Psalm 119 - Part 3

And we continue with our confession of Psalm 119. Look at all the good things we can say about the Word for our lives. Continue to say the same thing as God says and become more and more like your Heavenly Father---think like Him, talk like Him, act like Him until people say: Who do you think you are—God? And you can say: Yes, He’s my Father. I’m just like Him. Glad you noticed a similarity in us. I am His child and grow more and more like Him every day.

Let Your mercies come also to me, O Lord, even let Your salvation (deliverance, health and healing, prosperity, protection, safety) come to me according to Your Word.

So shall I have an answer for those who reproach me, for I trust in Your Word.

I keep Your Word of Truth in my mouth for I hope in Your Word.

So shall I keep Your Word continually forever and ever.

And I will walk at liberty for I seek Your Word.

I will speak of Your Word also before kings, high officials, and will not be ashamed.

And I will delight myself in Your Word, which I love.

My hands I will also lift up to Your Word, which I love; and I will meditate in Your Word.

Remember Your Word to me, upon which you have caused me to hope.

This is my comfort when an earthly affliction comes against me; Your Word, O Lord, gives me life, revives me.

The proud people make fun of me for my stand on Your Word, yet I have not turned aside from Your Word.

I remember Your Word from the past, and I comfort myself in what Your Word has done for me before.

I am sad when I see how the wicked forsake Your Word.

Your Word has been my source of songs and singing in my house.

I have remembered Your name, O Lord, in the night and I have kept Your Word.

I have had You and Your presence because I kept Your Word.

You are my portion, Lord; I have said that I would keep Your Word.

I entreat Your favor with my whole heart; be merciful to me according to Your Word.

I considered my ways and turned my feet to Your Word.

I made haste, and didn’t delay to keep Your Word.

At midnight I rise to give thanks to You because of Your Word which is righteous and just.

I am a companion of all those who revere You and who pay attention to, keep Your Word.

The earth, O Lord, is full of Your mercy; teach me Your Word.

Psalm 119 - Part 2

As we continue with our confession of Psalm 119, we see a pattern here of trusting in God’s Word as the stabilizer and solution to whatever we face in life, the declaration of His provision in all things.

I would like to share with you before we get started with our confession a tiny portion of teaching we had in our ministry last night. When we confess God’s Word, the Greek words literally mean to say the same thing as. We are saying, speaking the same things as God says, speaks when we speak His Word. He has given us His way of operating through the written Word that He gave to people through the Holy Sprit to write for all God’s people to speak in agreement with Him. When we are in agreement with Him, then victory comes in our lives over all that would come our way. Victory is eternal. Ecclesiastes 3:11 tells us that God has planted eternity in our hearts and minds. The Eternal Father is in the Eternal Jesus, Who is in us, with His Eternity. Therefore, we are His Eternal children. Eternal is forever, unchanging, perpetual, the very life force of God which has no beginning and no end and produces precisely Who God is in our lives on and on and on. Do you get that? If you don’t, meditate on it until you do. Look up the scriptures on eternal and meditate on them until you get it. It will change your whole attitude toward everything and anything that is going on around you on this earth. You are an eternal being, created by an eternal God and now as a born again child of God, a recreated eternal being just like your Heavenly Father.

I have declared my ways and opened myself up to You, Lord, and You have heard me. Teach me Your Word.

Thank You, Lord, that You make me to understand the way of Your Word, so shall I talk of Your wondrous works.

Strengthen me according to Your Word.

Remove from me any lying or unfaithfulness to You, Lord, and impart Your Word to me.

I have chosen the way of Your Word of Truth; Your Word of Truth is my choice in life. Your Word have I set before me.

I cleave to Your Word and I am not put to shame.

I will run in the way of Your Word when you give me a heart that is willing and obedient, a heart that is enlarged to understand Your ways through Your Word.

Teach me, Lord, the way of Your Word and I will steadfastly keep it to the end.

Give me understanding and I shall keep Your Word; yes, I shall observe it with my whole heart.

Make me to go in the path of Your Word for I delight there, in Your Word.

Incline my heart to Your Word, and not to covetousness of other things.

Turn my eyes away from beholding vain things that are contrary to Your Word and produce nothing but emptiness and quicken me, give me life, give me Your fullness, according to Your Word.

Establish Your Word to me who is devoted to reverencing and worshipping you.

Your Word is good. I turn away from reproach, fear and dread.

Behold, I long for Your Word; quicken me, give me life in Your righteousness.

Psalm 119 - Part 1

Today and the next several days we are going to take Psalm 119 and personalize it for confession. In my estimation, this is one of the best passages to confess on the Word of God and to give us the desire and the respect for God’s Word that He deserves. He has given us His Word to keep us steadfast and steady in this world in which we live. What a planner. What a God. He has given us everything we need to live a victorious, overcoming life while we are here on this earth. Let’s make our confession.

I am blessed (empowered to prosper, succeed) when I order my life in Your Word, God, which is Your will revealed to me. I am blessed when I keep Your Word and seek You with my whole heart.

As I do these things, I will walk in Your way of thinking and doing, God, because I am righteous.

Lord, You have commanded me to diligently keep Your Word and I will obey Your command.

May my ways, my life be directed to keep Your Word.

Then I will not be ashamed for not taking what I have inherited because I respect Your Word of promised inheritance. In other words, I take seriously my inheritance.

I will praise You, thank You with a right heart when I learn from Your Word how to conduct myself in Your ways and to think as You think, to think Your thoughts.

I will keep Your Word.

How shall I cleanse my way? By conforming my life to Your Word, paying attention, taking heed, being careful to hear and do Your Word.

I will seek You, Lord; I will seek Your Word with my whole heart. I will not wander, stray from Your Word.

I have hid Your Word in my heart, so that I may not sin against You.

Blessed are You, Lord. Teach me Your Word.

With my lips I declare Your Word, Your commands.

I have rejoiced in the way of Your Word as much as in all riches.

I will meditate on Your Word and honor, respect the way You do things.

I will delight myself in Your Word. I will not forget Your Word.

Deal bountifully with me that I may live. I will keep Your Word.

Open my eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of Your Word.

My heart and soul longs for Your Word.

I keep Your Word and meditate on it. Your Word is my delight and my counsel.

Quicken me, give me life according to Your Word.

Build Yourself Up

Build yourself up. When we need our physical bodies to become stronger, we are told to build ourselves up by taking vitamin and mineral supplements and by exercising, working out to strengthen our muscles and to become the healthy people we were designed to be. Today we are going to talk about working out, building ourselves up in the Lord.

