Category: Mindful Moment

While we may be called upon to serve, we are not just SERVANTS.

While God is friendly towards us, we are not just FRIENDS.

While we are “bought with a price”, we are not just SLAVES.

Servants, Friends and Slaves are not the same as FAMILY.

We are God’s SONS and DAUGHTERS.
We are God’s FAMILY.
When you think of yourself as anything else, you settle for less than you deserve.

– Bishop Joshua Maynard

Jesus didn’t come to raise up a Christian government.

The Gospel is not political.

If you are going to bring Christianity into politics and government, you be certain of one thing: Those pushing the agenda are not particularly representing the Gospel or the Kingdom.

– Bishop Joshua Maynard

Man excels at finding things we must DO to BECOME or STAY saved.

Yet God has proclaimed that in His Son, we ARE saved.

SAVED is what we ARE, not what we DO or DON’T DO.

We ARE Him and He is us. We are ONE. We ARE Salvation.

– Bishop Joshua Maynard

Your words have power!
The power to create and the power to destroy!
When thoughts come against you, you cannot defeat them in your mind!
You must speak against them!
Cast down all imaginations that exalt themselves above the knowledge of God by Christ Jesus.
Don’t let your mind become a foothold for the Devil.
Don’t allow your own conscience to condemn you.
– Bishop Joshua Maynard
Could you trust a doctor to heal your disease if he infected you with it on purpose?
Most of us would say, “NO!”
Yet Christians every day say things like:
“My back is hurting. I must not be reading my Bible enough”
“This headache just won’t go away! I must be bearing a burden for someone.”
“God allowed me to get cancer so He can get glory from my testimony someday.”
God is our Healer and our Deliverer.
God wants you healed and well.
There is no glory in sickness and there is no glory in death.
Death is not a “healing”.
Someone please stop this madness.
– Bishop Joshua Maynard
People often say that grace encourages people to go out and sin.
That is a lie.
People never needed grace as an excuse to go out and sin.
But they sure need grace to constrain them from sinning.
You see, the freedom to sin without the fear of God’s wrath is freedom from the sting of sin, which is death.
Your sins are not an issue with God, but they do have consequences.
I am free to sin, but is it a good idea to sin just because I can?
If sin was an issue with God, none of us would ever be clean enough to approach Him as our Father, and none of us could have the Holy Spirit dwelling in us.
The only people that fear judgment and wrath are those that are still trying to obtain righteousness through works and not faith.
When you apply law and judgment to your actions, you strengthen the hold of sin in your life.
– Bishop Joshua Maynard
Jesus always pointed to the Father.
Our relationship is with the Father because of the Son.
Jesus is the door, not just the destination.
Am I minimizing what our Savior did for us?
No. Jesus is Lord and He clearly pointed us to the Father and not to Himself.
The Holy Spirit also points us to the Father.
The Trinity does not mean that one replaces the other. Each has their own role.
– Bishop Joshua Maynard
All scripture is profitable, but scripture belongs to no one. You can’t claim “words” or promises that weren’t given to you by God.
Trying to claim promises given to Israel or given by the prophets is to try and claim their birthright as your own.
Your birthright is in Christ and Christ alone. Every promise was fulfilled in Him, not you.
If you try and take someone else’s birthright, you are only lying to yourself, and labeling that lie with God’s name.
Let us study the Bible with sobriety and common sense and stop claiming scriptures that don’t belong to us.
We can learn from them, but claim them all? No.
God’s Word to you is what the Holy Spirit speaks to you, not merely the scriptures themselves.
BY: Bishop Joshua Maynard
If your Strawberry ice cream melts to nothing under hot water, you can be fairly certain of one thing: It probably had no Strawberries in it.
Religion is the same way.
It claims to have fruit, looks like it has fruit, but often has no fruit in it.
Real fruit doesn’t melt.
BY: Bishop Joshua Maynard
Step #1 – There is now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.
Step #2 – Read #1 until you no longer need to move on to Step #2.
There is nothing to add to this truth.
If you are in Christ Jesus, you are not condemned, EVER, PERIOD.
BY: Bishop Joshua Maynard
If you can be convinced of sin, your faith will crumble.
Who can convince you of sin against God?
Anyone?
Is your faith in what Christ did for you so weak that it can’t stand against lies?
Don’t let anyone convince you of sin.
Not strangers, not friends, not family, not clergy, not Satan and especially not yourself.
BY: Bishop Joshua Maynard
Jesus wished no harm on those that rejected Him.
How does that sit with the theology of a literal Hell?
How does that add up compared with the way that Christians today tend to treat unbelievers?
Think about it.
BY: Bishop Joshua Maynard
Many Christians have no issues following a God that puts sickness on people to teach them humility, gives temptations to test faith and kills us out of compassion and some greater purpose.
Show those same people the example of Christ which completely debunks such beliefs about God and you won’t find many that will agree with you.
It is more likely that you will be shown scripture after scripture to rebut your viewpoint, and they will happily give you the “left foot of fellowship.”
Such are those people that prefer to stay a slave to religion.
They do not recognize that they have already been made free in Christ to be sons of God.
Pray for those people to get a revelation of God’s love and grace, for it is those truths that set people free.
BY: Bishop Joshua Maynard
Jesus chose and trained disciples to share the same good news (Gospel) that He Himself shared, for He was the Gospel personified.
He sent them out and when they found someone doing the work of the Gospel that wasn’t part of their “discipleship program”, they rebuked that person.
Jesus told them not to forbid someone from doing those things because if they aren’t against us, they are for us.
I could teach a while on this, but here is the short version.
If you believe in the power of God to save, heal and deliver, God is faithful to honor your faith.
Even if you don’t subscribe to what the majority believes; even if you don’t have every doctrine accurate, Jesus said “only believe”.
God honors those who believe, not just those who are in a discipleship program or Bible school.
BY: Bishop Joshua Maynard
Friends, we may ask someone to change their habits
We may encourage someone to change their doctrine.
We may implore someone to leave the bondage of religion behind.
But we must endeavor to never require that they change their faith.
When I say “faith”, I’m not talking about their religion.
I’m talking about the faith that they have; the faith that they actively use to connect with God. The very same faith that we all share in Christ which they choose to express differently.
Why is this so important?
Because God honors their faith!
When they are free in Christ, He honors their faith.
When they are oppressed of the Devil, He honors their faith.
When they are torn, worn and forlorn, God honors their faith!
Hear me saints!
Hear me Bishops, teachers, preachers and apostles!
He honors their faith!
When they are wrong, He still honors their faith.
When you and I are wrong, and we’ve got Him misunderstood and we’ve got His Word twisted and warped in our own heads, guess what?
He honors our faith too!
So don’t tell them that they need to change one thing about their faith, unless you seek to destroy it.
You can encourage, you can implore and you can try and present a better way, but God forbid if you present it in such a fashion that you pull the rug of faith out from under them.
It is the only thing that keeps their feet planted on solid ground.
BY: Bishop Joshua Maynard