Are You Afraid of Abundance?

Out of God’s word comes an understanding of abundance, of the abundant life. You know, most people are afraid of abundance because they think others will talk about them and point fingers at them and declare that they are greedy and hoarders and don’t care about the poor. God is a God of abundance. He doesn’t know what lack means. He only knows multiplication and increase. He will increase you more and more, you and your children, if you will allow Him to do so.

I have heard so many people give so many reasons to justify their lack in various areas of their lives. I have done the same thing sometimes. In fact, I have had to look at choke points in my life and ask God to help me to address these points of backing off from what He has for me and my family and the ministry He has given me. There are many things God cannot do in our lives if we are not willing to be a place of increase, a place where He can deposit the fullness of His Life. Many people are praying for more power and for more anointing. It’s here. He is here. All the power, all the anointing, all the fullness we need is right here with us. He is called the Holy Spirit, the member of the Godhead Who is here now to deposit the fullness of God in us.

Jesus Himself told us in John 10:10 that He had come that we might have and enjoy life, have it in abundance, to the full, until it overflows. May I ask you a question today? Are you overflowing? How about it? Are you overflowing in your finances? Are you overflowing with health? Are you overflowing in your soul? Are your emotions, mind and will overflowing with God’s perfection? If not, why not? Jesus told us that He came to give us abundance.

The 1828 Dictionary definition of abundance is this: great plenty; an overflowing quantity; fullness; abounding. Fullness is the state of being filled, so as to leave no part vacant; the state of abounding or being in great plenty; abundance; completeness; the state of a thing in which nothing is wanted; perfection.

To me abundance is a full supply, a never-ending fountain of God’s Blessing flowing to me, in me and through me to others. The Blessing of the Lord, it makes rich and He adds no sorrow with it (Proverbs 10:22). God’s abundance is His Blessing flowing for all of us as human beings to partake of by becoming His children through accepting Jesus as our Savior.

I once heard a minister friend of mine say this: If people only knew what God had for them, they would run to the altar without hesitation. But there is an enemy called satan in this world. He has a job to do and it is this: he continually convinces people that God is not real, and even if He is real, He doesn’t care about them. Or in the case of Christians, it goes like this: God is real; He does care for you, but there are certain things that He allows to keep you humble on this earth. And, of course, these things may involve hardships and suffering, but you must bear with it, because it will be worth it all when we get to heaven. That is a mentality that God never authored. His enemy authored that mentality.

God is not a man that He should lie. He doesn’t speak two ways. On the one hand, He gives, but on the other hand, He takes it away because you can’t handle it. Phooey! God is a giver. Every good and every perfect gift comes down from the Father of lights, with Whom there is no variableness neither shadow of turning (James 1:17). God is not fickle. He is accurate, orderly and precise. He says what He means and He means what He says. If Jesus as the Son of God says that He has come that we might have and enjoy life to the abundance until it overflows, then that is what we are supposed to have. If we have anything less, it not His fault. There is something in us that is stopping the flow. What we need to do is ask God to reveal the clogs in our lives so that He can remove them.

We have a sink in our bathroom that gets severely clogged sometimes because of stuff I put on my face and wash off and it goes down the drain. Over a period of time the drain gets more and more clogged, until there is just a trickle flowing down the drain, and it takes what seems like forever to drain. Our spirits are like that. Sometimes we have allowed “stuff” to go into us. “Stuff” is fear, doubt, unbelief, religion, tradition of men, and yes, sin, to clog our pipe. The greatest sin is fear because fear activates satan’s realm like faith activates God’s Kingdom. And we all know that the solution to fear is love, God’s perfected Love, which casts out, flushes out fear.

We are complete in Him (Colossians 2:10). Of His fullness have we all received (John 1:16). He has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3,4). Jesus has come and given us abundant life (John 10:10). We have been given an abundance of grace (Romans 5:17). God shows us the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus (Ephesians 2:7). This is all ours. What we must understand is that our life is not to revolve around or focus on an abundance of riches on this earth (Luke 12:15). We focus on God. The fullness all comes from God. He is our source. It is His to give to us. He delights in blessing His children. His fullness fills all in all (Ephesians 1:23). We are to be filled with the fullness of God and come to the stature of the fullness of Christ (Ephesians3:19; 4:13). In Jesus Christ all fullness dwells; in Him dwells the fullness of the Godhead (Colossians 1:19; 2:9).

Don’t be afraid of increase and abundance. It all comes from God. Let Him manage it for you. He is a delightful manager of our accounts. It is His to give us and it is ours to enjoy. He will teach us stewardship and make us good stewards of His accounts. Remember the story of the talents. Those who were given, were expected to increase. The one who did not use what he had been given was cast away. God is a God of multiplication. Increase and multiplication is ever on His mind. It is called a Garden of Eden mentality. God’s first words to His man were: Fruitful be, multiply, fill up the earth, subdue it and have dominion over every living creature that moves on the earth. That is The Blessing. That is God placing Himself in you and me with His multiplication factor, His increase ability, His fruitfulness. We will talk more about this next time.

Salvation - The Expresssion of God's Love

Salvation is the expression of God’s love for us. God Himself is Love. The Word, God, is love expressed to me, His child. The Bible is my Father’s Love letter to me, telling me how Love Himself thinks and believes and acts. Every word is an expression of Love Himself, not only for encouragement and uplifting but also for correction.

The scripture that all of us is familiar with is John 3:16. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. I love the way this verse reads in the Amplified Bible. Listen---For God so greatly loved and dearly prized the world that He [even] gave up His only begotten (unique) Son, so that whoever believes in (trusts in, clings to, relies on) Him shall not perish (come to destruction, be lost) but have eternal (everlasting) life. Don’t you love that translation!

My God so dearly prized me, so greatly loved me that He gave Jesus, His only begotten Son at that point, to rescue me and restore me to the family, to the household of God my Father. My Father had one thing on His mind from the fall of Adam in the Garden of Eden. He wanted His family back. He wanted His household restored. Restoration was on His heart and mind. His heart was beating with reconciliation. He wanted His children back home.

I love the Lord. He courted me and wooed me when I didn’t even know Him. He protected me. He watched over me. He hovered over me as the Holy Spirit until Christ was formed in me.

We know what Jesus Christ did for us. He bore our sins in His Body. He bore our sickness and diseases and carried our sorrows and pains. He became sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. He became poor that we might become rich. My big brother took my place so that I could go free of all the curse that had been placed on me, the weight of sin and its consequences, with death being the ultimate result.

If there is one thing that every one of us must realize, it is this: Jesus Christ loves us. Our dear Heavenly Father loves us. Jesus told us in John that the same love with which the Father loved Him was the love that the Father loved us with (John 17:23). Jesus also told us that the same love of the Father was in us (John 17:26). His love has been shed abroad, poured forth in our hearts by the Holy Spirit (Romans 5:5).

And anyone who has studied the word salvation knows that it is not limited, as so many have limited it, to the born again experience. Being born again, becoming God’s child once again, gives us access to all the benefits of the heavenly household. Those benefits are all inclusive. We have access to health, wealth, safety, prosperity, well-being, marriages that are like days of heaven on earth, lives that are full to overflowing with the goodness of the Lord, children who are disciples taught of the Lord and obedient to His will, whose peace and prosperity is great, and best of all, a restored intimacy with our Lord God. We have the permission to come boldly before His throne. He is our papa.

What a wonderful day it was when Jesus became flesh and dwelt among us. No wonder the angels couldn’t stand it; they had to burst forth in song to those shepherds who were watching their flocks the night Jesus burst into the envelope of this atmosphere, split the heavens wide open. The angels were excited. Glory to God in the highest, they proclaimed. They were ecstatic. They could not contain themselves. The angel of the Lord appeared to the shepherds and told them to fear not but to rejoice because he was bringing good tidings of great joy to all people. When He told the shepherds that this day a Savior which is Christ the Lord is born in the city of David, suddenly the multitude of angels, the heavenly host started praising God. They could not contain themselves any longer. They had waited for this. Now the time was here. They proclaimed: GLORY TO GOD IN THE HIGHEST AND ON EARTH PEACE, GOOD WILL TOWARD MEN. They were saying: He is here. The Savior is here. The One who will bring salvation is here at last. The Savior is here. What excitement there must have been in heaven.

He is here. And He wants to reign in our hearts and be the Lord over our lives. The Savior, the Lord of Lords and the King of kings is here. And He reigns forevermore, forever and ever. Shake off those grave cloths of the earth and those situations that have held you captive to the plots and schemes of satan. Shake off that doubt and unbelief. Turn loose of that fear, and start rejoicing. The Savior reigns in your heart and life. He has come and He has brought salvation with Him. Rejoice! Lift up your heads and your hands in adoration to the Lord. He has come. The Word has come and is resident once again in the earth in our hearts. The Word of God is alive. He is alive in our hearts.

Release the praise and the worship that is in your hearts tonight. Lift up your hands in adoration to the One Who loves you dearly. Let Him enclose you in His beauty, His nature, His Love and desire for you. Let Him do what He loves to do best----take care of you, set you free to The Blessing of Father’s household. Enjoy Him!

Kindness and Goodness

Last night I ministered on the fruit of the spirit in our ministry meeting and was impressed by the Lord to speak about two of the fruit of the spirit that are very apropos for this Christmas season----gentleness or kindness and goodness.

The fruit of the spirit is a heavenly product. It is born into your spirit when you are born again. You are filled with the fruit of the spirit by faith. They are forces of the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Love. Love Himself is the container of the fruit and the developer of it. Love is the fruit bowl that is filled with all the fruit. And in you is Love Himself, God Himself with His nature, which is defined as the fruit of the spirit.

