PASTOR BERNIE SAMPLES
Topic: "I Am My Brother’s Keeper" and "Becoming Conscious of His Indwelling Presence"
“I Am My Brother's Keeper”
February 1st Genesis 4:9 “… AM I MY BROTHER’S KEEPER?” When Adam opened the door to satan in the Garden of Eden selfishness, jealousy, hatred, and murder entered into the human race. The question that men ask today is “AM I MY BROTHER’S KEEPER?” For a Born Again Christian the Bible answer is “YES”. 1 John 4:20 “… he that loveth not his brother who he hath seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?” Verse 21 “And this commandment have we from Him, that he who loveth God love his brother also.” For the next few days we are going to study HOW TO BE YOUR BROTHER’S KEEPER (How to help, protect and guard others).
Faith Confession: I am a Born Again child of God. I will copy and follow the example of Jesus Christ, my Lord. I will say “no” to selfishness, hatred and jealousy and “yes” to always being willing to turn the other cheek and go the extra mile to those who cross my path.
February 2nd Nehemiah 8:10 “… the joy of the Lord is your strength.” An acronym I like is: J = Jesus first, O = others second, and Y = yourself last. When we purpose to put others first and be their keeper, we receive supernatural, spiritual strength from the Lord. We not only are empowered to help others, but we get the spillover of extra strength on our own lives.
Faith Confession: My strength in the Lord is getting stronger every day because I am Jesus conscious, others conscious, and always meet the needs of others above my own. Because I always put Jesus first, others second and myself last I will always live in the joy of the Lord. Joy is the opposite of depression so depression is a thing of the past in my life.
February 3rd Galatians 5:22 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, JOY, peace … “. I like to call the fruit of the Spirit the character of God. Every Born Again believer has this as part of their new nature in Christ. But it will lay dormant unless you choose to put it into action by faith. Notice that love is the first fruit. When you choose to love people with God’s unconditional love, it will automatically produce joy and then peace in your life.
Faith Confession: I CHOOSE TO BE MY BROTHER’S KEEPER. I am always ready to reach out to those in need whether they are friends or enemies. This keeps my joy level up and depression out of my life.
February 4th Psalm 37:3 “Trust in the Lord, and DO GOOD; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed.”
Luke 6:31 “And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise.” We call this The Golden Rule”. It is also the law of sowing and reaping. When you live by these things, you are being YOUR BROTHER’S KEEPER.
Faith Confession: Because I am always alert, attentive and willing to help others, as a result of the law of sowing and reaping, others are always alert, attentive and willing to help me! This is the way of the Kingdom of God.
February 5th Acts 10:38 “How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power; WHO WENT ABOUT DOING GOOD, AND HEALING all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with Him.” John 14:12 “… HE THAT BELIEVETH ON ME, THE WORKS THAT I DO SHALL HE DO ALSO …” Jesus said that we as believers could do the same good works that He did (healing the sick and delivering those oppressed of the devil which includes addictions, depression, and other evil things).
Faith Confession: Because I believe on Jesus and have the anointing of the Holy Ghost and God is with me, I can bring physical healing to the sick and deliverance to those oppressed of the devil. I AM MY BROTHER’S KEEPER!
February 6th Luke 4:18 Jesus quoted these words from Isaiah61, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to PREACH THE GOSPEL to the poor: He hath sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, TO PREACH DELIVERANCE to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised.”
John 17:18 “As Thou has sent Me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.” To preach means to proclaim. We aren’t all called to be preachers, but we are called to proclaim the Gospel to the hurting down and out captives of the devil. Notice Jesus said He was anointed to preach. This means He had the power of God to back Him up. We have the same anointing to back us up when we tell the Good News to the sick that Jesus is their healer, to the addicts that Jesus is their deliverer. And to all others, Jesus is the answer to all their problems.
Faith Confession: Because I have the same anointing that Jesus had I am always eager and bold to proclaim the Gospel of healing to the sick and deliverance to addicts and recovery of sight to the blind (those who have lost hope). To set at liberty those that are bruised (are in depression because of being beaten up in life. I AM MY BROTHER’S KEEPER.
