Pearls of Wisdom

The Lord Is Good

2011-04-01T07:52:00.000-07:00

Psalm 107:1,15,13,14,20
O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good; for his mercy endures forever.
Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!
Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and He saved them out of their troubles.
He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death and broke apart the bonds that held them.
He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.

God is good to us all the time. In the middle of trouble, He is right there, interceding and intercepting the fiery darts of the enemy on our behalf. In His merciful love He reaches out to us and tells us everything is going to be all right.

We can praise the Lord all our lives for His goodness and His mercy and His grace. He is good. His goodness surrounds us at all times. His goodness and mercy follow us all the days of our lives. God is a good God. He HAS (Past Tense) set us free from satan’s authority and the consequences of sin. Our dear Heavenly Father always has us before His eyes. We are imprinted on His hand and forever painted on His heart.

GIVE THANKS TO THE LORD FOR HE IS GOOD!

My Friend, The Holy Spirit

2011-03-31T12:59:00.000-07:00

In John 14:26 and 16:13-15 Jesus spoke some powerful statements about the Holy Spirit. One of the most important statements that Jesus made is for us especially in today’s world. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth. We need Truth more than we have ever needed it before. The Truth will keep us from being deceived. The Holy Spirit of Truth will expose lying spirits and those who tell lies. We must be aware at all times of the Truth of God so that we can offset the lies of the enemy.

Holy Spirit, You are the Spirit of Truth. You give me the Truth of God’s Kingdom.
You are my COMFORTER
COUNSELOR
HELPER
INTERCESSOR
ADVOCATE
STRENGTHENER
STANDBY
You teach me all things.
You bring all things to my remembrance.

Holy Spirit of Truth, the Truth-giving Spirit,
You will guide me into all Truth, the whole, full Truth.
You will give the message given to You by the Father.
You will announce and declare to me things that are to come, that will happen in the future.
You will honor and glorify Jesus.
You will receive or take of what is Jesus’ and reveal, declare, disclose, and transmit it to me.

Focus on God’s Word of Truth and His Spirit of Truth. That is our keeping power.

Faith To Believe, Ability To Receive

2011-03-30T06:56:00.000-07:00

God gives us His faith to believe (Romans 12:3, Mark 11:22) and then gives us His grace, His ability to receive.

God is so good to us. When we are born again, He comes to live in us with all that He is. His faith is inside us. People have believed that one person has more faith than another. No, no! God is no respecter of persons. That is what His Word says, so for one person to have more faith than another would be contrary to God’s Word. The reason it appears that some have more faith than others is that they have developed their faith more than others.

We are all on an equal playing field the minute we get born again. We all are given the Holy Spirit of God Who dwells in us with all the attributes of God. Faith is one of those attributes. It is part of God’s makeup. As we study God’s Word and learn of Him, our faith grows and develops. We have the faith of God dwelling in us because He is dwelling in us. It is actually not our human faith that is our title deed to all that God has for us. It is confidence in His faith in us giving substance to the things that we have Bible hope for. Both hope and faith are developed in us.

Here is the neat part! God even gives us His ability to receive what He gives us the faith to believe. I think that is so wonderful. He helps us to receive what He has for us. He gifts us with His ability to receive what we are desiring and believing. What an awesome God! He wants us to be able to receive what He has for us more than we want to receive. He is there cheering us on!

Say this:
I have the measure of the faith of God on the inside of me.
I do not lack faith!
I have faith, the faith of God living in me!
God’s faith in me is causing my faith to become stronger and bolder every day.
God’s faith in me is causing my faith to be built up every day.
I have God’s ability to receive.
He has gifted me with His anointing to receive.
I HAVE FAITH! I RECEIVE!
I RECEIVE IT! I HAVE IT! I TAKE IT!

The Lord Our God Fights Our Battles

2011-03-28T19:42:00.000-07:00

2 Chronicles 32:7,8, NKJV
Be strong and courageous; do not be afraid and dismayed before (whatever the probelm or person is) nor before the multitude that is with him, for there are more with us than with him. With him is an arm of flesh, but with us is the Lord our God, to help us and fight our battles. And the people were strengthened….

Joshua 1:3,5,6a,7,8,9,11b
Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you, as I said unto Moses.
There shall not any man be able to stand before you all the days of your life; as I was with Moses, so I will be with you: I will not fail you, nor forsake you.
Be strong and of a good courage….
Only be strong and very courageous, that you may observe to do according to all the law (word), which Moses my servant commanded you: turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may prosper where you go.
This book of the law (this Word) shall not depart out of your mouth, but you shall meditate therein day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall have good success.
Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be dismayed: for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.
….Go in to possess the land, which the Lord your God gives you to possess it.

The Lord Your God fights every battle for you and makes you victorious. Take courage from Him and His Word. Leave fear behind. God is with you. He never fails. He only succeeds.

God's Proof or Satan's Proof

2011-03-27T19:03:00.000-07:00

Hebrews 11:1, Amplified Bible
Now faith is the substance (the confirmation, the title deed) of the things [we] hope for, being the proof of things [we] do not see and the conviction of their reality [faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses].

Faith in God and His Word is the substance of things we hope for (Bible hope based on the Word of God). Faith cannot be seen with the physical eye. If you want something to look at, the Word of God is the substance of things we hope for.

The Word of God is our title deed to what we cannot see in this natural realm. It is the title deed which tells us what we own. Take ownership of the faith of God (the Word of God) that He has deposited in your spirit man when you were born again. When you have title to a piece of property, it belongs to you---it is yours. You have the proof in your hand. Likewise, this Word of God is your proof that you have everything God has in His Kingdom. He has given it to you as His child. It belongs to you. We have our proof----the Word of God----which convicts us of the reality of our possessing what we cannot see yet with our physical eyes.

Don’t let satan’s proof of reality in his physical realm convince you. Symptoms of sickness and disease are satan’s proof. “By the stripes that wounded Jesus we are healed and made whole” is God’s proof. Lack of finances and poverty is satan’s proof. “My God shall supply all my needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus” is God’s proof.

Every time, we must allow God’s proof to override satan’s proof in our lives.

Provider

2011-03-25T09:10:00.000-07:00

“What began as an inspiration, a dream without limitations, has become a reality you’ll never forget.” I just read this on an email from a cruise line which launched their newest ship. It struck me that that is the way God is. He gives us dreams without limitations. Everything about Him is a reality we will never forget. He is above and beyond what we can dream or think or imagine possible. He is The Provider of all providers.

In Genesis 22:14 we see the first time that God revealed Himself as Jehovah-Jireh, our Provider. We all know the story of Abraham being willing to offer his only son Isaac in response to the Lord’s request. We know that he was a type of the Father Himself offering His only Son Jesus for us on the altar as our substitute. In a few weeks we will celebrate that event, Easter. God provided the ram for the offering in the place of Isaac.

The word Jehovah-Jireh literally means, The Lord will see. God sees ahead of time, down the road, what you and I will need for our lives. Even when it looks like things are really tough and there appears to be no way to take care of a situation, we must remember that God already saw us in that situation and He has a provision made for us. He is always our answer. He will always take care of us. It is our Father’s good pleasure to do things for us. He delights in giving us His best.

When tough times come, look to Him. There are no tough times in God’s Kingdom. There is no such thing. We get uptight when we depend on our own ideas of provision instead of allowing God the freedom to make provision. Yield to Him! Deliberately, by an act of your will, depend on Him, even when you feel like you can’t. He will even help you to believe and yield to His ability to provide. Living with Him is living the good life! Yield! He will come through for YOU!

HE IS MY PROVIDER!

God's Healing Touch

2011-03-24T13:45:00.000-07:00

Have you ever been in a place, or maybe you are there now, where you needed to know that God was with you in a personal, touchable way? You know the Word says He is in you and you have accepted it by faith that He is there, but you would like to have some indication He knows what you need. Oh, come on now, don’t be so pious with me. We all have needed that, haven’t we?

Today, let’s talk about God’s healing power, His ability to take care of us in any situation.

The 1828 American Dictionary of the English Language defines healing as wholeness, soundness, to return to a sound state, to cure of a disease or wound and restore to soundness, or to that state of body in which the natural functions are regularly performed, to restore to soundness, to cure.

When something is sound or whole, it is in a state where it operates and functions the way it was created to function, without hindrance. It is complete, with nothing missing that would contribute to that perfect state of operation.

When Adam and Eve sinned, they lost the capacity for their bodies to stay sound, operating in the way that God had created them. Oh, but Jesus came and He paid the price for a sound physical body once again. When His blood was shed at that whipping post for our sicknesses and diseases, every stripe represented another category of disease where the body was concerned. And when He hung on that cross and took upon Himself all of the curse of the law, He took every symptom, pain, sickness and disease that would ever come on us. He took it all. Now we are free of the curse of the law. He became a curse so that the Blessing of Abraham might come on us. Part of that blessing is health and healing.

So, what are we to do when pain hits our body, when symptoms appear, when sickness attacks? We take authority over that pain, that symptom, that sickness and command it to leave. It comes from satan and we refuse to receive any of his package. He is a liar and a thief and a destroyer and a killer. We stand our ground. We refuse to let go of what Jesus has purchased for us. It is ours. It legally belongs to us. He is illegally trespassing on our bodies and he is to leave, to be evicted. He is not to be allowed to take up residence or even rent a room. We are the temples of the Holy Ghost. Jesus has bought and paid for us. We are not our own. We are bought with a price.

In Isaiah 53:4,5 and 1 Peter 2:24 we are told that with the stripes that wounded Jesus we are healed and made whole. In other words, we are restored to health. We are restored to soundness and wholeness.

I think that is the best news I have ever heard. Believe what the Word of God says is yours personally. Trust the Lord to bring to pass in your life personally what His Word says about healing. Choose to believe that you will be made whole. Choose to believe that Jesus took care of your own body and freed you from sickness and disease.

We all live on this earth and we all will have to battle symptoms from time to time and pain that attempts to convince us that there is something dreadfully wrong with us. Just say, NO! No, you don’t. You are not taking my health from me. It belongs to me. I have received it as a gift from my Father, and I refuse to give you my gift, satan. Git!!!!!

We have to stand our ground and refuse to give up territory which has been gained. We stand firm in the face of every contradictory word spoken over us and every report given to us that is contrary to the Word of God. That is our stand. So what if the doctor tells you that you are going to die? So what if the report comes back positive? Whose report do you believe? What does the Word have to say about that? You have Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit dwelling in you. He is the power of God. He is the life of God. How can two live in the same space? Life is living in you and death has no room. I love Proverbs 12:28 which tells us that in our pathway is life and there is no death. Take that scripture, believe it, dwell on it until it becomes more real to you than any doctor’s report that is contrary to life and health. It takes a while to renew our minds, but we can renew our minds to think the way God thinks. God thinks like this: LIFE! HEALTH! HEALING! His Word says this: LIFE! HEALTH! HEALING! And what are we to say then over ourselves? LIFE! HEALTH! HEALING!

Healing is yours. It is the touch of the Master on your life forever, eternally. Take it. It belongs to you.

My Dear Heavenly Father Loves Me

2011-03-23T08:44:00.000-07:00

Before we even start the Pearls of Wisdom today, let’s confess together the following at least three times:
MY DEAR HEAVENLY FATHER LOVES ME. MY LORD JESUS CHRIST WHO IS MY SAVIOR LOVES ME. THE HOLY SPIRIT LOVES ME.

Today I am reminded of just how much God Almighty loves me and each person on this earth, whether they have accepted Him or not and whether they love Him or not. I stand in awe of that kind of love. Let’s read and confess some of the scriptures that talk about His love.

In Romans 5:5 we read this:
…For I know how dearly God loves me because He has given me the Holy Spirit to fill my heart with His love.
What a powerful statement. God Almighty has given me His Holy Spirit, His Spirit, to fill my heart, overflow my heart, pour forth into my heart His love. I haven’t done anything to deserve it. I can’t do anything to earn it. He has simply given me His love as His gift to me. He has given me Himself. And what is my part? I have only one thing to do. I receive, I accept His love. And then it is mine. This is not something complicated or difficult. Accept. Receive.

People have a hard time accepting anything for which they have not worked or earned. There is this concept, particularly in the western world, that everything we get must be earned or gotten as a result of our own efforts. That is the reason it is so hard for us to simply receive what God has given to us. Say this after me: I believe I receive all that Jesus has provided for me. I accept His healing; I accept His prosperity; I accept His Word; I accept His health; I accept His wealth; I accept all His gifts to me. They are mine. I take hold of them and say thank You, Lord. I am so grateful. I have a heart of gratitude for what you have given me.

Let’s look at some other scriptures on love.
John 17:22-26 New Living Translation
I have given them the glory you gave me, so that they may be one, as we are----I in them and you in me, all being perfected into one. Then the world will know that you sent me and will understand that you love them as much as you love me. Father, I want these whom you’ve given me to be with me, so they can see my glory. You gave me the glory because you loved me even before the world began! O righteous Father, the world doesn’t know you, but I do; and these disciples know you sent me. And I have revealed you to them and will keep on revealing you. I will do this so that your love for me may be in them and I in them.

From these scriptures, let’s make our declaration of confession.
Thank You, Jesus, for giving me the glory the Father gave You so that we could be one. O, dear Heavenly Father, thank You for loving me as much as you love Jesus. Jesus, thank You for revealing the Father to me so that I can understand His love in me because You are in me.

We have a God who cares for us beyond anything we can ever imagine or dream or think possible. Our every need has been taken care of. Our every desire has been fulfilled. All that we need He has provided. And He goes beyond need. He loves to lavish gifts upon us because He is a God of abundance, multiplication, increase.

Make the decision today that you will receive all that He has provided for you. If you have trouble receiving, practice saying to Him you believe you receive whatever it is in His word that you read He has given you. It may not always look like it is yours in the natural, earthly realm but look only at the Word of what you have been given. Believe the Word of God. Accept the Word of God. Receive what He has for you. Give Him the pleasure, the enjoyment of providing for you this day and every day. He loves to give to His kids.

Strengthened

2011-03-22T12:43:00.000-07:00

Colossians 1:11
Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness;

In this verse people shy away from the word patience. What patience means is that we remain steadfast, unmoving, unchanging when we encounter a difficult situation. Why can we remain steadfast? We have confidence in the Word of God working for us personally. We have confidence in the blood of Jesus speaking life into that situation. We know that God’s life is bringing life into the deadness of the situation. His Light is exposing the darkness of those things that are hidden to us in the midst of the difficulty. His Love is flushing out all fear that satan may be trying to produce in the earthly encounter with a temporal (temporary) difficulty. His name gives us the authority to stand in His place and speak to the situation to be removed and cast into the sea (Mark 11:23).

We are told in this verse that we are strengthened with all of God’s ability, possibility power, according to His glorious vigor, strength, power. Therefore, we can rest steadfastly and confidently in God and His finished work on our behalf. We can do it with joyfulness. Yes!

“I have strength for all things in Christ Who empowers me [I am ready for anything and equal to anything through Him Who infuses inner strength into me; I am self-sufficient in Christ’s sufficiency]. In conclusion, be strong in the Lord [be empowered through your union with Him]; draw your strength from Him [that strength which His boundless might provides]. (Philippians 4:13 and Ephesians 6:10, Amplified Bible)

Tree of Life

2011-03-22T12:30:00.000-07:00

A wholesome, gentle tongue with its healing power is a tree of life, Proverbs 15:4.
Man is satisfied with good by the fruit of his mouth, Proverbs 12:14.
The belly of a man is satisfied with the fruit of his lips, Proverbs 18:20.
Death and life is in the power of the tongue, Proverbs 18:21.
The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, Proverbs 11:30.

So, the fruit of the tongue, lips, mouth of the righteous is a tree of life that brings forth life in people’s lives. We have the power to do that. We have the capability to produce the fruit of life in our lives and those around us. It is God’s ability; it is God’s life on our lips that creates good fruit for all to eat.

I SPEAK WORDS OF LIFE ALL THE TIME!

Grace Is

2011-03-07T11:17:00.000-08:00

Grace is:

The love of God demonstrated to me, for me, on my behalf

The actual demonstration, the actual manifestation of God’s love for me

The releasing of His love (which is all He is, all His ability, character, holiness, everything He is and has)

God’s love sent forth on my behalf for me, to do what I can’t do

It is God doing what He loves to do.

In Ephesians 2:8 we read that we are saved by grace through faith unto salvation. It is a gift of God lest any man should boast. We are delivered by God’s love sent forth on our behalf (grace) when we believe God (faith). It is a gift and no amount of work will bring it to us. It is not received by good works. It is received as a gift. There is no other way to receive salvation. It is given to us as a result of God’s grace.

I am so grateful that God loves me and released His grace for me to live free from the bondages of the law and its rigid requirements. I am free to love God with everything in me. I am free to enjoy life to the fullest. I am free. How about you?

GRACE!

Rights

2011-03-04T20:41:00.000-08:00

Everyone who believes God and accepts Him is given the right to become a child of His (John 1:12-14). Whoever receives the Lord into their lives has the privilege of being God’s child. This birth comes from God. We call it being born again. And being born again gives us rights (righteousness) in the Father’s household.

Jesus bought our freedom from the law so that we could be God’s children, so that we could be adopted as God’s own children (Galatians 4:5-7).

The Father sent the Holy Spirit into our hearts so that we could call Him our own dear heavenly Father. He is Papa to His children. The Holy Spirit has filled our hearts with our Father’s love. God is love. We know how much God loves us. He loves us and wants us to spend time with us. He has given us the right to come into His presence and sit down and enjoy Him. He wants us to talk with Him and share our lives with Him. He can’t wait until we come and share our day with Him. He absolutely loves it. We have that right as His children. He has poured His love into us so that we can love Him and enjoy Him as much as He loves and enjoys us. What a privilege!

We are no longer slaves or servants. We are God’s own children. As His children, everything He has is ours. It belongs to us because He has given it to us. It is such a joy to be a member of Father’s household. He daily loads us with benefits. They are so vast and so innumerable. Let’s enjoy what He has given to us.

I AM A CHILD OF GOD AND I ENJOY ALL THE RIGHTS HE HAS GIVEN TO ME!

The Incorruptible Seed

2011-03-04T20:39:00.000-08:00

1 Peter 1:18-23, NLT

For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And the ransom he paid was not mere gold or silver.

He paid for you with the precious lifeblood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God. God chose him for this purpose long before the world began, but now in these final days, he was sent to the earth for all to see. And he did this for you.

Through Christ you have come to trust in God. And because God raised Christ from the dead and gave him great glory, your faith and hope can be placed confidently in God.

Now you can have sincere love for each other as brothers and sisters because you were cleansed from your sins when you accepted the truth of the Good News. So see to it that you really do love each other intensely with all your hearts.

For you have been born again. Your new life did not come from your earthly parents because the life they gave you will end in death. But this new life will last forever because it comes from the eternal, living word of God.

We are born again of the seed of the Word of God. It is without corruption. It is not corruptible. The Word of God is a living Word. It is eternal and will abide forever. Forever His Word is settled in heaven. His Word is alive and powerful. His Word produces results. This Word is the seed of God planted in our being which produces Godly results in our lives. Never doubt the power of the Word of God to bring about results in your life. Every time His Word works.

Walking In The Footsteps of Jesus

2011-03-02T11:22:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we talked about the pathway of righteousness that Jesus has set before us. He has gone before us and made a way. He is the way. His way is righteousness. In that way there is life and no death. We must remember that death does not just refer to separation from our physical bodies. It can mean separation from anything. Satan wants to separate us from joy and peace and love and blessing of any kind. He is the king of death. Jesus is the Lord of Life. He is our Life.

