TODAY'S KINGDOM INSIGHTS:

SERMON TOPIC:

HOW CAN YOU PRAY SO THAT GOD HEARS YOU?

Main Text: Psalm 66:18–20; 1 John 5:14–15
Supporting Texts: Matthew 6:5–13; James 5:16; Proverbs 15:29; Mark 11:24–25

GOD IS STILL LISTENING.

One of the deepest questions a believer can ask is:
“When I pray, does God really hear me?”
You may have prayed for months and seen no answer. You may have cried in secret, knelt beside your bed, prayed in church, prayed while travelling, prayed when nobody knew what you were going through—and still wondered, “God, are You hearing me?”
Here is the good news:
God hears prayer.
But the Bible also teaches us that there is a way to approach God in prayer.
Prayer is not merely talking loudly.
Prayer is not using many religious words.
Prayer is not trying to manipulate God.
Prayer is fellowship with the Father.
Jesus said:
«“Your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.” — Matthew 6:8»
So the question is not simply, “How much do I pray?”
The deeper question is:
“How do I position my heart when I pray?”
1. PRAY WITH A SINCERE AND HUMBLE HEART
God is not impressed by religious performance. He looks at the heart.
Psalm 51:17 says:
«“The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart…”»
David understood something important: God values the condition of the heart more than the appearance of the prayer.
You can pray beautiful words with a proud heart and miss the heart of prayer.
But you can come before God with tears, weakness, and simple words and experience His presence.

Jesus' illustration

In Luke 18:9–14, Jesus told the story of two men who went to the temple to pray.
One was a Pharisee. He boasted about himself.
The other was a tax collector. He simply cried:
«“God be merciful to me a sinner.” — Luke 18:13»
Jesus said the humble man went home justified.

Spiritual lesson

God is not looking for impressive prayers; He is looking for surrendered hearts.
Come to God honestly.
If you are hurting, tell Him.
If you are confused, tell Him.
If you have failed, confess it.
If you are afraid, tell Him.
Prayer begins when pretending ends.
2. PRAY WITH FAITH
James 1:6 says:
«“But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering.”»
Faith does not mean that you dictate to God what He must do.
Faith means that you trust who God is, even when you do not understand what He is doing.
Mark 11:24 says:
«“What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.”»
Faith says:
“Father, I believe You are able.”
And when the answer does not come immediately:
“Father, I still trust You.”
Faith does not disappear because the answer is delayed.
Remember the three possible answers to prayer:

YES — God grants the request.

WAIT — God is working, but the timing is different.

NO — God knows something you do not know.
A “no” from God is not proof that God has abandoned you.
Sometimes God's refusal is protection.
Sometimes His delay is preparation.
Sometimes His silence is developing your spiritual maturity.
3. PRAY ACCORDING TO GOD'S WILL
One of the most powerful scriptures on prayer is:
«“And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us.” — 1 John 5:14»
Notice the words:
“According to His will.”
Prayer is not about making God's will submit to ours.
Prayer is about bringing our desires into alignment with God's will.
Jesus demonstrated this in Gethsemane.
He prayed:
«“Nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.” — Luke 22:42»
Jesus was facing the cross, yet He surrendered to the Father's will.
That is mature prayer.
A child may say:
“God, give me what I want.”
But spiritual maturity says:
“God, give me what You know is best.”
A powerful prayer to learn:
“Lord, if this desire is from You, establish it. If it is not from You, remove it. And if I must wait, give me grace to wait.”
4. DEAL WITH UNFORGIVENESS AND SIN

We must be careful here.

The Bible does not teach that every unanswered prayer means a person has committed some hidden sin.
Job suffered greatly without being guilty of the accusations brought against him.
However, Scripture clearly teaches that deliberate, unrepentant sin can affect our relationship and fellowship with God.
Psalm 66:18 says:
«“If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.”»
And Isaiah 59:2 says:
«“But your iniquities have separated between you and your God…”»
God is merciful, but we should not treat sin casually.
What about unforgiveness?
Jesus taught:
«“And when ye stand praying, forgive…” — Mark 11:25»
You cannot continuously ask God for mercy while deliberately refusing to show mercy to others.
Forgiveness does not mean saying that what happened was acceptable.
Forgiveness means releasing vengeance into God's hands.
Ask yourself:
“Is there somebody I need to forgive?”
“Is there something God has been asking me to surrender?”
“Am I asking God to bless something He has already told me to leave?”
5. PRAY WITH PERSISTENCE
Some answers require persistent prayer.
Jesus taught this through the parable of the persistent widow in Luke 18:1–8.
The purpose of the parable was clear:
«“Men ought always to pray, and not to faint.” — Luke 18:1»
Do not stop praying simply because you have not yet seen the answer.
Daniel gives us another powerful example.
In Daniel 10, Daniel prayed and fasted. His answer was delayed, but heaven had heard him from the beginning.
The angel told him:
«“From the first day that thou didst set thine heart to understand… thy words were heard.” — Daniel 10:12»
Think about that!
Daniel was praying on earth while heaven was already responding.
The delay did not mean God had ignored him.

