Category: Mindful Moment

Man was not designed to die.

Every part of our being fights to live.

God did not create death. Death is an enemy of God.

He is not in it.

Jesus conquered death.

Don’t say then that God takes lives.

He is not sovereignly taking lives.

Death entered into the world because of sin.

– Bishop Joshua Maynard

Some Christians say:
“If I don’t want to be close to you, it’s because I don’t approve of your behavior.”
“If I don’t spend time with you, it’s because I don’t approve of your lifestyle. I want you to know that God is displeased with you.”
“If I don’t fellowship with you, it’s because God has told me that you are a bad influence on me.”
“I don’t hate you; I just hate your sin.”
Jesus says:
“I took care of your sins!”
“They don’t scare me away.”
“I don’t hide my face from you when you mess up.”
Come to me with your faults and let me show you how to live healthy.
I won’t condemn you and I’ll never reject you.”
Disciples say:
“Let’s get to know one another.”
“Let’s hang out together.”
“God loves you in spite of whatever you may do.”
“I’m not scared of your behavior rubbing off on me. Our behavior doesn’t change the love of God.”
“I can be your friend even if I don’t approve of the decisions you make.”
“I want you to be healthy and full of life, so I will pour all the life that I have into you.”
“You are worth my time.”
“You are loved and a friend.”
“Jesus loves you and He wants me to represent that love to you.”
– Bishop Joshua Maynard
There is nothing more enticing to someone who is already being manipulated by religion than to mention “anointing”, “power”, “double-portion” or “mantle” in the same sentence with and Old Testament Bible verse and offer those things in exchange for a “seed offering” of money.
You wonder why people continue to give to televangelists and ministries that are preaching manipulatively to obtain money?
1.) They don’t know that they are already anointed.
2.) They dont know that they have the same power in them that raised Jesus from the dead
3.) They revere the Old Testament more than the Gospel because they still believe in trying to obtain/maintain their salvation by works and following parts of the law.
4.) They don’t feel empowered to study the Bible for themselves because they have merely been made converts and not disciples properly.
If we can fix these points, the manipulative ministries will lose traction.
– Bishop Joshua Maynard

Christians preoccupied about the sin in others deny the perfect sacrifice for sin which is Christ.

You cannot love you neighbor and hate their sin.

Don’t fool yourself.

You will yell at your neighbor, shun your neighbor, condemn your neighbor and in no way love your neighbor.

You will hate your neighbor.

– Bishop Joshua Maynard

A church that is not teaching discipleship to people for ministry or at the very least empowering them with Truth is merely a social club for those who want to follow a set of tradition and rules.

It is often absent of the True and Living God and His overcoming Power.

– Bishop Joshua Maynard

Some believers live in a constant state of war against “imaginations”, when Christ has already declared that He is victor over all the power of the enemy.
We are not called to entertain an imaginary enemy and wage an imaginary war against it.
2 Corinthians 10:5 KJV
[5] Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;
We must take these imaginations captivity to the obedience of Christ because they attempt to exalt themselves against the knowledge of God and His true authority.
Those that have a real problem with such “imaginary” enemies tend to see Satan and his minions everywhere.
Satan is not omnipresent, and his agents are not everywhere.
They aren’t listening to our every word or watching our every move.
We give Satan too much credit and we don’t give God the glory He deserves.
We don’t take enough responsibility for the issues we create for ourselves.
When we chase after imaginations that we created, they distract from the real cause of our problems, US!
– Bishop Joshua Maynard
Grace preachers are often asked the same question that the Apostle Paul was asked.
Isn’t Grace a license to sin?
We give the same answer that Paul gave.
NO!
Then we are picked apart with criticism, often from Paul’s own writings in scripture and treated like heretics.
Why?
Because our culture is pervasive with ideas that are contrary to the Gospel, and a social media culture that seems to empower people in a spirit of criticism.
People call themselves Christians, but choose to remain just as steeped in religious traditions as the pharisees of Paul’s time.
It is both sad and frustrating.
We are preaching the same Gospel that Paul preached.
– Bishop Joshua Maynard
Very few things in our life are truly FREE.
Salvation is a FREE gift from God.
If you are working to earn it or working to keep it, then you’re trying to pay for something that is already paid for.
I don’t know about you, but I don’t like paying for something that is FREE.
– Bishop Joshua Maynard

If you received your ‘Doctorate of Divinity’ from a Bible University and you look down on ministers who didn’t follow in your footsteps, congratulations!

You paid to receive a spirit of division and superiority which most churches would have given you for free.

Not everyone learns the same way. God ordains, God empowers, and God anoints.

