Don’t get stuck in your present. By Dr. Josimar Salum

Don’t get stuck in your present.
Dr. Josimar Salum

Reinhard Bonnke was a man of God that lived far beyond his capacity. From a small beginning in Africa he became the most successful preacher of the whole African continent. 

I posted this message he wrote:

 “When you do business with people you need money.  When you do business with God you need faith.  Faith is the currency of the Kingdom of God.”

The point is not about doing business, but the relationship with God who teaches us that Faith is the only currency of the kingdom of heaven. 

People go after money and think money is the solution of their problems. 

Faith is what we need to live. Not money. 

Men talking is money! The whole world goes after money. Money is an invention of men. Money obscures faith because faith in God supplies everything, even money. Faith in God elevates you above your existence. 

Look at this! This is faith that doesn’t accept defeat:

“Even though the fig trees have no blossoms, and there are no grapes on the vines; even though the olive crop fails, and the fields lie empty and barren; even though the flocks die in the fields, and the cattle barns are empty, yet I will rejoice in the Lord! I will be joyful in the God of my salvation! The Sovereign Lord is my strength! He makes me as surefooted as a deer, able to tread upon the heights.” Habakkuk‬ ‭3:17-19‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Then someone eager to prosper and overcome the challenges of life replied:  “But it's not easy for some from western countries.”

Let me encourage you as I have encouraged him. 

You are who you think you are! If you think there is no hope for you, you already have given up!

If you look around you with a pessimistic eye you will get stuck at your present position and condition. 

If you see God beyond your circumstances you will dream beyond what you see. You will exercise your faith to get beyond what you have or who you are. 

Where you are now is just a station of transition. 

I encourage you to think differently. 

When everyone around you is complaining about their life, you are seeing yourself above your problems and the problems of others. 

Be creative. You will never get stuck where you are if you move. 

You may not change how you were born, but you can change your future by changing the way you think. 

Think positively. 

You were born to become a champion and a king. 

Start ruling above your circumstances. 

Make decisions to change your life, step by step, every day you do something that will help you to fulfill your dream. 

A lion don’t die hungry. You decide you will not live the way you live. You don’t know about those around you, how they will do. That is not your reference. You know about you and you have decided to overcome in life no matter how is your situation today.

Remember! You have not arrived your destination. Circumstances may not change but you will change. SOON, very soon, you will see your existing life far away behind you. 

#ASONE

The Jesus I follow is not the one of history or traditions anymore.Josimar Salum

The Jesus I follow is not the one of history or traditions anymore. Dr. Josimar Salum

The Bible is not a book of "faith" only but of science, knowledge and of practical things in our lives. The whole world see the Bible, the book of Christians. I see the Bible the written word of my Lord Jesus, my Living God. I see the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit as ONE, THE GREAT I AM very, very close to me.

We usually call the Bible a book of faith only, but this "faith" is more about religion than natural and normal life with God. 

As I see today I don't  have a religion, I don't practice a religion! I follow Jesus, a Person. The devotion I have, the prayers I pray, the songs I sing, the preaching I share are not a practice of the Christian religion for me! Not anymore! Equally essential are the work In all areas and the daily life itself with all dynamics involved, everything in practice, the every day life, prayers and life as normal, they are all a journey with Jesus, combined, entwined!

I see my brothers and sisters, believers in Jesus, as His Body everywhere and not limited to a church, a building, a organization. I don’t see them anymore in sheepfolds. I see myself walking in the streets and roads of today like when Jesus did walk with His disciples in the streets and roads of Israel, those days, so glorious as today.

I don't separate my life as Christian from the secular! Everything I do I do for the Lord. Not with a religious conscience, but as natural as to breathe. It is about who I am and not what I do. What I do is just the fruit of who I am. 

Jesus, fill me with your unquenchable Love like you are fully Love and let me be who you are and think like you do and talk like you talk, yes, yes, be just like you!

Yes, Yes! I consecrate my life to Jesus and keep my heart from contamination of hatred, of egoism, and all of fleshly works. But not as an ritualistic exercise, but an act of surrender to His will.  It doesn't work as if I decide to do good and then I do, instead it is as I surrender in Him and abandon myself in Him, His Life flows like a river through me. 

I consecrate myself to Him, but this is not a result of trying to follow rules, to match a "to do list" neither a "not to do list" made by men, by religious leaders or by myself, even if they were rules extracted from Scriptures. 

I walk in Spirit, the Spirit of Christ and this intimacy with Him is enough to be able to let me walk with Jesus and love others like He does. It is a supernatural oneness to just see Him loving others through me. It is not anymore even perceived as me but only Him. 

I follow Jesus as a natural fruit of my relationship with Jesus. It is about knowing Him, believing Him, serving Him and others. In simple words, loving Jesus and my neighbors! There is not serving Jesus if I don’t serve my family, my friends and to as many people as I can. 

Then I read the Scriptures of God to be testified about the Living Word, about Jesus Himself I have already met, the One who lives with me! In this way the Scriptures of God have a brilliant significance and meaning for me! They became alive to reveal the Person of Jesus. This person that I abide in Him and He in me! 

Jesus is Health, Salvation, Joy, Hope, Deliverance, Healing, not in "spiritual" matters only, but for the soul, the body, for everything in me, for my business life, for my educational life, for my entertainments,  for life in a whole, actually even more for life elsewhere then when I am in church, it is related to practical ways and not as if prayers were magic words that I pronounce. 

What Jesus says and it is written about Him and Life in general in the Scriptures have practical meanings for me not to be followed religiously, but naturally. It is a little hard to explain how I see when you see yourself following Jesus as your religion. I have broken that box. I would say only that instead of being rules and laws they became instructions, guidance, corrections, exhortations, signs and wisdom for me. Not impositions anymore or things that I have to desperate try to do. If not! I would be punished. 

It is like to be a little leaf that the wind have made it rest upon the waters of a river and the waters carry that leaf as they wish! This is the estate I call complete surrender that I earnestly desire to remain in it forever.

#ASONE