#You will never win if first you lose on the inside 1. Very Interesting STORY...
Dr. Norman Vincent Peale relates this story from his book, Power of the Plus Factor:
”Once walking through the twisted little streets of Kowloon in Hong Kong, I came upon a tattoo studio. In the
2. window were displayed samples of the tattoos available."
"On the chest or arms you could have tattooed an anchor or flag or mermaid or whatever.
But what struck me with force were three words that could be tattooed on one’s flesh, 'BORN TO LOSE'."
“I entered the shop in
3. astonishment and, pointing to those words, asked the Chinese tattoo artist, “Does anyone really have that terrible phrase, Born to Lose , tattooed on his body?”
He replied, “Yes, sometimes.”
“But,” I said, “I just can’t believe that anyone in his right mind would do that.”
4. The Chinese man simply tapped his forehead and in broken English said, ‘BEFORE TATOO ON BODY, TATOO ON MIND .’”
This story made such an impression on me because it is so true , our thoughts are so important.
Every action and feeling is preceded by a thought and our
5. Thots are determined by what we put into our minds, wat we say to ourselves.
Failures, lusts, evil thots, infact, every DEFILEMENT starts from WITHIN us, IN OUR HEARTS.
Constantly guard your heart & check it often.
Theme -God's doings can put you in a state where you lack the words to describe what just happened
1. Moses saw God in action in Egypt. He saw the spectacular, the Supernatural & the Miraculous all at once. He became so overwhelmed that he could only
2. utter three words
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Exodus 15:1b MSG
what a victory!
What he saw and experienced were indescribable. He just dint know how to describe what God just pulled off.
2. Hannah too could not contain herself infact, she could barely walk on the bare floor again.
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3.
1 Samuel 2:1 MSG
Hannah prayed: I'm bursting with God-news! I'm walking on air. I'm laughing at my rivals. I'm dancing my salvation.
She was "walking on air" she was bursting with ecstatic joy. It's the kind of joy that can make anyone restless
D life of a chosen is always a call into d life of conflict. A call into d unknown, into a life of d mysterious
Mary ws chosen for a "divine assignment"
An assignment dat brought"conflict" into her life
2..
To be chosen creates conflicts.
-“Conflict” means a clash of two or more things. ,in this context, clash of two natures.
• Mary was not the only virgin of her day.
God could have called any of the virgins of her days, but God chose Mary.
She did not ask to be chosen
3. She had to face shame, misunderstanding, & confrontation with Joseph, her friends, parents
B4 this: She was happily engaged. She was lookin 4ward to her marriage. She was anticipatin a normal life, but nw she faced d challenge of conflict bc she ws chosen–she was troubled
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D way God works is unfathomable. Sometimes, He uses humour to achieve d ultimate goal.
D king was so bored & in a twist of d discussion he was havin with "Assistant Elisha" brother Gehazi, he asked in V4
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2 Kings 8:4 MSG
The king was talking with Gehazi, servant to the Holy Man, saying, "TELL ME SOME STORIES OF d GREAT THINGS ELISHA DID."
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The king had said, tell me a story
That woman's story was not d only story Gehazi knew.
Records have it that Elisha performed 16 miracles.
Parted the waters of the Jordan River (2 King 2:14)
Purification of the water source for Jericho (2 King 2:18-22)
Protection of the prophet by two she-bears (2 King 2:23-25)
Water for the army of Israel and success over the Moabites (2 Kng 3:16-25)
He was d king of Assyria.
He was known as d "d great king"
He was so powerful nations feared him. He used d gods of d conquered territories as wood to flame the fire around him during winter.
He had other gods thrown into trash cans and burned with fire 🔥 (V19)
Mortals were no match for him.
gods too were "running" from pillar-post seeking for help from other manmade gods 😂. None could withstand him...none could stop him either.
On a day like this, he turned his attention on Israel and Israel's God. He had just finished dealing with Judah, Israel's sister.
Now, a king with such a RESUME would easily be on top of the world, after all, he had some gods behind bars, others, he used as firewood.
When it's your SET TIME on God's clock, everyone that must be involved to make it happen "lose sleep", become "uncomfortable" become "restless"
When God sets the stage, d actors or participants suddenly drop all
2. they were doing to attend to your matter.
You see, the FAVOUR of God has been highly underestimated.
It has nothing to do with your efforts, it's unexplainable. Suddenly, men begin to perceive the AROMA of God's ENDORSEMENT upon you.
When the Butler/ Cupbearer forgot about
3. the promise he made to Joseph while he was a co-prisoner with him, it wasn't Joseph's set time then, but, when his (Joseph) set time came, no one on d stage of Joseph's destiny was going to have rest.
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Gen 40:23 MSG
But the head cupbearer never gave Joseph another thought;