Isaiah 55:8+9, " For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, declares the Lord.  For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts."

     We live in this world in the midst of trouble and tribulations.  It seems like there is constant trouble either present in our lives or right around the corner.  But yet we can have peace.  That's the good news.  We can have peace in the midst of everything that is going on in our lives, no matter what it tends to be, good or bad.  It too is there and that we can always feel it's cool breeze.  Sometimes it evades us for a moment but as soon as we wake up and turn back to our trusted friend, that feeling of security will return to us.  It's even stronger then the things going on around us.  We can't see peace or touch Him, but when we believe He's there in the midst of our situation, He will always put His arms around us.  We don't understand why?  We don't understand His ways and especially not His thoughts.  This is good.  I don't want to try and figure out things all the time.  I don't have to always know why.  This knowledge of good and evil is what got me in trouble in the first place.  All I have to do is trust and believe.  All I have to do is wait in the garden and in the cool of the evening and He will always be there.  It's not for me to figure out or even worry about.  He's just there for me to enjoy His presence.  That's good news to me.  That's something I can really give thanks for at this time in my life.  This Thanksgiving, instead of trying to be so busy cooking and preparing that you can't even sit down and take a breath, just sit in the cool grass.  No matter how hectic the season is just turn towards His peace and you'll see all the good things that He's given you.  He truly is a good God and it's a great time to be alive.  Don't you think!      God Bless,  Rusty

James 1 17, "Every good thing bestowed and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow."

     The word says that every good gift is from the Father.  If we believe this to be true, then what about the bad things?  Do the bad things come from God as well as the good?  I, myself, do not believe at all that God would bring bad things into our life.  This being the case, where do bad things come from?  I don't really know.  That's my best explanation.  Not very good, or satisfying, is it?  To tell you that I don't believe that God lets evil things happen to us is based on the fact that there is no evil in God.  To tell you that sickness and disease doesn't come from God is based on the fact that there is no sickness or disease in God.  To think that God would cause bad things to happen to us in this world doesn't line up with who He is, pure love.  Love does not harm the object of it's affection, anymore then you could harm a little baby who is resting in your arms.  Love wouldn't take that precious little dog that just loves you so unconditionally, and kick her around the room.  The bad things that are in this world don't line up with who God is, so I refuse to believe that God is the author of them.  But where they come from, that's another question all together.  I could give you my best answer, and I think I would be pretty close based on the scripture, but I sometimes wonder if there's any correct answer to ease one's pain in trying times.   My family is currently going through the ringer.  My wife is sick and every week there's something else and some new medicine.  My younger daughter can hardly eat anything without it going right through her and is so thin you can't hardly see her sideways.  My best friend, Sissy, who is a little dog that is always there when I need comfort, without asking any questions, is having unexplainable seizures.  I cry out in my prayer time and say, "Why are these things happening to us?  We serve you with everything we have.  My whole family ministers to the down and out.  We love them with everything we have so why are these things happening?"  I can tell you that preachers and servants of God are not exempt from the things of the world.  And so we just continue to serve God the best we can and thank Him for all the good things that we have, and there are so many.  I guess that's what Thanksgiving is all about.  It's a time to reflect on the good things that God has given us instead of just being tied up worrying about all the bad.  I thank you Lord that you're so good to us, even in the midst of the storm.                  God Bless,  Rusty

Jeremiah 1:5, " Before I formed you I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you, I have appointed you a prophet to the nations."

     What was Jeremiah called to be?  A prophet to the nations.  What are you called to be?  First of all you need to understand that not everyone is called to be a leader in the body of Christ.  For instance, you're not all called to be a pastor or a prophet.  Some are called to be doctors or builders.  Some are called to be good mothers and fathers.  Some are called to do good in certain fields and some are just called as servants.  Whatever has been stirring inside of you for as long as you can remember, this is probably your calling.  If you can say, "Ever since I was a kid I wanted to be...., "  this is probably what God has for you.  That's the reason it stirs inside of you.  This scripture tells us that before God created us in the womb He knew us.  "He chose us all in Christ Jesus before the foundations of the world." (Eph 1:4)  Then, the bible says that He spent 9 months in the womb with us installing the very anointing that would be needed for us to fulfill the calling He gave us.  When we came forth and started to understand things in early childhood, this anointing started to talk to us deep within.  That's why so many people have these feelings and know exactly what they're supposed to be.  It's not just a feeling we had when we were kids, it's God's very programming inside of us to do what He called us to do.  When you do what it is that God's called you to you'll know because everything becomes so easy to you.  You just have this ability to draw or paint or do something really well.  People ask you all the time how you learned to do that and the only thing you can say is, "I don't know, it just comes naturally."  It doesn't come naturally, God placed it in you before you came forth from your mother's womb.  That's the beauty of creation.  God made us all for a purpose.  So what's yours?     God Bless, Rusty

Ephesians 6:12, " For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places."

