Mike Wilkins Ministries

1 THESSALONIANS 5:21 KJV
21 Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.
Sometimes things that should be obvious to us are not. Like, if
what you are doing is not working out, it would be wise to
consider a change.
Too many people are not receiving the blessings God’s Word
promises, things the Bible says God desires us to have. But
instead of considering changing things in their life, too often
people fall into the temptation of blaming God and thinking He
is holding out on them.
But that is never true! There is never any fault or problem
with God.
PSALM 84:11 KJV
11 For the LORD God is a sun and shield: the LORD will give
grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that
walk uprightly.
If you are acting on the Word and planting good seeds, don’t
let the devil discourage you and cause you to give up too soon.
But if the course of your life is going the wrong direction,
and it is not getting better over time, then it would be wise
to consider your ways — and make changes.
This is not something that should be done too hastily. Often
the only thing we are doing wrong that keeps God’s provision
from manifesting in our life is giving up on our faith too
soon.
Jesus told us the kingdom of God works like a seed (Matthew
13:31, Mark 4:26). A seed takes time to grow. Just because
full-grown blessing is not yet evident in your life is no sign
it is not growing.
If you do need to change, what are the changes you will need to
make? Always it will be following the directions God gave us in
His Word.
If you think you are following the directions in God’s Word,
and they are not producing freedom, peace, and wholeness in
your life (over time), then it is very possible you are
somewhat inaccurate in your interpretation and understanding of
the Word. Because acting accurately on God’s Word will make you
free.
JOHN 8:31-32 NKJ
31 Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, “If you
abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed.
32 “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you
free.”
Don’t be discouraged or disheartened. Just abide in God’s Word
and always look to Him and He will give you wisdom to know what
to do.

LUKE 16:13 CJB
13 No servant can be slave to two masters, for he will either
hate the first and love the second, or scorn the second and be
loyal to the first. You can’t be a slave to both God and
money.”
This is a simple yet profound, eternal truth — always true in
every situation. It is impossible to take orders from two
places at the same time, without giving preference to one.
Jesus did not say it was hard. He said it was impossible. True,
sometimes it can seem possible for a while. But invariably the
time comes when the orders from each side are going to
conflict, forcing a decision.
Who am I really serving? What dictates my actions? Who has
final authority? Will I do what gets me the most money? Or will
I do what God says?
From this verse we see that there will be times when God’s
direction will not be the most financially rewarding choice.
Yet far too many who call themselves Christians never even
consider choices which would provide them with less money.
Money is supposed to be our servant, not our master. Instead of
money dictating our decisions, we should tell money what to do.
We should use money instead of letting it use us.
Money is just a tool to accomplish things on earth. Money
should never be your master.
But, unlike what many think, Jesus did not say that you cannot
serve God and have money.
None of this proves Christians should be poor, or that God is
against His people having every need met and even being
prosperous.
It simply means what it says. You can only have one Lord. So
you have to make a choice.
If you are making every decision in life based on your
finances, you need to realize you are not serving God, but
serving money.
You can’t be a soldier in two armies at the same time. You may
pretend loyalty to more than one army, but you can only truly
be loyal to one at a time.
LUKE 14:33 ESV
33 So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that
he has cannot be my disciple.
A disciple of Jesus must renounce all other gods — all that
tries to exert control over their life. Jesus must be Lord.
You cannot be a true disciple of Jesus and allow other things
to control you, dictating what you will do.
Many have misunderstood these things and thought Jesus taught
that His true followers have to be poor. But this is not true
at all.
The issue is not what you have, but what controls you — whose
orders you obey.
There are people who have nothing, yet are controlled by money.
Every decision they make is decided on the basis of how it
affects their finances. There are also people with substantial
wealth who are completely submitted to God. If God told them,
they would give it all away today.
A soldier has to completely subordinate everything he is and
everything he has to serve in the army. So a soldier “gives up”
all he previously had and enjoyed as he enters active duty.
That does not mean the soldier is without a place to live or
food to eat. But his source of supply is not from his own
resources.
A soldier on active duty has renounced control of his life. In
return, he trusts he will be taken care of.
You must understand that you CANNOT be controlled by money and
by God at the same time.
If you do serve money, you will be trusting in money to provide
for you — which you will surely regret, for money can fail.
But God never fails!