In Acts 20:32 in the Amplified Bible, Paul says that He commits the brethren to God. He deposits them in His charge, entrusting them to His protection and care. Then He says that he commends them to the Word of God’s grace, to the commands and counsels and promises of His unmerited favor. Paul then states that the Word is able to build them up and give them their rightful inheritance among all God’s set-apart ones, those consecrated, purified and transformed of soul.

We can see from this scripture passage that Paul considers the Word to be the tool to build up God’s people and to show them how to partake of their rightful inheritance. That understanding of God’s provision for us is gotten as our souls (mind, will, emotions) are transformed, consecrated, purified. Our minds must be transformed by the Word of God. Our wills must be conformed to His will. Our lives must be consecrated, “sold out,” to Him. We are to allow the Holy Spirit of God to purify us, to cleanse us of those things in our fleshly beings that interfere with God’s way of doing things. When Paul said that he died daily, he meant that daily he submitted himself to the Lord to remove and keep removed those fleshly parts of his being that wanted to yield to temptation.

Of course, we know the scripture that tells us that we are cleansed with washing of the water of the Word. The Word presents a cleansing to those who will accept it. If the Spirit of the Lord shows us an area in our lives that we need to deal with, it is because He knows that it will hinder us in our walk with the Lord and in our pursuit of the destiny God has for us. Every bit of our flesh that we have not yielded to the Lord will be a stumbling block in the path that God has chosen for us to follow Him. I don’t know about you, but I am asking the Lord to keep me pure and clean before Him so that we can have intimate fellowship and enjoy our times together. But one of the most important things is that I be a pure vessel through whom He can flow to minister to those around me.

Jude 1:20, Amplified Bible tells us that we are to build ourselves up on our most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, so that we can make progress, rise like an edifice higher and higher. We are to pray much in tongues; we are to pray much in the spirit. Why? That keeps us in tune with God’s realm, with what He is doing and wants us to understand. We are on a mission and how can we carry out our mission if we don’t know the orders. And the only way we can understand what we are to do is to be tuned in to the Holy Spirit. He is our translator. He is like those translators in Christian meetings who are translating the language spoken into one that you can understand. It is only as we pray in the Spirit that we get the mind of Christ and are able to carry out our duties, carry out the orders given. And our faith will be strong in the Lord to do it.

And we see that both the Word and praying in the Spirit build us up, make us stronger and stronger. These two things will cause us to be strong, standing immovable against the antagonistic forces that may come against us. You know, a bully won’t mess with a big, strong, muscular person. He looks for the weaklings to pick on. That is exactly the way the devil is. He looks for someone he can push around and deceive, someone who will cower at the least little advance he makes toward them. We are not to be cowards huddled in a corner somewhere until the world comes to an end. No, we are to stand up tall like David did with Goliath and run toward the enemy, all the time telling him what you are going to do to him. And God will do the rest. All it took was one little stone. That stone is not what killed Goliath. It is the force with which God made the stone to hit the target of the giant’s head. David spoke what he was going to do. And God took those words and performed on David’s behalf.

It is giant slaying time in the Body of Christ. What is the giant that is breathing fire in your face? Don’t back away from him. Run with the fire of the Word of God in your mouth and slay your enemy.

VICTORY!

VICTORY!

In Romans 8:37 we are told that we are more than conquerors through Him Who loved us. Prior to verse 37, Paul gives us a list of things that can come against us and says that in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him Who loved us, Who, of course, is Christ Jesus. When tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword or accusations come, in all these things (which are works of darkness, the god of this world, satan, fanned by the flame of flesh) we are more than conquerors through Christ Jesus Who loves us.

What is a conqueror? A conqueror is someone who has defeated his enemy. The reason we are more than conquerors is that Christ Jesus defeated our enemy, thus making us more than conquerors. We are the ones who enjoy the spoils of the victory Christ purchased for us. And how do we enjoy those spoils of victory? Through Christ Jesus, Love Himself. As you and I learn to yield to the God-kind of love, whose description is in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8, we walk in victory in the midst of anything that may be thrown in our path, that may be thrust in our way.

A victor is one who has won the battle over his enemy. What the good news is to us is that satan was and is our enemy and Jesus took on our cause and defeated for us him who was our enemy. Our big brother, Jesus, stepped up between us and satan and said: I will fight their battle for them and I will defeat you. And He did just that from the Garden of Gethsemane to the whipping post to the cross to the grave to victory over satan and all his works and all his demonic forces. What a savior! What a victory! And He did it for us.

Now we have the victory; it is as if we were the ones who won the victory. Actually we become the ones who won the victory when Christ Jesus is invited into our hearts to live in us. If the victorious One is in us, then we are victorious. We must meditate on that until it becomes so much bigger, and so real to us that nothing moves us except God and His love and His Word and His victory over all things for us. Through Jesus’ victory, God has made us the ones who are in charge, the ones who are superior over our enemy, who is now considered the inferior one. We must grab hold of this and realize that we are not some little weaklings, struggling, trying to make it in this world. NO! As Philippians 4:13 reads in the Amplified Bible, “I have strength for all things in Christ Who empowers me [I am ready for anything and equal to anything through Him Who infuses inner strength into me; I am self-sufficient in Christ’s sufficiency].

Did you hear that? I am equal to anything THROUGH HIM Who infuses inner strength into me. And just a few verses down in that chapter, we are told that God will liberally supply, fully fill, take care of, abundantly give us more than enough for our every need according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus. I can hear you talking to me right now. But, Kialeen, I don’t seem to have that. Are you calling God a liar? Whether you see it right now on this earth or not, you have it because the Word says that your every need has been taken care of. If you have sickness attacking your body and it looks hopeless, you have the supply of healing and health, whether you see it presently in your physical body. If you have lack knocking at your door, you have a full supply, whether you see it presently in your finances. If you have divorce knocking at the door of your marriage, you have an abundant supply of God’s provision to bring you through to the other side, regardless of what it looks like in the natural realm. You see, we live physically in this natural realm, but we as God’s children are to abide in His spiritual realm. We are to abide under the shadow of the Almighty, whose power no foe can withstand.

We are to be more spiritually alert and aware of our Heavenly Father’s supply than we are of the earth’s lack. It takes discipline and it takes training of our minds and spirits to become like this. We have been disciplined and trained by the world to do things the world’s way. The world’s way is the opposite of God’s way. Yes, we in the church have taken on many of the things of the world’s ways, even though we may be unaware of it. For example, how do you select a pastor in your church? Do you select him or does God select him? When things get tight financially, do you cut back, or do you plant more seed? Only you can answer these questions and more that the Lord will ask you today.

