Above All Things

A Bible Message by Bayless Conley

Copyright © 2007 Answers with Bayless Conley

Please open your Bibles to the Book of Third John, verse 1:

1 THE ELDER, To the beloved Gaius, whom I love in truth:

2 Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your
soul prospers.

GOD’S “ABOVE ALL THINGS” ARE THREEFOLD

I want to talk to you today about verse 2 and this three-fold blessing, “Beloved, I pray that you
would prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers.” Let me quote this to you
from the King James Version. It says, “Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest
prosper and be in health, even as they soul prospereth.” I like that translation because of the
phrase “above all things.” That phrase is not something that is unique to the King James
Version. In my library I have at least three other translations that translates that phrase that way
from the Greek language: Above all things I wish, or I pray, that you would prosper and be in
health, even as your soul prospers. That phrase means, “It is my chief desire. It is my
foremost desire that you experience these three things in your life.”

The question is: Is that just John’s personal desire for his friend Gaius, having no
relevance for us whatsoever; or, is it the heart of God for Gaius as well as all believers? I
think we need to look frankly at it. If that blessing and that prayer and that desire are just for
Gaius and not for us, then the rest of the book is not for us, either. For that matter, you may as
well get rid of First and Second Corinthians because that was written to the church in Corinth;
and let’s forget about the Book of Romans, because that was written to the Christians in Rome,
not in Los Alamitos. Also, we may as well forget the Book of James. That was written to the
twelve tribes scattered abroad, etc., etc. No, this desire “above all things that you prosper
and be in health, even as your soul prospers” was God’s desire breathed through the
Holy Spirit as John penned these words. His desire for Gaius, was also for all Christians,
and that, as well as the rest of the Bible, applies to us. That is why it is in the Scriptures.

So let me talk to you briefly about this three-fold blessing, and then I really want to get into the
heart of what I need to share with you today.

1. Prosperity

First, he said, “I pray above all things that you may prosper.” I believe God wants our needs
to be met. I think God is a generous God, and I am going to give you my definition of
prosperity: Having enough to meet all of your needs and obligations with sufficient left
over to give wherever God directs. I think that is a good Biblical definition of prosperity. Of
course, some people will take things way out of bounds. Here is what the Scripture says.
Second Corinthians 9:8,

8 And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having
all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work.

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That is God’s definition of prosperity. God is able to make all grace abound towards you… all
material supply… so that you always, in all things, have all sufficiency. You have enough to
meet your needs and your obligations, and you have an abundance of surplus left over to give
into every good work. God does not want us poor so that we cannot meet our obligations and
cannot pay our bills. His desire is that we prosper. Deuteronomy 8:18 says,

18 “And you shall remember the LORD your God, for it is He who gives you
power to get wealth, that He may establish His covenant which He swore to your
fathers, as it is this day.”

This is quite an intriguing and powerful verse! “Remember the Lord your God. He gives you
power to get wealth.” Here is the catch: “that He may establish His covenant as He swore to
your fathers.” Here is the covenant: that all the families of the earth be blessed through the seed
of Abraham, Jesus Christ. That is the main purpose of prosperity. When we forget that and are
no longer eternity minded, we go right off the rails. Now God is very gracious. He gives us richly
all things to enjoy. He wants us to be blessed; but He wants our heart saying, “God, the
reason that surplus comes into my life, the reason that abundance comes into my life is
to propagate the gospel so that all families of the earth might be blessed through Jesus
Christ, the seed of Abraham.” That is the main purpose for us prospering.

I lived in Oregon for four years, and that is where I met Jesus. When I first got saved, I was with
a group of Christians who held the philosophy that poverty was a virtue. They believed that
anyone who prospered was devilish and ungodly, and that you could not be a Christian and
prosper at all. If you were wealthy, you were ungodly. I am not sure where they adopted that
philosophy, but I remember I had friends coming to visit who had a really nice car. I still
remember, as a young Christian, just dreading any of these Christians whom I knew finding out
that my friends had this nice car, because they would immediately judge them as being ungodly.
They were not ungodly at all. They were Godly. Yet I can still remember being afraid: “I hope
they do not see them drive up. I hope they do not see their car, because they all think that the
only way to serve Christ is to be poor.” No, he said, “I pray above all things that you would
prosper.”

