Let Peace Guard Your Hearts and Minds

Have you ever had anyone say to you: Guard your heart? And was your response inside: What does that mean?

We always go to the Word of God for our answers. In Philippians 4:6-9 we read:
Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.
And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep (guard) your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.

In the 1828 Webster’s Dictionary we read that heart-offending is the wounding of the heart. We are admonished in God’s Word not to be offended. In other words, we are not to allow other people’s words or actions toward us or those we love to wound us or hurt us. Even though people can be cruel with their words toward us, we are not to allow their words to wound us. Yes, it can be extremely difficult to turn away from woundedness.

Here in Philippians we have our instructions. Be careful for nothing. Don’t fret about things or worry or have anxiety concerning our lives. That includes being upset with what other people say or think about us, whether it is good or bad.

In every circumstance and situation of life, we are to go to the Lord in prayer and thank Him for taking care of us and those we love. We must trust Him to deal with “the stuff” that is intended to upset us and trap us. Offense is a bait just as much as a trapper puts a bait in his trap to catch an animal. It is a snare to our walk in Jesus.

We are told in verse 7 that when we turn our situations over to the Lord and thank Him, the peace (shalom, all is well, prosperity, which we have studied for the last 4 days) will keep or guard or mount guard over our hearts and minds. Peace will be the guard over our hearts. Peace will be the guard over our minds. God’s peace is shalom; all is well attitude or faith. In the Strong’s Concordance we read that the word “keep” means to be a watcher in advance, i.e. to mount guard as a sentinel (post spies at gates): fig. to hem in, protect: ---keep (with a garrison).

When we fix, establish our hearts and minds on whatsoever is true, honest, just, pure, lovely, of a good report, our hearts and minds are guarded with peace, shalom. Peace is the watcher in advance, mounting guard as a sentinel, protecting us, keeping us with a garrison if necessary.

Verses 6 and 7 in the Complete Jewish Bible tell us to rejoice in our union with the Lord always. Don’t worry about anything. Instead, make our requests known to God with thanksgiving, with a thankful heart. Then God’s shalom, passing all understanding, will keep (guard) our hearts and minds safe in union with Messiah Yeshua.

We are, indeed, in a spiritual battle, especially in the days in which we live now. God’s peace is on duty at all times like a guard, a sentinel, a watchman, a sentry, protecting us from the enemy. Peace, shalom is standing guard over us. The Peace of God is a 24-7 sentry, always on duty. We can take comfort in that. But the peace of God is blocked from performing His duty when we are taking matters into our own hands by worrying and fretting and anxiety and anger and woundedness.

Shalom is activated by prayer and thanksgiving, trust, instead of worry or fear.

Peace is necessary and is definitely the guard of our hearts and minds. It puts us in harmony with God and releases His power on our behalf because we are one with Him, Who is peace.

The Wellness Road, The Prosperity Road, Part 4

Here is a daily confession we can make for true prosperity.

CONFESSION FOR TRUE PROSPERITY

All is well!
I am prospering in every way.
I make my way prosperous.
I succeed in reaching my destination in life’s journey by meditating in the Word day and night and doing what it says.
I am going forward.
I am advancing.
I am increasing.
I am succeeding
I am gaining, increasing, growing and attaining everything good.
I am achieving the desires placed in my heart by God.
I delight myself in Him.
He places His desires in my heart and I achieve them.

My body is well.
It is healthy.
It is sound ---- free from sickness and disease.
All the organs of my body are operating freely in their natural functions.

Shalom!
All is well!
According to Psalm 29:11 the Lord has blessed me with peace, shalom.
He has blessed me with health, safety, prosperity, happiness, rest, wholeness, completeness.
I am whole in every way.
I am prospering.
My body is healthy.
My soul is prosperous.
Shalom! All is well!

The Wellness Road, The Prosperity Road, Part 3

As we have already seen in our study of 3 John 2, prosperity and health go hand in hand and are so much bigger than people in the Body of Christ have comprehended.
To prosper is to succeed and achieve the desires God places in our hearts.
A further study of prosper in the Strong’s Concordance reveals this: Succeed in reaching, from the word WELL and PROGRESS, ROUTE, JOURNEY, ROAD

Today we are going to see how prosperity and peace go together. Remember that in the story of the woman whose son died, the word well and peace were referenced in the King James Version of the Bible.

Prosperity is shalom, isn’t it! All is well!
Shalom is Peace----nothing missing, nothing broken, wholeness, soundness, wellness.

In Psalm 29:11 we read:
The Lord will bless His people with peace, shalom.

