BVOV Magazine 2013 - present

couch feeling like you have chains on, watching television and thinking, I ought to get up and do such and such—but you don't because you feel immobilized. I'm not saying watching television is all bad. After all, Ken and I are on TV! But I am telling you that if you're watching too much secular television, you're not going to have time for the Word of God. Then, when an emergency hits and you need supernatural deliverance, you'll be in trouble because, instead of being full of the answers of God, you'll be full of the world's voice. Just imagine, there you are falling asleep in front of the television while Jesus is still sitting, waiting at your kitchen table. Finally, the day slips completely away and you've missed your opportunity to be with Him. I know what you're thinking. You're thinking you'd never do such a thing. If Jesus physically came to your house, you'd stop everything just to be with Him. Yet, when you understand how real the spirit realm is, you'll see that neglecting fellowship with the Lord through the Word and in prayer each day is the same as leaving Jesus sitting alone at your kitchen table. When you fully realize that His precious Holy Spirit is right there inside you, waiting for you day after day, you'll start making time for Him instead of making excuses! Reschedule Your Schedule "That's easy for you to say, Gloria. You don't know how busy my life is. I don't know how I'd fit anything else into my schedule!" Then don't try. Build your schedule around your time with God instead. After all, it is your No. 1 priority. Why? Because, without that time spent with Him, you cannot maintain your living connection with God. And, as I said earlier, without that living connection—you can't succeed at anything! Jesus put it this way in John 15: "I am the Vine; you are the branches. Whoever lives in Me and I in him bears much (abundant) fruit. However, apart from Me [cut off from vital union with Me] you can do nothing. If a person does not dwell in Me, he is thrown out as a [broken-off ] branch, and withers..." (verses 5-6, Amplified Bible, Classic Edition). I don't want to be spiritually withered up and useless, do you? I don't want to be like an B V O V : 2 9 old dead branch! So I'm going to follow Jesus' instructions. I'm going to abide in Him, living in vital union with Him every day. Notice, I said "every day." That's important. You see, you can't store up living contact. You can't spend a couple of hours in the Word and in prayer and then live on that for a week. Your faith has to be fresh daily because the Bible says "faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God" (Romans 10:17). It doesn't say faith cometh by having heard. That's the reason Proverbs 4 tells us to continually "...attend to [God's] words.... Let them not depart from your sight; [but] keep them in the center of your heart" (verses 20-21, AMPC). It's also the reason why God told Joshua to meditate on the Word "day and night" (Joshua 1:8). To keep that living, faith connection with The problem is, our ears are often so filled with the noise of the world, we don't listen.

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