Posts from 2025 | The Shoe Ministries

SANCTIFICATION OF THE HEART

The continued daily sacrifice of animals in the Old Testament was intended to sanctify the heart of man. This is no longer necessary because of the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. The blood of Jesus is our constant seal against the sinful fleshly nature. When we pray, we must have a single mind; the mind must remain focused on God’s supply. However, the thought life is always under attack from the flesh as worry or stress enters the mind; our prayers are powerless. The blood of Jesus cleanses and seals the conscience against the coming and going of the fleshly chaos.

I meet so many believers who do not get their prayers answered. They pray, and when they do not get heavenly help, they give up and live in poverty. They are believers, but they have no testimony of how God provides.

My mother was the spiritual leader in our home, as my father had no respect for preachers or churches. We were a big family, and when anything went wrong, I would hear my mother calling upon the blood of Jesus over her family from her bedroom. Nothing bad ever happened to our family, even until today, because she made sure we understood the power of the blood. She did not understand the blood, but she applied it constantly because she knew it was all-powerful. She was a normal person and not completely spiritually minded and would do and say silly things as we all do, but when trouble came, she knew the power of the blood of Jesus gave her the right to have faith for anything she needed. She would use her faith and would cause incredible miracles.

I am saying these things to remind our readers that we cannot have confidence to move our mountains if we are not sanctified and sealed with the blood of Jesus. The blood is for the conscience. The blood-washed conscience gives us the confidence to stand before all of heaven to claim the things we have need of. I am saying that whatever we truly need will be supplied by heaven if we pray with the faith that is only in a sanctified heart. Sometimes we pray for things half-heartedly; we put the prayer out there and hope God will give it. You must admit, most of our prayers are like that. It causes us to be powerless believers without a testimony of the provision of God.

In Revelation 12, we read how the holy ones of God overcome the enemy by the blood of the lamb and the word of their testimony. We can really only help each other by our testimonies.

Rev 12:11: “And they overcame him (the enemy) by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death. Some people are afraid to keep on praying because they are afraid the devil will turn against them; they are not bold and ready to stand against the satanic onslaught because they do not know the power of the cross and the blood. They have more faith in the devil than they have in God.

But are we really the holy ones of God?

Is the Bible talking about us today? Yes! Most certainly, when we have communion and follow Jesus to lay down our lives and apply the blood of the Lamb of God to our hearts, our sins are forgiven, and we are the holy ones to whom all of heaven listens intensely. Many of my personal prayers have gone unanswered, but when I truly have need of heavenly intervention, God has always met my need.

We need not fear the future and the bad that comes with it. No matter what happens, God will always answer our prayers if we pray from a sanctified heart.

The thoughts are in the imaginations of the Heart

I would like to refer to a foundational scripture that describes that firstly, our thoughts determine what will happen in all of our lives. Secondly that thoughts are in the imagination of the heart.

Gen 6:5-6: And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.

This is why he told Noah to build the ark to save himself and his family from the flood

In this case, the thoughts of the people’s hearts were evil.

Although God did not create us to think evil continually, we still have the option to think whatever we like.

I’m thinking about the two thieves who were crucified with Jesus. They both knew that He was God, but only one chose to be with Him forever. The other thief chose to curse him.

Thoughts present themselves in our mind, and it is for us to decide if we will take them to heart and allow them to grow in our imaginations to cause toxic feelings. Feelings eventually become emotions, and dark emotions are the true powers of darkness. Gal 5:19

We can nurture feelings of hate, which are toxic thoughts, for instance, and allow it to grow and become a cancer that kills the body and causes death in all things we do. This is the curse. These emotions are called the flesh or carnality in the Bible.

On the other hand, God has given us His Word, and His Word is Spirit and it is life. His Word is full of life, that is life and life and life abundantly. The Word is the blessing. Meditating on the Word brings feelings of peace to the heart. Jesus is called the Prince of Peace. What could be better than having peace in the thought life? After all, this is the reason for drug abuse and alcoholism. All people want peace! They will go to great lengths to make up all kinds of religious rules and traditions, but peace is a lot closer than that. We can’t work or do things to get peace. Peace is a free gift from God. Jesus saves! What does He save us from? From chaos in our minds. He saves us from deadly thoughts that make us sick and destroy our lives, and cause wars because we listen to all our feelings. We think that because we felt goose bumps when someone said or did something, the feeling must be from God. We do not listen to feelings, we tell feelings how they should feel.