Once again, let’s look at the word peace in the Strong’s Concordance.
Shalom comes from shalam, which means: To be safe in mind, body or estate; fig. to be (caus. make) completed.
Shalom means: (fig) well, happy, friendly; also (abstr) welfare, i.e. health, prosperity, peace, favor, wholly, (all is, be) well, rest

Now, do you see the intertwining, the connection of the full picture. To prosper means that in this journey of life here on this earth, all is well in your life, which includes your body being healthy, your estate (natural wealth) being whole and sound, safety for you and your family, favor for you wherever you go and happiness and contentment of your life as you rest in the Lord and His peace.

Every day we advance, we grow, we increase in attaining the good things God has for us; we make progress on this road of prosperity, this road that God has mapped out for us. It is a road of health, wealth, happiness, and success. This is the picture of the prosperous child of God in the midst of this world of chaos, sickness, lack and confusion. We are not of this world. We are of the Kingdom of God in this world, representing the Lord, but we are not to be of the fabric of this world and participate in this world’s system of doing things. We are to operate according to the Word of God, obey His voice, think and act on His Word, which causes us to think and act as He does, even in the midst of less than perfect situations.

Is this a picture of utopia? No, this is a picture of reality, the reality of God and His Kingdom for us. Unfortunately, many people have been deceived into thinking that it is too good to be true when the opposite is the truth. God is a good God. He daily loads us with benefits. The problem has been that we have not accessed what He has for us. We have not known how to do it. We have not known how to receive, and satan has taken full advantage of our ignorance and deception. The Lord has only good in His plan for us. He tells us that His thoughts toward us are good and not for evil to give us a future and a hope.

Tomorrow we will make a confession that will start us on the road to accepting the fullness of the true prosperity God has given to us.

The Wellness Road, The Prosperity Road, Part 2

As we continue our study of 3 John 2, let’s go to the 1828 Webster’s Dictionary to look at definitions of the words Prosper, Health, Healthful, Healthfulness, Sound.

PROSPER:
Succeed, grow or increase, thrive, to make gain
Advance in growth, wealth or any good
Advance or gain in anything good or desirable
Attainment of object desired

So, to PROSPER means going forward, advancing, succeeding in the gain, increase, growth of anything good or desirable----attaining that good, attaining that which is desired.

In Psalm 37:4 we are told to delight ourselves in the Lord and He will give us the desires of our hearts. In other words, as we delight in the Lord, He places His desires for us in us and then He fulfills those desires for us. Isn’t He good to us! He places His righteous desires in us as His temples and then He fulfills those desires. I don’t know about you, but I think that is pretty awesome. All I have to do is delight myself in Him. He does the rest.

A friend of mine gave me a scripture that goes right along with Psalm 37:4. It is Proverbs 10:24: The desire of the righteous shall be granted.

In Isaiah 58:13,14 in the New Living Translation we see how the Lord will be our delight. We are to honor Him in everything we do and not follow our own desires and talk idly. If we do this, the Lord will be our delight.

Now let’s look at the definition of Health.

HEALTH:
State of living body in which parts are sound, well organized and disposed, and in which they all perform freely their natural function

HEALTHFUL:
Being in a sound state, as a living or organized being; having the parts or organs entire and their functions in a free, active and undisturbed operation; free from disease.

Isaiah 53:4,5 Jesus bore sickness and disease so our bodies could be free from sickness and disease.

HEALTHFULNESS:
State of being well
State in which the parts of a living body are sound and regularly performing their functions

SOUND:
Entire, unbroken, not defective, undecayed, whole, perfect, healthy and not diseased, having all organs complete and in perfect action.

So, HEALTH is that state of being well in which all the organs of our bodies are sound, whole, free from disease and operating freely their natural functions.

The Wellness Road, The Prosperity Road, Part 1

As I was praying today, the Lord took me to a very familiar scripture, 3 John 2, which most of us can quote by heart. I knew He had further revelation for us from this scripture. I will share with you over the next several days what He shared with me. It is about prosperity and a true picture of the way God sees prosperity. Unfortunately, the devil has done a number on the Body of Christ where prosperity is concerned. There are two extremes. There are those who think that prosperity is only about money and avoid any reference to it. Then there are those who think that prosperity is all about money and what great things you can get. The true prosperity is what we are about to study. True prosperity does involve money but that is such a small part of it.

3 John 2 KJV and Amplified Bible
Beloved, I wish or pray above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.
Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in every way and [that your body] may keep well, even as [I know] your soul keeps well and prospers.

This is the Apostle John’s prayer for the people in his care. If this is his prayer, then we need to look at it. He was the apostle of love. He knew the Lord Jesus Christ intimately and understood His ways because he, John, was a disciple in the inner circle of intimacy with the Lord.

First, as a confession, this is the way the Lord showed me to confess this verse. Put your own name in there.
Kialeen, Prosper, Be in health; Soul, Prosper.

The NIV translation says: May all go well with you. Get along well. Enjoy good health. The Wuest translation says: Continually have good health

As we look at this verse in depth, one of the things that was brought to my mind was the woman whose son’s birth was prophesied by the prophet Elisha and then whose son died. She went to the prophet and when he asked her how things were, she said this: It is well. As she left home to go to the prophet, her statement to her husband was: It shall be well. In the King James version of the Bible there is a little footnote that says well means peace.

