SELF CONTROL WINS PRIZES

SELF CONTROL WINS PRIZES
My Dear Precious Child,
   I am your Father who wants you to receive everything that I have freely given to you.  I want you to have peace for your mind, love for others, mercy for the poor, forgiveness for lawbreakers and anyone who does evil to you, faith in Me, revealed knowledge from My Holy Spirit and self control which is being temperate in earthly and spiritual affairs.  When you are determined to have those attitudes, you have cleared the atmosphere of anything that will block My blessings from flowing into your life.
   Remember that I told you through My Holy Spirit that I have given to you ALL things that pertain to living a life of abundance with My godliness. (II Peter 1:3-4)  Knowing that My power is in My Holy Spirit, I said that through My power you have the ability to escape from the corruptions that are in the world because of passions.  Therein lies the problem of all humanity, the passions that come from the devil's temptations, passions being emotional extremes.  The devil is not a creator, so he takes what I have created and takes them to extremes through his temptations of you, making you angry, covetous, intemperate, hateful, vengeful and lustful until you lose control of your emotions and begin to spread corruption in your world. (Galatians 5:16-21) 
   Those emotional extremes are passions that need to be overcome by the power of My Holy Spirit.  I have told you to be temperate in all things, refusing to go to extremes as in becoming envious, jealous, drunken, licentious, lustful, politically partisan, competitive and angry.  In telling you to be temperate, I was telling you to be in control of emotions instead of allowing emotional passions to control you. 
    When you become intemperate, you have lost control of your emotions and the devil has taken over your emotions. (Titus 2:2)  My Holy Spirit instructed in My Book that temperance is a requirement for being appointed a leader in a congregation because self control over tempting passions is necessary for righteousness which comes from godliness.  A person who has control over the passions that come from a temper has the fruit of  self control and will be able to inherit My blessings into his or her life.
   Self control means control over emotions which are extreme.  I related your dedication to Me as to a runner, one who runs to win a prize.  I said that the athlete who runs does so for an earthly prize, but that you must exercise self control to receive an imperishable prize. (I Corinthians 9:24-25)  Inheriting My kingdom on earth in your life should be a prize worth exercising self control in everything, in drink, in food, in desire, in emotions, in pride, in political beliefs, in speech, in exercise, and in overcoming temptations.  The athlete who does not exercise self control loses the prize but the athlete who exercises self control wins the prize.
   I said that the fruit of My Spirit is love, joy, peace, mercy, goodness, kindness, patience, faith, meekness and temperance.  (Galatians 5:22-24) I said that if you truly belong to Christ that you have crucified the passions of the flesh with its corrupt lusts.
  When you are tempted by the devil to engage in emotional, political or fleshly extremes, exercise the power that I gave to you.  My Holy Spirit will admonish you to cast out those destructive temptations and to proceed with My temperate (unemotional) instructions which are to refuse corruption and to choose unity with Me which leads to great rewards.  When you lose control over your emotions,  you lose the prizes that I have for you.  When you exercise self control over your emotions, you win the prizes that I have for you. (II Peter 1:3-11) 
   If you will look at the word "temperate," its root word is temper.  When you are temperate, you are in control of your temper, you are grounded in My love for everyone and you love with My unconditional love so that you grant everyone the right to believe what they have been programmed to believe,  When you are temperate,  give everyone the right to act from the programming of their own heritage and experiences in life without any judgment from you.  So the word temperate means for you to have self control, not having extreme beliefs that produce extreme passions.
   I give you the right to believe, without judgment, that which you are programmed to believe.  I love you and I allowed Jesus to die for any and all extreme beliefs and emotional programming.  You are My child and you must do the same, refuse to have extreme beliefs and refuse to judge others who have extreme beliefs.  Your love and prayers for them will allow Me to minister truth to them if you refuse to judge them and refuse to become angry with them.  They deserve your prayers.
   The rewards are great when you add self control to faith and knowledge. 
    Your Father of Loving Counsel