Why should we responsible for anybody else? Why can’t we just live our lives and others live ther lives? Why should girls and women feel any responsibility for guys who struggle?

Let’s consider the story of Cain and Abel who were the first two children of Adam and Eve. When Adam and Eve sinned and were removed from the Garden of Eden, the only way they could approach God’s presence was by bringing and animal sacrifice would cover their sin.

Abel brought an animal sacrifice as he had been told, but Cain decided to bring his own works of what he had harvested. He did things his own way instead of God’s way. Hence, God could not accept his sacrifice. Then, instead of repenting and doing as God had directed. Cain took offense and became angry, resentful and jealous of his brother who had done the right thing and obeyed God’s directions.

God tried to warn Cain that He could see that the bitterness within him was going to cause him to sin, but he wouldn’t listen to His warning. Eventually, Cain murdered his brother Abel. Afterward, God came to Cain and even though He knew what had happened, He gave Cain an opportunity to admit his sin by asking him, “Where is Abel thy brother?” (Gen.4:9a). Cain’s response was, “I know not [or we might say, "I don't know"]. Am I my brother’s keeper?” (v.9b)

Of course, we know that his response was, first, a lie because he knew where Abel was. Secondly, he did not take responsibility for his brother. But nevertheless, God held Cain responsible because he was responsible  for his brother: God said, “The voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto Me from the ground” (v.10b). Subsequently, a curse came upon Cain because he would not repent.

Today many people like Cain do not want to feel responsible for anyone else or to anyone else. There’s a desire for so-called “freedom” to do whatever a person wants to do, whether it affects other negatively or not. This attitude promotes the thought that if others are hurt, it’s their problem  and not our own responsibility. If we ignore our conscience that talks to us and tells u when we’ve done right or wrong, we can become hardened  to any sense of responsiblity toward others.

However, God still holds each of us as Christians responsible for others and how we come across to them. “Responsibility” is the state of being responsible or answerable for one’s actions and decisions; being accountable when called upon to report or account for one’s actions or behavior; liable (obliged or bound by one’s conscience, by law or by moral duty); to be called upon to answer for one’s actions or decisions or thinking.

Since we are still in the process of growing in our spiritual understanding and walking with God, sometimes we as Christians fail. However, responsible Christians are willing to see their failure, admit it and correct it. Once they gain the appropriate knowledge and are made aware of their responsibility, they make an effort to do what is expected.

In Romans 7, Paul said the good things he wanted to do, he could not do; and the evil things he did not wanted to do, he always found himself doing. He said he felt wretched. I can relate to that, what about you?

You know, we all have a way to go. I was worried about how far I had to go and it seemed satan reminded me of it daily. I carried a constant sense of failure, a feeling that I just was not what I needed to be, that I was doing good enough, that I should try harder and yet when I did try harder, I only failed more.

So, I heard somebody this  slogan and adopted it for myself as a new attitude: “I am not where I need to be, but thank God I am not where I used to be; I am OK and I am on my way!”

Then we know with all our heart that God is not angry with us because we haven’t arrived. He is pleased that we are pressing on, that we stay on the path. I you and I will just “keep on keeping on,” God will be pleased with our progress. Keep walking the walk. A walk is something taken one step at a time. This is an important thing to remember.

We have been considering how to have a good self-image. One way we do that is by realizing that we have not arrived at perfection, that we have some growing to do, bu that in the meantime we are OK. It is true that we have to keep pressing on, but thank God we don’t have to hate and reject ourselves while we are trying to get to our destination.

What is a normal, healthy Christian attitude toward self? here are a few thoughts that reflect that kind of wholesome, God-centered self-image:

1. I know God created me andI know He loves me.
2. I have faults and weaknesses and I want to change. I believe God is working in my life. He is changing me bit by bit, day by day. While He is doing so, I can still enjoy myself and my life.
3. Everyone has faults, so I am not a complete failure just because I am not perfect.
4. I am going to work with God to overcome my weaknesses, but I realize that I will always have something to deal with; therefore, I will not become discouraged when God convicts me of areas in my life that need improvement.
5. I want to make people happy and have them like me, but my sense of worth is not dependent on what others think of me. Jesus has already affirmed my value by His willingness to die for me.
6. I will not be controlled by what people think, say or do. Even if they totally reject me, I will survive. God has  promised never to reject me or condemn me as long as I keep believing.
7. No matter how often I fail, I will not give up, because God is with me to strengthen and sustain me. He has promised never to leave me or forsake me.
8. I like myself. I don’t like everything I do and I want to change, but I refuse to reject myself.
9. I am right with God through Jesus Christ.
10. God has a ood plan for my life. I am going to fulfill my destiny and be all I can be for His glory. I have God-given gifts and talents and I intend to use them to help others.
11. I am nothing and yet I am everything! In myself I am nothing and yet in Jesus I am everything I need to be.
12. I can do all things I need to do, everything that God calls me to do, through His Son Jesus Christ.

