Polly's Summer Study Book Club Week #1 Comments

Hello Dear Sistas!
Here we are in Week #1 of  study book club! Yay!

I wanted to let you know I'm praying that God will be glorified by our efforts to seek Him in this six-week study! Please remember, the beauty of doing a book study online with a community of sistas is that it is a healthy and refreshing way to stay accountable and spiritually grounded during our very busy summer activities! Please feel free to make comments here and ask questions!

We must stay close to our LIFEguard-- His name is JESUS! HE is our Loving Stronghold, Refuge & Deliverer!

There is NO GREATER REFRESHMENT for us this summer than to dive into a book study that exposes deep, dark, tormenting strongholds such as fear and unbelief! When the darkness is brought to light -- we can expect restoration, redemption, renewal and revival...so let's look to God for that immeasurable grace and mercy to restore our souls with freedom and abundant life!

(Day 1) On page 10, Beth Moore says, "Satanic strongholds invade our lives whenever we allow something to appear bigger than God...burn into your heart the fact that strongholds come from false ideas. Though we must deal with demonic strongholds, we can be encouraged when we remember that they are only lies and deception." Amen to that, Sistas.

Hey, the next time you get a negative thought, tell yourself, "This is a lie.God wouldn't say such things to me! I am His daughter!" And move on. In fact, if you are struggling and you don't know what the root of your troubled spirit is, please prayerfully ask God if you have a deceiving stronghold --you know -- something that is hindering your joy? Ask Him to reveal it to you so you can BE FREE! It may or may not be a long process but being a follower of Jesus is a life-long journey. And we know He is faithful and loves His girls unconditionally. I did that very thing a few years ago and He revealed strongholds that were hindering me from living free and living abundantly. He is faithful and HE will do it. Just ask Him.

What did you all think about (Day 2) -The Primary Battlefield?  Beth Moore wrote (page 11) : "When the enemy wages war against us, the primary battlefield is the mind....The enemy knows far better than we do that nothing is bigger or more powerful than God, but if satan can get you to believe his lies, he wins."  You know, since Jesus disarmed the forces of evil - whenever we crumble in fear over negative thoughts - we're choosing to bow to lies. HELLO! We have to stop doing that and believe that our God is Greatness! Comments, Sistas?

(Day 3) -- What's Wrong With Human Effort? Beth wrote: "Human intuition points us to what just seems right but the things of God are seldom intuitive. In fact, often you would be better to figure out what comes naturally and then do the opposite." (Isaiah 55:8).   Comments?

What are your thoughts on praying through Psalm 86? WOW. Have you tried reading it aloud? WOW. It's beautiful. When I do that I am preaching words of power to myself. Try it!

(Day 4) --The Weapons of our Warfare. It seems to me there are two key weapons we to include in our arsenal: 1-believe that our spiritual warfare really IS spiritual! Our enemies are not people, places or things -- our enemy is a spiritual being named the devil! So we should not be attacking people; verbally or otherwise, we should be praying and looking to God for deliverance; 2-We should be constantly meditating on the word of God. Beth Moore calls them"two sticks of dynamite with which to demolish our strongholds!" And while we're holding onto the dynamite by faith we should, of course, be wearing our spiritual armor of Gos (Ephesians 6:10-18). Cool stuff, huh?

(Day 5) -- Keep Your Focus. Whew! Here's a challenging command! To faithfully, constantly fix our eyes on Jesus, I think we have to prayerfully renew our minds! There are so many distractions in our lives that want to drag us away from thoughts of God found in Philippians 4:8!!  We definitely need the power of God at work in us to keep our focus. I've heard a pastor say, "Stinkin' thinkin' leads to lousy livin'!"

 I would LOVE to hear your comments! Meanwhile, stay close to Him and connected to this amazing sistahood. We are the body of Christ!

You all are so precious and I love you.
Polly