These are some of the many questions I hear on Ask the Pastor from people whose daily struggles in life seem to be a continual problem… without a solution in sight: 

 I never seem to have enough!… It seems like I’m just living from paycheck to paycheck!… I know God loves me, but why do bad things keep happening to me?… Why don’t things seem to be getting any better? I can’t seem to shake off this sickness!

Have you ever known someone who always seems to have something bad happening to them?   If it’s not money problems, then it’s family problems; if it’s not family problems, then it is an accident or tragedy or sickness. Maybe you have felt like that at times – that just when it seems like you’re getting some momentum, just when it seems like something good is about to happen, you’re hit with an unexpected bill or sickness or job loss or family problem that seems to complicate everything.

Why is that? The answer is: It’s a curse! Genesis 3 says that ever since Adam’s sin, the earth and mankind have been under a curse.  The curse in its simplest definition is summed up in Murphy’s Law: Whatever can go wrong will go wrong.

Can we ever be truly free from it? YES, you can absolutely be free! In fact, you already are! Listen to what God says in Galatians 3:13: “And Christ has redeemed us from THE CURSE of the law having become a curse for us, for cursed is everyone that hangs on a tree; SO THAT BLESSING CAN COME…”

I want to show you how to reverse this curse so that this pattern of failure, or lack for what you need, never happens again!  You can get to the point where EVERYTHING THAT CAN GO RIGHT, DOES GO RIGHT!

According to Deuteronomy, Chapter 28, the curse brings the following things to mankind:  (Pinch yourself and say, “That seems like me!”)

1. Poverty – v. 29, 38 (Poverty simply means not having enough)
2. Emotional problems – v. 28, 65
3. Family problems, including marriage problems and problems with our children – v. 30-34, 41
4. Sickness, disease, cancer – v. 22, 27, 35
5. Terrorism – v. 49-50 (yes, it’s in this scripture!)
6. Failure and Defeat – v. 20, 25
7. Fear – v. 65-67

The good news is that if any of these things are operating in your life, they don’t have a right to operate any more!   When Jesus went to the cross, He nailed these curses to it!  He bought you back from the bondage of the curse. He paid in full for every punishment, problem, and curse that should have fallen on you and me. 

Imagine being jailed for a crime or accident you unintentionally committed. Regardless of your innocence, the jury finds you guilty. You would be frustrated, bitter, and confused.  That is what the curse is like – you don’t intend for bad things to happen, but they do.

Here is an answer to your problems. Here’s how you can reverse this and stop these things from happening in your life:

• Be convinced you are redeemed. Take a look in the mirror and tell yourself what Job proclaimed: “I know that my redeemer lives” (Job 19:35). We are also reminded in Galatians 3:13 that Christ redeemed you. Ephesians 1:7 tells us that we have redemption through the shed blood of our Savior.
• Declare who you are in Christ. Psalm 107:2: “Let the redeemed of the Lord say so!” Say it when you feel like it; and say it when you don’t feel like it. Use your words to direct the outcome of your life. Proverbs 18:21 reminds us that life, blessing, and prosperity are in the power of your tongue.
• Stop expecting bad things to happen to you. Sometimes we “brace ourselves” for bad news and bad things so they don’t jolt us too much. Stop conditioning yourself to expect negative things to happen. Your spirit has enough energy and chemistry in it to bring those things upon you. That’s what Job meant when he said, “What I have feared has come upon me” (Job 3:25).

So claim your freedom from poverty, emotional problems, family problems, sickness, failure and fear today!

Learn more in my CD teaching series, “Redeemed From The Curse,” by visiting the Changinglives Bookstore at: 

http://www.cylbookstore.com/topics/familyrel/detail/Product_Catalog_07.htm

Gregory Dickow

We all know it. We’ve all felt it. PAIN. Pain is universal and inevitable. It’s part of the human condition — and always has been. Obviously, no one wants to keep hurting. Yet, people sometimes try to deal with their suffering without God, even though we weren’t designed that way.

