A New Strength

He gives power to the tired and worn out, and strength to the weak. Even the youths shall be exhausted, and the young men will all give up. But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint (Isaiah 40:29-31-The Living Bible).

Here’s an interesting way to look at a familiar passage. In my Companion Study Bible there is a note by this verse that calls this a Katabasis, which is a going or marching down, a retreat, or a gradual descent.

Here in Isaiah, notice that as the believer waits on the Lord he moves from flying to running to walking. In our walk with God, at first we are doing what seems natural, which is relying on our own wits and strength. But as we grow in God, and learn what it means to be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might, we learn to relinquish the control of life and its circumstances into His hands. We learn to seek God and roll the care of every circumstance onto Him.

Instead of flying in our own strength, we learn to slow down and move into a strength that surpasses our own, and we begin to run. Little by little as we learn that Father knows best, we lesson our striving and begin to enter into the rest of God, the rest of faith. We then begin to walk.

The fast pace become an easy stroll with respect to energy expended. As we wait on the Lord and in prayer and faith place every circumstance of life in His hands, we begin to live in the power of His might! We don’t become as weary as we did before. We go farther with greater energy reserves. And it becomes with us as it did with John the Baptist, He must increase, but I must decrease.

Take time to build God’s strength in you today by waiting on the Lord. You’ll accomplish more, and you’ll walk in a state called rest as the Father works through you with His power. This is the way He created you to live!

Break Up Your Fallow Ground

Sow for yourselves righteousness; Reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the LORD, till He comes and rains righteousness on you (Hosea 10:12).

Fallow ground is unproductive, untilled ground. When I was young my dad bought some land in the “country” and built a house there. There were fields of various kinds of produce surrounding my house. One field sat unplowed for a long time. The government paid the farmer to allow it to lie “fallow.”

The ground in this unplowed field had a thin crust over it that made it difficult for water to permeate. When it rained, the water simply ran off into the lowest place. Weeds grew in abundance there.

I noticed that when the farmers would plant crops in an adjoining field, some of the seed would be thrown over into this “fallow” field. They never germinated because the ground was so hard. The seed just lay on top of the soil and produced nothing.

Jesus mentioned four types of heart soil where the seed of the Word is planted. In Mark 4 He mentioned wayside, stony, thorny, and good ground. Fallow ground is much like the wayside, stony, and thorny ground.

Hosea was encouraging Israel to break up their fallow ground or to allow the Word to penetrate their hearts. And it is wise for us to check up on the condition of the soil of our hearts, and make sure that our ground is not “fallow.”

Sin in all its varying forms, unforgiveness, pride, worldliness, self-centeredness, and refusing to walk in love are a few ways that our heart soil can become fallow. The word just won’t produce fruit under these conditions. And the Holy Spirit’s voice is easily “muffled,” just like water rolling off fallow ground!

Breaking up “fallow” ground involves allowing the Father through the Word and the Holy Spirit to show us areas of disobedience, confessing it, and forsaking it. Repentance plows the soil of the human heart and allows the Word to germinate.

If you’ve noticed “weeds” growing in your life, sins that easily ensnare you, or if you notice a hardness in your attitude towards others, let me encourage you to take Hosea’s advice and do some spiritual plowing. The results will be that the seed of the Word will more easily germinate in you and produce a harvest of right living.

Faith and Words

And since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, "I believed and therefore I spoke," we also believe and therefore speak (2 Corinthians 4:13).For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be removed and be cast into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says (Mark 11:23)

Faith cannot be released from your heart to the Father without words. You could say that your words are faith carriers.

In the circumstances that you encounter today, the words that you speak about that event show what you really believe about it. What I say is really my faith speaking.

It’s highly important to speak what you believe. Words fix the landmarks in our lives. We never rise above the words we speak.

Thoughts of doubt bombard us continually. But thoughts that are not put into word or action wither and will not produce results. You can’t keep negative thoughts from coming to your mind, but you can keep them from lodging there. The best thing to do when thoughts of doubt come is to speak out loud what you believe from the word of God.