• The Anointing teaches-1 John 2:27 says, “But as for you, the anointing (the sacred appointment, the unction) which you received from Him abides [permanently] in you; [so] then you have no need that anyone should instruct you.

But just as His anointing teaches you concerning everything and is true and is no falsehood, so you must abide in (live in, never depart from) Him [being rooted in Him; knit to Him] just as [His anointing] has taught you [to do].”

• The Anointing breaks bondages-Isaiah 10:27 says, “And it shall be in that day that the burden of [the Assyrian] shall depart from your shoulders, and his yoke from your neck. The yoke shall be destroyed because of fatness [which prevents it from going around your neck].”
• The Anointing heals-Luke 4:18-19 says, “The Spirit of the Lord [is] upon Me, because He has anointed Me [the Anointed One, the Messiah] to preach the good news (the Gospel) to the poor; He has sent Me to announce release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to send forth as delivered those who are oppressed [who are downtrodden, bruised, crushed, and broken down by calamity], To proclaim the accepted and acceptable year of the Lord [the day when salvation and the free favors of God profusely abound].”
• Oil is a type of the Holy Spirit-Psalms 92:10 says, “But my horn (emblem of excessive strength and stately grace) You have exalted like that of a wild ox; I am anointed with fresh oil.”

Acts 2:4 says, “And they were all filled (diffused throughout their souls) with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other (different, foreign) languages (tongues), as the Spirit kept giving them clear and loud expression [in each tongue in appropriate words].”

Acts 4: 29-31 says, “And now, Lord, observe their threats and grant to Your bond servants [full freedom] to declare Your message fearlessly, While You stretch out Your hand to cure and to perform signs and wonders through the authority and by the power of the name of Your holy Child and Servant Jesus. And when they had prayed, the place in which they were assembled was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they continued to speak the Word of God with freedom and boldness and courage.”

• The Anointing builds up your faith by praying in the Holy Spirit-Jude 20 says, “But you, beloved, build yourselves up [founded] on your most holy faith [make progress, rise like an edifice higher and higher], praying in the Holy Spirit.”
• Maintain the Anointing by spending time with God, reading the Word and in prayer and meditation-1 John 2:20 says, “But you have been anointed by [you hold a sacred appointment from, you have been given an unction from] the Holy One, and you all know [the Truth] or you know all things.”

At first, many people were skeptical about prayer actually having an effect on weather, but they persisted week after week. They enlisted the children to pray for snow, as it seems adults can be resistant to ask for it. The children went after it gung ho!

The first Sunday they prayed, they had a bright, warm day when church began and by the time service dismissed, it was snowing. This was the first of many times the weather forecasters were confounded.

Attitudes of people began to change and faith to ask rose significantly. All through the spring and summer of last year, they had rain. Presently the snow pack in their northern mountains is at 169% of what it was this time last year.

The eastern side of the New Mexico is asking for the rain to move to the western side because they are far ahead in rainfall. People in different areas of the state began to hear about this praying church and requested them to pray for their county too. Perhaps what is most wonderful of all, is that people who were not active in corporate prayer began to see and testify of the difference praying together makes.

The following excerpt is taken from John G. Lake, His Life His Sermons His Boldness of Faith, Kenneth Copeland Publications:
In my ministry in South Africa there was a young lady, one of the most beautiful souls I have ever known. She was baptized n the Spirit when perhaps only seventeen or eighteen years old. One of the remarkable developments in her after her baptism in the Spirit was that the Spirit of God would come powerfully upon her on occasions, and at such times, she would sit down at the piano and translate the music her soul heard. Other times the Spirit would come upon her so powerfully that she would be caused to sing the heavenly music in some angelic language.