Gentleness is kindness, not harshness or roughness. It is what people see in us as Believers. In Ephesians 2:7 we are told that God shows kindness or goodness of heart to us. Let’s look at this verse in context of the ones around it. God’s goodness or kindness was demonstrated to us throughout all eternity by His seeing us alive with Christ Jesus when He was raised from the dead, by His giving us the opportunity to be saved. He chose to see us as being joint heirs with Jesus as His children. What an act of kindness and goodness. This is our eternal example of kindness and goodness.

Listen to this from the Amplified Bible, verses 4-7. But God----so rich is He in His mercy! Because and in order to satisfy the great and wonderful and intense love with which He loved us, even when we were dead (slain) by [our own] shortcomings and trespasses, He made us alive together in fellowship and in union with Christ; [He gave us the very life of Christ Himself, the same new life with which He quickened Him, for] it is by grace (His favor and mercy which you did not deserve) that you are saved (delivered from judgment and made partakers of Christ’s salvation). And He raised us up together with Him and made us sit down together [giving us joint seating with Him] in the heavenly sphere [by virtue of our being] in Christ Jesus (the Messiah, the Anointed One. He did this that He might clearly demonstrate through the ages to come the immeasurable (limitless, surpassing) riches of His free grace (His unmerited favor) in [His] kindness and goodness of heart toward us in Christ Jesus.

There are many verses we could share on kindness. Let’s just look at some of them. In 1 Thessalonians 2:7 we are told to be gentle as a nursing mother who cherishes her children. In 2 Timothy 2:24 we are told that the servant of the Lord must be gentle. In James 3:17 we read that God’s wisdom which is from above is peaceable and gentle. In Titus 3:2 we are instructed to be gentle toward everybody. In Proverbs 16:24 and 31:26 we see that pleasant words are nourishment to our bodies and that we are to put the law of kindness on our tongues. And do you know where that law of kindness should start? It should start in our homes with one another, husbands and wives, parents and children. It should go to our neighbors and then to strangers. What about the way we act in stores during this season of the year? Are we pleasant in spite of the stress and busyness of our lives or can anyone even tell the difference between us and the people of the world? Let’s purpose to yield to the Holy Spirit and His fruit in our lives and be a demonstration of Jesus to the shoppers, to the clerks, to everyone around us.

And what about goodness? Goodness goes with kindness or gentleness. People see kindness in us and the goodness that is a result of that kindness. Goodness is being morally sound and excellent. It is being people of integrity who do what is right and can be trusted.

In Luke 6;35 we are told that God is good. He is good to the ungrateful, unthankful, selfish, evil or wicked. That takes a lot. How many ungrateful, unthankful and selfish people have you been kind to and good to lately? That’s a stretch for many of us. James 4:17 tells us that to him who knows to do good and does it not, to him it is sin.

In Romans 2:4 we hear a familiar verse: The goodness of God leads men to repentance. But what about the first part of that verse? Read it in the Amplified Bible. Or are you [so blind as to] trifle with and presume upon and despise and underestimate the wealth of His kindness and forbearance and long-suffering patience? Are you unmindful or actually ignorant [of the fact] that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repent) to change your mind and inner man to accept God’s will)? I believe we all need to take a good look at ourselves and ask the question---have I been taking God’s kindness and goodness for granted?

In Romans 15:14 we see a verse that we need to confess over ourselves, as Paul was speaking over the people here. I am persuaded that I am full of goodness, rich in goodness….

During this holiday season, this upcoming month of December, let’s focus on Jesus and the fruit of the spirit that has been deposited in us at the new birth, when we accepted all that the Lord has done for us. The development of the fruit of the spirit is not an option if we are to operate in the fullness of the Lord while we are here on this earth. It has been a neglected subject that needs to be addressed because it is the very power of God in operation.

The Word of God is Forever Settled

Kenneth W. Hagin has a series entitled, Healing, A Forever-Settled Subject. As I was eating my breakfast this morning, I was thinking about that series and translated it into a broader subject. God’s Word is a forever-settled subject. This statement should be true for every member of the Body of Christ. God’s Word is the first, middle and final answer to any area of our lives. In fact, as most of us know, Psalm 119:89 tells us this: For ever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven.

When something is settled in my mind and heart, that means it is established, taken care of, a done deal. That’s it---no more need to discuss it any further. And that is the way we should be concerning God’s Word in our lives. When we see it in the Book, that settles it; it is ours. We receive it. Actually that word “receive” in Mark 11 means to take, to seize. We take God’s Word; we seize God’s Word. His Word has been given to us. It is ours. He sent His Word to us and healed us and delivered us, released us, rescued us from destructions (Psalm 107:20). It is up to us to take it as ours.

And some of you are saying to me: But, there are giants in the land. As I used to say to my son when he was small, SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Didn’t Father say that He would take care of the giants? Wherever there is a promised land, there are giants. They are the agents of antichrist, the demonic forces of satan, who are there to attempt to prevent us from entering. Notice that I use the word “attempt.” That is all they can do. If we cave in or cower or quit in the face of opposition, then we don’t have the Word of God settled in our minds and hearts.

When I see something in God’s Word and grasp it to myself as mine, no one can take it. It is mine forever. Well, how long will it take to see it manifest in the natural? As long as it takes for me to accept it as done in my life. It always starts on the inside, in our spirits and comes to the outside and affects the outside world, which must submit to the requirements of the Word of God.

God’s Word is the ultimate Word. His Word trumps all other word. The rage today in the world seems to be poker. I don’t know anything about it except trump. There are certain cards that trump others. Well, God’s Word trumps the bad report of the doctor, the bad report of your children not following the Lord, the bad report of your marriage going “down the tube,” the bad report of your financial debts. Whatever the bad report, God’s Word trumps it. His Word is the winning hand every time. There are no losses where His Word is concerned.

The losses where His Word is concerned involve our inability to believe we receive. What is the remedy for that? Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God (Rom. 10:17), and faith works by love (Gal. 5:6) and faith without works is dead (James 2:17). We must hear the Word of God every day with our physical ears tuned to those ministers who teach and preach the Word of God accurately. We must confess that Word of God for ourselves daily so that we are hearing the Word. Then our spiritual ears will tune in to that Word and revelation of that Word comes to us personally; in other words, the Word of God becomes the Truth for us, is revealed to us as true, and powerful for us personally. When that happens, we must act on the Truth that has been revealed to us.

Let’s take healing for example. Listen to accurate teaching and preaching on healing through MP3 downloads, CD’s, DVD’s, television, radio, internet. Confess the Word of God on healing. Keep on doing it consistently and faithfully. There will come a time when you say: Yes, I see that, and the Word of God on healing is more real to you than the symptoms that may be raging in your body. Nobody can convince you otherwise. You are healed. There may not be one little piece of evidence in your body that you are healed. But you know that you know that you know that Word is true for you. Revelation means that the Word of God has come alive in your heart and mind. It is a forever-settled Word for you personally. Then God has something to work with. He has the reality of the Word in your heart and mind to work with. And the healing in the physical body comes. It may be gradual or all of a sudden. You really don’t care because as far as you are concerned, it is already done. That is a forever-settled Word to you.

Oh, the Word of God became flesh and dwelt among us. He tabernacled among us for a brief period of time in a body of flesh. Do you know He still tabernacles in a body of flesh—yours and mine! We are the temple of the Holy Spirit. He is dwelling in us---the same Holy Spirit that raised Christ Jesus from the dead is quickening, giving life to our mortal bodies daily, 24-7.

What does the activation of the Word of God depend on in your life? It depends on your ability to accept it, to receive it as done in your life. Religion, tradition, doubt, unbelief, fear must be pushed out by the Word of God, Love Himself bringing the Truth to you. Religion and tradition is replaced by the Spirit of Truth. Doubt and unbelief is replaced by belief. Fear is replaced by faith as a result of love. Perfect love, Love Himself, God Himself, flushes out fear. What a wonderful gift we have been given---the Word of Almighty God written down on paper in a book called the Bible. It is God Himself speaking to us through its pages. He is eternal, forever.

The Righteous Pathway of Life

During my personal prayer time this morning, the Lord took me on a journey regarding the path of righteousness, which I would like to share with you.

We know from 2 Corinthians 5:21 that we are made the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. We are made right with God. We have a right to be called His children; He has provided restoration, reconciliation of our relationship. He has made the provision. We have to accept the provision and we are then walking in the righteousness that He provided.

2 Corinthians 5:21
For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

In the Old Testament in Isaiah 54:14 one of the blessings that God speaks about is the blessing of righteousness. Let’s look at that verse: In righteousness shalt thou be established: thou shalt be far from oppression; for thou shalt not fear: and from terror; for it shall not come near thee. We see from this verse that we are to be established in righteousness. This verse in the Amplified Bible tells us that righteousness is rightness, conformity with God’s will and order.

We see from these two verses that we have been made the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus and that we are to be established in righteousness. Established means: fixed and in place. We must fix in our minds that we are righteous, right with God. It must be a fact about which there is no argument and one that is not debatable. We are righteous.

I hear so many Christians today wondering and asking the Lord if they are in the right place physically, if they are on His pathway, if they are to move or if they are to stay. They ask: What is Your will for me, Lord? Am I to take that job? Am I to stay where I am? What do you want me to do? He makes it very clear to us in His Word that we as His righteous ones are directed by Him. Let’s look at verses that declare that.