NEHEMIAH 8:10b NKJ
10 Do not sorrow, for the joy of the LORD is your strength.”
Letting joy flow allows spiritual strength to flow in your
life.
Laughing is a way to allow the joy already in your spirit to
flow. (Your spirit is the part of you that is a born again new
creation in union with Christ.)
Medical science has documented the beneficial effects of
laughter on our health. Experts tell us that every time we
laugh our immune system is boosted.
PROVERBS 17:22 NKJ
22 A merry heart does good, like medicine, But a broken spirit
dries the bones.
The devil wants you to become discouraged and disheartened, to
feel like a hopeless, helpless victim.
But sickness, at its worst, is only temporary. It will not last
forever. Jesus defeated sickness and redeemed you from it at
the cost of His own precious blood.
REVELATION 21:4 NKJ
4 “And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there
shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be
no more pain, for the former things have passed away.”
The price for your healing has been paid by the sacrifice of
Jesus Christ.
1 PETER 2:24 NKJ
24 who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that
we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness — by
whose stripes you were healed.
Healing belongs to you, but does not come automatically. It
must be possessed. (See www.healing-book.com for more evidence.)
Real joy is not just a feeling but a life force coming from the
Spirit of God (Galatians 5:22). In the midst of trials the joy
of the Lord will protect you from being defeated and destroyed.
It will strengthen you and lift you up above the troubles.
Sickness tries to make you fear and worry. Laughing is a way to
resist that. Joy can be released through laughter.
Laughing is an expression of joy, victory, and contentment.
Laughter is a language of faith. Faith laughs!

GENESIS 1:26,28 NKJ
26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to
Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea,
over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the
earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
28 Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful
and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over
the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every
living thing that moves on the earth.”
God made a decision when He created human beings. He chose to
give us dominion on earth.
God had dominion, and He chose to give it to mankind. Notice
that God did not say, “Let him (Adam) have dominion.” God said,
“Let them (both Adam and Eve — and their descendants) have
dominion.”
This is something important for us to understand.
PSALM 115:16 NKJ
16 The heaven, even the heavens, are the LORD’s; But the earth
He has given to the children of men.
Dominion is the right to make decisions and to rule. Dominion
does not necessarily mean ownership but rulership.
That means what happens on earth is determined by mankind, not
by God. Otherwise, God lied in saying that man has dominion.
God honors the choices made by people. By that I mean He allows
us to have a free will and to make choices. We are not puppets
or robots. Each one of us makes choices and then we must live
with the result of our choices.
A question often asked by many is “Why does God allow bad
things to happen on earth?” What they need to realize is that
humanity allows it. God gave us dominion and with that came
responsibility.
God does not change His mind.
ROMANS 11:29 GWN
29 God never changes his mind when he gives gifts or when he
calls someone.
PSALM 8:4-6 NKJ
4 What is man that You are mindful of him, And the son of man
that You visit him?
5 For You have made him a little lower than the angels, And You
have crowned him with glory and honor.
6 You have made him to have dominion over the works of Your
hands; You have put all things under his feet,
Some teach that God makes all the decisions concerning life and
death for humans, but God clearly says we are the ones who must
make the choices.
DEUTERONOMY 30:19 NKJ
19 “I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you,
that I have set before you life and death, blessing and
cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your
descendants may live;
If you don’t understand what Adam and Eve had, then you cannot
clearly understand what you have. God never goes back on His
Word. We still have the dominion God gave them because we are
their descendants.

