The Balm Comes to Gilead

Jeremiah 8:18-22

In the 32nd chapter of Numbers, the tribes of Reuben, Gad and half the tribe of Manasseh, chose to take for their inheritance the land on the wilderness side of the Jordan, while God has promised the land on the other side to all 12 tribes. These tribes represent world-bordering Christians; not lost, but certainly not free.

The land that they take encompasses the land of Gilead (Numbers 32:1), which was known the world over for its balm. The balm was a turpentine-like resin that secreted from a tree grown only in Gilead. The resin held medicinal purposes and was worth twice its weight in silver. You recall that Joseph was sold into slavery in Genesis 37, and that it was traders from Gilead who bought him. They were no doubt carrying this balm to sell to the merchants in Egypt.

Jeremiah is speaking of the oppressive nations just outside of Israel, and of the spiritual sickness that prevails in the land. “The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved” speaks of the fact that no neighboring ally has come to the aid of Israel, and since armies cannot march in the winter and the summer is past, that means that no one is coming.

In this sorry state, he asks about the balm of Gilead. No physical balm can cure the ills of Israel, and no physician can take away her pain. It is going to take a medicine of a spiritual nature, and the hand of a Great Physician to eliminate Israel’s problems. Thank God that Physician was coming!

When Jesus journeys across the Sea of Galilee in Mark 5, He stops in the land of the Gadarenes. This land is home to the descendants of the tribe of Gad, who had co-inhabited with the Gentiles of the land of Gilead for centuries. The resultant peoples were idol worshippers, who sacrificed pigs to their many gods. A man lives there who has been dwelling in the grave yards, cutting himself, possessed with many demons. It is for this man that Jesus has arrived.

You know the story, how Christ delivers the man, and casts the demons into the swine. These pigs run into the sea and drown, destroying the entire sacrificial flock of the Gadarenes. One man is excited to be free while a nation is outraged at Jesus. The balm has finally arrived in Gilead, healing one, and causing a burning sensation in those who reject its powers.

Jesus is the balm of Gilead and He is ready to mend your sin-sick soul. If you do not know Him, all that you must do is believe Him as your savior and He will enter your heart, pouring His balm into the areas that need healing. If you are a child of God, the Great Physician is living in you, ready to bring His health and wholeness into every area of your life. Allow Him to mend your mind, your emotions, your hopes and your body. You are His child, even if you are bordering close to the world. He loves you and wants to bring His power into your life.

Go in the power of the balm today. Freely Christ gives His power. Freely you can receive.

A Reasonable God

Isaiah 1:18-20

The great British pastor G. Campbell Morgan was fond of relating a story that happened to him when he had just begun in the ministry. He was witnessing to a man whose argument against Christianity was that Jesus was unreasonable. “Confucius said, ‘Be just to your enemies’”, the man said. “But Jesus said, ‘Love your enemies’. That is an unreasonable command”, the man concluded. Morgan replied, “What if you could learn to love them?” to which the man responded, “Then I suppose they wouldn’t be your enemies anymore”. Morgan said, “Exactly”.

God can never truly be accused of being unreasonable. It was God that gave only one law to Adam and Eve in the Garden, and provided them with everything else free of charge. It was God that sent His Son into the world to meet the many demands of the Mosaic Law, to free man from its obligation. It was God that killed His own Son, so that no man would ever have to be held guilty for his own breaking of God’s Law. It was God that made grace available to the entire world, and did not charge them with labor or works, but asks only for faith. Again, no one who knows of these things could ever call God unreasonable.

It is the words of God that Isaiah pens in this passage, when God invites man to the bargaining table, “Come now”. This same spirit of openness and willingness is displayed by Jesus, when speaking to Jews who were burdened down with the many demands of the Law, He said, “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). God’s invitation to man includes, “let us reason together”. As any good deal-maker would do, God shows the benefits before listing demands.

He offers to cleanse the sins of man, though they are as scarlet. He furthers the promise by offering to make our sins, which are “red like crimson”, turn “as wool”. He is offering absolution; a chance to start fresh, with no marks against us. This is our chance to get rid of Adam’s mistake!