Psalm 85:13 KJV
Righteousness shall go before him; and shall set us in the way of his steps.
Amplified Bible
Righteousness shall go before Him and shall make His footsteps a way in which to walk.

Psalm 37:23 KJV
The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord: and he delighteth in his way.
There is a footnote in my Bible for the word “ordered” which gives the word “established.”
Amplified Bible
The steps of a [good] man are directed and established by the Lord when He delights in his way [and He busies Himself with his every step].

Proverbs 16:9 Amplified Bible
A man’s mind plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps and makes them sure.
Proverbs 20:24 tells us that man’s steps or goings are ordered of the Lord.

Proverbs 12:28 KJV
In the way of righteousness is life; and in the pathway thereof there is no death.
The words in italics have been added by the translators. So, this verse should read: In the way of righteousness life, and the pathway no death.

What do we have when put all these verses together? Let’s make that our confession.
I have been made the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. I am established in righteousness. Righteousness goes before Jesus Christ and makes His footsteps a way in which I am to walk, sets me in the way of His steps. I am a good man/woman because I have been made righteous by Jesus Christ, and my steps are ordered of the Lord. My steps, my goings are directed and established by Him. He makes my steps sure. I rejoice that since my steps are established in Him and thus in righteousness, in the way of righteousness life and the pathway no death. I take the right pathway in my life all the time since I am righteous. I hear the Lord’s voice and I walk in His path, that He has established for me. I spend time with Him and His Word and I hear Him clearly because I am in right relationship with Him. I am righteous.

As with everything with God, it takes faith to believe His Word. We make a choice to believe. It is our choice to believe God’s Word over all earthly circumstances that would try to line up in contradiction to His Word. Believe that you are walking in His pathway of life in every area of your life and it shall be even as He has spoken it.

God's Precious, Unfailing Love

How precious is God’s unfailing love for us. I have been reminded of that this morning in my personal prayer time. God’s love for me never fails. He has an unfailing love for me that never changes, never alters, never wavers. He is the same toward me all the time. He loves me unconditionally, regardless of my present thoughts or circumstances. He ever loves me. He is the One constant in my life in this ever-changing world. I can always depend on Him.

He led me to Psalm 103:1-5, a very familiar passage for me and showed me the extent of His love for me. These verses say it all. It covers everything for our lives. Let’s look at them again in several versions of the Bible. First, let’s look at the King James Version.

Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name.
Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits:
Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases;
Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness, and tender mercies;
Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s

The Amplified Bible reads as follows:
Bless (affectionately, gratefully praise) the Lord, O my soul; and all that is [deepest] within me, bless His holy name!
Bless (affectionately, gratefully praise) the Lord, O my soul, and forget not [one of] all His benefits----
Who forgives [every one of] all your iniquities, Who heals [each one of] all your diseases,
Who redeems your life from the pit and corruption, Who beautifies, dignifies, and crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercy;
Who satisfies your mouth [your necessity and desire at your personal age and situation] with good so that your youth, renewed, is like the eagle’s [strong, overcoming, soaring]!

The New Living Translation reads as follows:
Praise the Lord, I tell myself; with my whole heart, I will praise his holy name.
Praise the Lord, I tell myself, and never forget the good things he does for me.
He forgives all my sins and heals all my diseases.
He ransoms me from death and surrounds me with love and tender mercies.
He fills my life with good things. My youth is renewed like the eagle’s!

We are to bless the Lord, praise Him with gratitude and affection, with everything that is within us. We are to bless His holy name. And we are to remember ALL His benefits. What benefits we have! He forgives ALL our sins, iniquities. He heals ALL our diseases. He redeems our life, ransoms us from the destruction of death, from its corruption. I might add here that means fear, since fear of death is the root cause of all fear. He surrounds us with His unfailing love, His love and compassion for us. He satisfies our mouth, our life with good things and our youth is renewed like the eagle’s. Our youth is renewed by the Lord Himself. He is the fountain of youth that people have been looking for all their lives.

I have a number of references in my NLT Bible that I am going to share with you the rest of this Pearls of Wisdom.

Psalm 49:15 in the NLT says that God will redeem my life. He will snatch me from the power of death.
Of course, we know that the power of life and death are in our tongue.

Isaiah 40:29-31 in the NLT reads this way: He gives power to those who are tired and worn out; he offers strength to the weak. Even youths will become exhausted, and young men will give up. But those who wait on the Lord will find new strength. They will fly high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. The will walk and not faint (Amplified: grow tired).

Psalm 16:11 in the NLT: You will show me the way of life, granting me the joy of your presence and the pleasures of living with you forever.

Psalm 36:7,8,9 NLT: How precious is your unfailing love, O God! All humanity finds shelter in the shadow of your wings. You feed them from the abundance of your own house, letting them drink from your rivers of delight. For you are the fountain of life, and the light by which we see,

Psalm 139:17,18 NLT: How precious are your thoughts about me, O God! They are innumerable! I can’t count them; they outnumber the grains of sand! And when I wake up in the morning, you are still with me!

God's Word Shall Not Pass Away

In Mark 13:31 and Luke 21:33 Jesus said that heaven and earth will pass away, but His words will not pass away. He was speaking here concerning the end of time, which I believe we are living in at this moment. Let’s look at this verse in the context of the whole dissertation of Jesus’ teaching here. In verse 7 His disciples were asking Him what the signs of the end of the age would be. He told them many things regarding the end of the age. You can read it for yourself in those two chapters.

What I want to focus on today is The Word. He told them in verses 34 and 35 that they were to take heed to themselves, and be on guard, be alert. What were they to be alert to? They were to be alert to keep their heart, their spirit man from becoming burdened down, depressed, oppressed with the worries, the cares, the busyness of life in this world. They were to avoid these cares because they are a trap, a snare to take their minds off Jesus Himself and His Kingdom. And He said that the day of His coming would come on them suddenly because they were not aware of Him. In other words, they would be aware of themselves and all that they were involved in in this world instead of being continually aware of Him and His provision which is spelled out very clearly in His Word.

We are told in Philippians 4:6,7 that we are not to have any anxiety or fretfulness or worry or care about anything but rather we are to pray with thanksgiving in our hearts and give it to the Lord and leave it there. And then God’s peace is ours. His peace passes all our human understanding. His peace guards our hearts and minds. In Isaiah 26:3 we are told that the Lord will keep us in His perfect peace when our mind is stayed on Him; this means that we trust Him.

So what is the big deal about worry? Doesn’t everybody do it? Isn’t it a way of life? Worry may be a way of life for the world, but it is not to be a way of life for God’s children. Worry is a form of fear that satan has slipped in on most people as no big deal when it is the biggest deal of all. Why? It contaminates faith; it neutralizes faith because fear stops faith in God.

The Word of God is the solution to worry. As we digest God’s Word, as we focus on His Word, we are focusing on Him and His provision for us. It is a daily, continual process. Worry is a daily thing for the world. The Word must be a daily thing for the child of God. The Word comes; we hear it; faith comes. We believe we receive. And we continually see the Word done in the spirit realm until it becomes reality in our earthly realm. It is not always an overnight process, although God can do that for us. But the majority of the time, it is step by step, precept upon precept until we are confident of our God and His Word, regardless of what curve ball satan may attempt to throw our way. We must take that curve ball and make a home run out of it. Hit it out of the ballpark.

God’s Word is the only way to live, particularly in the end times. There are all kinds of things happening in our personal lives and in the world today. We are told in the Word of God that things will get darker in the world but they will get lighter for us. The darkness or the light shining in your life is dependent on what your focus is upon. If you and I focus on the terrible things that are happening all around us, we are focusing on darkness and cannot see the Light of the Word of God. God’s Word brings light to us; it brings understanding to us; it brings peace and tranquility. As the old expression goes: all hell can be breaking loose around you and me but we do not give it any attention. Our attention is on the Word of God, which is our source of peace and strength.

Everything here on this earth is going to pass away. It is temporal, temporary. Why would you worry about something that is going to pass away anyway? That is a fruitless exercise. When we begin to look at things in terms of eternal values, in terms of eternity, nothing that happens to us here is worth getting upset about. It is all temporal. We spend such a brief moment of time here on this earth, compared to the eternity we will spend with the Lord. We need to keep our perspective correct. See eternal, and don’t concentrate on earthly.

Now, I am not saying to you that you sit down, quit work, and wait for Jesus to come. No, on the contrary, I am saying that we go about the daily activities of life ever mindful that the Word of God is working in our behalf, that the Father is looking out for us, that Jesus is sitting at the right hand of the Father interceding for us and that the Holy Spirit is hovering over us, waiting to perform His Word on our behalf. But if He has no word to work with, then He just keeps on hovering. The angels are waiting for His Word to be spoken and believed so that they can go to work on our behalf. But, no Word, no working of the angels and the Spirit of God on our behalf.

The angels hearken to the voice of God’s Word. Who gives voice to that Word? You and I do. And God is waiting for His Word to come out of our mouths in faith so that the circle of Isaiah 55:11 can be accomplished. He says there that His Word will not return to Him void, empty or meaningless. How do you think His Word is going to be returned to Him? It will be returned to Him through our faith-filled mouths, full of His Word.

The Word is the only thing that will remain. Then it is reasonable that the Word is what we should focus on.

Confession of the Word

I was impressed by the Lord yesterday that today is to be a day of confession and declaration of His Word.

