What a joy it is to write t you today from the Ministry of Voice in the City. We realise that we are fulfilling the call of God today because of people like you who stand with us.

As we travel throughout the body of Christ, it seems that there is nothing more important, apart from out relationship with Jesus, than knowing who we are in God. I write this teaching praying that it will bless and encourage you in your walk with the Lord.

Who are we?

A Man is literally what he thinks, his character being the complete sum of all his thoughts
- James Allen

Is that a sobering statement? The rest of the story is that you are where you are today because of the thoughts you have maintained up to this point in your life.

Proverbs 23 talks of what we think in our heart being who we are. Jesus continually talked about believing, telling us that we could have anything if we only believed. He also said, "your faith has made you whole."

We were made in the image of God and when Christ lives within us, we have access to an incredible amount of power and strength that can overcome all circumstances of life. We are told we can be victorious in all things.

1 John 5:4 tell us how this works: our faith, our belief, is what overcomes. What do we believe? Your thought determine and portray what you believe. Each day we are given the choice to be an optimist or a pessimist (or as some pessimists would call themselves, realists). Would you rather be a pessimistic realist or an optimistic dreamer with rose-tinted glasses?

You cannot change your thoughts without changing your life. The law of sowing and reaping is evident in what we produce with the thoughts we sow.

How you feel about the bad events in your life is determined by what you think of them and what you tell yourself and others about them.

We all know people who wake up every day with a story to tell about what is awful in their world - from the weather, to health, to the government - they have a long list of gripes. Have you noticed those people have no joy in their lives? Certainly no peace or purpose.

There were many laws in the Old Testament and it was very complex and difficult to be holy. When Jesus came He simplified it greatly. Have you noticed how simple Jesus made life? How He saw the good in everything? He brought the whole law into two commandments in Matthew 22:36-39.

Keep it simple. If you focus on love in all circumstances, awful or great, you will be seeing victory through the eyes of Him who gave His life so that we might be victorious.

What seeds are you sowing into your life and the lives of those around you? Roses are like life - this flower has an aroma that is treasured throughout the world. It makes people smile and feel loved and it reflects the love of our Father who is its Creator. These roses are attached to a thorny stem and are surrounded by a bush of thorns.

Life holds plenty of thorns and sometimes we are surrounded by them in awful circumstances, but we can choose to be a rose that blooms about the thorny circumstances and spreads the aroma of God to those around us.

Which will you be - a rose or a thorn? It will be the way we walk through our life experiences in our thought life that will determine what and who we will be! Let us make the choice to be more like Jesus, although it is not always the easiest, it's certainly the most productive choice.

Gayle Claxton