Hold Fast to Your Confession

So let us seize and hold fast and retain without wavering the [a] hope we cherish and confess and our acknowledgement of it, for He Who promised is reliable (sure) and faithful to His word. (Hebrews 10:23, AMP)

All scripture is God breathed (Hebrews 10:23) God’s Word is alive, active, and eternal. (Hebrews 4:12, Luke 21:33) God sent His word. (Psalm 107:20) The Word is God. (John 1:1)

As we say what God said, refusing to waver, His living and active Word produces fruit! His Word accomplishes! And His Word prospers! (Isaiah 55:11)

As we confess (speak), we are quite literally speaking…Jesus! 

What are you saying today?

Feathers

I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. (John 15:5, NKJV)

My husband and I are bird hunters. It's a sport we enjoy together. Some couples enjoy romantic comedies, we prefer hunting. We have a lot of fun hunting together, God provided a really great bird dog for us, and we are grateful for the ability to provide free range meat for our family. 

This morning, as I was about sit down to answer emails, I caught something out if the corner of my eye. It was a feather blowing around on my tile. I watched it for a second as it swayed and swirled. Then something occurred to me. Every week, I often see feathers in my house which is tangible proof we are bird hunters.

We also have tangible proof as born again believers in Jesus. Good fruit. Love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. (Galatians 5:22-23)

Apart from Him we can do nothing. Abiding in Him, we can do much.

Please make the following confession with me out loud:

I abide, dwell, remain, sit, stay in You Jesus and I bear much good fruit! Everyone who comes into contact with me is loved with Your kind of love, desires Your supernatural joy in me, is changed by Your peace in me, witnesses long-suffering as I deal with matters, is handled with Your type of kindness, sees Your goodness in me, is changed by Your faithfulness in me, is treated with gentleness, and is matured by Your self control in me. Thank You for teaching me how to abide in You! Thank You for Your grace that supernaturally enables me to superabound in everything You have called me to do and to be!

2 Corinthians 12:9

Romans 4:17

2 Corinthians 9:8

Roots and Fruit

I am so excited about today’s teaching. I’ve spent time in prayer and wow!

Let your roots grow down into him and draw up nourishment from him, so you will grow in faith, strong and vigorous in the truth you were taught. Let your lives overflow with thanksgiving for all he has done. (Colossians 2:7, NLT)

The LORD has been giving me dreams. Initially I thought it was all about a close girlfriend of mine so I contacted her and we worked some things through to victory but today the Lord showed me, nope that's not all. This is also about Key Tov Blog's readers. Busted! Some of you are SO busted! 

All that said, I have a question for you. How do you feel about roots? 

I will give you an example. I’ve colored my hair since I was in my early twenties I can hear GASPS from all over cyberspace, “Ohhhh, she just told people she colors her hairrrrr!” Well,  big woo. Let us just all commit to stay real with one another k? It’s hair color, it’s not brain surgery. *smile*

So, I color my hair and every three weeks or so...here "they" come…roots. Gotta cover those puppies up...again. Cover 'em, good for a while, deal with 'em, cover 'em, good for a while, deal with...over and over...

The Lord has revealed to me, there are some Key Tov Blog readers, who are dealing with roots. Hair roots? Perhaps, yes. But there are also roots that have been planted recently and a long time ago, that God doesn't want us to deal with anymo. (Not misspelled) I have a word for you today. 

Are you ready? This is a personalized word for YOU, Key Tov Blog readers. 

God wants you free. 

Yep…God wants YOU free!

Say it…God. Wants. ME. Free!

My sister and I were recently chatting. She's been a registered nurse for a really long time. She’s extremely intelligent. And sees A LOT OF “stuff”, so she is experienced in a lot of matters. We talk almost daily and I really value what the Lord is showing her. She is truly anointed to speak into my life. During our conversation, she said something that hit my spirit like a freight train. She said, something to the effect of...When something bad happens to someone, if the root is not dug out and Jesus' healing power yielded to, healing/deliverance doesn’t take place and the fruit of that root always comes out. If not dealt with, it may come out when a person is 20, 40, 60, or 80 years old, but it always comes out. 

Choo! Choo! Does that hit you like it hit me? Listen, the fruit may consistently come out every day, week, month, or year. Or may not manifest until 10, 20, 40, whatever, years later. Whatever the case may be, the fruit of that root manifests itself someway, somehow. It may be in a repetitive behavior, or in a negative medical diagnoses, or by an emotional response like outbursts, lying, etc.

Now, I am in no way saying, if someone gets a negative doctor’s report that there is always hidden sin or bad fruit or whatever. I don’t believe that. We all still live in the dispensation of time of John 10:10. That was just a little rabbit trail to clear up some really bad "doctrine". 

Forward march! Back to the “root” of our discussion, *teeheehee*.

