Power Walk Ministries

Guest (Male): Thanks for joining us today for the Power Walk Ministries broadcast as we continue in our current series titled Character Builders. How do we walk in the light even as we have so much darkness around us? We may not have all the power to bring about change on a large scale, but we can all deal with hateful or vengeful tendencies in our own heart.

So how do we do that? Here's Pastor Paul Cannings addressing this very topic in his message Be a Conqueror.

Dr. Paul Cannings: Many times, especially pastoring as long as I have, people could give you every reason in the world why they have a right to hate, why they have a right to be angry and to do what they feel like doing in the flesh. They can give it to you. They can say adultery in our bedroom, on our bed—anger. Married persons picked up a homosexual lifestyle and never knew about it and they've hidden it from me—anger.

The person goes to this job where just because I'm black or white this person hates me. People could try to validate why they have a reason to hate and have anger. We've been talking about this all week. Today, I want for us to focus on what is God saving us from? God has every reason when we ignore Him and start speaking against the church, or even in spite of all of these things that we may do from day to day, God has every reason to be angry, every reason to hate us, every reason to turn against us.

But God, even in His judgment, is not doing so because of hate. He's doing so like a good parent because of love. He disciplines those whom He loves, He says in Hebrews 12:7. So even when He disciplines us, it's not because of hate. So what is God purposely focused on saving us from so that He can preserve us and bless us? This is what we want to finish up this week and address.

What we find here in where we've been living in 1 John as our base text, verse nine says: "He that saith he is in the light and hateth his brother is in darkness even until now." This word "darkness." "He that loveth his brother abideth in the light," remains there, dwells there. That's his lifestyle now. That's how he patterns his entire life or her entire life. "And there is none occasion of stumbling in him."

That's where we're going to head onto, this last message on this issue of hate and anger. "But he that hateth his brother is in darkness and walketh in darkness and knoweth not whither he goeth because that darkness has blinded his eyes." That's why one person that chooses not to walk in darkness don't stumble. The person that chooses to walk in darkness stumble. They make bad decisions and it corrupts their life.

That's the contrast that we want to focus on today because that's what Christ is saving us from. If God chose to hate man and never send Christ for man, then we all were doomed for hell. Here is the problem though. Every child is a gift from God. Every child. Everybody, whether they choose Christ or don't choose Christ, are made by God.

He's literally going to condemn, as a result of this, all His children who may not have turned to Him, who have may not surrendered their life to Him. And God couldn't do that. Since God is love, He went after all mankind to bring all mankind back to Him and sacrifice His Son to get it done. God has every reason to have gone in the opposite direction.

But God, because He is light, made the right decision that allows us to be saved and have an eternal future that can be blessings to us forever. He's saying, "Let's go in the same direction. Let's go in the same direction." That's why Paul said, "For me to live is Christ, to die is gain." When you start looking at Paul's life, he has every reason to hate a lot of people. Paul has every reason, but Paul said, "I count everything loss for the sake of knowing Christ." The knowing we've been talking about all week.

So what is he driving us to other than experiencing the glorious rewards we have talked about that is prepared for us in heaven? But also, how do we live on earth that is a blessing to us? Not just the heavenly benefit. We got to still live on earth with the person hating us and doing things against us, with the situations that are still taking place, the disparity that still takes place in our communities and the classism that is constantly among us.

This is how we must focus. Here is how we move forward. He says in verse 10: "He that loveth his brother abideth in the light." Abideth. Done. Remains there. There is none—please underline none or no—occasion of stumbling in him. Why? Because he's not walking in darkness. The darkness is representative of hate.

The darkness is representative of a place; in fact, the earth was in darkness. No life in it. God had to come and let there be light. Then He starts making the trees and everything else, and then man. There was light first. But when it was darkness, it was just this isolated planet sitting out there. And Satan is cast out into darkness. There's nothing productive in darkness. It's just death and decay because it's led and ran by Satan.

That's why the Bible says in John chapter three, people that are living in sin love darkness. That's not the way a believer should go. Because if a believer goes this way, then they stumble, meaning they make some really bad decisions. Now, in 2 Peter chapter one, he's going to teach us how we can so walk in this light that we constantly make great decisions because it's led by the Holy Spirit who's illuminating the word of God, who's bringing it up to our minds.

Because John 14:26 says He'll bring the word of God to our minds. He will convict us when we do sin. He will guide us into truth. So this Holy Spirit is operating. That's why He comes right back to this whole thing in verse three says, "His divine power hath granted to us all things pertaining unto life and godliness through the knowledge of Him that hath called us into glory and virtue."

What this divine power has done—Holy Spirit—gives us everything for life and godliness. Every concept that we need to make any decision that we face in this life, the Holy Spirit does it. When I have the right concept and the word lived out becomes the truth because it's being illuminated and guided by the Holy Spirit, he says I have all that pertains to life and godliness.