February 7th Luke 10:29-37 Verse 29 “… who is my neighbor?” This story told by Jesus answers the question again “Am I my brother’s keeper?” There is a man who was mugged, beaten to within an inch of his life and robbed. The religious people saw him lying on the street half dead and refused to help. Then a Samaritan (non-religious person) stopped and gave him first aide. He took him to a hotel and paid for his stay and medical treatment. In verse 36 Jesus asked, “Which now of these do you think was a neighbor to the man who was mugged?”In verse 37 Jesus said, “He that showed mercy on him … GO, AND DO THOU LIKEWISE.”
Faith Confession: I don’t turn a blind eye to down and out people in distress. I AM MY BROTHER’S KEEPER. (A qualifier, especially for you women, for the times in which we live, we must be sensitive to the Holy Ghost, because of the violence in our society) about who we reach out to.
February 8th Matthew 9:35-38 Notice in verse 35 “Jesus was teaching, preaching and healing”. Verse 36 “Jesus had compassion because the multitudes were weak, weary and confused as sheep having no shepherd.” Just as sheep need a shepherd, believers need a pastor. Verses 37, 38 Two things you can do to be your BROTHER’S KEEPER: Number one is pray for soul winners and witnesses to share the Gospel with your family and friends. Number two is tell the Lord that you will be one of those witnesses to whomever He sends your way.
Faith Confession: I do pray for the lost and I am an answer to others prayers to share the Gospel with their loved ones because I AM MY BROTHER’S KEEPER.
February 9th Matthew 28:19, 20 We call this The Great Commission because this is one of the last things that Jesus told us as the Commander in Chief of God’s army. We are His soldiers. Notice the last part of commission is MISSION. Our mission is not only to share the Gospel and how to be Born Again, but also to invite people to church so they can be taught the things of the Kingdom of God and become disciples themselves.
Faith Confession: Another part of me being MY BROTHER’S KEEPER, in addition to sharing the Gospel, is to help them get hooked up with their pastor and local church.
February 10th Mark 16:15-20 This is another passage on The Great Commission. Some of our tools in reaching the lost are in verses 17 and 18. We cast out demons and lay hands on the sick in Jesus’ Name and they do recover. Verses 19 and 20 always knowing that we are not alone, because Jesus is with us confirming His Word with signs following. I have learned through many years of personal experience, the easiest people to get healed are the lost and Christians who have never been taught about healing.
Faith Confession: Because I AM MY BROTHER’S KEEPER, part of my mission is to take the Gospel to the lost, healing to the sick, and deliverance to the captives. I always remember that this is The Great Commission from Jesus, my Commander in Chief and He always backs His Word up with signs following.
February 11th Proverbs 11:30 “… he that winneth souls is wise”. What does it mean to win souls? Acts 26:18 “To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in Jesus.”
1 John 5:19 Amplified Bible “We know positively that we are of God, and the whole world around us is under the power of the evil one.” From these verses stop and remember at one point in time you and I were in this condition. We didn’t know that we needed rescued. The greatest thing that we can do for our fellow man is to rescue them from eternity in hell with satan and his demons tormented forever and ever.
Faith Confession: Because I AM MY BROTHER’S KEEPER, I will help them and rescue them from satan’s dominion and lead them into the protection of the family of God through faith in our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Because I am a soul winner, I am wise.
February 12th Acts 26:27 “Then Agrippa said unto Paul, “Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian.” This is so sad because many people that hear the Gospel today from loving Christians like you and I respond like this.
Luke 16:19-31This is a very real true story that Jesus tells of a man that went to hell. Verse 23 “And in hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torments …” Verse 27 “He said I pray thee therefore, Father, that thou wouldest send someone to my father’s house: Verse 28 for I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment.” I have heard it said there are no atheists in hell because as soon as they take their last breath, they become a believer, but the sad thing is, there is no way back and it’s too late! I always remind myself there is a heaven to gain, a hell to shun, and eternity is forever.