– Bishop Joshua Maynard

You always hear “Repentance means to change your mind”.
Most Christians probably already know this!
The issue isn’t knowing that Repentance means to change your mind!
The issue is in not understanding that to Repent means to change your mind about your state of righteousness, and NOT to change your mind about your sins.
You see, we can’t easily change our mind about our sins.
We know we sinned.
We might even be sorry that we sinned.
But we cannot by guilt and regret keep ourselves from sinning again.
If it was so easy to “change your mind” about committing sins we wouldn’t continue to stumble in them over and over again.
The more you renew your mind; to change your mind about how righteous you are in God’s sight, the less you will commit sin, and the more you will live for Christ.
Change your mind about the right thing.
Don’t waste time focusing on changing your mind about your sins.
Instead, every time you are reminded of your failures, remind yourself that you re the righteousness of God by Christ Jesus, and don’t allow condemnation to control you.
That is repentance!
Not wallowing in self-pity and promising God through tears or crocodile-tears that you won’t sin again.
– Bishop Joshua Maynard
When Lazarus was dead in the grave, if Jesus had prayed the way believers pray today, it would have sounded something like this:
“Lazarus come forth, if it be your perfect divine will, Father.”
…and Lazarus would still be dead.
– Bishop Joshua Maynard
“Renewing your mind” isn’t necessarily about reading the Bible or hearing the Bible preached.
I could read about David slaying Philistines all day, and that isn’t going to renew my mind to do anything healthy.
I could hear about God’s love from a preacher or a recording, but hearing “about” God doesn’t necessarily help me to hear “from” God.
Having a daily Bible reading plan is not a bad thing, but don’t fool yourself into thinking that it is renewing your mind.
We can learn a lot from this is in reading about Job.
Here is a man that heard a lot “about” God and look where that got him.
He made all kinds of assumptions about God and said things about God that weren’t true.
He later admitted in Job 42:5 –
“I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee.”
We’ve all been like Job in this respect. We’ve all had that time when we thought God was the bad guy.
We’ve all had that time when we felt God was against us.
We’ve all had that time when we felt like we were more destined for Hell than for God’s glory.
Well, I have had those times.
It is when we renew our mind in hearing from God that we truly begin to change.
It is when we hear from God that we realize that God loves us unconditionally and that we are forgiven unequivocally.
Don’t get caught up in merely memorizing scripture and pouring over Bible verses and say that your mind is being renewed.
Your mind may have more Bible verses memorized than the average person, but what did God say to you personally?
What is the revelation of Him that you received today?
Unless we hear from God, we are not really renewing our minds.
God is not found in any book.
He is not limited to the pages of any book.
His Word is not the scriptures of the Bible being spoken.
Romans 10:17 tells us, “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God”, but whoever interprets that to mean “Faith comes by hearing the Bible” is not getting built up in their faith and they aren’t necessarily hearing the “Word of God”. Jesus alone is the “Word of God”.
His Word is His Spirit actively speaking to us, through us and through others.
You can hear a Word from God in a Bible scripture, or through a song or a sermon.
You can hear a Word from God in the words and actions of others.
You can hear a Word from God in almost anything you encounter in everyday living because His Spirit is dynamically revealing things to us all the time if we would just listen.
We need to renew our minds daily, and all it takes is an open mind and an open heart.
God is always speaking.
Are we listening?
– Bishop Joshua Maynard

I heard a pastor on the radio say that he is “convicted” every time he opens the Bible and reads from it.

He said something always “pricks” him.

That is what the Law does.

It always prompts you to be sin-conscious.

Instead of thankfulness, joy and faith, you are filled with guilt, sorrow and doubt.

A person like this opens the Bible expecting conviction, correction and a painful “prick” instead of expectantly looking forward to it as an opportunity for the Holy Spirit to reveal God’s nature, Love and Word to them.

– Bishop Joshua Maynard

The same people that say that “free will” is merely an illusion and that God sovereignly controls everything that happens (good and bad), will also pray many-a-prayers saying “Not my will, but Thine be done”. A statement that is in direct opposition to such a belief.
In fact, Jesus prayed this same prayer, so even He had the free will to choose not to do God’s will.
If people (and Jesus) never had a free will to begin with, then they are essentially lying to God.
“Yeah God, I know my will doesn’t count, but I want you to know that your will is more important than the will that I don’t have. See, I’m humble.”
Arrogance is in not believing that we have a free will and ignoring the truth that God works within the laws that His Word ordained.
Arrogance is false humility.
– Bishop Joshua Maynard

For the hungry, He brought food.

For the religious zealot, He brought Truth.

For the failing fishermen, He brought a miracle catch.

For the tax collector, He brought coin.

For the wedding party, He brought wine.

For the temple, He brought a whip.

For the hurting, He brought healing.

For the dead, He brought Life.

For sinners, He brought forgiveness.

For believers, He brough Power.

In me, He brough Himself.

– Bishop Joshua Maynard

If you believe that a sermon preached in 30 minutes is enough to sustain you until you come back next Sunday, you are fooling yourself.
We all need daily refreshing from the Holy Spirit.
Citizens of the Kingdom of God are putting on their game faces for Sunday morning, and then warming a bench the rest of the week.
God wants to put you in the game, but you’ve got to be ready, and you’ve got to know the playbook.
There are those that think they know the game but are leaving on a stretcher because they weren’t ready to play, and they didn’t know who they are and who they represent.
They didn’t know that the game was already won before it started.
They didn’t even know whose team they were playing for!
Citizens of the Kingdom, prepare yourselves.
Prepare each day to see God work and move in you, around you and through you.
Expect to see winning results.
Don’t fear your opponents, because they can’t stop you.
All they can do is distract you from your goal.
Don’t warm the bench this week. Get in the game!
The Holy Spirit wants to teach you the way the game works.
He wants to show you the right plays to avoid the moves the enemy is making.
He wants you to be an overcomer!
– Bishop Joshua Maynard

Those that meditate on the Law day and night will find themselves meditating day and night on Sin.

There is no rest for the sin-conscious person, nor for a person who tries to live under the Old Covenant.

– Bishop Joshua Maynard

To be saved by Grace through Faith is to be condemnation and guilt free.

Are guilt and condemnation beating you down in your mind?

Life up God’s Word against such thoughts by speaking against them!

God is greater than your thoughts.

What does God say?
“You are irreproachable, blameless before me.”

– Bishop Joshua Maynard

You can’t put God first, so stop condemning yourself when you don’t seem to measure up to standard that you put on yourself.

God IS First, and God IS Last.

You are sandwiched in between with His everlasting Love, and NOTHING can take you from His hand.

– Bishop Joshua Maynard