MIND OF CHRIST MINISTRIES, INC.
PASTOR THOMAS E. OGLESBY
P.O. BOX 85
NUTLEY, NEW JERSEY 07110
E-mail:mindofchrist@verizon.net
Phone Number 973-818-2750
September 2019
“My Footsteps Are Ordered By The Lord”
Dear Believer(s):
How can our footsteps be ordered by the Lord? I will give you the answer later during this message. A Fleshly man feels that he directs his own footsteps. He thinks and says, “I will do what I want to do. I control my own destiny. I am going to do my own thing.” Before I became a mature Christian, I thought this way.
When I was growing up as a little boy, I used to hear my mother say, “I will do such and such, if it is the Lord’s will.” I would often say to myself; “What has the Lord got to do with what I am planning to do?” I was very immature about the things of God. What a blessing it was for me to have a spiritual mother. We must grow up as Christians.
Psalm 37:23 says, “The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD: and he delighteth in his way.” How do our footsteps become ordered by the Lord? First of all, The Bible says, all men are “By nature the children of wrath,” (children of the devil). (Ephesians 2:3)
Since Adam sinned, all men have been born in sin as stated in Psalm 51:5, “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.” Romans 5:12 states, “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:”
Paul said all unbelievers walk as the devil leads them. “For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another” (Titus 3:3) Our footsteps cannot be ordered by the Lord when we are controlled by the devil.
When the devil tempts a young man or young woman to take their first drink, and become involved in premarital sex, or tempts a person to get involved in gambling, stealing or tempts them with drugs, he comes to them as a prince. He will tell you it is okay to do these things (use drugs, gamble, have lustful sex, and drink) everybody else is doing it. Don’t you want to be liked, or don’t you want to be a part of the in-crowd?
As “Prince of the Power of the Air”, he can, and often does transform himself “into an Angel of Light.”
(2Corinthians 11:14) He deceives his victims and leads them into the first stages of drinking, gambling, illicit sex, drug abuse, and a thousand other sins. Then at the end of this life of sin, he pounces upon his victims as a roaring lion, as it states in 1Peter 5:8, “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:”
The devil is the god of this age. “But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.” (2Corinthians 4:3, 4) What does the Bible mean by “The god of this age, or the god of this world?” The devil is the god of this age, not of the earth. “The earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness there of.” (Psalm 24:1) The devil is the god of the world systems of the habitable earth. These world systems embrace business, society, politics, and religion. The devil is the ruler of the “power of darkness.” of the spirit world. So powerful is the devil that no man can successfully resist him without divine help!
If we look around, and look in every direction, we find we live in a society made up of mostly people who could not care less where you go when you die! Business, in the majority wants what it can get out of you.
Your money, if you are a customer, your labor, if you are an employee. The majority of today’s businessmen or businesswomen will sell anything to anybody, young or old, men or women.
Why is it that way? God’s word tells us: “For the love of money is the root of all evil.” (1Timothy 6:10) We live, work, and move in and out of world systems. They are controlled to a great degree, by men and women who are children of the devil, as stated in John 8:44. We are in the world; but we are not compelled to be of the world. All the world has to offer will perish. But what God has to offer will never perish or pass away!
The Bible says, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.” (1John 2:15-17)
The end of the world is certain. The end of the world systems is certain. Only you can decide whether you will live in this world, be a part of this world, serve the god of this world (the devil) and then drop into hell when you leave this world. Only you can decide whether to live in the world but live for JESUS instead of the devil. You must decide to live in this world but refuse to serve the lust of the flesh. You are the one who must also decide to serve God and righteousness. God will make this possible for you, if you will only allow Him to do so. He is the only one who can do it.
Deception is the devil’s number one method of destruction. Satan does not want your footsteps to be ordered by the Lord. Let’s look again at Psalm 37:23 from the Good News Bible, “The Lord guides us in the way we should go and protects those who please him.” Psalm 37:24 says, “If they fall, they will not stay down, because the Lord will help them up.” How can the Lord guide us in the way we should go? How can the Lord order our footsteps? In order for God to direct our footsteps or to guide us, we must be saved or born again, redeemed by the blood of Jesus.
The only cure for sin is Christ! If you are a sinner, your footsteps are not ordered by the Lord. Only the born again, those who are saved can be men/women whose steps are ordered by the Lord. Only the saved can resist the devil. “We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not; but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not. And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness.” (1John 5:18-19)
God gives us a New Heart, and a New Life. (2Corinthians 5:17) We must be born again by the Spirit of God. We need God’s Power. We need God’s Spirit leading, directing, teaching, and revealing real truth to us. We cannot serve God in the soulish realm (with our minds, wills, and emotions).
John 4:24 states, “God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.” We must seek to know God! How do we get to know God? We get to know Him by His Word. God has given us a blueprint to live by, which is the Bible. The Bible is the book with God’s answers. He has blessed mankind by giving us His own divine solutions to our earthly problems. The Bible has God for its author, and salvation for its truth. There is no error in its content. The Bible is the Word of God from cover to cover. 2Peter 1:20, 21 says, “Above all else, however remember that none of us can explain by ourselves a prophecy in the scriptures. For no prophetic message ever came just from the human will, but people were under the control of the Holy Spirit as they spoke the message that came from God.” We get to know God, who He is, what He is like, and what He requires of us, by reading and knowing His Word.
We start out as immature Christians making our plans without God. But God’s Word tells us in Proverbs 19:21, “People may plan all kinds of things but the Lord’s will is going to be done.” When we are so caught up in our own plans, I am going to do, I will do, this is what I want, we leave God out of our plans, and we are not walking in the Spirit of God.
Satan, or Lucifer or the devil had his own plans. Then one day satan made his bold announcement. “How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.” (Isaiah 14:12-14)
Lucifer led an army of angels against God in an attempt to overthrow Him but he failed. “For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment.” (2Peter2:4) “And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day. (Jude 1:6)
My Bible and your Bible says, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. (Philippians 4:13) If our footsteps are to be ordered by the Lord, we must know what God says in Isaiah 55:8-9, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
The key is when we are saved, born spiritually by the power of God; we are able to worship God in spirit and in truth. This enables our footsteps to be directed by Him. My prayer for all believers in 2019 is that we will allow God to direct our footsteps in all that we do.
I need your continued help in praying for me and supporting the ministry financially. As you give to this ministry as God speaks to you, I know the seed that you sow will be multiplied back to you.
Let us pray. “Dear God, You created men and women to serve You. But because of our sinful nature, many have turned away from You. I pray that this year be one in which all of Your people return to You and live according to Your divine will. Lord, help us to realize that we will perish without You and that we need Your Spirit living in each of us. Father God, as this prayer is read, I hope that many will rededicate their lives to serving You. We thank You Lord for forgiving us of our sins. We pray this prayer in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen!”
With Love & Prayers,
Thomas Oglesby
Pastor Thomas Oglesby