His conditions are listed in verses 19 and 20, “If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land: but if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it”. Man is ordered to be willing and obedient; otherwise God promises poverty, famine and death. These are God’s terms.

When Jesus speaks His words of invitation in Matthew 11, there are no such demands. In fact, He calls His yoke, “easy” and His burden “light”. Where are the demands that are attached to the blessing of no sins counted against us? The answer is the key to the New Covenant.

The sword that will devour the disobedient has already been turned on Jesus (Zechariah 13:7), not because He was disobedient, but because he “bore our sins in His own body upon the tree” (1 Peter 2:24). He took the brunt of God’s fiery judgment, and now you and I get the blessings of having our sins washed away. Look at what the Psalmist says, as quoted by the Apostle Paul:

“Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin” (Romans 4:8).

Just how reasonable is God? Even when He appears unfair in His justice, He is equally “unfair” in His redemption. All men are declared sinners because one man sinned, thus the sinner cries, “Unfair!” Due to Christ’s finished work, all men are declared righteous because one Man is righteous. Perhaps the saint should cry “Unfair!” as well. It is simply not fair that He sees me as righteous simply because I have placed my faith in Jesus. Now that is a reasonable God!

The Secret of the Stairs

Song of Solomon 2:14, 15

Basically a love letter between Solomon and one of his wives, the Song of Solomon is an often overlooked literary masterpiece. The language shifts between husband and wife without warning, and is filled with metaphors that have lost their meaning nearly 3,000 years after they were penned, but at its core, the Song is a letter between Christ and His church. Every verse that is from the husband is Christ speaking love into the ear of His bride, and every verse from the bride is the church worshipping her redeemer.

The phrase, “thou art” in verse 14 is italicized, indicating that it was not in the original Hebrew. When removed, along with “places” a little later, the meaning becomes a bit clearer:

“O my dove, in the clefts of the rock, in the secret of the stairs, let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice; for sweet thy voice, and thy countenance comely” (verse 14).

The bride is speaking of the husband, calling Him “dove”. When Christ was baptized at Jordan, the Spirit descended in the form of a dove, showing the gentleness of God’s nature (Matthew 3:16). Then the bride places herself in “the clefts of the rock”, and in “the secret of the stairs”.

The cleft of the rock is a natural indention which provides safety from the storm and the waves. Paul said that Christ is the Rock, “And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ” (1 Corinthians 10:4). The clefts in the Rock are the wounds of His hands and His feet. These wounds were placed there for you and for me, and we have our healing and wholeness in Christ and His finished work. We can rest in the pierced Christ, for His indentions are the clefts that provide for us.

The secret of the stairs is a glorious one that only the redeemed can know. These stairs are like a hidden passageway that provides access into the very throne room of the king. When a believer rests in Christ, he gains access to the Father to make all of his petitions known, where he can see the countenance of God (verse 14). Paul said that, “Through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father” (Ephesians 2:18).

When you use this secret access, which is free to the believer through faith, you see the face of God. His countenance shines upon you, and He willingly gives you all that you need. When Moses asked to see God in the Old Testament, God placed him in the cleft of the rock and then covered Moses’ eyes with His hand, so that Moses could only see God walk away (Exodus 33:22). When Solomon wrote his song, he appeals forward to the New Covenant, when the cleft of the rock will lead to a secret staircase, where believers can go and see the countenance of God. That fulfillment came when a little woman with an issue of blood grabbed the hem of Jesus’ garment as He walked away. In the Old Testament, God is always walking away, but when Jesus came, He turned and looked the woman in the eye. Christ always lets us see His face, and God is no longer walking away. Praise the Lord!

You have access to everything that you need today believer. Rest in the cleft of Jesus’ wounds, which He bore for you, and go boldly to your Father to see His loving countenance for you.

Cast Your Bread on the Waters

Ecclesiastes 11:1-4

Some things in life just must be done. We must brush our teeth unless we want them to rot out of our head. We must fill our car with gas unless we want to be stranded by a useless vehicle. We must reap the harvest unless we want to starve.

Solomon wrote that if a man observes the wind, he won’t sow his seed. If a man looks at the clouds, he may not reap his harvest. Sowing must be done, whether there is wind or not, and reaping must be done, whether there is rain coming or not. Looking at the circumstances will change nothing, so just do what must be done.

