"How God Sees Us in Our Struggles"
Bill Yount, Hagerstown, MD
December 20, 2018
From the Desk of Steve Shultz:
I know some of you want to get FREE of some things you've been struggling with...some of these things you've battled for years!
But I want you to take heart...beause God SEES your struggles and it's important that you also SEE as God does.
In this latest article, Bill Yount shares this most encouraging word about our struggles:
I believe this coming year will be a landmark for many who will break free from their struggles. Those who have cried out to the Lord for many years and yet are still bound will discover deliverance just because they didn't quit trusting the Lord for their victory. Although some will have instant deliverance, others will know they were being weaned from their bondage. Remember in our struggles we, as Believers, are not sinners struggling to become saints, we are saints struggling against sin.
Amen...take great comfort and heart in that. I encourage you that no matter what you are struggling with HOPE in God and His deliverance are on the way. (To Subscribe to the Elijah List subscribe here.)
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Steve Shultz, Founder and Publisher
The Elijah List & Breaking Christian News
http://www.elijahlist.com
The Elijah List & Breaking Christian News
http://www.elijahlist.com
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"How God Sees Us in Our Struggles"
Bill Yount, Hagerstown, MD
You ARE Making Progress
For many who feel they go one step forward in the Lord and then two steps backward, be encouraged. I sense the Lord saying, "I count the one foot forward and two steps backward as forward progress."
In football, when the team needs one yard for a first down and the player carries the ball forward one yard yet gets pushed back two yards, it's still marked as a first down. They call this forward progress and so does the Lord. He counts your one step forward, not your push backs.
I'm convinced that many who feel like quitting are actually making progress.
"Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." (Philippians 3:13-14 KJV)
The Lord Sees Your Victory Before You See Your Struggle
"You are my King and my God, who decrees victories for Jacob." (Psalm 44:4 NIV)
Many years ago at a Russ Bixler miracle meeting in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, I stood in proxy (stood in the place of) for my father, who for twenty five years, couldn't stop smoking cigarettes. When I arrived home, my father was in the living room watching television. I whispered to my mother in the kitchen what I had done for my dad so he would stop smoking. I didn't know he overheard me telling mom.
He walked into our kitchen and said, "Maybe that's the reason when I lit up a cigarette about eight o'clock this evening it didn't taste right, so I put it out." Dad never smoked another cigarette the rest of his life! It was the same time I stood in proxy for him that evening sixty miles away.
On the other hand my mother, who was bound by cigarettes, fought the craving for 16 years. Each time she was tempted she would go down to the basement of our home to an old box of jars and would kneel down, crying out to the Lord for deliverance. Finally after sixteen years the craving left her. I believe now that God wasn't counting the years she couldn't stop smoking but only the sixteenth year when she overcame it.
The Lord for some reason knew something good was happening in her as a result of persevering. During this time my mother learned compassion for people who struggled in their weaknesses and many were delivered before she was, for she knew how to pray for them as one of them.
He is Weaning Many from Their Struggles
I believe this coming year will be a landmark for many who will break free from their struggles. Those who have cried out to the Lord for many years and yet are still bound will discover deliverance just because they didn't quit trusting the Lord for their victory. Although some will have instant deliverance, others will know they were being weaned from their bondage.
Remember in our struggles we, as Believers, are not sinners struggling to become saints, we are saints struggling against sin.
My mother had major heart bypass surgery in her 70s. The doctors came to us in the waiting area and told us these words: "Because of what your mother has just been through, she's not going to look very good to you, but she looks great to us because of what she's been through."
I sense many reading this article feel like they are not doing well at all in their own eyes and also as a result of what the enemy and what other people are saying to them. But I hear the Father saying, "Because of what you've been through, you look great to Me." Many who feel like fainting are actually doing well from what God sees.
The Lord takes in to account what we have been through and what we are presently battling. He understands why we are struggling. He remembers all of our struggles from the womb to the present day. The One, who numbers the hairs on our head and knows our every weakness, knows us best and loves us most. When everything is against us, He isn't.
Amazing Grace Is When We Think We Have Blown It
"Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into Heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet He did not sin. Let us then approach God's throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need." (Hebrews 4:14-16)
Are you still struggling against sin? IF so be encouraged, because that means you haven't quit. When you quit is when you are in trouble.
You are Crucified with Christ
Remember, you've been crucified with Christ. You were nailed to the Cross with Him. No matter how much your old nature acts like it's still alive, it's dead. You are dead—dead to sin but alive unto God... You are free before you are free because of Calvary. You are free indeed. Go ahead and live unto God.
"I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me." (Galatians 2:20 KJV)
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Bill Yount
Blowing the Shofar Ministry
Email: theshofarhasblown@juno.
Website: www.billyount.com
Bill Yount has been a member of Bridge of Life Church in Hagerstown, Maryland for the past 40 years where he is in leadership. He faithfully served in Prison Ministry at Mount Hope Inc. for 23 years and now travels full-time, ministering in churches and Aglow circles. He is currently an Advisor at Large for Aglow International and is also a member of the Apostolic Company of Alliance International Ministries.
Bill's calling is to encourage the Body of Christ to move forward into God's destiny as they are sent into the harvest field. "Humility and Humor" characterize his ministry as he brings forth a fresh word that is "in season" proclaiming the Word of the Lord!
The shofar or (ram's horn) is at times used in his meetings, breaking the powers of darkness over regions, churches and households. The shofar represents God's breath blowing into the nostrils of His people, reviving them and awakening the lost as he travels across the U.S.
Many of God's messages which Bill ministers prophetically, come out of everyday life with his family and friends. Bill is also a member of the Apostolic Company of Alliance International Ministries.