I can do all things through Christ, the anointing, which strengthens me.
I am strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. I draw my strength from Him, that strength which His boundless might provides.
The Lord is my rock and my strength, my stronghold in the time of trouble.
He will hide me in His pavilion from the strife of tongues.
No weapon formed against me will prosper, and every tongue that rises in judgment against me I shall condemn, I shall show to be in the wrong. This righteousness, security, peace, triumph over opposition is my heritage as a servant of the Lord.
The law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.
My dear Heavenly Father loves me. He loves me with the same love with which He loves Jesus. That love is in me. The love of God is shed abroad, poured forth in my heart by the Holy Spirit.
I love the Lord with all my heart, my mind, my soul and my strength and I love my neighbor as myself.
The perfect love of God in me casts out, flushes out all fear.
I am fear free and faith filled.
God has not given me a spirit of fear but of power and of love and of a sound mind.
I am delivered from the bondage of fear.
Jesus has delivered me from fear into love. His love is the power that sets me free.
I AM FREE!
I am a believer and not a doubter.
The Word of God is true in my life.
I believe God’s Word is true for me personally, every jot and every tittle of it.
I choose life, the life of God in every situation and circumstance of my life.
I am an overcomer. I overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the word of my testimony.
God sent His Word and healed me and delivered me from destruction.
In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him and without Him was not anything made that was made.
He has made all things. He has made me. He has created a good life for me.
Jesus came that I might have and enjoy life, have it in abundance, to the full, until it overflows.
I choose to believe that God’s Word is working in my life. It is working to set me free from poverty, lack, failure, defeat, sickness and disease and death. God’s Word is working in my life.
Out of the abundance of God I have received one grace after another and spiritual blessing upon spiritual blessing. I have received His favor. I have received His gifts. They are heaped upon me and overflowing.
I am surrounded with favor. Favor goes before me and behind me, clearing the path for me. I am favored of God.
Everything I set my hand to prospers and comes to maturity.
I am prosperous in all that I do.
The words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart line up with God’s Word and I refuse to speak or think anything else.
I call those things that be not as though they were and they become.
God’s Word will not return to Him void, without producing anything, but it shall prosper in the thing where it is sent.
God’s Word never fails because God never fails. God is love and Love never fails.
I receive all that God has for me. I will not be without anything that He has set aside for me.
I will fulfill the destiny that God has for my life. I know the plans He has for me and they are good.
I am God’s workmanship. I am created in Him to accomplish the assignment He has called me to do.
I am a thankful person. I am thankful for all that the Lord is doing in my life. I have a heart of thanksgiving and praise for the fullness of life that God has given to me.
I am blessed. The Blessing of the Lord is operating in my life all the time. The Garden of Eden is being produced all around me, wherever I go. Prosperity is all around me. I am prosperous. I am prospering and I am in health because my soul is prospering. Everything I do prospers and comes to maturity.
Thank You, Lord, for giving me finances not only to take care of me but to supply those in need. Thank You for money to do what you want me to do.
Your plans and purposes for me are being fulfilled even now as I speak. My life is full and rich because of Jesus.
I am living days of heaven on earth in my spirit, my soul and my body, my marriage and my family and my home and my job.
I hear my Father’s voice and the voice of a stranger I will not follow. He is the Light of the world Who lives in me and makes me the light of the world. Love Himself lives in me and loves through me. Zoe, God’s life, is abiding in me and producing an abundance of life. I shall declare the glory of the Lord.

What Causes You To Want To Be Like Jesus?

The Lord just posed this question to me: What causes you to want to be like Jesus? I thought that was a rather straightforward question with a perfectly straightforward answer. Not so. As I have pondered my answer, it is not quite so simple.

What causes me to WANT to be like Jesus?

Is it so that I will go to heaven some day when I die or am raptured? Is it so that I will be accepted within the group of people I call friends? Is it because I want to stand out as being something most people in this secular world don’t want to be or like? Just what is it that causes me to want to be like Jesus?

Here is my reason. As I have looked at Jesus, particularly when He walked on this earth, I see a man who cared about other people, who wanted to ease their pain, who wanted to make things better for them, who wanted people to enjoy their lives. And I know that Jesus has made me like that. That is why I want to be like Him. I want to make people happy with their lives, to be comfortable with who they are, to appreciate their wonderful qualities, so that they also can make a difference in other people’s lives.

I want to be like Jesus because He loved to the uttermost all mankind, regardless of who they were. God’s Love is without measure and without distinction. He loves unconditionally. He loves all people, even when they don’t love Him or even believe that He exists or that He will help them.

When we look in the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John we find that Jesus was humble, caring, loving, fun-loving, and kind to people. He was very precise in His teaching to them of His Father’s ways and Word. He was very exacting with them when it came to teaching the ways of the Kingdom. There was no room for nonsense or a religious mentality when people were in His presence. He was about His Father’s business. That was His mission. And what was His Father’s mission? The mission of the Father and of Jesus was to restore to mankind all that had been lost in the Garden of Eden, to bring man into a position of partaking of the abundance of the Kingdom of God, to reconcile man to his rightful position in the Father’s household as His children.

I want to be like Jesus because He made an eternal difference in people’s lives as He gave them the truth of Almighty God and His relationship to man. He showed people the way of faith. He demonstrated to them the way that faith worked. He taught them. He preached to them. He walked with them. He cared about them.

What was Jesus like? Let’s take a look at Him in one of the gospels, the book of Luke.

In Luke 2:49 we hear the first words recorded that Jesus spoke: How is it that you sought me? Don’t you know that I must be about My Father’s business in My Father’s house? What a beginning example for us! We must be about our Father’s business. What is the plan that the Lord has for your life? Is your life about fulfilling that plan?

Next, in Luke 4:1-15 we see Jesus being tempted by the devil. With every temptation, He declared the Word of His Father over that situation and the enemy was stopped. Once again, He set the example for us. Declare the Word of God over every situation that tries to overcome you and the enemy will be stopped in your life.

In Luke 4:18 Jesus spoke from the Word what He would be doing here on this earth for people. Here are His words to us also. He has come that we may be healed, delivered out of captivity, that we may be free from poverty, that we may have eyes to see spiritually, that we may be set free, have liberty instead of being broken down. He has come that we may be forever saved and basking in the Presence of the Lord God. This scripture must be fulfilled in our ears. We must hear it and believe it and act on it for ourselves.

Jesus healed the sick; He cast out devils; He preached the Kingdom of God. As He went about doing good, He called His disciples to join Him in the work of the ministry. He invested Himself into them. He trained them in the ways of the Kingdom of God. He spent time with them, teaching them to become mighty men of God. He chose to see them the way His Father saw them, not the way others saw them or the way they saw themselves.

He answered many of their questions. He showed the people that He understood them. He saw beyond their façade into the real person. He told them what they needed. He showed them that He saw their sinful ways and still loved them.

He taught us on love. He showed us the way to the Love of God. He was Love Himself, come to this earth, to shine forth the Light of Love. He showed us the way. That’s why I want to be like Jesus. What about you?

Fear, Faith And Agape Love

Why did the Lord give us the commandment of Love? Why did He command that we love? What is the reason for this being a command?

We read this in 1 John 3:23,24.
And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment.
And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him. And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us.

When we are born again, according to Romans 5:5 the love of God is shed abroad, poured forth in our hearts. God is Love. He is Love Himself. Love Himself comes to dwell in us. And He has given us His Word and His name to represent Him here on this earth. His Word and His name is the same as Him being here. As long as we are walking in the God-kind of love every day, we are allowing that love to flush out fear. And fear stops the faith of God from operating. You see, if we don’t obey the commandment to love, then fear has a place in us.

1 John 4:18
There is no fear in love; but perfect (mature, perfected) love casts out (flushes out) fear: because fear has torment. He that fears is not made perfect in love.

We see from this verse that there is no fear within the love of God. Contained within His love is no fear because His love casts out fear. If we are in fear anywhere in our lives, then love is not able to dwell in that area of our lives and fear opens the door to the devil just as faith opens the door to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Do you see the picture? The devil has set up people. They think a little fear is OK. After all, there is always something to be afraid of. Wrong! Fear is not OK. Fear comes from the devil. And if you are a child of God, you want nothing to do with anything the devil has.

How do you get rid of fear? You don’t get rid of it by saying you have no fear. You get rid of it by focusing on and determining to walk in love because God’s love casts out fear. His word says so and if you believe His word, you accept what it says about you as true for you personally.

In Hebrews 2:14,15 we read that Jesus came to this earth and delivered us from fear. He delivered us from the bondage of fear. He delivered us from the fear of death. Actually, the bottom line to all fear is fear of death, death to our physical bodies, death to a relationship, death to a marriage, death to a job, death to a vision of greatness. Satan has one job in this world; he is determined to destroy all that we aspire to do in life and our enjoyment of it. He is the author of fear just as God is the author of faith.

So here is the scenario. Satan is the one who has come to steal, kill and destroy (John 10:10) through fear. Jesus Christ came to give us life and that more abundantly through faith in Him and His Word and His name and His blood. When we get born again, love comes to dwell in us in the person of the Holy Spirit. Love Himself is in us to cast out fear. Every time we do not walk in love, we must be quick to repent so that there is not an opening for fear to tackle us. Perfect love casts out fear continually like a fountain that flows outward continually.

And we know that faith WORKS by love. We can have all the faith in the world because we have been declaring, confessing God’s Word. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. But faith doesn’t work or activate any other way but by love. That is why it is so important to obey the commandment of love. It is not because God wants us to walk this very narrow line because that is the way it is. It is because love opens the door for faith to work. Fear closes to door to love and thus to faith.