In regards to helping your fellow man, or giving to those in need, we must often do what must be done, with little regard as to the circumstances. Jesus told us in Matthew 10:42, “Whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward”. Even if the giving of this gift is not done in church, or in an offering, it is still a precious gift, and you will not lose your reward.

When we “cast our bread upon the waters”, we are letting it flow down the river, going where it needs to go. And just as it is nearly impossible to pull something back once the river begins to take it where it may, we must give in similar fashion into the work of the Lord; with no strings attached. Don’t give with a demand put on your gift that you must have a say as to how it is used and where it goes. If you cannot give into the work of a ministry that you trust, you shouldn’t give anyhow. Paul told New Testament believers to give, “not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loves a cheerful giver” (2 Corinthians 9:7).

The Psalmist said that a man that disperses goods to the poor will be exalted with honor (Psalms 112:9). When Solomon spoke of helping others, he knew that you would not always know the outcome, nor would you always receive benefit yourself. Sometimes we give to others, and get nothing in return, yet we give anyhow because we know the evil that abounds on the earth, and we may be of some comfort to someone in our gift. This is why he says, “withhold not thine hand” (Ecclesiastes 11:6).

If you give for no other reason, give for the great things that Christ has done for you. Remember that Abraham paid tithes to Melchizedek in response to Melchizedek bringing forth bread and wine (Genesis 14:18). As soon as Abraham had a revelation of the Body and the Blood, giving became easy. You cannot pay God back, neither should you try, but you do owe a debt of love to the whole world. When you see opportunity today to be a giver, take that opportunity. It will not only brighten your day, but it may make all of the difference to one who is hurting.

“Give a portion to seven, and also to eight; for thou knowest not what evil shall be upon the earth” (Ecclesiastes 11:2).

Mercy and Truth for Them; Grace and Truth for Us

Proverbs 3:3-6

“Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart:” (Proverbs 3:3). The combination of the words “mercy” and “truth” is not unique to this passage. It is actually a very common theme particularly of Psalms and Proverbs, often used to describe God’s dealings with man. His mercy is described as “everlasting” and His truth as enduring to “all generations” (Psalms 100:5).

This combination is foreign however to the New Testament, not being used even once. The closest that we get is 2 John 1:3, when the Apostle John uses the two words in the same verse, but not in connection with one another. The New Testament equivalent of this phrase is found in John’s writing as well, this time in his gospel:

“For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ” (John 1:17).

Notice that instead of truth coupled with mercy, it is now joined with “grace”, and the method of this combination coming to us is not given through a doctrine, but is brought by the man, Jesus Christ. We know that Jesus is truth, for He told us as much in John 14:6, but why the change from “mercy” to “grace”?

In the Old Testament, man was judged by his keeping or breaking of God’s law. This is the same law that our previous verse told us was “given by Moses”. This law was so holy, just and good that men could not possibly keep it, so they were constantly seeking God for forgiveness by the offering of sacrifices. If not for the mercy of God, man would have gotten what he deserved many times over. God never ceased to be “true” to His holy nature, even though He was merciful to mankind.

When Christ met all of the demands of the law, He offered Himself as a sacrifice for the sin of the whole world, satisfying the anger of His Father (1 John 2:2). While mercy is us not getting what we deserve, grace is us getting what we could never deserve. The cross is what we deserved, for it was death for sin, but God’s mercy killed Jesus instead of us. God’s unconditional love and favor is what we can never deserve, but the cross brought us those things and God calls it grace. With no law to keep in order to please God, we now walk in His grace and truth, thus the New Testament preaches these concepts for the believer.

When you function under His grace, you are giving Him your whole heart, and not leaning to your own understanding (Psalm 3:5). The more we learn this dependency, or “learn to lean”, the clearer that His path will become, leading us to even more of His glory and grace.

Thank the Lord today for His mercy which has spared you from judgment. Thank Him as well for His grace and truth, which has given you all things and blessed you with joy unspeakable.