Some years later Clara Butts, the great prima donna, came to Africa. She was singing at the Wanderers Hall in Johannesburg. One evening after the concert, while being entertained at the hotel, I was introduced to her. She said to me, “Mr. Lake, I have been very anxious to meet you, for I have heard that among your people is a remarkable woman who receives music in the Spirit, apparently of a different realm than ours.” I said, “Yes, that is a fact.”

She inquired if it would be possible to meet her, and so a meeting was arranged. One evening we went to her hotel and as we sat down, Clara Butts said to the young lady, “I wish you would sit down and play some of the music I have heard about.” She did not understand that such music only came at such times as the Spirit came powerfully upon the woman. However, the young lady sat down at the piano.

I said to the company, “Let us bow our heads in prayer.” As we did and waited, presently the Spirit of God descended upon her, and then there poured through her soul some of that wondrous, beautiful, heavenly music. I waited to note the affect on the company. When the song was finished, I looked especially at Clara Butts, who was weeping silently. She arose to her feet, and coming forward to the piano, she reached out her hands saying, “Young lady, that music belongs to a world that my soul knows little about. I pray every day of my life God may permit me to enter. In that realm is the ultimate which my soul sometimes hears, but which I have never been able to touch myself.”

Beloved, in the Christian life, in the heart of God, there is an ultimate note. That note which is so fine and sweet and true and pure and good that it causes all our nature to respond to it, and rejoices the soul with a joy unspeakable.

There is a Christianity that has that high note in it, bless God, into the heavenlies. Indeed, Christianity in itself, real Christianity, is in that high note of God, that thing of heaven that is not of earth and is not natural. It is more than natural. It is the note of heaven. It comes to the earth. It fills the soul of man. Man’s soul rises into heave to touch God, and in touching God receives that glorified expression and experience into his own soul, and it is reproduced in his own life and nature.

The hunger of my soul for many a long day has been that I might be able to so present that high true note of God, that the souls of men would rise up in God to that place of power, purity and strength where the presence and character and works of Christ are evidenced in and through them. There can be no distinction between the exercise of the real power of God as seen in Jesus and its reproduction in a Christian soul. There is a purity, the purity of heaven, so high, so holy, so pure, so sweet that it makes the life of the possessor radiant with the glory and praise of God.

God has a plan for each of us, but not all of us experience it. many times we live far below the standard that God intends for us to enjoy. Most Christians don’t exercise their own rights and privileges as a child of God. This is because most of them don’t even know they have rights and privileges. Although they are Christians and they believe they are going to heaven  when they die, they don’t know that anything could be done about their past, present or future.

Then as second reason they live far below the level of life God intended for them was simply the wrong way they perceive and feel about themselves. They have a poor self-image  and it is affected by day-to-day living, as well as their outlook for the future.

God has plans for you!
God does not have a bad attitude towards you and you should not have one toward yourself! Shake of the past and set your sights on the future. The apostle Paul wanted to do things right and yet realized that he was growing and learning and would not always manifest 100 percent perfection.

Press on!
Philippians 3:1 says: “Not that I have now attained [this ideal], or have already been made perfect, but I press on to lay hold of (grasp) and make my own, that for which Christ Jesus (The Messiah) has laid hold of me and made His own.

In the next verse, Paul went on to say that he forgot what lay behind and strained forward to what lay ahead.
We see this principle in many places in Gods Holy Word. The prophet Isiah had the same revelation when he brought forth the message of the Lord: Do not [earnestly] remember the former things; neither consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing! (Isaiah 43:18,19)

Almost everyone of us could use some improvement in our self-image. It takes time to grasp the hope for ourselves that God has for us. To realize how much hope God has for us, all we need to do is remember what we were like when God called us into His family. It is so wonderful and comforting to know that when everyone else only sees our faults, God sees our possibilities.

The Lord doesn’t wait for us to get all fixed up before He got involved with us. He starts with where we are and takes the responsibility for getting us to where we need to be. He does this everybody, so laso for you!

God chooses the Unlikely like you and me!
God purposely chooses those who are the most unlikely candidates for things He needs done. By doing so, He has a wide open door to show His grace, mercy and power to change human lives. When God is using ethe unwise and the less educated, we realize that our source is not in ourselves but in Him alone.