As we study this verse in 3 John we will see the relationship between well, peace or shalom and prosperity. It is a most interesting revelation to open up the knowledge of God’s provision for all of us.

Prosperity

We close our study of Psalms with Psalm 112, the Psalm of the Righteous and the way God prospers us. It is a Psalm of prosperity. We must remember that prosperity doesn’t just involve money as so many people have surmised. Prosperity means to be successful and achieve results, achieve our goals, to succeed in whatever we place our hand to, to be healthy, strong, financially blessed, happily married, children flourishing, and accomplishing God’s plan for us on this earth. That’s prosperity!

Listen to Psalm 112, a Psalm for every one of God’s children.

Praise ye the Lord. Blessed is the man that fears (reveres, worships) the Lord, that delights greatly in His commandments.
His seed shall be mighty upon earth: the generation of the upright shall be blessed.
Wealth and riches shall be in his house: and his righteousness endures forever.
Unto the upright there arises light in the darkness: he is gracious, and full of compassion, and righteous.
A good man shows favor, and lends: he will guide his affairs with discretion, good judgment.
Surely he shall not be moved forever: the righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance.
He shall not be afraid of evil tidings: his heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord.
His heart is established, he shall not be afraid, until he see his desire upon his enemies.
He has dispersed, he has given to the poor; his righteousness endures forever; his horn shall be exalted with honor.
The wicked shall see it, and be grieved; he shall gnash with his teeth, and melt away: the desire of the wicked shall perish.

This is the profile of a prosperous person, a covenant person.

This is you today, regardless of whether you look like it or not, feel like it or not, act like it or not. This is you as the Father’s child, heir with Jesus Christ.

The Benefits of Serving The Lord

Psalm 103:1-5 sums up our whole life with the Lord. It covers it all.

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 (remember) all his benefits.
Who forgives all our iniquities; who heals all our diseases;
Who redeems our lives from destruction;
Who crowns us with lovingkindness and tender mercies;
Who satisfies our mouth with good things, so that our youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

Look at this.

As we bless the Lord with all that is within us, as we bless His holy name, it causes us to remember His benefits. God has got benefits. This benefit package is out of this world.

He forgives all our iniquities, every one of them.
He heals all our diseases, sicknesses, every one of them.
He redeems (buys back) our life from destruction.
He crowns us (surrounds us) with His love and mercy.
He satisfies our mouth only with good things so that our youth is renewed (restored) like the eagle’s. (I always add here: strong and powerful and soaring like the eagle’s.)

This is the whole plan of redemption in several verses. They cover our spirits, our souls and our bodies. Our spirits are redeemed and ALL our iniquities forgiven. Our souls are reminded that He loves us and surrounds us with His love and mercy. Our bodies are healed of ALL diseases. He takes care of our mouths, which are our vehicles here on this earth for His Kingdom, by filling them with good things. And on top of everything, we have the bonus of a long and strong life, with our youth renewed, restored.

God has covered it all. What a benefit plan!

The Righteous

I love Psalm 92, verses 12 through 15 in the Amplified Bible. I speak them frequently regarding myself.

I as the uncompromisingly righteous shall flourish like the palm tree, be long-lived, stately, upright, useful and fruitful.
I shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon, majestic, stable, durable, and incorruptible.
Planted in the house of the Lord, I shall flourish in the courts of my God.
Growing in grace, I shall still bring forth fruit in old age.
I shall be full of sap, of spiritual vitality.
I shall be rich in the verdure, the vigorous, flourishing, growing condition of trust, love and contentment.
I am a living memorial to show that the Lord is upright and faithful to His promises.
He is my Rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.

Don’t you love these verses? I grow to love them more and more as I grow older. What scriptures to speak over ourselves. Look at the wealth of Word power for us as God’s children in these verses.

We will flourish. We will live long. We will be stately (have a presence of dignity and honor). We will be useful. We will bear fruit all our lives.
We will be majestic, because His Majesty lives in us.
We endure long, not in the bad sense, but in the sense of stability.
We are incorruptible because we are born of the incorruptible seed of the Word of God as born again believers.
We are planted in God’s house. We absolutely flourish in His courts.
We grow in grace, God’s ability in us.
We bring forth fruit in our old age, even unto the end.
We are growing in trust every day and vigorously flourishing in trust.
We are growing in love every day and vigorously flourishing in love.
We are growing in contentment every day and vigorously flourishing in contentment.
We are living (not dead) examples of God’s faithfulness to His promises in His Word to us.
He is our Rock of stability. We lean on His righteousness since there is no unrighteousness in Him.

Wow! I love these scriptures. Don’t you enjoy God’s Word!