BIBLICAL CASE STUDY:

HANNAH — A WOMAN WHO POURED OUT HER SOUL

Hannah's story in 1 Samuel 1 is one of the clearest pictures of persistent prayer.
She was deeply troubled because she had no child.
She went to the house of the Lord and prayed.
She didn't simply perform a religious ritual.
She poured out her soul before God.
Eli initially misunderstood her.
But Hannah kept praying.
Eventually, God answered her prayer and gave her Samuel.
Her story teaches us:
1. You can bring your deepest pain to God.
2. People may misunderstand your prayer, but God understands your heart.
3. Delay does not mean denial.
4. God can turn tears into testimony.
Hannah went into the presence of God carrying sorrow.
She came out carrying peace.
The circumstances had not immediately changed—but something had changed inside her.
That is one of the miracles of prayer.
Sometimes prayer changes the situation.
Sometimes prayer changes the person going through the situation.
And sometimes God does both.

WHAT DOES IT MEAN THAT GOD "HEARS" PRAYER?

When Scripture says God hears prayer, it means far more than God simply detecting our words.
It means God attends to, receives, and responds according to His wisdom and will.
God hears the prayer of His children.
Proverbs 15:29 says:
«“The LORD is far from the wicked: but he heareth the prayer of the righteous.”»
And James 5:16 declares:
«“The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.”»
Your prayer may look small on earth, but it is not small when it reaches heaven.

PRACTICAL ACTION STEPS

1. SET A CONSISTENT PRAYER TIME
Do not pray only when there is an emergency.
Build a prayer life.
2. BEGIN WITH WORSHIP
Before presenting your shopping list to God, acknowledge who He is.
“Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name…” — Matthew 6:9
3. CONFESS YOUR SINS
Ask the Holy Spirit to search your heart.
Psalm 139:23–24
4. PRAY SCRIPTURE
Use God's Word as the foundation of your prayers.
5. ASK SPECIFICALLY
Instead of only saying, “Lord, bless me,” tell God what you are trusting Him for.
6. LEARN TO LISTEN
Prayer is not a one-way conversation.
After speaking, become quiet before God.
Read Scripture.
Pay attention to the convictions and guidance of the Holy Spirit.
7. KEEP A PRAYER JOURNAL
Write down your requests.
Record dates.
Record answers.
One day you will look back and realize how many prayers God answered.

DEEP SPIRITUAL INSIGHTS

1. God's silence is not necessarily God's absence.
You may not hear anything, but God may still be working.
2. Prayer is not primarily about getting things; it is about knowing God.
The greatest answer to prayer is not always a possession.
Sometimes it is God Himself.
3. Prayer changes the atmosphere of the person praying.
You may enter prayer anxious and leave with peace.
4. God's answer may be different from your expectation.
Never limit God to one method of answering.
5. The strongest prayer is surrendered prayer.
“Lord, have Your way” is one of the deepest expressions of faith.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION

1. When I pray, am I seeking God's will or only demanding my own will?
2. Is there any known sin I need to confess?
3. Is there someone I need to forgive?
4. Have I stopped praying because my answer is delayed?
5. Do I genuinely trust God when His answer is different from what I expected?
6. Is my prayer life based on relationship with God or only on emergency needs?
7. What prayer have I abandoned that God may be asking me to continue bringing before Him?

POWERFUL PRAYER POINTS

1. PRAYER FOR A DEEPER PRAYER LIFE
Father, awaken in me a fresh hunger for prayer. Take away spiritual laziness and teach me to seek Your face consistently, in Jesus' name.
2. PRAYER FOR A PURE HEART
Lord, search my heart. Reveal anything that is displeasing to You and give me grace to repent and walk in righteousness.
3. PRAYER FOR FAITH
Father, increase my faith. When answers are delayed, help me trust You. When I cannot see the way, help me believe that You are still working.
4. PRAYER FOR GOD'S WILL
Lord, deliver me from insisting on my own way. Align my desires with Your purpose and give me grace to say, “Your will be done.”
5. PRAYER FOR PERSISTENCE
Father, give me strength not to faint in prayer. Help me continue believing until Your appointed time.
6. PRAYER FOR FORGIVENESS
Lord, give me grace to forgive those who have hurt me. Heal my heart and remove bitterness from my spirit.
7. PRAYER FOR DIVINE ANSWERS
Father, concerning every legitimate request I have brought before You, let Your perfect will be established. Open the right doors, close the wrong doors, and lead me according to Your purpose.
8. PRAYER FOR SPIRITUAL SENSITIVITY
Holy Spirit, teach me to recognize Your voice. Help me distinguish Your leading from my emotions, fears, and human desires.