Like A Tree Planted By the Water

Psalm 1:1-6

Some of my earliest memories from growing up in church are the songs that we sang each week from the old hymn books. One of those songs was titled, “I Shall Not Be Moved”, and it contained a line from the 1st Psalm:

I shall not be, I shall not be moved;
I shall not be, I shall not be moved;
Just like a tree that's planted by the waters,
Lord, I shall not be moved.

The line, “I shall not be moved” is actually from Psalm 62:6, but I have always had the imagery in my head of a tree planted by the waters because of that chorus. As I grew older I learned that a tree planted next to running water is not nearly as solid as one farther away, because the roots of the river tree do not run deep; they don’t need to, there is plenty of water on the surface. Actually, the tree planted by the water often has too much water, and many species cannot grow there at all.

It was many years before I realized that when the Psalmist wrote of this tree, he was not writing of its immovability, that was the songwriter’s vision. David was writing of a tree that has such a constant water source that it is always bringing forth fruit when it is time; its leaves are healthy and colorful and people can find rest beneath its prosperous branches.

Jesus stood in the temple in Jerusalem on the 8th day of the Feast of Tabernacles, and as the high priest poured the water from the pool of Siloam, out of the golden vessel and onto the altar, He shouted, “If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water” (John 7:37, 38). When we accept Christ, the Holy Spirit is our river, bringing forth streams in the desert of man’s existence (Isaiah 35:6). When we delight in the law of Christ and meditate on him, we are truly blessed (Psalm 1:1, 2).

The three characteristics of this tree by the water are that it produces fruit, it is an evergreen and whatever it does shall prosper. These three things are better characterized by three distinct trees: the fig, the olive tree and the vine. The fig produces fruit, the olive tree is an evergreen and the vine produces wine which represents prosperity. We can break it down further by seeing that the fig tree represents righteousness; the olive branch represents peace and the vine produces the wine that brings joy. Based upon this information, this tree brings righteousness, peace and joy. Now look at Paul’s description of the kingdom of God:

“For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost” (Romans 14:17).

In the water of the Spirit, there is a boldness that enables the Christian to stand in the face of giants and enemies. When the sinner comes before the Judgment of God, they will fall prostrate in humiliation and guilt, but the Psalmist says that the Lord knows the way of the righteous (Psalm 1:5, 6), and John commented that we can have boldness in the Day of Judgment, because as Jesus is, so are we in this world (1 John 4:17). In other words, we have nothing to fear of God or His Son; we have been partaking in His goodness our entire Christian lives.

May God’s abundant grace follow you today as you grow in the knowledge of who you are in Christ.

Don't Blame God

Job 1:9-12

The book of Job gives us an inside look at the throne room of God, prior to Jesus’ death at the cross. The first two chapters describe the sons of God and Satan appearing before the Lord, with Satan having just returned from “going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it” (1:7). The Lord asks Satan if he has considered Job, and Satan responds that Job is good because he is blessed, and that if the Lord would attack Job, he would turn on him. Notice that God doesn’t go after Job, but allows Satan to, telling him, “All that he hath is in thy power; only upon himself put not forth thine hand” (1:12). Later, God will allow Satan to physically harm Job, but not to kill him (2:6).

The Lord did not have to allow the reader to see these events transpire, but He obviously wants you to know that everything that is about to happen to Job will happen as a result of Satan’s attacks. Satan has challenged God’s ability to make a man righteous by faith, as Ezekiel will tell us that Job is (Ezekiel 14:14, 20). The entire book of Job is the playing out of this challenge, and Job passes to perfection, never once doing what Satan said that he would do, which was curse God to His face.

Look at how quickly those men blame God for things that He does not do. When fire falls from the sky and burns up the sheep and the servants of Job, only one man escapes to tell it as, “The fire of God is fallen from heaven” (Job 1:16). Why does he assume that it is the fire of God? Why do insurance companies call tornadoes, hurricanes and earthquakes, “Acts of God”? The scripture clearly shows that God gave Satan all power as it regarded Job (Job 1:12). To this day, a great trick of the enemy is to convince people that the things that he does are actually being done by God.

Job did not see the events of chapters one and two, but he refuses to believe that God is angry with him. His testimony is solid as he identifies the source of these problems, “God hath delivered me to the ungodly, and turned me over into the hands of the wicked” (Job 16:11). He knows that it is an attack of Satan, not the righteous retribution of God, stating that these things were, “Not for any injustice in mine hands: also my prayer is pure” (Job 16:17).

