Category: Spiritual Growth

Confidence Encouragement Growth in the Lord Spiritual Growth By Dr. Lisa Winchell 0 Comments

Standing Strong and Having Compassion

Standing against fear and having compassion! It is important to understand that every believer operates in different gifts of the spirit. Those that are more gifted in prophecy, discernment, words of knowledge, etc are going to be more instructional even in their natural statements about what is going on in the world. Those that tend to the prophetic will be more assertive in their approach to lead people away from things like fear, sin, etc. Those that tend towards the gift of mercy are going to speak, even naturally, from the perspective of mercy and feeling what those hurting are feeling. It does not mean either is wrong. It does not mean that those that take on the fight against fear and sin don’t have compassion for those hurt by the pain and disease creating it. It does not mean those who feel the pain and go there with people in their words or posts, don’t see the intense ramifications of the fear or sin. We are all different parts of the body, called to be who God has called us to be. What we are not called to is accusing each other that others do not see this or that or are minimizing this, or judging and not loving these people, etc. Yes, there are weaknesses each person with each gifting has, and each of us grows to have more of the part we need from God to bring balance. But we will always tend to the approach that comes from the giftings God gave us. God’s word is full of all of these because He, the Holy Spirit, is the one that fills us with His gifts in the first place. In one place in the Word He is firm and takes a strong stance against fear, and sin, in another place He is showing great compassion for those hurting and scared. God hates fear and sin, but He loves people. This is why there are different messages coming from godly people who care enough to speak out against the fear or sin and to have compassion for those most vulnerable in sin, sickness, or pain of any kind.

Spiritual Growth By Dr. Lisa Winchell 0 Comments

Sit and Walk

Years ago a man named Watchman Nee wrote a book called Sit, Walk, Stand. I have not read it personally, but recently I heard that statement come up again in someone else’s message.  I was refreshed to hear that the whole body of Christ has not moved from walking (doing) to only sitting (believing).  I am one of the first to teach on believing to enter your rest. Hebrews chapter 3 and 4 are very clear that the Israelites did not enter their rest because of their unbelief, and neither will we. It says disobedience than clarifies what the disobedience is, unbelief.   Disobedience always starts with unbelief.  That is why we must “sit” first.  The Word of God  tells us that the “just shall live by faith”, and “as a man thinketh in his heart so is he”. He spent a large portion of the New Testament telling us who we are as a New Creation. This is so we will meditate on it, think upon it and see ourselves seated in heavenly places with Christ.  That is us learning to sit, in our identity in Christ.  From that place we then walk. Walking according to His ways is very hard unless you first see yourself as righteous in Christ, presented holy and blameless in Christ, totally forgiven and accepted and deeply loved by God. Wow! From that place Christ’s power and love flow through you so much easier and walking in obedience becomes a longing in your heart.  So you read and study and ask God to change you and make you more like Him.  When you get back out in the flesh, you repent and get back in the Spirit.

You see, we labor, as Paul tells us, to enter our rest.  The labor is learning to believe that what God says is true, and being determined to keep all doubt out. But, then the New and Old testament are full of how to live (walking).  There is a part we play in walking out who we are.  There is a dying to the flesh in the believing and in the doing. James is very clear that faith and works go together. Jesus is very clear in the gospels. I heard last year that the gospels are part of the Old Testament and what Jesus had to say was to be considered law.  LOL! I must laugh at that concept.  Let’s think about it for a minute. The King of kings, God of gods, spends 3 years teaching people information that will be obsolete as soon as he dies and rises again.  Really??  I am believing God is so much wiser than that. We have to be careful to not get on the bandwagon of what itching ears want to hear.

The grace and glory of God is amazing and I love living in the center of them both!  But living there is work. God says, “seek me and you will find me”, “Love me and love your neighbor”. etc.  When He created us He said we are created in God’s image, that is what we “sit in”, rest in, believe in.  Then He said “till the land”, work!  I always say if you want to check out a theology go back to Genesis in the garden of Eden. That is where God created His perfect plan, and in Jesus’ death and resurrection He gave us back God’s perfect plan. He did not erase it for some sloppy grace, and image of God as our candy machine. We already have it all in Christ, But, you and I will not experience it on this earth unless we are willing to walk it out.

As most of you know I could add over a thousand scriptures to this article to make the point that we are to believe and to do.  But, I encourage you to get in the Word and read it for yourself, not just through the messages of those you listen to. My first pastor always said, “don’t just listen to me, go back home and study it out in the Word”  I think among many other things that is one the best things he taught me as I ventured into the world from underneath his pastoring.

Remember,  from Genesis to Revelation there is a message of grace and work. Grace is actually the empowerment to work, not the eraser of work.

Growth in the Lord Spiritual Growth By Dr. Lisa Winchell 0 Comments

Power of Imaginations Surrendered to God

Testimony of God’s faithfulness!! A client has been struggling with her identity, and value to God, after some sin issues. As we were praying, God showed her, her before His throne; Jesus presenting her to the Father blameless. He covered her in a white veil and the angels were all around her rejoicing!! if you have not opened the eyes of your heart to allow God to give you new imaginations and visions, I encourage you to do so. This gift from God has become a powerful tool in bringing freedom to many, in my counseling sessions and my own walk with the Lord. God told me, “there is too much going on in the heads of my people, just changing their thoughts is not enough for many. But they must allow me to change their imaginations by giving them new ones. I want to replace all the old pictures full of pain, anger, offense or fear, with pictures of my love for them, and pictures of how I am seeing the issue they are dealing with”. I encourage you to do as Habakkuk says, “look and see what He will say to you”. Look and see, what He speaks. Interesting huh? I am writing a curriculum that includes this model of healing as well. So stay tuned. Oh, and no worries, in spite of the fact that religion has told us in the past that visualization is ungodly, remember God gave you an imagination and gave you 66 books in the bible with prophecies and parables that ignite your imagination. Also, we use that component of our brain, all day long for negative thinking, without thinking anything of it. LOL. It is time to own our imaginations and lay them before the Lord, to be fill up with all that He wants in us, truth!!!