DON'T JUST PRAY—BUILD A RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD

Beloved, prayer is not a religious emergency button.
Prayer is relationship.
Do not wait until everything is falling apart before you seek God.
Pray when you are happy.
Pray when you are confused.
Pray when you have money.
Pray when you have nothing.
Pray when the door opens.
Pray when the door closes.
Pray when you understand.
Pray when you don't understand.
And above all, pray with a heart that trusts God.
Remember:
A delayed answer is not necessarily a denied prayer.
God's silence is not necessarily God's absence.
God's “no” is not a rejection of you.
And God's “wait” is not a waste of your time.
There is a God who hears.
There is a God who sees.
There is a God who knows.
There is a God who answers.
So keep praying. Keep believing. Keep trusting. Keep walking with God.

FINAL DECLARATION

I will not give up in prayer.
I will not allow delay to destroy my faith.
I will seek God's face, not merely His hands.
I will surrender my will to His will.
I will forgive.
I will believe.
I will persevere.
And I will trust the God who hears me.
In Jesus' mighty name, Amen!

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How the YouTube Monetization Program Works


YouTube monetization mainly works through the **YouTube Partner Program (YPP)**. In simple terms:

**Advertisers → YouTube → Monetized Creator → Revenue**

A YouTuber creates eligible content, joins YPP, turns on available monetization features, and earns a share of revenue generated from eligible viewer activity.

1. First, the YouTuber joins YPP

A creator must meet YouTube's current eligibility requirements and pass YouTube's channel review.

There are different levels of YPP access, and the requirements can differ depending on whether the creator wants fan-funding features or full ad-revenue sharing.

For **full ad revenue sharing**, the commonly used threshold is:

*1,000 subscribers**, and
* Either **4,000 valid public watch hours in the previous 12 months**, or
10 million valid public Shorts views in the previous 90 days**

YouTube can change eligibility rules, so creators should check the current requirements in YouTube Studio before planning around a specific threshold.

2. Where does the money come from?

The biggest source is **advertising**.

For example:

**Advertiser pays YouTube → YouTube serves an ad → viewer watches/interacts → eligible revenue is generated → YouTube shares revenue with the creator.**

The amount a creator earns isn't simply "number of views × fixed price."

It can depend on:

* Viewer location
* Advertiser demand
* Content topic
* Type of advertisement
* Whether an ad was actually served
* Viewer behavior
* Seasonality
* Video format
* Long-form vs. Shorts
* YouTube's revenue-sharing rules

So **1 million views does not have a universally fixed dollar value**.

3. Long-form videos

For eligible long-form videos, creators can earn from ads displayed around or during their content.

A simplified example:

> A video receives 100,000 views.
> Some viewers see advertisements, while others don't.
> Advertisers pay YouTube based on eligible advertising activity.
> YouTube calculates the creator's applicable revenue share.
> The creator receives the resulting earnings in their YouTube/AdSense payment system.

This is why **CPM and RPM are different**.

**CPM** = what advertisers pay per 1,000 ad impressions, before considering the creator's actual revenue.

**RPM** = approximately how much the creator earns per 1,000 total video views after YouTube's applicable revenue share and across the creator's monetized/non-monetized views.

4. Shorts monetization works differently

Shorts use a different advertising-revenue model.

Ads are shown **between Shorts**, and eligible revenue is pooled. YouTube then distributes the applicable creator revenue according to its Shorts revenue-sharing system.

Therefore, you shouldn't calculate Shorts income using the same method as a traditional long-form video's CPM.

5. YouTube has other monetization methods

Ads aren't the only way a YouTuber can make money through YouTube.

Depending on eligibility and availability, creators may earn through:

| Monetization method | How creator earns |
| ------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Watch-page ads** | Revenue share from ads on eligible long-form videos |
| **Shorts Feed ads** | Revenue share through the Shorts monetization system |
| **YouTube Premium** | Share of Premium subscription revenue based on member viewing |
| **Channel memberships** | Viewers pay recurring membership fees |
| **Super Chat / Super Stickers** | Viewers pay during eligible live streams |
| **Super Thanks** | Viewers pay to support eligible videos |
| **Shopping/affiliate features** | Commission or revenue from eligible product activity |
| **Sponsorships** | Brand pays the creator directly; generally separate from YPP ad revenue |

6. Example of a YouTuber's revenue ecosystem

Imagine a Bangladesh-based creator publishes a technology video.

The video gets **200,000 views**.

The creator could potentially generate revenue from:

**200,000 views**
↓
Ads shown to eligible viewers
↓
Advertiser spending
↓
YouTube processes the revenue
↓
Creator receives applicable revenue share

The creator might also earn additional money from:

**YouTube Premium viewers + memberships + Super Thanks + sponsorships + eligible Shopping activity**

So a successful YouTuber often has **multiple revenue streams**, rather than relying exclusively on advertisements.

7. Why two channels with the same views can earn very different amounts

Suppose:

* Channel A = 100,000 views
* Channel B = 100,000 views

They don't necessarily earn the same amount.

For example, their audiences could have different countries, advertiser demand, topics, watch behavior, ad availability, and video formats.

A finance/business audience may attract very different advertising demand from an entertainment audience.

That's why **views alone aren't enough to predict YouTube income**.

8. How the creator actually gets paid

After generating eligible earnings, the creator's finalized YouTube earnings are associated with their **AdSense for YouTube** payment account.