We can switch friends, circles of friends, jobs, cities, states, even churches...in other words, we can exchange whatever outside "stimuli" seems to be causing the problem; however, until the root of an issue is dug out and Jesus' healing power is yielded to...and that old root is replaced with a root that produces good fruit...those roots continue to produce bad fruit...again...and again...and again. Have you ever heard the phrase, “The problem with moving away is you take you with you.” Ok, as rude as that sounds, there is a lot of power in that if we take it and use it for our good.

I once heard Dr Larry Ollison, (You may find his teachings at faithman.org) ask, what would you do if someone came to your house to take what belongs to you? Let’s say this person came to your house and said, "I want your diamond ring. k? What would you do. Cower down? Meely mouse around and say oh ok. Shoots no! I'd say, now way my sista! That diamond ring is mine! It belongs to me! And you are not taking it!

It's the same way with the peace that passes all understanding. THAT belongs to us! So when someone is yielding to....let's just say, not yielding to God and letting their light so shine (Matthew 5:16)...do not just take what they are offering! Don’t just say, ohhhh ok. Here, take my peace.

Philippians 4:7 says, "And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." 

Stand your ground! And say No! Jesus left me peace. Peace that passes all understanding is mine and you are not taking it! That is the battle! We don’t wrestle with flesh and blood. (Ephesians 6:12) Our battle is not with a person. Our battle is in the, you are not taking my peace that Jesus gave me! (John 14:27)

For those who know me personally, I am thankful because you will get what I’m about to say. For those who do not know me personally, what I'm about to say needs to be preempted with, I have what could be viewed as…let’s just say, a bizarre sense of humor. So please keep that in mind coupled with my Okie accent so you can find humor when I say, I am in the company of a group o' thieves! 

Yep, some of our readers are carrying around what does NOT belong to them!

You are BLOOD bought! 

• Low self esteem
• Poor body image
• Rejection
• Anxiety
• Fear
• Whatever ugly, negative thing it is, does not belong to us! 

Let me ask you, are there any scriptures to back those up? Do we have a bible passage that tells us, “walk in low self esteem, have poor body image, be filled with anxiety and fear”…NOoooooo…well, there’s a reason for that! 

Don't be a thief! Dig those roots all out!  How do we do that? We dig out the negative root and replace it with a good root. We replace a negative root with a positive root that can be backed up with scripture!

We don’t need a gazillion scriptures in order to fight this fight. All we need is one word from God to change our lives forever! The bible says, we have not because we ask not, (James 4:2, 3) well let’s just make sure we are having by asking! Just say, Lord, please give me a scripture to deal with, ___fill in the blank___. He abounds in  faithfulness! (Psalm 86:15) He will give you a scripture that will just rock your world. Write it down, write it on your arm if you need to, read it every day, ten times a day, whatever it takes. It will eventually go from your head to your heart and when it does, watch out world cuzzzzz here you come!

For example, let’s say someone battles with fear. Every time we are tempted to fear we refuse that temptation. We declare NO! I do not fear. God hasn’t given me a spirit of fear, but of power! Love! And a sound mind! (2 Timothy 1:7) I am strong and courageous! (Joshua 1:9) See how that works? How many times do we say it? As many times as it takes. How long is that? As long as it is!

"Welllllll that's just so hard" *whine*….Let me ask you this...is dealing with these roots over and over and over again, easy? Hmmmmm? I hear about difficulty all the time. I’m told, "But your SO strong and I’m so weak." Nope…it isn’t about strength…its about committing to God’s Word and refusing to turn it loose. 

LOOK right here on this anointed page where it says we are:

• Overcomers! (1 John 4:4)
• Blood bought! (1 Corinthians 6:20)
• Free! (Luke 4:18)

You are FREE! You are not bound...you are FREE!

Whom The Lord sets free is free indeed! Who is whom? You are whom! If you are a born again believer, YOU. ARE. THAT WHOM! If you are not born again, let us know, shoot us an email. We can work that out. Otherwise, you are FREE! 

When the battle rages, stand firm, and declare, “I am free! The Lord has set me free! I am free indeed! I have overwhelming victory!" (Romans 8:37)

Everybody, in unison, let’s let our faces know we are free! *Huge grin*

Life gets hard. I get that. I know that, more than I care to know, T-rust me. For non Okies that means, trust much.  *Big Okie Grin*. Some days walking out our freedom means moment by moment. There’s nothing wrong with that. Walk it out, however you need to. Scripture by scripture.  

Walk out your freedom! Don’t turn it loose! Hang onto it like a bull dog! Every day of your life! Let your roots grow down into Him and draw up nourishment from Him, so you will grow in faith, strong and vigorous in the truth you were taught. Let your lives overflow with thanksgiving for all He has done.

Below, we will post scripture reference for our study today.

Hey, Thanks ya’ll and mucho mahalos for your time, we truly TRULY appreciate you!


Father, thank You for showing us great and mighty things we don't know. Thank You for revealing Your heart to us. In the name of Jesus, I pray for every reader right now and declare to and for them, they are free. Free and equipped to be everything You have called them to be. Boldness, strength, and courage to walk in Your perfect will for their lives, every day of their lives always giving glory and honor to You LORD! 