In the tests that arise in life, my victory in it will keep pace with how steadfastly I speak what I believe in the face of the grueling circumstance. My faith keeps pace with my confession. So many times I’ve had terrible circumstance arise that seem so stubborn.

Let me balance this out by saying that there is a place where we must go before the Father and candidly express where we are, how we feel, and how things affect us. The key is not to live there. I always pour my heart out to the Father, but then I go back to His promises and ask Him to specifically work in the situation.

Remember to affirm the word of God out loud today. Faith’s confession changes things!

Words

Let no foul or polluting language, nor evil word nor unwholesome or worthless talk ever come out of your mouth, but only such speech as is good and beneficial to the spiritual progress of others, as is fitting to the need and the occasion, that it may be a blessing and give grace (God's favor) to those who hear it. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God [do not offend or vex or sadden Him], by Whom you were sealed (marked, branded as God's own, secured) for the day of redemption (of final deliverance through Christ from evil and the consequences of sin) (Ephesians 4:29-30 - Amplified).

Words are the most powerful force in your life! God used words to create natural things from spiritual things. Your words create things. James tells us that words determine the course of our lives from the cradle to the grave. In the same way that a bridle governs the movements of a horse, and a rudder controls the path of the ship, so our words direct us.

Don’t say a thing unless you want it to come to pass. Be careful to say what you really believe, for words are meant to move us in their direction.

Words can vilify, defame, and wound or they can bless, mend, and heal. Our words have a huge impact on others. We can inspire or de-motivate with a simple comment. The adage sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me is just not true! It takes so much longer to heal from the wounds inflicted with an offensive, hurtful comment than from a physical abrasion.

Make a decision to never use your words to bring harm. Don’t repeat the scandal of the hour. Keep your words positive and winsome. Be a creator of blessing, cheer, and encouragement. One sentence spoken to a person can change their whole day.

Remember that you are a creator today. You’re creating an environment everywhere you go with words. The Lord GOD has given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him who is weary (Isaiah 50:4).

Be a Blessing

The Lord God has given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him who is weary. He awakens me morning by morning, He awakens my ear to hear as the learned (Isaiah 50:4).

All of us are equal in the eyes of God. He has no favorite children. What He makes available to one, He makes available to all. But though we are all equals before God, not every person has an equal start in life.

The good news is that each of us can take the word of God and begin the process of renewing our minds and learning godly ways to relate to others. The word of God can help us to change habitual patterns of response to others that may erect walls and isolate.

Be careful that you don’t judge another person’s actions without knowing the background of what they deal with in life. God is the only righteous judge for He sees the thoughts and intents of the heart.

A person that to you looks like they have their life together may be struggling just to survive day after day. What seems easy to you is a great challenge for another that did not have the same foundation that you had in life.

Be careful not to judge another person at face value. The real issues are usually buried beneath a façade erected to keep emotional and relational pain at a minimum.

The Father wants to use each one of us today to bless and help another life. Be aware that hurt people hurt people. A person that seems harsh and distant is usually carrying some pretty heavy emotional baggage from their years of living. The Father wants to use you today to being cheer and comfort. He can only love and reach people as we allow Him to reach through us! Go today with the expectation that the Lord will use you to bless and help others. He’s counting on you.

A Relationship Problem Solving Formula

If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men (Rom 12:18)

Here a simple formula Chip Judd gave me for understanding how to deal with others and their responses to you when challenged or when you’re just simply interacting with them. This formula affects us all without fail. You can use this at home, at work, at church, or into any social interaction.

The formula is A+B=C. (A) is the issue at hand i.e.; a disagreement with your spouse; a sudden financial problem revealed; or a disagreement with someone at a church function, etc. (B) is the problem or issue at hand filtered through a person’s thoughts. (C) is the reaction or response to problem (A). So the problem (A) is really never the whole problem. (B) is usually the problem. It’s (B) that usually causes conflict in relationships.