We must also remember that being frightened does not mean that all of a sudden fear is there. No, fear is there all the time. We would not be frightened, if fear were not present in us. When satan is not able to frighten us, then fear has truly been flushed out of our lives by Love Himself. A life free from fear is possible. Here is what you and I must do. We must confess and meditate on God’s Love. We do that by getting the scriptures we need and focusing on them until we are walking the love walk 24-7. John 17:23,26; Romans 5:5; 8:2; 1 John 4:16,18,19; 1 John 3:23,24.

Say this: I have been delivered from fear. The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. I am free of fear. Fear has no place in me. The love of God has been poured forth in my heart. My Dear Heavenly Father loves me as He loves Jesus. And that love the Father loves Jesus with, He has placed in me. And Jesus Himself, Love Himself, is in me. I yield to Love Himself all the time. Therefore, fear has no power over me. God’s perfect love in me casts out, flushes out all fear. The anointing of God, which is really the Love of God, Who is the Holy Spirit here on this earth, has removed the burden of fear and destroyed the yoke of bondage to fear in my life. Thank you, Jesus, for delivering me from fear. I am free. I walk in agape love, the love of God Himself in this world. Therefore, the faith of God is working mightily in me. I walk by faith and not by sight. I walk by faith and not by my feelings. My feelings have nothing to do with love. I love on purpose, unconditionally, regardless of the circumstances or situations or people I am around. Love Himself orders my life every day. I AM FREE.

He Is Our Source

I had a member of my family say to me yesterday: It’s all in the way you look at things. As I pondered that statement this morning, I heard the Lord say. Yes, it is all in the way you look at things. You can look at things through the vision of the Word or through the vision of the world.

There is a vision that people of the world have and there is a vision that people of the Word of God have. Even people can call themselves Christians and still view things through the eyes of the world, that is, depending on the world’s ways to sustain them. We must see God as our source for everything in our lives. He is the source of our financial security. He is the source of our health. He is the source of our very life, the air we breathe, every breath we take. He is the source of our peace and joy in relationships. He is the source of love in our lives. He is the source of sound, secure and loving marriages. He is the source of wisdom regarding the rearing of our children. He is the source of all wisdom for everything we do. God is our source.

As I have mentioned these different areas of life, is there one that caught your spirit man with an “uh, I don’t know whether I am doing that or not”? Our Heavenly Father is to be the ultimate and final source of everything we do. He is to be the One to Whom we look for direction, guidance, input. The Holy Spirit will lead us. He will guide us if we yield to Him. He knows all the answers. We know none, except through His direction. I find it rather amusing that we who are so miniscule in comparison to Almighty God believe that we can do it better than He can. We may not say that but our actions on occasion indicate that we believe we have it all together and really don’t need Him.

You may be sitting there with tongue in cheek and saying that you totally believe God is your source. Oh, really! What about the times you have jumped out ahead of Him and made a decision that you “knew” was right without first consulting Him. Many times it is only because of His mercy that we don’t mess up. And people pat themselves on the back and say that they did it. It is by the grace of God that we do anything in this life.

I have found myself lately being reminded of the “little things” that I don’t consult the Lord on. By ‘little things,” I mean something as small as this----when to go to the grocery store for the best prices, which one to go to, and what time of the day to go to avoid the crowds. This is important to me because of my time which is in God’s hands. Or, what about this: which Christian meetings are you to attend? Or what about this: what clothing am I to wear to that appointment? I know you don’t think this makes any difference. But there are several things at work here. First and foremost is the practice of hearing God’s voice and being obedient. When we are obedient in the small things and have learned to hear His voice, then when a major event occurs, we are ready. If He says, don’t go your usual way to work today, we don’t say that is silly. We obey and avoid the critical accident that happened on our route that we would have been involved in. And in terms of something as simple as the clothing we wear to an appointment,there may be a certain color that “turns someone off” and could cost you the contract. It is the simple acts of hearing and obeying that prepare us for the bigger things.

We must practice hearing the voice of the Lord, particularly in the days in which we live. As we hear His voice and do what He says, we are learning to choose Him as our source. Then when adversity or trials attempt to come our way, we are ready to look to the Lord as our source and go on through to the other side without stress and worry. Why? Because we have learned earlier to lean on the Lord as our source and to look to Him for guidance.

I consider this subject one of the most important subjects in the last days. We MUST know our Father’s voice and not follow the voice of a stranger. And the way we do that is through practice, practice, practice on what we consider little things.

The Lord has provided us with all things. He is our source. He is not only our source for physical things on this earth. He is our source of strength and stability and wisdom and love and peace and joy and faith and patience and kindness and temperance. HE IS OUR SOURCE.

2 Peter 1:3,4 tells us that He has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness through personal knowledge of Him. We read here that He has given us precious promises so that we might partake of His divine nature and escape the corruption that is in the world. He is our source and His Word tells us what He has given us. Study His Word on a daily basis to glean from its fields the ripe grain that is ready to be picked and eaten. His Word will mature us. We will grow up and lean and rely on Him for our sustenance. He is everything we will ever need. What we have to do is to look into His Word, which is the place of liberty and freedom from cares. In His Word we find what we need. We find the direction to live a long and strong life while we are here on this earth. We learn how to truly live a life of abundance, a life in which we are carefree. We cast the whole of our cares, worries and anxieties on Him and depend on Him for direction. He will never fail us nor forsake us. It will be a life of success and victory time after time after time. HE IS OUR SOURCE!

What Is Your Answer?

If someone were to ask you to give an answer to this question: Why should I become a Christian, what would you tell them? How would you convince a person who believes in Buddha or is a Muslim or has no belief in God that there is the One God, the Lord Jesus Christ, God the Father, Almighty God?

I have learned something over the years as I have talked with people who are of a different belief than I am. They are just as adamant and just as convinced as I am that their way is the right way. It makes no difference how many scriptures I quote to them or how convincing I am, they are just as convinced of their way. So, what is the way that I can show them that Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth and the Life?

There are several things I have observed. The first one is this: Prayer is the only thing that will open the door for these people to see that they need a Savior. Without the way being paved with prayer, there is not much that we can do. Our words are not going to convince anyone that we are right. And even reading the scriptures to them will not convince them unless the Holy Spirit, as a result of prayer, is paving the way for our words to fall on fertile soil instead of dead ground.

And one of the greatest tools I have observed as being effective in my witnessing for Jesus is my life that I live every day for others to read me like a book. The greatest Bible that people will read is my life. The love of Jesus that I display all the time toward others, even when they are not nice to me, is a winning tool. The Love of God Himself working through me is a powerful tool to use. There is nothing that can stand in the way of God’s love. He is the drawing card for others.

I once heard someone say that we are to do random acts of kindness. In other words, do kind things for others, even when it is not expected or needed. Open a door for an older person; pick up something someone has dropped; smile at the clerk at the cash register; reach up on a high shelf for something a short person cannot reach; pay for a stranger’s meal in a restaurant; leave a tip for the maid in motels every day you are there.

What is it that sets you apart from other religions, other beliefs? What is it that people observe about your life that makes you different? Can they see a difference between you and them?

Jesus is the Prince of Peace. People will notice that you are peaceful and calm when all around you is chaos. Peace is observable. People will notice that you are even-tempered, instead of a person who “flies off the handle” at the slightest provocation. People will notice that you don’t “fall apart” when tragedy comes. People will notice that you are healthy when others all around you are sick and getting the flu and catching colds and going to the hospital for various medical needs. People will notice that you are not in debt and have an abundance of money not only to pay your bills but also to help others. These types of things catch people’s attention. And then they begin to ask you questions: How are you able to do this? What makes you different than the rest of us? Why are you healthy? Why aren’t your kids on drugs and rebellious? Why are you debt free? What is it that keeps you calm and peaceful in the midst of a very stressful situation?

Then you have an opportunity to share with others the reasons that belief in Jesus Christ works. You never berate them for their beliefs or come at them from a negative standpoint. Of course, it is a different scenario if the Holy Spirit tells you to point out things that are in error in their belief system. But people will react much better to someone who is showing them a better way of life than someone who is always badgering them about their nasty belief system and telling them that they are wrong.

Our Father loves every person who is on this earth and wants them to come to know Him and be a part of the household of faith. It is our responsibility to represent our Father well and cause people to desire Him and come to Him because they see how much He loves them. Far too many people accept Jesus as their Savior because they fear they will be left behind or they won’t make it to Heaven. That is not the way the Father wants people to accept Him. He wants them to accept what His Son Jesus has done because of His great love for everyone.

Let’s purpose to walk the real walk of the God-kind of love and let His Love draw others to His household. We want them to enjoy what we have. What a life He has laid out for each of us! That is what we must show others. It is the greatest life to live on this earth. What a Life

You Are Chosen and Destined For Greatness

You are chosen and destined for greatness.

The minute you were conceived in your mother’s womb, you were chosen and destined for greatness. God had you on His mind long before you were born. Look at Psalm 139:13-18 and 1-6. I love it in the New Living Translation. Listen to this with your heart and let the Word of God minister to you and wash away any doubt of your value, of your worth to God. He loves you. You are special to Him. You are the apple of His eye.

You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous----and how well I know it. You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.

O Lord, you have examined my heart and know everything about me. You know when I sit down or stand up. You know my every thought when far away. You chart the path ahead of me and tell me where to stop and rest. Every moment you know where I am. You know what I am going to say even before I say it, Lord. You both precede and follow me. You place your hand of blessing on my head. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too great for me to know!

