PASTOR DARRYL BAKER

John 10:10
The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance (to the full, till it overflows).

We know God is not a thief, so anything that involves stealing, killing, or destroying is not from God but from the thief himself, satan. It is interesting to note this verse in its context. If you read the previous nine verses you find out Jesus begins by teaching us that any shepherd who did not come through the gate, which Jesus tells us He is that gate, is a thief. Jesus, according to Ephesians 4:11 is the One who gives us the five-fold ministry gifts, which includes the pastor or shepherd. What Jesus is teaching us is that any pastor not gifted (ordained) by Him is a thief.

In 2 Corinthians 11:15 we find out that satan has his own ministers who appear as ministers of righteousness, but they are under his control. This is the primary way satan steals, kills, and destroys through false and deceptive teaching mixed with some truth. Throughout the New Testament we are warned of such ministers, those who speak false doctrine, and those who water down the Word of God. Jesus never gifted them to be a shepherd, or they are no longer doing what Jesus called them to do, teaching sound doctrine.

So, if you do not want to be taken advantage of and you want to experience the life God has for you, an abundant life, you need a shepherd who will teach you as Paul said, the whole counsel of God. Beware of having your ears tickled and only hearing what you want to hear but not receiving all of what scripture teaches. In knowing the Truth through the shepherd Jesus has for you, you will be set free from the destructive works of the thief, and can experience life more abundantly.

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Christian Faith Fellowship – Ponder Texas

Psalms 107:9
For He satisfies the longing soul,
And fills the hungry soul with goodness.

I was in a service years ago in my church that I was a member of at the time and I will never forget this encounter I had with the presence of God. It was during our worship service. I was lifting my hands and just loving on God with all my heart. Suddenly, I was unaware of anyone or anything else around me. God’s presence was so real, and it was an experience of love I cannot describe. This went on for several minutes and I lost track of time.

Since that encounter I have had several times as a pastor in the pulpit where God’s presence was more real to me than anything around me. Do you desire to have such encounters with God? To be so full of His presence that nothing else can compare to Him? He desires this more than we do. The lacking element is a sincere heart hunger for God. A hunger that cannot be satisfied by anything else. God longs to fill the hungry soul with goodness. What is that goodness? God Himself. Why do we seem to be lacking in a hunger for God?

It’s really simple. The primary reason someone is hungry is because they are not full. To many are filling their lives with other things, and this keeps us from having a hunger for Him. God wants to move in and through His people. He desires for us to have times of refreshing in His presence, but until we have the same desire and longing for Him, we will miss out on what He has for us. Make a change. Don’t fill up on other things. God is waiting on us to draw near to Him, and when we do, He will draw near to us!

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Christian Faith Fellowship – Ponder Texas

Luke 10:19
Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you.

The body of Christ should not be trampled upon by the works of darkness but should be trampling upon and triumphing over all the power of the enemy because of the authority Jesus has given to us. You have been seated with Christ, far above all the powers and works of darkness. Jesus has delegated to us the same authority He has through the use of His name. Authority means delegated power. The name of Jesus is our badge of authority that gives us the right to use God’s power.

Believers often pray and ask God to do something with the devil and his attacks on their life, but that is why they do not get results. In the New Testament, our covenant with God, we are told that we must resist the devil, and he will flee from us. It does not say to ask God to do this for you. When Christ cleansed us of our sin, He put us in right standing with God and therefore gave us the right to use His name, which is how we use this authority He has given to us over all the power of the enemy.

We must develop through knowledge of the New Testament an understanding in our hearts of the power that is in that name, and of our rightful place in Christ Jesus to use that name. Walk in the light of who you are as a child of God, and in the power that is in the name of Jesus; and as you declare that name over the powers of darkness and their destructive works, you will trample them under your feet, no longer fearful of any work of evil.

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Christian Faith Fellowship – Ponder Texas

Mark 11:23
“Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea, and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is going to happen, it will be granted him.”