My Mouth

Here is what our mouth and lips should be saying continually. Look at Psalm 71:8,15,23,24 in the Amplified Bible. Once again, these verses are excellent confessions.

My mouth shall be filled with Your praise and with Your honor all day.

My mouth shall tell of Your righteous acts and of Your deeds of salvation all the day, for their number is more than I know.

My lips shall shout for joy when I sing praises to You, and my inner being, which You have redeemed.

My tongue also shall talk of Your righteousness all the day long….


Our mouth, our tongue, our lips are to talk of God’s righteousness all the day long. We are to fill our mouth with praise and shouts of joy to the Lord. We do this because we are so happy we are redeemed, bought with the price of Jesus’ blood out of the hand of the enemy, satan, and his stealing, killing and destroying. We praise God all day long because He has delivered us; He has saved us. What He did for us and does for us is so much we cannot count all of the things He does for us.

All day long, and actually all night until we go to sleep, we are to be extolling the Lord with our mouth, lips and tongue.

Praise Him! Honor Him! Extol Him! Shout to Him with joy! Talk of His goodness!

His Power

Psalm 62:11 tells us that God has spoken once, twice have I heard this: that power belongs to God.
Of course, we all know that power belongs to God. What kind of power are we talking about here? God’s power has its origination within Him Who is Love. Love is the power of God. Agape Love, God’s Love, is different from human love. Human love looks for response. Human love looks for affirmation. Human love looks for reciprocity. Human love is two-sided, expecting return. God’s love is the opposite. God’s love never looks for affirmation or response or reciprocity or return. God’s love is one-sided. He gave. That’s it. That’s God’s love. He gave. Therein lies the essence of His power.

God is Love. He dwells in Love. Love dwells in us. Therefore, power dwells in us. God’s Love, God’s power dwells in us because the Holy Spirit of God dwells in us, shedding the love of God abroad in our hearts, pouring it forth from us.

This is the hiding place, the secret place of the Most High God----His love. He is all love. He is nothing else. What we must do is seek Him Who is Love with all our hearts, our whole being, and we will operate in His love. We are never to seek power. We are to seek Him, and His power will be evident in our lives. The way He demonstrates His power through us is His fruit and His gifts being evidenced through us. As we seek Him with all we are, His nature, which is His fruit will be evident to others. He will be able to use us with His gifts without us becoming self-centered and arrogant. The gifts are best utilized through those who are fruitful with God’s fruit.

God’s power is awesome when it is displayed, but that is not what we seek. We seek Him; we desire Him as our lover; we go after Him with all we have, and He will demonstrate His power through us on the behalf of others.

As God spoke to me 34 years ago: God’s divine love is the greatest power in the universe.

Cast, Decree, Fix

Psalm 55:22 (1 Peter 5:7, Hebrews 13:5) and Psalm 57:2 and 7 go together. Listen to this in the Amplified Bible as I personalize it for all of us. Let’s make this our confession today.

I cast my burden on the Lord, releasing the weight of it and He will sustain me.. I cast the whole of my care, all my anxieties, all my worries, all my concerns, once and for all on Him, for He cares about me affectionately and cares about me watchfully. He will never allow me as His righteous one to be moved, made to slip, fall or fail. No, He surely will not. For God Himself has said, I will not in any way fail you nor give you up nor leave you without support. I will not, I will not, I will not in any degree leave you helpless nor forsake nor let you down, relax My hold on you! Assuredly not!

I will cry (declare, decree, speak with the voice of the Word) to God Most High, Who performs on my behalf and rewards me, Who brings to pass His purposes for me and surely completes them.

My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is steadfast and confident! I will sing and make melody.

These verses all together tell us that when our heart is fixed and immovable and we release our burdens on Him, speaking and praising Him with the voice of His Word, He performs His Word on our behalf. He brings to pass what His Word says. He completes the job. He never leaves it half done.

Wisdom and Understanding

This is a confession we all should be making continually.

Psalm 49:3
My mouth shall speak of wisdom; and the meditation of my heart shall be of understanding.

My mouth, this mouth of mine, shall speak of wisdom. Wisdom, the wisdom of God, is what comes out of my mouth. Nothing else comes out of my mouth. I speak only the Wisdom of God. That is all I speak.

As I meditate on God’s Word, ponder it, think on it, consider it, that meditation gives me understanding in my inner man. I understand the things of God. He gives me His understanding as I ponder His Word. As I meditate on Him and His goodness and His faithfulness and His nature and all that He is and has and has given to me, I get understanding of Him and His ways. The more I meditate on Him and His Word, the more I understand Him and His Word.

Understanding of God and His ways comes by and through meditation of God’s Word.

Trust, Delight, Commit

Here are familiar verses in a familiar Psalm that most of us know. What promises we have here.

Psalm 37:3,4,5
Trust in the Lord, and do good; so shall you dwell in the land, and verily you shall be fed.
Delight yourself also in the Lord; and he shall give you the desires of your heart.
Commit your way unto the Lord; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass.