Faith Confession: I will train myself to stay eternity conscious. I know that winning souls isn’t just an expression, it is the difference between heaven and hell for all those in my realm of influence. I AM MY BROTHER’S KEEPER!
February 13th Acts 16:30 “… and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? Verse 31 and they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved, and thy household.” Too many Christians do not know how to answer this simple question that most lost people have, even if they don’t voice it. Notice that Paul made it easy. He didn’t say “You have to clean up your act, or go to church or get baptized, or learn some creed.” He simply said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.” Jesus doesn’t make it hard to get to Heaven, He makes it easy.
Faith Confession: I AM MY BROTHER’S KEEPER. I am a soul winner for Jesus. My part is to tell them about how much He loves them and Jesus’ part is to give them eternal life.
February 14thI want to share a simple way I learned as a baby Christian to lead someone to the Lord. We call this The Roman’s Road. Of course you can tailor this to your own words to make it easy to share.
Romans 3:23 “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God”. Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” And then show them Romans 10:9 and 10. This is the basis of the Sinner’s Prayer or also called The Prayer of Salvation. I always like to get them to hold hands with me and repeat these words after me: “According to Romans 10:9 I confess with my mouth that Jesus is Lord. I believe in my heart that God raised Jesus from the dead, therefore I am saved. Verse 10 For with my heart I believe I am right with God and with my mouth I make my confession unto salvation. This means I am saved! I am a Born Again child of God.” Most of the time their faces light up with joy because their spirit received eternal life and they can sense the presence of God.
Faith Confession: 2 Timothy 1:7 “God has not given me the Spirit of fear, but of power, and of love and of a sound mind.” Every time the opportunity presents itself to lead somebody in a Prayer of Salvation, I will do it because “I can do all things through Christ …” I AM MY BROTHER’S KEEPER!
“Becoming Conscious of His Indwelling Presence”
February 15th 1 Corinthians 3:1-3 This passage is talking about two levels of Christianity. Notice verse 1 uses the word “spiritual”. This refers to a mature Christian who allows the Word to govern their life and decisions. Then notice the word “carnal”. This refers to “babes in Christ”. All believers start off as baby Christians. This simply means we haven’t learned the value of the Word and we are still led by our senses and feelings. Look at verse 3 “… you are carnal, and walk as men”. Another translation says “You live like mere unsaved men”. For the next few days I want to look at verses that helped me to grow from babyhood to spiritual maturity.
Faith Confession: I am so glad that I am Born Again. A new creature in Christ. I started out as a babe in Christ, but I am not going to stay there. I am going to feed by spirit on the Word of God and grow and mature as a Christian.
February 16th Colossians 1:26 “Even the mystery that has been hid from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His children: Verse 27 to whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is CHRIST IN YOU, the hope of glory.” You need to train yourself to become God-inside minded. You need to read verses like this out loud until you become conscious of Christ (the Anointed One and His Anointing living in you).
Faith Confession: I am not a mere unsaved man. I am a supernatural, Born Again, child of God because of Christ in me, the hope of glory.
February 17th 1 Corinthians 6:19 “What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? Verse 20 “For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit which are God’s.” Wow! Do you realize what God just told you? God Himself, through the Holy Ghost lives in you! You are NOT just a human being. God LIVES in you! You need to stop, think about where you go, what you watch, how you talk.
Faith Confession: My body is the temple of the Holy Ghost. God lives inside of me. I was bought by the precious blood of Jesus, therefore I will glorify God in my body and in my spirit which are God’s.
February 18th 2 Corinthians 6:16-18 “… for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will live in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people, verse17 “Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, verse 18 and will be a Father unto you, and you shall be My sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.” If that doesn’t light your fire, then your wood is all wet! Do you realize what God just said?! He lives in you and walks in you! You are not a mere unsaved human. You are a son or daughter of the
Lord God Almighty!
Faith Confession: I will feed my spirit on verses like this continually and become more and more conscious that I really am a new creature in Christ! God really does live in me, walk in me and goes with me everywhere I go.
