God Rebukes the Devourer!

Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house, and try Me now in this, says the Lord of hosts, If I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it. And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, so that he will not destroy the fruit of your ground, Nor shall the vine fail to bear fruit for you in the field, says the Lord of hosts; and all nations will call you blessed, for you will be a delightful land, says the Lord of hosts (Malachi 3:10-12).

 

Most of the time throughout scripture, we are fully responsible to stand our ground and resist the enemy. We have the authority of the name of Jesus and the Word of God to do so!

 

But in this scripture, God says He will rebuke the devourer for us. Incredible! When you get involved in helping the Father with His program of spreading the Word of God and preaching the gospel all over the world through tithing to your local church and in giving offering to other ministries, God Almighty goes to work on your behalf.

  

When the enemy tries to mess with your finances, be aware that God Almighty has taken offensive to help you. You’re not own your own alone. He’s taking the first step to see that you are blessed, that you get the best deals, and to see that your stuff  lasts longer and goes further that it normally would. For the tither and giver, the devourer is rebuked by God!

  

Now you must believe this for it to work. Start saying out loud that the devourer is rebuked in your life. When things go wrong, expect God the Father to back you up and work it out. Set yourself in agreement with this promise of God that He will work on your behalf.

  

Don’t settle for second best. Expect the Father to bless your obedient giving. He watches over His word to make it good in your life today!

Faithfulness

Through the Lord's mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness (Lamentations 3:22-23).

  Moreover it is essentially required in stewards that a man be found faithful – proving himself worthy of trust (1 Corinthians 4:2-Amplified)A faithful man will a bound with blessings, but he who hastens to be rich will not go unpunished (Proverbs 28:20).

God is faithful, and renews His mercies to us every single day. His steadfastness is surer than the rising of the sun. His desire is that we be faithful just like Him. Faithfulness is something that we must choose to walk in. It transcends feelings and circumstances. A faithful person is as faithful when the storm is producing relentless rain as he is when the sun is shining. Outward things simply do not shake the person of faithful heart.

 

Here are some definitions: Faithfulness: the quality or state of being faithful.

Faithful: true or constant in affection or allegiance; loyal; firm in adherence to promises oaths, or undertakings; firm and thorough in observance of duty.

 

The Father abundantly blesses the faithful. Part of this may be due to the fact that the faithful person will hang in there through thick and thin. It takes consistency to receive from the Lord. A double minded man is unstable in all of his ways.

 

To find God’s best for your life you must be faithful! He rarely speaks to a slack person! He’s already spoken 66 books full of directives! And unless we’re after obeying what He’s already instructed, He’s not likely to add more in the way of specifics!

I began ministry just by being faithful in small things. Whatever I saw that needed to be done in my church, I just pitched in and helped without being asked. There are so many who are much more skilled than me to preach and to pastor. But God rarely looks at skills. He looks at the heart. And there He yearns to find faithfulness!

 

If you’re not sure of exactly what the Father has for you, just start being faithful. Two things will happen. First of all, you’ll be blessed. And secondly, the Father will shed His light on your path, and you will eventually walk into the plan of God for your life!

Enabled

And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who has enabled me, because He counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry (1 Timothy 1:12).

 

The Father has given each one of us divine ability to fulfill the tasks He has called us to do. He enables us to do His will. One translation reads, I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has made me equal to the task. Ephesians 4:7 reads, But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift. This grace is a divine ability to walk in the calling the Father has for the individual believer.

  

Each of us has a purpose in the family of God. The will of the Father has been placed deep within us. He places in us a desire for something. Following that desire will move you into the purpose of God for your life.

 

For me, after I received the Baptism with the Holy Spirit, I began to have an innate desire to help people see who they are in Christ. I would find myself constantly encouraging and teaching as I had conversations with friends. That desire to build up the believer led me into the call that is on my life today. I simply yielded to that inward tug of the Father.

 Some have a desire to help children. Others have a yearning to ministry to the imprisoned. Still others find a sense of fulfillment in ministering to the elderly in nursing homes, in helping singles parents and widows with house repairs and natural things they can’t do alone. Many will find great fulfillment in helping the pastor in the local church with ushering, greeting, with sound and visuals,  in children’s ministry, and in all the necessary things that make ministry happen each week.

 

When people ask me what I think God has called them to do I ask them a question. What do you want to do deep down inside. The Father places His desires in us (Psalm 37:4). Then, He gives us the ability to perform those desires. Jesus said, The Father who dwells in me does the work (John 14:10).

 

To walk in God’s best for you, listen deep within to the want to the Father has placed within you. Then follow that want to and you’ll eventually end up fulfilling the high call of God in Christ for your life (Philippians 3:14)!

Kings and Priests

And from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth. To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen (Revelation 1:5-6).

  

But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light (1 Peter 2:9).

