Peggy Joyce Ruth

Do you know the fullness of God's love? 1st John tells us that God is love and God wants His love to be tangible in our lives. We can miss the fullness of God's love when we fall for the world's substitute. When Jesus healed the multitudes, the bible says He was moved by compassion. So God's compassion is greater than the "love" or empathy we are used to. Many times, we mistake human empathy or sympathy for love. But Jesus' compassion is so much more than the world's empathy.

Jesus came to carry the load. Many times, we are carrying weights that Jesus promised to carry for us. Sin, sickness, and everything that came as a consequence of sin fell on Jesus on the cross. We don't need to continually pay for things that Jesus paid for on the cross. Jesus died so that we might live. He carried what we deserved to break the power of the curse. So we can live a life of freedom.

Once you receive wisdom it is something to be guarded. Because even godly wisdom can become corrupted. The Word tells us these 4 things can corrupt wisdom: pride, sin, alcohol and drugs, and compromising the Word.

What is wisdom? There is a godly wisdom and a natural wordly wisdom. James 3:15 says the world's wisom "is earthly, natural, demonic." The world's wisdom sounds good, there is a seduction to it but leads to a demonic end. But true wisdom comes from above and is more precious than gold.

Unfortunately, today there seem to be so many people serving the great I was. But that is not how God revealed Himself to Moses. God revealed Himself as the great I AM. God is working and moving NOW in the present, not just in past history. The problem with faith is that God confirms His Promise to us after we step out in obedience, not before. So we will never fully see the result of God's Promise until we fully step out in obedience to His Word.

The potential of the anointing in our lives is limitless, but we must protect what God has given. Humility before God is the key to protecting the anointing. We cannot operate in the anointing and do it our own way. Samson failed to seek God in his years of strength. It took him being imprisoned before he cried out to God. We can save ourselves a lot of trouble by crying out to God and seeking Him every step of the way.

It's important that we don't waste what God has given us. When we don't value the anointing and call God has put on our lives, we end up taking what is most important for granted. Whatever we take for granted, we waste. God has put His anointing on us for a purpose to see His kingdom grow throughout the earth.

The anointing is the supernatural ability to fulfill your God-given assignment. In the Old Testament, the anointing would come on a prophet or leader for an assignment, but might not remain. But now, since the book of Acts, the Holy Spirit has been poured out on all flesh, and we have received the Holy Spirit inside of us when we are born again. The anointing is a gift from God. A precious gift, we must learn to walk in and steward.

But I have this against you, that you have left your first love. -Revelation 2:4. Do you remember your first love? You couldn't eat. You couldn't sleep. You couldn't think or talk about anything else. That is how it should be with the Lord. The passion between the Lord and us is the foundation for everything. Don't ever lose what brought you to Jesus.

Waiting is a hopeful anticipation and a deliberate alignment of our will with God’s perfect will. It is the beginning of our total dependency on God. Because He can do what no human can accomplish. Waiting shows God we are willing to be obedient and that we are sensitive to God’s guidance. But those who wait in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not be faint. -Isaiah 40:31

God revealed His covenant progressively throughout the Old Testament, and these agreements reached their ultimate fulfillment in the person of Jesus. Thankfully, our New Covenant is so special because it is sealed by the blood of Jesus, which creates a permanent bond between God and us. His blood gives us the ability to inherit all the promises of God, and boldness and confidence when we seek Him.

Throughout the Old Testament, there was a progression of covenants with the Fathers of our Faith, leading up to our final covenant with Jesus. Even though we don't think in terms of covenants much today in the Old Testament, a covenant, specifically a blood covenant, was the most powerful and binding agreement known to man. It was a permanent joining of two people, two families, or two groups of people. This is exactly how much God wants to be in covenant with us.

If we don't have a revelation of our covenant with God, we will never have the boldness to operate in what has been given to us. A biblical blood covenant is a permanent, sacred union between two parties. We are familiar with temporary contracts today, but that is not how God does things. Our covenant involves His life and our life becoming one. And as believers, we are joined with God through the sacrifice Jesus made on the cross.

Prayer should not be ritualistic or religious. It is a relationship with God, and prayer is the time we get in tune with the Master. Thankfully, Jesus does give us an outline in Matthew 6 for how to pray, but it is meant to be much deeper than just repeating the Lord's Prayer. Prayer is where the Father's heart and way of thinking overtake our own. It is a place where we find belonging in the Lord. Prayer is not a religious checklist, but an encounter with God and His Word that changes us.