Do you see from these passages how much God cares for you and watches over you? He loves you with a love that would not let you take the punishment you deserved. He loves you with a love that will not let you alone in your sin. He loves you with a love that will not leave you nor forsake you. He loves you, yes, you.

We have an enemy. His name is satan. He is the devil. He hates us and wants one thing for us. He wants us to think that we are no good, are not worth anything and even if we are worth anything, we will never have anything because we are not capable of having the kind of faith that it takes to be somebody.

Well, let me put to rest these lies right now. Satan is a liar and the father of liars. He is no good. God is the Father of Truth. He is good. He thinks you are valuable, precious, like the finest jewelry in the earthly realm. You are a gem, one of a kind, designed by the Maker Himself, and He does not make any mistakes in creating you. You are His creation, created in His likeness when you are born again, when you become His child. And your Father, in Whose image you are created, is perfection itself. He doesn’t create any seconds. We are all firsts, first in His mind and first in quality. The quality control of heaven is perfect, no imperfections.

I don’t care what you think. What you must ponder is what God thinks about you. Focus on His Word regarding your preciousness. Study His Word to find out what He thinks about you. Meditate His Word in your mind and heart until you have a clear image of what you look like in the Kingdom of God. Then carry that image until you see it become reality in this earth. Nothing is impossible with God. What has He shown you about your destiny? What has He chosen you to do? You do have a place and a purpose. You were not just randomly created.

In Jeremiah 29:11 God tells us that He gives us a future and an expected end, a hope in our outcome in life. We have been doing a series on hope and the Lord showed me in that teaching that hope is an eager anticipation that is developed from meditation of the Word of God. Bible hope comes from the Word of God. The Word develops an expectancy in us that is not quenched by any earthly evidence contrary to that expectancy.

In Jeremiah 31:3 God tells us that He has loved us with an everlasting love. He tells us that His love draws us to Himself and that He continues faithfully to love us. He is faithful in His devotion to us. He is faithful in His lovingkindness toward us. He is faithful, loving, and eternal. He never changes His mind or fails to express His love for us.

God has chosen you. He has destined you for a great plan. His plans for you are good plans. The thing you and I have to do is to yield to Him, to allow Him to do what he needs to do to accomplish that plan. He knows the future. And one thing I need to point out to all of us is that the Holy Spirit dwells within each of us as God’s children and He shows us things to come, if we are in close communion with Him.

God has a love for you that cannot be quenched or stopped. He loves you unconditionally. His love does not depend on how you act or what you do wrong or your bad attitude. He has a plan for you. Yield yourself to Him completely and let Him work in your life. He is calling you to higher places in Him and deeper understanding of His ways, that you may complete the work He has called you to do. Yield to His plan for your life. All you have to do is ask for direction and then listen for instructions. He will never fail you nor forsake you. He is right there.

The Finished Work

We live in the finished work of Jesus.

When He gave up His Spirit on the cross, He said: It is finished. He was defeating satan and all of hell for us, so that we would not perish forever in hell. He was opening the way to fellowship with our Heavenly Father again in our Heavenly home. Jesus was opening the way for us to be reconciled to God, for us to become friends again. He was the waymaker. He made a way where we could not make a way. He was our substitute. He took our place and completed the work of redemption that we could not do. Now we can enter into the finished work of Jesus' substitution for us.

Jesus took our place to become a curse for us so that the blessing of Abraham might come on us. Galatians 3:13,14,29 Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree: that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. And if we be Christ’s, then we are Abraham’s seed and heirs according to the promise.

Jesus’ finished work has provided us with The Blessing that God originally gave to Adam when He created Him. In Genesis 2:28 we hear God say to Adam that He was blessing him and telling him to be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth, to subdue the earth and to have dominion over the fish of the seas and over the fowl of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth. This is the finished work that you and I are to live in today since Jesus purchased it for us, redeemed us from the hand of the enemy, with the most precious redemption price, His blood.

He gave us His authority in Matthew 28:18 when He said that all power or authority was given unto Him in Heaven and earth and immediately told us to go, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever He commanded us.

Right now as you sit here reading this Pearls of Wisdom, if you are a born again child of God, you have been given all the health and healing you will ever need. It is a finished work. You have been given all the prosperity you will ever need. You have been given all the peace you will ever need. You have been given all the fruit of the spirit you will ever need. You have been given everything you will ever need while you are here on this earth and throughout all eternity. What Jesus did is a forever-settled accomplishment. It is finished. He has done all that He needs to do for you and I to live victoriously while we are here on this earth and to complete our assignment in total victory.

The part that is not finished is our part. We must believe in the finished work. We must renew our minds from the Word of God on a daily basis regarding what we have. We have health. We have happiness and joy and peace. We have abundance. We have prosperity in every area of our lives. We have the peace of God that passes all understanding. We have the joy of the Lord as our strength. We have access to the throne of God any time we desire. We have the privilege of being God’s children. All of this we must believe and contend for it in our personal lives.

The Lord spoke to me several days ago when my husband and I were going through something in our lives that had given us great sadness, an event that brought loss into our lives. It was not about our relationship. It was about something we both loved and enjoyed. When I got up the next morning, the Lord said: Contend for the faith. Yes, we must contend for what is ours. There is a battle involved here. But even the battle is the Lord’s. We must trust Him and believe Him, believe that what Jesus has purchased is ours personally. Our part in this life is to believe God and act on His Word, to know that His Word will work for us because it is a manuscript spelling out the finished work that is ours to walk in, to enjoy every day

Every one of us should make it a daily practice to search the scriptures regarding what our Lord has provided for us, regarding our relationship as children in the household of faith. There is a storehouse of good things set aside for us. It is not just physical pleasure in this earthly realm. It is the gift of God of entering into His realm and enjoying fellowship with Him, delighting Him with our lives.

I want the finished work of Jesus to shine forth in my life so that the light of His Presence will draw others into the Father’s house. We want a full house.

The Reign of Righteousness

Jesus wants us to reign on this earth in His righteousness. Today we are going to talk about your being the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.

Just exactly what does it mean to be righteous? When you accepted Jesus as your Savior, you became a child of God the Father. He is your Heavenly Father now. He has given you all the rights as a child in His household. You are in right standing with Him. Because of Jesus, the Father considers you as perfection itself, free from blemishes and spots. It is because of Jesus, and only because of Jesus that you are righteous. He took every bit of sin and sickness and disease and all that is the curse on Himself so that we could be free. We are free of all encumbrances that would weigh us down. We are in right relationship with God. Isn’t that awesome! What a God! What a plan! He is our wonderful Heavenly Father.

In Ephesians 4:24 Paul tells us that we are to put on the new man, the new nature of God, and that we are created in God’s image of righteousness and true holiness. As God’s child, you and I have His nature, the whole essence of Himself, of Who He is. The image of God is holiness and righteousness, truth and love and goodness and mercy and life and light. We could go on with the list, but that would take all eternity. In the final analysis, God is Love and Love Himself is dwelling in us to produce the nature of God in us, as we yield to Him. The perfecting is in the yielding. When we yield to Love Himself, we are yielding to being righteous because He is righteous. You know what this really means: He is right. And since He is right, when we listen to Him, when we obey Him, we will be right. We will live right. We will talk right. We will act right. We will think right. We will do what is right.

After we are born again, we continue to grow in our understanding of righteousness, of who we really are in Christ Jesus and Who He really is in us. And how do we do that growing? In 2 Timothy 3:16 we are told that the scripture is profitable for instruction in righteousness, in addition to the scripture being given for reproof and conviction and correction and discipline in obedience. In the Amplified Bible where this verse is concerned, we read that the scripture is given for training in righteousness, in holy living, in conformity to God’s will in thought, purpose and action. I would say that summarizes it very clearly. And what is the purpose of that training? That training brings us into a place of being a mature child of God who is complete and proficient and well fitted and thoroughly equipped for every good work.

There is something I must emphasize here. You will not be any more righteous a year from now or years from now than you are right now or the minute you were born again, when you accepted Jesus as your Savior. What you are growing in is the knowledge of your righteousness, what you truly are and what you have. That is what the Word does for us. The Word is God’s instruction manual which tells us what we have, who we are and how to do complete our assignment here on this earth in victory and leave in victory when we are finished.

There is a scripture in Psalm 85:13 which I love regarding righteousness. I must insert it here as we are talking about growing in the knowledge of our righteousness. This word refers to Jesus and us. Listen to it: Righteousness shall go before him; and shall set us in the way of his steps. In the Amplified Bible we read: Righteousness shall go before Him and shall make His footsteps a way in which to walk.

Or how about Isaiah 58:8? Let’s read the part of that verse referring to righteousness from the Amplified Bible---your righteousness (your rightness, your justice, and your right relationship with God) shall go before you [conducting you to peace and prosperity]. Do you see the results of righteousness here? The righteousness of God leads you and me to peace and prosperity, conducts the way. And peace here is the wholeness of God, with nothing missing, nothing broken.

There are so many verses in Psalms and Proverbs telling us about the results of righteousness. Let’s look at a few of them as we close today.

Psalms 5:12 The Lord blesses the righteous. He surrounds the righteous with favor.
Psalm 34:17 The righteous cry for help and the Lord hears them and delivers them our of their troubles.
Psalm 37:17 The Lord upholds the righteous.
Psalm 37:29 The righteous shall inherit the land and dwell upon it forever.
Psalm 72:7 and Psalm 92:12-15 The righteous shall flourish, be long-lived, stately, upright, useful, and fruitful; shall grow and be majestic, stable, durable and incorruptible; shall still bring forth fruit in old age; be full of spiritual vitality and in the vigorous growing condition of trust, love and contentment. They are living memorials to show that the Lord is faithful to His promise. Amplified Bible.