Once the applicable payment requirements are met, Google pays the creator according to the payment schedule and payment method available for their account/country.


The simplest formula

Think of YouTube monetization like this:

**Audience → Views/engagement → Advertiser or fan spending → YouTube revenue → Creator's applicable share → Payment**

And the most important point:

> **YouTube doesn't simply pay creators a fixed amount for every view.** Revenue depends on the monetization source and the characteristics of the audience and content.

If you want, I can also explain **YouTube monetization specifically for Bangladesh**, including **how much 1,000 / 10,000 / 100,000 / 1 million views can potentially earn, CPM vs RPM, AdSense payment, and Bangladesh payment methods**.

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Youtuber masudbcl

A Nugget of Truth.
THE REASONS SO MANY PEOPLE REJECT THE SABBATH?

Many reject the Sabbath, not because the Bible is unclear, but because obedience requires surrender. Business, entertainment, sports, shopping, and social activities often take priority over God's holy day. Rather than setting these things aside to honor God, many choose to set the Sabbath aside instead.

God's Word must shape our lives—not our lifestyle shape God's Word.

The God who judged the world in Noah's day and destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah is the same righteous God who will judge the world again. His mercy is still available today, but His judgment is certain.

"For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness." — Romans 1:18 (KJV)

Choose obedience over convenience. Honor the Creator. Keep His commandments through faith in Jesus Christ while mercy still pleads.

Amazing Love

IS IT WORTH IT?
I’m frugal. I’m the bargain-shopper that my mother raised me to be. It’s not like I don’t like spending money. I just really like saving money.

Before any big purchase, I spend days (sometimes weeks!) comparing different brands and options to see if I can get a similar value for a lower cost. Before making the final purchase I always ask myself, “Is this worth it?”

While I am often very proud of my bargain shopping, one place where I don’t want to count costs or look for a better deal is in my walk with Christ. Walking with Christ often requires different kinds of sacrifice. Whether it be our finances, free time, personal plans, or social status, there are many things we may need to fully surrender to Christ. When I know I need to surrender something to the Lord, I might ask myself, is it worth it?

Mark 14:3-9 is the account of Jesus’ anointing at Bethany. An unnamed woman pours a flask of pure nard over Jesus’ head. In other words, this woman used an entire year’s worth of wages in very expensive oil to glorify Christ as her King and Savior. Some sitting around the table are furious about what they’ve just seen:

Some of those at the table were indignant. "Why waste such expensive perfume?" they asked. "It could have been sold for a year’s wages and the money given to the poor!" So they scolded her harshly (Mark 14:4-5 NLT).
But Jesus doesn’t scold her.

But Jesus replied, "Leave her alone. Why criticize her for doing such a good thing to me? … Wherever the Good News is preached throughout the world, this woman’s deed will be remembered and discussed” (Mark 14:6,9).
This was a beautiful, sacrificial act of worship, exalting Jesus as the Messiah, that we still talk about today! But it came at a very high cost. She didn’t use just some of the oil. She didn’t try to do just enough to get by. She spared no expense when it came to Jesus.

Are we willing to do the same with our lives? Maybe we’re afraid to give our lives fully to Christ because we’re afraid of looking foolish. When we make sacrifices to honor Christ, others may not understand. Just like those at the table in Bethany, they might think of it as a waste of time, money, or energy. But Christ says:

“If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him” (John 14:23).
When we love God and live for Him, we get to spend eternity with Him. We can spend days, weeks, and even years trying to replace a relationship with Christ with the things of this world, but in this case, there is nothing of similar value for a lower cost. No better deal exists!

God bless you!