In Christ Jesus you have the ability to move mountains. Jesus did not say to ask God to move the mountain, you command it to move. A mountain represents any obstacle that stands between you and that which God has promised is yours in Christ, or that which tries to stop you from carrying out His will for your life. Jesus gave an example before He spoke this to His disciples.

He had spoken to a fig tree that was producing no fruit, and He declared that no one would eat fruit from that tree again. At that moment it did not look like anything had changed. But the next day when they passed by that tree, Peter noticed that it was now dead. It had died from the roots up. When you speak to any mountain in faith using the authority we have been given through the name of Jesus, you know the work has begun from the roots up.

We have been given authority, God’s delegated power through the name of Jesus to use in this earth, and we must use that authority against whatever may stand in our way that is trying to keep us from seeing God’s will being done. When that delegated power is released in faith, know that it is working, just like the fig tree that died from the roots up. Learn to use the name of Jesus and command that mountain to move.

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Christian Faith Fellowship – Ponder Texas

2 Corinthians 5:21
For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

It is important as a believer in Christ to fully understand and have revelation in your heart of what the blood of Jesus accomplished for you if you want to be a partaker of what Jesus purchased for us. But something that is just as important and even more so is understanding what the blood of Jesus accomplished in you as well. This is an area where many fall short. Let me explain from the above verse of scripture.

Jesus was made to be sin by shedding His blood on the cross so that everyone who is born again would be made the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. That simple truth means that one who has made Jesus the Lord of their life now has right standing with God. Another word we see in scripture for this is the word justified, which means to be declared righteous. His shed blood cleansed us from the old spirit man within and made us brand new. When this happens, you are now right with God because you have become a son or daughter of God.

When you are made right with God you now have rights as a child of God. You become an heir of God and a joint heir with Jesus. As His child if you understand who you now are, you begin to realize what now belongs to you. When God looks at you, He sees this new person within who is in right standing with Him. We need to wake up to this reality and begin to see ourselves as God sees us. This will not only change how we live, but how we look at the promises of God. Every promise is now available to us because of who we have become, a child of God who is in right standing with Him.

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Christian Faith Fellowship – Ponder Texas

Mark 9:23
Jesus said to him, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.”

There is nothing impossible for those who walk in Bible faith. As 2 Corinthians 4:18 says bible faith does not consider, does not focus on, nor talk about these things in the natural, but instead focuses on the Word of God. So, faith does not look at what is seen, it does not become occupied with what you are facing, but it looks at and becomes occupied with what is not seen, the promise of God’s Word that is not yet manifested.

Faith believes in the heart not the head what God has promised to us. Once you have faith in your heart, faith then speaks in line with what one believes, and then faith acts upon the Word of God. Begin by finding scripture that gives you the promise of what you are believing for. Meditate on those verses until they become real to your inner man (your spirit man). One does this by declaring those truths to yourself continually, proclaiming them as scripture revels as already yours.

Keep declaring God’s Word until you believe it in your heart, and then when you believe it keep declaring it. Faith also acts upon the Word of God, for faith without corresponding action is dead. We must act upon what God’s Word says. Begin taking steps of faith in line with His promises. What man says is impossible, God says is possible to them that believe. Just believe!

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Christian Faith Fellowship – Ponder Texas

John 14:6
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.

Jesus in this verse gives three references about Himself. Let’s take a look at them. The first thing Jesus reveals is that He is the way. The word used here refers to a means of access. Jesus is the only means of access to the Father. It is by faith in His finished work alone that we can return to the Father, and we therefore become a new creature in Christ. In coming back to the Father we can learn about who we now are as a new creation for we have found the way to receive a new spirit man within, united with God.

He is also the Truth. This word is defined as ultimate reality. In John 1:14 Jesus is described as the Word that became flesh. In John 17:17 Jesus declared that the Word is Truth. He did not say the Word is true but Truth. When we accept what the Truth says about any given situation we face in our life, what we are facing may be true, but the Truth has the ability to change what is true in the natural. When we take the Truth of God’s Word and begin to declare them over the circumstances we face, His Truth will set us free.