When we become believers, we are to become disciplined in our thinking. Jesus made disciples. We must take thoughts captive and decide if they come out of our own will or if they are the will of God. We know what God’s will is, when we read the word. As the Word fills our heart, it causes life.

God is not out to get us for sinful thoughts, God so dearly wants us to have His thoughts that he gave His only begotten son to die on the terrible cross. Jesus took all the evil wickedness that is caused by thoughts into himself and nailed it to the cross. All we have to do is follow Jesus daily. Simply do what he did, die to the flesh and rise in the spirit, where there is only peace.

Sanctify the heart

It has always surprised me how Easter has always been the beginning of new things in my life. It is also a time of reflecting on the work that God did for us by sacrificing Jesus on the cross—such a horrific death for the only man who never sinned.

He was meek as a lamb and was slaughtered like a lamb, and His blood poured out for our sins. We, as believers, should follow Jesus daily. Our death is not physical, but spiritual, as we take thoughts captive or do introspection of how our own dark side made it into the mind of our spirit. We have given the mind of our spirit to God, and it is the heart of man.

My heart is also the Kingdom of God.

As a man thinks in his heart, so is he. This does not sound like it should be a problem to keep our thoughts on God; however, disciplining our thoughts to stay on the Word of God is very hard to do.

We, as believers, endure many trials. 1 Peter says it is to prove our faith in the same way fire purifies gold. Our faith is much more precious to God than gold. As you can see, faith is the main objective of our lives in the earth.

Romans 12:3:

“For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith.”

Ephesians 2:8:

“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God.”

But how can I know that faith has come?

Rom 10:17:

“So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”

John 6:63:

“It is the spirit that quickens; the flesh profited nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.”

So it stands to reason that if we meditate on the Word of God, it should cause faith to come into action, with which we should be able to conquer any problem. This is true, but before the Word can find root in the heart, the soil must be prepared; see to it that your heart is sanctified.

Search my heart, O Lord, take all my sin away, and this is why the cross should be the centre of our hearts. We follow Jesus to die and become a living sacrifice daily. Do not dig and mourn, only those things that are on the surface of your thoughts. Things like unforgiveness or especially worry. Worry is a fearful state of the heart. Ask the Holy Spirit to show the state of your heart, and once you have dealt with sin, confidence comes. Confidence to pray the prayer of faith.

The Bible teaches that it is sin not to live by faith. There are many promises in the Bible for us to cause faith in our hearts, but begin with the state of your heart. Begin by asking the Lord about what your heart looks like to Him. Is it good soil to sow the Word in? Trying to sow a seed into unprepared soil is not possible. There is a digging that must happen. Pull out those old weeds that are growing in your garden by the root, crucify them, and use communion. Now we are doing Hebrews 10:22.

Hebrews 10:22

“Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.”

Receiving by faith

This month’s letter is about receiving by faith

Jesus came to give healing to all people. Healing is free. Jesus sent out his disciples and said, “Freely you have received, freely give.” Healing is God’s will.

The reason that we do not have our needs met is because we don’t feel worthy.

Yes, but I have had terrible thoughts going through my mind lately. I have not been tithing… I have not been to church… I lost my temper and I feel terrible… How can God ever help me?

If you are having these kinds of thoughts it is why you are not receiving. The gospel of Jesus Christ is for sinners. Jesus healed everybody. He did not ask them any personal questions. As long as you believe you were healed. It was always people from other nations at who’s faith Jesus marveled. The centurion and the woman with the issue of blood. These people did not feel guilty because they did not have the Jewish law. This is the reason Paul said that the law is a curse and not life-giving because they always felt guilty. Most of us have had some religious upbringing that keeps us captive to not receive freely. The law says you must do something to receive but Jesus says it’s free! Only believe! God is good he wants everybody to be well and cared for holistically.

We were already healed by His stripes and all sickness and poverty was nailed to the cross. All we have to do is believe it and apply healing scripture constantly because God created all things with His word. The word is God, and the word is spirit and it is life. We believe with the heart and speak with the mouth so that faith can come and healing be manifested in the body.

No matter what your problem is –speak the Word of God to your mountain!

Here I have some scriptures for you to meditate on. Print them and hang them on your wall.