February 19th Colossians 3:16 “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.” This is one of the best ways I know to stay conscious of the Spirit of God that lives in me. I am always quoting verses in bed, when I’m walking, when I’m driving, or wherever I am at. I am always singing spiritual songs with grace in my heart to the Lord. If you don’t already, today is a good day to begin this spiritual exercise.
Faith Confession: I am training myself every day in the ways of God. I will always be thinking about Bible verses and quietly speak them out loud. I will fellowship with Christians who want to talk together about what God is teaching us from His Word. I will sing to Jesus from my heart songs that I have learned in church and songs that He gives me.
February 20th Philippians 4:13 “I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me.” Remember this, we are talking about Christ in you, the hope of glory. Nothing that God tells you to do from His Word will be impossible to you because you have the Anointed One and His Anointing that gives you the strength, the power, and the ability to do it.
Faith Confession: Because of Christ in me, I have the strength to say “no” to sin and “yes” to living right. I have the strength to not yield to peer pressure, but to yield to the Holy Spirit. I have the power to be bold and speak up at the right time. I have the power because of Christ in me to keep my mouth shut when He wants me to. “I can do all things, through Christ which strengthens me”.
February 21st Galatians 2:20 “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but CHRIST LIVETH IN ME: and the life which I now live in the flesh I LIVE BY THE FAITH OF THE SON OF GOD, who loved me, and gave Himself for me.” How can you possibly live as a mere human being? Number one, Christ is living in you and through you. Number two, you have the same faith that the Son of God had when He walked the earth. This is a good verse to write down and read out loud several times a day, every day until it resonates from your inner man.
Faith Confession: In the mind of God, when Christ died on the cross, I died with Him. When He was raised from the dead, I was raised with Him. My new life is Christ living through me and I live it with the same faith that He lived His. Because I have His faith, I can live in victory every day in everything that I face.
February 22nd 2 Corinthians 5:17, 18, and 21 “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. Verse 18 And all things are of God …” These verses are talking about you and me and who we are now as Born Again Christians. In case you don’t get it, look at verse 21 in the Living Bible. “For God took the sinless Christ, and poured into Him our sins. Then, in exchange, He poured God’s goodness into us.” Remember we are training ourselves to be God-inside minded; to become conscious of His indwelling presence. Too many Christians are sincere, but sincerely wrong in how they talk about themselves. As a new creature in Christ, you are not an old sinner that has been saved by grace, you are either a sinner or you are saved. You need to start talking like it if you want to have a powerful Christian life.
Faith Confession: I was an old sinner, but I have been saved by grace. I now have God’s DNA (D=divine N=nature A=ability). When God looks down from Heaven at me, He doesn’t see my past life of sin, He sees the nature of His Only Begotten Son in me living through me.
February 23rd 2 Peter 1:4 “Whereby are given to us EXCEEDING GREAT AND PREICOUS PROMISES: THAT BY THESE YOU MIGHT BE PARTAKERS OF THE DIVINE NATURE (there it is again, God’s DNA).” Notice that God’s part is He has given us His exceeding great and precious promises from the Bible. Our part is we must read these, speak them, learn them, get them into our thought process and speak them out loud over and over until it becomes real. We are not just mere men, we really have the Divine Nature of God in us. The last part of this verse says, “… having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
Faith Confession: I know that John 1:14 says “The Word was made flesh and lived among us …” Now I see in 2 Peter 1:4 as I mediate on God’s Word, my flesh is becoming Word and living free from the corruption that is in the world through lust.”
February 24th 1 John 4:4 “You are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because GREATER IS HE THAT IS IN YOU, than he that is in the world.” This agrees with what Jesus said in John 17:11 “… but these are in the world … “. Verse 14 and verse 16 “… they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.” 1 John 5:19 AMP, “We know positively that we are of God, and the whole world around us is under the power of the evil one.” Notice that the Bible says that the world around us is under the power and influence of satan. Jesus very plainly says that although we live in this world, spiritually we live in the Kingdom of God. Greater is He, Christ who is in us, the hope of glory, than the devil that has a strangle hold on the unsaved people in the world around us.