That pathway of righteousness is a pathway designed for each of us individually. I think it is so neat that God works with us personally on an individual basis and yet we are all one of the same Body of Christ. He is interested in us personally. He wants to help us fulfill the destiny that He has designed for us as His children. Each one of our destinies has been divinely created or designed for us and given us or imparted within us when we were placed in our mother’s womb. God had you and me in mind before we were ever born on this earth. He has a special place in His heart for each one of us. It was carved out before the foundation of the earth. What an awesome thought! Meditate on that for a while and it will take you out of your doldrums.

Ephesians 2:10 is one of my favorite verses. It so clearly lays out what God has in mind for each one of us. Let’s look at it in the Amplified Bible. It is really self-explanatory.

For we are God’s [own] handiwork (His workmanship), recreated in Christ Jesus, [born anew] that we may do those good works which God predestined (planned before hand) for us [taking paths which He prepared ahead of time], that we should walk in them [living the good life which He prearranged and made ready for us to live].

You and I are born again, or born anew by the blood of Jesus Christ. He made it possible for us to become God’s children and be reconciled to our Heavenly Father once again. We are restored to our rightful relationship with Him. What a privilege and a blessing! Now we are equipped and anointed to walk in the path that He has prepared for us to walk in. The best part of all of this plan is that we live the good life which our dear Heavenly Father has already prepared for us. Living with the Lord and living for Him is the best life.

I AM LIVING THE GOOD LIFE WHICH GOD PREPARED FOR ME AND WALKING IN THE PATH THAT HE LAID OUT AHEAD OF ME!

Righteousness Reigns

2011-03-01T08:19:00.000-08:00

SPECIAL NEWS BULLETIN! REJOICE! RIGHTEOUSNESS HAS COME!

When Adam sinned, death came and ruled over mankind as a dictator. Then God sent Jesus as His gift of grace to give us the gift of righteousness, and now we reign in this life, triumphing over sin and death through Jesus Christ.

Romans 5:21 and 17 tell us that sin reigned unto death. Now grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life. We who receive the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness do reign as kings in this life through Jesus Christ.

Sin no longer has dominion over us. It does not rule us. Grace, righteousness, and life have the complete right of way in our lives. We live by grace, God’s ability working on our behalf to bring about what we pray and ask. We are righteous; we have been given the right to be God’s children with all the rights of the Father’s household.

Psalms 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.
Rotherham’s Bible----Righteousness shall march along,--that he may make, into a way the steps of his feet.
New Living Translation----Righteousness goes as a herald before him, preparing the way for his steps.

Do you see it? Jesus’ footsteps carve out a pathway for us, a road of righteousness. Righteousness goes before Jesus and makes the steps of His feet the way in which to walk. He is the way; He is the truth; He is the life (John 14:6). His way is the way righteousness because of grace. Wow!

Finally, Proverbs 12:28 tells us this: In the way of righteousness life and the pathway no death.
The Complete Jewish Bible states it this way: In the road of righteousness is life; no death is in its pathway.

Here it is: YOU HAVE BEEN MADE RIGHT WITH GOD. ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS ACCEPT THAT WAY OF RIGHTEOUSNESS BY FOLLOWING HIM. IN HIS PATHWAY IS LIFE AND THERE IS NO DEATH. HE SAYS: COME, FOLLOW ME!

Righteous

2011-02-28T12:33:00.000-08:00

If someone were to walk up to you right now and ask you what righteousness means, could you tell them in terms they would understand?

Let’s take a look at this word. Here is what I believe God has shown me about righteousness. This will be a teaching over several days, using scriptures about righteousness. Righteousness is: The right to be God’s child and stand in His presence knowing that you belong to Him. He is your Father. It gives you all the rights of the Father’s household. This righteousness came as a result of accepting what Jesus Christ has done for us by taking our place as sin and giving us the gift of righteousness (2 Corinthians 5:21).

Let’s go exploring in the word concerning righteousness and see what we find. We will start with 1 Peter 1:18-23 in the New Living Translation.

For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And the ransom he paid was not mere gold or silver.
He paid for you with the precious lifeblood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God. God chose him for this purpose long before the world began, but now in these final days, he was sent to the earth for all to see. And he did this for you.
Through Christ you have come to trust in God. And because God raised Christ from the dead and gave him great glory, your faith and hope can be placed confidently in God.
Now you can have sincere love for each other as brothers and sisters because you were cleansed from your sins when you accepted the truth of the Good News. So see to it that you really do love each other intensely with all your hearts.
For you have been born again. Your new life did not come from your earthly parents because the life they gave you will end in death. But this new life will last forever because it comes from the eternal, living word of God.

Isn’t this exciting! You have been given a chance to start over. It is a new beginning, a new birth, born again, not of natural parents but of God as our parent. In the King James Bible, we are told that this seed of the living Word of God (of which we are born again) is incorruptible, not subject to destruction. It is not subject to change. Nothing can alter it. That is good news.

I AM RIGHTEOUS BECAUSE I AM BORN AGAIN. I AM RIGHT WITH GOD. HE HAS GIVEN ME ALL HIS RIGHTS.

Redeemed Forever

2011-02-28T12:16:00.000-08:00

Today we wrap up our teaching on redemption with a vivid picture of what actually happened from the garden to the cross to the tomb to the resurrection. Let’s remind ourselves once again of what redemption really is. It is the freeing of someone who is held hostage, in bondage, as a slave to a slave master. The slave master is a kidnapper who demands a price be paid for the freedom of the one he is holding. The ransom is the price paid to free the person.

All of mankind was held hostage by satan. We were slaves on his slave block. He had gotten us and used us for his purposes, tempting and tormenting us with ungodly thoughts, motives, and actions.

Then Jesus came to this earth in a flesh and blood body, so that He could have a legal right to be here. He walked among men and experienced things that we experience and gave us an example of being an overcomer in this world. At the appointed time, Jesus gave Himself to the enemy. He prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane and sweat great drops of blood as He surrendered His will to the Father to take our place as our substitute. He would become sin and pay the full price for sin and its consequences, with all of its horrors known to man.

Jesus not only took our place but He also paid in full with His blood the ticket to free us. We were freed not with the corruptible things such as silver and gold but with the precious blood of Jesus. He paid the price to take us out of the slavery of sin and its consequences. He bought us and then said: You are no longer slaves. You are no longer in bondage. Go and be free. Enjoy life once again.

Jesus carried our sin and all that it entails into hell, and satan and all of his demons thought they had finally gotten him. He was theirs for the taking. He was in hell. They tortured Him unmercifully. BUT, on the third day, the voice of God the Father boomed down through the portals of hell: ENOUGH! THE FULL PRICE IS PAID! ARISE! The Holy Spirit entered Jesus’ body; He stopped by paradise to pick up the saints held in Abraham’s bosom and up they all came. It sort of “freaked out” the people of Jerusalem when they saw their dead kinfolk walking the streets on their way to heaven.

Jesus took His blood to the mercy seat in heaven and placed it there forever. That blood speaks day and night to each of us: LIFE!

The price has been paid. The blood of Jesus has taken care of our sin forever.
Now that is TRUE LOVE!
And that is what we call REDEMPTION!

I AM THE REDEEMED OF THE LORD AND I SAY SO FOREVER!

The Redeemed Say So

2011-02-24T10:25:00.000-08:00

Psalm 107:1,2
O give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; for His mercy and loving-kindness endure forever!
Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom He has delivered from the hand of the adversary.

We are the redeemed of the Lord. We are the ones who have been set free. Freedom is ours. We are free from slavery. We have become sons and daughters of God. WE ARE FREE!

What are we free from? We are free from the curse of the law of sin and death; that means we are free from sin, sickness and disease, poverty, lack, want, disappointment and discouragement ruling our lives, cares and anxieties dogging our tracks. We are free.

I can hear your wheels turning. Doesn’t look like I am free! Who said anything about how it looks. This verse tells us what to say. We are to say: "I am delivered from the hand (the power, the strength) of the adversary (the enemy, the one who is in opposition to me, the one who has enmity in his heart toward me). I give thanks to You, Lord, for You are good, for Your mercy endures forever." That’s what we are to say.

We are not to say how we feel or how things look and what we think is going to happen. We all know that is sometimes EXTREMELY hard to do. What we want to do is tell everyone how bad it is and get someone to listen to us. I have done it so many times. But look at who we are because of Jesus.

We are free from all the negative junk that satan does his best to put on us. We are mightier than he is because of Who is in us. He cannot put anything on you and make it stick. It is like water off a duck’s back. The oil of the Holy Spirit keeps us slippery and nothing satan does can stick to us. That’s truth. What a wonderful God we have! What a loving Father! What a giving brother (Jesus)! He laid down His life so that I could take up His life and truly live the victorious life while I am here on this earth. Earth is getting tough but God is greater. Focus on who you are in Him!

I AM THE REDEEMED OF THE LORD AND I SAY SO!

Redeemed To Be Children

2011-02-23T11:14:00.000-08:00

Galatians 4:5
To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.

We are children of God. We have been adopted by God Almighty. Not only are we born again but also we are adopted. That is a double entry into the household of God. I am so thankful that I am a member of the family of God.

I did nothing to become God’s child other than to accept what Jesus has done for me. He has set me free from all the stuff that the earth tries to put on me and cause me to worry and be anxious and take on care. I think it is pretty neat that I am a child, and children don’t have to concern themselves about what they will do. They know that daddy will take care of it. Jesus told us to become as little children. Little children don’t even think about how something is going to be taken care of.

We are now full children of the Mighty God. We are no longer slaves to the law of sin and death. That law is finished for us. No more sin and no more death hanging over our heads. Jesus has set us free. Hallelujah! I am free to bask in my heavenly Father’s love for me. He is free to love me fully, being able to spend time with me. I am free to spend time with Him. What a privilege we have. Today, thank Jesus for what He has done. He has freed you to be His brother and sister in Father’s household of faith.

I AM A CHILD OF GOD BY ADOPTION AND BIRTH BECAUSE JESUS SET ME FREE FROM THE CURSE OF THE LAW!

Redeemed By The Blood of Jesus

2011-02-23T11:04:00.000-08:00

1 Peter 1:18,19
Forasmuch as you know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation (useless, fruitless way of living) received by tradition from your fathers;
But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.

Titus 2;14, Amplified Bible
Who gave Himself on our behalf that He might redeem us (purchase our freedom) from all iniquity and purify for Himself a people [to be peculiarly His own, people who are] eager and enthusiastic about [living a life that is good and filled with] beneficial deeds.

News reports are swirling of catastrophes and riots and government takeovers and economies shaking and people taking on fear all over the whole world. We are living in the worst of times, and we are living in the best of times. We as God’s people are living in the best of times, because He will take care of us. If we start looking at all that is happening around us, we become very discouraged and frightened actually. I have been reminded almost hourly in the last several days to keep my focus steadily fixed on Jesus, not looking to the left or to the right.

Jesus Christ has redeemed you and me from the curse of the law into the blessing of Abraham. Part of the curse is uncertainty of our future. We have been redeemed from that.

How have we been redeemed? We have been redeemed by the blood of Jesus from this world’s way of living. Jesus Christ gave Himself up for us, on our behalf, to purchase our freedom from satan’s plan for our lives. His blood washed away satan’s strategies, purposes, plans, schemes, tactics and maneuvers from our lives. Psalm 91 tells us that we will stand and see people fall on both sides of us but we will still be standing firmly. Now is the time that we put action to what we believe. God’s Word is true for us, regardless of the diagnosis, whether it is a doctor’s diagnosis or a government’s diagnosis.

Jesus has paid the ultimate price with His life for us to be free to live a life that is good and filled with benefits. In God’s Word we read that He daily loads us with benefits. The world’s benefits seem to be fading away; they are only temporary. But God’s benefits are eternal, forever.

Encourage yourself in the Lord. CHRIST HAS PURCHASED YOUR FREEDOM WITH HIS PRECIOUS BLOOD. WE WILL LIVE IN OUR FREEDOM!

Redeemed From the Curse of the Law

2011-02-21T07:04:00.000-08:00

Galatians 3:13,14
Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangs 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.

Christ is not Jesus’ last name. It is the Greek word for Anointed One. The Anointed One (God Almighty in the person of Jesus, with the anointing of His Holy Spirit, through the Father) has redeemed you and me. What does it mean to be redeemed? When someone is redeemed, they are bought back from captivity or bondage. An individual is holding them as hostage and demanding a ransom for their freedom. Satan was holding every human being hostage to his sin and death. Jesus came with a ransom price for our freedom----His precious blood. He paid the full price to set us free. Now satan has no legal right to hold us hostage because we have been redeemed, set free.

The Anointed One has set us free from the curse of the law. The curse of the law and the blessings are set forth in Deuteronomy 28. We can read what the curse is in that chapter. The curse is sin and its consequences such as sickness and disease and poverty. We see the blessings in the first verses of Deuteronomy 28. We are blessed everywhere we go. God commands the blessing on us and our storehouse. Our enemies flee before us. Our children are blessed.

The word “blessed” holds so many meanings. It basically and simply means God’s fullness of Himself poured out on us----all that He is and all that He has. That is it “in a nutshell” as my grandmother used to say of something which was all inclusive.

We are blessed. We have access to all that God has for us, through faith. Faith, that word that so many people have trouble with. Once again, the simple definition of faith is: having confidence in God, trusting Him.

I AM REDEEMED FROM THE CURSE OF THE LAW THAT THE BLESSING OF ABRAHAM MIGHT COME ON ME.

The Life Flow

2011-02-17T06:51:00.000-08:00

There is a river of life flowing through each one of us as God’s children. That life is flowing all the time, 24/7. It is the life of God which was released by Jesus when His blood flowed out of His body on to the ground of this earth. That blood flowing so freely released a stream of life straight from the throne of God. It is the river of life that flows in heaven. It came to earth when Jesus came. He released it when He died and rose again.

When Jesus carried His blood to the Mercy Seat of Heaven and placed His blood there, He released all of us from sin and its consequences. He was THE sacrificial lamb Who took away the sins of the world forever. He paralyzed satan who had the power of death; He conquered death; He conquered the principalities and powers of hell; He took all our sicknesses and diseases.

Forever we are free because of what Jesus did. Forever we can flow in the river of the life of God right now, right here on this earth. It is available for us. All we have to do is learn how to receive God’s life flow. That life flow is ours. Our mouth is the access to it. As we speak life, which is contained in God’s Word, revelation comes of Who Jesus really is and what He really did.

Jesus told us when He was here on this earth: I have come that you might have life and have it more abundantly. In this statement He was telling us that He Who was life had brought His life with Him and was releasing it for us. In Leviticus we read that the life is in the blood. Jesus’ blood was the carrier of the life of God, not the life of man. When He was placed in Mary’s womb, the seed of life came from His Heavenly Father, not an earthly father.

Now, we as God’s children are the carriers of life; His life is to flow out of us all the time. His zoe life is in our bodies; it is in our spirits; it is in our souls. Hallelujah! We are carriers of the river of life. His life is flowing through us right now! Glory! What a privilege. God’s life is flowing in you! Accept and receive the fullness of that life----health, healing, strength, joy, prosperity of every kind, financial security, love, peace. It goes on and on. God’s life is the essence of Him, His entire nature. My prayer for you today is that you will receive a revelation of this truth as you never have before.

THE BLOOD OF JESUS IS THE LIFE FLOW OF GOD!
YOU ARE A CARRIER OF THAT LIFE FLOW!

God Is Peace

2011-02-16T11:38:00.000-08:00

In 1 Thessalonians 5:23 we read that the God of peace Himself takes care of us. We have learned that the word “peace” means wholeness and soundness and brokenness healed. Peace is not just the absence of strife. It is so much bigger than that. It is God Himself making us complete in Him Who is the head of all principality and power (Colossians 2:10). That word “complete” means: filled, full, finished, having no deficiency or lack, something put in to fill up.

Jesus was put in us by the power of the Holy Spirit to fill us up with all the good things from heaven that are found in Him. We are filled up with Jesus. Therefore, we are filled up with health; we are filled up with wealth; we are filled up with love and joy and peace and all the fruit of the spirit; we are filled up with all that heaven has to offer. That makes us whole and sound and unbroken. Jesus was broken that we might be whole.

And may the God of peace Himself sanctify you through and through [separate you from profane things, make you pure and wholly consecrated to God], and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved sound and complete [and found] blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah) (1 Thessalonians 5:23, Amplified Bible)..

THE GOD OF PEACE DWELLS IN YOU!

Jesus Never Fails

2011-02-16T11:32:00.000-08:00

Jesus never fails us. He is always there, always providing, always watching over us. I can hear some of your wheels turning right now. Well, what about this? Well, what about that?

As I have spent years and years with the Lord, I have learned and am still learning this one thing. JESUS NEVER FAILS! It may look to you like He has failed you, but there is some reason things did not work the way you thought they should.

God’s Word is true. If His Word states it, then that is the way it is. Unfortunately, there are many variables at work in this world to hinder God’s will being done in our lives. Ignorance of the way God works, disappointments of the past, fear that He won’t “come through” for you, doubt and unbelief influencing you, etc. etc. etc.

I always get the question: Well, why can’t God just do it! He has already done it; He has already won the battle for us and given us the spoils of victory. It is up to us to learn how to RECEIVE those spoils. Of course, we have an enemy satan who tries to keep us from our blessing. It is his job to delay, distract, disappoint and destroy.

What is the solution to all this perception of Jesus failing us? Are you ready for the answer? It is simple. Trust Him and leave the questions behind. Stop trying to figure everything out.

Hebrews 13:5b, Amplified Bible
…for He [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 in any degree leave you helpless nor forsake nor let [you] down (relax My hold on you)! [Assuredly not!]

BELIEVE Him! RECEIVE HIS BLESSING! JESUS NEVER FAILS!

Happy Love Day!

2011-02-14T12:02:00.000-08:00

Today is Valentine’s Day and I want to wish everyone who reads our Pearls to have a Happy Love Day in Jesus.

We are going to personalize portions of Psalm 89 today.

Psalm 89:17,24,26,28,33,34

God, You are the glory of my strength and in Your favor my horn shall be exalted.

Your faithfulness and unfailing love (loving-kindness) shall be with me and in Your name shall my horn be exalted (great power and prosperity shall be conferred upon me.)

I shall cry to You, You are my Father, You are my God, You are the Rock of my salvation.

Your mercy and loving-kindness will You keep for me forevermore and Your covenant shall stand fast and be faithful to me.

Nevertheless, Your loving-kindness will You not break off from me, nor allow Your faithfulness to fail (to lie and be false to me).

Your covenant will You not break or profane, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips.

Consider Not

2011-02-12T07:20:00.000-08:00

When God told Abraham that Sarah his wife would conceive and bear a son to him, there was no way possible in the natural realm that it would happen. Abraham and Sarah were past the age of her conceiving or his ability to bring forth seed for conception. And even more realistic in the natural realm was that Sarah had been barren, even in her years of possible conception. Yet God had spoken to Abraham. Let’s look at this passage in the Bible in Romans.

Romans 4:16-21
Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all.
(As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were.
Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be.
And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah’s womb:
He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God;
And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform

Human reason for hope for a child was gone, yet God had spoken. He said that Abraham and Sarah would have a child. They had a choice. They could either believe what they saw in the natural or they could believe what God said. In order to have that kind of faith, they had to consider not the natural circumstances, even when the natural circumstances were screaming: It’s impossible!

