The Great Escape

God responded to Elijah's requests immediately like Elijah responded to God's voice.  James says that Elijah channeled his emotions into prayer (not chasing his unfulfilled desires). In 1 Kings 18:36-37, the bases for Elijah's prayer was God's reputation. And it didn’t rain on the land for three and a half years.  18  Then he prayed again.  That time it rained.  God told Elijah when to pray for rain (I Kings 18:1).  And the earth produced its crops.  Praying like Elijah... 1. Train your spiritual ear to identify God's voice within you for God's specific will for you. 2. Compare God's voice within you with God's written word (the Bible) to verify alignment. 3. Obey God's voice immediately. 4. Pray to God as God's voice within you prompts you to pray. 5. As you respond to God's voice, expect God to respond to your request with the same urgency as you do to His. 6. Channel your passions into your pray...

4  Why do you fight and argue among yourselves?  In James Chapter 3, he described words being said in the Church with Satanic origin. Could it be that those words have now germinated into an actual physical fight?   Isn’t it because of your sinful desires?  After the Christians fled from Jerusalem after the stoning of Stephen, many left everything behind, and they are dealing with scarcity.   Some were attempting to take care of their own desparate needs by taking the resources of other Christians. They fight within you.  If Satanic thoughts birth Satanic words, what follows close behind is Satanic driven actions. 2  You want something, but you don’t have it.  When you are faced with scarcity and lack, what do you do? So you kill.  Could it be that Satanic thoughts have germinated Satanic actions up to and including murder?  In the Church?   You want what others have, but you can’t get what ...

3  My brothers and sisters,  most of you shouldn’t become teachers.  Apparently, most of James's readers were wanting to teach others (the Bible); however, James was warning them not to do so. That’s because you know that those of us who teach will be held more accountable.  Teachers are held to a higher standard by God  because they can impact a greater audience  positively (or negatively).  2  All of us get tripped up in many ways.  A person who is truly following the Lord can mess up occasionally.  Suppose someone is never wrong in what they say.  The major area of offense is what we say.   Then they are perfect (Mature).  The sign of spiritual maturity is managing our mouths. They are able to keep their whole body under control. If we can manage our months, then we can manage all our private and public behavior. 3  We put a small piece of metal in the mouth of a horse t...