Getting Things Done With the Holy Spirit - Dr. Steve Greene CHARISMA NEWS

Have you learned the value of quick retrieval? (iStock photo )

Getting Things Done With the Holy Spirit

10/23/2015 DR. STEVE GREENE  charisma news

The key to effective organization is a good filing system.

A cottage industry was launched with the publication of David Allen's book, Getting Things Done. Allen's system is rich with ideas and tools for stress-free productivity. The system offers specific advice managing inboxes, to-do lists, projects, filing and calendar management.

The industry is commonly referred to as GTD. Google "GTD" and a list of how-to articles and a sea of apps will quickly appear on your monitor. Many people claim that GTD is cumbersome and difficult. The book was first published in 2002 and birthed as many loyalists as detractors.

According to Allen, "GTD is about creating mental space. You can't manage time. Time just is."

While I'm not a fan of the GTD system as a whole, I profited from learning about his filing system. Paper tends to clutter around me. I don't like to throw things away. I'm nervous I will need everything, every day.

The key to a good filing system is not getting stuff off the desk. It's all about quick retrieval. I once felt if I filed a document, I would never see it again. That feeling created piles of paper throughout my office. (I still fight my tendency to NOT file.)

But I have learned the value of fast retrieval.

When I need a document, I want it now. If I could regain the years I've wasted in "looking for stuff," I would live a full century.

Quick retrieval is a life skill. I believe it is a spiritual gift as well.

Every day we must retrieve priorities, intentions, prayer time, book pages and notes about what I need to retrieve.

I've been amazed and thankful of how the Holy Spirit reminds me of the Word which is hidden in my heart. When teaching, coaching or leading, I'm thankful for the Word that comes to me. I tend to speak from my own "Compiled Version" of the Bible as I have learned verses from many different translations. I'm not always sure which version the Holy Spirit is reminding me to use. But, it is useful in helping me to remember the approximate decade I learned the verses.

Lately, I've been more aware of my need to retrieve notes and ideas given to me by the Holy Spirit. I know when the Holy Spirit is leading me. I know His voice. And, I want to capture the takeaways. I want to keep His voice ringing in my ears. Lead me, Holy Spirit.

Slow me down.

Help me to set aside tech distractions.

Teach me to free my mind to "think on these things." 

Guide me to quickly retrieve that which is of You.

"But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, will teach you everything and remind you of all that I told you" (John 14:26).

Dr. Steve Greene is the publisher and executive vice president—Media Group, Charisma Media. Sign up here for Dr. Greene's leadership e-newsletter.

For a limited time, we are extending our celebration of the 40th anniversary of Charisma. As a special offer, you can get 40 issues of Charisma magazine for only $40!

NEW - Life in the Spirit is your Spirit-filled teaching guide. Encounter the Holy Spirit, hear God speak to you, and enjoy timeless teachings on love, mercy and forgiveness.LEARN MORE!

How to Win the Battle of Sexual Temptation

How do you fight the battle of sexual temptation? (iStock photo )

How to Win the Battle of Sexual Temptation

 9/24/2015 BJ FOSTER/ALLPRODAD.COM  charisma magazine

When World War I broke out, new military technologies were brought to the battlefields. Tragically, military leaders continued to use outdated strategies leading to catastrophic outcomes.

Open-field charges of enemy position may have worked in the 19th century, but in the new era of the machine gun, it was a disaster. War became more complex and new fighting techniques needed to be adopted.

Our world continues to change every day requiring us to adapt, particularly with technology. One of the biggest dangers to marriages is in the area of sexual temptation. It leads to relational issues and, too often, failed marriages.

This has been true throughout history. However, changing definitions of appropriate clothing and the emerging media-saturated culture filled with sexually charged images have made the battlefield more complex.

Recently, All Pro Dad Founder Mark Merrill spoke with Steve Arterburn, author of Every Man's Battle: Winning the War on Sexual Temptation One Victory at a Time. Mr. Arterburn has counseled numerous men and women on this issue on the front lines. He shared with us some important ways of fighting temptation that will lead to more fulfilling relationships.

Here's how to win the battle:

Building Restraint

Fighting temptation starts by building the discipline of restraint. Those who desire to resist sexual temptation must possess the ability to deny themselves instant pleasures. That ability doesn't just appear, it needs to be built. Think about it like training for a marathon. No one can run twenty-six miles without doing many smaller distance runs that lead up to it. Eventually, muscles and endurance are strengthened for the longer runs. Building up the ability to resist sexual temptation starts with practicing small denials.

Consistent small acts of discipline become habits that form strong character.

Control Your Eyes

Images you view will form a photo album or video library in your brain. The more time you spend looking at something the more those pictures become vividly clear and permanent. That library profoundly affects our feelings and attitudes, particularly about our spouses. It becomes easy to compare them to the images we house. Practice the discipline of bouncing your eyes away from things that awaken sexual desire apart from your spouse. Reserve those looks for what belongs to you—your wife. Looking solely to her to awaken those desires will increase your wife's attractiveness in your mind make it easier to connect.