Take a good look at which system you are yielding to—God’s way of victory or the world’s way of hard works by the fleshly, human pursuit. I John 5:3-5 gives us our instructions. This is the love of God—that we keep His commandments (His Word to us through His Word). And His commandments (Word) is not a burden to keep. It does not bring us oppression and grief. For whatsoever is born of God overcomes the world (and its ways of doing things) and THIS IS THE VICTORY THAT OVERCOMES THE WORLD, EVEN OUR FAITH. Do you see it? Faith is the substance, the ingredient that keeps us in victory and the victory of Jesus makes us world overcomers. We could read this verse like this: You who are born of God are victorious and conquer the world and this is the victory that has conquered the world, even your faith.

And once again, I must remind you: How does faith come? Romans 10:17 Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. If there are areas in our lives in which we are not experiencing victory, it is not because there is no victory there. It is because we don’t have the faith, the confidence, the assurance in our hearts that the Lord has already taken care of it for us. When we have that confidence, nothing moves us, regardless of how long or how short a period of time it takes to see the evidence of the victory in this natural world.

And verse 5 of 1 John 5 says that the one who overcomes the world is he that believes that Jesus is the Son of God.

A long devotion today but one to meditate on until you and I walk in victory, regardless of our circumstances or what we are facing at this very moment. We are not without a helper, a comforter, a victorious God, Who is as close as the breath of air we breathe. We all must learn to lean on Him in all our ways, and we will live a life that is infinitely beyond anything we could imagine or dream possible.

Time

TIME: when I say that word, what do you think? The Lord posed that question to me today. And I realized that I think the wrong thing when He says, TIME. Time to me is something I don’t seem to have enough of. So, as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. As long as that is my thinking regarding time, that is exactly what I will get—not enough. It is like poverty of finances. When people don’t have enough, they are reminded continually that there is not enough to go around. I found that that is the same rut I have been stuck in for quite a while in my life. That is not living by faith. Living by faith is knowing that God has given each one of us 24 hours, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, equally, and we are to spend it as He directs, not as earthly need directs. This has been an eye-opener for me. Let me give you some scriptures that I was directed to this morning.

Ecclesiastes 3:11 in the Amplified Bible tells us that God has made everything beautiful in its time and that He has planted His eternity (not time) in our hearts and minds. That means that He has planted in each of us our purpose here on this earth as He has designed and as He has determined. As we spend TIME in His presence and His Word, we will know what He has designed for the day for us to carry out that part of His plan for our lives. Each day counts, as well as each year. The deeds and thoughts and words we do or speak that day are to be determined by Him for His purpose, not by our much fretting about what is not getting done. Did you know that there are things we are doing right now that He did not plan for us to do? And those deeds, though they may be for a good cause and help someone, will not be placed to our account because He never intended for us to do them. He intended for someone else to do them. I know that those of you who are like me and see someone in need or see something needing to be done and do it, are asking this question: What if the person who is assigned to that job doesn’t do it? Who will do it? Guess what? That is God’s responsibility and not ours.

Oh, I am learning. What about you? And then in verse 14 of that chapter we read that whatever God does endures forever and cannot be added to or taken away from. It stands forever. Even so, selah, pause and meditate. Whatever we do that God directs and plans stands forever, because the Eternal God, Who is in charge of eternity has orchestrated it for us to carry out His purpose.

Two other scriptures which caught my eye are Ephesians 5:16 and Colossians 4:5, both which state basically the same thing. We are to make the most of the time, buying up each opportunity God presents to us. We are to live wisely in our relations to those in the world as we make the most of our time and buy up each opportunity. That tells me that I must access the Wisdom of God which is in me, whose name is Jesus, and find out what He has to say about my opportunities and use them wisely, like I buy material goods wisely in this world. There are God’s opportunities and there are man’s opportunities. We will make the most of our time by using God’s opportunities that He gives us in our time account and from which we buy God’s best.

Another passage that I read is in Romans 13:11-14. In verse 11 we are told that it is a critical hour (That is certainly the case right now in this world.) and that we need to wake up from slumber because the hour of final salvation, deliverance is closer than when we first believed. The night is gone and the day is almost here, so we are to cast off the works of darkness. Anything that is not of God is darkness instead of light—fear, doubt, unbelief, sickness, disease, poverty, lack, defeat, depression, failure. Even thoughts of these things brings darkness to our minds. Then we are given our instruction: PUT ON THE ARMOR OF LIGHT. Who is the Light? Jesus! And what does He do? He protects us and covers us with His Presence like armor protects a warrior.

Our next instruction is to live and conduct ourselves as children of light, honoring and reverencing our God in the midst of this crooked and perverse generation, being people of integrity, instead of people of the works of the world, the works of darkness. We can get a good list of the works of darkness in Galatians 5:19-21 and Colossians 3:8,9. We finish Romans 13 with the exhortation to put on the Lord Jesus Christ; make no provision to indulge our flesh. That is using time wisely.

Colossians 1

Today we are going to look at Paul’s prayer for the Colossians. This prayer is found in chapter 1 of Colossians and verses 9-14. Let’s look at it. It should be one of our prayers for the new year.

For this cause, we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;
That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God;
Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness;
Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light;
Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son;
In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins;

The first thing we see here is that we pray and declare that we will be filled with the knowledge of God’s will in our lives. That knowledge will come in His wisdom and spiritual understanding, which is actually comprehending God’s ways, God’s thoughts, God’s purposes. We are to pray and declare that we walk worthy of the Lord, pleasing Him and bearing fruit in every good work. We are increasing in the knowledge of God. Every day, more and more, we grow to know Him Who loves us. We are strengthened with all God’s might, power, ability so that we may exercise patience. Remember that patience in God’s realm is consistency, constancy. And we do that with joy.

We give thanks to our Father for making us able, for enabling us, to partake of our inheritance which He has given us. We declare that we receive that enabling to partake of everything He has given to us. We lay hold, lay claim to it now. We are able to partake of our inheritance and the Word is able to give it to us. This inheritance belongs to us, and no enemy is allowed to take it.

We give thanks to our Father for making the way (Jesus) for us to be delivered from the power (authority, control) of darkness and delivering us into the His Kingdom of Light, the Kingdom of His dear Son, the Son Whom He loves.

We give thanks to our Father for sending Jesus to redeem us through His blood, to forgive us of our sins. We thank Him for setting us free, giving us the liberty to walk free from sin and all its consequences such as poverty, sickness and disease, depression, lack, want, fear, etc. We give thanks.