Psa 107:20: “He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.”

Jos 1:8: “This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.”

Matthew 12:35: “A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things.”

The heart must belong to Jesus who is the Word. It must be guarded against fear and the other things of the flesh.

The heart is the mainspring and this is why we have communion constantly so the heart can be sanctified to be the Holy of Holies, the place where God lives inside us is the heart. So we guard the heart above all things because healing and all other issues of life flow from the heart. (Prov. 4:23)

Mark 11:25: “And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.”

As we speak healing verses continually and it transforms the mind. Rom 12:1-2 Out of thinking the problem, we now crucify the problem as we become a living sacrifice. We follow Jesus daily. We die to the flesh we rise in the spirit. The problem is crucified as we eat the flesh of Christ then we rise with Christ to be in Christ.

Gal 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.

Because I no longer live but Christ lives in me I talk to sickness or problems the way Jesus spoke to sickness or lack. It will be exactly the way I say it will be. (Mark 11:23) Sickness must die the way the fig tree died—from the root. It may not manifest immediately but it has already happened in the spirit. We are looking at things that are not as though it has already come to pass. (Hebrews 11) Because Jesus has been given power in heaven and earth we now also have this same power because we are in Christ and represent God in the earth. God is no longer talking in the earth but he has given us His word. But nothing will happen if we do not talk to the problem with Christ’s authority. All things must obey the voice of God. You are the voice of God and nothing will be impossible for you.

Mar 11:23: “For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he said shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.”

The mountain is any problem!!!

Rom 8:11: “But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.”

James 5:14-15: “Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.”

James 4:7: “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”

YOU MUST FILL YOUR MIND WITH THE WORD AND THINK AND TALK THE WORD, DO NOT BE DOUBLE-MINDED.

James 4:8: “Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double-minded.”

Is 58:8: “Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the LORD shall be thy reward.”

Is 58:11: “And the LORD shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.”

AMEN

Breaking thoughts of death

Today I read Hebrews 2:14 [Jesus] only as a human being could He die, and only by dying could he break the power of the devil who had the power of death.

I am thinking about negative thoughts and that Jesus died to remove the effect and power the negative thoughts of death have on us.

These opposing thoughts that are in the minds of all people were crucified. Jesus took death into himself. Thoughts of death were killing Israel.

We were entertaining a guest who had visited with us many times. He usually keeps to himself but he decided to join us this night and started telling us about his life. Everything that came out of him was death, thoughts of death consumed him. He told us about everything he did that failed and how he was trying to stop the downward trend in his life. He is one of those people who knows everything and doesn’t accept any teaching I try to give. That evening this person affected our lives so much that I felt dirty after listening to him. My wife also experienced it and suggested that we should have communion together. This person spoiled our family evening together with his spirit of darkness. Later I thought that this person was affecting the lives of all the people he came into contact with and everything he touched is affected negatively.

We are naturally dark and we need to be saved so that the light of God can shine into our being. The Word of God is the creative power of light. God spoke everything into existence and so do we by the words of our mouth we create. Just like the scripture says we have life and death in the power of our tongue. We should choose life.

Colossians 2:15: “Having spoiled principalities and powers, he (Jesus) made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it.” (Please read the previous verses also.)

Paul talks about how Jesus crucified principalities and powers. The commentaries do not all agree. Some say that all the dark powers in the air were crucified. It certainly sounds like a spiritual thing, but reading Adam Clark was an eye-opener. He said the principalities and powers of darkness that were crucified were the religions and traditions of the Sanhedrin and Pharisees. I also spoke about this in last month’s email.

Eph 6:12: “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. (The highest place in man is the mind that should be heavenly-minded.)

Adam Clark says this wickedness in high places is the spiritual wickedness in heavenly places, he thinks false teachers, who endeavored to corrupt Christianity, disguised falsehood in the garb of the truth the Rabbi’s and Jewish rulers intended.

These learned lawmakers who placed heavy burdens on the Jews were the true enemies of Jesus. They were perverting the Word of God. He spoke out against them and said they were full of dead man’s bones and were whitewashed tombs. If you think about it these arrogant, self-righteous people were the only ones who Jesus spoke out against in anger. They made laws to uphold the Law of Moses and bound the people making them captives. In Isaiah 61:1 we see that Jesus was sent to make the Jews free from this captivity of traditions that was death.