We are to trust in the Lord. That trust means that we rely on Him for everything. We are confident of His ability to take care of us. We look to Him for our every need to be supplied, our every want to be fulfilled. We shall dwell in His land of plenty. We shall be fed.

As we delight ourselves in the Lord, worshipping Him, revering Him, getting lost in His Presence, He delights to give us the desires of our heart. He puts the desires in there so that He can fulfill the desires. Isn’t that something! We have a Heavenly Father Who puts the desire in there so we can desire it so that He can give it to us, whatever the “it” might be.

Here is the “kicker’ clause. We are to commit our ways to the Lord; we are to trust in Him. When we do that, He shall bring to pass our desires.

Trust, delight, commit----three powerful words. We are to trust in the Lord, delight in Him, and commit our ways to Him. The results are: Being bountifully supplied, even having our desires fulfilled. What a God we serve!

Trust – You’ll be fed.
Delight – You’ll be given the desires of your heart.
Commit – He’ll bring it to pass.

Feed on Him and His faithfulness to you.
Delight in Him and He will even give you those secret petitions of your heart.
Commit your way to Him (that means to roll your care over on Him) and He’ll bring your desire to pass.

The Voice Of The Lord

Psalm 29, verse 4 tells us that the voice of the Lord is powerful, full of power. The proclamations of the Lord are full of power. The Bible is God’s voice proclaiming what He has given to us, Who He is, how His Kingdom operates, and His laws of operation. When you and I as believers declare God’s Word, the entire spiritual realm hears God speaking to them. And they obey His voice. His Word is His voice that He has given to us to declare over our lives. The voice of the Lord is His Word.

The voice of the Lord is full of majesty, full of His anointing, full of His very being, His nature. When we speak His Word, the anointing, the power of God is released to do what His Word says it will do. His Word is His voice. When we decree it, we release His ability to do what He loves to do, perform His Word on our behalf. There is nothing that can withstand the power of God’s Word. It is His voice released in the earth. When God speaks, everyone listens. Hear the voice of the Lord. Hear the Word of the Lord.

As we allow God’s voice to be heard in our lives, His Presence brings His peace, His strength, His power on our behalf. He is in the midst of us. Let us declare, decree, make known His Word to all the earth and throughout all the earth. Hold up His Word for all to hear.

Psalm 33, verses 6,9 and 11 show us that God’s word is powerful. Listen.
By the word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth.
For he spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast.
The counsel of the Lord stands for ever; the thoughts of his heart to all generations.

Every time you speak His Word, you are releasing His power on your behalf and on the behalf of those for whom you are praying the Word.

Worship Him

In Psalm 25, verse 14 we read this in the Amplified Bible.

The secret [of the sweet, satisfying companionship] of the Lord have they who fear (revere and worship) Him, and He will show them His covenant and reveal to them its [deep, inner] meaning.

When we worship the Lord and reverence Him, we have fellowship with Him; He is our companion. As our companion, He reveals the deep, hidden, inner meaning of His covenant to us. The more time we spend with Him, the more we understand the true reality of the covenant He made with us. Oh, His covenant covers it all. His covenant is the means by which He has made every provision for our every need. All we will ever need has already been provided for in the covenant of the Lord. We really only have one thing to do: enjoy His Presence and bask in His Blessing for us. He does the rest. In fact, He has already done the hard thing; He has purchased our life for us and all that we need is included in that purchase agreement called the covenant. His signature is written with His very blood. It is the guarantee for all time for every one who will partake of His Blessing.

Our Inheritance

We are going to read verses 5-11 in Psalm 16 from the Amplified Bible and NEB and NLT.

The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance, my destiny. The Lord is my chosen and assigned portion, my cup; You hold and maintain my lot. You determine my destiny. You alone are my inheritance, my cup of blessing. You guard all that is mine.
The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; yes, I have a good heritage.
I will bless the Lord, Who has given me counsel; yes, my heart instructs me in the night seasons. In the night season wisdom comes to me.
I have set the Lord continually before me; because He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.
Therefore, my heart is glad and my glory [my inner self] rejoices; my body too shall rest and confidently dwell in safety.
For You will not abandon me to Sheol (the place of the dead), neither will You suffer Your holy one [Holy One] to see corruption.
You will show me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy, at Your right hand there are pleasures forevermore.

These scriptures are talking about the joy we can experience in the Lord’s Presence and the benefits of being in His Presence. We have a good heritage; He determines our destiny. We can rely on Him. He is our Blessing. He guards our stuff. He counsels us. He instructs us even when we sleep. His wisdom comes to us as we sleep. He keeps us steadfast, unmovable because he is not moved. He shows us the one true path of life. In that pathway is fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore.