I don’t know about you but that last word in Psalm 92:12-15 is enough to tell us the benefits of being right with God. Do a study of Psalms and Proverbs to see all the benefits you have as God’s righteous child.

Hearing God's Voice And Doing His Word

Our pastor’s sermon this week has triggered some thoughts in me that I will be sharing with you over the next several days.

Today we are going to talk about the voice of the Lord, which, of course, is His Word. And we are the Lord’s voice in this earth, His mouthpiece, speaking forth His Word that His Kingdom may be established not only where we live but also in the whole earth.

In John 10:1-5 Jesus talked about us as God’s children hearing His voice. He compared us to sheep who follow the voice of their shepherd. Jesus is called the Good Shepherd. We hear His voice when He calls and we follow Him. We do not follow a voice we don’t know. How do we become familiar with someone’s voice? We spend time with them. We know their voice because we are in their presence to hear their voice all the time. I know my husband’s voice in a crowd. Why? I have spent so much time with Him that I not only know Him personally but I recognize his voice when he is speaking. The same is true for us as God’s children. The more time we spend with Him, the quicker we recognize that it is He Who is calling us.

When the Lord called Samuel in the Old Testament, he did not recognize the Lord’s voice, even though he was in the temple. He thought it was Eli’s voice. This demonstrates to me that we can even be people who are in the house of the Lord, who are in church and we do not necessarily recognize God’s voice just because we are in the sanctuary. Eli told Samuel that it was the Lord’s voice. I like the way Samuel responded. He said: “Here am I, Lord.” That is the way we must respond to the Lord’s voice. “Here am I, Lord. I am listening for Your command. What is Your desire?”

In Psalm 95:7,8 we read: For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. Today if ye will hear his voice, harden not your heart, as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness:

In the New Testament in Hebrews 3:7-12 we read: Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, Today if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness when your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years. Wherefore I was grieved with that generation and said, They do always err in their heart; and they have not known my ways. So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.) Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.

What are we being told in these verses? He is God. He is our God. And we are His sheep. This is the same meaning as John 10 in the New Testament. If we hear His voice, we are not to harden our hearts. According to the Word of God, a hard heart is an evil heart of unbelief. So the next time you think unbelief is no big deal, think about the way God sees unbelief. How do you feel when someone doesn’t believe you and you are telling the truth? God is Truth. He is all Truth. There is no lying in Him. When we do not believe that His Word will work for us personally, we are essentially saying to Him that He is lying. Everything in this Bible from the first chapter in Genesis to the last chapter in Revelation is the Truth of God Himself. He is a God of Truth. Unbelief is a very serious thing to God and His Kingdom. It stops His word from going forth and doing what He intends for it to do.

God has a voice and we have a voice. We are His voice in this earth, bringing forth His Word to change those things which are temporary with the eternal Word of God from the eternal God Who does not change and does not alter that which has gone out of His mouth. We call those things that need to be established in this earth. We call them forth with the voice of the Word, which is the voice of the Lord. Even though we don’t see them in the natural realm, we call them forth from the spiritual realm into the natural realm. God’s Word will produce what it is sent forth to do. His Word will not return unto Him void or useless, without producing effective results.

Where are you today? Whose voice are you following? Whose word are you speaking? Are you speaking your own ideas and what others have told you they think or are you speaking God’s Word, His thoughts? What you give voice to is what will produce in your life.

Let me add one more thought here. Not only are we to respond to the voice of the Lord. The angels also respond to the voice of the Word, which is really the voice of the Lord. Psalm 103:20 reads: Bless the Lord, ye his angels, that excel in strength, that do his commandments, hearkening unto the voice of his word.
The angels have an assignment. They are to hearken to the voice of God’s Word. How much more we as God’s children, His offspring, should be hearkening to the voice of His Word, doing what it says, being doers of the Word of God that He has spoken and then speaking in agreement with Him. Let’s get in line today with the voice of the Lord, the voice of His Word.

Your Focus Determines Your Destiny

The Lord spoke to me this morning as I was looking out the window of my kitchen at the changing of the seasons and this is what He said: If you focus on what you have, you will never achieve your destiny. I know exactly what He was saying. Let’s talk about it today.

If we focus on what we have happening in our lives that is wrong, that appears to be robbing us, we are not focusing on Jesus, the Word of God. He is the way, the truth and the life. Everyone who comes to Him will not be denied. I see so much more in that scripture today than I have before. We not only come to Him to become born again, but we come to Him again and again as the way to rise above all our negative situations and circumstances, as the truth to offset the lies the enemy throws our way and to bring us out of that which would speak death into lives into Life Himself, Love Himself Who is the Light that shines on our pathway to lead us out of every dark situation that would try to envelope us. Whew! That was a long sentence. Bear with me on that one. I tried to shorten it but would lose the meaning if I did.

Even when it appears that things are not lining up the way the Word says they are supposed to be in our lives, we still agree with the Word. There will always be negative things that come our way to attempt to get us off the path that God has chosen for us. That path is a path of peace and tranquility, not stress and fear and anxiety. The place that our Lord wants us to dwell is in His assurance that ALL IS WELL! What happens around us, what we see, does not determine whether God is true and His Word is true. And another thing. Neither does it determine whether we are people of faith or not. We are people of faith if we believe God’s Word, regardless of what happens to confirm or deny our faith. God’s Word does not have to have circumstances to line up to confirm it as truth. God’s Word is truth regardless of what happens.

What do you see today? Do you see God and His Word or do you see the opposite? What eyes are you using today? Are you using your physical eyes or are you using your spiritual eyes? Are you reacting with your feelings and emotions or are you reacting with God’s Word? The answers to these questions will determine your day and ultimately your destiny.

The devil is the one who gets the attention when we allow our emotions and our feelings to rule us. He then can move in and start working on us regarding our relationship with the Lord. He is very subtle. He knows that if he can get us thinking about ourselves and how we feel and how the situation looks, he has gotten some authority in our lives. What we as individuals have to do is stop and deliberately tell ourselves that we are looking to the Word and not to our souls. It is a matter of choice. Here we go with choice again. We can’t get away from it can we? Choice is what it is all about. We can choose to wallow in our misery or deliberately turn away from what is hurting us and walk into the Word of God, Jesus Himself, Love Himself. There is such peace and comfort in His Presence. He desires above all else to comfort us and to direct us. He wants us to rise to the fullness of life in Him. We get there one victory at a time. Step by step by step by step, we win the victory.

Jesus told us what we have to do in Matthew 7:24-27. When the storms of life and the winds of adversity blow on the house of our life, we will still be standing if we have based our lives on being hearers and doers of His Word. We will be solidly planted on a good foundation. When all else is gone, the Word will still remain. He told us that heaven and earth will pass away, but His Word remains forever.

And we must remind ourselves again of the parable of the sower in Mark 4. What is it that is used to steal the assurance of the word working in our lives? It is persecution, cares and anxieties of this world, distractions and busyness, seeking other things first, offense, resentment, delighting in things other than the Lord, getting caught up with the riches of this world. We are not immune to any of these attacks. What we do with them determines our destiny.

God has a beautiful life planned for each one of us. Satan is determined to interfere. We are the deciding factor. We either decide to let things “get the best of us” or we set our face like flint and press ever closer to our Lord and His Word.

I leave you with this promise from the Word of God today.

2 Peter 1:3,4 According as his divine power has given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness through the knowledge of him that has called us to glory and virtue; whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises; that by these we might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

God has given us ALL THINGS that pertain to life and godliness. He has given us exceeding great and precious promises so that we may partake of His divine nature, which is Love, Life and Light in the Holy Spirit.

Psalm 91 Study, Part 11

As we continue our study of Psalm 91, we look at verses 14-16 in the Amplified Bible and finish our study.

Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore will I deliver him; I will set him on high, because he knows and understands My name [has a personal knowledge of My mercy, love and kindness----trusts and relies on Me, knowing I will never forsake him, no, never].
He shall call upon Me and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him.
With long life will I satisfy him and show him My salvation. I always add for myself here----“salvation in every area of my life. In my pathway is life and there is no death.”

When I focus on Jesus, when I focus my eyes on Him and not my circumstances, not the way things look in the natural all around me, then there is a place where I stand that nothing causes me to lose that focus. And what happens when I focus my eyes on Jesus? I am focusing on Love Himself Who never fails. He is the One Who delivers me and sets me free from the thing that hinders me, that holds me back, that keeps me from fulfilling what God has for me.

When I know and understand the name of the Lord----the name at which every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord, the name that is above every other name----when I understand the name of the Lord, He will set me on high. Understanding His name gives me a personal knowledge of His mercy, of His love, of His kindness, of His nature, of God Himself, Love Himself. When I know Him, I trust Him and rely on Him. I know He will never forsake me. He will never leave me. He is always right there with me, regardless of what is going on around me. He is there!

Remember that the name of the Lord is a strong tower and we as His righteous ones run into Him as our tower and we are safe, set high above, set aloft from that which would try to harm us. Nothing can harm us, nothing can hurt us when we truly know the name of the Lord. He is our strong tower. Psalm 61:3 tells us that the Lord is our strong tower against the adversary. Who is our adversary? Satan is our adversary, our enemy. God wants to place us in the tower of Himself through His name, where we are set high above anything that the enemy would bring against us.

