Jeremiah 19:9 says “the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” Mankind is inwardly corrupt but Christ gives us hope. We have to renew our minds and crucify our flesh daily. It takes Jesus to overcome this world. God says we are to occupy until he comes because there will be no justice until his divine will comes. In order to “occupy” we must pray, fast and develop our character. Keep a smile on your face and joy in your heart! John 16:33 says “these things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” You can be cheerful because God has overcome the world, which means we have overcome the world!

Many of the things that we think are not necessarily true. In fact, you cannot even believe half of the things that you see. We need to think of ourselves, and others, the way that Christ thinks about us. In order to do that, we need to stop trying to change the people around us and focus on changing ourselves so that we may become more Christ-like. We have to change our playground, our playmates, and our play things. There are three things that we can do that will help us. We must first read. Reading and studying the word of God is how we instill truth within us. Next we must evaluate ourselves. You cannot retain what you learn without testing yourself. Finally, we must practice, practice, practice, because practice makes perfect.

There are 4 different types of spirits that we may encounter. Those are human spirits, God’s spirit, angelic spirits, and demonic spirits. There are people who believe that all illness is based in science whereas some believe that illnesses are demonic. Actually, some illnesses are demonic and some are biological. We not only need to know how to discern demonic spirits but we also have to know how to fight them. We have to be careful what we let into our spirit. You have to pray and fast in order to deal with spirits especially since some demonic spirits are only defeated through prayer and fasting. In chapter 5 of St. Mark, we encounter the story of when Jesus cast legions of demons out of a man and into a flock of pigs, who then ran over a cliff and killed themselves. After the townspeople found out about this, instead of thanking Jesus they asked him to leave. They chose the pigs over Christ. A lot of times, we want to hold on to the stuff that we have instead of letting it go. God wants to give us better and he cannot do that until we let go!

Your imagination is a powerful thing that affects everything in your life, especially your relationships. Most of us value ourselves based off of what other people say or think about us. We have to get rid of our “stinkin’ thinkin'” and start thinking of ourselves differently. This means, we need to learn to love ourselves. Loving yourself is doing what is best for you mentally, physically and spiritually. A lot of the things that we do that may cause harm to ourselves, we don’t think about while doing. We need to start thinking before doing stuff. Train your mind to think on things that are good, things of God, because what you think in your mind will become your reality whether it already is your reality or not.