That is where you and I are today. All around us, circumstances are screaming: You can’t make it. Look at the mess the world is in. What about high costs? What about my family? What about, what about, what about. Well, what about God and His Word to us? We will CONSIDER NOT the circumstances. But WE WILL CONSIDER OUR GOD! What does His Word say about your circumstance? Believe Him and not your circumstance.

CONSIDER NOT!

Love Is Calling

2011-02-10T06:42:00.000-08:00

It is the love of Christ that is calling you, to baptize you in the heart love of God. Your response to that love call sets you apart unto Him. You are His. He is yours. You are in Him. He is in you. We are talking about an intimate relationship here. We are one with each other. We are intertwined in each other’s lives. No more of you. All of Him. You have taken His name. You are a Christ-ian, a little anointed one.

Can you hear Him calling? He is calling you to higher places in Himself. He is calling you to a life full of His goodness and mercy. He is calling you to a life of health and wholeness. He is calling you to a life of prosperity. He is calling you to His fullness of zoe life, His life, His nature, His ability, His knowledge, His wisdom, His riches in glory. What a life we have laid out before us in Him.

This response to His calling of love turns us into a love child of God. His love then constrains us as we read in 2 Corinthians 5:14: For the love of Christ constrains us…. The Wuest translation says: The love which Christ has for me presses on me from all sides, wraps itself around me in tenderness. The Philips translation says: The very spring of our actions is the love of Christ. The Moffatt’s translation says: I am controlled by the love of Christ.

What does this word constrain mean? When something or someone constrains you, they control you and urge you on to do that which they are urging you to do. The Webster’s 1828 Dictionary lists the definition of constrain in 2 Corinthians 5:14 as the love which urges with irresistible power, or with a power sufficient to produce the effect.

The love of God, Love Himself, is calling you to, is wrapping Himself around you in tenderness, is pressing you from all sides, is controlling you so that the very springboard of all your actions is the love of Christ. Yes, we receive that love power which is sufficient to produce God's results for ourselves and others.

Love Himself is calling you!

Walking

2011-02-09T15:49:00.001-08:00

I have been dwelling in the Psalms and Proverbs a lot lately. What a multitude of good advice, wisdom and direction is to be found in these books. One of the verses I especially like is:

Psalm 85:13
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.

Jesus Christ has made us righteous so that we can fellowship with Him and our Heavenly Father and have an intimate relationship with the Holy Spirit and our Father and Jesus. I was thinking last night about what Jesus has done for us. What a love God must have for us! He laid down His life so that we could once again be part of Him, be able to come into His Presence without any possibility of being destroyed by His power. What a privilege! What an honor!

We have been made righteous, right with the Almighty God, which gives us the right to be in the throne room and call Him Papa. Righteousness makes us totally new people, new creations as the Bible calls us. We are different people than we were before we accepted Jesus as our Savior, before we accepted all that He has done for us. He went before us and made the way. All we have to do is walk in the way of His righteous footsteps. Righteousness preceded Him. We follow Him. We can’t go wrong when we are walking in the print or pattern that His footsteps have left.

Once again, in this life we can walk in Jesus’ footsteps. He has set us in place. What we have to do is choose to walk in those footsteps. You know, we can choose a different direction. How many people do you know who have walked in the wrong direction? But we choose the right direction, the one that righteousness Himself has placed us in.

We walk in the righteous footsteps of Jesus!

The Comforter

2011-02-03T17:33:00.000-08:00

In John 14:26 and John 16:7 Jesus tells us that when He goes away the Holy Spirit will come. He is called the paraclete or parakletos in the Greek language.

I find it very interesting that the Amplified Bible in these passages in the book of John lists the many facets of the Holy Spirit’s personality for us as God’s children. Let’s look at them.

He is called:
Comforter
Counselor
Helper
Advocate
Intercessor
Strengthener
Standby

I believe these descriptions of His care for us are in the order of the way we should know Him. They may all be happening at the same time or they may happen over a period of time. He comes to comfort and console us and encourage us. Then we open up to His counsel which helps us. He helps us in our life’s situations. He is our legal advisor when satan comes to condemn us, and the Holy Spirit makes a way for us as our intercessor, going before us to our Father. It is then we see that He is the One Who strengthens us and stands by us.

What a joy to have the Holy Spirit as our constant companion and friend. He is in us to be our guide. He is our continual presence of God on this earth. He so desires to be an intimate part of our lives. We are to be one with Him and Jesus and the Father. They desire our presence as much as we desire theirs. They enjoy being with us and talking with us. We are family!

I will conclude this Pearl with the description of the parakletos from the Hebrew Greek Bible.
Called hither, toward, or to speak to, to speak cheerfully, encourage. He who has been called to help, a helpter. Used in Greek writers of a legal advisor, pleader, proxy or advocate, one who comes forward on behalf of and as the representative of another. Christ designates the Holy Spirit as Paraclete and calls him allos (another) which means another of equal quality. He undertakes Christ’s office in the world while Christ is away from the world.

How blessed we are to know the Holy Spirit! If you don’t know Him today, all you have to do is to ask Him to make Himself known to you, to make Himself real. That is a request He loves to answer.

Sweet Holy Spirit, I honor you and desire Your Presence in my life all the time!

Be Happy!

2011-02-02T16:39:00.000-08:00

Would you like to know the secret to good health? The Bible has the answer. You knew I was going to say that, didn’t you.

Listen to this from the Amplified Bible.

Proverbs 17:22
A happy heart is good medicine and a cheerful mind works healing, but a broken spirit dries up the bones. The New Living Translation says that a broken spirit saps a person’s strength.

Look at this:
A happy heart is good medicine.
I like this kind of medicine. It doesn’t taste bad and there are no harmful side effects.

A cheerful mind works healing.

What is it that would make our hearts happy and our minds cheerful? It is the mindset that regardless of what we are facing or how something looks, we know from God’s Word that He will take care of it for us. We may not FEEL happy and we may not FEEL cheerful, but we decide by an act of our will that we will be happy and we will be cheerful.

Do you know that doctors are now confirming that patients who have a positive outlook on life are much more likely to recover and to recover quickly from illnesses. But if people decide that they are sick and nothing can help them, they get worse and in many cases die. It is remarkable how God has designed us and our human minds to determine our way of life. When our minds are in agreement with our spirits which are one with the Spirit of God because we are born again, we have a winning way of life, a life of health.

The more that you and I put the Word of God in our mouths, keep it before our eyes and hear it with our ears, the healthier we will be and the younger we will get. Proverbs 4 tells us that God’s Word is health to all our flesh. Some translations say medicine to all our flesh.

In Proverbs 15:15 in the Amplified Bible we see that anxious thoughts and forebodings cause our days to be days of despondency and affliction but that he who has a glad heart has a continual feast regardless of the circumstances.

You want divine health. Make a decision today that you will think happy thoughts and be a happy person and that you will be a cheerful, positive person. I am making that decision.

BE HAPPY!

The Strength of the Lord

2011-02-01T15:38:00.000-08:00

I believe the Lord is impressing me to send you scriptures on strength today.

Luke 21:26
Keep awake then and watch at all times [be discreet, attentive and ready]
Pray always
that you have the FULL STRENGTH and ability and be accounted worthy
to escape all these things [taken together] that will take place,
and stand in the presence of the Son of man.

Psalm 84:7
They go from STRENGTH to STRENGTH [increasing in victorious power]….

Psalm 29:11
The Lord will give STRENGTH to His people. The Lord will bless His people with peace.

Psalm 71:16
I will go in the STRENGTH of the Lord God….
Amplified Bible
I will come in the STRENGTH and with the mighty acts of the Lord God….

Psalm 28:8, Amplified Bible
The Lord is my STRENGTH and He is the stronghold of salvation to me, His anointed.

Ephesians 6:10, Amplified Bible
Be strong in the Lord [be empowered through your union with Him]; draw your STRENGTH from Him [that STRENGTH which His boundless might provides].

Philippians 2:13, Amplified Bible
[Not in your own STRENGTH] for it is God Who is all the while effectually at work in you [energizing and creating in you the power and desire], both to will and to work for His good pleasure and satisfaction and delight.

Philippians 4:13, Amplified Bible
I have STRENGTH for all things in Christ Who empowers me [I am ready for anything and equal to anything through Him Who infuses inner STRENGTH into me; I am self-sufficient in Christ’s sufficiency].

2 Corinthians 13:11, Amplified Bible
… be STRENGTHENED (perfected, completed, made what you ought to be); be encouraged and consoled and comforted; be of the same [agreeable] mind one with another; live in peace, and [then] the God of love [Who is the Source of affection, goodwill, love, and benevolence toward me] and the Author and Promoter of peace will be with you.

Shalom! Be Strong in the Lord!

The Lord Is Looking For You

2011-01-31T15:30:00.000-08:00

I have an absolutely awesome scripture to share with you from the Amplified Bible today. It is one that I go back to periodically and confess and meditate. It is so beautiful and so rich and so full.

Isaiah 30:18, Amplified Bible
And therefore the Lord [earnestly] waits [expecting, looking, and longing] to be gracious to you; and therefore He lifts Himself up, that He may have mercy on you and show loving-kindness to you. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed (happy, fortunate, to be envied) are those who [earnestly] wait for Him, who expect and look and long for Him [for His victory, His favor, His love, His joy, and His matchless unbroken companionship]!

I want you to look carefully at this verse. What promises it holds for all of us as God’s children!

The Lord earnestly waits for us. That means He is intensely looking for us, longing to be with us, expecting to see us so that He can pour out His grace on us. Grace is His favor given to us without working for it or deserving it. It is just a gift because He loves us. He is passionately desiring to be with us, to fellowship with us, to commune with us as His children. We are children of the Almighty God. Let that sink into your being. You are God’s child, if you have accepted Jesus as your Savior. This is absolutely remarkable!

Why does He do this? He is a God of justice. He watches over His kids. He takes care of us. He protects us. We don’t have to retaliate when we are treated unjustly. Our Father will take care of it for us. Man, what a deal!

He is exalted; He is the great God. The great God Who is exalted has mercy on us and shows His loving-kindness to us. He is pouring forth Himself all the time for us. It gives Him the greatest pleasure to love us and have mercy on us, to pour out His grace all over us. I like this overflow! How about you!

And then look at this: We are blessed; blessed are those who wait for, expect, look for and long for Him. People envy us because we are so happy and so fortunate to be God’s children. We are to expect and look for and long for Him and His victory, His favor, His love, His joy and His companionship.

So here we are----with Him comes victory, favor, love, joy and companionship. He is all those things to us. We have victory in the midst of the storm. We have His favor surrounding us and going before us, making a way for us. We have His unconditional love forever. He have His joy to be our strength wherever we are and whatever we are doing. And last, and foremost, we have His fellowship, which will never be broken and is matched by no one else in our lives.

What a great God we serve! I guess you can tell that I have typed myself happy. Enjoy your Lord! He certainly enjoys you!

Receive Him

2011-01-28T19:01:00.000-08:00

John 1:12
But to as many as did receive and welcome Him (Jesus the Word), He gave the power (authority, right, privilege, honor) to become the children of God, to those who believe in His name.
What name are we referring to here? Jesus the Word Who was made flesh and dwelt among us.

What a privilege we have as mankind to become God’s child. Even though our ancestor Adam blew it royally and gave away His birthright in a sense of the word, we have an opportunity to become part of God’s household again. Adam gave away all his authority and dominion to an alien father and doomed us forever to a life of misery. Oh, but God! Thank you Lord for Jesus----Jesus Who came and opened up the way for us to become part of God’s family again. Thank You, Jesus!

God’s plan was in place before the foundation of the world to go and get His family back into His household if He needed to do so. Oh, thank God! What a privilege we have been given!

All we have to do is receive Jesus. All we have to do is welcome Him into our lives. Look what He does----He gives us the power, authority, right, privilege, honor to become God’s child. We just believe in Jesus the Word. We believe in His name. His name is above every name. Everything else has to bow to Him.

What a joy to know that we have a choice. By choice----we have been given a choice----it’s an honor, a privilege to have offered to us the opportunity to become God’s children. We can be a part of His family. We can be a part of His household, with Jesus as our oldest brother. It’s a big household and getting bigger by the day. Oh, Hallelujah! What a wonderful home to live in! We dwell in the place that God has prepared for us. I am not just talking about mansions in heaven; I am also talking about dwelling here in this earth. God has prepared a place for us in Him where we are sheltered and protected from the enemy as we go about our Father’s business while we are here. What a joy to be with Him! What a joy to call Him Father. What a joy to call Him Abba Daddy!

FATHER, THANK YOU, I HAVE MADE THE CHOICE TO RECEIVE AND WELCOME JESUS THE WORD WHO HAS GIVEN ME THE POWER TO BECOME YOUR CHILD!

Healed Spirit, Soul and Body

2011-01-27T15:23:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we learned that Jesus is the Word, and He was sent to heal us and deliver us from destruction. Today let’s take a fresh look at Isaiah 53:5 in the Amplified Bible.

But He was wounded for my transgressions.
He was bruised for my guilt and iniquities.
The chastisement needful to obtain my peace and well-being was upon Him.
And with the stripes that wounded Him I have been healed and made whole.

Jesus, the Word, paid it all for you and me.
He took care of our spirits, our souls, and our bodies.
It is very obvious in this verse that He took care of us totally.

The wounding for our transgressions and the bruising for our guilt and iniquities refers to our spirit being free from sin and its guilt and condemnation.
The chastisement to obtain peace and well-being for us refers to our souls (minds, will, emotions).
The stripes that wounded Him healed our bodies and made us whole.
There you have it: SPIRIT, SOUL AND BODY.

If we look at 1 Thessalonians 5:23, we find that our spirit, soul and body is also set apart and sustained by God to stay whole and complete.

The God of peace, Who is our Word, has sanctified us, separated us to Himself from impure things in our spirits (sin), in our souls (stress created by fear, doubt and unbelief, trouble of any kind) and in our bodies (sickness and disease). Isn’t that good news! We not only are healed and made whole in our spirits, souls and bodies, we are separated from the junk that would keep us from wholeness in any area of our lives.
May our spirits, souls and bodies be preserved sound and complete, kept whole and found blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is preserving us. He has His hand upon us to keep us whole.

MY SPIRIT, SOUL AND BODY ARE HEALED AND MADE WHOLE BY JESUS THE WORD AND THEN KEPT WHOLE AND FREE FROM SIN, SICKNESS AND STRESS, BY JESUS THE WORD.

Jesus The Word

2011-01-27T15:19:00.000-08:00

Today let’s talk about Jesus being called the Word Who was sent by the Father to heal us, to make us whole and to deliver us from destructions.

In Psalms 107:20 we read that:
He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.

Jesus is the Word.
He was sent.
The Father sent Him to heal and deliver.

In John 8:42 in the Amplified Bible we read that Jesus proceeded or came forth from God, out of God’s very presence. He did not come on His own authority or of His own accord as a self-appointed Messiah, but the Father sent Him.

In John 1:1-4 we are told that Jesus was the Word.
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.
In Him was life (zoé: in an absolute sense the source of all life) and the life was the light of men.

Revelation 19:13
He is clothed, dressed in a vesture, robe, dipped in blood and His name is called the Word of God.

The Father sent Jesus, the Word of God, Who was made flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14) and healed you (made you whole) and delivered you from destruction (anything that is sent to destroy you and your life and destiny). Yes, you have been healed and delivered. God the Father made sure that there was provision made for your wholeness of life. After the Word Himself, Jesus, left this earth, by the power of the Holy Spirit He left His oral and written word to sustain you and keep you healed, whole and delivered. You are HEALED, MADE WHOLE AND DELIVERED BY AND THROUGH THE WORD!!

I HAVE BEEN HEALED AND DELIVERED FROM DESTRUCTION. THE WORD HIMSELF, JESUS, WAS SENT FROM HEAVEN BY MY LOVING HEAVENLY FATHER TO HEAL ME AND DELIVER ME.

I AM HEALED AND DELIVERED!

His Blood = His Life

2011-01-25T07:08:00.000-08:00

When Jesus’ blood was shed in the Garden of Gethsemane, at the whipping post, with the soldiers who plucked out His beard and crushed the crown of thorns on His head, and at the cross, the life of Almighty God was being poured out all over this earth for you and me to be free.

That blood is the life of God. The life is in the blood. That life of God cleansed us of all sin, of all sickness and disease, of all bondage, of all poverty, of all anxiety and frustration, of everything that came with the curse.

The very life, the very essence of God Himself was released on this earth for you and me to have and enjoy while we are here. His life is here for us. It is ours. We have been cleansed and set free of all that satan brought about by stealing Adam’s authority and relationship with God his Father. We are clean through God's Word, Jesus Christ and His shed blood. I have to repeat this: We are clean.

Well, then, what brings impurities into our lives if we are clean? Let me use an example that we all understand. Our bodies are made clean when we wash them with soap and water. But there are germs and bacteria here on this earth that make us dirty again. And we wash again.

Even so, there are germs and bacteria in the spirit realm called demonic forces, principalities and powers, rulers of the darkness and wicked spirits in heavenly places. It is their job to present trouble to us in the form of sickness and disease, poverty, lack, want, brokenness. They know that we have been cleansed and made whole through the blood of Jesus. We are no longer broken. Our lives are whole in our spirits, our souls and our bodies.

The spirits also know that the acceptance of trouble comes with the mouth, what we speak. These evil spirits, therefore, put pressure on us to speak what is wrong with us. It is our job to put pressure on them by speaking the word of God to stay cleansed and free of the curse. Jesus told us that we are clean through the word. He was telling us that the Word of God spoken out of our mouths will keep us free.

Every day there are opportunities to speak contrary to God’s Word. A pain comes. A symptom comes. The checkbook looks empty. The job is no more. The children look like they are straying. The marriage looks like it is failing. We have a choice at each of these points to speak what we see in the natural and agree with it or to speak what God’s Word says about us. The blood of Jesus has cleansed us of all that sin and death brought. The Word of God keeps us cleansed.

How powerful! THERE IS LIFE IN THE BLOOD OF JESUS! THERE IS LIFE IN THE WORD OF GOD! Let’s speak His Word and keep the life flow going strong in our lives.

He Bore It All

2011-01-24T11:27:00.000-08:00

When Jesus took our place as our substitute on this earth (from the time He was born until He was resurrected), He had a mission. Come and get my kids back for me. That is what the Father was saying to Him. I want my family back. I want to be able to fellowship and enjoy my children. Let’s restore them to the position of family members again.

The only way that we could become family again was for someone to take our place and bear the consequences of our disobedience. Someone had to pay the price,and that is exactly what Jesus did for us. God provided His Son to be our substitute. Jesus was born to be our substitute. I think it is time we looked closely at what He did for us, because I believe that so much of the time we take it for granted. What He did was BIG!!!!!

God had to punish sin. Jesus took the fullness of that punishment. God punished Jesus (Who became sin) for you and me. We must see Jesus on the cross being judged for our sin, smitten with our sicknesses and diseases and taking on the fullness of poverty and stress and heartache and the challenges of life here on this earth. When He punished sin in Jesus, all the consequences of sin were dealt with. No more sickness and poverty for us. It is gone. It is still in the world, but we are not of the world. We are of the Kingdom of God, where sin has been taken care of.

God punished Jesus with sin and with every effect of sin. Jesus Christ was punished with our sins, our diseases, our stress, our mental anguish, our anxieties and cares. Disease, poverty, lack, failure, etc. has lost its legal right to be in you or on you or around you. It is finished as far as you are concerned. Selah, pause and think on that for a while.