Refuge And Stronghold

The Psalms are full of scriptures on refuge and stronghold. God is our refuge, our stronghold all the time. He is our place of protection.

Look at these verses.

Psalm 9:9,10 in the Amplified Bible
The Lord also will be a refuge and a high tower for the oppressed, a refuge and a stronghold in times of trouble (high cost, destitution, and desperation).
And they who know Your name [who have experience and acquaintance with Your mercy] will lean on and confidently put their trust in You, for You, Lord, have not forsaken those who seek (inquire of and for) You [on the authority of God’s Word and the right of their necessity].

God is our place of protection, our refuge, our high tower, our stronghold all the time. He is our stronghold in the good times, and He is our stronghold in the bad times. When prices are high, He takes care of us. When we feel alone and destitute, He is with us. We are not alone. When we are desperate for answers, He is there with the answers. What we have to do is get quiet and shut down our frenetic activity so that we can hear Him. There is a lot of noise all around us these days. The television is yelling that the economies of the world are hurting, that the US is in desperate places economically, etc. etc. etc. Whose report must we believe? I am not saying: Whose report do you believe? I am saying: Whose report MUST we believe? We must believe God and His Word. He tells us over and over that He will take care of us and provide for us. We are to look to Him and not to man and his economy.

When we know the Lord, we know His name. We have experience with Him. He is not just a passing acquaintance. He is our friend, our Father, our Helper. He is always there. He will not forsake us. We must seek Him. Whenever we seek Him, we will find Him. Why? Because He is always right there with us and for us. What happens to us, myself included, is that we sometimes panic when we are in a desperate situation. Panic is not a part of the child of God’s life. As a child of God, you are protected. You are taken care of. God is providing for your deliverance. Don’t give up. Stay steadfast on His Word and believe that His Word is working in your life, even when you don’t see anything happening. His Word is working in the unseen realm, bringing the unseen into the seen realm of this earth. Stand still and stay steady. Don’t move from the Word. It is your place of protection.

Psalm 16:1, Amplified Bible
Keep and protect me, O God, for in You I have found refuge, and in You do I put my trust and hide myself.

God's Covering

In Psalm 5, verses 11 and 12 in the Amplified Bible we read:
But let all those who take refuge and put their trust in You rejoice; let them ever sing and shout for joy, because You make a covering over them and defend them; let those also who love Your name be joyful in You and be in high spirits.
For You, Lord, will bless the [uncompromisingly] righteous [him who is upright and in right standing with You]; as with a shield You will surround him with good-will (pleasure and favor).

When we trust the Lord, when we take refuge in Him (for our protection), we can rejoice. We can sing and shout for joy. Why? He makes a covering over us who trust Him. Our praises and rejoicing creates a covering of joy for us, the joy of the Lord. His joy protects us and serves as a covering, as a protection for us wherever we are. The Lord protects us; He defends us against our enemies. What are some of these enemies? Doubt, unbelief, fear, anxiety, poverty, sickness and disease, lack, want, oppression, depression, loneliness, rejection, bitterness, unforgiveness. These are our enemies sent to steal God’s joy from us and render us helpless instead of joyful. When we are full of joy (and it doesn’t depend on our circumstances), there is nothing for our enemy to grab hold of. In the middle of the worst circumstances of our lives, we can stand and rejoice, deliberately, on purpose, and do totally the opposite of what we are feeling.

Then in verse 12 we see that the Lord will bless us, His children, with favor like a shield of protection. Everywhere we go, we will have favor. We will be blessed wherever we go. The Blessing of the Lord will go before us, behind us, surround us.

These two scriptures are powerful for us as God’s children. Ponder them today for your life.

Blessed

For the next several weeks, we are going to be spending time in the Psalms. It is one of my favorite Old Testament books in the Bible.

Let’s start with chapter 1 today.

Verse 1 Blessed, is the man (or woman) who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful.
Verse 2 But his delight is in the law of the Lord (His Word); and in his law (Word) he meditates day and night.
Verse 3 And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither (fade); and whatsoever he does shall prosper.

We are blessed when we seeks God’s counsel, when we walk in His way (walk in the Spirit), and when we fellowship with those who speak life into others.

The blessed person delights in God’s Word. He thinks on it and considers it all the time, 24-7.

The blessed person shall be like a tree with deep roots which is planted by the water (the water of the Word). He is fruitful, produces the fruit of the spirit for all to partake. He is consistent, steadfast all the time and he does not wear out, grow weary, faint or become tired. How is that possible in this world of pressure all around? We see the answer right before that. We are to stay in the Word. It is not always easy to stay with the Word when it looks like things are not working for you. The easiest thing to do is to sit down, give up and quit. And then where are you? You are in the same place you would have been if you had not quit. But when we quit, it becomes tougher than it was. God’s Word is the only thing that will bring us out when we are overwhelmed. We go to Him, the Word, to get our sustenance. He strengthens us and keeps us going until we go over to the other side which is called victory.