God understands this and has a much better solution. In the Bible there are, in fact, over one hundred specific mentions of the word “pain” and multiple other references to “suffering” and “hurt.” He knows we suffer and He has an answer. But we must have faith that others have suffered, too, and overcome, and that our suffering can, in the end, be relieved. I’ll show you how. I’m reminded of Isaiah 53:3–5, referring to the hardship endured by Jesus. The Bible says: “He was despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and familiar with suffering . . . Surely He has borne our griefs, carried our sorrows . . . and with the stripes that wounded Him, we are healed and made whole.” Think about that: we are healed and made whole. That’s why Jesus suffered, as he did — to bear our pain as a surrogate and become our Healer.

No matter what kind of pain we experience — physical, emotional, mental, or spiritual — there is relief and it can begin today.

Be Healed,

Gregory Dickow

Read more about healing in my book.  Visit www.thepowertochangetoday.com

Emotions
Emotions – we all have them; unfortunately, there are times when they have us! Wouldn’t you like to get control of them rather than them having control of you? You certainly can. But how?

Mastering Life
This whole teaching stems from the revelation that we were designed by God to master life, rather than it mastering us—that we were made in the image of God to reflect His power, His love and His authority in this earth. It starts in our emotions, or our soul, because God says in 3 John 2 “I wish above all things that you would prosper and be in health, EVEN AS YOUR SOUL PROSPERS.” So as your soul goes, the rest of your life follows.

God created us to be in control as He is. However, in our failure to control our own self, we attempt to control others in order to feel the superiority that God created us to be in. Though, perhaps, currently displaced, it is God’s will for us to get back on top in this life—to reign in this life. Mastering our emotions doesn’t mean not having emotions. God designed us to express passion and emotion; but sin, the devil and the curse have perverted these emotions so that they will hurt us and hurt others around us.

Men, Women and Emotions
While women identify with this subject easily, this is by no stretch of the imagination for women only. The fact is, women are blessed to be more aware of their emotions (as your husband may attest, if you are married!)

Men have as many emotions as women. We need to get rid of the notion that women show their emotion more than men. The fact is, that they show different emotions than men, but not more—perhaps simply more recognizable.

Just because you’re a man, you may think, “It’s women that are more emotional than men.” Well, I am going to show you in the Word of God that that’s not true. It’s not true that women are more emotional than men. Women have more of a tendency to be expressive outwardly of their emotions; whereas men have more of a tendency to internalize their emotions and become more quiet and become more melancholy. When they’re emotional, they may become more somber. Now, a woman might have an outburst of her emotions verbally, but a man’s outburst of emotions is a grunt or a sigh.

The Sand Box
Have you ever noticed boys and girls playing? If you’ve ever noticed a boy and a girl playing like when we were kids, playing in a sand box. And girls, they’ll be in the sand box and they will be talking. They’ll say, “I’m going to play in the sand and build a little neat sand castle, and then I’m going to get the little boys to come and you know help me build this sand castle… and then when I get done with this I’m going to get all clean and play with my little dollies and I can’t wait to get home and play with my dollies.” What is the boy’s response? He grabs a truck and goes “vroom, vroom, mmm, mmm, mmm, mmm, mmmm.”

Then the little girl taps her friend and goes, “Little boy, are you listening to me?” And he responds, “Hmmm?” He hardly talks. Girls learn to vocalize themselves a whole lot earlier than boys do. Sometimes boys never do! Some boys never learn to express themselves but they’re always grunting.

A wife says, “What do you want for dinner tonight honey?” Husbands response: “mmhmm” (Translation: “I don’t know.”) Wife: “Why I was thinking about making spaghetti. Would that interest you?” “Mmhmm.” (Translation: “fine with me.”)

Men express themselves differently than women, but both men and women, when they are not born again, are under the curse of being controlled by their emotions. As believers, we are redeemed from this curse; however, we need to learn how to walk out of being emotionally-ruled people.

