When the church comes together it should be for the building up of the body of Christ. Sometimes we make church about us and what we can get out of it. We should be peacemakers — no division in our hearts, no holding on to grudges or bitterness — that desire to use our spiritual gifts, services and activities to serve others. No one person has all the gifts, so we must work together to continue the mission and ministry of Jesus in the Earth.

There is a season in every Christian's life when God gives you a special touch from heaven to fight against all your enemies. Sometimes because of a lack of faith or a heart that is entwined with the world we end up making peace with our enemies. You may be in a season when all hell is coming against the victories that you have in Christ. If you make a choice to separate yourself unto God, great truths will be brought to you from heaven to crush every enemy that comes against you. When Jesus rose from the dead He led captivity captive so that nothing can stop the plan of God for your life. Don't let your enemies find safety in you. While faith is in your heart pursue your enemies with the knowledge that God has given you the power to overtake them. Let God arise and your enemies be scattered.

We live in a time when there is much confusion about the roles of men and women in the family and in the church. The church is defining gender roles based on social pressures and political correctness rather than on the Word of God. On one end of the spectrum is Hierarchal Chauvinism, which claims that men are superior to women and that all women should be submissive to all men. On the other end of the spectrum — and as a revolt against the former — we have Egalitarian Feminism, which says that men and women are completely equal, with no differences in roles. The Bible teaches Complementarianism. That is, that men and women are equal in being and standing with God, but have distinctly different roles. Our differences are from God, complement each other and are necessary for fulfilling God's will on Earth.

 If you find yourself growing closer to the Lord and moving into His promises but at the same time you are face to face with failures and difficulties you are in the valley of giants. When the enemy see your desire to move forward he will attack you on every side. The Lord reserves the right to bring about the victory in whatever way He chooses. Sometimes God will do the miraculous and instantaneously give us the breakthrough. There are other times when God will allow us to go through a process. In this valley we become vulnerable as we experience loneliness, darkness and uncertainty. In this season God invites us to be quiet and to be still in His presence and after a while we will hear God say, “Move forward and I will give you the breakthrough.”

As Christ's body, the church is called to carry on His mission and ministry on Earth. Jesus showed compassion, mercy and justice — often taking a detour or going out of his way to minister to the needs of others. The secular world and the unsaved have taken these on as humanitarian causes, but as Christians we are also called to preach the Gospel. Demonstrating compassion, mercy and justice alone are not enough to draw people to Christ. We must preach, with words, the good news of salvation through Jesus Christ. Paul's measure of success was winning as many souls as he can to Christ, by whatever means necessary. He wasn't concerned with reputation, persecution or even death.

Pastor Gary Wilkerson continues the series on 1 Corinthians discussing the relationship between pastors and the church. Both teachers and congregants must be able to discern the wheat from the chaff. Many false gospels are being preached in the church today — ranging from prosperity gospel on one end of the spectrum and a gospel of poverty on the other end. Many church attenders just want their ears tickled. Pastors cannot be afraid that they are going to offend their congregations. There is also a misconception that pastoring is an easy job, when in fact many pastors and ministers around the world are underpaid, overworked, stressed, depressed, struggling with sin and on the verge of quitting the ministry. The work of the church is not to be carried out by one man. Pastors should be raising up leaders and equipping the saints for the work of the ministry.

This message is for the Christian person who has come to a place in your life and you find yourself thinking, “I just don’t know how to go on, I don’t know how to walk in the future, I don't know how to find strength to go on.” There is an inescapable season in every Christian's life when you will not know how to go forward in your own strength. When that day comes you will hear the voice of the Lord ask, "Can you do it for one more day?" All that' is required of you is to say, “Yes Lord.” God has determined our life to be testimony of the reality of Jesus Christ. There is a time that comes in every believer's life that we must be brought in the strength of God to where in our own strength we just cannot go on. God will bring us to our destiny supernaturally by the power of the Holy Spirit. This is all possible by making a choice to go on with God one more day.

In 1 Corinthians 8, Paul is addressing the issue of eating food offered to idols. In the U.S. this isn't a topic we really have to face, but many Christians around the world are persecuted because of it every day. As Americans though, there is still something to be learned from these verses. Much of the American church has become idolatrous in that many come to church each Sunday for what they can get out of it, rather than giving their all to Jesus — expecting nothing in return. We put God's blessings in front of God Himself. Also, in wanting to be accepted by the world, much of the church has become like the world, rather than being transformed into the image of Christ. Today, compromise is presented as “Christian liberty” — saying, “We are strong, mature, sophisticated believers. We can handle the temptation.” We should no longer have any interest in our former associations. Instead, we should be living in full obedience to the Word of God — longing to keep our Spirit-led conscious clean, pure and holy.

We as Christians must remind ourselves that we are a blessed people. God has chosen to bless us and all He asks us to do is to be ourselves in every situation and in every challenge. Often times when we put on a persona and choose not to be ourselves it is hard for God to bless us with a special and specific grace. In order for God to bless us specifically we have to be specifically who we are. When we decide that we are not going to be someone else and we simply choose to be ourselves God will begin to draw us into the blessing that He already established for us. God knows our size, He knows our fit. It is not for us to fit into someone else's shoes but to simply be who God has created us to be. Be yourself and get the right blessing.