Each of us has a destiny and there is absolutely no excuse not to fulfill it. We cannot use our weakness as an excuse, because God says that His strength is made perfect in weakness. We can not use the past as an excuse because God tells us through the apostle Paul that if person is in Christ, he is a new creature; old things have passed away and all things have become new. (2Cor.5:17)

How God sees us is not the problem, it is how we see ourselves that keeps us from succeeding. each of us can succeed at being everything God intends us to be.

It is important to never take this glorious gospel for granted! You may think that you will always have the bright light of God’s Word available to you, but darker days are coming. You can’t just sit in the seat of ease in Zion after you have been saved and filled with the Holy Spirit. You must maintain your spiritual life and keep yourself sharp in the Word. You must allow the same source that produced that life-the Holy Spirit-to sustain it.

The gospel can be compared to light. It is like the moving of the sun, which rises on one horizon, crosses the heavens, and sets in another horizon. While we have the sunlight, the gospel, it is day. But the Bible says the night is coming, and unless we continue to walk in the light, the darkness will overtake us (John 12:35).

According to Romans 15:19, Paul took the gospel to a place known as Illyricum. After he did, the churches and people were so blessed by the beautiful light of the glorious gospel that signs and wonders followed. Today that same region is known as Albania.

It is the place where Paul performed so many signs and wonders in the name of Jesus, and the glorious gospel was proclaimed with all of its beauty and power. Through Paul, the people of Albania saw the gospel manifested through powerful signs and wonders.

But notice the more recent history of this nation where so many miracles had been performed. Albania is the first nation in the world to declare herself totally atheistic. Today it is a communist nation, and most of the people are Muslims.

In 1967, after a fiery speech by Albania’s ruler, two thousand convents, monasteries, mosques, and churches were taken over to be put to use for “better purposes.” The ministers and priests were assigned to hard labor, and since 1967, the practice of Christianity has been totally forbidden. Bibles were collected and burned, and even the mere possession of a Bible warrants one’s being shot by a firing squad.

It is hard to believe this is the same place that once saw such mighty signs and wonders!

A broadcast from the capital city of Tarana reported that severe measures had to be taken to erase Christianity from the minds of the people-extreme measures such as sealing Christians in barrels and rolling them alive into the sea.

The bishop of Duress in Albania was enclosed in an iron cage the size of his body. Inside, the walls were covered with spikes that penetrated his flesh. He was then pushed along the streets until he died. The London Daily Telegraph reported that several priests had been shot by firing squads.

Children are placed in state nurseries from birth. Their parents are not allowed to have custody of them. They are given two hours visitation privileges daily to spend with the child, if both the child and mother desire it. Over half the population in Albania is under twenty-five years of age.

Less than five percent of its citizens are ever permitted to leave the country. Albania is the second smallest country in Europe, the size of Belgium. It is bordered by Yugoslavia, Greece, the Adriatic, and Ionion Seas. It is Europe’s most primitive, backward nation, though the Communist party’s chief objective is to create a “new man.”

This place that had actually witnessed the birth of the gospel and had seen the signs and wonders of our God within its borders is no longer walking in His blessings. Sadly, if in our own lives we don’t take advantage of God’s hour of visitation, as in the case of Albania, we will not always enjoy divine demonstrations from God.

Freedom is the most valuable commodity in the world. People who travel to the underprivileged nations of the world will often tell you what a privilege it is to enjoy religious freedom in America. For example, a friend of mine who traveled to preach at a church in a communist nation told me about the adversity he witnessed.

He said that the Christians in that country spend hours upon hours crying out to God to give them just a few hours of freedom to preach the gospel.
We can pray for people to be saved, but we must also be obedient to go and bring the gospel to the people.

In light of the vision Oral Roberts had in July of this year, this next portion is a vision that Kenneth Hagin Jr. had in 1985:
I’m sure you’ve seen, while driving in the dark, off in the distance, a mighty glow against the skyline-some large, metropolitan city, fanning its light against the night sky.

I began to see the world, I saw the glow as it came from the North American continent, out of the United States, this glow. I saw that it got brighter, and brighter, and brighter, and began to spread north, south, east, and west.

It spread until, as the globe turned, I could see it encompass islands of the sea, other countries, and the darkness was driven away, light began to encompass these countries. Even as the light came to some of them, they weren’t all black and dark, but sort of in twilight, but some were completely amassed in darkness, and this encroaching light would make them bright.