What a set of promises these scriptures present to us. And, of course, the rest of this chapter is just as exciting as that prayer. Verses 15-23 tell us that Jesus Christ is the exact image of the Father. By Him all things were created in heaven and in earth, visible and invisible, whether they are thrones, dominions, principalities or powers. All things were created by Him and for Him. He existed before all things and by Him all things are held together. Jesus is the Head of the church and it pleased the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell. (Ephesians 1:23-----We are His body, the fullness of Him. That means that since He is dwelling in us, the fullness of God is dwelling in us. Let that sink in for a moment and it will change the way you think and act and walk on this earth. You are a powerhouse and need to wake up to that fact now. The fullness of God has chosen to dwell in you. He knew it was risky but He did it anyway.) Jesus is our peace; He has reconciled us to God. We are one with God again and are part of His family. What we have to do is to accept this sonship, this family reinstatement as a member again of God's family.

We are to continue firmly grounded in faith and settled in our understanding of what Jesus has bought and paid for us with His blood. He is in us with His anointing and that is our hope of His glory, His presence manifested in us and through us and for us. We are living in the days when we will see this demonstrated in more powerful ways than we have ever seen. Get ready. Prepare yourself. How? Spend much time with Him and His Word. Obey Him. Listen to Him.

What Is Your Problem?

As I was eating breakfast this morning, the Lord said the title of the Pearls of Wisdom today would be: What is your problem? Has anyone ever said that to you before? And when they say it, they say it in a way that is not courteous. It is like: So, what is your problem, get over it! Do you know that your Lord Jesus Christ never says that to you? What He does is present a solution to your difficulty before you even have a difficulty. The whole Bible is full of His promises for us to take to ourselves to take care of life’s challenges.

What is the most pressing need you have today? Go to His Word and find His solution and think on that. We are told in Philippians 4:5-8 that we are not to fret or have anxiety about anything in life. In every circumstance, in every situation, we are to take it to Him and thank Him for taking care of it for us. Then, the result is God’s peace ruling and reigning in our lives, taking control of our hearts and minds, taking over where there was fear and bringing complete deliverance for us out of that difficult situation. God’s peace is a result of exercising faith in Him, trusting Him to take care of things in our lives for us. True rest is a result of true faith. And where do we get true faith----from His Word to us. Remember that Romans 10:17 says that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. There is hearing and then there is hearing. We hear the Word spoken with our outer physical ear, but then there comes a time where we “h-e-a-r” the Word with our inner, spiritual ear, and we know that we know that we know that it is a done deal.

This peace we are talking about guards us like a soldier guards a fort. Then we are given further instructions in Philippians 4:8. Finally, (in other words, this is the capstone on not fretting and worrying) here is what we are to fix our minds on, stay steady on, look with a steadfast gaze upon, focus on----things which are true, honest, just, pure, lovely and of a good report. Think on the things that will bring praise and glory to God in your situation. And what is the thing that this passage is describing-----none other than the Word of God. The Word is truth; it is just (precise all the time); it is pure (free from defects); it is lovely (so full of Him and His love which makes it beautiful); it is always of a good report. To me, this sounds a whole lot like 1 Corinthians 13:4-8, especially in the Amplified Bible.

It is what we think on, what we focus on, what we dwell on that brings us the victory. And sometimes it is not always the easiest thing in our earthly, fleshly man to pull our focus away from the problem or problems we are facing. And these problems are very real here on this earth. But Jesus has a solution; He has an answer every time, even when it looks like there is no answer in the natural, as we look at the overall picture. But you can take the paintbrush of your mouth and change the scene on the canvas of your heart. The Word of God is the paint. Trade in the paint of the world for the paint of God. It will produce far more beautiful pictures.

Further on in Philippians 4, we see two things in verses 13 and 19. What promises these verses are to me and you. In the Amplified Bible verse 13 says: I have strength for all things in Christ (Remember the word Christ is the Anointed One and His anointing. And He in you with His anointing removes burdens and destroys yokes in your life.) Who empowers me [I am ready for anything and equal to anything through Him Who infuses inner strength into me; I am self-sufficient in Christ’s sufficiency]. Wow! What a verse. Look at this: I have strength (His strength---the joy of the Lord is my strength. Nehemiah 8:10. I have strength for all things in His anointing. He empowers me; He gives me His power, His strength into my inner man, and that makes me ready for anything through Him. I am totally sufficient in His sufficiency. Notice, it didn’t say in my sufficiency; it says in His sufficiency.

And verse 19, a very familiar verse, says that my God will supply liberally, fill to the full whatever I need according to HIS RICHES in GLORY. Do you suppose that would be enough to take care of the problem? His riches----now He has some riches. Whatever we need, He has the supply. And look where that supply is---IN HIS GLORY. We are hearing much talk now about His Glory. We are being prepared for His Glory like never before. We are preparing to enter into His Presence manifested in our midst. And we must prepare ourselves for that glory by spending time with Him and His Word. This is preparation time. When we are in His Presence, all problems become as nothing and fade away. He takes care of all things for us. Trust Him.

Rain

Let’s talk about rain today, the rain of the Holy Spirit, the soon-coming reign of the Lord Jesus Christ on this earth, the reign of His righteousness right now.

In order to have rain in the natural, moisture has to have formed in the clouds. I am not a scientist and don’t understand the whole process but I know that rain cannot come without prior moisture conditions being set up. Even so, with the Lord, prior conditions must be set up for the rain of His Spirit. Those prior conditions are praise and worship, spending time in His Presence adoring Him and worshipping Him for Who He is. We must have hearts that are tuned to His channel, poised for His Presence to be manifest. In the days in which we are living, this is going to be a major factor for the glory of God that is manifest in our midst. He comes where He is invited and where He is welcome. He is a Gentleman and will not come where He is not welcome.

There are so many things that can block His welcome. One of the greatest things in my life and I am sure in the lives of many of you is this thing called TIME and the busyness of the life we tend to live here in America. All of the things I do are good things but are they beneficial for my relationship with the Lord? That is the question. Keith Moore said something the other day that put me in perspective regarding my life. He said that people get angry with him sometimes because he doesn’t always minister to everyone or talk with them when they request it. He noticed in the early years of his ministry that he was exhausted all the time and he asked the Lord about it and the Lord showed him that he was not being obedient with his time. Not everyone who asked to talk with him was going to do anything about it. All they wanted to do was talk for several hours and get things “off their chest.” The Lord showed him that was a waste of his time. That was an eye-opener for me. Perhaps we all need to ask the Lord to show us where we are wasting His time on seemingly “legitimate” things related to our life and our family and job and earthly responsibilities. (You know, it is really His time that He has set up for us on this earth.)