God cannot punish sin twice or He would be unjust. He cannot demand payment twice for the same debt. He demanded payment of Jesus. That is it. That settles it. He will never demand payment again. So why are you trying to pay for and work for your health, your prosperity, your peace of mind. It is PAID IN FULL! DEBT CANCELLED!

MY DEBT TO SIN AND SICKNESS AND DISEASE AND POVERTY AND FAILURE IS CANCELLED, GONE FOREVER!

Defeated Foe

2011-01-12T06:59:00.000-08:00

Deuteronomy 18:7
The Lord shall cause your enemies who rise up against you to be defeated before your face; they shall come against you one way and flee before you seven ways.

What enemy are you facing today? Is it lack? Is it sickness and disease? Is it broken relationships? Is it fear? Is it doubt and unbelief? Is it depression? Is it stress? Whatever the enemy is, God has already defeated that enemy for you through Jesus Christ.

As we see in this scripture verse in the Old Testament (which, of course, was before Jesus came to this earth to defeat satan and his foes forever), God had already provided for our enemies to be defeated right in front of us. He assures us that they may come against us in one direction but they will flee before us in seven directions. I think that is very reassuring. How much more assurance we should have now. Jesus rendered satan powerless (Hebrews 2:14,15). He stripped principalities and powers of their authority (Colossians 2:15). He destroyed the works of the devil (which would be the enemies that attempt to attack us) (1 John 3:8). And the Father delivered us from the control of darkness and delivered us into the Kingdom of His dear Son, Jesus Christ (Colossians 1:12-14).

Jesus has already faced defeat for each person on the face of this earth. He has already defeated satan and his demonic forces. He, the Father, and the Holy Spirit are One in me to continually enforce that defeat for me personally. Every day I am victorious because Jesus is my victory.

VICTORY IN JESUS!

Settled

2011-01-10T20:44:00.000-08:00

The word “settled” is another word we use for the word “establish.” They are both very strong words of stability.

Here is what the word “settled” means: station, establish, make to stand, make to stand still or upright, best state.

In God’s Word we see that the word “settled” is used mainly to relate to His Word and our faith. In Psalm 119:89 we read that God’s Word is forever settled. It is a forever truth. It is an unalterable truth forever. God’s Word is stable and not subject to changing winds. We are to put no confidence in the world’s words which are unstable, unsettled, subject to change, and in alignment with man’s opinions. God’s Word is eternal and aligned with God Who is the same yesterday, today and forever.

When you are in trouble and when circumstances seem to overtake you, go to the Word of God. What does God have to say about it? When you find out, settle it forever in your heart that is the way it is going to be in your life. It starts with a decision that God’s Word is true for you. 1 Peter 1:25 and Matthew 24:35 tell us that the Word of God endures forever----it will not pass away. When you are holding to God’s Word, it isn’t going anywhere. It is anchored in the Lord Himself, Who is the unchanging one. He said it; that settles it forever.

Then we are told in Colossians 1:23 to continue in the faith, grounded and settled (steadfast) and be not moved away from (be not shifting from) the hope of the gospel. What is the hope of the gospel? It is the white-hot expectancy of the reality of the good news of the Kingdom of God. Jesus has won the battle and satan is defeated and stripped of His power. Jesus gave the power to us as the children of God.

Whatever our circumstances are at the present time, whether they are good or bad, Jesus has given us the power to overcome in this world. It may not always be pleasant to encounter tough times, but it is glorious to know that we have been given God’s ability to overcome and be victorious. We must not back down from our trust in God. He is the One with the answers.

Settle it in your hearts today that Jesus is the One Who will carry you through to the other side. That is not just fancy talk. That is reality. I know because I have been there many times. It may not always seem like it will work this time, but it always does. The Word will work for you every time. You are a victorious child of God.

YOU ARE ESTABLISHED AND SETTLED IN GOD AND HIS WORD FOREVER!

Establish, Part 3

2011-01-10T08:04:00.000-08:00

Let’s make a good confession about our established hearts, based on 1 Thessalonians 3:12,13

Lord, make me to increase, excel, and overflow in love for all people:
To the end You may strengthen, confirm and ESTABLISH my heart faultlessly pure and unblamable in holiness in the sight of You Who are God and my Father, at the coming of my Lord Jesus Christ, the Messiah, with all His saints.

What all of us must do as God’s children is to choose to believe that every word written in this Bible is us. It is who we are.

We know ourselves too well and look at our weaknesses and shortcomings. We see the doubt in our minds and the uncertainty in our hearts as human beings. But what God is asking us to do is this: Believe, anyway, what His word says about you. Take a chance and believe it. It is truer than what you are seeing with your eyes about yourself or think you know inside about yourself.

Dare to believe what God says about you. It is true. You have an established heart. Let God take care of the establishing of your heart for you. He sees you right now through the eyes of the blood of His Son Jesus Christ as pure and spotless and righteous before Him. Let’s see ourselves the same way and come into agreement with God. How can two walk together except they be in agreement. If we are not in harmony with God, no wonder we are not receiving our prayers answered or problems turned around. Let’s choose to come into agreement with Him as we study this word “established” now and the word “settled” later.

Come into agreement with God. You have an established heart.

The established heart is established in the Truth of God’s Word, and in the reality of righteousness. This is a person who lets all his ways be established and ordered in God.

2 Peter 1:12 tells us that we are to be established in the truth we now hold. Isaiah 54:14 tells us that we are established in righteousness (right with God, right standing with Him, looking just like Him, full of His nature and walking like Him). Proverbs 4:26 tells us that we are to let all our ways be established and ordered aright.

Looking at God’s word, we see that we have an established heart; we are established in the truth; we are established in righteousness; our ways are to be established.

I AM ESTABLISHED, FIXED UNALTERABLY, GROUNDED FOREVER, SETTLED PERMANENTLY ON GOD WITHOUT DOUBT OR WAVERING IN MY LIFE!

Establish, Part 2

2011-01-06T16:50:00.000-08:00

We are still studying the word of God concerning being established. Let’s look at one more scripture about the established heart.

Psalm 112: 7,8
…My heart is established, firmly fixed, trusting, leaning on and being confident in God. My heart is established and steady.

What is an established heart?
According to our definition of the word “established,” the established heart (spirit) is one which is fixed on the truth of God and Who He is. It is the heart that knows that God will take care of His children. Nothing alters what we believe about God and His Word. It is a permanent, settled subject as far as we are concerned. What is wavering, doubtful or weak has been settled. How do we get that way? How do we stand unflinching in the face of contradictory circumstances and problems that linger, in spite of prayer, in spite of confessing the word, in spite of all that we do? We stand in a stable place when we determine that God and His Word are true in our lives, regardless of what is happening to us or what is being taken care of. It is our determined purpose to believe that His grace has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness. He alone is our rock and unchanging God. It is a decision. Then it is the attitude of sticking to that decision when it is challenged time after time after time.

You and I are established in many things in the earthly realm. Simple things are established, such as the belief that the sun is going to come up tomorrow and go down today. The sky is up over us. It will rain or snow at some point. We get hungry and thirsty. We breathe oxygen. Our car will start when we turn the ignition. The chair will hold us when we sit on it. The door will open when we put the key in it. These are established facts in our lives. They are something we are sure of.

But what about the established facts that are conditional? We still have them established in our minds. We will have food to eat when we are hungry. We will have water to drink when we are thirsty. We will get up in the morning and have a good day. We will go to work and come home. We will have a paycheck when we work. These are all conditional facts, but we still expect things to work as we believe.

In God’s realm, we must establish ourselves on His grace and His goodness much more so than the earthly facts that we have already established in our minds. It is a practiced belief. We must see God as the One Who takes care of all things for us. That is the definition of an established heart.

MY HEART IS ESTABLISHED IN GOD AND HIS WORD.

Establish

2011-01-05T17:35:00.000-08:00

As I mentioned yesterday, there are three words that stand out in my spirit and mind for 2011----establish, settled, and power.

Jesus’ appearing is upon us. His return is nearer than we think or believe or perceive. I believe we must lay hold of His Word as we never have before this time. We must be ones who are to be established in the Word, established in His Truth forever, with our hearts established in Christ, the Anointed One and His anointing. He in turn establishes us in righteousness. We must be so established that nothing phases us, regardless of what we see or experience in this present earthly existence.

The word “establish” means:
To set or fix firmly or unalterably
To settle permanently
To enact or decree by authority and for permanence
To settle or fix what is wavering, doubtful or weak; to confirm

With that definition in mind, over the next several days we are going to look at the Word of God concerning being established.

Today let’s look at scriptures talking about being established in faith.

Colossians 2:6,7
As I have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so I walk in Him, regulating my life and conducting myself in union with and conformity to Him
Rooted and built up in Him, having the roots of my being firmly and deeply planted in Christ Jesus my Lord, fixed and founded in Him, being continually built up in Him
Becoming increasingly more confirmed and ESTABLISHED in the faith as I have been taught
Abounding and overflowing therein in thanksgiving.

Take this scripture as reality in your life. That is you if you are a child of God, if you are born again. If you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, this is what you do:
You regulate your life in Him. You conduct yourself in union with Him. You conduct yourself in conformity to what He is.
You are rooted in Him. You are built up in Him. You have the roots of your being firmly and deeply planted in Him. You are fixed and founded in Him. You are being continually built up in Him.
You are becoming increasingly more confirmed and ESTABLISHED IN THE FAITH as you have been taught.
You are abounding and overflowing in the faith in thanksgiving.

You say that you don’t feel like that is who you are. Believe me, there are days when I don’t feel like that is who I am. BUT, and there is the big word----if this word says that is who I am, then guess what? That is who I am! Faith is simply believing that is who I am. Circumstances and answered prayer or the lack thereof do not determine that is who I am. God’s Word of Truth is who I am.

Say it with me: I am a child of God. I am established in faith. I am rooted in Him. I am overflowing with faith in thanksgiving.

I AM ESTABLISHED IN THE FAITH!

2011 Thoughts

2011-01-03T11:02:00.000-08:00

As we enter a new year, we enter in with the white-hot expectancy of God’s goodness and mercy being our delight. His righteousness and peace are ours. He is passionately pursuing us. We are His Beloved.

Three words stand out for me this year----establish and settle, and the word “power.”

I believe that God is telling us that we are to be so established and settled in Him and His Word of Truth and His Love that nothing that happens in our own personal world or the world around us moves us. Our hearts are to be established in Him. We are established in His righteousness. His Word is settled forever. We are fixed in Him, always looking forward to what He is doing. His power will be demonstrated in us and through us as we keep our focus fixed on Him.

Today, let’s make a good confession from Galatians 5 16,18, 22-25 in the Amplified Bible.

I am born again.
Therefore, I have the Holy Spirit living in me, with all His fruit or the forces of His Spirit residing in my spirit.
I walk and live habitually in the Holy Spirit.
I am responsive to, controlled by and guided by the Holy Spirit.
Then I will certainly not gratify the cravings and desires of my flesh, my human nature without God.
I am guarded, led by the Holy Spirit.
I belong to Christ Jesus, the Messiah and have crucified the flesh, my godless human nature, with its passions and appetites and desires.
I live by the Holy Spirit and walk by the Spirit.
By the power of the Holy Spirit I have my life in God; I go forward walking in line, my conduct controlled by the Spirit.

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-24T20:52:00.001-08:00

Merry Christmas! When we say Merry Christmas, we are literally saying: Have joy at the celebration of the Anointed One and His anointing.

Before the foundation of the world Father, Son and Holy Spirit made a decision that Jesus would come into this world as a baby with the purpose of redeeming all of mankind from the ravages of sin and restoring them to their rightful position as children of Almighty God. Hallelujah! What a Savior! He came! He conquered! He rose! He is coming back!

Shalom! Immanuel is with us! God is with us always, even unto the end!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

The Eve of Jesus' Birth

2010-12-24T07:50:00.000-08:00

Today is Christmas Eve, the day before we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. I want to highlight a few of the scriptures in Luke for our meditation. What a beautiful time this is, when people of Christ celebrate with joy His first coming and look forward to His second coming.

Luke 1:26,27,28, 37,38, 46, 47
And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth.
To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary.
And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women.
For with God nothing shall be impossible.
And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her.
And Mary said, My soul doth magnify the Lord.
And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.

A decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed and Joseph with Mary journeyed to the city of David, Bethlehem, to be taxed.
Luke 2: 6,7
And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.
And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

The angel of the Lord appeared to shepherds in the field; the glory of God shone around them and they were afraid.
Luke 2:10,11,12,13,14
And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.
For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.
And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.
And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

The shepherds went and they saw Jesus and returned home, praising and glorifying God for everything they saw and heard.

We also today should magnify the Lord and rejoice in God our Savior.
We praise and glorify God for everything we see and hear in the spirit. We are blessed as no other generation has been blessed. Much has been revealed to us.

LET US REJOICE!

Delivered From Destruction

2010-12-15T09:20:00.000-08:00

Psalm 107:20
He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destruction.

Here in Psalm 107:20 God very specifically tells us that we have been delivered (past tense) from destruction and made whole. He tells us how He did it. He sent His Word. We can look at that in two ways. He sent His Word, Jesus, Who is called the Word. He is the living Word. He sent His Word, the living, breathing Bible which is made alive by the Holy Spirit. I believe in my heart that both meanings are applied here.

The word healed in this passage means cure, make whole. The word destruction is pitfall. God is saying to us that we have been delivered from every pitfall, every destruction that satan would send our way. We have already been delivered before we even encounter it. What a way to live! Living in the deliverance mode!

If you look up the word destruction or destroy in the dictionary you find that it means to lay waste, to ruin, to bring to naught, to annihilate, to kill, to take away to cause to cease, to put to an end. In other words God has already delivered you and me from anything that would lay waste and put an end to our lives, our dreams, our finances, our health, our families, our marriages. Whatever it is that is formed against you as a weapon has already been destroyed before it is even wielded against you. Wow! That is good news!

Then in the same chapter in verse 2 we read this:
Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom He has delivered from the hand of the adversary.

You are I have been redeemed from the curse of the law, from everything that would destroy us. What are we supposed to do about that redemption? Say so. Say: I have been redeemed from the curse of the law. I have been redeemed from destruction. I have been redeemed from any plan the devil would send against me. I’m the redeemed of the Lord and I say so! I have been delivered from destruction. I have been delivered from the hand (the power, the strength) of the enemy (one opposed to me who has enmity against me, that is, the devil).

I’M THE REDEEMED OF THE LORD AND I SAY SO! GOD SENT HIS WORD AND MADE ME WHOLE AND I HAVE BEEN DELIVERED FROM DESTRUCTION!

Holy Spirit Directed

2010-12-13T07:50:00.000-08:00

Based on Galatians 5:16,18, 22-25, Amplified Bible, let’s make a good confession to start our week as we are heading toward Christmas. The Holy Spirit takes the stress out of our lives and puts everything in the right perspective as we bake and buy gifts and put up decorations and wrap presents. We must remember that the gifts represent the Perfect Gift. The baking represents the bread of life who is the sweetness of Heaven, Jesus Himself. The decorations represent the beauty of our Lord. The wrapping of presents represent our Lord Jesus wrapped in swaddling clothes to be presented to the world as the most beautiful gift of all.

I am born again.
Therefore, I have the Holy Spirit living in me, with all His fruit or the forces of His Spirit residing in my spirit.
I walk and live habitually controlled by and guided by the Holy Spirit.
Then I will certainly not gratify the cravings and desires of my flesh, my human nature without God.
I am guarded, led by the Holy Spirit.
I belong to Christ Jesus, the Messiah, and have crucified the flesh, my godless human nature, with its passions and appetites and desires.
I live by the Holy Spirit and walk by the Spirit.
By the power of the Holy Spirit I have my life in God; I go forward walking in line, my conduct controlled by the Spirit.

Now, take a moment, take a deep breath, and think about Jesus, the reason we celebrate Christmas, His birthday. He will put all things into perspective this holiday season. Stop, consider Him, give your day to Him and He will help you to do all things well and in a peaceful state.

I AM HOLY SPIRIT DIRECTED TODAY!

In My Father's House

2010-12-09T14:05:00.000-08:00

I am sure that many of you are familiar with the scripture in John 14:2 where Jesus told us that in His Father’s house are many mansions. If it were not so, He would have told us otherwise. He has gone and prepared a place for us. He said that He would come again and receive us to Himself, that where He is, there we may be also.

In Hebrews 3:6 we read that Christ is faithful over His own Father’s house as a Son and Master of it. It is we who are now members of that house, if we hold our joyful and exultant confidence and sense of triumph in our hope in Christ.

As I looked at these two verses yesterday, which are very much connected, God showed me something about Father’s house and mansions.

House here is the Greek word oikia which means residence, abode and by implication, family. It is from the Greek word oikos which means dwelling.

Mansion is mone which comes from meno which means a staying, that is, residence, abode, mansion; to stay in a given place, state, relation or expectancy.

What we see here is that Jesus was telling us. Where My Father lives, there are many residences for us as His family. We will dwell in them with Him in the place that He has prepared for us. Jesus has promised us that He will come again and receive us to Himself. Where He is, we may be also.

We are the Father’s house also. God dwells in us and we dwell in Him. Where He is, we are as His children. Our little brain finds it hard to wrap around this truth. We are with Him right now in heaven. He is with us right now on earth. We are together. This is why we can hold our joy and confidence and triumph firm to the end. Our hope is in Christ, the Anointed One and His anointing, His power, His ability. He is our hope. He is our dwelling place.

WE ARE IN OUR FATHER’S HOUSE RIGHT NOW BY VIRTUE OF BEING IN CHRIST JESUS!

Praise Him!

2010-12-08T14:30:00.000-08:00

Revelation is the last book in the Bible and the book describing what is going to be happening in the end of time as we know it. In that book is some powerful praise unto God. Today, let’s praise Him with His Word from Revelation exalting His power and His glory.

Revelation 4:11
You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power, for You have created all things and for Your pleasure they are and were created.
That’s me, Lord. You created me for Your pleasure. I bring you great pleasure. I praise You. You are worthy to receive all the glory, all the honor, all the power. You are my great and awesome Creator. Thank You!

Revelation 7:12
So be it!
Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be unto my God forever and ever!
So be it!
I am in You, God. That means that Your blessing and Your glory and Your wisdom and Your thanksgiving (the way You give thanks) and Your honor and Your power and Your might are in me. Thank You, God! So be it!

Revelation 11:17
I give You thanks, O Lord God Almighty, Omnipotent (all-powerful) One, Who is and Who was and Who is to come. You have taken to Yourself Your great power; You have assumed the high sovereignty and the great power that are Yours. And You have reigned.
O Lord God Almighty, you are reigning in my life. You have assumed Your position of high sovereignty and great power in my life. I give You thanks because You are the All-Powerful, Omnipotent God of my life.

Revelation 19:1
Hallelujah! Praise to You Lord!
Salvation and glory (splendor and majesty) and power (dominion and authority) belong to You, my God!

FOR YOU LORD GOD ALMIGHTY ARE WORTHY OF ALL MY PRAISE AND ADORATION!

Dream and Look Beyond

2010-12-07T07:12:00.000-08:00

What do you see today? What are you seeing with your physical eyes? A better question would be this: What are you seeing with your spiritual eyes? Do you see misery or joy? Do you see lack or abundance? Do you see rejection or love? Do you see death or life? What do you see?

God told Abraham and Joseph and Isaac and many in the Bible to look beyond where they were, to see the wonderful plan He had for them. At the time He spoke to them He was basically saying this: Look beyond where you are right now in your present circumstances to what I have for you.