The “C” Word: Control
The word “control” is one of the most misunderstood words in our language. It usually has negative connotations; yet, its essence is determined by who is actually the one in control.

There has been a lot of Christian and secular writing that condemns the idea of a “controlling” personality. And rightly so, as it usually describes insecure people trying to control others in order to feel powerful or feel value.

People that try to control others are people who cannot control themselves—and usually this is found in the failure to control our emotions. It’s important for us to deal with the root causes of our problems at the onset so we can walk in victory and truly be free.

We all need to feel we are in control. There is nothing necessarily wrong with being in control. The issue is: what it is we are supposed to be in control of. When we get a hold of our thoughts, then we’ll have control of our emotions. When we get a hold of our emotions, we will have peace and security on the inside, eliminating our need to control others.

I want to show you that if you can control your emotions, you can absolutely do anything. Proverbs 16:32 says, “Better is a man who can rule his spirit (emotions, attitudes) than one who can capture a city.” Look at how powerful a person actually is who can control or “master” his/her emotions. He/she is more powerful than an army. In contrast, the person who is under the control of emotions is like a person overtaken by an army. But God made us to be in control—or better said: to walk in our authority.

1. You can have control.
2. You can be in control.
3. Control is a Godly force designed by God to direct circumstances where God has designed them to go.
4. Uncontrolled and unyielded emotions lead to controlling the wrong thing: people.

If you are interested in my CD teaching series, “Mastering Your Emotions,” visit the Changinglives Bookstore at: 

http://www.cylbookstore.com/topics/emotionseries/detail/Product_Catalog_15.htm

Gregory Dickow

A member of a certain church, who previously had been attending services regularly, suddenly stopped coming to church. After a few weeks, the Pastor decided to visit. The Pastor found the man at home alone, sitting before a blazing fire. Guessing the reason for his Pastor’s visit, the man welcomed him, led him to a comfortable chair near the fireplace and waited. The pastor made himself at home but said nothing. In the grave silence, he contemplated the dance of the flames around the burning logs. After some minutes, the Pastor took the fire tongs, carefully picked up a brightly burning ember and placed it to one side of the hearth all alone. Then he sat back in his chair, still silent. The host watched all this in quiet contemplation. As the one lone ember’s flame flickered and diminished, there was a momentary glow and then its fire was no more. Soon it was cold and lifeless. The Pastor glanced at his watch and realized it was time to leave, he slowly stood up, picked up the cold, dead ember and placed it back in the middle of the fire. Immediately it began to glow, once more with the light and warmth of the burning coals around it. As the Pastor reached the door to leave, his host said with a tear running down his cheek, “Thank you so much for your visit and especially for the fiery sermon. I shall be back in church next Sunday.”

We need each other.  I encourage you to worship tomorrow with your church family!

Let me start out by saying that this term I’ve coined: ‘Uncivilized Christianity’, is not meant to imply rude, unkind, obnoxious attitudes or behaviors, but rather I’m using the word in a more poetic and illustrative way. We are to be as innocent as lambs in our treatment of others; yet ferocious as LIONS in protecting and advancing our God-given rights and destiny.

The scene is in Rocky III, after Rocky ‘un-retires’ and wants to defend his heavyweight title against Clubber Lang. Mickey, his manager, is warning against it, and telling him why. Rocky argues, ‘He’s just another fighter’.

Mickey responds: “No he ain’t just another fighter. This guy’s a wrecking machine and he’s hungry. You ain’t been hungry since you won that belt! He goes on to explain: “Well Rock, let’s put it this way–3 years ago you were supernatural, you was hard and you was nasty and you had this cast-iron jaw… but then, the worst thing happened to you that could happen to any fighter… you got civilized!”