Isa 61:1-2: “The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound. To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn”

If you read this chapter you see how powerless God’s chosen people were. The people were in mourning because they were held captive not only in religious traditions but also by the Romans. There was not one person in Israel who had spiritual authority like Elijah for instance or David who could lead them to repossess the land God gave to the children of Abraham. If you think about it, it was death thoughts that bound them.

Furthermore, it was traditions and religions that crucified Jesus. The power of religious thinking is death and Jesus crucified that death and took the keys away. Now we can follow Jesus daily, crucify death thoughts, and live in freedom in heavenly places because of the cross and the blood. As we say the Word and do the Word the mind transforms and causes life-giving thoughts so that everything we do will prosper. (Josh.1:8, Ps 1, Jn 1:1-5)

I encourage the reader to think about this and study it because it causes freedom in our thinking if we know who the real enemy is.

Like last month my prayer this month is still the same. Lord help me see and identify the death thoughts in my mind and let me be set free from the captivity of my own dark thinking. Let my thoughts be in line with your Word and let my life-giving thoughts create the good things in my life that YOU have planned for me.

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What are pricipalities and powers?

The subject of this month’s letter is principalities and powers.

The Holy Spirit taught us that the seven deadly sins listed by the Catholics before the time of Luther are principalities.

The principalities and powers of darkness in Ephesians 6 have been used to explain the spiritual darkness you could see over a city as you approach it from a distance. From this, some teachers have assumed that in Daniel 10 the prince of Persia will fight against the spiritual force of Grecia. As I studied this I found that Cyrus was the King of Persia who Jesus told that the time had come to set free the children of Israel. This must happen because history is moving on and the king of Greece, Alexander the Great will fight against Persia. These physical events are part of history in the time of Daniel and are worth reading in this context. Heaven most definitely did fight with Persia against Babylon.

Even the people who preach it say that it has nothing to do with our salvation. Then why do you even say these things that have no purpose and cannot sanctify the heart of man, but cause confusion to the body of Christ? All scripture is for the edifying of man.

2 Timothy 3:16-17: “All Scripture is God-breathed and is profitable for instruction, for conviction, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

Heaven most definitely did fight with Persia against Babylon. It was the time when a hand appeared writing on the wall of the Babylonian palace. It is a beautiful story that brings glory to God and not the devil. The Lutheran church and also Billy Graham understood that principal spirits were the seven deadly sins.

The following is also one of those scriptures that I had to ask the Holy Spirit to explain.

Col 2:15: Then Jesus made a public spectacle of all the powers and principalities of darkness, stripping away from them every weapon and all their spiritual authority and power to accuse us. And by the power of the cross, Jesus led them around as prisoners in a procession of triumph. (He was not their prisoner; they were his!)

This scripture is difficult to understand because it most certainly sounds like spiritual forces in the air and some of the commentaries such as Barnes understand it as such. However, Adam Clark is certain that these principalities were the darkness in the hearts of the Sanhedrin. These people were the enemies of Christ, after all, they crucified him.

Tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. These are the people who held Israel in bondage to make up rules. These priests were full of their self-importance and Jesus called them white-washed tombs.

Col 2:8 “Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. You hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean” (Matthew 23:27).

These words are woes to the Pharisees.

If you read Colossians 2:15 you see Paul is talking about the spiritual forces that Christ overcame and then suddenly he is talking about being judged for what you eat or drink and even about the Sabbath in verse 16.

Col 2:16: “So why would you allow anyone to judge you because of what you eat or drink, or insist that you keep the feasts, observe new moon celebrations, or the Sabbath?”

This proves to me that the spiritual forces Jesus overcame were traditions and religions that held the Jews captive in the law. Jesus came to make everyone free from these laws but they were the power the priests and the Pharisees had over the people.

This is a lesson to me because I was also brought up with traditions that I know the Lord pointed out to me that were holding me captive. I am asking God to show me in which way these teachings have distorted my understanding of spiritual things so that my heart may be the dwelling of God only.

Jesus in his own words told the Pharisees in Mark 7:13 that their traditions make the Word of God to no effect. Traditions, religious laws, and ways are the principalities and powers in our minds that blind us so that we do not see the Truth. They are like veils that keep us from understanding and experiencing the full love of God.

Let us surrender to Jesus and allow him to set us free!