Spartan Dreams

I recently preached a message that would change me. Funny I know, I preached it and it changed me. But I recently preached a message titled 'In Enemy Territory'. I just wanted to share with everyone a little bit of this message that God laid on my heart and really moved on me about. I feel this message is most definitely for anyone in Pentecost. Not because I preached it, but because it was from GOD for his people.


Once upon a time there was a young man named David. David was a keeper of sheep. A little Shepherd boy, and he took his job seriously, Just so happens that one day Samuel the prophet was led by God to go down and anoint a new King of Israel. That ended up being David. The story moves on through a lot of Davids life and what he faced.

What I want to point out is that this young man was anointed the next King of Israel, but it didn't come to fruition over night. David didn't wake up the next day and put on his crown and start doing the kings job. No, David had to go through a lot of trials and situations on his way to that stage in his life. He put up with a lot of things and really, I don't believe he would have been the man he did without having to face a Goliath. See, David learned what it was like to go up against the impossible with an unyielding faith in God and prevail.

You find this repeated continually through the whole entire story of David and then in the middle of one of the greatest trials he's ever known he slips up. Let me make note that when he sought the will of God then David was in God's territory. When he had his unyielding faith, he was in God's territory. David had an ability to keep on the path, but he also had his slip ups.

I want to talk about the slip up of when David became content to dwell in the Enemy's Territory. Let's look at what the bible says about this.

I Samual 27:1-2
1 And David said in his heart, I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul: there is nothing better for me than that I should speedily escape into the land of the Philistines; and Saul shall despair of me, to seek me any more in any coast of Israel: so shall I escape out of his hand.
2 And David arose, and he passed over with the six hundred men that were with him unto Achish, the son of Maoch, king of Gath.

You see, at this point David WILLINGLY goes into enemy territory to escape the trials in his life. I bet this sounds like some of you doesn't it? I know I've done it before. Feel the pressure of the trial we're going through and get to a point we feel that it'd be easier for us to live in the world than to continue to fight the spirits. This happens to many Pentecostals, and I've seen it happen to people that are all different. This doesn't pick out just a certain type of person, it picks everyone.

David became this way and felt that if he can just get out of this and get to where Saul can't touch him anymore, that it would all be better. Well for a while it looks that way to David. Secretly doing battle with his real enemy's, becoming more prosperous, always having a come to come home to, and not a cave.

He spent one year and four months in Ziklag, that's a long time to dwell with your enemy. One year and four months of which David did not look for the direction of God. You see, David was content to live in Enemy territory. Later on he almost went to war with Saul, but the philistines didn't want him by their side so Achish sent David and his men back to Ziklag. Three days they walked about, three days of dreaming to be in their beds, seeing their wives and children. Life seemed so good, like it was gonna continue to be alright. And that's when it happened.

You see, when they arrived home, they arrived to no homes. Their homes had been burned down and their Wives and children taken captive. When you become content in the enemy's territory he'll slowly strip you of everything you have. At first you might be careful of everything around you and your guards up, but after a while, you let your guard down. You feel as if nothing bad is going to happen so you relax. It's then, that you're relaxed, when the devil will do more harm and pain to you than you ever though imaginable.

If David had just sought God's guidance and direction before he came to Achish a year and four months ago, he most likely wouldn't have had to face this situation, but because he felt it better to dwell in enemy territory, he's lost everything. I don't want to leave this article as a discouragement because it's not, the story ends well. When David was confused, he looked to God. When he was challenged, he looked to God, afraid, he looked to God. The next thing David did at this point was what we should all be doing when we think about giving up. David inquired of the Lord!

David was a man after God's own heart, and we should all strive to be like that. Ladies, gentlemen, it doesn't matter what you face, if you'll inquire of the Lord and let him direct your paths, you'll never stay in enemy territory. The story ends that David did follow after the enemy and got back the wives and children. His own men were going to stone him but God saved him from that because David looked to him. You'll save yourself a lot of heartache and pain if you'll just keep following what God says!

If you'd like to hear the sermon you can find it at http://www.cornerstoneofcollinwood.com/servicesaudio.html 11/16/08 Bro. James Mitchell 'In Enemy Territory.