2. Good Health

Then he said, “and be in health.” That is God’s “above all” desire. I think we can very
comfortably set as a backdrop, as a general truth, that God wants His children well, just like any
earthly parent would want their children to be well. I mean, God has even built it into nature.
Even nature teaches us that. It is built into our bodies; the Creator put it into our bodies. When
all things work as they should, if the body becomes injured, it immediately works to heal itself.

When we were leaving to celebrate our anniversary, we were rushing, like 6:00 or 6:30 in the
morning getting a taxi. I was helping the guy throw the luggage in. We got to the airport, and we
finally had a little time to rest, and I looked down, and I thought to myself, “I must have… Did I
pour hot chocolate on myself?” I had what looked like this huge chocolate stain all down the
front of my pant leg. I thought, “It’s 7:00 in the morning. I was not eating chocolate. Where did
that come from?” I pulled my pant leg up, and I had somehow gouged my shin, apparently
dealing with the luggage or something. I had not even notice that I had done it My sock was
soaked with blood, and my leg was all bloody, and it had soaked through my pant leg and made
a huge bloodstain on my pant leg. So I thought, “Oh, great!” Anyway, I cleaned it all up. It has
just been a week, and it is almost completely healed. It is an amazing thing! The moment I
injured my leg, this little alarm went off, and I did not even know it. Unaware, all these cells are

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going, “Fix this! Fix this!” They started doing all these things. Who put that in my body? God did.
The Creator did. If you go out into nature, take a knife and cut a tree, immediately the tree will
begin working to heal itself. God has even put it into nature. Jesus said, “If you have seen Me,
you have seen the Father.” I dare you: Read through the gospels and find out how Christ healed
every person who came to Him. He never turned a single individual down.

Now I have met a number of people throughout the years who have said, “Well, I just do not
believe it is God’s will to be healed, and I think God’s will is to be sick.” Yet the same person
who says, “I believe it is God’s will that I be sick,” will go to the doctor to try and get well.
Something is wrong with that. You are trying to get out of the will of God. You are a rebel!

People, in their heart of hearts, understand that and know that even by nature. Medical science
understands it. Thank God for all those in the medical profession who are working to help
people be better and to get healthy again because if sickness is God’s will, then every hospital
is a house of rebellion, every doctor and nurse is an agent of the adversary, and how dare you
even take an aspirin and try and get out of the will of God! If you think it is God’s will to remain
sick, then it is wrong to try and get well. Like I said, even in our heart of hearts, deep inside we
know.

Thank God that Jesus took the stripes on His back. The Bible says, “By His stripes we are
healed.” He could have died a relatively painless and quick death and redeemed us from our
sins because the wages of sin is death. Why did He suffer so? Why did He take the stripes on
His back? Why did He wear the crown of thorns on His brow? The Scripture says He did it for
our healing.

As a parent, when your children suffer and are sick, you would change places with them in a
heartbeat, if you could. It is the worse thing in the world to see your children suffer. Our
heavenly Father is no different. The Scripture says, “In all of their affliction, He was afflicted.”

I pray above all things that you prosper and be in health.” I know some people say, “Pastor, you
are giving people hope.” I confess guilty. That is what I am trying to do. Faith is the substance
of things hoped for. Without any hope, faith has nothing to give substance to.

3. Spiritual Well-Being

A third thing: “And be in health even as your soul prospers.” Soul prosperity speaks of our
spiritual well-being, the hidden part of us that no one sees. God’s desire above all things is
that we would live holy lives, and that we would grow spiritually, flourish spiritually, and have
peace in our life. It is interesting. Isaiah 53 is that great redemptive chapter of the Old
Testament that speaks prophetically 700 years before it ever occurred of the crucifixion of Christ
and the reason for His suffering. It says in verse 5 that He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His
stripes we are healed. It speaks of a threefold, a three-faceted, redemption. The first part
deals with our spiritual state: He was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our
iniquities. That deals with the sin problem. That fixes me spiritually.