(B) is filled with personal biases that come from years of living with and/or interacting with imperfect people! Someone may have judged you for something and treated you with contempt or a cold shoulder. Someone may have taken advantage of you in an area of life and your (B) is filled with debris from this. Your (B) could be filled with deep mistrust of authority figures; women, men, people that you get close to, pastors, government, etc. What has happened in the past that affects us with emotional and mental negatives often fill our (B). Again (B) is a current problem filtered through my conditioning from life’s events. And when A (the event) is filtered through B (personal thoughts and emotional biases created from past interaction) the outcome is C (my personal response to a problem).

That’s the reason two people deal with the exact same issue and come up with such different responses. Learning to deal with your own B (personal thoughts and emotional responses created from past life events) is the key to getting along with others.

The scriptures call this the renewing of the mind (Romans 12:2). I must choose to open up and deal with my person biases (my B) that make me defensive, critical, distant, cold, indifferent, judgmental, sarcastic, etc. James tells us that the engrafted word has the power to save the soul or to renew the mind (James 1:22).

Every action, reaction, thought, motive, word, and attitude in my life must be weighed and measured against the love of God. Love is my standard for living in relationship. The more I adapt my words, thoughts, and responses to the love way, the easier I will adapt in relationships that are difficult. When I learn to love, I will be able to get along with the most trying, difficult people in my life. The more I yield to love, the easier I am to get along with.

Love cures the problems in my personal (B). The key is my willingness to open up my (B) to be examined and weighed in a balance alongside of love. I must be willing to change self-centered responses that come from past hurt and pain to love responses that come out of obedience to God and His word. The more fully I do this, the easier I enter into relationship with others.

I leave you again today with a compilation of 1 Corinthians 13:4-8. Use this a a gauge to deal with your (B).

Let me describe love. It is slow to lose patience; love stays in difficult relationships with kindness, and it always looks for ways to be constructive. There is no envy in love. It is not possessive and never boils over with jealousy. Love makes no parade of itself; it never boasts, nor does it puff up with pride. Love is never arrogant and never puts itself on display, because it is neither anxious to impress, nor does it cherish inflated ideas of its own importance. Love never gets irritated and is never resentful. Love holds no grudges, and it keeps no record of evil done to it. Love refuses to be provoked and never harbors evil thoughts. Love is not rude or grasping or overly sensitive, nor does love search for imperfections and faults in others. Love does not compile statistics of evil or gloat over the wickedness of other people. On the contrary, it is glad with all good men when truth prevails. Love celebrates what is real and not what is perverse or incomplete. Love never does the graceless thing. Love has good manners and does not pursue selfish advantage. Love never insists on its own rights, never irritably loses its temper, and never nurses its wrath to keep it warm. Love is not touchy. Love can stand any kind of treatment because there are no limits to its endurance, no end to its trust. Love bears up under anything; it perseveres in all circumstances. Love’s first instinct is to believe in people. If you love someone, you will be loyal to him no matter what the cost. You will always believe in him, always expect the best in him, and always stand your ground in defending him. Love never regards anyone or anything as hopeless. Love keeps up hope in everything. Love’s hope never fades. Love keeps on keeping on! It trusts in God in every situation and expects God to act in all circumstances. Love goes on forever. Nothing can destroy love. Nothing can happen that can break love’s spirit. In fact, it is the one thing that still stands when all else has fallen.

Faith Overcomes

For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world — our faith (1 John 5:4). Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses (1 Timothy 6:12). Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them (Mark 11:24).

It’s faith that overcomes the attacks of the enemy, period. We need to remember that our faith enables us to reach into the unseen realm where God is and where His answers to our prayers are stored. As we believe with real time faith, our faith literally and sometimes ever-so-slowly pulls the answer to our prayer from the
spiritual realm to the 3 dimensional realm where we can see it.