This is just a blog. I've not tried to really write a real blog and I've more focused my direction of writing to articles about Christian living. I thought I might just vent for a second in a blog. I'm James Mitchell, I'm 22 years old about to be 23. I honestly spiritually seem to have a lot of things going for me in my life. I was just informed last week I'm gonna be trained into becoming out first Praise and Worship leader, something I've always wanted to be able to do. My pastor recently asked me to start a nursing home ministry, he put me in charge of starting a drama team and doing all plays and such for our church. I've been apart of jail ministry before, I'm head over all our media ministry. I was just ordained a few weeks ago. God is really moving spiritually for me and I thank him and Praise him for all those things and what he's doing and I'll do my best to serve in any capacity that I can.

But even with all those things going on, It doesn't exclude me or any of us from the feelings of discouragement, confusion, or loneliness. I'm gonna be the first to admit, My home life isn't great, God is truly moving in my family, but for the most part most of them refuse to let God be a part of their lives. I struggle with that continuously and desire to see them come into the truth.

Confusion really gets me too. I've felt my calling to be something that it's not become yet and I'm a little bit of an impatient person. I dream continuously of that coming to pass and sure God's beginning to use me more in other area's but not even the slightest in that area that I dream of. I know God has it all under control and he knows what's going on and he'll move when he's ready for me but I'm still confused.

Last of all is the loneliness. I desire more than any other young man to find that special one, to meet her, be with her, marry her and live the remainder of my life with that one God has for me, someone to help me out when times are rough and be that special help my ministry needs. But I find myself faced with a situation of having someone there that would fill that position, but things just don't work out to make that happen, at times it feels right, at others it feels completely wrong, that in itself draws confusion and I really don't know how to handle it. It's like we can't get on the same page, then on top of that theres no other options except to remain single. I'm completely fine with that if that's what God wants but it just makes it rough, no one to talk to, no best friends any long, no one to confide in except my pastor who's a VERY BUSY man and I hate to bother him.

To top it all off, I don't exactly have a high paging job. I only make enough to get by and sometimes that's really not enough, young ladies don't want a man like that, they want someone with a house, good paying steady job, that security is what they want, to know that he'll take care of them financially. Well, I feel that I want to be that man, but in the area I live and the cards I've been delt, I've just not been able to make that happen.

I'm discouraged, confused, and lonely when it comes to my life but I know that through it all God will take care of me. God has promised it to me and I'll never let that go. I said all that to say this, it doesn't matter what you face or how great your ministry comes, you can still have heartache and pain, none of us are invincible and I see that every day when I wake up and look in the mirror. Everything in my life screams backslide, had a elder lady the other morning after I preached come up and say she was so proud of me but she thought that I was gonna backslide early on, not two of the young preachers that did, because they were 2nd and 3rd generation pentecostals, and I'm a first generation, they have family history in church and I don't, everything in my life says I won't make it, but I said I will. I'm not letting the devil win, he will not steal my victory or my joy, I've pressed hard for 6 years against spirits that I wished I'd never had to face, but I didn't give up and I'm not going to now.

God is my strength, my victory and joy are in his presence. God bless you all and thanks for reading, keep me in your prayers please!

Psalm 37:4 (KJV) Delight thyself also in the LORD: and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.

I was sitting in church tonight listening to my pastor preach on altar work. And I've always been the type of person sadly that thinks I'm not good at altar work. I love to work in the altars but was just afraid of it. So listening to my pastor preach on this, I was just kind of reminded of my desires. I may be scared of it, but my desire is to become an amazing altar worker, to be an anointed preacher, and to be a soul winner. I've had other desires along the way, desires of this nature and that. And I still have some of them. But this all comes down to altar work. That was a desire but not my main desire.

If you read the entire chapter 37 of psalm, you'll find many many many good things. This chapter is absolutely packed full of good things. I want to pause just on this scripture for a moment though, it says 'delight thyself also in the Lord'. Websters dictionary defines Delight as 'to take great pleasure.' So if we read this scripture this way 'Take great pleasure in the Lord, and he shall give you the desires of your heart.' Bare with me while I try to bring my scattered thoughts together. The next verse says to 'Commit thy way unto the Lord, trust also in him, and he shall bring it to pass.' You can separate all these verses and get whatever you want out of them. But the simple truth is this. You want the desires of your heart? You've got to be committed and happy in doing work for the Lord.