Many years ago, as a young mother, Peggy Joyce attempted to witness to her neighbor only to end up questioning her own faith. The next eight years were filled with paralyzing fears and depression. Most pastors and the psychological world had given up entirely, but God had a different plan. (Also available in book form, Tormented 8 Years and Back.)

The story of Jesus' birth is more than just an event that happened in history; the Christmas story is meant to change the world. It is good news! The message of Salvation was first laid out in the Christmas Story. Jesus, our Savior, was born for each of us. For the first time, peace and goodwill were brought to the earth.

People with physical or emotional needs seem to be more willing or ready to turn to God, but people who have everything or have been able to solve their problems in and of themselves many times have no real reason to turn to God. They are seemingly satisfied and have no noticeable need. How does God reach the unreachables?

Satan is the god of this world, and we must learn to overcome all of his schemes and assignments. At the root of all the enemy's schemes is fear. No matter what you are facing, it can always be traced back to fear. But Jesus told us, "Be of good cheer. I have overcome the world." -John 16:33. If we are to be like Jesus, we must learn to be overcomers in this life.

Are you taking time to make your Thanksgiving personal to God? It is easy to go through the motions and give thanks, but in His Word, God instructs us to give thanks to Him. One of the most valuable things we can give God is our thanksgiving. It is a way we can give back to God what He has given us.

Do you know our Thanksgiving Heritage in America? Jamestown and Plymouth were both early settlements. One town was only after gold and greed, and they paid the price. The other was sent on a mission by God and considered Him in everything they did. God blessed them every step of the way.

Do you have family members who are not born again? This teaching is to help you pray effectively for family members who have yet to know the Lord. Even if your children and grandchildren are grown and out of the home, your prayers still have authority in their lives. God wants to partner with us to bring our family into His kingdom.

Do you have family members who are not born again? This teaching is to help you pray effectively for family members who have yet to know the Lord. Even if your children and grandchildren are grown and out of the home, your prayers still have authority in their lives. God wants to partner with us to bring our family into His kingdom.

Are you aware of how the enemy attacks, and do you know how to respond? Most begin with a single thought that grows until eventually we end up overwhelmed, with out-of-control negative emotions. We must learn how the enemy traps us and how we can take our thoughts captive, bringing them into obedience to God’s Word.

Many believers are unknowingly involved in witchcraft, yet God is calling us out of witchcraft and idolatry. Being ignorant of what God's Word says about the occult is not an excuse. We must partner with God to root out all occult practices from our lives.

Are you aware of how the enemy attacks? It is vital to understand how the enemy attacks our thought life and how we can take our thoughts captive, bringing them into obedience to God’s Word.

Don't ignore satan - answer him. When Satan sends thoughts our way, many times we ignore them instead of answering with the Word. The enemy's thoughts and temptations don't simply disappear by ignoring them. They continue to build until the enemy traps us. It is vital to answer the enemy with the Word until we get the victory.

We are caretakers of the mysteries of God that are to be revealed in these end days. As believers, our faithfulness is under investigation. We are in a time where everything and everyone is being shaken. Consistency with what God is revealing to us is necessary to remain faithful to God. Have you been faithful with the revelation God has entrusted to you?

There are times the enemy comes as a roaring lion, and times he comes as a serpent. In Corinthians 11:3, Paul says, "But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ." The enemy seeks to introduce deception into our lives. This battle begins in our minds first. However, the good news is that if we recognize the enemy's scheme at the thought level, it is much easier to defeat.

Are you in the middle of a storm? Storms come to steal our peace, but we can decide to hold on to our peace no matter the storm. Fear comes to tell us God doesn't care. Jesus calmed every storm while He walked the earth. God is never the one sending storms. God is our hiding place, our fortress in the midst of the storm. He is the one speaking, 'Peace, be still to the storm.' John 6:33 says, "In Jesus we have perfect peace, and in the world we have tribulation, but take courage, Jesus has overcome the world."

Satan and bad angels are not all-powerful, but they can influence a person's thinking and emotions until we learn the enemy's schemes and the authority God has given us. Since his fall, Satan now peddles his merchandise of sin and rebellion to the unsuspecting and ignorant. He works through fear and self-will, pushing us to our "own" devices instead of the power and authority that comes from submitting to God and His Word.

There are good and bad angels. Today, we are going to talk about the origin and goals of bad angels. Satan himself is an angel who fell from God's presence in heaven. Bad angels are spirit beings that don't have a physical body, but that doesn't make them any less real. We must recognize the enemy's schemes. If we remain ignorant, we will fall prey to his tactics.