continuation of chapter 1.1
This is where the tragedy deepens into a full-blown farce. The very thing he fights—the emotion—is just a faithful messenger, a postman delivering news of what he already believes. He treats the messenger as the enemy, beats him up, throws him into the street, while refusing to read the letter. “How dare you bring me this feeling of reluctance!” he cries, as the postman, now a bruised but still very present emotion, sighs and says, “Sir, I’m just doing my job. Take it up with the author.” The Apostle Paul once said, “The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace” (Romans 8:6). Notice he didn’t say, “Beat the flesh-mind with a stick until it learns to behave.” He spoke of a whole new governing. But we prefer a hostile takeover of the post office. We’d rather wrestle the mailman to the ground and demand he bring us different letters while we refuse to change the address the letters are coming from.
‎
‎And because his efforts to defeat the emotion always, always fail in the long run (for a wrong belief will never, ever yield a lasting right feeling), he becomes thoroughly exhausted. And from this exhaustion he draws a devastating conclusion, as if he has discovered some profound truth: “Righteousness itself is a burden. The spiritual life is nothing but a soul-crushing war against my own inner resistance. God is hard, and I am a failure.” That conclusion becomes a shiny new piece of false knowledge, producing even darker emotions, and the cycle tightens its grip, like a snake charmer who’s charmed himself. It’s a self-perpetuating carnival ride: you pay admission with your peace, the ride spins you until you’re nauseous, and when you vomit, the ride operator yells, “See! That’s proof you’re not holy enough! Here’s a mop, and by the way, the next spin starts in five minutes.” The ticket booth is your own false belief, and you keep buying the season pass.
‎
‎But here is the most confusing and tragic knot of all: when sound knowledge is offered to him—when someone gently says, “My friend, your view of God is a bad caricature; the truth is that He is a Father who already, right now, delights in you, and righteous living is simply your natural, joyful response to that love, not a bribe to get it”—man often refuses it. Why? Because he has become so identified with his emotional struggle that he mistakes it for spiritual seriousness. He has been fighting the emotion for so long that he believes the fight itself is righteousness. He’s become a kind of spiritual hypochondriac who thinks his constant pain is proof of his sensitivity. To abandon the fight and accept a new view feels not like liberation, but like surrender, like letting go of his “conscientiousness.” He mistakes his spiritual exhaustion for piety. He rigidly refuses the very knowledge that would set him free, because he has confused the war against the symptom with the actual work. He now believes in his emotional exhaustion as proof of his devotion, like a man who thinks the noise the engine makes is what makes the car go. And if you suggest otherwise, he’ll quote Scripture to defend his misery: “I discipline my body and bring it into subjection” (1 Corinthians 9:27) becomes “I beat up my emotions daily and call it apostleship.” Paul was talking about self-control, not self-flagellation with a cat-o'-nine-tails made of guilt. But the misquoter stands there, whip in hand, proud of his welts, awaiting a martyr’s crown.
‎
‎So the confusion is a multi-layered cake of bewilderment:
‎
‎1. Wrong knowledge produces a painful emotion (the projector’s running a bad film).
‎2. Then man perceives the emotion as the primary problem (he tries to fix the screen).
‎3. He attacks the emotion instead of exchanging the knowledge (he starts scrubbing the screen with a wire brush).
‎4. When his attack fails, he blames himself or God, generating new false knowledge (“The projector hates me.”).
‎5. He then defends his struggle as righteous, rejecting any truth that would dismantle his agonizing framework (“Don’t you dare touch my wire brush! This is holy work!”).
‎
‎He ends up fighting the very belief he has not changed, all the while thinking he is fighting the right opponent—his emotion. Yet the emotion, in its very making, is nothing but the living shape of what he believes. It is not the problem to be solved; it is the faithful echo of a false premise. The wisest man who ever lived put it this way: “Guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it” (Proverbs 4:23). The heart in Hebrew thought includes the mind, the inner knowing. Guard that. But we’ve turned “guard your heart” into “patrol your feelings like a prison warden and shoot any inmate who looks suspicious.” The original advice was about planting a good tree; we made it about beating up the bad fruit with a baseball bat.
‎
‎Years ago, when I was a focus pastor at a campus, a young man came to me with a dilemma so perfectly tragicomical that it nearly stopped my watch. He wanted to overcome lust. His specific problem was that he could not withstand having an erection in front of a beautiful woman. He saw this natural, biological response not as a bodily event, but as a personal betrayal of cosmic proportions. He had, in his mind, already been enlisted in a war against the devil, and his own body was, apparently, a double agent. His proposed solutions were, shall we say, drastic. He was of a view either to have his penis cut off, or to remove the neural centers that generate a response that causes the erection—a sort of internal scorched-earth policy, all in order to satisfy God and escape sin. He was ready to amputate the messenger. Now, he was practically quoting Jesus, though he didn’t realize the irony: “If your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away” (Matthew 5:30). But Jesus was using holy hyperbole to deal with sin radically, not handing out surgical consent forms. If you take that verse as a literal amputation manual, you’ll end up as a disembodied stump within a month, and still sinning—because last I checked, you can sin in your thoughts with no hands at all. The only thing worse than a lustful thought is a lustful thought in a body with no parts left to express it, just a torso with a dirty mind. That’s not holiness; that’s a medical oddity.
‎