We cannot have rain without Him. And to have Him manifest Himself, we must spend time with Him in the spirit realm, learning His ways, worshipping Him, quietly loving Him without all the cacophony of the outside noise of the world. I know that the best gift we can give the Lord this year is our own time and lives and be obedient to use it as He wisely directs.

Let it rain. Len Mink has a new CD album and on the CD is a song called Healing Rain. I love that song. That’s really what it is all about. Jesus wants us to be whole, spiritually healthy and vibrant in the spirit. Then the rest of our lives will line up. Rain is so refreshing, isn’t it. It revitalizes the plants and nurtures the flowers. We are God’s flowers that He wants to nurture, to see grow. We absolutely thrive, flourish in His Presence. America, wake up. Body of Christ, wake up. Take a look at what is important.

We will finish this Pearls today by talking about the Lord reigning in our lives. He reigns in righteousness. What does that mean? His way of thinking and doing things must be what governs our lives, not something else that we think will work. When someone or something is reigning in your life, that is the ruling force in your life, the governing force that is over all your life. When the Lord Jesus Christ is reigning in every area of our lives, we are so contented, so happy, so peaceful, so lacking in fretting and anxiety. That is our test to know whether He is reigning or not. Are we contented and peaceful or are we anxious and disturbed? If we are trusting Him with all of our lives, He is in charge and we are at rest, peacefully grazing in the meadow as all good sheep do. We are the sheep of His pasture. Glory to God. I believe that He is raining and reigning in your life and mine today.

The Believer's Authority

This year we must learn how to use the authority that God has given us in our dominion over satan and all of his demonic forces. Oh, yes, there will be challenges to your open doors this year and there will be challenges to what God wants you to do. Do you think satan is just going to sit down and say: Oh, look at them. Isn’t that nice!

But we must know who we are in Christ Jesus and walk in that knowledge. With the Holy Spirit of the living Christ in us, we are walking in a “greater than” authority. Greater is He Who is in us than he who is in the world. The Greater One in us takes care of us. With the Greater One is us, we are more than conquerors. Have you ever thought about what you are as one who is more than a conqueror? A conqueror is one who comes in and takes over the situation and controls it. A “more than conqueror” is one who enjoys the benefits of the stuff that the conqueror took over. That is the person who didn’t have to do anything but partake of the spoils of victory. Jesus won the victory. We get the prize. And that prize is called FREEDOM. He set us free from sickness and disease, sin, poverty, lack, want, doubt and unbelief, fear, death. And the list goes on.


Let’s look at Luke 10:19, a very familiar scripture for most of us. In the King James Version , Jesus said to the disciples (and to us as well);
Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing shall by any means hurt you.

That first word for power is the word exousia, a very interesting word.
It means: Having the right, authority, the freedom, permission, liberty or capability to exercise might, which is God’s ability, power, strength.

Now I want you to let that thought sink into your mind and spirit for a while. Jesus said that He was giving us His power, His ability to take care of the enemy. We have the permission, the liberty, the freedom to use God’s power as our guard. That power is the power that created the universe and created you and me. That power is the greatest power available. No wonder the last part of that verse says: And nothing shall by any means hurt you. I guess not. I don’t think anyone can mess with God’s power, ability.

So, you know what my next question is. What is our problem? Why do we bellyache and whine when things get tough and we are tackled? Why do we look at our own human ability, which amounts to nothing, when we have access to God’s ability? Do you want the answer? I thought you would. I am going to give it to you whether you want it or not. We have not been trained properly. We must train our minds, our senses to respond with God’s authority, not our own little “fix-it” possibilities. We must stay in the Word until we are so God-inside-minded that we don’t even think about what is going on around us. That is when we are so heavenly minded we are no earthly good, according to some people. Well, let me let you in on a secret; the more heavenly minded you are, the more earthly good you are because you see into situations by the Holy Spirit and take care of them ahead of time. You are on the offensive rather than the defensive, trying to catch up all the time. Wouldn’t you like to be like that?

We have been given God’s authority to use by the unction, the anointing of the Holy Spirit. If you don’t know about the authority you have been given, learn about it. Then use it properly. One thing I must say to you. This authority has not been given to you to lord it over humans. It is strictly to use for the Kingdom of God and your life over principalities and powers and rulers of darkness and wicked spirits in high, heavenly places. Remember that we are not fighting flesh and blood. I know sometimes it looks that way. No, what we are fighting are the spirits that control these people. If we know what spirits are attempting to exercise control, we can take authority over them and render them incapable of harming us.

If you need a good book to read regarding our authority, the best one I know is Bro. Hagin’s book on THE AUTHORITY OF THE BELIEVER. Yes, to those of you out there who have read it as many times as I have, it won’t hurt us to take it off the shelf and do a review.

Mayonnaise Sermons

The title of our Pearls of Wisdom today is Mayonnaise Sermons.

Now I know I have your curiosity aroused. What is she talking about? This title came as I was watching Bill Winston’s program and he was talking about his grandmother. The first time he went to his grandmother’s house when he got older, he asked her for a sandwich and when she gave it to him, it didn’t have any meat in it. It only had mayonnaise. He was used to having meat in his sandwich. I’m assuming her frugality was a carryover from the old days when meat was expensive.

Even so, if we have been used to having the meat of the word and go someplace different which is just serving a palatable sermon with no substance, we ask: Where is the meat? The meat is God’s Word given to us with instructions on how to use it. A sermon is not a matter of three points and making sure you have followed the outline you received from seminary. If the people to whom we are preaching don’t get any word or instructions on how to put into practice what they have heard, they walk away just as defeated as they came and sometimes more defeated. Why is that? It is because every person is looking for answers. And what has happened is that these people have turned to the world to get answers. The psychics, New Agers and others are happy to give them answers. They use many of God’s principles of positive confession and positive action to produce results. The only difficulty is that these results are not lasting; they are only temporal, subject to change, because they are given as an answer from the world and not from Jesus. They have to keep going to more and more seminars to keep them up and pay more and more money to stay positive as times get tougher.

This is the year to turn that situation around. People are hungry. I am used to meat and consider my time too valuable now to go back to baby food. If you have been used to eating steak, baby food pureed from a jar is not too satisfying.

What is the meat of the word? The meat of the Word of God is the understanding and wisdom we get from His scriptures to apply to our everyday life and get results. It is the application of the Word in our lives so that we may mature in the things of the Lord, so that we will be adults and not tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine. The Word of God is our stabilizer in crisis, our shelter when the storms of life hit, our tool to bring deliberate, planned victory over our enemy, satan. He has strategies. So must we have strategies, developed by the Word of God.