     The battle that we fight is not in this world.  It is not against things that we see or don't see in this world.  The Christian's battle is in a realm that is unseen and against forces that can't be identified in the natural.  These forces are identified by Paul,  but the thing I want you to see this morning is the phrase world forces of darkness.  This is a wonderful insight into these forces.  They are of darkness and when they are operating there is no progress.  Let me put it this way.  I love the summer months much more then the winter in the fact that it stays light outside a lot longer.  So I can come home at the end of the day and still have time to go outside and get my work done at the house.  That's not the case in the winter.  Why?  Because you can't work in the dark.  There are a lot of times that we can all probably relate to in our lives when we were involved in some sort of project but you had to stop because the sun went down.  You just can't work in the dark.  That's a picture of the forces that war against us.  When they are winning the battle, we just stop the work because it's dark outside and it's time to come in.  We can't see any longer so we just cover everything up and expect that we're get back to it tomorrow when the sun comes back.  In the spiritual realm darkness comes against us, but we can't see it with the physical eyes.  Therefore, instead of attacking the forces that brought the darkness in the spiritual world, we just try to work harder in a physical world to make things happen.  We work ourselves to death trying to succeed for God when it's not the physical stopping us.  We need to understand the battle we're in and attack it in the proper way.  Our walk with God will become so much easier.  What have you been doing that you've put everything you have into, but it just hasn't worked?  Maybe you're doing everything right but still not succeeding.  It's time for us to take the battle to the spiritual realm and claim the victory that's already been won. It's time to stand up and walk in victory and let God's plan be fulfilled in our lives.  It's time!!!          God Bless, Rusty

Isaiah 53:4-6, " Surely our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried.  But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace fell upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.  But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him."

     This is what is known as the exchanged life. This life carries with it all all that took place when Jesus died on the cross.  It speaks of what Jesus did for us on the cross that allows us to receive what we need in life.  It all has to do with what's wrong in our life, our sin, transgression, iniquity, sickness and pain.  All the wrong in our life transferred over to Jesus while He hung on the cross.  In exchange for all that is wrong in our lives, He gives us what we need.  He gives forgiveness for sin.  He gives us healing for our sickness.  He gives us deliverance for our bondage.  He gives us freedom from the curses on our life.  All we have to do is keep our eyes focused on Jesus and appropriate the provisions of Calvary.  We need to come to Him for all our needs the same way we come for salvation.  We understood we were sinners and we couldn't make it on our own.  When we understood Jesus died for our sins and that through His sacrifice there was forgiveness, we received Him into our lives by faith.  So to appropriate any of the other exchanges of the cross we approach Him the same way.  In faith we apply the principles of the great exchange to our lives and receive His promise.  He broke every curse so that we don't have to walk in curses any more, but we can receive the blessings of God.  I pray today that we would all exchange our life for His and receive from Him the fullness of life that He intended for us to walk in.  I pray that we would start receive every thing that God has for us through the truth of the cross.  I pray that today, you would be blessed beyond measure and that the life you now live would be by faith in the Son of God.  God Bless You,  Rusty

Ephesians 1:3, "God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing."

     After we have repented for our participation, canceled the curse on our lives, and collapsed the strongholds, we are ready to proceed.   The bible says that, "God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus.  In Christ we are to receive blessings, but the blessings have eluded us for many, many, years.  We've done the best we could to live a Christian life and by God's grace we have done the best we could.  We're saved and enjoy the benefits of God's life dwelling inside of us.  But most of us are still lacking the blessings that God has for us.  This is because of the fact that we're living under a curse that we didn't even know about. We have had generational curses visited on us that we have had no idea about, until now.  But now that we are free e of them and they have been canceled and the strongholds collapsed, we are in the position to start claiming what is rightly ours.  You've got it, the blessings of God!  Not only does God want to take the curses off your life but He wants to bless you with every spiritual blessing.  Our destiny in this world is to be blessed.  Blessed with good health and abundant love.  He wants us blessed with our hearts desire and the joy and peace that only He can give.  He has ministry and all kinds of things waiting for us to walk into.  So it's all up to us.  Now, let me explain that the steps I gave you are not going to work over night.  They are going to take, in most cases, a continued effort and a lot of faith.  But the word is true and based on that word, if you keep at it and don't give in, if you pick yourself back up as soon as you fall, then you will see the goodness of the Lord.  I pray that each one of you will walk in the very blessings that God has for you and all the curses that were visited on you, and passed on to your children will be broken, in Jesus Name.  Amen!   God Bless, Rusty