‎So I asked, with a straight face, “Well, while we’re at it, why not remove your eyes? Or maybe we could just hide you in a cave far, far away, where you can’t ever see a female again. We could airlift in supplies. You’d be completely, perfectly holy—and utterly alone, but hey, no more erections! You could start a new monastic order: the Order of the Perpetually Safe and Extremely Lone.” There was a pause, a flicker of a grin. It was funny, and at the same time desperately serious. He was battling the emotion, the feeling, the embarrassing ambush of his own body, with the only weapon he knew: violent control. He told me however much he had read scriptures, however many times he had fasted until his stomach gnawed at his backbone, nothing had changed. The projector kept showing the film. And in the end, he asked me to lay hands on him, that the authority and power of the Holy Spirit might do a miracle and change him instantly—as if the truth were a lightning bolt that would zap the wrong belief away without his understanding ever having to be involved. He wanted a magical solution to a physiological and theological confusion, a divine software patch downloaded through the ether. But the Holy Spirit is not a cosmic IT desk that reboots your hard drive while you remain blissfully unconscious of the update; the liberation, as Jesus said, comes through knowing the truth (John 8:32), and the truth is a new piece of knowledge that makes the whole absurd struggle evaporate like a mist in the morning sun. You don’t need a hand laid on your forehead; you need a truth laid in your understanding. But we prefer the drama of a fall under the power to the quiet dignity of a mind renewed.
‎
‎And so the silent comedy continues: man remains locked in a war he was never meant to fight, swinging his sword at shadows while the unexamined lie sits enthroned within, calmly, peacefully, reproducing the chaos. Liberation never comes through battling feelings. It comes only when a man is willing to let a new, true piece of knowledge enter and dismantle the lie—and then, astonishingly, the feeling changes on its own, as naturally as a flower opening to the light. The flower doesn’t wrestle its petals apart with grunts and sweat; it simply quits hiding from the sun.
‎
‎Now, just when you thought the absurdity was confined to our internal skirmishes, this same poison of misperception has infected our identities. We have created a grand, global drama of what might be called “hate your neighbor as you hate yourself.”
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‎Look at how we are raised. A child born into a Muslim family is, from birth, taught that they are automatically on the righteous team, and that the other team—the Christian one, the Hindu one, all the others—are not just wrong, but constitute a kind of cosmic rebellion that must be fought. A child born into a Christian family inhales the same emotional posture in reverse. Narrow it further: an Anglican is a quiet, dignified rebel against the Catholic; the Catholic against the Anglican. And as the denominations multiply like rabbits, so do the silent, emotional wars. We are not born into truth; we are born into an emotional game of ancestral sports teams. It’s not Manchester United vs. Liverpool, it’s the Assembly of the Firstborn vs. The Remnant of the True Remnant, and both sides are convinced the other is going down in the end-time relegation playoffs. Paul had to beg the early church, “I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another in what you say and that there be no divisions among you” (1 Corinthians 1:10). Already, some were saying “I follow Paul,” others “I follow Apollos.” Today it’s “I follow the pastor who preaches exactly thirty-seven minutes and frowns on drums” versus “I follow the guy with the fog machine and the motivational podcast.” The teams have multiplied, but the game is the same: spiritual paintball with real pain.
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‎And such a child, let’s say a Catholic child, grows up secretly awaiting the day when the heavenly trumpets blast and the voice from the clouds, like the sound of a thousand megaphones, roars: “Woooooh! All Catholics, please proceed to Gate A—you are definitely the chosen people! The rest… could you please form an orderly queue, as you are now cosmic toast.” Then they will celebrate, not as someone finally meeting the Beloved, but as a successful rebel who backed the winning horse. And they will turn to their Anglican and Pentecostal friends in the line and say, with genuine, tragic sincerity, “Bro, it was nice knowing you. Remember, I told you, you were on the wrong code. But I’ll miss you. I’ll try to explain your case to Christ; maybe He can downgrade your eternal torment to a mild, lukewarm purgatory.” It sounds like a joke, but it’s the secret emotional undercurrent of a mind that has mistaken a team jersey for a transformed heart. And we haven’t even mentioned the Baptists, who are certain that heaven has an immersion baptismal at the gate and you’ll need a dry-cleaned robe to enter. The only real difference between us and a soccer hooligan is that he’ll fight you in the parking lot, while we’ll just write a strongly worded doctrinal statement explaining why your parking lot doesn’t exist.
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‎So, the question is not whether we should fight other religions as rebels or not. That’s like arguing about which character in a movie is the real hero while the entire theater is on fire. The question is: when did we accept this confusion to begin with? When did we sign up for the spiritual war reenactment society? The Scriptures actually tell us that “there is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28). You’d think that would put an end to the team jerseys. But no, we immediately divided ourselves into the “One-in-Christ” denomination and the “Also-One-in-Christ-but-with-correct-eschatology” denomination. The church split is always pre-packaged in the very verse meant to heal it. That’s not a revival; that’s a sitcom.
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‎In all this, humans are unable to realize one liberating fact: they are not fighting for wisdom. They are just fighting with their emotions, dressed up as soldiers. They are trapped in inherited, emotional feuds, mistaking cultural loyalties and religious brand names for the pursuit of the Divine. A change in understanding—a coming to know the truth of the matter—naturally alters a person’s response to this entire magnificent mass of confusion. You do not need to fight the emotion, whether it’s the hatred of holiness or the smug thrill of being on the “correct” team. You need to see that the whole game is being played on a board that doesn’t exist, propelled by a belief that was never true to begin with. And when you see that, you don’t have to fight to be free. You look around, have a deep cosmic chuckle, and realize you always were. You were the prisoner who spent years begging for freedom while clutching the key to your cell, insisting the key was a holy back-scratcher and you must suffer well.