Faith Confession: Although I live in this physical world, where satan yields his evil power of influence and deception on people who haven’t received Jesus and His Divine Nature, but I am not of this world. I am Born Again into the Kingdom of God and I don’t have to yield to the hatred, the sickness, the poverty, and the deceptions of satan because GREATER IS HE THAT IS IN ME than the devil and the curse that is in the world.
February 25th 1 Peter 2:24 “Who His own self, bare our sins in His own body on the cross, that we, BEING DEAD TO SINS, SHOULD LIVE UNTO RIGHTEOUSNESS: by whose stripes ye were healed.” We major on “By whose stripes we were healed” all the time, but I think we skip over a very vital part. Notice because we now have the nature of Christ in us, we are “DEAD TO SINNING, because we have THE RIGHTEOUS NATURE OF CHRIST IN US.” Because of that “WE SHOULD LIVE UNTO RIGHTEOUSNESS. “ This means we must train ourselves to get to show up on the outside what we are on the inside. This is called holiness and when we live it, we are living holy. See 1 Peter 1:14-16 2, Corinthians 5:21 “We are the righteousness of God in Christ. “
Faith Confession: I am a holy man or woman of God. I have the nature of God and I will say “no” to unrighteousness and sin. I choose to say “yes” to living clean and living holy because “GREATER IS HE THAT IS IN ME, then he that is in the world.” “I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me.” I will live holy.
February 26th 1 John 2:20, 27 “But ye have an unction (anointing) from the Holy One, and ye know all things.” Verse 27 “But the anointing which ye have received of Him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it (the anointing) hath taught you, you shall abide in Him.” One definition of “the anointing” that I like is “the presence of Jesus”. Of course we know that the anointing comes from the Holy Spirit in us. Romans 8:16 “The Spirit Himself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.” These verses don’t say that you don’t need a pastor or Bible teacher to teach you the Bible. God ordained that we should have spiritual leaders to teach us. But these verses say that the Holy Spirit and His Anointing will show us in our heart, whether something we hear is right or wrong; things we don’t know yet, He will teach us when we need to know them.
Faith Confession: I have the anointing of God and the witness of the Holy Spirit in me. He will always show me what is truth and what is not. What is right and what is wrong; and the decisions to make in things that affect my life and family. Thank You, Father, for the anointing of the Holy Ghost who is in me.
February 27th Ephesians 3:20 “Now unto Him, that is able to do exceeding, abundantly above all that we ask or think, ACCORDING TO THE POWER THAT WORKETH IN US.” Most Christians love to quote the first part of this verse that God can do exceeding, abundantly above all we ask or think, but notice it is qualified by “ACCORDING TO THE POWER THAT WE ALLOW TO WORK IN US”. What is the power that God is talking about? Number one, Acts 1:8 “But ye shall receive POWER, when the Holy Ghost is come upon you …” Number two, Romans 1:16 “For I am not ashamed of the GOSPEL OF CHRIST: for it is THE POWER OF GOD unto salvation …” Remember we are talking about becoming conscious of Christ in you, the hope of glory and becoming God-inside minded.
Faith Confession: Because of the Word of God and the power of the Holy Ghost that I allow to work in my life, God is always doing exceeding, abundantly above all I can ask or think.
February 28th Colossians 3:2 “Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. Verse 3 For ye are dead, AND YOUR LIFE IS HID WITH CHRIST IN GOD.” What a way to close out this month’s devotional! All these things we have talked about - God’s DNA, Christ in us, His Anointing in us, His power in us, and the Holy Ghost in us! By now we are getting the picture. We are NOT mere unsaved men. Our life is hid with Christ in God.
Faith Confession: I am a supernatural, anointed of God, son (or daughter) of the Most High, power house, and victor over satan and sin. I can boldly speak the Gospel, lay hands on the sick, cast out demons because I am in Christ, Christ is in me and I am in God!