can’t break free. When the elephant grows into adulthood all they can remember is the chains of their past. Even though they have grown so powerful they believe they cannot break free.
Some of us are that way. The failures, let downs or hurts of the past keep us from pursuing all God has for us. The way we think determines our future. Our thoughts can limit us or cause us to be transformed by the power of God.
God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.
Phil 2:13 NLT
No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.
Rom 8:37
Paul meditated on God’s word and let it go deep inside of him. God wants us to think like He does.
God says you are the light of the world, kings and priests, the salt of the earth, the head and not the tail. The truth is we can be all God says we can be. We just need to believe Him.
Isn’t that why we are called believers?
Consider Ephesians 3:14-21
For this reason, I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, (vs 14-16)
The word riches in the Greek is the word “ploutoj” which means wealth or an abundance of external possessions.
that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height— to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. (vs 17-19)
This word filled in Greek is “plhrow”. This word means to abound or to be liberally supplied. In other words, everything God says will come to pass if you believe it.
Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen. (vs 20-21)
Listen God is saying He can bless us over anything we can ask or imagine. God is thinking bigger than us all.
However, you can’t walk in victory if you keep feeding yourself the same old junk of your past. Who are you? What is it that makes you jealous, angry, depressed, or insecure?
My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. Isaiah 55:8
God is in a different realm but He wants to bring you up to where He is.
A perfect example of this in the bible is David. David was a shepherd boy. Unwanted by his father his brothers looked down on him. He didn’t seem to have much of a future but David had transforming thoughts.
In 1st Samuel 17, we see Saul and his Army paralyzed by the taunts of Goliath. David comes on the scene and says he will fight the enemy. Saul immediately begins to speak words of doubt.
And Saul said to David, “You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him; for you are a youth, and he a man of war from his youth. 1 Sam 17:33
Listen the minute you step out to obey God there will always be someone who says you can’t do it. You need to learn to recognize the voices in your life. Are they there to build you up or tear you down? Are they trying to get you to heaven or take you to hell?
Saul was David’s leader but not every leader is a good leader. Not every godly leader in your life are going to to have words of faith. Saul was speaking doubt but listen to David’s response.
But David said to Saul, “Your servant used to keep his father’s sheep, and when a lion or a bear came and took a lamb out of the flock, I went out after it and struck it, and delivered the lamb from its mouth; and when it arose against me, I caught it by its beard, and struck and killed it. Your servant has killed both lion and bear; and this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, seeing he has defied the armies of the living God.” 37 Moreover, David said, “The Lord, who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, He will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.” 1 Sam 17: 35-37
You have to picture this. Saul was hiding in his tent. His army was all lined up. David is a young boy. He doesn’t have a sword, or in modern-day fashion, a machine gun. All he has is a slingshot and a stone.
The bible says David steps forward. Everyone else stood back just waiting for this kid to die. Let me tell you something. If you want to be what God wants you’re going to have to step forward when no one else will step forward.
Do you want to see miracles in your life? You’re going to have to be like Peter and be the first one to step out of the boat.
Goliath then begins to taunt and ridicule David who refuses to be intimidated.
Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword, with a spear, and with a javelin. But I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you and take your head from you. And this day I will give the carcasses of the camp of the Philistines to the birds of the air and the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. Then all this assembly shall know that the Lord does not save with sword and spear; for the battle is the Lord’s, and He will give you into our hands” !st Sam 17:45-47
In the natural, this makes no sense. It’s suicidal. But as a man thinks in his heart so is he. David spoke out of his belief.
In principle what I am telling you is very simple. But it’s very difficult to put in practice when your world is falling apart. How do you respond when things happen in your life and God is putting you to the test?
Our old thought pattern will undermine our success. Old ways of thinking can destroy us. The bible says we must pull these old thought patterns down.
Do you grab your thoughts like prisoners of war? Before you were saved you did what the devil told you to do and it all started with a thought.
For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, 2 Cor 10:4
If you don’t capture your thoughts you will never rise above your thinking.
Consider the news feed on social media or the Youtube videos that have literally changed how people view God. Satan is the Father of Lives. He deceived Adam and Eve and is still deceiving people today. Satan had Eve convinced that God was holding something back from her. She was more focused on what she couldn’t have than what she could have. People today are like that. We forget all God has done and focus on what we can’t have.
The way we think can set us free. If you don’t think you deserve better you will never get better. As you think so are you.
I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. Gal 5:16
What’s going on in your head today? Are you going to soar, watch your marriage change, your finances turn around? Well, all this sounds good but just how do we do it?
And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Rom 12:2
- You must renew your mind in order to be transformed.
…that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, Eph 5:26
2) You renew your mind by reading and meditating on God’s word.
…if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness. Eph 4:22-24
3) As you learn God’s word you need to then apply it to your own life. There is nothing impossible for you. You can walk the way God wants you to walk. You can choose your thought processes.
It’s time to be transformed!!
PRAY THIS
Father, I want to have all you say I can have. I want to do all you command me to do. I want my whole life to revolve around your will. I want to believe you. Help me to apply myself and to renew my mind. To read, meditate on, and study Your Word. Your Word says I can do all things through Christ. Your grace make this so. Transform me by Your Word in the name of Jesus. Amen!
MEDITATE ON THIS
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. 2 Cor 5:17