Food for the Journey

By Glenroy Bent

In this inspirational and empowering book, Glenroy Bent explores four key topics of faith: the Holy Spirit, prayer, fasting, and the Bible. He believes these four elements are essential for the development of believers, encouraging and empowering them to develop a stronger relationship with God, and providing the fuel that will sustain them on t

• Language: English
• Publisher: Palmetto Publishing
• Release date: May 2, 2022
• ISBN: 9781685151805

Glenroy Bent

Glenroy Bent was born on the island of Jamaica, and when he was eleven his family immigrated to the U.S. He earned his BA in drama from the University of Potsdam in New York. He is an ordained minister, and for the past fifteen years he has served as mission director and men's president at the Tabernacle of Glory church in central Florida. His writing inspiration comes from God, and his passion is to win souls for the kingdom of the Lord. His first publication was a children's book titled The Sun Puts On Its Nightgown.Glenroy is married with four children. He enjoys fishing, basketball, nature, and gardening.

Book preview

Preface

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ET ME BEGIN BY SHARING HOW I GAVE MY LIFE TO JESUS. IT ALL started when my former wife invited me to church. I was reluctant at first, but then I decided to go. I went occasionally to get a feel of what it's like being there. They spoke French (?) Creole and I had to rely on her to translate for me. I didn’t understand much of what was going on, but the people were very nice to me and I felt welcomed. At one of the gatherings. I thought to myself and prayed to God saying, Lord if you want me to be here please give me something to do.

After the sermon the Pastor said something and my wife translated the message to me saying God wants you to preach. From the next service I was instructed to stand beside the preacher every time he preaches. Remember the old saying be careful what you ask for because you just might get it? Well, I got it. I was blown away but I knew that it was from God. As strange as it was I followed the instruction and as I stood there listening, I began to learn a lot about God.

As time went on I read the Bible more frequently on my own. Truth is, although I was learning a lot I still never gave my life to God. As life would have it, there were some problems in my marriage. I heard about a three-day shut-in service that was scheduled at another church affiliated with ours. I thought about it and I figured that going there might help me to resolve my marital issues, so I decided to go. This shut in service was devoted to fasting, prayer and meditation upon God's Word. It was a new experience for me because I had never spent three consecutive days in church before, or three whole days without food and water.

However, my decision to go was the right one because it was the turning point in my life. When I arrived at the service, the Bishop spoke on what we were going to do for the next three days. First, he told us that we would pray every three hours. Second, he asked that everyone complete a fasting petition form, for the things they desired God to do during this fast. During the Friday night session after Bible study, something special happened to me. I was talking with Brother Ken and he began to tell me about Jesus Christ. He read from the Bible But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach; that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved (Romans 10:8-9). At that moment I was touched by the power of God's Word and my heart was ready to change. I told him that I wanted to be baptized. I was so excited about my decision that I called my wife and told her the good news and she too decided to give her life to the Lord. We were both baptized the Saturday evening.

People come to church for different reasons, via a friend's invitation, or crises; sickness, marital problems, family issues and the list goes on. At times some attend out of mere curiosity, wondering what goes on in church. Friends, it doesn’t matter the reason, the important thing is that you are there. God can use any situation, even curiosity to get you into His house. As we listen to His words they have the ability to penetrate our hearts, and cause our lives to change. His Word will cause us to confess our sins, be baptized in His name, and be filled with His Holy Spirit. Beloved, this is the best decision we have made for our lives. Our decision to serve the Lord will never bring us regret.

I want to shed some light on our baptism, perhaps some of you are wondering what it really means. Baptism is the beginning of a new life with Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. When we went down into the ‘watery grave’ we made a public declaration that we repented of our sins and made a commitment to follow Jesus Christ. Repentance means to change one's mind and a changed mind means that we now live our life to please God. Before our baptism we went about day to day on our own business and never took the time to recognize that God is our reason for living. Never realizing that our souls were in jeopardy of going to hell, but God by his great mercies has kept us from dying in our sins.

Now we are to live the way God wants us to live and not the way we used to live. The things that we did before that displeased God we don’t do anymore. Why? Because we are called out from that lifestyle to begin a new chapter of our life; endeavoring to please God and to save our souls. Paul says, Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life (Romans 6:4). Our baptism means that we are born again. We are like newborn babies in Christ. As with a baby there are things that are vital for our survival in this new life.

As you read on I will expand on four basic principles that will help you on the journey of your new life in Christ. Food for the journey is based on these four principles, The Holy Spirit, Scripture Reading, Prayer, and Fasting.

Introduction

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HE PURPOSE OF THIS BOOK IS TO INFORM AND GUIDE YOU WITH principles that will help you grow in Christ. When you make a major decision in your life, everything is not clear at first, it will take some time to adjust and develop. For example, when I decided to go away to college, it was a big step for me. The environment was different, and so were the people. I didn’t know where anything was, so I had to find my way around. I had to change my way of thinking because there was no one to wake me up to say ‘go to class’. The Professor wasn’t going to tell me to take notes; I was expected to do it on my own. Life was a lot different and since I was not disciplined I had to learn.

My hope is that as you read this book you’ll use these tools to help you develop in your Christian journey. When I got saved I can recall numerous occasions when I heard the voice of the Lord speaking to me. I could feel the wind of someone's finger flicking near my ears, and a voice would whisper, Go pray. I would obey the voice and pray. I want you to make the best of your new life with Christ. Food for the journey will help you by pointing you to the subject of the Holy Spirit, Scripture reading, prayer and fasting. Maybe you are wondering what to do next being new in the faith or you’ve been saved for many years and you can’t get a breakthrough. These four basic principles can refresh your spirit and bring you back to basics. While this book is intended for new believers it can also help those who are seasoned in the faith. Perhaps you want to recommend this to someone you feel it could help. I hope it blesses you and may God's unfailing love keep you until you have reached your destination in Christ Jesus. Amen.

Holy Spirit

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HE MORE YOU KNOW THE MORE YOU WILL GROW. IN THIS CHAPTER we will discuss the Holy Spirit, who is the Holy Spirit, the role of the Holy Spirit, the gifts, and fruit of the Holy Spirit. When we understand the purpose of the Holy Spirit in our life we can appreciate why Christ sent Him to us. These are some titles given to the Holy Spirit. He is known as the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of the Lord, and the Spirit of truth etc… All these titles are used interchangeably and they are all referring to the Holy Spirit.

I want to caution everyone about some things to avoid as it pertains to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is a person. Some refer to the Holy Spirit as an ‘it’ instead of him, possibly influenced by the misleading King James Version rendition of Rom. 8.16. I caution us to remember that The Holy Spirit has feelings and is very sensitive. How we treat the Spirit will determine whether He will stay or depart from us. There are five things I’ve discovered that can hinder the Holy Spirit from working in our lives.

First, it is important for us as Christians to know that we don’t own our bodies. No matter how grown we are, our bodies are not ours. You hear people say it's my body and I can do with it what I want. Wrong - it is not your body! The body you have was purchased by the blood of Jesus Christ. Therefore, He owns it, so before we do anything with His body find out from God if it is OK to do so. The Bible says that your body is the temple of