WHEN THE THIEF STEALS YOUR COAT, GIVE HIM A PAIR OF SHOES TO GO WITH IT !

WHEN THE THIEF STEALS YOUR COAT, GIVE HIM A PAIR OF SHOES TO GO WITH IT ! One reason I know this is because I've yielded to it at times and seen the trouble it caused in my own life. In the early years of ministry, for example, I made the mistake of letting myself become spiritually weak: I thought that I was being spiritual by participating in what is called church. I was preaching day after day without taking the time to feed my own soul with THE WORD of God. I was trying to survive spiritually just on what God was giving me to minister. As a result, I became irritable. I did and said things that were harsh. Of course, I'd repent over it, but two or three hours later I'd do it again. I found that every time I got into strife even a little, it slammed my nervous system. I learned a few years later that it's a medically proven fact. Strife, Anger, Anxiety and other such emotions cause chemical reactions that, over time, or deadly. The human body is a veritable chemistry plant and any form of strife sends shockwaves through it. The body's chemistry can get so out of balance it messes up the brain. When that happens, our perspective become skewed, resulting in wrong thinking. Then, of course, the devil takes advantage of the situation. First thing you know, there's a demonic spirit following you around all the time spawning negative garbage at you. Because your brain and your soul is compromised, that garbage actually makes sense to you. If you don't run to THE WORD of God and get yourself straightened out, you'll start believing that devilish junk. Primarily that has happened to many good believers in Christ Jesus. That's the way Christians get into depression and other disorders of the mind. I was on the road to that and knew it, so I sought The Lord about it. I was determined to find out from Him how to stop reacting in strife, because I refuse to have it in my life. One Day the Lord said to me, Stop practicing anger. "What do you mean ?" I asked. You get angry at things, He said the minute He said it, I realized it was true. I hadn't thought about it until then, but I'd become angry sometimes with my truck or car. Even with people; "You're practicing anger so much it is present with you all the time. It goes into operation before you can stop it," He said. Reverse that. Begin to practice My love all the time. Bring the consciousness of My love to the point where it's ever present and ready to be released. Practice it and think about it continually. That is the process or principal of renewing the mind the part of your soul; the part that only the Word of God can separate ! (Ephesians 4: 17 through 26) "So this I say and solemnly testified in the name of the Lord as in his presence, that you must no longer live as the heathens the Gentiles do in their perverseness in the folly, vanity, and enptiness of their souls and the futility of their minds. Their moral understanding is darkened and their reasoning is be-clouded. They are alienated estranged, self banished from the life of God with nor share in it; this is because of the ignorance the want of knowledge and perception, the willful blindness that is deep-seated in them, due to their hardness of heart to the insensitivities of them of their moral nature. In their spiritual apathy they have become callous and past feelings and reckless and have abandoned themselves a prey to unbridled sensuality, eager and greedy to indulge in every form of impurity that their depraved desires may suggest an demand. But you did not so learned Christ! Assuming that you have really heard Him and been taught by Him, as all Truth is in Jesus embodied and personified in Him. Strip your cells of your former nature [the nature of the devil] put off and discard your old unrelated self which characterized your previous manner of life and be comes corrupt through lust desires that spring from delusion; and be constantly renewed in the spirit of your mind having a fresh mental and spiritual attitude, and put the new nature the regenerate self created in God's image Godlike in True Righteousness and Holiness. Therefore Rejecting all falsity and being done now with it, let everyone express the truth with his neighbor, for we are all parts of one's body and members one other not. When angry, do not sin; do not ever let your wrath your exasperation, your fury or indignation last until the sun goes down."