You may have read that and thought, Well, where did the working for the Lord part come in? Simple, verse 3 says, 'Trust in the Lord, and do good.'(Emphasis mine) You see, all scripture walks hand in hand. No 2 scriptures will contradict one another. You can not pick and choose which scripture you want to believe and which you don't. It doesn't work that way. That would be like saying 'I desire to be a preacher, but I don't want to study or pray.' God doesn't work that way ladies and Gentleman.

When your desires begin to go hand in hand with God's will, then it's not so hard to see those desires come about. When you really begin to delight in God and get excited about what he's doing then 'old things pass away'. Those desires for the things of the world begin to fade away and it becomes easy to begin to desire the callings of God.

Before I finish with this I have to give a small word of advice, nothing worth anything will come easy nor will it come quick. I've known many young ministers my age who came into the ministry around the same time as I did that have fallen away sadly. Most of the reasons were due to impatience. I've been a preacher now for over 3 years, and can count on my two hands the amount I've preached in a church setting. At the same time our youth pastor, a very dear friend of mine, a year younger than I am and began his ministry a year before I did, has preached and preached and preached some more.

I'm not saying that in asking for pity, I'm saying that to say this, without patience, I might look at the and become discouraged. But you see, I've had a wonderful mentor who's a man of God that told me many things, one of which is that the bible says that 'if we compare ourselves amongst ourselves we are unwise'. My youth pastors ministry is not my ministry, mine is not his. We are both called to preach but we have not been called to do the same thing in the same place.

Stay encouraged and know that sometimes it may take years for your calling to flourish and your desires to come to fruit, but 'with God all things are possible'.

I have really been thinking a lot lately about our young people in our churches recently and how there are so many of them going into "survival mode." Trying to just hang in there and make it through. This in itself is very disturbing.

Now I really haven't studied this out so I don't have any scriptures to write but I just have my feelings. So I'm truly sorry if you are expecting a lot of bible to back up this post.

I've seen these teens in "survival Mode" for far to long. Something funny about this type of mentality is when they go into this stage they quit witnessing, they quit sharing their testimony, they quite their "soul winning mode"

It's been my desire and my vision to see our young people in "soul winning mode" because when they get a grip on that mode they are far less likely to hit that survival mode. I'm sorry if I'm not making any sense, but I really am ready to see them catch fire. I don't see the possibility of receiving the Holy Ghost and not being on fire. The bible said that when the people in the upper room received the Holy Ghost that cloven tongues like as of FIRE set upon each of them. That's a FIRE that's associated with receiving the Holy Ghost. When we receive the Holy Ghost, we receive that fire.

If your fire has went out, if you're fire is dwindling, it's time to get back that fire, take it back, 'lay aside every weight that doth so easily beset you' and pick up the Holy Ghost and Fire, and begin to go out and win some souls. It's time to hit that select button in our minds and switch ourselves from survival mode to "soul winning mode"

God bless you all!
James Mitchell

I'm actually just testing out my iphone!

I have been in a bit of a tight spot trying to figure out if I should continue writing on my parable series that I started. I actually finished 2 writings but I never posted the second. So I'm gonna add a poll on here and I am asking my readers to voice their opinion. I might find out how many readers I really have by this poll too.

Click here to proceed to the poll.

Hello again everyone, I realize that it's been yet another 4 months since I've posted. I know there is no real excuse and I should feel bad. Well I do feel bad but I'm going to attempt to go on and do my best to present to you what's on my heart. I hope that I don't go another 4 months after this without writing again. So As a few of you have, please continue to pester me if I don't write.

I want to begin this with reading a portion of Judges 2:10

Judges 2:10 "and there arose another generation after them, which knew not the LORD, nor yet the works which he had done for Israel."

I was at our Youth camp this past week and I had the privilege of being a counselor/staff member this year and I found it different but fulfilling to my spiritual needs but during camp God spoke this verse to me. I'm not going to say that this is the greatest revelation in the world because it's not, but it's something that everyone knows and we tend to not give ear to though because we've heard it so many times.

You see, when the children of Israel came into the promise land the bible says at one point that God said in Joshua 24:13 "And I have given you a land for which ye did not labour, and cities which ye built not, and ye dwell in them; of the vineyards and oliveyards which ye planted not do ye eat." You see guys, That's us now in this time, we are seeing people filled with the Holy Ghost that we prayed for in the Alter, but we didn't plant that seed, we're seeing revival but we didn't plant the seed. Someone before us, the generation before us planted those seeds, they toiled, they set the foundations for what our churches are today.

