Food For Thought --- 16OCT23
ABBA IS EXALTED, satan IS DEFEATED and JESUS/YESHUA IS L-RD Of L-rds and He is coming back again! (Pastor Charles Capps)
Greeting Men of Abba:
The Food For Thought – It’s A Family Affair: “Our Spiritual Weapons!”
Greetings to my brothers IN THE NAME OF OUR L-RD and Savior Yeshua/Jesus the Christ! May my Father/ Abba bless and keep each of you and your families this day from all hurts, harms, and dangers. Put on the Whole Armor of Abba (Eph. 6:10-16) every day so we can STAND in LOVE, TRUTH, FORGIVENESS, FAITH, HEALTH, MERCY, and HIS GRACE now and forever!
This month’s Food For Thought teaching is coming from Pastor Doug Pough! Pastor Doug is not a stranger to TGOM Group. He has presented to us for the past three years at a minimum. He just Celebrated his 12th Pastoral Anniversary at The Lilly Grove Missionary Baptist Church in Chatom, AL. May The L-rd continue to bless you, your wife and family plus your Ministry. Isn’t it Good to be a Blessing to Others in the Household of Prayer! Come to the conference call tonight with eagerness, couple with excitement and let us have a righteous and robust conversation!
I still thank the L_rd that we are continuously growing and maturing in The WORD, Faith, Scripture, Wisdom, Knowledge, and Understanding of our L-rd and Savior Jesus/Yeshua The Christ. The question still is: Am I my brother’s keeper? And the response is unequivocally—YES, We Are! I will speak with you all tonight.
“Our Spiritual Weapons”
How we respond when we go through hard times is very important.
Our attitude when we are fighting a spiritual battle, and that battle grows long and weary.
It’s tempting to allow self-pity to creep in.
Notice that Paul says in 2 Corinthians 10:4, “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds,”
When we think of spiritual weapons, we tend to think only about the Word of G-D being our sword, but we tend to forget that Scripture gives us more defensive weapons to use and we need all of those weapon in our arsenal.
· No soldier goes to battle with only one weapon.
1. The Word of God
“and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God;” Ephesians 6:17
The first defensive weapon in Paul’s passage on the armor of God. Jesus used this weapon in the desert when Satan came to tempt Him.
Satan, at times using Scripture to tempt Jesus, twisted the meaning but Jesus came back at him each time using Scripture in its proper context to defeat him and eventually Satan left.
· We will not defeat Satan by reasoning with him.
· We will not defeat Satan by negotiating with him.
· We will not defeat Satan by just telling him to get out.
· We defeat Satan by using the weapons of our warfare that are mighty through G-D, and one of the most powerful weapons is the Word of G-D.
2. Prayer
“praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit,” Ephesians 6:18
Notice that we don’t just grab our prayer list and start working through it, “G-D I need…..and I need….and would You please…..and bless……”
· It says, “prayer and supplication in the Spirit“.
We aren’t praying with our mind, with our own intelligence. We are allowing the Holy Spirit to pray through us the will of the Father.
· Sometimes, we already know the will of the Father.
If we are earnestly battling for the soul of a lost loved one, we know what the will of the Father is already because the Bible tells us that the will of the Father is that none should perish.
But there are times when we are not certain. When there is no chapter and verse that clearly tells us what the will of the Father is.
If we’re praying for a sick person: should we pray for immediate healing, should we pray that G-D be glorified through their physical weakness – as we see in Paul’s thorn in the flesh, or should we pray for their ultimate healing – for G-D to take them home?
All three can be the will of the Father.
· We need to allow the Holy Spirit to pray through us the will of the Father.
· He may choose to reveal it to us so we can pray in our human language
· He may choose to pray through us with the gift of tongues.
3. Worship
Jehoshaphat was king of Judah and a coalition army came against them to defeat them, and Jehoshaphat was afraid. In that moment, he did what any great leader should do – he called a prayer assembly and a fast.
During this prayer assembly, G-D gave the battle plans and assured them that they wouldn’t need to fight because G-D would go before them and defeat the enemy.
Early in the morning they began to prepare, and Jehoshaphat did something very odd.
Ahead of the army marched worshipers who sang and praised G-D. They began to say, “Praise the Lord, for His mercy endures forever.”
And then they began to sing and praise the Lord.
Scripture says, “Now when they began to sing and to praise, the LORD set ambushes against the people of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah; and they were defeated. For the people of Ammon and Moab stood up against the inhabitants of Mount Seir to utterly kill and destroy them.And when they had made an end of the inhabitants of Seir, they helped to destroy one another.” 2 Chronicles 20:22-23
· Worship is a powerful weapon to destroy the enemy.
· But we must make an important distinction! Worship isn’t just music. Worship isn’t just playing your favorite worship CD.
Worship is a condition of the heart…It is purposeful and intentional elevation of G-D above everything else.
4. The Name of Jesus
“Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Philippians 2:9-11
The name of Jesus is above every other name.
There are many gods.
· Every religion acknowledges a god, and they usually call their god “god”.
· But Jesus? There is only one Jesus and there is only one context in which we use the name of Jesus.
This doesn’t diminish the power of G-D’s name, but Paul was clear when he said that G-D gave Jesus the name above every name.
That name is incredibly power!
· At Jesus’ name every knee will bow and confess that He is L-rd.
5. Fasting
“Is this not the fast that I have chosen: To loose the bonds of wickedness, To undo the heavy burdens, To let the oppressed go free, And that you break every yoke? Isaiah 58:6
“However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.”
Matthew 17:21
Much of the church has moved away from fasting as a spiritual discipline and as a mighty weapon of warfare against the enemy.
Many are fasting for health benefits but not the spiritual.