We see from the last part of verse 3 that everything we do will prosper, when we are people of the Word, when we consider Jesus the Word and all that He has provided for us. It is not automatic and doesn’t fall off a tree like ripe cherries. We have to contend for the faith because we have an enemy who does not want us to prosper, succeed, be healthy, enjoy life. He contends for the Word that has been sown in your life. He is after the Word seed. He could care less about you and me. He is after the Word which is planted in our hearts, because He knows that if he can get the Word, he has got your life and rendered you helpless. Whatever you do, don’t give up the Word. It is your very life, particularly in the world in which we live today. Keep on keeping on. You are a winner that satan is trying to convince that you are a loser. He is very convincing sometimes, but don’t listen to him. Listen to the Lord. Listen to His Word. Listen to what He has to say. We are His sheep and we do hear His voice.

The greatest desire of God is to bless His children. We must believe that. Here is where we will start. Believe that God desires to bless you. It’s a simple statement, but we must believe it.

Rest In Him

Jesus instructs us in Matthew 11:28,29,30 to come to Him and find rest from our cares. Let’s look at that passage today.

Come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek, and lowly in heart; and you shall find rest unto your souls.
For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

The Lord knows us. He knows that we as human beings will have the tendency to carry a heavy load of worries and concerns. So He gives us very specific instructions. We are to take His yoke upon us. His yoke is easy and His burden is light. We will find rest for our souls.

As we look at Isaiah 10:27 in connection with these verses we read this (and it is in reference to the strong man whether Assyrian or satan):
And it shall come to pass in that day, that his burden shall be taken away from off your shoulder, and his yoke from off your neck, and the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing.

As we put together these two scripture passages, one in the Old Testament and the other Jesus’ words in the New Testament, we see this: The anointing of the Lord removes earthly burdens and destroys earthly yokes, things which hold us back and weigh us down. The anointing is the Holy Spirit Himself in the power of God-Love. What we are yoked with will determine whether it is easy or hard. If we are yoked with the cares of the world, they are heavy and pull us in the opposite direction from the Lord and from faith. If we are yoked with the Lord, we go in the same direction of Him and His faith. We are equally yoked. And His burden is light because it is not a burden but a joy to carry His Love instead of earthly burdens, cares, worries, anxieties, fretfulness. That word yoke means coupling. What are you coupled with? What are you carrying-----the anointing or earthly cares? You can’t carry both.

I love what the Amplified Bible says in this passage in Matthew 11. It is saying to us that instead of laboring and being heavy laded and overburdened, we are to come to Jesus. He will cause us to rest. He will ease us, relieve us and refresh our souls. Do you like that? And then it says that as we take the yoke of Jesus on us and learn of Him, who is gentle and humble, we will find rest, relief and ease and refreshment and recreation and blessed quiet for our souls. In today’s modern world we can use some of that, can’t we? For Jesus’ yoke (coupling----being coupled with Him) is useful, wholesome and good and not the opposite of harshness, hardness, sharpness or pressure. His yoke is comfortable, gracious and pleasant. His burden is light and easy to be borne.

REST IN HIM!

Fruit

In one of the ministry magazines that we get each month, there has been a feature article for elementary school children on the fruit of the spirit. For an entire month, every day this girl is practicing one of the fruit of the spirit. It is remarkable the change that it is making in her and in those around her. This whole series has started me thinking in terms of how we practice the fruit of the spirit. We can’t practice all of them at once, but we could do what this girl is doing.

Let’s refresh our memories with Galatians 5:22 and 23.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

What a list of the characteristics of the Lord. That is who we are if He dwells in us as born again believers. In our spirits is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. All of these are inside us. What we have to do is stir them up by exercising ourselves in each one.

I am challenging myself and each of you to do what this girl is doing. Let’s take the first fruit for the month of August and practice love, love in all situations we encounter. For one month, let’s practice love. And each month thereafter, let’s take up the next one until we have done all nine, and then we can start over again for the rest of our lives. I can assure you that each of us will be more “fruity” in a good way. We will taste deliciously good.

We know that the opposite of the fruit of the spirit man is the fruit of the fleshly, earthly, carnal, sensual man. Every one of us can easily yield to those fruit. The human being can automatically respond in a fleshly way, even after being born again. Fruit takes time to develop. It starts with the plant and then the bud and then the little fruit and then the ripe fruit. All of us have taken years to practice the fruit of the flesh. Now, it is time to practice the fruit of the spirit, controlled by the Holy Spirit Who lives inside us and makes us His temples.

I find it very interesting that the very next verse after 23 says this.
Amplified Bible
And those who belong to Christ Jesus (the Messiah) have crucified the flesh (the godless human nature) with its passions and appetites and desires. What does crucify mean? It means nailing it to the cross. How do we do that? We ask Jesus, the One Who was crucified for us, to help us say no to our flesh and yes to our spirits. We make the choice; we exercise our wills to allow the fruit of the Lord Jesus Christ to control our lives.