Protect the Mind

There are thoughts, images, and ideas that will enter our minds. When they do, we have a decision to make. We can either continue to think about them or escort them out. The problem occurs when we get a tempting or potentially destructive thought that we nurture rather than eliminate. If there are things that enter your mind that don't belong there, practice the discipline of stopping the thought process and changing it to something else. Perhaps shift the focus again to your spouse, God, or other things that are right to think about.

Be Open and Honest

Finally, it's easy to justify something that is happening inside your head. The problem is that those attitudes never stop in the inside. They eventually find their way to the surface in attitudes of discontentment and coldness with a spouse. Even if those attitudes are ever so slight, they push couples in a direction of disconnection. First, be honest with yourself about the impact of giving in to sexual temptation.

Next, find a friend or group of guys that you can be open with about how you are doing in building these disciplines. Give them authority to hold you accountable to living a higher standard and provide them with the same encouragement. We were never meant to do this alone.

If you would like to listen to the interview of Steve Arterburn by All Pro Dad Founder Mark Merrill, click here.

BJ Foster is the Content Manager for All Pro Dad and a married father of two. For the original article, visit allprodad.com.

For a limited time, we are extending our celebration of the 40th anniversary of Charisma. As a special offer, you can get 40 issues of Charisma magazine for only $40!

NEW - Life in the Spirit is your Spirit-filled teaching guide. Encounter the Holy Spirit, hear God speak to you, and enjoy timeless teachings on love, mercy and forgiveness.LEARN MORE!

How to Break Free From Sexual Bondage by KIMBERLY L. RAY (SpiritLed Woman)

How to Break Free From Sexual Bondage

3/17/2014 KIMBERLY L. RAY

One day the Lord spoke to me and said that one of the greatest problems the people of God are encountering is that the door to the imagination has remained open. God spent a lot of time in His Word warning us about the things we allow ourselves to see. That’s because our eye gates open the windows to our souls. We connect directly with the things we observe with our eyes.

The Bible tells us, “The light of the body is the eye; if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be full of evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee is darkness, how great is that darkness!” (Matt. 6:22-23).

Everyday we decide what we will entertain. There are those who have a made-up mind to live holy and acceptable unto the Lord. They make a concerted effort to consistently keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord. But there are others who live to satisfy their flesh, seeking their own pleasure. They may be Christians, but they are following a soulish path and are fulfilling the desires of the flesh rather than the will of God.

The soul is comprised of the mind, the will, and the emotions. The Bible tells us, “They that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace” (Rom. 8:5-6). Notice that the verse says those who are after the flesh “do mind the things of the flesh.” What we dwell on will lead us either to death or to life and peace.

Our greatest battle is in the mind! The mind is quite unique because it stores information and recalls it like a computer. This is one reason it is so important to screen the things you see and hear. Entertaining the soulish realm with constant lustful images opens the door to demonic activity and fleshly battles.

There are many carnally minded Christians. To be carnal means to be led by the appetites of the unsanctified, materialistic flesh. There are many Christians whose flesh is stronger than their spirits.

These individuals usually walk in compromise as well. Compromise is a silent endorsement of the world’s ways and a consent to walk according to its standards. After giving in to compromise for so long, eventually love for the world will dominate the spirit and outweigh love for the Father.

Second Corinthians 10:4-5 tells is, “(For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds’) casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.” The Lord wants us to rise up and take authority over the flesh!

We can pull down every stronghold by applying the powerful shed blood of Jesus to our minds and thoughts. We can bind the work of the enemy in our thought life (Matt. 18:18), and we can overcome the works of the flesh by bringing the flesh into subjection to the Spirit.

The apostle Paul wrote, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be ye not conformed to this world; but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable, and perfect will of God.” (Rom. 12:1-2).

Dying to self is not easy, and it may require times of fasting and prayer. Fasting humbles the soul and brings the flesh into subjection to the spirit. When we fast, we deny the flesh and feed the spirit. Self-denial strengthens the Spirit of Christ within us, deepens our walk with the Lord, and empowers our prayer life.

Whatever you feed the most will grow. If you feed the spirit with prayer and Bible study, it will flourish. But if you spend more time feeding the flesh and the carnal sin nature, the flesh will dominate.

Many people have found themselves in sexual bondage because they feed their flesh with pornographic images. The spirit of lust uses pornography to create an intense sexual desire or appetite. The spirit of lasciviousness creates an insatiable desire to satisfy those lewd and lustful desires. This is how viewing porn becomes addictive. After seeing a little, people are driven to see more until they feel unable to stop.

Sexual bondage can be broken in the name of Jesus. In my book I have included a prayer for those making intercession on another’s behalf, as well as a prayer for the individual in crisis. We can pray for others and God will answer, but in order to remain free, the individual must abandon the activity that opened the door to the enemy.

Nothing is hopeless. We serve an all-powerful God, and He can do the impossible. We can learn to pray for ourselves and be set free by the power of Christ, and we can also stage an intervention—a spiritual intervention—and bombard heaven for those in trouble.

Adapted from Spiritual Intervention, by Kimberly L. Ray, copyright 2014, published by Charisma House. This book will help you launch successful prayer and intercession for yourself and others. To order your copy click on this link.