The second part says that the chastisement for our peace was upon Him. All right, that word
“peace” is different than the way we generally think of it in English. When we think of the word
“peace,” it is exclusively a mental term, just dealing with that. However, the Hebrew word goes
much farther than that. In the Hebrew, it is an outward concept as much as it is an inward
concept. Where it says that the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, it is the Hebrew

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word “shalom.” That word is translated in your Bible also as “favor and welfare” and, yes, even
“prosperity.” Psalm 35:27 says, “Let the Lord be magnified who has pleasure in the prosperity,
the shalom, of His servants.” See, it not only deals with inward peace and tranquility, but all of
the outward things that lead to a healthy and a prosperous life. So that deals with material
prosperity.

The third part: By His stripes we are healed. Now here we have that threefold redemption: Spirit,
material well being, and physical well-being, as well. It’s interesting that the same three things
that are mentioned in Third John 2, which deal with the spiritual aspect of our lives, material
aspect, as well as a physical aspect.

Here is my question: If God’s desire is for us to experience those things, and if they really
are part of Christ’s redemption, then where are they? Why are we not experiencing them?
Why is there such a lack of some of those things in our lives?

OUR “ABOVE ALL THINGS” ARE TWO-FOLD

Well, I want to share at least in part the answer to that with you today. You see, God has His
three “above all things,” but we have some “above all things” of our own that we need to
take care of. If we will do our “above all things,” God will do His “above all things.” So His
“above all things” are threefold; our “above all things” are twofold. Are you ready to find out what
they are?

1. Take up the Shield of Faith; Resist the Devil, Steadfast in the Faith

All right, look at Ephesians 6:10,

10 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.
11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the
wiles of the devil.
12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities,
against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual
hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.

We do have an enemy. He is not flesh and blood. It is the devil. Jesus called him a thief and
said he comes to steal, kill, and destroy. He wants to destroy your life in every single arena. He
would like to steal from you emotionally, steal from you spiritually, steal from you physically, and
steal from you materially. In any way that he can, that is his desire, and that is his aim.

With that in mind, verse 13 says: “Therefore…” In other words, because you have this enemy,
because you are in a conflict,

13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand
in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
14 Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the
breastplate of righteousness,
15 and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace;
16 above all… (Everyone say above all. Here is our first “above all”) …above all,
taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of
the wicked one.

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How many of his fiery darts can we quench with the shield of faith? All of the fiery darts. Peter
said this in First Peter 5:8-9, “Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary…” your ex-
husband… no, not your ex-husband, not your present husband, not your ex-wife, not your
present wife, not your boss, not your cousin, “…your adversary, the devil, walks about like a
roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. Resist him…” How? “…steadfast in the faith
knowing the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world.”

We are to resist him steadfast in the faith. How does faith come? By hearing, and hearing by
the word of God. To resist the devil steadfast in the faith means that every time that he
attacks you, you hold the word of God up. Not the physical Bible, but you put the word in
your heart and in your mouth, and you quote the promises of God in every conflict. That is how
the shield of faith works. That is what Jesus did in the wilderness. When Satan came and
tempted Him, and tried to get Him to sin, how did Jesus respond? Every time He said, “It is
written…” He put up the shield. “It is written…,” and He quoted the Scriptures. Above all
things, taking the shield of faith by which you quench all the fiery darts of the wicked
one.

When my kids were small, we bought the boys a game called Battle Darts. They had these
plastic shields that you strap on, covered with Velcro, and they had these plastic darts that had
Velcro on the end. They would throw them at each other, the darts would stick on the shield,
and nothing got through. Well, that is how the shield of faith works.

When I was a kid, we did not have things like that at all, so we had to make up our own games;
and we made blowguns. They had these long needles and a little weight on there, and we were
really good. In fact, at 30 paces or so, you were a dead duck. Listen, the cats in our
neighborhood suffered a lot from us as kids, believe me. And here is our game. We actually
would do this. One kid would stand at one end of the yard; one would stand at the other. Each
would have a blowgun, and you go, “Okay,” and you would close your eyes, and swoosh! They
would shoot the darts. You would pull it out, and say, “Okay, your turn.” You learned all the
places on the human body that hurt the most. You do things like that when you have a lot of
time on your hands.

It reminds me of a lot of Christians! “Okay, devil, go ahead and shoot.” Do not just stand there!
Put up your shield! Do something! Put the word in your heart; put the word in your mouth.
Do not just let him shoot at you! With the shield of faith you can quench every fiery dart
of the wicked one.