  

We have two important positions as believers. We are kings. And we are priests! Being a king doesn’t mean that we whiz around with the pomp and circumstance of royalty having servants cater to every whim and fancy. A king rules his domain. We have the spiritual authority of a king! Historically, a king’s word was the bottom line in his kingdom. Where the word of a king is there is power (Ecclesiastes 8:4)! We are seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. That means that He actually shares His authority with us! Demonic forces must bow when we exercise our authority.

 

A king reigns with words. The Father wants us to fill our words with His word! He watches over His word to make it good! He is the King of kings! When we speak as a king, our King’s power backs it up and brings it to pass! Jesus is Lord of lords. We are lord over our domain. And Jesus is Lord of us! We have spiritual authority in our homes and families. We have the legal right before God to command Satan to keep his hands off our lives! He must go with his sickness and disease, with his poverty and lack, with his strife and rebellion, with his depression and fear! We’re kings! Our words rule! The King of kings backs them up! Exercise your kingship!

  

We are also priests before God. A priest represents others before God. Jesus is our High Priest. He ever lives to make intercession for us (Hebrews 7:25). As priests, we are to go before the Father on behalf of those who don’t know their rights and privileges in Christ. We are to bear their burdens, and be the go-between for them before God. We represent the weak, the helpless, the fear-filled, the sick, the depressed, and the poverty stricken before God in prayer. We ask on their behalf. Then, as the Father gives direction, we go minister to them! And His power becomes available to set them free.

  

Exercise your rights as a king and a priest today. The Father depends on you to help Him. We are laborers together with God!

An Example of Change By Meditating

I sought the Lord, and He heard me, and delivered me from all my fears (Psalm 34:4)

How can a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to Your word (Palm 119:9). The entrance of Your words gives light; It gives understanding to the simple (Psalm 119:130)

The Word cancelled fear in my life! Due to circumstances when I was young I developed a fear of rejection. I developed a self-consciousness that feared people’s responses to my words and actions. I would walk into a room and immediately size up who was there and how people viewed me. My thinking had a default setting that assumed others did not like me and wanted nothing to do with me.

 

When I entered ministry as a young man, this rejection syndrome worsened. I would preach and then have a terrible next day while thinking of all the reasons no one received what I was saying. The focus was all on me and not on the blessing the Lord wanted me to be to others.

  

The Father began to show me the self-centered thinking that was producing these emotions and feeling of rejection. He gave me this scripture on day: But as a matter of fact, it matters very little to me what you, or any man thinks of me – I don’t even value my opinion of myself (! Corinthians 4:3 – J.B. Phillips).

 

 I began to see that my thoughts and emotions were fear based instead of Word based. I had developed a habit of allowing my mind to set me up to be dominated by the fear of others rejecting me! This was a deep seated ingrained behavior in my life. I knew that there was no way that I could survive in ministry with this kind of thinking ruling me.

  

I cried out to the Father and He showed me this scripture in 1 Corinthians and then led me to 1 John 4:18 in the Amplified: There is no fear in love [dread does not exist], but full-grown (complete, perfect) love turns fear out of doors and expels every trace of terror! For fear brings with it the thought of punishment, and [so] he who is afraid has not reached the full maturity of love [is not yet grown into love's complete perfection].

 

I began to meditate daily on these two scriptures. I let them revolve over and over in my thought life. I said them slowly to myself. I spoke out loud when alone. I did this several times a day. This type of meditation dropped the Word down deep into my personal belief system, my underlying thought patterns, or as Ephesians 4:23 calls it, the spirit of my mind.

  

I also developed a siege mentality with respect to my wrong thinking and emotions. Your mind will try to convince you that what it is thinking and what your emotions are feeling is reality. And often they are not. So I deprived my mind and emotions of power over me by following the principle of a siege.

   

 Enemy armies in Bible days would often siege a city in order to conquer it. Cities in that day had very high walls erected all the way around them to keep out predatory animals and enemy forces. Sentries were stationed on top of the walls providing a lookout for detecting the enemy. This made a city basically impenetrable.

 

An enemy army would simply surround the perimeter of the walled city far enough away as to be immune to arrows shot by the troops on the wall. And they simply cut the supply lines of food and goods to the city. It may take several years for the city to run out of food and supplies, but eventually the enemy would defeat the city. The only factor was time and the siege.

 

Using this principle along with meditation on the Word cured me of this fear of rejection. My mind and emotions would tell me people did not like me, and I would simply call the person or see them personally and engage them in conversation. I was really conversing with them to see if my mind and emotion were telling me the truth, and I found that the majority of time they were not!

 

So the siege began! I refused to give in to my thoughts and feelings of rejection! Every day I would siege my thoughts and emotions, refusing to allow the thoughts to remain in my mind, and refusing to believe what my emotions told me. I meditated on the Word and then purposely called people just to talk to them to prove that my perceptions of rejection were wrong!