One of the four Evangelist daughters of the late Dr. Angie Ray, Founder of Angie Ray Ministries, “Church on the Rock” of Matteson, Illinois,Kimberly L. Ray is a woman after God’s own heart, seeking to lead the people of God by providing strategies and tools to empower the church to be efficient in the ministry of intercession and deliverance.

Prayer Power for the Week of 03/17/14

This week, make up your mind to consistently keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord and not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. Ask the Lord to help you screen the things you see and hear, and direct you into the discipline of fasting so that your flesh can be subject to your spirit which is subject to Christ, your walk in the Lord can be deepened and your prayers more empowered.

Thank Him that nothing is hopeless or impossible with Him. Continue to pray for revival to ignite in our churches, across the nation and around the world. Pray that our leaders would seek and heed God’s direction and wisdom. Pray for those persecuted for His Name’s sake, the peace of Jerusalem, those suffering great losses as a result of recent weather conditions, the families of those missing in the Malaysian aircraft, our military and their families. Ask the Lord to show you how you can pray and be a blessing to those in need (2 Cor. 10:4-5; Matt. 18:18; Ps. 122:6).

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The Lion's Den - Now Think On This by Steve Martin

The Lion's Den

Now Think On This

by Steve Martin

“Then the king arose at dawn, at the break of day, and went in haste to the lions' den. When he had come near the den to Daniel, he cried out with a troubled voice. The king spoke and said to Daniel, "Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, whom you constantly serve, been able to deliver you from the lions?"

Then Daniel spoke to the king, "O king, live forever! "My God sent His angel and shut the lions' mouths and they have not harmed me, inasmuch as I was found innocent before Him; and also toward you, O king, I have committed no crime."

Then the king was very pleased and gave orders for Daniel to be taken up out of the den. So Daniel was taken up out of the den and no injury whatever was found on him, because he had trusted in his God.” (Daniel 6:19-24 NASU)

We are all quite familiar with the story of the Jewish young man Daniel, who was with those taken captive from Jerusalem by the Babylonians during the reign of King Nebuchadnezzar. Born in 623 BC, he was raised in Jerusalem before the captivity. During his teen years there in that foreign land, in what is now Iran and Iraq, he was educated in Chaldean thought. However, he never converted to Neo-Babylonian ways, but held to the true convictions in his godly heart.

A time came when the king ordered all of his subjects to obey his commandments of whom to worship. Daniel refused. He knew the Living God of his fathers, and was not going to bow down to any false gods. As a result, he was thrown into the lion’s den. We are told in Scripture that the Lord delivered him from the lions, uninjured, because he had trusted in his God.

Lions are ferocious beasts, who can consume a human body in a very short time, if given the opportunity, and it is time to eat.

Our enemy is portrayed as one who goes about as a lion, seeking to destroy whom he can. “Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” (1 Peter 5:8-9 NASU) Notice that he prowls like a lion, but he isn’t one. Only the Lion of Judah is the true One, with all power and authority.

You and I might not get to experience the lion’s den adventure, or be at the consumed end of the African lioness who has found her daily meal. But I know that you and I have experienced the prowling of the one who seeks to destroy and kill mankind. 

All around us, on the national and local news, we see and hear of those who have been devoured by the wanna-be lion. Drugs, alcohol, murder, sexual attacks, mistreatments of all imaginations. No doubt, we have experienced that false lion’s efforts in trying to destroy us in our faith and commitment to the Lion of Judah Himself.

Even in some job situations, there can be that boss continually riding us, beating down our spirit through accusations, ridicule, or lies spread about our beliefs. That can be just as painful and hurtful as having a leg bitten off by a real animal of prey. The spiritual ones can have lasting effects on our mind, will and emotions.

How do we guard against such actions? How do we keep from bowing down to the false gods, fearful of losing our life, possibly in the natural as well? The God of Daniel has shown us the way.

When confronted with the choice of choosing the present escape or the eternal reward, Daniel chose the One who would grant him life everlasting. He had prepared himself on a daily basis, so that when the lions gathered around him, ready to tear him apart, his eyes and heart were kept fixed on his Lord, Who would deliver him.

My encouragement today is that we too stand in the midst of our attackers, both in the natural and the spiritual, who seek to devour us. We can stand strong in our convictions, the truth we know, the way and the life, by being with the Lord daily. If you know Him in your daily walk, you will have that trust, hope and faith that He will bring you through all that the enemy of our soul, spirit and body throws at us.

Trials and tribulations come. Sometimes we wonder if we are going to make it through this one, this time. Knowing that our Deliverer Himself made it through the trial, the whipping, and the crucifixion, we can base our eternal hope on His promises, that He will be with us during ours too.

We are going to be in the lion’s den at some point, if not already. We will stand strong during the time if we have spent time with Him prior to that time.

My prayer is that you do. Know Him who is the One who delivers.

Steve Martin

Founder

Love For His People. Inc.

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Now Think On This #129  “Lion’s Den” by Steve Martin 

Date: In the year of our Lord 2014 (03.15.14) Saturday at 5:30 am in Charlotte, NC).

All previous editions of Now Think On This can be found on this Blog, and on our newest website: Now Think On This