What are some of the things we can do to grow up, to sink our teeth into the steak of God’s Word? The first thing we need to do is to position ourselves under ministries that teach and preach the uncompromised Word of God. Then, we must take what they are preaching and meditate on it, confess the Word, until it becomes reality in our spirit man and our mind. You see, our spirit man and our mind must be in agreement with the Holy Spirit of God and His Word. It is our responsibility to chew on that Word until it becomes a part of us to the point that no one can talk us out of it. Read the Word of God, confess the Word of God, study the Word of God, meditate on the Word of God. Spend time quietly in God’s presence and allow Him to teach you what His Word means. Worship Him. Praise Him. Have a heart of gratitude toward Him for what He has done for you and me.

I was reading Psalm 119 this morning and looking at how David valued the Word of God for his life. That is what we must do. Here are some of the things he said. He wanted his ways directed by the Word. He asked the Lord to teach him His Word. He asked the Lord to open the eyes of his understanding to be able to behold the wondrous things in God’s Word. He asked the Lord to quicken him, give him life according to His Word. David said that he would rejoice in the Word and meditate in it and delight himself in it so that he would not forget the Word. He said that he had chosen the way of the Word. He asked God to establish His Word in David’s heart. He praises the Lord for dealing well with him according to His Word and talks to the Lord about how good He is and the good things He does. David asks for God’s mercy and kindness to be his comfort. He wants his heart established in God’s Word. He considers God faithful to His Word and that His Word is David’s heritage. Study this psalm yourself and confess what David did.

Agape Love

I was in the store today looking at all the Valentine gifts and cards already put out for February 14th and of course thought about love. It is special that a day is specifically set aside to celebrate love, but it is sad that a special day has to be set aside to remind people to do something for the one they love.

I am very blessed to have a husband who tells me he loves me every day many times. Of course, I tell him I love him many times also during the day. My son and I sign off our telephone conversations with, I love you. I tell Jesus I love Him and He tells me He loves me.

The point I am making here is that we as Christians should not need any special day or reminder to tell the Lord we love Him, and to tell our loved ones we love them. And the love I am talking about here the world knows nothing about. It is agape love or God’s love, which should be the foundation for all our other love. In John 17: 23 and 26 we are told by Jesus that the Heavenly Father loves us as He does Jesus and He has placed that same love in us. In Romans 5:5 we are told that the love of God has been shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. Isn’t that awesome! We have the same capacity to love that God does after we are born again because He comes into our spirits to dwell. What a wonderful knowledge that is to have. You and I can love as our Heavenly Father, as Jesus loves. So, the next time you make an excuse that you can’t love that person, stop and think: Wait a minute; God has given me His love with which to love that person.

And, of course, if you have been around me very long, you know that the love of the Lord is always uppermost in my thoughts and in my speech and in my preaching and in my teaching. As a friend of mine says: Kialeen always gets love into the teaching somewhere before the night is over. And she is correct. It is an unconscious thing for me.

I tell you, you do have the ability to love beyond what you have ever imagined because residing in you is God’s ability to love. And remember what the characteristics of God’s love are (1 Corinthians 13:4-8 Amplified Bible)

Human love will fail you every time, but God’s love never fails. Human love looks for accolades, for returned love. God’s love looks for nothing in return. God’s love just gives because it can’t do anything else. When we are operating by God’s love standards, we can’t wait to do something for our enemies; that’s how great and overflowing His love is. So if you want to know whether you are operating by human love or God’s love. There’s the test. Are you wanting to do things for those who hate you and persecute you without forcing yourself to do it because you are expected to do it? We need to meditate on the love scriptures until that becomes a reality in our lives. I know I am not there yet but I am getting closer every day. How about you?

Humans say they love all kinds of things and attach the same word to it. I love your new house. I love that food. I love my cat. I love my new job. I love my husband. In other languages there are different words for love, depending on what it is you are talking about. God’s love, agape, is the highest form of love, the purest form of love. It has no strings attached.

You have deposited in you (if you are born again) as you read this message, the love of God, agape love. That means that you are patient and kind. You are not envious or jealous or boastful or inflated with pride. You are not rude or unmannerly. You do not insist on your own rights. You are not touchy, fretful, or resentful. You take no account of the evil done to you; you pay no attention to a suffered wrong. You do not rejoice at injustice but you rejoice when truth prevails. You bear up under anything. You are always ready to believe the best of every person. Your hope never fades under any circumstance. You endure all things without weakening. God’s love in you causes you never to fail. You keep on playing until you win.

Now, that is what is in you. You don’t have to strain to make it work. All you have to do is yield to the Holy Spirit instead of your flesh. The yielding to the spirit will be a task at first because your flesh has been used to doing what it wants to do. But each time you practice yielding to the Holy Spirit in your spirit, rather than allowing your flesh to win, you are coming up another notch. Practice makes perfect. And in this world today we have plenty of opportunities to practice. Let’s make a decision that 2007 is our year to walk in God’s love and not our own fleshly, human love. It is a much easier and restful life.

Change

There has been a lot of change in our church this past year, and I as an individual do not like change. My son says that the only constant in life is change. And I began to pray and ask God about change. Why am I so sad when change comes? Is it a weakness in me or is it part of the human nature?

The Lord showed me some things that I will pass on to you this morning. In this world, on this earth, change is inevitable because this whole system is temporal, subject to change. BUT, in the Lord Jesus Christ, God Almighty, everything is eternal, not subject to change, stable, constant, consistent. In Malachi 3:6 we are told: I am the Lord, I change not. In Hebrews 13:8 we are told that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. In 1 Peter 1:23 we are told that the Word of God lives and abides forever.

When we are involved in change in this world and it bothers us, we must go to the Word of God, which is eternal, wrap ourselves in the scriptures, and immerse ourselves in the Lord Jesus Christ. Take on the unchanging, never-ending eternal One and allow Him to move you through the change gracefully and without harm.

We all encounter changes as we live on this earth—loved ones and friends graduate to heaven, people whom we grow to love and appreciate and enjoy in our lives move on, jobs change, even our human body changes as we get older. Change, as I see it, is a consequence of the fall of man. The good news is that when we are born again and accept Jesus as the One in charge of our lives, He comes with His unchangeableness and wraps us in His eternal arms of love. He stands with us and shows us how to go through anything with grace and dignity and come through without being all torn up emotionally. We have to watch our emotions or they will rule us when change comes. We are not to be ruled by our emotions. Rather we are to be guided and directed by the Holy Spirit of God, even in the midst of change.