We sometimes get so relaxed in what's happening that we feel we don't have to work anymore to see people filled with the Holy Ghost. We become less prayerful because we might not have prayed as much as we should before service and we have an awesome service and then all of a sudden our thoughts are "I only prayed 5 minutes for service and look what God did, I don't have to pray very long at all."

I'm so terribly afraid that we may become so complacent in where we are that one day without us knowing we're going to decide we don't have to do anything to make it to heaven and we can live however we want. At which point God may give us over to a reprobate mind and I'm terribly afraid that we'll go down in history as a Generation that knew not God.

It's time that we begin to pray more than we ever had, to fast more than we ever have, to seek God's face more than we ever have. My desire is that this generation will go down in history known as a "Chosen Generation" See, The bible says : "ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light"

We don't need to sit back any longer and enjoy the blessings and reap what the generation before us sowed, Because we could be reaping so much more and giving our children some blessings if we'll begin to dedicate our lives to prayer and fasting and the work of the Lord. God is a wonderful God and he is worthy of our praise and the honor and glory. He's done so much for you and me and he's placed us in a blessed nation with the easiest way of living. Sure we have to work to make money but most of us don't have to grow our food or slaughter our food before we eat it. We're living in a time of convenience where we can go to the store down the road and get whatever we want. But we do not need to become complacent like the children of Israel because if we do we'll become that generation that doesn't know God.

Guys it's time for extra prayer and fasting. You want to see your life turned around? Well first you've got to turn from your ways and turn to God!

Have a wonderful week and I hope you enjoyed what's on my heart!

Matthew 7:2-6 (King James Version)

2 For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.
3 And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?
4 Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye?
5 Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye.
6 Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.

I read a story the other day about a woman and her husband.

"Not long ago I had a kidney stone but was able to pass it. A few months later, my husband
also passed a kidney stone. I made sure to remind him, "The bible says, 'Let she who is
without sin cast the first stone.'"

I know that it was a really cheesy story, but I felt like it went pretty good with my idea for this piece. I know you're thinking, "what does a woman and a man passing kidney stones have to do with the parable about the mote and the beam?"

Well, I'm going to try to show you that. You see, God loves each of us the same and has given us all the opportunity for eternal life. He's commissioned us all to "present our bodies a living sacrifice, Holy and acceptable to God."

You see, Sometimes we look around the church or at work or school and we see all these people and we point fingers at them and think about all the things you've heard they did. Yet we fail to see that we ourselves have some problems also. Here's an example of what I'm trying to say. Have you ever seen someone play a game and they just couldn't get it and someone acts like their savior and jumps in to save the day and show them how to play it, only to find themselves dieing within seconds and that's they're really not any better at the game than the first person was?

Yeah, that's our personal lives and that's what Jesus was telling us. We shouldn't be trying to fix someones problems and tell them what to do when you can't even fix your own problems. All you're going to end up doing is causing more harm than good. But if you can work on your own problems and let God show you the solutions, then you can help other people with their problems. See, the bible says, "Can the blind lead the blind? Shall they not both fall into the ditch?" When we've not learned to go to God in prayer about our own problems, we're blind and even our best intentions are harmful because we can cause someone else to stumble with us. When you let God show you the solutions and he deals with your problems with you, he opens your eyes, and instead of criticism and resent in trying to help someone, there shows through the Love of Christ when trying to help them. We don't need to be blind leading the blind because we'll never find the correct path that way.

Something I've seen a lot recently is gossip. It's a past time of young people, they love to gossip about this person or that person and what they were doing or what they were caught doing or what their real intentions about something are. We sit around talking about how so&so said this and said that and they should just keep their mouth shut. The question I have for these people is this, "What do you think you're doing, keeping your mouth shut?" This is something call Hypocrisy. Not a favorite of God's if ya know what I mean.

This brings me to a closing quote I've got on my mind. "I shall tell you a great secret, my friend. Do not wait for the last judgment. It takes place every day. - Albert Camus" No one knows when Jesus is coming back but I do know this, we should be prepared every minute as if he is coming back the next minute. That leaves no place for hypocrisy in our lives. He's called every one of us to be soul winners, but before we can win others, we've got to be able to show them the promise land by the lives we live.

God bless you all and Have a good week!