Make Life Simple Again, Part 5

Most people aren’t spiritually drained because life is hard…
They’re drained because they’re running from the assignment God already revealed.

Your peace, clarity, and next season are on the other side of obedience.

Stop running. Start walking in what God chose YOU for.

This message will realign your spirit, sharpen your faith, and push you back into the calling Heaven placed on your life.

To learn more about The Feast of the Lord, visit us online at orangeburgchurch.com

Here are the author's notes from this week's message:

Make Life Simple Again Part 5

You crown the year with Your bounty and goodness, and the tracks of Your [chariot wheels] drip with fatness.
Psalm 65:11 AMPC
*- “This year will not end before every obedient one receives what God promised they would receive this year. God will crown this year, before it ends, with abundance and goodness for you.”
*- A simple life is one where what God says is believed and acted upon.

Yes, though I walk through the [deep, sunless] valley of the shadow of death, I will fear or dread no evil, for You are with me; Your rod [to protect] and Your staff [to guide], they comfort me.
Psalm 23:4 AMPC
*- Why do atmospheres we’re not familiar with cause fear? Situations we don’t normally live in—yet suddenly face—leave the way we choose to respond completely in our hands. Virtually everyone responds based on who or what they believe will solve the situation.

*- What would make life simple for us is having financial freedom, fulfilling our destiny, and maintaining great health.
*- In order to enjoy all of this, we must first learn to discipline ourselves—especially our fleshly, human nature that constantly desires to engage in what is evil.

14 We know that the Law is spiritual; but I am a creature of the flesh [carnal, unspiritual], having been sold into slavery under [the control of] sin.
15 For I do not understand my own actions [I am baffled, bewildered]. I do not practice or accomplish what I wish, but I do the very thing that I loathe [which my moral instinct condemns].
16 Now if I do [habitually] what is contrary to my desire, [that means that] I acknowledge and agree that the Law is good (morally excellent) and that I take sides with it.

17 However, it is no longer I who do the deed, but the sin [principle] which is at home in me and has possession of me.
18 For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot perform it. [I have the intention and urge to do what is right, but no power to carry it out.]
19 For I fail to practice the good deeds I desire to do, but the evil deeds that I do not desire to do are what I am [ever] doing.
20 Now if I do what I do not desire to do, it is no longer I doing it [it is not myself that acts], but the sin [principle] which dwells within me [fixed and operating in my soul].

21 So I find it to be a law (rule of action of my being) that when I want to do what is right and good, evil is ever present with me and I am subject to its insistent demands.
22 For I endorse and delight in the Law of God in my inmost self [with my new nature].
23 But I discern in my bodily members [in the sensitive appetites and wills of the flesh] a different law (rule of action) at war against the law of my mind (my reason) and making me a prisoner to the law of sin that dwells in my bodily organs [in the sensitive appetites and wills of the flesh].

24 O unhappy and pitiable and wretched man that I am! Who will release and deliver me from [the shackles of] this body of death?
25 O thank God! [He will!] through Jesus Christ (the Anointed One) our Lord! So then indeed I, of myself with the mind and heart, serve the Law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.
Romans 7:14-25 AMPC

Lifework Assignment:
*- 1. Take the time to ask: “Holy Spirit, will You please help me prepare a list of the entryways I have opened—moments where the devil or his demons gained access to my attention, where my heart was influenced by their suggestions, and where I echoed their ill-seeded words—believing they were my own thoughts or genuine feelings?”
2. Then ask, “Holy Spirit, what should I do in each moment when I’ve allowed the items on my list to open a door—so that I receive only Your influence and not a demonic one?”

A few items that will help you find YOUR list:

moments where the devil or his demons gained access to my attention:
When I’m afraid
When I decide to figure out what to do before praying

where my heart was influenced by their suggestions:
When I'm trying to prove my abilities
When I fear the influence of people's opinion

where I echoed their ill-seeded words—believing they were my own thoughts or genuine feelings:
Trying to prove my authority is valid from God
Trying to cover up past failures