The strength of Job’s character is in his faith in the virtue of God, and in a coming redeemer. He knows that he has trusted God, and he believes that God is faithful to that trust, stating, “My witness is in heaven, and my record is on high” (16:19). Then, in a look forward to the New Covenant, he pleads for what you and I have, “O that one might plead for a man with God, as a man pleadeth for his neighbor!” (Job 16:21) Saint, you and I have this one to plead for us with God, and His name is Jesus (1 John 2:1).

God rewards this faith by giving Job a glimpse of his soon coming redeemer, and the blessed assurance that Job will meet Jesus in heaven:

“For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God” (Job 19:25, 26).

The believer should have confidence that whatever they are going through shall pass, and that their redeemer is their constant advocate before the Father. He lives, and you shall live with Him!

Require Nothing and Get Grace and Favor

Esther 2:15-17

There is no mention of God in the book of Esther, but that does not mean that His influence is not felt. The book centers on the title character, and her rise from obscurity to queen in the court of Persian king Ahasuerus (Xerxes). Her ascension to the throne provides relief for her people, the Jews, who have been scattered in this foreign land, and are under threat of death by a maniacal servant of the king named Haman.

When the king becomes infuriated by the insolence of his wife, the queen Vashti, he appoints officers to go to all 127 provinces in the kingdom and gather the fairest young virgins to be brought to his palace at Shushan, and placed under the custody of his chamberlain, the eunuch Hegai. Hegai is in charge of preparing the women with whatever they desire, in order to present them, one by one to the king. The king will then choose one of these women to replace Vashti as the new queen over all of the land.

When it was Esther’s turn to prepare for the king, she asked for nothing, but took whatever recommendations were given to her by Hegai, the king’s chamberlain. As chamberlain, Hegai was the keeper of the bedroom of the king, and he had a better knowledge than anyone as to what the king desired in a woman. When Esther asks for nothing but Hegai’s advice, she obtains, “favor in the sight of all of them that looked upon her” (2:15).

The king loved Esther above all of the other women, “and she obtained grace and favor in his sight” (verse 17). In both Hebrew and Greek, the definition for grace is “favor”. Paul uses that thought when he tells believers that they should reign in this life because they have received “abundance of grace” (Romans 5:17). The power to reign in life over all vice, sin and sickness is found in receiving the abundant grace of God in every area.

How does one receive that abundance of grace? I believe that the answer is found in how Esther prepared herself for her night with the king. Christ is our “king”, and we want to be well-pleasing to Him. When the Holy Spirit, who knows what is pleasing to Christ, begins to work in us, we are better served to allow Him full control. When we require nothing more than what the Holy Spirit wishes to bring out of us, we will be in a position to receive, and walk in, God’s abundant grace and favor.

When our flesh enters the picture, and we try to work things out with our carnal minds, we grow frustrated, and produce dead works (Romans 8:5-7; Galatians 5:19-21). When the Spirit does the work, the branch produces fruit, and we walk in the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-25).

Grace and favor are yours today, by the price paid by Jesus at the cross. You have the hand of God leading and guiding you, providing you with all good things. God is on your side, ready to fight your battles, so relax in His peace, let the Holy Spirit do the work and you do as Esther, put on the royal crown.

Far As the Curse Is Found

Nehemiah 10:28, 29

The great hymn writer Isaac Watts penned the words to “Joy to the World”, nearly 300 years ago. I do not know if he intended for it to be used primarily as a Christmas song, but I do know that it is full of theology. The third verse in particular, emphasizes a point that I believe should be brought to light often:

No more let sins and sorrows grow,
Nor thorns infest the ground;
He comes to make His blessings flow
Far as the curse is found,
Far as the curse is found,
Far as, far as, the curse is found.

With the arrival of Jesus and His subsequent death on the cross, we now have the power to “no more let sins and sorrows grow”, but we do still have thorns infesting the ground. However, the price paid by Christ with His precious blood has given us a guarantee that someday all of the curse against this earth will be lifted (Revelation 22:3), and that His blessings will truly flow, “Far as the curse is found”.