Finally He is the life. This refers to the divine life we can now live, doing the very things Jesus Himself did, which is living out divine life, not just a mere biological means of existence. Jesus Himself said in John 14:12, if you believe in Him, the works He did we can do also. That is living in divine life. So, through Jesus we can come to know who we are in Christ as He has provided the way for us to be born again, we can also know what we now have in Him by learning the Truth, and we can live a completely new way of life through our faith in Him. He is the way, the Truth, and the life that has made this available to all who come to Him.

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Christian Faith Fellowship – Ponder Texas

Revelation 12:11
And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.

When a boxer steps into a ring, he does so to fight an opponent in hopes he will be the champion and win the fight. As believers once born again, we do not step into the ring of life trying to win a battle against our enemy, we step into the ring because we are the champion. Jesus already defeated our enemy! To enforce this victory that is already ours we must do three things as revealed in the scripture above.

1. Understand the power of Jesus’ blood, and what that blood did for us. His blood cleansed us and recreated us in the image of God. His blood has redeemed us and given us victory over satan. We must walk in the revelation of what His blood has done for us.
2. We must have a confession in line with what His shed blood accomplished for us. When believers talk defeat and talk the problem instead of declaring the victory that is already theirs, they are not going to walk in the victory that belongs to them. It is our testimony of what Christ has done that causes us to rise up to our place in Christ.
3. We must also stop loving our old carnal nature’s way of life. That old nature has been crucified with Christ. We now yield to our new nature within.

Do these three things and you can walk in the victory that is already yours!

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Christian Faith Fellowship – Ponder Texas

Acts 20:24
But none of these things move me; nor do I count my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my race with joy, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.

A golden rule to finishing your race, not abandoning your walk with Christ, and never turning from the ways of the Lord; you must learn to not allow things to move you. Too many believers are moved away from church, the Bible, a godly confession, christian fellowship, godly leadership, and fellowship with God because of things that happen in their life. Notice in this verse how we avoid allowing such things to affect us. We are not to count our lives dear to ourselves. Translation, stop living for you.

As a believer in Christ, we were bought at a price and we belong to God, therefore we should live for Him. When you live for God, you can’t get your feelings hurt, nor do you allow what happens around you to take control of how you live, for you are following after Christ. This is how you live a joy filled life, for you stop focusing on the things of the world which do not bring true joy but only fleeting happiness.

But the joy of the Lord is a powerful and constant strength to your life. When you live for God and He is why you get up everyday, life takes on a whole new view, a life filled with the goodness and the glory of our God. Live your life for God and not for yourself, and you will no longer be tossed around by the challenges of life but instead overcome them because you cannot be moved.

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Christian Faith Fellowship – Ponder Texas

Matthew 9:36
But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd.

Simple question for every believer to think about. If Jesus gifted certain believers to be shepherds over a local flock, why would He do so? If you are someone who does not have a church that you actually go to with a pastor that Jesus anointed to be there, why would He give such gifts to men if in fact He did not want you to attend church and be connected to a shepherd?

If Jesus knew that you did not need a church body and a shepherd to pastor you, then there was no need for Him to place such a calling on their life. Jesus was moved with compassion for those who did not have a shepherd. He said they were weary and scattered. Weary means to trouble and annoy. Scattered means without the protection of a shepherd. For those not connected and attending a local church with an anointed shepherd, you are a much easier target for satan.

Jeremiah 3:15 also states that the Lord gave shepherds to feed you with knowledge and understanding. This knowledge and understanding are crucial for every believer living in these last days to be protected from the deception of our enemy. If you do have an anointed shepherd but you are not consistent in going to church, you are missing out on the knowledge and understanding God has for you. In Hosea 4:6 God said His people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge. Jesus anointed your shepherd to help protect you, and to help you become a disciple of Christ.

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Christian Faith Fellowship – Ponder Texas