What is it that we are actually guarding when we put up the shield of faith? Look at Second
Corinthians, chapter 10. It speaks more about this spiritual conflict that we are in. Second
Corinthians 10:4,

4 For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling
down strongholds,
5 casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the
knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of
Christ,

This warfare we are in has to deal with thoughts and arguments. You know where Satan is
shooting his fiery darts? At your mind. This is the battleground of the ages, right here, and he
actually shares a progression from the end to the beginning here. You see, it starts with a
thought. The devil introduces a thought that is contrary to the knowledge of God, contrary

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to the truth. Sometimes, we just need to capture thoughts that we are dwelling on and
say, “Wait a minute. Where did that come from? Who told me that? What does the Scripture
have to say? Does this line up with the Bible?” If it does not, throw it out.

If we do not capture thoughts, if we do not take them captive, they grow into arguments.
Suddenly you begin to rationalize, and it makes sense, even though at one time you
knew it was blatantly against the Scripture. It might be that a thought has grown into an
argument because you did not take the thought captive. Your kids have been out there living
wild, and you think, “Well, maybe my kids never will be saved.” Or, “Well, I am not happy in my
marriage, and maybe this person I am attracted to at work was the person I was supposed to
marry. Maybe I should get divorced and marry her (or marry him).” At one time you would have
utterly cast that down, but you began to dwell on it; and it grew into an argument, and now it is
beginning to make sense to you. If it is not cast down at the argument stage, it grows into a
stronghold. It is very difficult to deal with then. When people have a stronghold, sometimes
they do not listen to the counsel of friends. A stronghold is a position from which the enemy
can work in your life to steal, kill, and destroy.

It starts with a thought. With that in mind, look in the Book of James, the third chapter. James
3:2,

2 For we all stumble in many things. If anyone does not stumble in word, he is a
perfect (or a mature) man, able also to bridle the whole body.
3 Indeed, we put bits in horses’ mouths that they may obey us, and we turn their
whole body.
4 Look also at ships: although they are so large and are driven by fierce winds,
they are turned by a very small rudder wherever the pilot desires.
5 Even so the tongue is a little member and boasts great things. See how great a
forest a little fire kindles!

Now think about the power that the Scripture says our tongue has. It is like the bit in a horse’s
mouth. Well, from that bit come the reins, and you can make the horse go left or right, forward,
or back up. Your tongue works the same way, like a rudder on a ship. I stood on the Seal Beach
Pier when the Queen Mary, that massive ship, sailed into Long Beach Harbor. I have been up
there where the pilot would be in the ship, and there is this brass wheel. With one hand he could
steer that massive ship because that is attached all the way back to the rudder.

You know what? With just a little thing, our tongue, we can determine the direction of our
life. He says our tongue is the same way. The things that we begin to speak, as a habit of
life, will determine our future. The Bible says in Proverbs 18:21, “Death and life are in the
power of the tongue.” Look at the very next verse, though. James 3:6,

6 And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our
members that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature; and
it is set on fire by… (Where?) …hell.

Now what kind of darts does Satan shoot at us? Fiery darts. He is shooting those darts at our
mind, but what is his ultimate goal? He is after our tongue! If he can get someone to accept
a thought and not take it captive and allow it to grow into an argument and then become
a stronghold, a person will begin speaking things contrary to the word of God out of their
innermost being; and, friend, then it says, “….it sets on fire the whole course of nature,”
meaning the totality of your existence. The Greek word for “course” is a wheel, and it speaks

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of a many-spoked wheel. One spoke is your marriage; another spoke is your children; another
spoke is your finances; another spoke is your mental health; another spoke is your physical
health; another spoke is relationships, every aspect of our life! Those spokes begin to catch fire,
and our whole life can burn down around us because of the words we are speaking. It all goes
back to the fact that we did not put up the shield of faith and extinguish that fiery dart of
the wicked one who hit our mind. We dwelt on it, and it grew to the point where we began
to speak it; and the devil uses the power of our own tongue against us.