That’s the reason that faith and patience inherits the promises of God. Our faith in the word of God overcomes the enemy’s resistance. Satan will try to keep the answer to our prayer and the manifestation of our faith from coming to pass. He does this by sowing seeds of doubt into our minds so we will hopefully yield to them and give up on our faith. Satan also seeks to increase the pressure of circumstance after we pray so that we’ll become weary in the faith fight. He also will try to circumvent our faith by creating opportunities for us to yield to strife, anger, and unforgiveness. In this instance we defeat our own faith, for faith will not work in an unforgiving heart.

So let me encourage you to stand fast in your faith! Stand your ground and believe you receive when it looks like the job is not coming through, or when the finances seem delayed, or when the healing doesn’t feel like it’s there, or it seems as though the prayer is not answered. Someone said that God is never late and seldom early!

Pray about every challenge and obstacle in your life. Believe that you receive the moment that you pray. Take plenty of time to praise and thank the Father because you believe that you have what you asked for. You’re not waiting to get it sometime in the future; you believe you have it now!

While we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal (2 Corinthians 4:18). That you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises (Hebrews 6:12). For we walk by faith, not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7).

Spirit, Soul, and Body

Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Thessalonians 5:23).

I am a spirit being, I possess a soul (mind, emotions, and will), and live in a physical body. Let me explain.

With my spirit I make contact with the spiritual realm where God exists. My conscience is the voice of my human spirit. My spirit is eternal, ageless, and will never cease to exist. My spirit is the seat of my human personality and motivations for living. The new birth has removed the sin nature from my sprit and placed within me by the Holy Spirit the nature of God (which is love). I am to allow this reborn human spirit to rule my actions, my thoughts, my words, and my choices.

My human spirit is nourished through the word of God and prayer (Matthew 4:4). I must feed my spirit the word every day by reading and meditation. I must exercise my spirit daily by praying in my natural and spiritual language. I must learn to listen closely to the promptings of my own spirit, for that is where I will hear the voice of the Father speaking to me intuitively about my life. The more I allow my human spirit to rule my conduct, the simpler and freer life will be.

My soul relates me to natural life in a fallen world. My soul consists of thoughts, emotions, and volition or will-power. My soul has been influenced by my surroundings since birth. It has absorbed much of its habits from observing and associating with events and people around me. My soul is full of residue from the sin nature that left me when I was born again. Negative, wicked, and malicious thoughts have been deposited in my soul from past events. I must learn to resist and replace these thoughts by renewing my mind with the Word by meditating and acting on it. I must purposely resist the negative deposits from my past into my soul, and must actively seek to control what my mind dwells on.

I must harness my emotions and not allow them to control my behavior. I must realize that my emotions have been greatly influenced too by my former sin nature and they will often feel things that are wrong and perhaps untrue. My emotions will seek to hijack my life perspectives and make me feel things that are not really true. I must purposely subject my emotions to the word of God. Instead of acting on emotions, I must act on the word. I must choose to believe the word over emotional feelings. This is a difficult thing to do at first but must be practiced until acting on the word and overriding wrong emotions becomes a way of living.

I must learn to moment by moment yield my will to God. My will has a stubborn streak from the residue left by my former sin nature. I must refuse to allow my will to chart its own course in my life. I must consciously yield my will to the word of God throughout my day. I must choose God’s word over my own self-centered desires. This too takes much practice and effort. My first attempts to harness my will may be met with failure. But I must repent when I fail and consciously yield my will to God by yielding it to His word.

My body is the temporary house for my spirit and my soul. One day, I will either leave it behind in death. Or it will instantly change at the rapture of the church. My body bears much scarring from my former sin nature. It has many appetites and desires that are reside from the sin nature and that were learned in my before Christ days. I must invoke stern discipline on my body or it and its appetites will seek to rule and ruin my life. I must set boundaries for what I allow my body to do. This is a lifelong struggle. One day, the Father will clothe me with a new body that will fit me for eternity in His presence. This new body will be in accord with my spirit and will allow me the freedom to express my spirit and soul in eternity as I walk with my Father through the eons of time in the New Heaven and New Earth.

I must keep this perspective of life continually before me.

Emotionally Free

Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Thessalonians 5:23).