For many of us, we get to a place in our walk with God where we start coasting. We lose the edge. We’re not pursuing the kingdom of God as we once did. We’re not fighting the good fight with the passion and intensity that we started with.  We got civilized! We used to believe whatever God said, no matter who argued or tried to interrupt our faith. We fought for the ground that God gave us. We didn’t shrink back at anything. We saw the devil behind all evil and declared war on him, and on all things that compromised our walk with God or our walk of faith.

We believed that when we gave, it would be given back to us. We believed our money belonged to God. Our time belonged to God. Our life belonged to God.  But somewhere along the line, we thought it was ok to take our life back.  We had served long enough. Sacrificed enough. Gone to church enough. We paid our dues.

But to get back to that authentic Christianity of power—that changes our lives and changes the world, we have to return to our first love. I like what Paul said in Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live. But the life that I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God—who loved me and gave Himself up for me!”

1. First and foremost, we must get back to the cataclysmic truth that changed the universe forever: Jesus loved me and gave Himself for me. He bought me with a price, and I am not my own.  Every bit of wool on my back, belongs to the shepherd who saved me from the jaws of wolves.

2. Next, lose the shame. Paul said, “I’m not ashamed of the gospel. It is the power of God” (Romans 1:16). Don’t be ashamed to boldly express your faith. Cavalier unbelievers are not ashamed to share their atheism. Lets not be ashamed to share our faith, openly and humbly.

An amazing story is told about the man who came to his friend at midnight for a loaf of bread (Luke 18). The friend said, ‘Go away. We are already in bed.’ But the man persisted. The translation of the word, “persisted”—is: “shameless”.  He was shameless. He kept on knocking and would not leave until he got what he came there to get.

3. We must disconnect from the fear of what people think of us. Matthew 10 says, don’t fear man, fear God who holds your eternal life in His hands. Man holds nothing. Embrace this truth.

4. Get rid of the pursuit of popularity and social acceptance. Instead pursue God’s power.  Let go of needing people and their approval. (More to come on this, next Sunday).

5. Ask God to baptize you in fire. John the Baptist said, Jesus will baptize you in the Holy Spirit and fire.  When you are ignited with the fire of God’s Spirit, you’ll get your passion back.

6. Begin to see mediocrity as your enemy.  See it robbing you and those you love of so much potential and blessing.  See it as a thief trying to break in and rob everything you have.  See it as a criminal trying to kidnap your children and sabotage their future.  You have to see it that way, and you will attack it with a violent force in your life.

7. Look closely at the results of those who were unwilling to stay civilized.  Blind Bartimeus would not take no for an answer, and he was healed. (Mark 10). The Syrophoenician woman would not take no for an answer, no matter how it made her look (Matthew 15:21-28). The 10 lepers didn’t care about what people would do to them, if they went after Jesus in the public street (Luke 17:11-17).

8. Be willing to be a “fool” for Christ.  It may look foolish to witness, to pray boldly, to lift your hands, to truly tithe, to be known as a ‘holy roller’, to ‘dip in the river Jordan 7 times’; to go ‘wash in the pool of Siloam.’ Do it anyway. Lets humble ourselves. Have we become so polished and dignified, that we are more absorbed with how we look than we are with the beautiful Savior who refused to care how humiliated he looked on the cross?

9. Get back to the radical (radical simply means “root”) foundations of authentic Christianity: Uninhibited praise and worship. Compassion-driven evangelism.  Lavish generosity and Kingdom-centered GIVING. Desire for the GIFTS of the Holy Spirit. Un-offendable faith. Un-offendable commitment to your church.

Some of us were SUPERNATURAL months or years ago. We had a cast-iron jaw. We were tough on the devil. Tough on our flesh. Tough on fear. Tough on our selfishness. We were disciples of Jesus. We fit into His world, rather than trying to make Him fit into ours. Its time to back that edge, Stallion!

More to come on this…but these are some of my initial thoughts on “Uncivilized Christianity”.

God Bless your radical surrender to Him!

Gregory Dickow