I said, “Lord, what is the meaning of all this?” it had encompassed the whole earth.

He said, “This is the last day revival that people have been talking about. It’s the new WAVE people have been talking about. This is the MOVE of the end time of the Holy Spirit. And it’s not just a revival that’s going to reach one nation, not a revival for a few ’spots’ around the world, as you saw what seemed like twilight in some of the countries, that was where there is something happening already.

“This revival will encompass the whole world. It will involve My people all over the world who are willing in this last day to be mature, and to do the job that I’ve called them to do. It’s not going to happen easily, as one would think, or that it seems that it does to others.”

I said, “What do you mean?”

He said, “It’s going to happen as My people begin to call on My Name, and ASK for the anointing and the power of God to move in the Church-not move on me individually; not move on our group; not move on our denomination; not move on the so-called “faith” people; or this people or that people. But as MY people fall on their faces and begin to pray, and say, ‘God, we want a revival-we don’t care whether it’s through us or someone else-we want a revival of the power of the Spirit of God!’”

“Then,” He said, “it’s going to happen. It’s already started, because the glow you began to see, not only in your country, but also in the other countries who were in twilight-that’s the people of God who are hungry for revival.”
Kenneth Hagin Jr. then delivered this prophetic word:
“Some will say, ‘I don’t know about this.’ Others will say, ‘Let’s watch!’ and they will be like the fifty prophets that watched Elisha.”

“But I say to you this night, if you will bow before Me in prayer and praise and will not be ashamed of the Holy Spirit and the demonstration of the power of God, I will lead you into the greatest anointing that you have ever known! And your churches will grow. And everything that you do will turn to victory!”

“And there will not be anything that can stand in your way and that can defeat you! But you will march arm in arm, running to tear the devil’s kingdom apart. And gathering souls from the harvest field as you run! Because the revival is now at hand!

“And it shall be poured out upon all of those that are willing to be God’s vessels, dedicated to the power of God and not be ashamed if somebody calls them this or that or something else. And not be ashamed to stand and demonstrate the power of God in the face of all odds that says, ‘It can’t happen!’”

God says, “I will be with you. I will anoint you and there will be a revival. I am only looking for vessels. Will you be that vessel?”

The power of prayer will come through in your worship to the Father. The words that we get from heaven will not only bless us, but they will bless others in our lives as well. Those Holy Gost inspiried words that come in worship and prayer are full of power because they are full of Him!

God is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. He is our everything!

The following prophecy was given by Kenneth E. Hagin on January 24, 1988
“For He is high, and He is holy and you cannot worship Him with man’s means. Yea, you dare not come into His presence in your own holiness of righteousness. Come into His presence clean and holy but thou canst not make thyself clean, neither can thou make thou self holy. For man alone is an utter failure. But you can come into His presence because His Blood cleanseth you from all sin. You can come into His presence because His Blood has atoned for your sins. You can come into His presence because His Blood has atoned for your sins and all are washed away. And you are made unto your God kings and priests. So, put on your robe of righteousness and enter into His presence with thanksgiving and allow the Holy Spirit, Who dwells in your spirit to teach you to be reverent.”

“Yea, come not with the clamorings of the flesh. There shall come a time, in fact the day has now arrived that you will learn to worship Me,” saith the Lord of Hosts, “on a different level in which you have worshiped. Even learn to praise Me on a different level in which you have learned to praise. For so much of that which has been in that manifestation among you has only been in the flesh. But now you will come into the broad place of the Spirit. Come with a reverence. Come with a humility. Come with a desire to fellowship with Me. Come not in arrogance. Come not in the energy of the flesh. But rather, come with a humble spirit. Crucifying the flesh. Not letting it dominate you or even endeavor to worship Me as such. But come in a spirit and oh that can only be as you respond unto the Holy Spirit.”

“For even in worship as the Father would have you to worship Him. For He is high and He is holy. And you come not unto Him as you would come unto man. And you give not Him applause as you would man. For you must not bring Him down on the level of man, but you must come up on the level where He is in holiness and reverence. Worshiping Him and Him alone. Worshiping Him and Him alone. Worshiping Him and Him alone.”

“And then shall the Spirit of God descend upon you like a mighty rain from heaven. Mighty rivers shall flow out of you and ye shall be known as a reverent worshipful people. And ye shall be known as a supernatural people. For the supernatural will be ordinary with you. And it shall be said of you as it was said of those days gone by, they that have turned the world upside down are come hither also.” Hallelujah!