We are spirit beings, who have souls, and live in bodies. Our souls are made up of our mind, our emotions and our willpower or volition. I want to discuss the use of our emotions, but let me mention a few things first.

God gave us every sense to be used for His glory. With our spirit, we contact the spiritual world, and discern God through our conscience, the voice of our human spirit, and through the Holy Spirit who comes to reside in us in the new birth.

With our bodies, we contact the physical world in which we live; the five senses enabling us to enjoy God’s beautiful creation. He created every sense to be used.

With our intellect we think and reason, exploring the vastness of God’s creation, and we are constantly learning more and more about its’ complexity and the simple synergy with which every organism works. From the farthest galaxy seen from the Hubble Telescope to the smallest matter seen with the most powerful lens, there is a Divine design to all of creation.

God also gave us emotions. They have a purpose in us and the Father expects us to use them for His glory and for our benefit. Our emotions are a gauge that we can use in our relationships. Happy, sad, exuberant, melancholy, exasperated, or joyful; the Father wants our emotions to work but not to rule us.

I have come across so many people who have emotions that are numb. They feel nothing. They live from day to day with no real emotions about much of anything. Psychologists sometimes call this the flat effect. I call it just being numb.

Here’s what happens. If a person has a traumatic experience, and they try to keep from feeling the pain of the trauma by shutting off the feelings or emotions it produces, then they also shut off every other emotion. They way emotions works is that when you shut one down, you shut them all down. For some reason with emotions, you just can’t turn one off and keep the others running. You either feel the good and the bad, or you turn then all off and don’t feel anything!

A lot of people lead emotionally numb lives and it is not the will of God. God created emotions so that we could feel relationships with others and with Him! Through the years many people have told me that they never feel the presence of God. When I inquire, they also tell me that they don’t feel much of anything ever emotionally, and that’s when I see that there’s a big problem.

If you find yourself emotionally numb, go back and make sure that you’ve really forgiven every person that has emotionally wounded you. Forgive them from your heart and release them. Release from yourself every hurtful thought created by any incident with any person. Sometimes people let these hurtful feelings and thoughts pile up, and they don’t know where to begin.

Here’s an exercise that may help. Start with each close relationship in life, beginning with parents and go on to siblings, friends, teachers, bosses, relatives, and those you’ve loved. The people closest to us are the ones that have the ability to wound us the most emotionally. We must choose to forgive each one. Make an itemized list of the hurtful thoughts that come to mind when you think of each relationship in your life that has brought you emotional pain. Take the list and purposely forgive each item listed, releasing the person from the judgments you’ve had against them because of what they said or did to you. Ask the Father to forgive you for holding offense, and then pray for God to bless and help the person, even if you don’t think they deserve it! Pray for their salvation if they don’t know the Lord.

Emotions will wake up if you release hard feelings and grudges that lie deeply buried. Work on it! The Father doesn’t want you ruled by feelings, but He does want you to experience them in relationships!

This won’t happen constantly, but at times the Father also wants us to sense Him with our emotions. And He wants the Holy Spirit to be able to use our emotions as He uses us to minister to others. The Father sometimes wants us to feel what He feels when we minister to or pray for others, and we can’t do that unless our emotions are free! Start the process today of releasing the weights from your emotions so that the Father can use you; spirit, soul, and body!

Putting Off and Putting On

That you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness (Ephesians 4:22-24).

Putting off and putting on are terms Paul used to describe the change in a believers life after salvation because of mind renewal. Before salvation, we’ve trained our bodies to yield to certain appetites, we’ve trained our minds to think in certain ways, and we’ve trained our emotions to act and react certain ways.

Stopping these learned behaviors is called putting off the old man with his deeds. The sin nature that produced appetites, thoughts and emotional responses has been removed by the new birth! We have become new creatures in Christ, and our daily lifestyle must be retrained to yield to this new person that we’ve become inside.