In the Lord Jesus Christ, here on this earth there is some change which is good. We get born again and leave our old sinful life behind. We become knowledgeable of the Word of God and He conforms us to His image. And the best change I like to talk about is found in 2 Corinthians 3:18
But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. (KJV) And all of us, as with unveiled face, [because we] continued to behold [in the Word of God] as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are constantly being transfigured into His very own image in ever increasing splendor and from one degree of glory to another; [for this comes] from the Lord [Who is] the Spirit. (Amplified Bible)

We see in this scripture that as we continue to look into the Word of God, we will be constantly changed into His very own image from one degree of glory to another. In other words, we will become more like Him every day as we continue to look in His Word. That is the challenge for all of us. When change comes that we don’t like, we tend to become very involved emotionally instead of turning to the Lord and His Word and thanking Him for watching over us during that time. Sometimes our greatest enemy here on this earth is our emotions, which are part of our soul. If we are controlled by our emotions, then we will be in satan’s domain and he will whip us around all over the place.

I can be a very emotional person because I am very intense. But the Lord Jesus Christ tells all of us to stand steady in Him, to yield to the Holy Spirit and not allow our emotional natures to be the dominant force in our lives. When we yield to the Holy Spirit, He calms us and makes us stable, even in the most difficult situations or circumstances.

We must be determined this year to stay close to Him and His Word. If we are used to doing that, when change comes; when challenges arise; when situations get out of hand, we will have already been used to responding with the Word of God and surrounding ourselves with His presence to absorb the shock of whatever we are facing. I hope this doesn’t sound too earthly, but Jesus and His Word is our shock absorber in life. Let Him take care of it.

The Vine & Fruit

In John 15:1-16 Jesus is talking about Himself being the vine and us being the branches that come off from the vine Jesus and produce fruit. He tells us that our Heavenly Father is the Vinedresser Who prunes us that we may bear much rich and excellent fruit. Some people misinterpret these verses and think of them as portraying painful and terrible things happening to us to prune us and purge us.

We see immediately in verse 3 that it is the Word of God that does the shaping and pruning in us and for us. So what does that say to you? Stay in the Word of God all the time and let the Word do the work by the power of the Holy Spirit. You and I do not have to prune ourselves or produce the fruit ourselves. It is the work of the Holy Spirit through the Word of God being revealed to us so that we may yield ourselves to Him. When something comes our way to check our fruit, we must yield our flesh to the Holy Spirit.

My father used to have an apple orchard and you know not once did I ever hear a tree groaning to produce fruit or worrying about what was going to happen to the fruit. My father, the vinedresser, fertilized and pruned and took care of the trees so that they would produce maximum fruit without compromising the quality of the fruit.

Our Heavenly Father does the same thing with us. He helps us to produce the best fruit for others to taste and see that the Lord is good.

You will notice that these verses address the commandment of love. We are to love one another as Jesus has loved us. We are to obey His commandment of love, not considering ourselves, but rather considering others before ourselves.

He has chosen us; we haven’t chosen Him and when we allow the fruit to come forth as a result of His abiding Word, we shall ask what we will and it shall be done for us; there will be fullness of joy, which is His joy in us bubbling over. Remember that joy and love are fruit of the spirit.

Actually, we all know from Galatians 5:22 that all the fruit of the spirit come from love, Who is God—God is love. The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. When the fruit of the spirit is operating in our lives, there is nothing that can be brought against us as a charge. There is no higher law. No other law can supersede the law of the fruit of the spirit. Why is that? Let me repeat what I said in the beginning of the paragraph. God is love and out of love come all the other fruit. Different translations of the Bible name some of the fruit another name other than what I have just quoted from the King James Bible. For example, some translations name the fruit of faithfulness, rather than faith. It is my understanding that according to the Greek, faithfulness is a better translation of that fruit. And some translations say patience, instead of longsuffering, etc.

What we must understand is that we cannot produce this fruit on our own. We can strain and try hard and determine that we will be joyful and walk in love and have peace and be gentle, but there will always be situations which will tempt our flesh to react. Without the power and presence of the Holy Spirit, we will fail miserably. There is always a situation that will cause a reaction from your flesh if you try to do it on your own. Yield, yield, yield, yield to the Holy Spirit on purpose when you see something coming that you know you are going to “blow your stack” on this one.
We have the fruit in our spirit when we get born again. What we must do is practice yielding to the Lord in every situation we encounter. These fruit are forces that will push away the opposite. Love will push away hatred and fear. Joy will push away depression. Peace will push away strife. Patience will push away inconsistency and impatience. Gentleness will push away harshness. Goodness will push away ungodliness. Faithfulness or faith will push away fear. Meekness will push away pride. And temperance will push away lack of control. But this is all by the power of the Holy Spirit. Enjoy your life and let Him do the work. It is so much easier that way.

Choose Life

In Deuteronomy 30:15 and 16 and then in verses 19 and 20, we find very specific directions for living our lives in the Lord Jesus Christ. Although this is Old Testament, it is God’s heart and nature we are talking about here.

In verse 15, we are told that the Lord has set before us life and good or death and evil. It is obvious that we can choose either. He has set them before us for our choice. Then in verse 16 we are told that we are commanded to love the Lord our God, to walk in His ways and to keep His commandments and His statues and His ordinances. When we do this, we will live and multiply and the Lord our God will bless us in the land into which we go to possess. What is the land you need to possess this year, 2007? Here are your instructions on how to possess it. Choose the Lord with His life and good. Love Him; obey Him; walk in His ways and keep His commandments. The result: Life and abundance and The Blessing in the land in which we go to possess. Notice it indicates we will possess that land when we do what He asks us to do.

Then it is even stronger in verses 19 and 20 of chapter 30 of Deuteronomy.
The Lord calls heaven and earth to record this day: He has set before us life and death, blessing and cursing. Of course, we are to choose life and the blessing. Then look at what the result is:
You and your seed (children, grandchildren, etc.) shall live, and love the Lord God and obey His voice and cling to (abide in) Him. For the Lord God is our life and length of days.

I have read these two scriptures many times and quoted them for my life. It was only yesterday during my time with Him that I noticed that verse 20 is a consequence of verse 19. Look at it. What a promise. When you and I choose the Life of God, when we choose to bless, we receive life for us and our seed. We receive the ability to love God and obey Him and abide in Him. We cannot do this on our own. It takes His ability to love and obey and abide.

What wonderful promises to dwell on for our new year. I don’t know about you, but that is pretty exciting for me, because my heart’s desire is to love Him and obey Him and abide in Him. That’s why Jesus told us to bless those who persecute us and pray for them. Because as we choose blessing for others and not curses, we are choosing blessing for ourselves, the blessing of the Lord.