Christian fasting is an amazing tool of the enemy for spiritual warfare in breaking bondage and setting the captives free!
6. Our Testimony
And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death. Revelation 12:11
Something that cannot be refuted is a first-hand testimony.
The enemy may come at you with lies and deception, but he cannot convince you that what G-D has done for you didn’t really happen.
· It’s your testimony and it has great power!
· It is the final word.
This is a weapon that is so often neglected, because if the enemy can get us to focus on the negative, on what we don’t have, on the bad things going on in our life right now, he can cause us to forget all the good things God has done for us in the past.
· All the ways G-D has come through for us.
· All the miracles G-D has done in our life.
· All the ways G-D has provided for us when we had nothing.
· The healing G-D has done in our heart and in our body.
Because while he can’t refute our testimony, he can cause us to forget our testimony – knowing that if we use our testimony, we will be victorious!
Because we will have the power to stand in faith that G-D will come through for us again!
7. Thanksgiving
“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:6-7
There is nothing the enemy wants more than for you to be riddled with discontentment, anxiety, worry, depression, envy, covetousness, gossip, complaining, slander….
All things that destroy us from the inside out and poison our relationships with others.
There is nothing the enemy wants more than for you to be riddled with discontentment, anxiety, worry, depression, envy, covetousness, gossip, complaining, slander….
All things that destroy us from the inside out and poison our relationships with others.
We are able to pray according to His will, because our own selfish ambitions are out of the way.
Jeremiah 29:11-13 says: "For I know the plans I have for you. This is the Lord's Declaration – plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. You will call to me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart."
Context matters. We should look at the story unfolding before we arrive at verse 11. Jeremiah said these words to a group of exiled elders, priests, and prophets whom King Nebuchadnezzar had deported from Jerusalem to Babylon. Life was not routine at that moment. In exile, the likely reality is that the people following G-D were not sitting on a lovely beach, watching a sunset, and admiring the goodness of G-D. They were now living in a foreign Babylonian world under exile. These words from Jeremiah about hope and a future might have felt similar to how we feel today when life has thrown us a curveball, and we are looking for the goodness of G-D in our circumstances.
Pastor Doug Pough
Holy Spirit and I will continue to ask you to present a teaching or a subject to TGOM for 2023 for the purpose of sharing with one another on a more personal and spiritual dimension. Your Subject -- depends on your heart and Holy Spirit! What’s On Your Heart? What’s On Your Mind? Love, marriage, discipline of children, RESPECT, Erectile Dysfunction (ED), finances, business issues, ethnic issues or concerns, other health concerns, HIV, AIDS or other STDs, covid, Health Disparities, From Negro to Hebrew, Spiritual Warfare, KINGDOM LIVING, Living “KINGDOM” Single, Having the MIND of Christ Jesus/Yeshua, etc.??? Send me a subject of your concern, then call or text me to let me know that you sent it to me. I just need a Little Help my brothers (smile), Thanks…..
How about reading and bringing a few scriptures, thoughts and concerns to TGOM conference call line with you each Monday night so we can explore the WORD together. Let us continue to grow and mature daily in the knowledge, wisdom, and understand the “WORD”, our L-rd and Savior Jesus the Christ (Yeshua being His Hebrew Name) left for us to follow. Praise Abba our Father!
Please join us on the conference line for TGOM Monthly Teachings. Call in from wherever you are and participate in our meetings. Please call 770-939-2460 to obtain the conference line number. That blog is coming for those of us who wants to chat a little longer on the subject of the month - can. Hallelujah and thank You L-rd! Please read, digest, think, implement, and change whenever, wherever and whatever you need to make a change in your life! Change most often is difficult but is Worth the Reward in Christ Jesus (Yeshua)! (Remember, quite often, A Transformation maybe needed verses a Change!) Have you ever considered that a Change in your Attitude and your Presentation COULD just Change the Attitude and Presentation in someone else who is watching you (and you are unaware)! (Oh, my Abba-Glory Hallelujah) Am I my brother’s Keeper? Of course, you are! Let me say here that I thank the L-rd for each of you who have volunteered these past years to write, spearhead, lead or direct a Monday night’s teaching. Also, to those who just dialed in for the fellowship and dialogue. Thanks, and much love to each of you. Guess what? I love you and there is nothing You can do about it! Shalom in Love!!!!!
Question: Were you able to Wait On the L-rd today? Do you think you/we can pencil Him in this week? Did You know how come into HIS Presence? Is Fasting and Praying part of your monthly activity?
The Vision of the Gathering of Men is to assemble Men of diverse culture and socioeconomic backgrounds to come and fellowship together, learn of Jesus the Christ (Yeshua the Christ), of our relationship to Him, of our relationship to our family, and of our relationship to one another.
TGOM teachings will be coming to us from around the world! Please join us on the conference call line each 3rd Monday night of the month at 8p (EST), at 7p (CST) and 5p (PST). Remember to call the conference . I hope to HEAR you Monday night on the conference call line.
Everyone take care and stay healthy, safe and Blessed!!!!! Covid and its derivatives are still in the atmosphere and in some people. In fact, a new one, Omicron XBB is in the news now. Read as much information as you can and DO/Follow! Keep your Immune System up and Keep your Armor On! For additional information on TGOM, please call 770.710.7634 or 770.939.2460.
(Note): Alpha and Omega HIV/AIDS Foundation and Health Initiatives International, Inc. (AOAF) is a 501©3 Non-Profit organization. All contributions/donations/gifts are tax deductible. AOAF is located at PO Box 993, Tucker, GA 30085, where Dr. YaQar is the CEO/Founder. Thanks for caring and sharing… (Make all checks payable to: AOAF) Shalom and blessings to each of you! bb/ab/adm