Psalm 33:4
Psalm 86:15
Romans 8:37
1 Corinthians 13:7
Matthew 5:16
Ephesians 6:12
1 Corinthians 7:23, please read!

John 8:36

2 Timothy 1:7

Job 22:28, please read!
Colossians 2:7

Excavating

When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God. But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things! Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there. Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives.  Let us not become conceited, or provoke one another, or be jealous of one another. (Galatians 5:19-26, NLT)

Last night I had a dream about excavating. In the natural, I know very little about excavating. In fact, I know next to nothing about the subject. I can use common sense to piece together how it might work but I don't even know the name of the heavy equipment that would be used in excavations so please bear with me as I try to explain the dream. 

I saw top soil that was dry, hard, and rocky. Then I saw a big excavating machine, like heavy machinery, digging down and pulling up dark, rich soil. The bucket on the machine would dig deep down through the top of the ground, then slowly pull it's contents up as bugs, roots, and rocks fell out of the bucket. Underneath was pure, fresh, life giving, mineral and nutrient filled soil that would be used to grow life!

One definition for excavate provided by Free Online Dictionary states, "to remove by digging" and "remove earth carefully and systematically from an area in order to find buried remains".

Once we received Jesus, we were given a new heart and a new spirit! Our stony, stubborn heart was taken out. Now we have a tender, responsive heart. (Ezekiel 36:26) We may not have known that prior to today. We may not have been taught that prior to today. We may have been taught that but forgot about it. But today is a new day! Now we've heard it, seen it in His Word, and now we do it because we are wise! We immediately begin practicing what we learn, never to return to yesterday! (James 1:22, Isaiah 43:18, 19)

As we allow the Holy Spirit to systematically remove rocks (sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these)

from our lives, what is left is pure, fresh, life giving, mineral and nutrient filled soil (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control)!

He is the vine and we are the branches. We remain in Him, producing much fruit. Apart from Him, we can do nothing. Today is a new day. We've been taught the Word, we abide in Him, and we produce much fruit because He is teaching us to number our days and we are gaining a heart of wisdom! (James 1:22, Psalm 90:12)

We practically apply this to our daily lives in the following manner. When we are tempted to be hostile, we crucify that by producing gentleness. When we are tempted to quarrel, we nail that temptation to the cross and we replace quarreling with kindness! When we are tempted to operate in dissension, we refuse to feed the lustful nature. Instead we operate in the Spirit and pursue peace! (Psalm 34:14)

Brother Kenneth E. Hagin gives powerful advice in his book, Growing Up Spiritually. He writes about sitting at a table with his son and a pastor, when the pastor, "got to talking about some of the church members, airing some of their faults and failures.." Brother Hagin responded with, "I would rather you'd curse in front of him." (Hagin's son) "That wouldn't register on him." But for the twelve years I pastored, he always thought every member we ever had was an angel." "They weren't-any more than all his members were." "He never heard his parents say one word about any deacon, Sunday School teacher, superintendent, or church member. You need to be careful what you say around children, and other people as well." 

Interesting side note: 

In 2 Timothy 3:16 through 17 we are taught, "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work."

I believe it is important to deeply examine the fact that, sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, drunkenness, wild parties, are all clumped together in the same passage as hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy…….and other sins like these.

That's food for thought and a whole other blog post. 

Most loving, faithful, and gracious Heavenly Father, in the name of Jesus, we welcome You to come and excavate our hearts and our lives! Thank You for this wonderful new day, a new day to abide in You producing much fruit! Thank You for removing the rocks in our lives and replacing them with pure, fresh, life giving, mineral and nutrient filled soil! Instead of producing rocks, we shall produce life! We are hearing and doing Your teachings and we are gaining wisdom! We are building our homes on our Solid Rock! We operate in Your law of love completely excavating all religious law. We belong to You Christ Jesus and we have nailed the passions and desires of our sinful nature to the cross and crucified them there! We live by Your Spirit and we follow the Spirit's leading in every part of our lives! We are never conceited and we do not provoke one another! We continually stand amazed by You, King of all Kings, Jesus! 

Matthew 7:24:29
Galatians 5:19-26, NLT

Blackberry Patch Lessons

From time to time, we are blessed by a guest blog post. Enjoy the following by one of my sweetheart girlfriends, Shila Barker. Every summer, she picks blackberries then sends me mouth watering pictures of her bountiful harvest. 

Now THAT is a fine looking blackberry!

Recently she excitedly shared with me about what God had shown her in her blackberry patch.

Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing. (John 15:5, NLT)

I learned something in the berry patch today. We can think about fruit, talk about fruit, and plan for fruit all year long; but, if the vine or the connection to the vine isn't healthy, the fruit just won't produce. Connection to the vine is crucial. 

Pruning out unfruitful weeds (distractions, life sucking attachments) is absolutely necessary or even with the best intention, fruit won't produce properly. 

I am so thankful for a vine that is continually faithful to feed and nurture the branches where fruit almost effortlessly produces because of the massive love that flows through the vine!


In Him,
Shila Barker