Dare to dream big dreams. Dare to have a impossible goal. Dare to believe you can achieve the vision God has placed before your eyes.

How do you know it is a God dream? The Bible tells us to delight ourselves in the Lord and He will give us the desires of our hearts. DELIGHT YOURSELF IN THE LORD! He will do the rest. He will give you the dream. He will place the desires in your heart. He will give you the vision. THEN, He will place you in the right place at the right time with the right people, time after time, to achieve that dream. Step by step and precept upon precept, one by one, God will fulfill that dream.

What is our task? To Delight, to dream, and to look beyond our earthly confinements to His heavenly reality.

What God has placed in your heart is there to be fulfilled. DREAM AND LOOK BEYOND!

Give Voice

2010-12-06T08:11:00.000-08:00

You and I as human beings on this earth were given a voice to speak intelligible words that communicate understanding. Animals can only meow or bark or moo or neigh or bray or crow or squeak. They have a limited means of communicating, even though they do communicate even with their movements and scent. BUT we humans have been given a gift by God to create by our words. What an honor! What a privilege! What a blessing!

Every second of every minute of every hour of every day of every month of every year, we are giving voice to our thoughts, putting them into words. We can either give voice to our circumstances and feelings or we can give voice to God’s Word. We have been given that choice. Wow!

God’s Word is so beautiful. It is the essence of everything we will need, whether it is health and healing, financial wealth, Godly relationships, strong families or a vibrant life. It is all there for us in God’s Word. He has made provision for every area of our lives. He has presented us with His Word so that we can give voice to His goodness and love not only for ourselves but also for others. He has given us His Word to paint a picture of the Blessing all the time in this earth for us and for others.

What are you giving voice to today? The world around us is speaking doom and gloom. We must speak life and hope and faith. And the place we start is with ourselves and those around us. GIVE VOICE TO GOD’S WORD!

He Cares

2010-11-29T15:56:00.000-08:00

Jesus, our Heavenly Father, and the Holy Spirit care for us deeply. Their love for us goes beyond anything we can humanly reason possible. They love us dearly as their beloved ones. Therefore, we do not have to have a care about what will happen to us. All around us the world is in a tizzy about what to do and what is going to happen to them.

Jesus told us in Matthew 6:33 that we are to seek first God’s Kingdom, His way of doing things, and His righteousness (His way of being right) and all these things shall be added unto us. He told us that He takes care of the birds and the animals, so why should be fret about what to wear or what to eat or where to stay. He will take care of us.

1 Peter 5:7 tells us to cast the whole of our care, all our anxieties, all our worries and all our concerns once and for all on Him, for He cares for us affectionately and cares about us watchfully. Also, Philippians 4:6 and 7 tell us that we are not to fret or have any anxiety about anything, but in every circumstance and in everything with thanksgiving we are to make our requests known to God. And His peace which passes all our human understanding will guard our hearts and minds

I know that it does not always seem to you and me that we can just be happy in the midst of the worst of all circumstances and that it appears easier said than done in our lives, but if God had it written in His Word, then we can do it. We can cast everything upon Him and let Him take care of it for us. It is possible and it is “doable.” It takes practice. Let’s do it. CAST YOUR CARE ON HIM!

Our Great God

2010-11-27T19:38:00.000-08:00

King David in Psalm 21:1-7,13, Amplified Bible, makes a wonderful declaration of His God. He speaks to the Lord and tells Him how wonderful He is. You and I are kings unto the Lord. This can be our prayer and declaration as well.

I shall joy in Your strength, O Lord, and in Your salvation how greatly shall I rejoice!

You have given me my heart’s desire and have not withheld the request of my lips.

For You send blessings of good things to meet me; You set a crown of pure gold on my head.

I asked life of You, and You gave it to me----long life forever and evermore.

Your glory is great because of Your aid; splendor and majesty You bestow upon me.

For You make me to be blessed and a blessing forever; You make me exceedingly glad with the joy of Your presence.

For I trust, rely on and am confident in You, Lord, and through your mercy and steadfast love, Most High God, I will never be moved.

Be exalted, O Lord, in Your strength; I will sing and praise Your power.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2010-11-25T06:57:00.000-08:00

Today is the day designated to give thanks in all things. For you and I as God’s children we give thanks every day because we are so extremely blessed by our Lord. He gives us all things richly to enjoy. He showers His best upon us. We are living in the fullness of His abundance.

Whether it looks like it in our lives right now at this very moment on this earth, WE ARE LIVING IN HIS FULLNESS. How can that be? If His Word said it, it is true, regardless of our circumstances. As we give thanks with a grateful heart, that heart of gratitude will change our circumstances because the world’s system must respond to God’s Word system.

Turning Deuteronomy 28:47 in the Amplified Bible from the negative to the positive, we will make this our declaration this Thanksgiving Day.

I serve the Lord my God with joyfulness of mind and heart in gratitude for the abundance of all with which He has blessed me.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING IN YOUR LORD!

Excel Confession

2010-11-24T08:07:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we talked about 3 John 2. Today let’s make some confessions, based on that scripture.

I am God’s Beloved child. He loves me dearly. My dear Heavenly Father loves me.

I am prospering. I am excelling. I am going to the highest level in God. I am dwelling in excellence.

It is time for me to excel, increase, exceed, surpass, eclipse, do extremely well.
I am advancing. I am enlarging.

I am doing exceeding, extraordinary things in my life.

I will do all God has called me to be and do and come to new heights.

I am in health and whole. I am complete in Him. My body is a healthy body. Every cell, tissue, organ and system responds to the health of God, prospering in every way.

I dwell in wholeness in my life in every area.

My soul is prospering. My mind is the mind of Christ and I hold His purposes, thoughts and actions. My will is conformed to His will in thought, purpose and deed. My emotions are stabilized in His fruit and soaring to the new heights of His love and joy and peace in the fruitfulness of Him.

I am complete in the fullness of Christ, The Anointed One and His anointing.

I am my Beloved’s and He is mine.

Excel

2010-11-24T07:59:00.000-08:00

The Holy Spirit, through the Apostle John in 3 John 2, had this to say to us as God’s dear children. It is such a familiar scripture I believe we have not truly had a revelation of it. Let’s look at this scripture verse today.

BELOVED, I DESIRE (OR PRAY) THAT YOU PROSPER AND BE IN HEALTH EVEN AS YOUR SOUL PROSPERS.

Let’s start with that first word----BELOVED. You are loved by the Lord. I am going to make a statement that will probably shock some of you. His very life is tied up in you. He lives for you and your happiness and well being. He delights in your success. It gives Him great pleasure for you to be the healthiest, richest, most prosperous person on the face of the earth. You are His whole focus of attention.

It is His DESIRE that you PROSPER and BE IN HEALTH. His greatest desire is to see you prosperous.

To PROSPER means to excel, to achieve the highest excellence. Does that mean money, as so many people have narrowly defined it? No, it means your entire life. You are to excel in health. You are to excel in relationships. You are to excel in love and joy and peace and all the fruit of the spirit. You are to excel in walking in the fullness of His provisions. And, yes, you are to excel in wealth. Every one of God’s children were born again to excel. Excellence is our byword.

BE IN HEALTH---sometimes for some people that seems to be so unreachable because everywhere you and I turn, we hear that there is this sickness out there and that infirmity and this possibility of catching something deadly. What you hear and focus on is what you become. We are bombarded on TV, even on the commercials now----drug companies are spending big bucks to capture your attention with their commercials because there is big business in drugs. We live in a society which is sickness conscious. Our society, the Kingdom of God, is health conscious. The only way to maintain that health is given us in the last part of that verse.

AS YOUR SOUL PROSPERS----your soul consists of your thinking ability (your reasoning), your ability to make decisions and your reaction to stimuli. In other words, your soul is your mind, your will and your emotions. How do we get them to excel? What we focus on determines how they operate? Our focus is to be on God. How do we do that? His Word! His Word is the expression of Himself. As we dwell in His Word, we are dwelling in Him, in His Presence, and we become like Him. Look upon Him and be whole today. Delight yourself in Him; enjoy His Presence.

EXCEL!

Enjoy All Things

2010-11-22T07:33:00.000-08:00

God the Father, Jesus Christ the Son, and the Holy Spirit enjoy you just as you are. You are the joy of their life. Yes, You! Before the creation of the earth, of the world, God made a choice to love and enjoy everybody created on this earth. He didn't put a requirement on His love for you. He chose to love and enjoy you. Yes, there is something you have to do. You have to accept Him and His love and His sacrifice for you on the cross in order to enjoy the full benefits of His love and joy.

I have been meditating two scriptures that I want to share with you that God dropped in my heart in the shower the other day. They are both related to the word “richly” and they came about as a result of the word “enjoy.” I have personalized them for my own meditation.

1 Timothy 6:17b
…God gives me richly all things to enjoy. Amplified Bible: …God richly and ceaselessly provides me with everything for my enjoyment.

Colossians 3:16
I let the word of Christ dwell in me (have its home in my heart and mind) richly in all wisdom.
And in connection with verse 16 I added v. 15
I let the peace of God rule in my heart.
Rule: Act as umpire continually, deciding and settling with finality all questions that arise in my mind.

The Greek word for richly in the Strong’s Concordance means copiously, abundantly. It comes from the word that means wealthy; figuratively, it means abounding with. It comes from the root word which means wealth as fullness, money, possessions; figuratively it means abundance, richness; specifically it can mean valuable, bestowments, riches.

Today realize that God gives you abundantly ALL THINGS TO ENJOY, and that includes earthly stuff such as money and possessions. Wealth is no big deal to God as long as it does not become a big deal to you. It is simply a tool for provision for our enjoyment.

ENJOY!

Enjoy Life

2010-08-15T19:17:00.000-07:00

Did you know that Jesus told us that He came so that we may enjoy our lives and enjoy all the things He gives us to enjoy? Enjoyment----what a word to ponder. I would venture to say that many of you reading this today are not enjoying life to the fullest. Why not? Are you born again? Yes, then what is the problem? You say: Things are not going so well? Bills are unpaid? Health is not so good? Children straying? Marriages full of strife? At some point or another, we all have said these things. I am tired of believing. I am tired of waiting for my answer. I don’t see any results.

I have one question to ask all of us today. Do you believe the Word of God is true? Do you believe God cannot lie? Well, listen to this. These words are in red. Believe the red. Jesus said them. This is what He said.
John 10:10 Amplified Bible “…I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance (to the full, till it overflows).”

Then we read in 1 Timothy 6:17 that we are to “…trust in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy.” Amplified Bible “…set their hopes on God, Who richly and ceaselessly provides us with everything for [our] enjoyment.”

Here is what we are to focus on and say every day when we get up.
“I am enjoying life.
I trust in the living God. I set my hopes on Him. I don’t put my trust in man and his way of thinking.
I have and enjoy life because Jesus came and gave it to me.
I receive life in abundance. That means that I receive health in abundance; I receive prosperity in abundance; I receive a marriage made in heaven; I receive children taught of the Lord and obedient to His will; I receive the good life of God in every area of my life.
I have the joy of life to the full and overflowing.
I have so much life that it overflows into others’ lives.
I am a person who fully and completely enjoys life.
God, my Father, through Jesus His Son and my Brother, richly and without ceasing provides me with everything for my enjoyment.
I have everything in abundance and overflowing.
The abundant flow never ceases. It is mine all the time.
I enjoy life because it is the Life of God in me that causes me to enjoy my living here on this earth.
I am living in the Life of God all the time. He gives me great joy and I enjoy every minute of my day every day.
I know that my God takes care of me.
I seek Him first and His way of doing things and I shall be filled to the full with His life always.”

Overcomer Through Jesus Christ

2010-08-12T06:04:00.000-07:00

1 John 4:4
I am God’s child. I am of God. I belong to Him. Because I belong to Him, I have ALREADY defeated and overcome the agents of antichrist. Why? Greater, mightier is He Who is in me than he who is in the world.

How do I overcome?
Revelation 12:11
I overcome by the blood of the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, and by the word of my testimony, my witness to the truth of God’s Word.

Jesus told me in John 16:33 that He has overcome the world for me. He has deprived it of its power to harm me and has conquered it for me.

Praise God! I am an overcomer through Jesus Christ

Strong In The Lord

2010-08-10T17:53:00.000-07:00

Ephesians 6:10
I am strong in the Lord. I am empowered through my union with Him. I draw my strength from Him, that strength which His boundless mighty provides.

Philippians 2:13
It is not in my own strength, for it is God Who is all the while at work in me, energizing and creating in me the power and the desire both to will and to work for His good pleasure and satisfaction and delight.

Isaiah 45:24
Surely shall I say, in the Lord I have righteousness and strength.

Our physical, mental, and emotional strength comes from the Lord. It is He Who gives us what we need when we need it. Let the weak say that he is strong and draw his strength from the Lord. There is no God like our God. Lean on Him. Rely on Him. Draw your strength from Him.

The Past Does Not Dictate Your Future

2010-08-09T19:48:00.000-07:00

Do not let the failures and successes of your past determine your future. Your future is crafted and designed in God’s powerful and mighty hands. He already has it planned for you in the most minute detail. What you and I have to do is yield ourselves to Him and not try to work out our own future, based on what we know.

One of the greatest deterrents to our future is our past. There have been times when all of us have been disappointed or discouraged or angry or hurt and upset, when things did not work the way we thought they should have. I know this comes as no great revelation to you, but it was not God who messed things up. We were either ignorant and didn’t know enough or we were disobedient or we were impatient or we let go of our faith. God is not the problem. I know this is going to shock you, but so many times the devil is not our problem either. We give him far too much credit for our messups. He really did not have to help. We did quite well on our own.

Past mistakes are gone. We all must “get over it” and move on. There are things that have happened in my life in the past that so drained me of hope. I would even quote the scripture to God that hope deferred makes the heart grow sick. I blamed him for my failures and defeats and the lack of answered prayer. When the dust settled and the air cleared and I was quiet before the Lord, I would see where there were doors I had left open for defeat. And even if God did not reveal to me what happened, I have learned to be content in God’s presence and let Him do the driving of the vehicle of my life. Since I am a fixer and a doer, that has been a learning experience for me to settle back and let the Lord do the fixing and the doing.

Let’s all remember that the past is the past. Let’s get on with the design of our lives, having confidence in God Who is the architect and builder of our whole life structure.

Let us be convinced and sure of this very thing: He Who began a good work in us will bring it to full completion in us (Phil. 1:6). With the Apostle Paul, let us forget those things which are behind and reach forth to those things which are set before us, pressing toward the mark for the prize of the high calling (Phil. 3:14).

Finally, with the Prophet Isaiah we say that we do not remember the former things; neither do we consider the things of old. Rather, we behold the Lord God doing a new thing in our lives. It is springing forth; we perceive it and know it and give heed to the new work. God is even making a way in the wilderness of our lives and producing the healing waters of His rivers of life in our deserts (Isaiah 43:18,19).

Today is the new day that the Lord has made for us. We will rejoice in this new day and be glad in it.

We are in Christ. All things have become new. We are new creations. We have put on the new man and have come by a new and living way in Christ Jesus, singing a new song because our names are written in the Lamb’s book of life and He has made all things new. (1 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 6:15; Eph. 4:24; Col. 3:10; Heb. 10:20; Rev. 5:9; Rev. 14:3)

Whose Thoughts Are Those?, Part 2

2010-08-08T18:55:00.000-07:00

Jesus told us that out of the abundance of our heart our mouth speaks (Matt. 12:34). Our heart is the center of our being, where our spirit is located. If we think on something long enough, it gets in the center of our being and comes out of our mouth. When it comes out of the center of our being, it will create what we say.

There are two sources of thoughts: God and satan. We choose every minute of every day whose thoughts become our focus and then we speak out what we are thinking.

Let’s use a practical example of thoughts and words in our present day. If we listen to the news all the time, we are hearing words of doom and gloom. “We are going under. The world is in a mess financially. People are out of work. People’s homes are being foreclosed.” Etc. Etc. Etc. However, if we look at and speak what God’s Word says about our financial situations, we see in His Word that He takes care of us. Are we not of more value than the birds of the air or the lilies of the field? He says that He sent His word and healed us. He says that Jesus bore our sicknesses and diseases. One set of thoughts comes from satan. The other set comes from God.

There is a tug of war for your thought life. There is a constant barrage of thoughts bombarding your mind 24-7. Negative thoughts must be offset by God’s Word. It is almost like we are having to become walking Bibles, with the word coming out at every squeeze of pressure. The water of the word comes out of our life sponges rather than the mildew of the world’s ideas.

Whose thoughts are those? You are the determining factor of whose thoughts you ponder.

Whose Thoughts Are Those?, Part 1

2010-08-05T16:43:00.000-07:00

Thoughts dwelt on produce words. Words spoken produce actions. Actions determine the course of our lives.

God knows very well how He set up this earth and mankind to dwell on it. Our enemy satan also knows the set-up. It is very simple. It was established in Genesis. God spoke and God saw. Man, whom God has created, speaks and he sees. We are created in the image or likeness of God. He speaks and things are created.

We as mankind, whether born again or not, speak and create, whether good or bad. There is a statement that is very true: What we say is what we get. It doesn’t happen the first time or the second time or even the third time, but there does come a time when we have dwelt on something so long and spoken it so often, that it produces in our lives exactly what we have spoken.

Thoughts and words are extremely important to God since that is how His Kingdom operates. Consider these verses: As a man THINKS in His heart, so is he (Prov. 23:7). You will give an account of every IDLE WORD that you have spoken. By YOUR WORDS you will be justified and by YOUR WORDS you will be condemned (Matt. 12:36,37). Man lives by every WORD that proceeds out of the MOUTH OF GOD (Deut. 8:3). A gentle TONGUE with its healing power is a tree of life (Prov. 15:4). The MOUTH of a righteous man is a well of life….(Prov. 10:11) The TONGUE of the just is as choice silver….(Prov. 10:20). The LIPS of the righteous feed many….(Prov. 10:21) PLEASANT WORDS are as a honeycomb, sweet to the mind and healing to the body (Prov. 16:24). Death and life are in the power of the TONGUE and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof (Prov. 18:21). Whoso keeps his MOUTH and his TONGUE keeps himself from troubles and he keeps his life (Prov. 21:23). A man shall be satisfied with good by the fruit of his MOUTH…. (Prov. 12:14). A man shall eat good by the fruit of his MOUTH….He that keeps his MOUTH keeps his life….(Prov. 13:2,3). Whatsoever things are true, honest, just, pure, lovely, of good report….THINK on these things (Phil. 4:8).

Canopy of Protection

2010-08-04T05:39:00.000-07:00

Psalm 91:1
I who dwell in the secret place of the Most High shall remain stable and fixed under the shadow of the Almighty [Whose power no foe can withstand].

God’s shadow is His glory. We read in Isaiah 4:5 that over all, (that means you and me) the glory shall be a canopy in defense of divine love and protection. His glory is our canopy of defense and protection. His glory is His love expressed and revealed for all to see. We can be here on this earth inside the glory of God, a protection over us and around us. Yes, God is our protection. His power no foe can withstand----absolutely no foe. No one can stand against Him or His children, when we stay fixed in Him.

The protection of his glory, of His presence comes as we worship Him. We dwell in the secret place of the Most High God WHOSE SHADOW no foe can withstand. Once again, I repeat: His shadow is His glory or His power as a canopy over us as His defense for us of His divine love and protection. There is no enemy or foe that can stand against us in God’s Presence. That is forbidden territory for the enemy. He cannot even come near the Presence of God.