ACTS 10:38 NKJ
38 “how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and
with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were
oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.
According to Acts 10:38, those healed by Jesus were oppressed
by the devil. It has not changed in our day. Sickness is still
oppression by the devil. That means the devil is behind
sickness, supporting it and encouraging it — not God.
The purpose of sickness is not to benefit you in any way, but
to steal, kill, and destroy.
Sickness is not the will of God. His Word reveals to us that
sickness is an enemy to be resisted.
Just like the children of Israel who had to possess their
promised land, we have enemies who would keep us from enjoying
God’s perfect will, unless we fight them. We must resist what
is not from God (Ephesians 4:27, James 4:7, 1 Peter 5:9).
Look how Jesus treated sickness. He healed all who came to Him.
Jesus was God’s will in action. Never once do we read of Jesus
telling anyone to stay sick for any reason.
Sickness is not from God. There is no sickness in Heaven. God
is not using sickness to teach you anything. Nor is He using
sickness to get your attention. To get your attention God
demonstrated His love for you at Calvary. That should be enough
to get your attention.
The devil is a liar (John 8:44) and a deceiver (Revelation
20:10). Think about that.
Deception requires getting people to accept a lie as the truth.
We know the devil is a liar so we don’t expect his followers to
speak truth. So the devil can’t effectively use a message
spread by devil worshipers to deceive most people.
To effectively deceive Christians (the ones who as members of
the Body of Christ have authority on earth), the devil has to
use people who will be accepted by Christians.
So his ideal messengers of deception would be Christian
preachers saying things about God that are not true.
If the devil could get enough preachers to say false things,
then nearly everyone could be deceived. Don’t think this is
impossible or strange. Remember how Peter spoke satan’s idea
right after speaking God’s revelation (Matthew 16:16,17,23).
Preachers (being human like the rest of us) have told us a lot
of things that are not true — things the Bible does not teach.
Things like “God sends sickness to teach us something.”
Not so! Sickness comes to destroy us, and the devil is behind
it!
No matter what preachers may tell you, the Word of God is what
we must depend on as the truth. If anyone speaks contrary to
the message of the Bible, we should disregard their message, no
matter who they are.
When Job was sick and afflicted, it says that God turned his
captivity (Job 42:10). It was not God who held Job captive. It
was God who set Job free.
Now Jesus has come to set all the captives free!
Most of us know of someone getting sick and then turning to the
Lord. There are many such stories, but we should not credit the
sickness for them finally making the right decision. They could
have turned to the Lord before they got sick. God was not
“sending” or “using” the sickness to save them. The sickness
came to destroy them, but fortunately they were smart enough to
turn to God during their affliction. (Sadly, there are also
those who have turned away from God because of affliction.)
The truth is that all sickness is an enemy. We should do
everything we can to resist it and not allow it in our midst.
For more Scriptures about healing, see www.healing-book.com.

GENESIS 32:27-28 NKJ
27 So He said to him, “What is your name?” He said, “Jacob.”
28 And He said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but
Israel….”

God asked Jacob to focus on who he was, on how he saw himself.
Then God told him that was going to change.

What is your identity?

How do you identify yourself?

Who do you consider yourself to be?

Do you identify yourself by your past experiences, or do you
identify yourself by what God — your Creator — says about
you?

God created you. He knows what you can do. He knows what you
can be. He has a great plan for you, starting now, but
extending through all eternity.

God wants you to begin seeing yourself according to His plan
for you, in accordance with what He made you — regardless of
how bad your past may have been.

If you are in the Jones family, you see yourself as a Jones. If
someone asks who you are, you will tell them your name which
includes Jones. You need to begin to see yourself now as a
person in the family of God. You will never be the supreme
ruler of the Universe, but you are in His family.

1 JOHN 3:2 NKJ
2 Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been
revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is
revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.

What does it mean to be children of God? Should it not cause us
to identify with Him? Should we not begin to see ourselves as
part of the winning team instead of thinking of ourselves as a
loser?

We ARE God’s children! That is your new identity. Quit seeing
yourself as you used to be. Quit judging yourself by your past
shortcomings and failures. (I don’t deny that we have all
failed — but that is not God’s plan for our future!)

REVELATION 2:17 NKJ
17 “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the
churches. To him who overcomes I will give some of the hidden
manna to eat. And I will give him a white stone, and on the
stone a new name written which no one knows except him who
receives it.”‘

God has given you a new name — a new identity! Believe it! What Is Your Name?