I can make any decision I need to make because the Holy Spirit is driving the decision-making process and there's no way I can ever stumble. That's what he's going to continue to say. He's going to say, "Now here's the characteristics of a person that's living in the divine nature." In verse five, he says, "Beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; and to godliness—godliness means a person is God-conscious."

That when I'm making decisions, when I'm living my life, I'm conscious that God is constantly in me, constantly around me. He knows everything. Brotherly kindness. "But if these things be in you and abound, they make you yet still neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of Jesus Christ." And so the person just keeps getting more information because the Spirit of God keeps giving them more to live on, more to walk on, more to understand.

Because His job is to guide them in truth. He's the Spirit of Truth. John 14:16. That's what He's driving to. So as a result of that, the person in verse nine comes to this. This is awesome. I get excited about this, especially being a pastor and trying to make decisions. I have this confidence that if I do this process, this is the end result. We just got to stay focused in this.

In verse nine, he says: "But he that lacketh these qualities is what? Blind and cannot see afar off." That's why they walk in what? Darkness. A person who's not growing in the spirit walks in darkness and hath forgotten he was purged from his old sins. Wherefore, here's the exciting part. Give diligence to make your calling and election sure. Act like we appreciate being saved. For if we do these things, we shall never—watch this carefully—we shall never fall.

He says, "Wait a minute now. People make mistakes. People do different things." He's saying the person may make a bad decision from time to time because the person may make a decision on their high emotions because they're in anger. But the Holy Spirit convicts them because they know Him, because they walk in the light. When the spirit convicts them, they come right back. And when they come back, the Holy Spirit illuminates the way they need to go because they're committed to learn the word of God.

And he says because of that, the person will end up not falling down to destruction. The person will keep moving forward in a productive and effective manner with the light shining as the day. They are now walking in the light. The light shining is what? The truth. How could the truth, when the Holy Spirit is truth, ever guide us into making wrong decisions?

That's why our anger and our hatred in the worst situations of our life cannot be what controls us. Because he says Satan jumps into that, gets a foothold and it becomes all kinds of characteristics that destroys us. Bitterness, slander, wrath, malice. So who does this destroy the most? It destroys us. It becomes this whole decision to walk in the light. This decision to not let anything but the Holy Spirit control our life, lead to love coming out.

Because that's a fruit. To peace coming out. And guess who now fights for us? God fights for us like He did in the case of David. He will be the one who stands and produces vengeance for us. He is the one that will guard us as the Psalmist would say. He is the one that will protect us and watch over us. In Psalm 34, God will rescue them from it all.

He will sustain them because when we walk in the truth, we're working out our salvation in fear and trembling. As we do that, the fiery darts of the devil cannot overcome us and that's why we are delivered from them all. So we end up becoming stronger, more effective. We learn to die to ourselves, we become better disciples of God because we've picked up the cross to follow Christ as we denied ourselves.

And when we find the strength of God, we will find the joy of God. We will become overcomers. It is not what was going wrong with Paul, it was what was going right with Paul from the inside out that allowed him in house arrest to write Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians and allow us to have half the New Testament because of a man who chose to live as a conqueror. The issue of our lives is not what's coming against us. It's what's working for us that matters the most. Stay focused.

Guest (Male): My righteous ones will live by faith. That's Dr. Paul Cannings with that key point. Faith comes by hearing the word of God. It's a continuous process of staying in God's word. And how about you? Do you have a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ? Is Jesus in your heart?

If you're not sure about your answer, then give us a call and let's talk about it. Our phone number is 281-260-7402. That's 281-260-7402. Or visit us online at powerwalkministries.org to obtain this message series or browse through our ministry resources. Again, that's powerwalkministries.org.

Dr. Paul Cannings: I truly pray that this message today has touched your heart and your soul. Folks, I'm not saying that because we need your support—yes, we need it—but sincerely mean that. This is the heart of Power Walk. It is to truly impact the way you walk so that it is a powerful and effective manner you could experience God each day. So that is true. Sincerely mean that.

But we need your partnership in making this ministry work. It costs. It costs to do ministry. And God, we believe, will supply supporters if we just ask. That's what He told us to do. And those who bless us, we bless. And so you can experience that by getting a book or getting a set of CDs that will come from our ministry. So become a partner by going to our website and becoming a consistent supporter of this ministry. God bless you.

Guest (Male): We'd love to hear from you. And if you live in the Houston area or you're planning a visit, please join Reverend Cannings at Living Word Fellowship Church this Sunday. For church location and service times, visit lwfellowshipchurch.org.

And now as we leave you, remember as we just heard, the issue is not what are all these things working against us, but rather who is for us? God is for us and with His help, we can be conquerors.