When we are in God’s Presence, through worshipping Him, we cannot be touched by the enemy. Satan may try to deceive us and lie to us and tell us that we can be touched. Oh, no, no, no. That would be contrary to the Word of God that we have just read. We are protected as we walk out our victory over whatever comes against us.

Joyfulness of Mind and Heart

2010-08-03T10:24:00.000-07:00

What is the will of God? That we rejoice and be glad in Him. That we purpose to have joy in our minds and in our hearts. That we stir up the joy of our salvation. That we serve Him with joyfulness and gladness of mind and heart for all that He has given to us.

You might say: Well, I don’t see anything good happening in my life. There is where most of us make our mistake----I DON”T SEE! What do you see? Do you see the trouble all around you or do you see God’s Word which says that He will deliver you out of all trouble? We must learn to see what God's plan is for us and not what it looks like in the natural world to our physical eyes. Then we PERSIST in standing our ground for God's plan, regardless of what is happening or how long it seems to take to accomplish His plan.

We are living in a time where it is vital (not an option) that we CHOOSE to see God and His Word being performed in our lives and for us. Yes, our natural eyes and ears are seeing and hearing things we never thought we would see and hear. BUT, we must choose to hear what God is saying in His Word and to see what God is seeing. We must put on His eyes and His ears. It is a daily, perhaps a minute-by-minute choice for us.

Joy keeps God’s power and presence active in our lives. Grumbling, complaining, judging, analyzing, murmuring about what is going on, brings satan’s presence to us. Yes, it is true. We may not want to admit it but there are only two that are active in mankind’s life; it is either God Almighty or it is satan. JOY----GOD! MURMURING----SATAN!

Wow! I don’t know about you, but I am getting in the space of joyfulness of mind and heart.

Deuteronomy 28:47 Let’s turn it around from the negative to the positive and see what we get.
I serve the Lord God with joyfulness of mind and heart in gratitude for the abundance of all with which He has blessed me.

Start today if you don’t already practice this act of joy. Think about what God has sent your way as a blessing. You can begin with being thankful that you are born again and on your way to heaven. That is a reason for rejoicing! You can continue with the fact that you are breathing and alive. Pick up your Bible and start speaking the scriptures of blessing over yourself and your family UNTIL THEY BECOME REALITY in your life.

Today is the first day of the rest of your life, as the old expression goes. REJOICE!

The Lion of the Tribe of Judah

2010-07-27T07:26:00.000-07:00

Revelation 5:5,6,10
v. 5 And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof.
v. 6 And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne, and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth unto all the earth.
v. 10 And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.

Jesus, the Lamb Who was slain as the sacrifice on the cross of Calvary for you and me has become our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah. Now He is the Mighty One Who has come to dwell in us by the power of His Spirit. He is the Lion of the Tribe of Judah.

Remember that the word Judah represents praise. As you and I praise the Lord and exalt Him and honor Him, He stands in our midst as the Mighty Conquering One Who has won, overcome, conquered satan, who is portrayed as a roaring lion.

I have been told that an older lion roars the loudest because their teeth are not as good as they used to be. Whether that is true or not, I do not know. All I know is that Jesus has rendered satan powerless and given you and me the authority to tread on all of the demons of hell. We are the ones with the power delegated to us now. We are the ones who are more than conquerors through Christ Jesus Who loved us and gave Himself for us. We are the ones who are called kings by The King. We are the ones who are called lords by The Lord. Hallelujah! Rejoice in who you are in Him.

The Word Brings Understanding

2010-07-26T05:38:00.000-07:00

In Psalm 119:105 and 130 we read that the Word of God is a lamp or candle unto our feet and a light unto our path. The entrance of His Word gives light or understanding. It gives us discernment and comprehension of the ways of the Lord. That Word of God is God Himself speaking to us and giving us understanding.

In Proverbs 6:23 we read that God’s Word is a lamp and that His Word is light or understanding and a way of life for His children.

When you lack wisdom and understanding of a situation in your life, go to the Word of God and get understanding. He has the answer to all our questions and the comfort in all our situations we encounter in life.

Everyone is looking for answers. Those answers can be found in the Word of God. His Word is given to us to direct us and guide us into the ways of Truth. It is God’s way of speaking to us and giving us His way of doing things and His way of thinking. Through His Word, His ways and thoughts can become our ways and thoughts.

Today, as you read your Bible, ask the Holy Spirit to give you understanding for your day and to give you words of understanding for others you encounter along the way.

Blessed

2010-07-09T11:49:00.000-07:00

Psalm 1:1-3, KJV and Amplified Bible
Blessed is the man that walks and lives not in the counsel of the ungodly. He does not follow their advice, their plans and purposes. He does not stand in the way in submission where sinners walk. He does not sit down to relax and rest where the scornful and mockers gather.

BUT, this blessed man’s delight and desire is in the Word of God. On His Word, His precepts, His instructions, His teachings he meditates day and night. He ponders and studies God’s Word consistently and habitually.

THEN, this blessed man shall be like a tree that is planted so firmly and tended so carefully by the rivers of water. He is ready to bring forth fruit in its season. Like the leaves on this tree, the blessed man shall not wither and get weary and tired or fade out of the picture. Everything he does is blessed and prospers, comes to maturity.

Do you want to be blessed and prosper and be mature? Immerse yourself in God and His Word. It is He Who will prosper you. It is His Word which will train you and guide you into maturity.

Be blessed!

Work

2010-07-09T11:43:00.000-07:00

Ecclesiastes 3:13, Amplified Bible
And also that every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his labor ---- it is the gift of God.

Colossian 3:23, 24, Amplified Bible
Whatever may be your task, work at it heartily (from the soul), as [something done] for the Lord and not for men.
Knowing [with all certainty] that it is from the Lord [and not from men] that you will receive the inheritance which is your [real] reward. [The One Whom] you are actually serving [is] the Lord Christ (the Messiah).

Everything that we do in this life while we are here on this earth is to be done as unto the Lord. It is not to be done for boasting or recognition or acceptance. We do what we do with excellence for the Lord and not for men. It is not to please men but to please God. Oh, yes, when we please God, our work will please men because it will be done without gripping or complaining and with the excellence that only God can give us.

We are to have singleness of motive to do our work as a service unto the Lord. It is not to be done with eye service only when man is watching us but consistently excellent all the time, rendering our service to God and not to man. Whatever good we do, God will reward us (Ephesians 6:5-8).

We are to enjoy the fruit of our labor. That reward is a gift of God. He is the One Who rewards us. Those rewards of God will translate into human reward and promotion by man.

Serving God in our workplace has not only earthly reward but eternal benefits.

The Truth Is Light

2010-07-07T06:29:00.000-07:00

The Truth of God is His Light sent forth to dispel the darkness of satan’s lies.

Psalm 119:105,130
Your Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.
The entrance of Your Word gives light; it gives understanding, discernment and comprehension to the simple. Here we see that God’s Word is a light. It gives understanding to all.

Yesterday we learned that Jesus is the Word and that He is the Truth. Today we see His Word gives light.

He also said that He is the Light of the world and that he who follows Jesus shall not walk in darkness but have the light of life (John 8:12). In John 1:9 John refers to Jesus as the true Light which lights every man that comes into the world. Isaiah prophesied in 42:5-7 of Jesus coming as the Light for not only the Jews but also the Gentiles. He said that He would come as a Light to open the eyes of the blind, to bring the prisoners from the prison, and bring those who sit in darkness out of their prison.

In Isaiah 9:2 and Matthew 4:16 we read that the people who walked in darkness have seen a great Light; those who dwell in the land of darkness and the shadow of death, upon them has the Light shined. Luke tells us in 1:78,79 that because of God’s great mercy and loving-kindness a Light from on high will dawn upon us and visit us to shine upon and give light to those who sit in darkness, and in the shadow of death, to direct and guide our feet in a straight line into the way of peace.

1 John 1:5: …God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.

Follow me carefully; we are going somewhere with this. So, we have definitely established from God’s Word that God is Light and in Him is no darkness at all. Yesterday we established that God’s Word is Truth, that Jesus is called the Word, and that Jesus is the Truth.

Now, let’s take it a step further. Are you ready for this? Jesus said in Matthew 5:14-16 that you are the light of the world and that you are to let that light shine for all to see your good works and glorify your Father Who is in Heaven. In 1 Thessalonians 5:5 we read that we are the children of light, and the children of the day; we are not of the night, nor of darkness. In Ephesians 5:8 we are instructed to walk as children of light. Once we were darkness but now we are light in the Lord.

How do we let the Light of God shine? What does that mean? I submit to you that it is a simple instruction and way of life. As we give voice to God’s Word, His Word which is Truth, goes forth as a Light from the children of Light (God Himself, Jesus the Word, the Truth and the Way) to dispel the darkness of anything contrary to THE TRUTH. Where there is light, there cannot be darkness. It is not possible. Light a candle and the room is no longer dark. Send forth the Word of God Who is Light and Truth and the place where it is sent is no longer dark. This is fact. Wow!

Send the Light of God’s Word of Truth into the darkness of sickness and disease, poverty, lack, want, discouragement, disappointment, doubt, unbelief, failure, defeat, etc. and let God’s Word of Light do His work of bringing the light of health, prosperity, well-being, wholeness, faith, success, encouragement, etc. into your life.

What Is Truth?

2010-07-06T08:42:00.000-07:00

When Jesus was brought before Pilate, Pilate asked him a number of questions. An interesting interchange occurred between Pilate and Jesus. Pilate asked him if he was a king. Jesus answered, You say that I am a king. I was born a king, but My Kingdom is not of this world. I was born into this world to bear witness of the Truth. Everyone who is of the Truth hears my voice. Pilate’s response to this discourse was: What is truth? (John 18:33-40).

I saw two things in this passage of scripture this morning that I had never seen before.

(1) Those who are of the Truth (Jesus, is the Word. His Word is Truth.) hear His voice, the voice of His Word.

(2) Pilate actually did not ask Jesus the question, “What is Truth?” because he wanted to know the truth. No, he stated it as a vocalized afterthought in response to Jesus saying that He came into the world to bear witness of the truth. Then Pilate must have shrugged his shoulders and said: Ah, what is truth? In other words, he was saying that no one really knows what truth is. He responded this way because he had no understanding of who Jesus was. He only saw Jesus as a man, one in whom he could find no fault. He dismissed the conversation in his mind and went back out to Jesus’ accusers and told them that he found no fault in Jesus and basically asked if they wanted him to release Jesus. Of course, we all know their response----release Barabbas.

In John 1:14, John 14:6, and John 17:17 we read these words:
And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
Jesus said unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man comes to the Father, but by me.
Sanctify them through your truth: your word is truth.

What is Truth? We have our answer from the scriptures. Jesus is the Truth. The Word is the Truth. He is the Word. He is the Word and the Truth. All Truth comes from God. He is the Source of all that is true. He has given us His Word, which is His Truth unveiled from Genesis to Revelation. As we are lovers of Jesus and His Word, we know (have an intimate relationship with, have revelation of) the Truth. And that intimate relationship with the Word of Truth shall make us free (John 8:32).

Christ-Centered

2010-07-05T16:12:00.000-07:00

I have a question to ask you today, something to ponder.

Is your life Christ-centered or is it self-centered?

Before you quickly answer that question, think a while.

Do you think about your problems and challenges? Do you wake up in the morning thinking about that sickness that is lingering in your body? Do you think only about what you are going to do that day? Do you fret about what is happening in your life? Do you worry about what you are going to do in your old age? Do you have concerns about what you are going to use for money to buy what you need? Do you anxiously wonder how much longer you will have your job? If your answers to these questions are yes, then you are self-centered rather than Christ-centered.

Now don’t throw a shoe at your computer and say that I don’t know what it is like to be in your shoes. No, I don’t know what it is like to walk in your shoes. But Jesus does. When we are focused on Him and what He is doing for us, we tend to lose sight of our life’s challenges. Some of the most grateful people I know are those who have the most challenges. They are so joyful and full of hope. Then, on the other hand, some of the most cantankerous people I know are ones who have a few challenges and drive everybody “up the wall” telling you about their many hardships.

Do people walk away from you wishing they had not asked you how you are? Do people leave your presence remembering Who Jesus is and what He has done for them or do they leave your presence overwhelmed with you and your opinions?

This question is something to ponder, isn’t it! Believe me, I have been taking inventory and asking the Holy Spirit to show me where I have allowed self to take over in the place of Christ. He has definitely shown me some things. My prayer is that I decrease and that Jesus Christ increase in me.

Why do you think the Lord is asking us that question about being Christ-centered? I believe it is the times that we are living in. We must be so focused on Jesus that nothing else matters, whether it is good, bad, or otherwise. When we keep our minds stayed on Him, He is able to sustain us and keep us from giving up and giving in to our circumstances. When times get tough and things are rough, there is only one source of peace; that is Jesus! He will carry us through, even when we don’t understand why things are happening to us the way they are. He will carry us when nothing makes sense about our lives. He will carry us when we want to scream and give up and say that nobody cares. He cares and He will carry us. Remember that when nothing makes any sense, Jesus Christ is your Rock of Salvation. Keep steady in Him.

It is so strong in my spirit that we must learn right now how to trust the Lord, regardless of how we feel or what we are seeing. Trust is the biggest factor for every Christian right now. Trust Him, lean on Him, rely on Him. He is the One and only unchangeable factor in your life. Everything else changes, but He and His Word never change. He is the same yesterday, today and forever. You can depend on Him.

I am talking to somebody today. Stop blaming God for your challenges. Stop accusing Him of not coming through for you. Just stop! Turn around! Praise Him and honor Him and respect Him and trust Him! You may not understand anything, but I can tell you that He is for you and not against you. Trust Him with your life! There is no one else better than He is. Make that decision right now that you CHOOSE to trust Him, whether you feel like it or not.

Stop thinking about YOUR problems (self-centered) and start focusing on HIS ANSWERS (Christ-centered).

Precious Freedom

2010-07-03T16:47:00.000-07:00

The greatest freedom we have is the freedom that Jesus Christ has given us as sons and daughters of God. He paid the ultimate price for that freedom ---- His blood. Likewise, as we celebrate July 4th, Independence Day, in the United States of America, we must remember that our freedom came with a price, the blood of many men and women who fought in wars both past and present.

As a person who loves peace, I hate war. It destroys. But war is a consequence of man’s sin-driven desires for power and prestige. Today we see this drive for power in governments all over the world, in businesses everywhere, in families and yes, even in the church.

The greatest power in the universe is God Who is Love. If mankind could only see, have the veil removed from their eyes, they would see that anything that they strive for will ultimately be removed and replaced with another greater and bigger earthly “thing.” What a waste our striving is! When we lean on Him and allow His Love power to take over, He brings each of us to a place of peace and victory and prosperity, the very things that we are aiming for in our personal lives when we are attempting to do it in our own human ability.

Jesus declared in John 8:31 and 32 that if we continue in God’s Word, then we are His disciples and we shall know the truth and the truth shall make us free. That is true freedom, the freedom of God that comes from knowing the truth of His Word in our lives. He also said that he whom the Son sets free is free indeed. We are forever free in Jesus, regardless of where we are or what our circumstances are. Remember that you are free in Jesus Christ. Declare that freedom and value it as more precious than all that earth can offer you!

Today, let us take inventory of our freedom both in Jesus Christ and in this country.

Say So

2010-07-01T18:27:00.001-07:00

Psalm 107:1,2
O give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; for His mercy and loving-kindness endure forever!
Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom He has delivered from the hand of the adversary.

We as the children of God have been delivered from the hand, the power, the strength of the enemy, the one opposed to us, who has enmity at heart where we are concerned. Satan is our enemy who has nothing but opposition for us and enmity toward us. We as those who have been delivered from his power are to say so.

We are redeemed. We are set free. We are purchased by the blood of Jesus Christ from the bondage of slavery to satan and his demonic influences and forces. We are delivered. This is a perfect verse for us as we go into the celebration of July 4th in the United States of America. We are free from tyranny and bondage. Jesus Christ is our Deliverer. He is our Lord and Savior. He has saved us from being subject to a slave master who is satan.

Give thanks to the Lord for your deliverance. Speak out His goodness and mercy and loving-kindness which endure forever. Rejoice today as you celebrate your freedom. Use your mouth and SAY SO!

Lord

2010-06-30T18:04:00.000-07:00

The Lord put a number of scriptures together today for us to read and speak and meditate. They all form a whole picture.

Psalms 30:5-7; 31:18-21; 32:7,8; 33:1; 34:8

…Your favor, Lord, is for a lifetime or in Your favor is life….
As for me, in my prosperity I said, I shall never be moved.
By Your favor, O Lord, You have established me as a strong mountain….

Let lying lips be silenced which speak insolently against the righteous with pride and contrmpt.]

In the secret place of Your presence You hide us from the plots of men, You keep us safe from those who would conspire against us. You keep us secretly sheltered in Your pavilion (Your presence) (fenced in, covered over, protected, defended, hedged in, shut up) far from accusing tongues, from the strife of tongues, from words that would be used to bind our lives.
Blessed be the Lord, for He has shown me His marvelous, loving favor….

You are a hiding place for me; You, Lord, preserve me from trouble.
You surround me with songs and shouts of deliverance.

I [the Lord] will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with My eye upon you.

The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the thoughts of His heart to all generations.

O taste and see that the Lord is good.
Blessed is the man that trusts in Him.

My Thoughts

2010-06-30T18:02:00.000-07:00

Proverbs 16:3, Amplified Bible
When I roll my works upon the Lord,
when I commit and trust them wholly to Him,
He will cause my thoughts to become agreeable to His will
and so shall my plans be established and succeed.

I have always looked at the first part of that verse and not really noticed the middle section. Today, it stood out as a great truth for all of us.
When we commit our works upon the Lord, when we roll our care upon Him, when we commit all our cares, anxieties and worries and works over on Him, when we trust Him with everything,

THEN,
HE WILL CAUSE OUR THOUGHTS TO BECOME AGREEABLE TO HIS WILL.

In other words, God is the One Who will cause our thoughts in our mind to line up with His will, which is His Word. Remember that Jesus prayed that His will be done on this earth. Isn’t that a wonderful reassurance! God will cause our thoughts to be in agreement with His. What a comforting realization.

THEN,
your plans will be established and succeed.

Ponder this verse in your heart for a while and there will be such a peace and rest that will surround you and permeate your very being.

He causes His thoughts to become your thoughts when you commit everything wholly to Him.

God, The Word of Grace

2010-06-28T07:16:00.000-07:00

Acts 20:32, Amplified Bible
And now [brethren], I commit you to God [I deposit you in His charge, entrusting you to His protection and care]. And I commend you to the Word of His grace [to the commands and counsels and promises of His unmerited favor]. It is able to build you up and to give you [your rightful] inheritance among all God’s set-apart ones (those consecrated, purified, and transformed of soul).

This is one of my favorite scriptures because of the meat in it. I know some of you are thinking that I say this about all scriptures. Well, you are right. I love all of God’s Word. However, this particular one is very special to me.

We are deposited in God’s care. He is in charge of us. That means that we can trust Him to protect us and take care of us at all times. There are no “oops” times with God when He says: Oh my, I didn’t have time to take care of you during that time of difficulty. I was too busy with your neighbor down the street. No, God is always right there for us.

Here in this scripture His Word is called the Word of His grace. Grace is God’s ability released to you through Jesus. It is God’s gift of Himself to you, with all the “perks” of heaven given to you to live life more abundantly, to accomplish what you were designed to do while you are here on this earth. That’s why God told Paul that His grace was sufficient for him. What more do we need. There is nothing else to help us. That’s it-----GRACE!