 

The siege worked. Now the Word has replaced the fear of others! Meditation on the Word along with actions that demonstrate belief in the Word will change your wrong belief system and produce a change in your behavior. The Word did it for me! And the Word will work for you too!   

Meditation Changed Me!

Meditation in the Word will change you! There is simply no such thing as a believer who meditates in the Word not changing. Fifteen minutes a day in meditation with the Word of God will overcome years of wrong thinking and believing.

 

As I mentioned yesterday, meditation takes the Word from your surface thought life down into the very recesses of what you think and believe!  You meditate two ways: by speaking the word slowly out loud, and by cogitation it over and over mentally, thinking about every Word in a verse of scripture. This applies the Word in a practical way to your life and lifestyle!

 

When I first came back to the Lord and was filled with the Holy Spirit, I began the practice of taking a few minutes throughout my day for meditating. I meditated on being a new creature in Christ and what that means (2 Corinthians 5:17); on being the righteousness of God in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:21); on having no condemnation between me and the Lord; on being loved by the Father (John 16:27, John 17:23); on Jesus taking my sicknesses and diseases the same time He took my sins (Psalm 103:1-3; Isaiah 53: 3-5; Matthew 8:17, 1 Peter 2:24); on the Father providing for all my needs (Matthew 6:33; Phil. 4:19); on being free from fear (2 Timothy 1:7); on the value and power of my words (Matthew 12: 34-37; James 3: 1-6; on my authority in Christ over demonic forces (Colossians 2:15; Colossians 1:13; Ephesians 1: 17-2:6).

  

Boy did my life change! Over a period of time, fears that had ruled me life long began to fade away like a snowball in the sunshine! And in their place, faith rose in my heart!

 

Then God begin to show me a different level of knowing Him. I began to see character issues in a way I never had before. I begin to see how the fear of others had driven me into isolating myself from intimacy. From really letting others know what I’m like. I began to see how perfectionism, being an obsessive and compulsive person, had ruled me and my relationships with those close to me. I began to see how using accomplishment as a means of being pleased with myself and as a tool to get others to affirm me had ruled my life.

  

Meditation in the Word began to rip these false beliefs from the core of who I was. Confidence in being loved and fully accepted by the Father completed replaced the fear that dominated my relationships with God and others. Knowing that the Father cares and knowing  that He rules me has set me free from the never having arrived attitude and feeling perfectionism brings. Knowing that as I act on His Word God honors His Word in my life and brings it to pass has liberated me from the obsessive compulsive desire to have everything just right. Now, I live as unto the Lord, seeking to simply to honor Him and His Word.

 Life is rich, peaceful, and enriching when you have a values system that agrees with what the Father’s values.

  

Take time to meditate in the Word today. Find scriptures that deal with the problem areas of your life and begin to let them revolve on the inside of you. Give it some time. 21 to 28 days begins the formation of new habits. If you’ll be honest with yourself, allowing the Lord to show you the areas that need changing, and then if you’ll meditate in the Word that addresses these areas, you’ll change! Start today!

Meditation in the Word

There is no real change in the life of the believer without meditation in the Word. Meditation means speaking the Word aloud slowly or revolving it around in the mind over and over again. The Word will not affect you until it gets from your head to your underlying thought patterns, the spirit of your mind (Ephesians 4:23).

 

Notice Psalm 1:1-3: Blessed is the man Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful;  but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night.  He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither; and whatever he does shall prosper.

Notice that meditation in the Word causes a person’s whole life to blossom like a well nourished tree on a river bank! That’s because meditation moves the Word from the conscious mind to the spirit of man, where these underlying thought patterns are closely aligned. Once the Word replaces these wrong underlying thought patterns, life changes!

 

Notice Joshua 1:8: This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. I want you to see here that meditation in the Word produces the ability to do according to all that is written therein!

  

Start in the New Testament with the scriptures that include the Words in Christ, In Him, or In Whom. You’ll find these in Kenneth Hagin’s mini book In Him. Start to speak them out loud, and cogitate them in your mind. Take ten or fifteen minutes a day to meditate on the word.

 

For me, once I did this, I then began to find scriptures that related to problem areas of my life. Scriptures that had to do with anger, unforgiveness, gossip, healing, answered prayer, etc. I would look them up, write them down, and take them to a quiet place and meditate on them. My life changed!

   

Meditate in your car, as you go to sleep at night, or take a break during the day. Go to a quiet place, close you eyes, and speak the scriptures to yourself. Make meditation a daily practice. The Word will begin to replace wrong thinking and believing. The wrong underlying thought patterns will be replaced with the truth of the Word. You behavior will slowly conform to your new belief system. And you’ll be a changed person! 21 to 28 days begins the formation of new habits. So give yourself a month or so, and you’ll begin to see changes in your outward conduct. The Word meditated upon and acted on brings tangible results! 

Tomorrow, I’ll give you some personal examples of what meditation in the Word has done to change me.