Often young girls do not understand how they come across to guys. When you are young, you’ve not have enough experience in life to understand and see the need to avoid vulnerability. When a guy sees a girl showing off her figure with tight-fitting clothes, short skirts, blouses that show breast cleavage and pants that reveal her navel, he is thinking she wants him not only to look but alos to touch what he sees.

He sees a sign that says, “Come and get me”. Guys are turned on by sight s quick as you can flip on a light switch while girls are not programmed to be turned on as quickly, and they are as stimulated by sight. Girls can look at guys without shirts and not be fazed.

Sure they might admire some muscle, but they aren’t  sexually stimulated, however, when they know they have stimulated a guy and they experience even greater stimulation through touch.

A girl can think she’s safe as long as she doesn’t feel sexually stimulated. The problem with this thinking is that she is naively setting herself up for guys to “come onto her” and take what she didn’t plan on giving away.

Remember the old saying, “Look but don’t touch”? Nevertheless, guys are programmed to think beyond a look and those guys who have already been exposed to lovemaking on TV or movies begin to fantasize in their minds. If they’ve been exposed to pornography, they struggle with undressing a girl in their minds while they are simply talking to the girl. The girls thinks she is being cute while he is thinking he wants to touch her where he shouldn’t.

REASONING AWAY WHAT WE KNOW IS WRONG

I remember reading a letter to “Dear Abby” in the newspaper about a couple in their 50’s who had rented a duplex next door to a young couple. The young wife never wore underwear and her blouse always revealed the shape of her breasts as well as her nipples. The wife of the owner resented this woman’s appearance each time the young woman talked to the older woman’s husband because she knew that this woman wanted to sexually arouse not only her husband but any man she was around.

The writer of “Dear Abby” suggested that the couple who owned the duplex sit down with the young couple and inform them of this difficult situation, asking the young woman to dress differently. If she refused, she and her husband would need to find another place that would suit them better. I’ve likewise encountered Christian girls and women who obviously weren’t wearing bras under their clothes, consequently revealing the form of their breasts and nipples.

Anyone could tell by a glance that they were not wearing underwear. If it is difficult for the reader to understand, I’ll make it plain. If a guy can easily that a girl or woman is not wearing any underwear, it triggers lust and fantasy in his mind if he doesn’t look away or immediately remove his thoughts from it.

I have talked with Christian men of all ages - teens and adults - who have desired to walk holy, but who have had difficulty when Christian girls and women do not seem to be sensitive in the area of dressing modestly. At other times, a guy can reason away the importance of staying pure in his thought life by telling himself that every guy has wrong thoughts. Does that sound like a cop-out?

In the book, Every Man’s Battle, by Stephen Arterburn and Fred Stoker, the authors point out that Christians who struggle with sexual impurity do so because they have diluted God’s standard of purity with their own reasoning. Have you reasoned away sexual purity as no longer relevant today?

Some Christians say, “Oh, well, we all sin in thought, word or deed every day.” They claim that people just can’t keep from sinning. What they are saying is, “Go ahead and sin because you’re going to sin in some way every day anyway.” If it is okay to think wrong thoughts and okay to sin and not restrain yourself, then why did Jesus and the writers of the New Testament say we should cut off, deny, or kill wrong thoughts and not allow them? (See Matthew 5:28-30; Ephesians 5:3, 5-8, 11; Colossians 3:5; Romans 13:1314; 6:11-16; 1Thessalonians 4:3-8; James 4: 4-8; 1Peter 2:11.)

A girl likewise can reason away the importance of dressing modestly by telling herself it’s fashionable and every other girl and woman wears the same modest clothes. In addition, “you just can’t find modest clothes in stores anymore.” Let me ask then, why are some Christian girls and women able to find fashionable clothes that are modest? Why do people still admire them even though they dress modestly? Why did Jesus and other New testament writers write about purity, modesty and living holy lives?

Many Christian girls and women feel they should be free to dress however they desire without having to consider some man’s thoughts toward them. They think that if guys have a problem, it’s their problem to deal with, and they shouldn’t make girls feel that they can’t dress immodestly.