What a wonderful opportunity to walk in all that the Lord has for us. We will possess the land for which we are praying if we will choose Life. Of course, when we choose Life, we are choosing the Lord and all that He is for us. What is the land for which you are praying? Is it health? Is it financial security? Is it the salvation of family and loved ones and friends? Is it the revival for your region or church? Is it the joyful fulfillment of your marriage? What is it that you desire? Seek the Lord and His Life and His Life will bring Life to those dead situations. His Life is eternal, never changing, never deviating, always the same. His Life is full of all good things. His Life is full of all that you need to bring revival to any situation or person. Focusing on Him means focusing on His Life and His Love and His Light. God is Love. God is Light. God is the Light of the world. He is the Life of our very being, our very existence. He speaks and Life flows. Even so, when we are full of Him, we speak and Life flows. We must see ourselves as His children who operate the same way that our Father operates.

My determined purpose this year is to KNOW HIM and the POWER of HIS RESURRECTION. (Philippians 3:10) His resurrection represents bringing life to dead situations.

Let’s make a commitment that we will be life givers this year to situations and people who need the Life of God revived in them again or brought anew and fresh. Either way, we are carriers of the Life of God. What are we doing with His Life in us?

The Word Made Flesh

Today we are going to talk about the Word to start our new year. I know you know the Word, but what better way to start the year. Before we do that, let’s take a look at a prophetic word by Kenneth Copeland at the Eagle Mountain New Year’s Eve service. Since I take shorthand, I got most of it. It is not necessarily word for word toward the end but fairly close for content.

Kenneth Copeland Prophecy 12/31/06
New Year’s Eve Service

As you’ve known it in the past is over forever. We stand on the threshold of an adventure that is beyond all human imagination. For this is the time that the Lord has prepared. This is where the Garden of Eden was headed all the time. This is the place that the Lord God has established in His blessing and in His power and in His mercy and His goodness. So rejoice in the Lord. Know that it is so close—not the end—no, the beginning is so close—it is at hand and in preparing in these final moments and the grand beginning of the glory of God forevermore and the time I promised I would put satan in his place and remove him from human contact. And we are so close, so close, so close. And before the end of the year you will think this really must be it because this year is going to be so glorious and so wonderful. It is the work of the Lord and it will be marvelous in your eyes.

Now, let’s look at the word of God. Psalm 33:6 & 9 tell us that the heavens and all that there is came into existence by the breath, the Word of God. He spoke and it was done. He commanded and it stood fast.

Then we see in Psalm 34:15 that God’s ears are listening for our cry, proclamation, declaration of His language, His Word, His voice of faith, the language of His Kingdom. He respects faith. God loves to hear what He says. He’s listening for His Word spoken. He listening for our speaking His Word, our worship, our praise.

Then, of course, we must talk about John 1:1-4. Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh, the Word of God, the eternal One, made everything. Christ, the Anointed One and His anointing, is called the Word of God. He is eternal—unchanging, forever, never deviating, the same, producing the same, consistent results.

Listen to it in the KJV, Amplified Bible and then in the New Living Translation.
KJV
John 1:1-4
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. [2] The same was in the beginning with God. [3] All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. [4] In him was life; and the life was the light of men.

Amplified
In the beginning [before all time] was the Word (Christ) and the Word was with God and the Word was God Himself. He was present originally with God. All things were made and came into existence through Him; and without Him was not even one thing made that has come into being. In Him was Life and the Life was the Light of Men.

New Living Translation
In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. He existed in the beginning with God. God created everything through him, and nothing was created except through him. The Word gave life to everything that was created* (nothing that was created was created except through him. The Word gave life to everything.) and his life brought light to everyone.

The Word of God Himself created everything so everything responds to the Word. That is why it is so important in 2007 to continually dwell in, abide in, speak, confess, meditate, study the Word of God. It is our very substance of existence, of protection, of prosperity, of health, of life itself.

Happy New Year

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

It’s 2007, and what a year it is going to be. All the prophecies of the ministers of God are for a powerful year. At the Eagle Mountain New Year’s Eve Service, Kenneth Copeland had a powerful prophecy. Since I take shorthand, I got most of it and will probably send it to you tomorrow as the Pearls of Wisdom, just because it is so powerful a word. You might also want to go back to his prophecy for 2007 which he gave in November at the Victory Campaign at Hylton Chapel.

This is a year for the fullness of the glory of God to be manifested to sweep thousands, yes, even millions into the Kingdom of God. Jesus is coming and it is much sooner than anyone thinks.

I have been given several key words for the year which I am passing on to you. Ponder them and get scriptures for them so that you will be prepared for what the Lord wants to do.

The key words are: TRUST, KNOW, POWER, GRATEFUL, THANKFUL.

Do you remember the hymn about trusting Jesus? Jesus, Jesus, how I trust you. O for grace to trust you more. That is my prayer this year. That should be the prayer on every one of our lips. I trust You, Lord, with everything I am and have. I trust You.

I want to know Him intimately as my Father, my Savior, my soon-coming King, my Lord, my everything. Meditate on Philippians 3:10, especially in the Amplified Bible. And, of course, focus on the Ephesians prayers in the first and third chapter.

As a result of knowing Him, His resurrection power, Who is the Holy Spirit Who is resident in us, will be manifest in us and through us for the world to come to know Him as we do. We must prepare for His power just like we prepare for a wedding or a new baby. Nothing happens in your life with God without preparation and knowledge. We must prepare for His coming; we must prepare for His Glory; we must prepare an habitation for His presence. I can hear some people right now. What if He doesn’t come in my lifetime? What if this is all more of the same? What if it is much longer than we think? Well, what if it is? But, then, on the other hand, what if it is sooner than we think? What if it does happen in our lifetime? And since when does knowing the Lord God become a waste of time?

And the other two key words are the words, grateful and thankful. We as a people must learn to be grateful and thankful every day from the time we get up in the morning until we go to bed at night.

2007 is the year of the open door. Jesus said that He is the door. See open doors for your life. The main open door is the open door into the victory of Jesus. There are also doors that are not good for us that God is going to close. He also will provide doors of escape from that which is bad.

This is the year that living by love and living by faith will put us in the zone of victory where the evil one touches us not.

Prepare, get ready and live in the victory the Lord has prepared for us this year and every year.

We are in the year; now let’s make the most of it by staying in His Presence so we can be led by Him instead of by our own flesh and its contrary thoughts, ideas and actions. This will be the ride of your life and you will enjoy every minute of it. PREPARE!!!!!!