Man has had the knowledge of the curse on the ground, and the sorrow of sin, since the fall of Adam in the Garden of Eden, but he has not had the knowledge of the curse of the law forever. Until Moses gave the law, sin was not imputed (Romans 5:13), though it did exist. With the advent of the law, came the knowledge of sin (Romans 3:20), and the oppressive weight of the curse of death.

Fourteen years after the return of Ezra to Jerusalem, Nehemiah led up a company of Israelites to restore the walls and civil authority. The book that bears his name is the record of those events, and its ninth chapter is the prayer of repentance by the people, while they observe the Feast of Tabernacles. The 10th chapter opens with the people and the priesthood signing a covenant, which they have written, basically, promising God that they will not sin again, and verse 29 describes what this covenant represented:

“They clave to their brethren, their nobles, and entered into a curse, and into an oath, to walk in God’s law which was given by Moses the servant of God, and to observe and do all the commandments of the Lord our Lord, and his judgments and his statutes.”

The moment that Israel entered into this covenant, they identify it as a curse! This covenant is not a blessing; it is a curse, which is exactly what breaking the law brings. It is viewed as a curse because the people were confident in only one thing when they entered into it: they could not keep it.

For the believer under the New Covenant, we have the assurance that God has removed the curse of the law from us, because Jesus took the curse upon himself (Galatians 3:13). The Father did not cut covenant with you and I, because we are notorious for not keeping our end of the deal, so He cut the covenant with His Son (Galatians 3:16). Now, you and I have no fear of the curse when we fail because Jesus has taken the curse for us.

May His blessings flow for you today, “far as the curse is found”.

Stir Up The Gift

2 Timothy 1:6, 7

From time to time, it is necessary for us to “stir up” that which is inside of us. Paul tells Timothy to “stir up the gift of God” which is in him. This is the only usage of this phrase in the Greek in the entire New Testament, and it means “to rekindle anew” or “to enflame one’s mind or strength or zeal”. When Peter makes a similar statement in 2 Peter 3:1, he uses a different word in the Greek for “stir up”, meaning “to wake one’s mind”. Peter is saying “wake up”, while Paul is saying, “fire up”!

I believe that the gift or at least a portion of the gift, which Paul is speaking of in this text, is the gift of speaking with other tongues. I lean to this belief because it is the one gift of the gifts of the Spirit that the Bible specifically says can be used whenever you like (1 Corinthians 14:15), and it is the one that is used to build up the speaker (14:2).

The encouragement to use the gift is followed by, “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind” (2 Timothy 1:7). “For God…” shows us that the previous verse is linked to this one. Whatever the gift is inside of Timothy, it holds the answer that overcomes the spirit of fear. In that gift, is the power and love and sound mind that Paul says that we have received.

When you pray in tongues, you are communicating with God in your prayer language. You are praying in words that you do not know, and it is the Spirit in you that is making intercession (Romans 8:26). These prayers can be long or short, there are no rules that govern how you pray in your own prayer time, but they will always edify and build you up. The reason for that is found in verse 7.

God has not given us the spirit of fear, so any fear that we have cannot be from Him, but must be from the enemy. Instead, He has given us power, love and a sound mind. These three gifts from God are stirred within us every time that we “stir up the gift”.

God’s power begins to move in situations when we pray in the Spirit. That power enables us to do what we could not do on our own, independent of fear of failure. This power overcomes the enemy and glorifies the Father.

The love of God flows outward from us whenever we stir up the gift, for He teaches us to love in ways that we do not know. You cannot love by force, there must be something that motivates you or “turns you on” to love something or someone. Christ is that something and praying in the Spirit stirs His love up in you.

Finally, the sound mind is such a glorious promise, because the battlefield of the mind is where so many saints are losing. The phrase in the Greek actually means “self-control”. Many people have told me, “Pastor, I feel like I am losing control. I can’t even think straight.” This is an attack of the enemy meant to frighten and confuse. Use your prayer language to bring sanity back into your soul, and watch as your mind calms and begins to think on the things of the Spirit.
I pray God’s abundant blessings on you today as you walk in Him.