Remember, the last directive Elijah received from God involved the transfer of anointing. God wanted to drive out Baal worship in Israel in order to protect the line through which the Redeemer of the world would come. He gave Elijah instructions to bring hearts of the people back to God and prepare them for Himself. God chose three individuals to carry out this directive and anointed all three to bring about His desired result. We saw how God passed the anointing from Elijah to Elisha, who then dispensed that anointing to Hazael as the king. Another prophet then dispensed it to Jehu, a military leader.

This shows us that the anointing, which is for God’s purpose and plan, is transferred according to His direction and enables people to accomplish God-given assignments. Some of those assignments are carried out among the children of God, while others are fulfilled in a secular setting.

We would be mistaken to think that everything God has to do in preparation for Jesus’ return would be done solely within the Church. God is not limited to working only inside the Church. Indeed, He is working in the Church and through the Church, but God is working in the nations as well. The unfolding of His plan has a direct bearing in the rise and fall of leaders of nations and governments in these days and the days to come.

There are many accounts in the Bible where God gave kings directions for their nations. Likewise, military direction and strategy often came through prophets to achieve victory and execute judgments for the Lord.

In preparing the way for the Second Coming of the Lord, we are still seeing the anointing dispensed through the prophetic word and Spirit-led prayer. That anointing will certainly affect politicians as well as various people in many different levels and circles of authority.

Those who are anointed of God to accomplish particular tasks will not be exclusively those who stand in a pulpit. There will also be an anointing from God on political leaders as well as those in military and civil authority and other positions of influence.

As people of prayer, it is important that our panorama is widened so that when the Holy Spirit urges is to pray for people in these various positions, we don’t discount and resist His direction because of wrong thinking. We cannot have minuscule thinking in these days, because the ways of the Lord are expansive. Don’t be surprised about where you see the anointing or offended when you see the hand of God on someone you didn’t expect Him to use. Be thrilled and certain that whenever you see the anointing, it is all working together to prepare the way of the Lord!

And we must be able to do this in a manner that is loving and humble. Otherwise, we will alienate those whom God wants to draw to Himself. If the love of God and the testimony of Hid goodness are not in our heart, then they will not come out of our mouth. And what we say will not draw people to the Lord. It may, in fact, do the exact opposite.

When a wise woman speaks, she knows that timing is important. When things need to  be said that are difficult for the hearer to receive, timing is everything. Certain words cannot be uttered with any success if the person listening is not open and ready to hear them. It’s important to discern that and the only way to know for certain when to speak and what to say is to pray about it in advance.

The Bible says that we are not to be too hasty to speak (Proverbs 29:20). A wise woman knows she shouldn’t share every single thought that comes into her head. “A fool gives full vent to his anger, but a wise man keeps himself under control” (Proverbs 29:11). You may have good things to say, but people aren’t always ready to hear them. Only God knows for sure when someone is ready. Ask Him to show you.

When a wise woman speaks, she tells the truth. When she doesn’t speak the truth, we hurt others as well as ourselves. “Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one body” (Ephesians 4:25).

But we can’t run around speaking the truth without wisdom, sensitivity and a sense of the Lord’s timing. People don’t want to hear every bit of truth about themselves every moment. It’s too much for them. Sometimes it’s better to dsay nothing and pray for God to show you when a person is ready to hear the truth.

When a wise woman speaks, she doesn’t talk too much. We have to be careful that we don’t spend more time talking than is necessary. “As a dream comes when there are many cares, so the speech of a fool when there are many words” (Ecclasiastes 5:3). I always told my prayer group that we shouldn’t spend more time talking about our requests than we do praying for them.

And we can’t just spill words out of our mouth without giving thought to what we are saying. We will give account of every idle word in the day of judgment (Matthew 12:36). This is a very scary thought. We must ask God to make us wise in the amount of talking we do.

When a wise woman speaks, her words are gracious. We can’t speak words that are mean, incensitive, harsh, coarse, rude, deceitful, offensive or arrogant without reaping the consequences. With our words we will either buold lives or we will tear them down.

“The things that come out of the mouth come from the heart and these make a man “unclean” (Matthew 15:18).
“Words from a wise man’s mouth are gracious, but a fool is consumed by his own lips” (Ecclesiastes 10:12)

Ask God to create in you  a clean heart so filled with His Spirit, His love and His truth that it will overflow love, truth and healing in your speech. Ask Him to help you find words that speak life to those around you.