Look what His Word of grace does for you: it is able to build you up and to give you your rightful inheritance. Wow! The Word of grace, God’s gift to you and me of Himself personified, builds us up. That Word of grace gives us our rightful inheritance. What is that rightful inheritance? Everything that God has and is! We are special to Him. He is our Father. He loves us with a total love, and until we understand that He loves us dearly, how can we trust Him to believe that He does care for us? Yes, He does love us and yes, He does take care of us totally.

Take this scripture this week and put it where you can see it often and remind yourself of how special you are, whether you feel like it or not and whether you think you deserve it or not. It has nothing to do with how you feel or what you think. It just IS!

Holy Spirit's Personality

2010-06-25T09:48:00.000-07:00

Today, let’s look at the wonderful ways in which the Holy Spirit totally takes care of us, if we will let Him. He never forces Himself upon us. He waits for our yielding to Him.

The Holy Spirit of God is many-faceted. He is our Comforter. He is our Helper. He is our Counselor. He is our Intercessor. He is our Advocate. He is our Strengthener. He is our Standby. He is our Truth. He is our Peace. He is the One Who brings all things to our remembrance when we need it. We see all of this in scripture, particularly in John 14, 15, 16 and 17. Read those four chapters again and see what Jesus has to say about Himself, about the Father and about the Holy Spirit. These 4 chapters give us the guide for our relationship with God, of knowing Him intimately.

The Holy Spirit is our Comforter. To comfort means to strengthen, to support the person, particularly during distress or danger, to cheer or enliven, to encourage, to strengthen the mind when depressed or enfeebled, to relieve from depression or trouble. A comforter is one who brings consolation to you when you need to be encouraged and lifts you up from the place where you find yourself.

The Holy Spirit is our Helper. This one is pretty self-explanatory. He comes to give assistance to us to accomplish whatever we are doing. He helps us to do what we need to do. He is there for us.

The Holy Spirit is our Counselor. Yes, we do need Him to give us instruction, direction, advice and recommendations. We need His input. He tells us what is the best way, and He is always right. He never makes a mistake.

The Holy Spirit is our Intercessor. Because of the blood of Jesus, He stands in the gap and pleads our case before the Father. He brings reconciliation for us when we mess up. He presents us before the Father as pure and clean because of the sacrifice of Jesus.

The Holy Spirit is our Advocate. An advocate is very similar to an intercessor. He pleads our cause before the Father. He supports us and pleads in our favor. He shows reason why we should be supported and accepted in the Kingdom of God.

The Holy Spirit is our Strengthener. We need His strength to grow strong and then to grow stronger and stronger as we continue our walk with the Lord. We cannot do it in our own human strength or effort. It is all about Him. We are strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.

The Holy Spirit is our Standby. He stands alongside us at all times to take care of us, to let us know that He is there to bring us forward successfully on our path of life toward our final destiny.

The Holy Spirit is our Truth. Nothing false will deceive us as long as we yield to Him and God’s Word. He shows us the true reality of God and His Kingdom as being the only way.

The Holy Spirit is our Peace. Wow, do we need this in the world right now. In God’s Kingdom, peace encompasses everything that makes us whole and free. It is freedom from this world’s trigger points like fear, anxiety, doubts, upsets, etc.

Finally, the Holy Spirit brings everything to our remembrance that we need to live a successful life, carrying out God’s plan that He has given us to accomplish while we are here on this earth.

My prayer for you is that you will come to know the Holy Spirit intimately as your best friend and the One in Whom you can put your confidence. He is God here right now in you to love you and take care of you. Seek His Presence. God is such a loving and giving and good God.

Holy Spirit

2010-06-24T07:03:00.000-07:00

The Holy Spirit is God set apart for us, sent to us by the Father in the name of Jesus to be in us and with us and for us and through us. Holy means set apart; in this case God setting Himself apart for His children, to be present in them and with them forever. The Holy Spirit is sent. He came to dwell in us.

In 1 Corinthians 6:19,20 Paul tells us that our bodies as Christians are the temples of the Holy Spirit. He lives in us as a Gift we have received from God. We are not on our own. He is there for us in all that we do 24-7. He is ever present in us to help us. We are bought with a price----the precious blood of Jesus. We are paid for and made His own. So then, we honor God and we bring glory to Him in our bodies.

Also, in 2 Corinthians 6:16 Paul once again reminds us that we are the temples of the living God, of the Holy Spirit. God has said that He will dwell in us and walk in us and that He will be our God and we shall be His people.

Temples----we are the abiding place of God. He lives in our bodies. Our bodies are the place where He chooses to live now, not the man-made buildings. We are God's building, and our bodies are where He has chosen to dwell, as we allow Him. That is why satan hates it when we dance before the Lord, raise our hands in praise to Him, adore Him with our voices joining in choruses of worship and joy. Our whole bodies are indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God. He is the same Spirit that raised Christ Jesus from the dead, and He is dwelling in our mortal bodies, giving life to our bodies (Romans 8:11). Oh, my dear reader, disease, doubt, unbelief, fear has no place in this indwelt temple of the living God. Let us be in constant awareness of Who lives in us.

Living here on this earth, even in the middle of the Babylonian world system, even surrounded by trouble of all kinds, can be easy and should be a place of rest as we allow the Holy Spirit of God to empower us at all times to live a victorious life. Unfortunately, what we all have tended to do is attempt to solve our problems on our own, out of panic and fear that if we don’t do something immediately, everything will come unraveled and fall apart. That is exactly the devil’s tactics. Hurry up and do something. When you find yourself in that mode, STOP, STAND STILL and say: Holy Spirit, give me the voice and the words to pray in the spirit until I KNOW what to do through you.

In John 14:16,26,27 Jesus said that He would ask the Father and He will give us another Comforter (One of the same kind as Jesus; in other words, God in the person of the Holy Spirit) that He may remain with us forever. He is the Spirit of Truth, Whom the world cannot receive. But we know Him. We recognize Him. We hear His voice. He lives in us constantly. He is with us.

The Holy Spirit is sent by God the Father in the name of Jesus, in Jesus’ place, to represent Jesus, and to act on His behalf. He will teach us all things. He will bring all things to our remembrance. What I find interesting is that in the very next verse Jesus said that He was leaving His Peace with us. The Holy Spirit is our Peace. He is our Shalom. He is our Wholeness. He is our Health. He is our Prosperity. He is our Salvation. He is God Eternal! Jesus says that because of the Peace, the Holy Spirit, Whom God is giving to us, we do not have to let our hearts be troubled or be afraid. We are not to allow ourselves to be agitated or disturbed. We are not to permit ourselves to be fearful or intimidated or cowardly or unsettled. What a wonderful assurance in the days in which we all find ourselves living. Let the Holy Spirit be our everything, the solution to all that faces us.

Tomorrow we will talk about the many roles of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

Counsel

2010-06-23T06:01:00.001-07:00

Psalm 16:7-9,11
I will bless the Lord Who has given me counsel.
Yes, my heart instructs me in the night season.
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.
You will show me the path of life.
In Your Presence is fullness of joy.
At Your right hand there are pleasures forevermore.

It is the Lord Who gives us counsel, even as we sleep. When we seek Him first in our lives, He is there to direct us and guides us in all our affairs of life. Therefore, we do not have to be moved off our stand of faith and trust in Him. He has everything in the palm of His hand. The only thing that stops Him from doing for us the pleasures He loves to do is our lack of trust in Him. We are to rest confidently in Him for He will show us the path of life. We all know that in His Presence is a fullness of joy and contentment that we can get nowhere else. With Him we will enjoy our lives throughout all eternity.

Let us make a quality decision today (one from which we do not turn back) that we will trust the Lord to be in charge of our lives and that we will allow Him to give us all the treasures that He has laid up for us who are His children. There are multitudes of blessings that we have not even begun to receive. Today and every day is your day of receiving. Take it now.

Expectation

2010-06-22T11:36:00.000-07:00

Expect: To look, that is, to reach forward, or to fix the eyes

I heard a minister say last night that he expects to receive from God all the time. That sentence has been in the front of my spirit ever since I heard it. God expects us to receive what He gives to us. He has so many gifts for us of health and prosperity and peace and joy and gentleness and faith. I could extend the list but you get the idea. How can we get something which we are not expecting? I think that God has compassion on us and because of His great and awesome love for us, He simply has to do something to spill over on us. That’s commendable, but wouldn’t it be better to receive from Him on a daily basis and give Him great pleasure.

Say this with me:
I expect to receive from God all the time.
I believe I receive. I take it now.

You might want to make a list of the things you see in the Bible and that God tells you to expect and keep them before you and speak out what you are expecting. It is time to expect and receive. Do you know that the best time to get your expector out there is when everything seems to be going the opposite direction of what you need or want! When all looks bleak and dismal and there doesn’t seem to be anything good happening in your life, deliberately, on purpose, stand still wherever you are and expect something good to happen to you.

Have you been released from your job? Expect a better one. Have you lost money in your retirement account? Expect more money than what you lost. Have your children gone out and done things contrary to the way they were raised? Expect them to come into the fullness of what God has for them. Has your spouse told you that he/she wants out of the relationship? Expect God to supply the emotional needs of your soul. I think you get the picture. You might say that I am expecting the impossible! Yes, that is it! We serve a God whose power is greater than the impossible. All things are possible with Him.

Here are a few scriptures to help you on expectation. Think on them. Ponder them. Speak them. Believe them.

Proverbs 23:18, Amplified Bible
For surely there is a latter end [a future and a reward], and your hope and expectation shall not be cut off.

Proverbs 24:14, Amplified Bible
So shall you know skillful and godly Wisdom to be thus to your life; if you find it, then shall there be a future and a reward, and your hope and expectation shall not be cut off.

Jeremiah 29:11 (In yesterday’s Pearls)
For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.

What have you got to lose? Expecting something and getting all of it or part of it is better than not expecting anything and not getting anything. I know what you are thinking. If I don’t expect anything, I won’t be disappointed. Really! You are disappointed and discouraged already if that is where you are (and all of us have been there on more than one occasion).

EXPECT! GOD HAS GREAT THINGS FOR YOU!

Declare

2010-06-21T15:02:00.000-07:00

Today we are looking at three scriptures---one is what the Lord declares over us and the other two are what we are to do. We are to speak of the Glory of God’s Kingdom and talk about His power. You see, when that is what we speak, we are saturating the atmosphere of the earth and the heavens with the Presence of God, Love Himself, Who is the greatest power in the universe. There is no greater power than He is. Decide to speak it and decree it and establish it forever. God has a future full of hope for all of us.

I challenge each of my readers for the next 30 days to saturate the atmosphere of this nation with continual speaking of the glory of God and the power of God. Release it into the very atmosphere around your home and your neighborhood and your city and your state and your country. I am challenging you to join with me. Then I want to hear from you. What happened? If you meet with resistance, double up on your speaking and don’t bow to the enemy. WATCH GOD MOVE! He is waiting for you.

Jer. 29:11 from KJV, NKJV, Amplified, NLT, NAS, The Message, Jerusalem Bible, The New English Bible, Complete Jewish Bible, James Moffatt Translation, NIV, Holman Christian Standard Bible, English Standard Version

This is the Lord’s declaration; it is Yahweh Who speaks:
For I know the thoughts I think toward you, says the Lord; they are thoughts of peace.
I know the plans I have in mind for you----plans for welfare, plans for peace, plans for good, plans for well-being, plans to prosper you, plans for wholeness.
For I keep in mind My purpose for you.
I alone know My purpose for you----prosperity and a long line of children.
I know what I’m doing.
I have it all planned out----thoughts and plans to give you a future and a hope in your final outcome, to give you an expected end, reserving a future full of hope for you.

Psalm 145:11
They shall speak of the Glory of Your Kingdom, and talk of Your Power.

Job 22:28
You shall decide and decree a thing and it shall be established for you and the light of God’s favor shall shine upon your ways.

The Senses of the Spirit

2010-06-07T20:20:00.000-07:00

These are the senses of the Spirit man. It is always interesting to me how our bodies parallel our spirits and how we parallel our God in all things. Read and meditate. The Spirit of God gave me these several days ago.

SMELL the Rose of Sharon and the Lily of the Valley (Jesus).

TASTE and SEE that the Lord is good.

Everyone who TOUCHES Him is made whole.

The EYES of my understanding are being enlightened.

Having EARS to hear, hear what the Spirit of the Lord is saying.

Rejoice!

2010-06-07T20:12:00.000-07:00

Jesus went beyond what He had to face for the joy that was set before Him. We must do the same.

It is God's desire and intention that we pass on through with joy the obstacles that are set before us. Whether those obstacles are sickness and disease or job losses or family and friends not saved or debt, we are designed to rejoice in God’s goodness to us and for us and remember His grace which is given as a gift to us. That gift is His ability to do what we can’t do on our own. We don’t have to camp out in trial city or tribulation country. We were designed to go on through that obstacle to victory. There are no defeats in our lives, only challenges to our faith. Those challenges are sent our way by the devil, our enemy, to stop us from enjoying our abundant life with God. The devil hates us because we have what he can never have, an intimate relationship with God, and God’s power and authority over all the earth.

How long we stay in something is determined by our rejoicing! The worse it looks, the more we are to rejoice. Get past caring what people think about you. Cultivate the joy of the Lord in the middle of all things, whether good or bad. Just as Jesus looked beyond what He had to face to the joy of the result on the other side, so we must do the same. We always win because God is on our side. We win when we submit to Him and consider it all joyful. That really “gets the devil’s goat” right where it hurts. He hates joyful winners! That’s what we are. We must see beyond what would look like apparent losses and consider ourselves winners always, regardless of what it looks like in this earthly, temporal world. That is exactly what Jesus did. He looked beyond the cross and its pain and shame to the resurrection and its power and victory.

Rejoice in the Lord always, and again, I say, Rejoice! Rejoicing stills the avenger, the enemy, and puts him on the run. He hates joy and praise and rejoicing. Shout for joy and give him a bad time; give him the worst day of his life every time you get up.

Prepare the Way

2010-06-03T15:58:00.000-07:00

Words we speak go forth before us and create the pathway for our future, create what we will be walking in, later in life. In due time, those words which were sent on out ahead of us will do everything they can do to produce what we have said. God created us human beings with our mouth and tongue being the main vehicle for our lives. Don’t you find that very interesting? No other creature produces by their words. We have the ability to form words and those words in turn form the life that we live.

We will walk into the words we have put out in front of us, whether those words are good or bad, positive or negative, God’s word or man’s words about us. These words will produce substance. That substance will eventually become reality in our lives, if we speak those words logn enough.

We are told in God’s Word that He has set before us life and death, blessing and cursing; choose life! (Deuteronomy 30:19) His Word is life. (Proverbs 4:22) That is to be our choice ---- the life of His Word. His Word is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path ---- pathway, future, life. (Psalm 119:105) God gave us His Word so that we would have the good life, the abundant life that He promised. (John 10:10) He sent His Word to deliver us from destruction. (Psalm 107:20)

In the way of righteousness is life and in its pathway there is no death. (Proverbs 12:28)

God and His Word are life to us, and that is what we want going before us to make our pathway one of the good life of God.

Ephesians 2:10, Amplified Bible
For we are God’s [own] handiwork (His workmanship), recreated in Christ Jesus, [born anew] that we may do those good works which God predestined (planned before hand) for us, [taking paths which he prepared ahead of time], that we should walk in them [living the good life which He prearranged and made ready for us to live].

My Father's Pleasure

2010-06-02T11:17:00.000-07:00

Let’s talk some more today about what pleases the Father. When we look into the Word of God, there are some very definite scriptures on what pleases the Lord. We will explore two of them today.

In Luke 12:22-32 Jesus was teaching on being free from anxiety, worries and concerns. He gave the reason that we do not have to be anxious about anything----God takes total care of us. Prior to verse 32 He said that we do not have to take any thought for our life, what we shall eat, or for our body, what we shall put on. Jesus assured us that God feeds the birds; He causes the lilies to grow; He clothes the grass, so why are we to worry about His taking care of us. We cannot even add one inch to our stature by worrying about it.

Then Jesus makes a very definite statement: Seek first the Kingdom of God and all these things will be added to you. Do not have any fear or doubt or seek after what you shall eat or what you shall drink. Why? It is the Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.

What did Jesus mean by this statement? God takes pleasure in giving to you His kingdom, all that He has. A kingdom belongs to a king. Everything in that kingdom is his. Therefore, Jesus said: It gives God pleasure to give you all that is in His kingdom. To find out what is in His kingdom all we have to do is read this book called the Bible which He has given to us.

The other scripture I want to note here is Psalm 35:27.
Let them shout for joy, and be glad, that favor my righteous cause: yes, let them say continually, Let the LORD be magnified, which hath pleasure in the prosperity of his servant.

In Strong’s Concordance, the word prosperity in this verse is shalom, which means safe, well, happy, health, welfare, prosperity, peace, whole, rest, favor. It comes from the word shalam which means safe in mind, body or estate, completed, full, peace perfect, restore, make restitution, recompense, make prosperous, make good. We can see from these words that they are a description of God, of His kingdom. It is everything He is and has. Altogether, these words mean to make complete, to restore. Sounds to me like a restoration of everything we as mankind lost in the Garden of Eden. Jesus brought it back with His blood. Hallelujah!

As we said yesterday, God has great pleasure in your faith because of what it brings to you of the joys of His kingdom. He also has pleasure in your prosperity. Prosperity is what faith brings. Prosperity is not all about money. It includes money, but it is so much more. Prosperity is being successful in every area of your life, going to the highest level of excellence in each area----in your spirit, in your soul (which includes your mind, will and emotions), in your body, in your finances and in your relationships.

God takes pleasure in seeing you excel and succeed. It gives Him great pleasure to give you the kingdom.

Faith Pleases God

2010-06-01T17:49:00.000-07:00

Today is the first day of June, and it is a beautiful day for all of us to be alive and to love the Lord. He showed me something today about a very familiar scripture. I am standing in awe at the reality of it.

We have all heard the scripture that says that without faith it is impossible to please God. In fact, let’s look at it.

Hebrews 11:6
But without faith it is impossible to please him. For he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

We all have looked at this scripture through fleshly, earthly eyes. Do you know why it is impossible to please God without faith? That word please does not mean to satisfy him or perform for Him mighty acts to prove our faith. No, a thousand times no! It means that it brings our dear heavenly Father, our God, great pleasure when He sees us enjoying the fullness of the life that He has provided for us. It gives Him great joy when He sees us basking in the benefits that He has provided for us as His children. Those benefits, the good life, come as a result of believing that God has provided all of them for us. That is faith, and that gives God great joy and pleasure to watch us. He loves to give, and we in turn must love to receive from Him. That pleasure of receiving turns us into joyful givers who take pleasure in the joy that others get from our giving. It’s all about the circle of giving and receiving, receiving and giving. Isn’t that good news!

Your faith pleases your Father! It is a good thing!

I Will Praise Him

2010-06-01T17:47:00.000-07:00

Isaiah 25:1, Amplified Bible
O Lord, You are my God; I will exalt You, I will praise Your name, for You have done wonderful things, even purposes planned of old [and fulfilled] in faithfulness and truth.

Have you ever wanted to tell the Lord how wonderful He is and just didn’t have the words in your vocabulary to tell Him? Do you want to know one of the best ways to praise Him and tell Him what a wonderful God He is and how much you love Him? Tell Him with His Word. Look at the verse we just quoted.

