Bitterness

http://www.realtime.net/~wdoud/topics/bitterness.html
Bitterness is one of the most crushing mental problems in a person's life. When a Christian is bitter, there is a loss of close fellowship with the Lord and a hindrance in one's relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.. Bitterness causes a loss of many of the blessings of the normal Christian life, including emotional stability, peace, and joy. And bitterness results in the loss of production of good works (gold, silver, precious stones) which are a major source of blessing and reward in the plan of God.
Bitterness is a devastating mental attitude sin, and it triggers a wide range of other sins, such as:
Hatred, Cruelty, Antagonism, Self-pity, Unteachableness (implacability), Vindictiveness and desires for revenge, Prideful ambition (arrogance)

Recovery From Bitterness
Isa 38:17, "Behold, bitterness became deliverance to me. In Your love You have delivered my soul out of the pit of destruction; for You have cast all my sins behind my back."
. Confession of Sin
Personal sin leads to bitterness. You must deal with sin on a daily basis by confessing and moving on. If you don't do this, sin becomes a burden which clouds your joy, drains your spiritual energy, and destroys your productivity and vitality. In short, sin is always depressing.

1 John 1:9 states that when you confess your sins, God "is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."
In privacy, make a list of your mental attitude sins, verbal sins, and behavior sins. Ask the Lord to make you aware of the habits of your own life. Respond immediately to the Holy Spirit when He uses the Word to spotlight your sin. Name the sin to God. Make it a spiritual habit to confess sins whenever they show up in your life.

• The Filling of the Holy Spirit

When the Holy Spirit in control, He produces His fruit (Gal. 5:12). The fruit of the Spirit does not include heaviness, bitterness, discouragement, disillusion, anguish, sadness, dejection, or loss of productivity.
o Love is free from bitterness.
o Joy pushes bitterness out.
o Bitterness can not coexist with peace in the soul of the believer filled with the Holy spirit.o Longsuffering gives the ability to deal with bitterness and other troubles.
o Gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance are fruits of righteousness, which is divine good. Divine good takes the place of bitterness.

• Living in the Word:

By constant study and meditation in the Bible you are constantly reminded of God's viewpoint, of His Plan, of His provision, or His awareness of our spirit of bitterness and what He want to accomplish in us. Living in the sphere of human viewpoint is a source of bitterness. Living in the Word gradually transplants you to a new sphere, a new environment for your life, in which there is victory over bitterness.

• Orientation to Grace

Bitterness is often caused by people, most of the time by people we cannot escape, or people we love, or people we cannot confront, or people we trust. Grace Orientation includes the ability to look at people and see them as God sees them. It includes the ability to let them live their lives as unto the Lord, and trusting God to make His way clear to them. This technique lets people make mistakes without your judging them. It enables you to accept criticism without hurt or bitterness. It enables you to "esteem other better than yourself", to "do nothing through strife or vainglory."

• Occupation with Christ

The technique of Occupation with Christ helps to cure bitterness because it gets your eyes off your spouse, your children, your neighbors, your friends, and yourself. Instead, as you move through the day, you are thinking about the Lord Jesus Christ, His plan for your life, the Father's provision for each incident in your life, and His provision of wisdom for each decision you must make. Occupation with Christ is a by-product of the Faith-Rest Life. Bitterness is a by-product of occupation with self, with life, with problems.

http://www.jesus-is-savior.com/Believer

Christ is Victor

May-June 08
A magnifying glass does not actually increase the size of any­thing: it only seems to do this. Actually the object at which a man may be looking is exactly the same size, but the glass br­ings it into bold relief, and the watcher is able to see it more cl­early. It is not possible to make Christ more wonderful, for “He is the Altogether Lovely One, and the chiefest among ten thousand.” Yet, if by God's grace we can become magnifying glasses - ­in perfect alignment with the Master and men - they will be able to see Him more clearly when they look at Him through us. All the details of His superb glory may be brought into de­lightful relief if we are what we ought to be.
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. When a man's end is near, he becomes more active than us­ual against the Kingdom of God . This is one of the signs that that man's end is near.
. Those who continue in the Word, will find their heart's deepest de­sires fulfilled. God is greater than our desires. In fulfilling our desi­res He will far exceed them. Pe­ter had desired this death-daring faith.
. The prayer of the church will release those in prison. Many are bound by evil spirits and evil desires and vani­ty. The church has to pray for them.
. A man who is freed, puts on the sandals of the gospel of peace.

-Late Mr. N. Daniel

Spurgeon's

"Ye must be born again."-John 3:7

Regeneration it is a change which is known and felt: known by works of holiness, and felt by a gracious experience. This great work is supernatural. It is not an operation which a man performs for himself: a new principle is infused, which works in the heart, renews the soul, and affects the entire man.
If you have then, been "born again," your acknowledgment will be, "O Lord Jesus, the everlasting Father, Thou art my spiritual Parent; unless Thy Spirit had breathed into me the breath of a new, holy, and spiritual life, I had been to this day 'dead in trespasses and sins.'
'My life is hid with Christ in God.' It is no longer I who live, but Christ who liveth in me."

Kenneth Copeland

Keep Quiet
A fool uttereth all his mind: but a wise man keepeth it in till afterwards.
– Proverbs 29:11
When we get our backs up about something, we think we have to let everybody know about it. "I'm just going to give them a piece of my mind," we say.
Don't make that mistake. Nobody wants or needs a piece of your mind-- and if you give it to them, you'll only end up alienating people and bringing harm to yourself. Instead, learn to keep quiet.
Develop the quiet art of the wise man, and the devil will find it increasingly difficult to harm your prayer life and ministry to others.

Free From Fear

For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.
– 2 Timothy 1:7
What would you think if I told you that you could live without fear? Would you believe me if I said that despite what you saw on the news tonight, you could be perfectly at peace? Impossible? Unrealistic? No!
You see, fear isn't just a reaction to external circumstances. It's a spiritual force. It begins inside a person. And it is totally destructive. In fact, fear is Satan's primary weapon. He moves in response to fear, the way God moves in response to faith. He challenges the promises of God with it.
An excellent example of this is found in Matthew 14 when Jesus invited Peter to come to Him on the water. "But when he [Peter] saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me" (verse 30).
What enabled Peter to walk on the water? His faith in the Word of Jesus. What caused Peter to sink? He saw the wind boisterous and he was afraid. It wasn't the wind that defeated him, it was his fear of it! He looked at his circumstances, gave into the fear, and the result was defeat. If Peter had kept his focus on Jesus, his faith would never have wavered. All the blustering and blowing in the world couldn't have drawn him off course.
Faith is developed by meditating on God's Word. Fear is developed by meditating on Satan's lies. Such fearful meditation is called worrying. Don't do it!
The Word of God is the sword of the Spirit. Use it to fight Satan every time he comes against you. Hold up your shield of faith and quench all of his fiery darts. Speak words of faith and fear will depart.