BVOV Magazine 2013 - present

********** ADVERTISEMENT ********** God has promised you the best. But living in the best doesn’t just happen. You must receive it by faith. Learn the blueprint to achieve and maintain success, including four simple steps you can use to stop Satan’s attacks. "How to Live in God’s Best" 6 CDs by Gloria Copeland now $14.99 reg $30 #B200102 kcm.org/mag 1-800-600-7395 (U.S. only) FREE standard shipping included. Offer price valid until Jan.31, 2020 ******************************************** * * * * article from p. 27 continues * * * * This doesn’t happen automatically though, just because you’re a Christian. It requires a decision. Just as you decided to receive Jesus as your Lord and Savior when you got saved, if you want to grow up in Him you must decide to put God’s Word first place in your life. Many Christians never do that. They go to church on Sunday, but they never spend enough time in the Word to find out who they are in Christ Jesus, so they get stuck living carnal, flesh-ruled lives. They know they’re not supposed to sin, but they can’t seem to help it, so they’re miserable and frustrated. They try to live right but wind up failing and feeling condemned. Because they don’t know what the Word says about things like healing and prosperity, if sickness or lack comes their way, they just have to put up with it. Although, when they’re faced with serious trouble, they pray for God to help them, but all they know to do is beg and plead. They aren’t established firmly enough on God’s Word to just believe and receive by faith what He promised. So, although sometimes God finds a way to bless them in spite of their doubts, at best, their prayers don’t produce consistent results. Anyone Can Become a Faith Giant That’s no way to live! I know, because I did it myself for a short while right after I became a Christian. I didn’t have to do it for long though. A few years after Ken and I were born again, we moved to Tulsa and got connected with the ministries of Oral Roberts and Kenneth E. Hagin. We learned from them that the Word of God is the foundation for a victorious faith life, and we went after the Word with everything we had. There was no Bible school for me to attend (Rhema didn’t exist in those days), but I got books and tapes of anointed preaching and absolutely saturated myself in them. While Ken was out preaching, since we didn’t have the money for me to go with him, I went to Bible school all by myself just staying at home listening to messages and taking notes. Talk about changing! The Word I got hold of back then revolutionized my whole life. I began growing in God, and because I’ve continued in that Word I’ve never stopped. That’s God’s intention for every believer. He doesn’t just pick out certain people and do something special for them. Any believer can become a faith giant if they’ll make a decision to do so. It doesn’t matter what our occupation is or what else is going on in our lives, if we’ll decide to make God’s Word our first priority and our final authority, we can keep growing and developing in faith. As Ephesians 4:13-15, "Amplified Bible, Classic Edition," says: “Until we all attain oneness in the faith and in the comprehension of the [full and accurate] knowledge of the Son of God, that [we might arrive] at really mature manhood (the completeness of personality which is nothing less than the standard height of Christ's own perfection), the measure of the stature of the fullness of the Christ and the completeness found in Him. So then, we may no longer be children, tossed [like ships] to and fro…[but rather] grow up in every way and in all things into Him Who is the Head, [even] Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One).” This is where God is taking us, Church! His plan is for us, as the Body of Christ on the earth, to keep changing by faith so that we keep looking more and more like Jesus. “But you don’t know how far I have to go,” someone might say. “I don’t look anything like Jesus right now! Even though I know I’m saved, my life is still an unholy mess.” It isn’t too big of a mess for God! He can straighten out anything. He’s already straightened out your spirit by doing away with your sin-deadened old man and re-creating your spirit in true righteousness and holiness, and He’s able to finish what He started. You just need to cooperate with Him. You just need to keep beholding in His Word as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, and as you do you will be “transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord” (2 Corinthians 3:18, "NKJV"). 28 : BVOV

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