Proverbs 21:2 says. "Every way of a man is right in his own eyes; but Jehovah weighs the heart." When we don't intentionally seek God, we end up justifying our own actions. David justified not going to war in the Old Testament, just as many times we justify not doing spiritual warfare under the New Covenant. God wants to show us the things we don't see about ourselves. If we cry to God and have a heart that is after Him, He will show us our blind spots so we can repent and turn completely from them.

How do we partner with God to bring His Word and will into reality? Sickness came on the earth by man's choice to sin. God created everything perfect in the Garden of Eden, and He now desires our lives to be completely redeemed, but it is not automatic. Through the blood of Jesus every part of our redemption has to be accepted and fully received. God is never sending the sickness or tragedy. He is always working to redeem us from it.

Healing is a part of our covenant with God. We must be intentional in taking in the promises in the Word on healing. In Matthew 8:2-3, Jesus sets a precedent in the Word regarding healing. A man with leprosy came and knelt before him and said, "Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.” Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” Immediately, he was cleansed of his leprosy. Because of Jesus' word, we know biblically that God wants and is willing to heal us.

What does the Word say on healing? For starters, the word Salvation means: health, healing, deliverance, protection, and provision. God's salvation offers us everything we will need in this life and in the life to come. The Word of God can be either a preventive medicine or a cure, depending on what we need at the time. When we need to work with God for the Word of God to become part of who we are.

When we were born again, our old sin nature died and was buried with Christ. Baptism is a picture of us being resurrected into newness in Christ. So when we are born again, we are resurrected in Christ. We are no longer a singular person. We are put in Jesus. So every good thing in Christ has been made available to us. We need to come to the place where we believe we are a new creation in Christ Jesus to truly be able to overcome sin.

How do we turn loose of fear and the world's thinking, and securely grab hold of God's promises? We must become like a child. We cannot approach Psalm 91 or the promises of God from adulthood. We are not to become childish but childlike. As adults, we wrestle with the knowledge of good and evil because of Adam and Eve's choice to sin, but to receive only from the Tree of Life, we must again become like children.

One of our priorities as Believers is to destroy the works of the devil. In 1 John 3:8 it says, "The Son of God came to destroy the works of the devil," and then in 1 John 4:17, it says, "In this world we are to be like Jesus." Now we cannot destroy the devil in our own reasoning or strength. We must remember we are in a spiritual battle, and it takes the spiritual weapons Jesus has given us to overcome. When the battle is won in the spirit, circumstances will change in the natural.

The world believes that intellectual knowledge is power, but that is part of Satan's plan to get us to worship our mind and intellect. Satanism, the New Age, and even "normal" worldly thinking teach some form of mind control. But it is not God's way. The Holy Spirit is meant to be in charge of our lives and our mind.

Are you aware of the call of God on your life? Every Christian has a full-time ministry in the Kingdom of God. Some know they have a calling and step into it too soon, and others are in the middle of their training, unaware they have been called. But God has a training process He wants us to go through before we can walk in the anointing.

Guilt is a weapon that comes against Christians. It is the subconscious need to be punished. When we have repented and put our sins under the blood of Jesus, God has forgotten our sins, but many times we have not. Guilt is not the conviction of the Holy Spirit. It is not a burden God wants us to bear.

So many people go through life thinking they don't have a choice, "whatever will happen, and there is nothing you can do about it." But with God, this is not true. We have been given a choice. In Deuteronomy 30:19, God says, "I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live." Life and God's abundant life are not out of reach. God is giving us life, but we don't receive it by default; we must make a decision to choose life for ourselves.

It is easy to forget what is most important. Truly, everything in our Christian life flows from our relationship with God. We don't want to take for granted the gift of having a personal relationship with God. Knowing God and praying is a two-way street, and there is no substitute for time alone with God. The closeness of drawing near to God is the source for everything good in life.

There is a creative power in your words. Our words partner with God's Word or the enemy's chatter. Our words not only impact our own lives but also the lives of our family and friends around us. We must learn the authority our words carry so God can use them to change people's lives for the better.

Don't get into fear when you hear the word predestination in the Bible. Everything God has planned for our lives is good, but we do reap what we sow. There is good news: God has not "sovereignly" willed bad or evil for our lives. He is always working to bring good, but our own choices dictate whether we partner with God's plan for our lives.