When I call upon the Lord, He will answer me. He hears me when I call and He answers me. He does not turn a deaf ear to my call. His ears are ever tuned to the voice of His Word. His ear ever hears His Word and responds to His Word. His ear is not tuned to words of doubting and unbelief or fear and anger and frustration and offense and bitterness and strife. He cannot listen to those things. His ears are not equipped to hear these fleshly responses.

He will be with me in trouble. He will deliver me. He will honor me. What promises these verses hold for me. They are powerful.

The Lord will satisfy me with long life. There is a path of life that the Lord has for each one of us that will be to us a place of long life. In Psalm 16:11 we read that He will show us the path of life; in His presence there is fullness of joy; at His right hand there are pleasures forever more. When we are in God’s presence, we are in the presence of Life Himself. He keeps us living a long and strong life.

He will show me His salvation. Salvation means deliverance and freedom and security and prosperity and health and happiness and wholeness in every area of our lives. In Psalm 18:19 we read that God brings us forth into a large place; he delivers us because He delights in us, because He loves us. He wants the very best for us at all times. What a God we serve!

There is much that the Lord has planned for all of us. Our destiny is held in the palm of His hand. All we have to do is trust Him to do what He says He will do. And that is not just for your neighbor or some preacher standing in a crusade or in a big meeting. These promises are for everyone who will accept Jesus as their Savior and believe Him and take Him at His Word.

What an honor we have and what a great life we have available to us when we love the Lord and believe what He tells us to be true in our lives.

Make it a plan every day to confess Psalm 91 over you and your loved ones and friends and the people who serve our country in the armed forces. Everything we will need is spoken in this psalm. Every day I see new things I did not see before as I speak the words of this psalm. In my Bible the title above the psalm is this: The security for the godly. This phrase is certainly true. Here is our security system and it doesn’t cost us anything, but it cost God everything. It is a free gift to us. Let’s take what He has given to us.

Psalm 91 Study, Part 10

Today we start with verse 13 of our Psalm 91 study. Let’s look at that verse in the Amplified Bible.

You shall tread upon the lion and adder; the young lion and the serpent shall you trample underfoot.

Obviously, we all know that this verse does not literally refer to treading and trampling lions and snakes under our feet. It is referring to satan and the demonic realm of activity. The Lord God told us the following in Genesis 3:15, after Adam and Eve had sinned. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her Offspring; He will bruise and tread your head underfoot and you will lie in wait and bruise His heel.

This was God prophesying the devil’s defeat by Jesus Christ as the Son of God, son of man on this earth when He died in our place, became our substitute. Jesus Christ took authority over the devil, demons and their works and when He rose from the dead, He gave that authority to us as God’s children. We are children of God just as Jesus is the Son of God. After He rose, we are told in many places in the scripture that we are heirs with Him, that we are God’s sons and daughters when we accept Jesus and become part of Father’s household. One of the things we must realize is that it is not our authority which our Heavenly Father is allowing us to use as His children. It is His authority. I have seen so many people abuse this gift of God as they began to think it was their authority. Yes, we do have all authority on earth. It was given to us by God Almighty. However, we must learn the source of that authority and how to use it. Jesus said that the greatest faith He had ever seen was by a man who understood authority. He was under authority and had people under him. He understood both how to submit and how to exercise authority.

I firmly believe that until we learn how to submit to one another in the Love of God, we will not be able to exercise the fullness of the authority that God has given to us. We could spend all day talking about authority because I am big on that. Too many people have allowed the devil to walk all over them and whined and cried about what the devil was doing. Since when does a child of God submit to the devil. The Word of God says that we are to submit to God and the devil will flee from us. The word “flee” means flee. It is not hard to understand.

In Hebrews 2:14,15 we see that Jesus rendered the devil powerless for us. In Colossians 2:15 we see that Jesus spoiled, stripped of their authority, principalities and powers. In 1 John 3:8 we see that Jesus undid the works of the devil. In Colossians 1:12,13 we see that the Father has delivered us out of the authority and control of darkness and has transferred us into the Kingdom of the Son of His Love. In Luke 10:19 we see Jesus stating that He has given us authority to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy and nothing shall by any means harm us or hurt us. Over and over in the Word of God, our Lord God assures us that we are overcomers through Jesus Christ. He has given us the authority to walk on this earth victoriously over the works of the devil. And what are the works of the devil? They are sickness and disease, lack, poverty, want, children going astray, marriages messing up, doubt, unbelief, religion, and things in general being wrong.

As children of God, we have the ability of God to overcome anything that is thrown in our path. It is His ability. It is His authority. All we have to do is go to Him and ask Him the strategy for coming out of the situation we are in. Most of the time we run to everyone we know for “a word.” Well, we have THE WORD, which God has given to us to tell us how to operate while we are here on this earth. I love God’s Word. It is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. His Word has the answers I need. He deliberately gave me a manual to live by. I think it is absolutely wonderful that He did that.

What kind of situations are you involved with today? And what are you doing about it? Are you attempting to do it “on your own”? Are you running to every pastor in the church for help? Are you calling all of your friends? Or are you going before the Lord and presenting your case and getting the answers you need. He will give you the strategy to overcome all things. The Bible is our answer every time. Look to the Lord and seek His face. Yes, there are times when human counsel will help, but that is after you and I have sought the Lord on what to do. Human counsel is not our first line of inquiry. God’s counsel is our first quest. What is God saying about this?

I have been just as guilty as any of you. So many times I am tempted to pick up the phone or go running to my husband and start to tell him how I feel. What we have to realize is that expressing our feelings about something will never correct the course. Feelings come and go, but the Word of God stands forever. What are you perceiving in your spirit? Or is your spirit so out of tune that you cannot hear what God is saying? I am asking some hard questions here, which we all need to address to ourselves. On the other side of the coin, if you know your authority and you have been exercising that right, then you are in line with God’s Word and you can depend on Him to help you take care of things. Watch Him work on your behalf. It is awesome.

Psalm 91 Study, Part 9

As we continue our study of Psalm 91, let’s read verses 11 and 12 in the Amplified Bible.

For He will give His angels [especial] charge over you to accompany and defend and preserve you in all your ways [of obedience and service].
They shall bear you up on their hands, lest you dash your foot against a stone.

I add several words to this: He will give His angels charge over you to accompany, defend, preserve, guard, protect and keep you in all your ways.

As God’s children we have the protection of the angels at all times. Our angels go to work at the confession of God’s Word. They only hearken to the voice of the Word of God in our mouths. They do not hearken to fear or desperation.

Let’s look at the Word of God concerning angels. If you look up the word “angels’’ in the concordance, you will find quite a few references, but we are only going to look at several today.

In Psalm 103:20 we read that the angels are mighty ones, that they are mighty in strength and that they do God’s commandments, hearkening to the voice of His Word. What a powerful scripture. Once again, we see that our whole lives are governed by the Word of God. His Word is our life. His Word in our mouths even commissions the angels to pay attention and do what His Word commands. God’s Word in our mouths puts our angels to work to do the Word of God. Isn’t that awesome! God has given us angels to help us to do whatever we are doing. Of course, we do not focus on angels. We focus on God and His Word and the angels do His Word.

There is much emphasis today in the world on angels and as Christians we are not to get caught up in majoring on angelic activity or demonic activity of the fallen angels. We are to focus on Jesus Christ and what He has done, the Holy Spirit and what He is doing and the Father and His loving care for us. In Hebrews 1:5-8 and 13 in the Amplified Bible we see it made very clear the place of angels in God’s Kingdom.

For to which of the angels did [God] ever say, You are My Son, today I have begotten You [established You in an official Sonship relation, with kingly dignity]? And again, I will be to Him a Father, and He will be to Me a Son?
Moreover, when He brings the firstborn Son again into the habitable world, He says, Let all the angels of God worship Him.
Referring to the angels He says, [God] Who makes His angels winds and His ministering servants flames of fire;
But as to the Son, He says to Him, Your throne, O God, is forever and ever (to the ages of the ages), and the scepter of Your kingdom is a scepter of absolute righteousness (of justice and straightforwardness).
Besides, to which of the angels has He ever said, Sit at My right hand [associated with me in My royal dignity] till I make your enemies a stool for your feet?

Angels are sent as ministering spirits for us. Let’s look at that verse in Hebrews. In verse 14 in the Amplified Bible we read: Are not the angels all ministering spirits (servants) sent out in the service [of God for the assistance] of those who are to inherit salvation?

The angels are sent out of God to assist us who are His children. They are ministering spirits sent forth to help us in all that we do. We are surrounded by angelic messengers all the time. We see many instances of this throughout the Bible. There is much in the book of Revelation concerning angels in the end time activity. I am told that we all have a guardian angel assigned to us. There are some good books written on angels. I would recommend two. One is by Billy Graham and the other is by Charles Capps. But I also caution you not to get caught up in studying angels and angelic activity. God takes care of us. It is He we are to focus our attention on.

The Bible has much to say about angels and their work. We see that 1/3 of the angels fell from Heaven when lucifer rebelled and now he is satan, the accuser of the brethren, the devil, that wicked one. There are also archangels. In Luke 1 the archangel Gabriel spoke to Mary and told here that the Spirit of God would overshadow her and she would conceive the Son of God.

Our main emphasis here today from Psalm 91 is the protection that we have because of angels. They are charged to keep or guard us. They closely and carefully watch over us. That is part of their assignment. The angels are commissioned and on assignment to you wherever you go and whatever you do. God has given you the right as His child, in the name of Jesus, to access the ministry of the angelic hosts of Heaven on your behalf.