GENESIS 32:27-28 NKJ
27 So He said to him, “What is your name?” He said, “Jacob.”
28 And He said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but
Israel….”

God asked Jacob to focus on who he was, on how he saw himself.
Then God told him that was going to change.

What is your identity?

How do you identify yourself?

Who do you consider yourself to be?

Do you identify yourself by your past experiences, or do you
identify yourself by what God — your Creator — says about
you?

God created you. He knows what you can do. He knows what you
can be. He has a great plan for you, starting now, but
extending through all eternity.

God wants you to begin seeing yourself according to His plan
for you, in accordance with what He made you — regardless of
how bad your past may have been.

If you are in the Jones family, you see yourself as a Jones. If
someone asks who you are, you will tell them your name which
includes Jones. You need to begin to see yourself now as a
person in the family of God. You will never be the supreme
ruler of the Universe, but you are in His family.

1 JOHN 3:2 NKJ
2 Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been
revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is
revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.

What does it mean to be children of God? Should it not cause us
to identify with Him? Should we not begin to see ourselves as
part of the winning team instead of thinking of ourselves as a
loser?

We ARE God’s children! That is your new identity. Quit seeing
yourself as you used to be. Quit judging yourself by your past
shortcomings and failures. (I don’t deny that we have all
failed — but that is not God’s plan for our future!)

REVELATION 2:17 NKJ
17 “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the
churches. To him who overcomes I will give some of the hidden
manna to eat. And I will give him a white stone, and on the
stone a new name written which no one knows except him who
receives it.”‘

God has given you a new name — a new identity! Believe it!

MATTHEW 9:29 NKJ
29 Then He touched their eyes, saying, “According to your faith
let it be to you.”

Have you ever wondered why God blessed someone — when it was
obvious they did not deserve it?

Do you wonder why you are not more blessed — even though you
are doing your best to be a good Christian?

The answer is faith.

We do not receive from God based on what we deserve, but on
what we believe.

GALATIANS 3:9 ICB
9 Abraham believed this, and because he believed, he was
blessed. It is the same today. All who believe today are
blessed just as Abraham was blessed.

Our receiving from God is not based on our works, but on God’s
grace. We have access to God’s grace by our faith — not
through our merit.

ROMANS 5:2 NKJ
2 through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in
which we stand . . . .

Many try to earn something from God when He has already given
us all things through Christ. Now by faith we must appropriate
what God has provided.

Don’t despair if your faith is not too strong. The cure for
weak faith is to feed on the Word of God, the Bible.

ROMANS 10:17 NKJ
17 So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of
God.

If you feed your heart and mind the Word of God, your faith
will grow strong. You feed it in by reading it, hearing it,
speaking it, and meditating on it.

1 THESSALONIANS 5:18 NLT
18 Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for
you who belong to Christ Jesus.

Some people have trouble being thankful unless they have a
perfect life with everything they think they should have.

But with the right perspective, you can be thankful when you
have nothing. You can be thankful at least that you are not
being overwhelmed by bad things.

There are many people on a deathbed with cancer or other
diseases, who would gladly give all their financial assets to
be free from their disease. You probably would too, if you were
in that situation.

So, if you are not afflicted with a deadly disease right now,
then you can, and should be thankful, no matter what else is
happening in your life.

“But preacher, I do have a deadly disease and the doctors say
there is no hope. How can I be thankful?”

The fact that you are reading this demonstrates several things.
First, you can read — and still have vision. That is more than
many people have. You can be thankful for that.

No matter how bad your situation or circumstance in life may
be, there is someone somewhere who has it worse than you do.

Some people desperately wish they had a large house or a fancy
car like their neighbor, not realizing the huge payments their
neighbor is making. You can be thankful you don’t have to make
the big monthly payment.

If you are living in peace, you should be thankful that war is
not raging on your doorstep.

Why not take a moment right now and make a list of all the bad
things you are thankful that you don’t have.