2 Corinth 10:3-5, "  For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses.  We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ."

     A stronghold is the place where the thought patterns have been established in our lives.  After we have confessed our iniquity and our own participation in the generational curses that have been placed on us, we have to now turn to our minds.  The thought patterns that are in our mind is where the battle rages.  These curses in our lives caused us to act certain ways in certain situations.  Even though we have repented of our sins and canceled the curses on our life through the authority in the name of Jesus, we still think the same.  If we do not take control of our minds we will fall right back into our life long participation in the curses and they will again reign in our life.  We must learn to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.  In other words, every time we thing something, we must learn to line it up with the word of God.  If it matches the word then we must obey the thought, but if it doesn't we must cast it down.  You might ask, "How do we do that?"  We simply use the word of God against the thought and defeat the thought.  Jesus exercised this pattern in the desert.  Whenever He was tempted He would line up the thoughts in His head with the word of God.  If what He heard or saw or felt didn't line up with the word He would speak the word by saying, "It is written!!"  Then He would quote the scripture.  This needs to be done over and over and over until the thought patterns are taken down.  So we repent of our participation, cancel the curse over our life in the authority of the name of Jesus, and we start to control our thoughts so that these thought patterns do not take us right back to where we were in the first place.  Start practicing these steps and next time we'll take it a step further.   God Bless,  Rusty 

Isaiah 53:6, "All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him."                                                           Galatians 3:13, " Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us-for it is written,'cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.' "

     After we have repented for our own participation in the curses of our past we move on to the next step.  Because generational curses have to do with the transferring, or visiting of iniquity onto the third and fourth generations, if they are to be canceled, the thing that caused them has to be dealt with, which is the iniquity that came from our ancestors and we have continued to participate in.  The word tells us that one of the things that Jesus did for us was to take our iniquity on His body on the cross.  At calvary, He gave His life to not only take our iniquity, but to become a curse for us, so that the curse was put to death.  Through Jesus and the authority we have in His name we have the power to put the curses in our life to death, or cancel them.  So after we have repented of our sin, the next thing we have to do is to cancel the curse on our life and on the future generations of our children. So, identify the curses in your life, repent of your participation in them and then take authority over them and your children, canceling them in Jesus' name.  Hallelujah!  Start today and get into the battle for your lives and the lives of your future generations.  Tomorrow we will look at the next step.      God Bless,  Rusty

1 John 1:9, " "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

     Generational curses are very real.  If you have someone in your family who has the same thing, sickness or disease, as mom or dad, there's a curse working in the family.  If you have the same problems that your parents had; depression, anxiety, anger, bad headaches or anything else of the same order, you probably have curses on your life.  If you keep working as hard as you can but never seem to be able to get the bills paid off or have enough,(taking for granted that your not using every credit card out there) you probably have curses on your life.  If you are addicted to drugs, alcohol, pornography, gambling, or you have some other bondage that dominates you, you probably have a curse on your life.  The good news is that God has provided the answer to breaking the curses in your life and has shown us how to stop them from being transmitted any further down the generational line.  #1.  The first step to getting rid of these curses in your life in to repent from participating in them.  What that means is that even though you are not the reason they are in your life, you still have given them permission to operate in your life.  In fact you have probably fed them and allowed them to grow stronger.  Even though they were not your fault, you participated in them, so, the first step is to repent, turn from them and seek God's forgiveness for them.  That's the first step.  Along with that step, forgive yourself for what you've already done to your children.  God will forgive you immediately but a lot of times we have to forgive ourselves which is harder then accepting God's forgiveness.  Do it right now and continue to do it until you feel a release and then continue to confess your sin.  Let God wash you through and through until you feel the effects leaving your body.  After you do this we will proceed to step #2.    God Bless,  Rusty