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‎And this brings us to the most delicious piece of the puzzle, the final twist in the cosmic comedy: there is, in truth, no real hatred for righteousness at all. How could there be? The man has never actually tasted it. He is like a fellow who marches into the kitchen, slaps together a meal of boiled anxiety and raw self-effort with a generous pinch of grim duty, arranges it on a plate, sits down at the dining table, and then—before even lifting the fork—explodes with indignation. “What is this dreadful stench? Who chose these ingredients? I despise the salt! Who is the chef around here, some kind of cosmic sadist?” And all the while, he is the one who did the shopping, the cooking, and the seasoning. He is complaining about his own recipe and calling it “God’s banquet.” Isaiah saw this coming: “Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and you will delight in the richest of fare” (Isaiah 55:2). God is advertising a free, sumptuous feast, and we’re in the corner microwaving a shoe and calling it the “hard path of discipleship.” The shoe is leathery and tough to swallow, and we’re convinced that’s the cost of holiness—never realizing God’s been shouting from the dining room, “Put the shoe down! I have steak!”
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‎Man has not had a single real taste of righteousness, because he has been far too busy force-feeding himself a meal he prepared with his own terrified hands. He never paused to consider that there might be a completely different dish, prepared by a completely different Chef, that would make his taste buds sing. He hasn’t even thought to ask, “Perhaps before I complain, I might find out what the right meal actually is.” Instead, he sits at the table, arms crossed, fuming at the aroma of his own boiling resentment, convinced that he hates the forty-course feast of the Divine because the bowl of cold gruel he made for himself tasted awful. The liberation comes not from learning to stomach the gruel with a forced smile, but from discovering that there was a glorious, free banquet prepared all along, and you, my friend, were invited the whole time. And when that truth lands, the complaint evaporates—not because you fought it, but because you finally got up from the table of your own miserable cooking and took a seat where the real food is. And the real food is Himself. “I am the bread of life,” He said. “Whoever comes to me will never go hungry” (John 6:35). That’s not a diet plan; that’s a person.
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‎Now, let's be absolutely clear about this, because the joke is on all of us and it's simply too good to miss: the trouble isn't that you have a weak will or a rebellious heart. The hatred of righteousness—that queasy, squirming resistance to what is good and holy—is not some black moral stain on your character that ought to make you hang your head in shame and enroll in a twelve-step program for deplorable sinners. No, no. It is a symptom of a mistake in understanding. A kind of intellectual cramp. A mental charley horse. It's as though your mind has been sitting in an awkward position for too long and has gone completely numb, and now you're furious at the tingling sensation, calling it demonic, when all you really need to do is stand up and walk around a bit. The devil loves a charley horse that gets mistaken for a demonic attack, because it means you’ll spend the next hour rebuking your calf instead of just stretching.
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‎But of course, we are human. And human beings, bless our dramatic little hearts, live this life swimming in the medium of emotion as fish swim in water. We wake, we feel, we react. An unpleasant emotion arises, and before you can say "existential crisis," we have named it, judged it, and declared holy war upon it. Quite naturally, we make the mistake of treating certain feelings as ghouls, as demons, as personal Satans lurking in the basement of the psyche, rubbing their hands together and plotting our spiritual downfall. We picture a little red imp with a pitchfork hiding behind our medulla oblongata, whispering, "Go on, feel resentful about holiness, it'll be fun." And then we spend the next three hours rebuking it. But a feeling is not a gremlin. It is simply a manifestation—a shadow on the wall, cast by whatever we happen to believe is true. And you don't defeat a shadow by punching the wall. You'll only break your knuckles and look rather silly. You’ll also have a dented wall and a very confused shadow, which will still be there, probably mocking you.
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‎But I want you to notice something quite wonderful, something so obvious that it is almost completely invisible to us in our state of spiritual panic: your emotions, in whatever costume they decide to wear to the party—whether it's gloom, lust, irritation, or that very specific feeling of wanting to strangle the person who just said "just trust the process"—are not intruders. They are perfectly in order. They are, as it were, God-given messengers. And you wouldn't waste a single moment fighting your own nervous system for doing exactly what it's supposed to do. You don't shout at the echo for bouncing back when you call into a canyon. "Why, you impertinent echo! How dare you repeat my exact words back to me with a slight delay! I rebuke you in the name of acoustical propriety!" Absurd, isn't it? Yet here we are, spending our days in full-scale civil war against the very things that make us complete, blasting the echo with a shotgun and wondering why the canyon still talks back. The echo is just your own voice returning to you, and if you don’t like what you hear, the solution is not to silence the canyon; it’s to change the shout. “For as he thinks in his heart, so is he” (Proverbs 23:7). The man’s inner shout shapes his echo. If his thinking is sour, his emotions will smell like a pickle jar left open in the sun. You don’t ban pickles; you change the factory.
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‎The only way to know where you actually stand in your understanding of this universe—what you really, secretly, deep-in-your-bones believe—is to take a good, honest look at your emotional state in any given moment. Your feelings are the painting, splashed across the canvas of your experience in vivid color. Your beliefs are the tiny, almost invisible signature at the bottom. If the painting is a chaotic swirl of dread, resentment, and spiritual indigestion, you don't fix it by throwing turpentine at the canvas. You find the painter and ask him what on earth he was thinking.