Lord, You are my God.
I will exalt You.
I will praise Your name,
You have done wonderful things for my.
You have purposes for me that you planned long ago.
You have fulfilled those purposes in faithfulness and truth.

Take some time today to thank the Lord for His goodness. Sing and speak His Word to Him. It is music to His ears.

God Created All Things

2010-05-28T09:07:00.000-07:00

God created all things. He created you and me. He knows us. He knows every desire we have, whether it is little or big. He knows our thoughts and the struggles we have in our thought life. He knows when we doubt and He knows when we are strong in faith. He knows all about our bodies. He created them. He knows all about our personalities. He created us. He knows all about our abilities. He put them in us. Do you get the picture? The One Who created us can be trusted. He is the One! He is the One True God! He cares deeply about us. He loves us intensely.

Let’s dwell in some scriptures today to increase our trust in God.

Psalm 115:9,10,12,15
I trust in You, Lord; You are my help and my shield.
The Lord has been mindful of me. He will bless me.
I am blessed of the Lord Who made heaven and earth.

Rev. 4:11
…He has created all things; for His pleasure, by His will they were created, brought into being.
That includes me!

John 1:3
All things were made and came into existence through and by Him and without Him was not anything made that was made; nothing came into being without Him.
Colossians. 1:16
…all things were created by Him and for Him.

Colossians 1:19
All fullness (divine perfection, powers and attributes) dwells in Him permanently.
Colossians 2:9,10
In Him dwells all the fullness of God.
I am complete in Him.
He’s the Head of all principality and power.

John 1:16 and 2 Peter 1:3,4
Out of His fullness I have received grace, spiritual blessing, favor, gifts ---- everything that pertains to life and godliness.
Through His Word I am a partaker of His divine nature.

Romans 11:36
All things originate with God and come from Him.
All things live through Him ---- all things center in and tend to consummate and to end in Him
Acts 17:28
….In Him I live and move and have my being.
To Him be glory forever! Amen----so be it!

It’s all about God. It all begins with Him, continues in Him and ends with Him. We are in Him. Therefore, we are safe and secure in Him. We can trust our Creator. What He creates, He can maintain. He is capable. He has the ability. He will take care of us.

Our Faithful God

2010-05-27T06:55:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we talked about our being faithful. Today let’s talk about God’s faithfulness. Wow, what a subject! We read in God's Word that He is faithful to us. I know that some of you are saying that it doesn’t look like He and His Word are faithful to you sometimes. I have had those feelings at points in my life. But here is the bottom line. HE IS FAITHFUL ALWAYS AND HIS WORD IS TRUE ALWAYS for anyone, regardless of who you are or how much you feel like you can’t believe or that things are not working in your life for your good.

God is still faithful when you feel like you are not able to grab hold of that faithfulness. In times like that, grab hold of this statement and believe it is true for your life, regardless of what you are experiencing: GOD IS FAITHFUL TO ME! HIS WORD IS WORKING IN MY LIFE! That is what faith is all about: trusting God when it looks like there is no reason to trust Him. He is not a man that He can lie. Whatever His Word says, that is for you. It is true for you regardless of what you may be experiencing to the contrary. Choose to believe. Choose to receive the truth of His Word working in your situation. CHOOSE!

Let’s look at a few scriptures to confess and meditate on God’s faithfulness until we have faith built up in us to believe He is faithful to us. They are taken from the Amplified Bible and personalized for confession.

2 Corinthians 9:8 tells us that God is able to make all grace abound toward us so that we may always have enough, regardless of the circumstances or need. We not only need God’s grace to get saved, we also need God’s grace to live. His grace is His ability given to us. It’s that simple. Why do I talk about grace here when we are focusing on God’s faithfulness? We need His grace, His ability, to believe.

Deuteronomy 7:9
I know, recognize and understand that the Lord my God is God; He is a faithful God; He keeps His covenant with me (His promises, His Word) and He keeps His mercy (steadfast love) with me who loves Him and keeps His covenant (Word).

1 Corinthians 1:9
God is faithful, reliable, trustworthy and therefore ever true to His promise, and He can be depended upon. By Him I was called into companionship with His Son Jesus Christ my Lord.

God, You are faithful to Your Word and to Your loving, merciful, compassionate nature. You can be trusted. You are ever true to what You say.

2 Thessalonians 3:3
Lord, You are faithful; You will strengthen me and establish me and set me on a firm foundation. You will keep me from the evil one.

Revelation 19:11 and 21:5
Lord, You are called Faithful, Trustworthy, Loyal, Incorruptible, Steady and True. Your Word is faithful, accurate, incorruptible, trustworthy, true and genuine.

God and His Word are forever faithful to me as His child. I can trust Him.

Faithful

2010-05-26T16:48:00.000-07:00

A faithful man shall abound with blessings…. (Proverbs 28:20)
In Matthew 25:14-30, The Parable of the Talents, Jesus talks about a faithful person.
In a number of scripture passages, God is spoken of as a faithful God.

What is faithful? What does it mean? How does God look at faithfulness?
A faithful person is one who is true to his word and follows through on what he says. He consistently does what is right. He can depended upon to get the job done when he is assigned a task. You can depend on that person when you need something accomplished. You can walk away and know that when you come back tomorrow or whenever the deadline is, the work will be completed with excellence and without complaint.

In today’s world faithfulness is a trait that not everybody sees as important. The thinking goes like this: “Oh, well, if I can’t get it done, I can’t get it done. What’s the big deal! I have so many other things to do. They will understand.”

Apparently God thinks it is a big deal. In the Parable of the Talents, Jesus commended the person who did something with what he had been given. In Proverbs we read that a faithful man shall abound (that means overflow) with blessings. I want to be blessed so I ask God to keep me faithful every day to Him and to others.

If you have challenges in being faithful, ask the Holy Spirit to help you to become that person who can be depended upon. He will help you. He always helps us to do whatever we need to do. Ask Him. Ask for God’s grace or ability to become a faithful person.

God’s faithfulness will make you faithful. Look at 1 Thessalonians 5:24.
Faithful is He Who is calling you to Himself and utterly trustworthy, and He will also do it, fulfill His call by hallowing and keeping you.
Look at that. God is faithful to you. You can trust Him. He will fulfill His call on your life. I know He will help you to be faithful. You can depend on Him.

God My Father

2010-05-25T15:53:00.000-07:00

Today I have another set of scripture verses to confess over ourselves and those we love, whether they are family or friends.

Psalm 89:17,24,26,28,33,34

God, You are the glory of my strength and in Your favor my horn shall be exalted.
Your faithfulness and unfailing love (loving kindness) shall be with me and in Your name shall my horn be exalted (Great peace and prosperity shall be conferred upon me.).
Horn: Emblem of excessive strength and stately grace
I shall cry to You: You are my Father. You are my God. You are the Rock of my salvation.
I thank You that Your mercy and loving kindness will You keep for me forevermore and Your covenant shall stand fast and be faithful to me.
Thank You that Your loving kindness will You not break off from me, nor allow Your faithfulness to fail (to lie and be false to me).
Thank You that You will not break or profane Your covenant with me, nor alter the thing that is gone out of Your lips. Your Word is what has gone out of Your lips, Lord, and it will not return to You empty, void, meaningless, without producing any effect or bringing results in my life and the lives of those I love.

I believe I receive this scripture working in my life. I believe. I receive.

The God of Peace

2010-05-25T15:39:00.000-07:00

Hebrews 13:20,21 is a scripture we can confess over ourselves, our loved ones and our friends every day and meditate all the days of our lives.

The God of Peace, Who is the Author and Giver of Peace,
brought again from among the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, (He also brought us from the deadness of our sins.).
He made Jesus alive (and you and me) by the blood that sealed, ratified the everlasting agreement, covenant, testament.
The God of Peace (Peace: Wholeness which means nothing is missing or broken in your life) has made me alive by His blood. That blood has sealed the everlasting agreement which is called covenant, between God and me.
The God of Peace, the Author and Giver of Peace strengthens me, completes me, perfects me and makes me what I ought to be.
He equips me with everything good, so that I may carry out His will.
I carry out His will while He Himself works in me and accomplishes that which is pleasing in His sight.
He does this through Jesus Christ, to Whom be glory forever and ever.
Amen----so be it!

I believe this is true for me and I receive it as done in my life.

Light and Rest

2010-05-20T08:26:00.000-07:00

In John 1 we read that in Jesus was life and that life was the light of men. What does that mean? In Jesus was the Life of God (zoe: without death or stress) because He knew the Love of God (agape: love without any strings attached), which brought understanding (Light) to Him of His Father. Even so, for those of us who are children of God, in us dwells the Life of God in the person of the Holy Spirit. That life is meant to produce an understanding of the ease and rest in God.

This Life of God is a choice we make every day. It is not just a one-time choice when we get born again. Every day, before we get out of bed, we are already making choices. Are we frenetically planning our day so that we can get all accomplished that we have to do? Or are we taking the time to rest in the Lord, abide in His Love and enjoy His Presence? Out of that calmness comes revelation or understanding of our day. He will show us what to do. He will guide us. He is in charge.

We may have a thousand things on our mind and a multitude of things to do. That kind of mentality produces stress, which produces sickness and disease, which leads to our early departure from this earth. You see, satan has it all figured out. He doesn’t have to do a frontal attack on us most of the time. He can just stress us to death. That takes care of us. We are gone. And he starts on the next one and the next one and the next one.

Jesus rested in His Father’s care. He was always at ease and joyful because He knew His Father’s love for Him. Out of the love of the Father came the life of the Father (zoe) that knows no unrest and stress.

In our Lord is perfect peace, which comes from His indwelling perfect love. That perfect love produces a perfect life. That perfect life guides us into the perfect Light (understanding, revelation) of His Presence. In His Presence is fullness of joy. Joy is the strength of our lives. Joy is the product of LIFE.

There is the natural life and there is the eternal, God kind of Life (zoe). I know that every one of us will choose the God kind of life. There is no other way to live and be free of stress, anxiety and fretting. In these days we need to focus on God’s Love inside us which produces God’s Life flowing through us and shows forth God’s Light for all the world to see that we are different. Let His Light shine and they will come to you. “What is different about you?” they will ask, and you can tell them. What a divine way to witness! We let our lives speak. He does the rest.

Light

2010-05-19T16:18:00.000-07:00

Romans 13:11-14 could be a scripture Paul wrote today, this very hour. Let us listen to the voice of these verses.

It is a critical hour. It is high time to wake up out of our sleep to reality. Our final deliverance is at hand, nearer to us now than when we first believed. The night is far gone. The day is almost here. Let us then cast off the works of darkness and put on the FULL ARMOR OF LIGHT. Put on, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill its desires.

What a scripture passage this is. Do you see the solution to the darkness of this present hour for all of us? Put on the armor of light; put on Jesus Christ; put on the full armor of God (Ephesians 6:10-18.

For a few minutes, let’s look at the Light of God. Jesus is called the Word of God in John 1:1. In the Psalms we read that the entrance of the Word brings light. Here in Romans 13 we are instructed to put on the armor of light. In Ephesians 6 we are told to put on the full armor of God. Every part of that armor is a reference to the word, Jesus, the Light of the world.

What does light do? It dispels the darkness. Wherever there is light, there cannot be darkness because one little sliver of light means that it is no longer dark. Think about that for a moment. The instant you read God’s Word, you speak His Word, you meditate His Word, the Light of God is there for you, in your mind and in your heart. It is the Word. It is the Light. In the very beginning of the creation, God spoke Himself into the very atmosphere of this earth. LIGHT, BE! In essence He was saying: ME, BE! What He is, He spoke out of Himself into this earth. What makes God God is what created this earth. Light is at the root of the formulation of life. Without light, life as we know it could not be.

Light makes manifest, reveals. Light is understanding, as darkness is pushed back. Have you ever been pondering something, trying to understand it and all of a sudden it is like a light bulb comes on and you exclaim, I see! That’s what we are talking about. God wants to bring understanding to us of His ways, His Kingdom, His life. And His Word is the key to unlock that understanding. Without His Word, there is not the foundation for understanding Him. The Holy Spirit takes His Word and shows us the Truth of it, the reality of the inner workings of God. As Psalm 119 expresses it: His Word is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. The entrance of His Word gives light, brings understanding.

Any time that you are “in the dark,” pondering the way to do something, go to God the Word and ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you the way to do it, the decision to be made, the pathway to take. He is faithful and will provide the answer every time. What we must do is be patient and trust Him to bring us the understanding that we need to walk on through to victory.

Love

2010-05-18T09:38:00.000-07:00

Have you ever tried to love someone and failed miserably not once, not twice but time after time? You think you have this love thing down to a science and then they do something more to absolutely provoke you to want them to disappear off the face of the earth. Come on, Christians, everyone of us have experienced this type of situation at onc time or another in our lives. It seems that person rubs our fur the wrong way. If you have ever rubbed the fur of a cat the wrong way, you know that they do not like it one little bit.

What is the reason we fail at that love (Remember we are talking about God’s agape love, not human love, which is naturally doomed to failure.)? I have seen the answer to our dilemma. It is this. Until we know how much God loves us individually, personally, we cannot love others with His love. It is not a reality to us. The Word of God tells us that we will love others as we love ourselves. We have been going at this love walk from the wrong direction.

First, develop that love relationship with God by focusing on how totally and deeply and unconditionally God loves you personally. Yes, you! That is where we must start. Out of that understanding will come our devoted love for God. Then we love ourselves because we see that we are worth loving because God loves us. We see ourselves as the apple of His eye. Then, and only then, will we be able to love others as God wants us to do. Our love for them comes out of our love relationship with Him. It all begins with a personal revelation of His Love for us (you and me, particularly you).

My prayer for each of you today is that God Himself will give you a personal revealing of His total and complete love for you. He sees you as perfect and worthy and of great value through the blood of Jesus Christ His Son and your Lord. God’s divine love is the greatest power in the universe. You have Him in you today.

Jesus Is Lord

2010-05-17T10:47:00.000-07:00

We hear the expression “Jesus is Lord” many times in Christian circles. We say that Jesus is Lord of our lives. The Spirit of God asked me a question this morning which I am going to pass on to you. Am I really LORD of your life?

According to Webster’s 1828 dictionary, the word Lord means one who possesses supreme power and authority; one who governs your life and is in charge of your life. Supreme means one highest in authority, one holding the highest position of government and power in your life; highest, greatest, most excellent. In Scripture Lord is Supreme Being, Jehovah. The word Lord is applied to Christ and the Holy Spirit. Christ is called the Lord of Glory and the Lord of lords.

When we recognize the lordship of someone, we give them the privilege of governing our lives and being in charge of us because their power and authority is greater than ours. There is no power and authority greater than God’s power and authority. So the smartest thing any of us can do is to yield to His Lordship in all areas of our lives.

Any area of my life or yours about which we are fretting, worried or anxious has not been given over to the Lordship of Jesus. Ponder the question today: AM I REALLY LORD OF YOUR LIFE?

Joy Strength

2010-04-21T08:54:00.000-07:00

Do you need strength today? Rejoice in the Lord. As Paul said in Philippians 4:4: “Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice.” Nehemiah 8:10, Amplified Bible : “…And be not grieved and depressed, for the joy of the Lord is your strength and stronghold.”

In John 15:11 Jesus spoke these words to His disciples then and to us now: “These things have I spoken to you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.” What had Jesus just spoken to His disciples? Abide in Me and let my words abide in you. My word will keep you clean and you will bear much fruit, that My Father may be glorified. Continue in My love. If you keep My commandments (My Word), you abide in My love, even as I have kept My Father’s commandments (Word) and abide in His love. We can rejoice because God’s Love has been shed abroad in our hearts that we may abide in His love. This brings fullness of joy to fruition in us.

Listen to what Jesus spoke in John 17:13 (Amplified Bible) about our joy. He is talking to His Father about His return to Him after He is resurrected. Put on your spiritual catchers and listen carefully: “And now I am coming to You; I say these things while I am still in the world, so that My joy may be made full and complete and perfect in them [that they may experience My delight fulfilled in them, that My enjoyment may be perfected in their own souls, that they may have My gladness within them, filling their hearts.” Jesus never spoke idle words. If He said it, then it is so!

Hear what the Apostle Peter said in 1 Peter 1:3-5. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy has begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fades not away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. The Amplified Bible says that we are guarded, garrisoned by God’s power through our faith. Think about it; we are talking about GODS POWER. There is no power greater than He is. And He is living in us with His power. He makes His power available to us as His children. His power no foe can withstand (Psalm 91:1, Amplified Bible).

These are just a few reasons why we can rejoice and have joy unspeakable and full of glory in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, in the midst of trouble all around us. The world and its trouble and trials and temptations is temporal (temporary), subject to change and cannot overpower the Word of God and the Holy Spirit. There is no power greater than God! I repeat: THERE IS NO POWER GREATER THAN GOD! And He is living in you as His child.

Joy brings God on the scene with the fullness of His glory. REJOICE!

Honor and Respect

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When you see the word “honor” what do you think of? When we honor someone or something, we hold them in high regard; we respect them; we consider them of great value and worth; we give them priority; we treat them with dignity and respect.

God spoke to Eli the priest in 1 Samuel 2:30 and He told Eli that those who honor God He will honor and those who despise God shall be lightly esteemed (valued, regarded or honored).

For those of us who are pressing toward the mark of intimacy with God and standing our ground in righteousness, we may say that we have no problem with honor. I had the Lord do a check on me, and I had my spiritual eyes opened to many truths. That which we honor, we give time to. That which we honor we defer to. We honor God by honoring one another in whom God dwells. Honoring someone means that we do not talk about them or discuss their weaknesses with others. Obviously God considers honor a “very big deal.” Even so, we should consider honor “a very big deal.”

We have an actual commandment to honor our father and mother. In the scriptures we are told to honor God, to honor the Son of God, to honor the old, to honor widows. Wives, we are told to honor our husbands. In 1 Peter 2:17 in the Amplified Bible we are admonished to “Show respect for all men [treat them honorably]. Love the brotherhood (the Christian fraternity of which Christ is the Head). Reverence God. Honor the emperor.”

For me, the capstone scripture is found in Revelation 5:12,13,14. Worthy is the Lamb (Jesus) that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing. And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, be unto Him that sits upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever. And the four living creatures said, Amen (so be it)! And the 24 elders fell down and worshipped Him that lives for ever and ever.

We must give honor to receive honor. The law of seed, time and harvest works with everything.

Healed

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You are the healed of the Lord. Jesus has bought and paid for your healing and health with His blood which was shed in the Garden of Eden, at the whipping post and on the cross. It is past tense. It is a finished work. It is done already. Believe it! Receive it (which means take it with a forceful grip). Take it! It’s yours! No devil has the right to put any pain or sickness and disease on you. Stand up like a man/woman of God and look every demon in the eye and say: "No, you don’t. Take your hands off God’s property. You’re trespassing! Leave now!"

Isaiah 53:4,5
Thank You, Jesus that You have (past tense) borne my griefs (sicknesses and weaknesses and diseases) and carried my sorrows (pains); yet I did esteem or consider You stricken, smitten of God and afflicted.
But You were wounded for my transgressions; You were bruised for my guilt and iniquities; the chastisement needful to obtain my peace and well-being was placed on You, and WITH THOSE STRIPES THAT WOUNDED YOU I HAVE BEEN HEALED AND MADE WHOLE.

Thank You! I am healed! I am whole once again! I am free from sickness and disease and pain!
Hallelujah! I am free!

Start confessing and meditating on this scripture until it is more real to you than any sickness or disease that satan attempts to send your way. Don’t sign for the package. It is not for your address. Mark it: Return to Sender!