I went to play with a little friend one day. He was one of my blowgun buddies. He was sitting
behind this little desk in the house and could not come out. He was writing. I said, “What are you
doing? Why can’t you come play?”
He said, “Look.” He had written down about 300 times on this paper: “I will not play with
matches; I will not play with matches.” He says, “Bayless, I have to write it a thousand times
before I can go outside!”
I said, “Why?”
He says, “You know our fort?”
I said, “Yeah.”
He said, “I burned it down.”
Oh. The fort was attached to his house.

I think some people have seen their marriage burn down around them. They have seen other
aspects of their life, and they have seen God’s blessing burn down around them. He said, “See
how great a forest a little fire kindles.” They do not realize they were the ones who dropped the
match!

So above all things, we have to put up the shield of faith if we are going to experience
God’s “above all things.”

2. We Must Walk in Love

Now there is a second “above all things” that we need to fulfill, as well. Look in Colossians,
chapter 3. Oh, and this is an important one! Colossians 3:12,

12 Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies,
kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering;
13 bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a
complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do.
14 But above all these things… (Everybody say “above all”) …above all these
things put on love, which is the bond of perfection.

We have to walk in love. Our first “above all” is vertical. It has to do with the shield of faith,
and that is faith in God. It is not faith in a principle. It is faith in Almighty God and the
promises that He has made. The second “above all” is horizontal. It means we have to
love one another. Both of those things have to be in place if we are going to get God’s “above
all things.”

First Peter 4:8 says, “And above all things have fervent love for one another, for love will cover a
multitude of sins.” Love seeks to cover sins. It does not reach for the telephone to expose them.
Love does not share private information with people who are not part of the problem or part of
the solution.

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When the waters of the flood subsided and Noah got out of the ark, the first thing he did was
plant a vineyard. The second thing he did was make some wine. The third thing he did was
drink the wine. The fourth thing he did was take off all of his clothes. The fifth thing he did was
pass out drunk in his tent naked. One of his boys went in and saw him and went out and told
everybody, saying, “You ought to see Dad in here! He’s naked!” Then the other two brothers…
and it is quite a picture of the love of God… took a blanket, they walked into the tent backwards,
and they covered their father’s nakedness. Love covers.

Now for the one who transgresses, the Bible says, “The person who tries to cover his sins will
not prosper, but the one who confesses and forsakes them will find mercy.” So the person who
sins should not try to cover their sin. For those who are friends, we need to endeavor to help
them, to get them restored, do what needs to happen, but we should try to cover and not
let everybody on the block know what has happened. We have to walk in love, and it is
not optional. We are commanded by God to love one another. First John 4:20 says if I say
that I love God, but I hate you, I am a liar, because I cannot love God whom I have not seen and
not love you whom I have seen. Galatians 5:6 says, “So then faith works by love.” Without love
our faith does not work.

I went to the local high school here, and graduated from Los Alamitos High School a long time
ago. It was interesting for me there. They had a thing called flexible scheduling and an open
campus which, for some people who were motivated, was very good. For me it was a disaster,
because you never had to be anywhere. You would go in, and they would show you when the
classes were offered. You decided when you were going to go in. Roll call was never taken. You
could come and go off campus whenever you wanted my whole three years there.
Consequently, I was absent a lot. Though I did not have an auto shop class, I used to watch the
guys in auto shop sometimes. There was this guy who, for six months, was building a 1965 Ford
Galaxy and basically building this engine from scratch. It was beautiful! A big powerful V-8 in
there. I remember the day he was finished, and he fired that engine up. It roared to life for
about 30 seconds, and then it seized. He forgot to put oil in. I remember him literally crying
when it happened. Six months’ work ruined because he did not put in any oil.

Love is the oil. It is the lubricant that makes our faith work. You can have all the power of
faith; but friend, it will shut down if it does not have the lubricant of love. If you have allowed a
grudge or bitterness into your heart against another person, and you have not forgiven,
forget about your faith operating. It cannot operate. Love is the oil that keeps the power
of faith working.

I had a gentleman from Palm Springs share with me. His wife was pregnant at the time, and he
said, “Bayless, my wife and I have been trying for almost eight years to have a baby. She has
never been able to conceive.” He said, “I just sometime back got some issues resolved with my
father. It took a long time, but we got some things taken care of.” He said, “As far as I can figure
it, it was the day that I got things sorted out with my dad, or the day after, that my wife
conceived, and we have been trying for eight years.” He had had a longtime grudge with his dad
over something.
Somebody says, “Gosh, what a coincidence!”
Yeah, isn’t that amazing!
No, friend, the things are definitely linked.