Why Sunday? More Than Just a Church Service

Have you ever wondered why Christians gather for worship on Sunday?

For many people, Sunday is simply the end of the weekend. For others, it’s a day to sleep in, catch up on chores, or relax. But for Christians, Sunday is far more than a routine—it’s a weekly reminder of the greatest victory in history.

Jesus Christ rose from the dead on the first day of the week (Matthew 28:1–10; Mark 16:2; Luke 24:1; John 20:1). His resurrection defeated sin, death, and the grave, giving hope and eternal life to all who believe in Him. Because of this, the early Church began gathering on the first day of the week to worship, pray, break bread, and hear God’s Word (Acts 20:7; 1 Corinthians 16:2).

Sunday is not merely about attending a service. It is about meeting with God and His people. It is a time to lay aside the distractions of the week, worship the Lord, learn from Scripture, encourage one another, and remember that our hope is found in Christ alone.

In today’s fast-paced world, it is easy to make everything else a priority—work, entertainment, sports, shopping, or social media. Yet one hour spent with God can bring more peace to the soul than a whole week spent chasing the things of this world.

Church is not a building; it is the family of God gathering together. We worship not because we have to, but because Christ first loved us. We sing because He is worthy. We pray because He listens. We open the Bible because His Word is truth. We gather because we were never meant to walk the Christian life alone.

The question isn’t, “Do I have time for God this Sunday?”

The real question is, “Can I truly afford to live another week without drawing near to Him?”

This Sunday, don’t just attend church.

Come expecting God to speak, to strengthen your faith, to encourage your heart, and to remind you that Jesus Christ is alive—and He is still changing lives today.

“Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together… but encouraging one another.” — Hebrews 10:25 (KJV)

#WhySunday #LordsDay #SundayWorship #ResurrectionDay #JesusIsAlive #GatherToWorship #HouseOfTheLord #ChurchFamily #WorshipTogether #FaithInChrist #BibleTruth #KingdomFirst #ChristianLiving #FollowJesus #WalkWithJesus #SeekHisKingdom #Hebrews1025 #JesusChrist #GodsWord #StandFirm #HopeInChrist #ComeToChurch #WorshipTheKing #Maranatha #

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LESSON ON MODEST APPAREL IN A
SHAMELESS WORLD
THANKS TO SISTER JANICE NEVELS
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1 TIMOTHY/TIMOTIYOS 2
{9} In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with broided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array;
10 But (which becometh women professing godliness ) with good works.

This issue stays on my mind continually. I'm posting this knowing that most who read it will get offended. But so be it. It's the Word and we can't tip toe around it as if it's not there.

In the above passages, the Apostle Paul is dealing with Gentile converts to the faith. He is instructing them in the manners in which they should conduct themselves. In verses 9 & 10, he is dealing with women. He tells them to adorn themselves in MODEST apparel. So what exactly is modest apparel? I am so grieved over the state of the church. Modesty seems to be a thing of the past. Modest apparel covers and conceals the form of the woman. Tight form-fitting clothing that is cut low or rides to high up the woman or girls legs is NOT modest. It is the responsibility of the woman to conceal her form that she not tempt man to lust after her.

Women who profess to be born again should not continue to adorn themselves like the women in the world do. I honestly can not tell the difference between worldly women and church going women. Why you might ask? Because their outward adornment is no different.

Paul goes on to say, "with shamefacedness and sobriety". Shamefacedness literally means with down cast eyes. Not walking around prideful with their outward apperance and having wondering eyes. He says, Be sober minded and have self-control over yourself; not with broided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array; but which becometh women professing godliness with good works.

These passages simply do not fit the modern christian woman. But if you think about it, it did not fit the women of that day either. If it had, Paul would not be having to deal with the issue. Let me jump back to modest apparel. Years back when Abba started dealing with me on this issue, he opened my eyes and allowed me to see women through the eyes of a man. I know that sounds strange, but it's simply how it happened.

Everywhere I went all I could see was women's behinds. I got very frustrated and questions him as to why this was the case. That's when he opened up the above passages to me. YAHWAH allowed me to see just how immodest I was dressing. I felt so ashamed. I went home and cleaned out my closet. The only up side to it at the time was I got to go shopping and pick out all new cloths. I had no idea that the way I was dressing grieved the Holy Spirit. Women, every time you wear something that is formfitting that shows your shape and curves, you are dressed immodest. Shorts=Immodest Pant=Immodest Tight clothing=Immodest
Low cut tops= Immodest I suppose you are getting the picture.

Give heed to the doctrine of the Apostle Paul. Cover yourselves in modest apparel. Stop placing your focus on the outward woman and focus on the inward woman. I assure you that Miriam, the mother of the Messiah was not prancing around in a pair of shorts or tight pants with colored hair and a ring on every finger with her face all painted up like the canvas of an artist.

Prayerfully consider this doctrine that Paul was teaching. When you look in the mirror and you think to yourself, "I look Hot", please, go take a cold shower and then go dress yourself in something that represents women professing godliness. You WILL give an account to Yahwah for every man that you temp with your immodest apparel. Remember, it is you're place to conceal and hid your form. It makes it more difficult for a man to lust if he does not have a visual image set before his eyes.

To sleepy to go back and edit. It is what it is. Good-Night All

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