Jesus has won the battle for us against the flesh. It is only through yielding to Him that we personally will win the battle of our own flesh versus our spirits. Instead of reacting, we must act. Instead of reacting in anger, we must choose to act in love. Instead of reacting in strife, we must choose to act in peace. Instead of reacting to depression and discouragement, we must choose to act in joy. Instead of reacting to impatience, we must choose to act patiently. Instead of reacting in harshness, we must choose to act in gentleness. Instead of reacting in ugliness, we must choose to act in goodness. Instead of reacting in fear and unfaithfulness, we must choose to act in faith, full of faith. Instead of reacting in pride, we must choose to act in meekness. Instead of reacting in overindulgence, we must choose to act in temperance.

When we operate in the fruit of God’s Spirit, there is no other law on this earth that can come against us and win or succeed. We are operating in the law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus when we choose the fruit of the Spirit of God (Who is in our spirit) as our way of living. Then the law of sin and death has no power over us.

In Galatians 5:17,18 in the Amplified Bible we see that when we are led by the Spirit of God, which means we will walk in the fruit of His Presence, displaying His characteristics, we are not subject to the law. What law? The law of the flesh, the law of sin and death.

For the desires of the flesh are opposed to the (Holy) Spirit, and [the desires of the] Spirit are opposed to the flesh (godless human nature); for these are antagonistic to each other [continually withstanding and in conflict with each other], so that you are not free but are prevented from doing what you desire to do.
But if you are guided (led) by the [Holy] Spirit, you are not subject to the Law.

There is only one law we are subject to: that is, the Law of Love, which is the law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus. Within that Law of Love is all the fruit of the Spirit of God.

It’s time to allow the fruit to develop to maturity.

Rewards Of Kindness

Today was a day of the reality of the “rewards-of-kindness” day for me. As I left the house early this morning, I had a full day of shopping planned. I had a choice of either looking at it as an insurmountable amount of stuff I had to do or to place the day in God’s hands. I prayed for the Holy Spirit to guide my entire day in what I said, did and thought. I asked for favor in parking lots, at cash registers and in the stores. I believed I received the results of those prayers prayed.

It has been an awesome day. At the first store there were huge crowds, but I stayed focused on the Lord and He guided me down every aisle at the right time. In one of the aisles, I stopped and talked with a store employee about the blessing of the Lord that He has available for each one of us. I could see her eyes take on a spark of enthusiasm. As I was walking down the next aisle, a lady and I started talking and she gave me an idea for purchasing something I needed at a minimum of the price I would have paid. Reward!

Next stop, I had an opportunity to talk with the girl at the cash register because there were no other people around. I shared the love of Jesus with her and went out the door. As I was going to my car, I had an idea for something else I needed and “just happened” to see a sale basket with the very thing I needed at 70 per cent off the original price. Reward!

Next stop, I talked with the sales clerk and complimented her on her dress for the day. I “unexpectedly” found a blouse to match a pair of capris I had bought on sale. This blouse was the only one on the rack in my size for 75 per cent off. I also found an item that I had needed, which was also on sale. Reward!

Next stop, and this is the most exciting one of all, or at least I think so. Well, there was one that almost matched it later in the day. For several weeks, I have been looking for an item that no store carries in my area. You guessed it. They had just gotten this item in, moments before I arrived at the store, and they have never carried them before. They were still in boxes on the cart, ready to be placed on the shelves later. The clerk gave me one of the boxes I needed. I couldn’t help myself. I looked up and said, “Thank You, Father. You are so good to me.” And then I had an opportunity to tell her that she could have the same wonderful relationship with the Lord. It was about sowing seeds of kindness. Reward!

Next stop, I had the most delightful conversation with an elderly lady who was 85 years old. It happened because I waited for her at the door and told her to have a good day. We stopped and chatted for several moments. She couldn’t believe someone would be interested in an older lady. We parted with words of kindness for one another for the weekend. I so enjoyed talking with her.

Of course, you know what happened. I had favor everywhere I went in that store, the final stop of the day. A clerk went out of her way to reserve something for me to be picked up several days later. I found exactly what I wanted, with a few surprises here and there. Reward!

What a totally delicious day, and all because I purposed to sow seeds of kindness everywhere I went.

I was blessed and God used me to cause others to feel better about themselves, all because He was allowed to smile through me, talk through me and act through me.

All of us have these wonderful opportunities every day to bless others. What we must do is not be in such a hurry to get things done that we miss the best that life has to offer. There is no price tag on kindness, and it doesn’t cost you a lot of time to smile, take a few moments to bless someone and go on your way. Jesus loves to do that, and we are his mouthpieces, hands and feet in this earth.

Sow some seeds of kindness today.