Above all things have fervent love for one another, and above all things we must take the
shield of faith if we want God’s “above all things” to prosper, to be in health even as our
soul prospers. So, listen, if you have trespassed against someone, repent. If someone

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has trespassed against you, forgive them. Bury the hatchet, and do not leave the handle
sticking out just in case.

Is God saying anything to you in the message today? Father, speak to us. We do not want to be
admirers of Your word. We want to be doers of Your word.

Father, I pray for each and every person. Father, I know that You are intimately acquainted with
the details of every person’s life, and I pray for those specifically right now who have been
struggling economically, perhaps without a job, maybe in a mess because of their own doing or
because of things beyond their control. Father, I pray that You would give them favor. Surround
them, as it says in Psalm 5, with favor like a shield. Give them favor with employers; give them
favor with managers; give them favor with whomever they need to have favor with, heavenly
Father. Direct their steps I pray! Lord, we just want to take the limits off as to what You might
do. I pray that You would prosper us through known means, through our work and the work of
our hands… bless it… but, God, through unexpected means, as well. I pray for those who are
suffering physically. Father, there is not one of us who does not know what it is to hurt or to see
a loved one suffer. How we have compassion on those who especially have had sicknesses of
long continuance! Lord, we just lay hold right now of Your declaration that by Your stripes we
are healed. We lay hold of it by faith. Father, I pray that healing virtue would flow to each and
every person who needs it. From the top of our head to the souls of our feet may Your mercy
and Your virtue flow, heavenly Father.

The third blessing that He said He desired is really the most important of all, and that is
to be spiritually prosperous. You can have the first two; but if things are not right between
you and God, the first two really lose their higher purpose. God wants you to be able to walk
with Him and talk with Him. For me, I still stand in awe when I think that God, because of His
righteous nature, could not overlook our sin. Yet because of His love and His merciful nature,
He could not overlook us. The sin had to be punished. So God, in the Person of His Son,
literally took our place and went to the cross for us, and was punished for our sins. What kind of
love is that? What kind of God would do something like that? How amazing He is!

The way is open for us to come to Him… not to have religious ritual and ceremony, but to really
know God. Do not leave today without having made your peace with God. You cannot earn it.
You cannot do enough religious ritual to get right with God. Only through putting simple trust
in the finished work of Jesus, who died on the cross and was raised from the dead for
our justification, can a man or woman, boy or girl, come into a relationship with God.
God is reaching out to you today, friend. You have never done anything so bad or so dark to
make God stop loving you. God looked down through the corridor of time and decided to pay
the price for your sins, himself, in hopes that you would respond. The blood of Jesus Christ
has the power to cleanse you and give you a new life. Jesus, and Jesus alone, can save.

Today if your heart yearns for a relationship with God, if you want to be free from the
entanglements of sin and begin living life at a new level and come into a relationship with God, I
want to pray with you. I want to invite you to pray with me.

Also, I want to invite those who would say, “Bayless, I am away from God. I know the truth, but I
have allowed stuff into my life, and things are not right.” You know that if Jesus returned
today, you would not be ready to meet Him. Do not continue on in that compromised
position, my friend. The slide only becomes more rapid away from God, and it becomes
more and more difficult to return. Today if God is speaking to you, respond to His voice. As
His ambassador, I plead with you: get your life right with Him today. How He loves you!

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Put one hand on your heart, and just be sincere. Say,

“Oh, God, I come before You right now, and I want to say thank you. Thank you for
the sacrifice of Your Son. Thank you for loving me so much that You would pay
the ultimate price to bring me into your family. I turn away from my sin. I repent,
and I put my trust in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who was raised from the dead.
Jesus, come into my life. Be my Lord and Savior. From this moment forward, I will
serve You with all of my heart. I will follow You all of my days. My life is no longer
my own. I put it all in Your hands, Jesus. In Your name I pray. Amen.”

Copyright © 2007 Answers with Bayless Conley

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