Developing new habits that reflect the new person that we’ve become within is called putting on the new man. This process occurs in us as we feed on the word and purpose to live a life of obedience to God. A key to putting off and putting on is in understanding the fundamentals of how behavior changes. We can’t stop a habit by constantly refusing to act it out. That keeps the attention on the habit.

Habits change by being replaced. When we make the decision to renew our minds with the Word, we decide to act on what we read and meditate on in scripture. For instance you read in Ephesians 4:29 that you are to refuse to allow yourself to speak any hurtful words to or about others. You meditate and think on this scripture over and over again for a period of time. And you may find that you still slip up and say things that shouldn’t be said and you repent. Just keep that process up, and the habit of hurtful speech will be broken and replaced by a habit of blessing with your words.

At first, it’s hit and miss. You may take a step forward and then a step backward. The key is persistence. Just keep on meditating in the word, and acting on it by repenting when you miss it with your words, and soon you’ll be catching yourself just before you begin the tirade of negative speech.

Putting off the old man and putting on the new man is a process that continues throughout our lives as we grow in Christ. His plan is that by the time He comes for us, we act just like Him in our thoughts, our words, and in our responses to others!

The foolishness of God

Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are,
that no flesh should glory in His presence (1 Corinthians 1:25-29).

It’s not talent, skill, mental acumen, or social standing that causes God to place His anointing upon our lives. It’s faithful, obedient hearts that catch His gaze. Regardless of what “side of the tracks” we come from, there are no special privileges due to social or financial standing, or even natural abilities in the kingdom of God.

What the Father does in us and through us is all a work of His grace of which we cannot boast. He who boasts, let him boast in the Lord.

God has a purpose for you as a member of the body of Christ. That purpose is not rooted in your natural heritage or background, and does not depend on natural strengths. That purpose was programmed into you from eternity past when God planned your life.

Moses was a murderer with a stuttering problem at age forty and years later was called by God to lead his generation. David was a shepherd little known by his fellow man. Joseph was ridiculed by his brothers and sold as a slave and did prison time. Amos was a farmer. Elisha was called from the back of a plow to lead a nation spiritually. Peter was unstable, but used by God to lead the church after the resurrection of Jesus. Paul was one of the most educated men of his day but counted his education as a pile of trash compared to knowing Jesus.

When God called me, I was an awkward introvert with no plan for my life. None of us can trust who we are in the flesh, talented or unskilled. It’s the power and grace of God that make us what we are in the family of God. So we can’t boast of anything God does through us. We’re merely the pipeline for the glory of God to be revealed to our generation through the good news of the gospel.

Don’t allow who you are naturally, good or bad, strong or weak, keep you from the glorious things that the Father has called you to do. You’re His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God has planned for you to fulfill. Don’t look at yourself or you’ll get discouraged; don’t look at others or you’ll envy and compare; but look unto Jesus. He’s the beginning and ending of all you are and all He’s called you to do.

Signs of Jesus’ Return

Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of drunkenness to all the surrounding peoples, when they lay siege against Judah and Jerusalem. And it shall happen in that day that I will make Jerusalem a very heavy stone for all peoples; all who would heave it away will surely be cut in pieces, though all nations of the earth are gathered against it (Zechariah 12:2-3).

We need to be very careful as a nation to be a friend and not an enemy to Israel. Though in unbelief, they still are heir of the promises of God through Abraham. In 1948 they became a nation again as prophecied and have been gathered by God back to their land.

With our nation pushing the creation of a Palestinian state, we are coming very close to siding against Israel. If we do this as a nation, we will receive a curse and not a blessing. Those who harm Israel will be harmed. Things will not go well for those nations that trouble her.

This is a time to pray for our leaders (1 Timothy 2:1-2). Their choices with respect to Israel will determine what happens to our nation. The elections of 2008 will be defining for America and our standing in the world. Let’s believe God now for wisdom as we vote next year.

We’re living in the season of the rapture and Second Coming of Christ. The signs are everywhere. God’s word is being fulfilled. Notice the following:

Israel has been regathered to their land; Israel occupies Jerusalem for the first time in 2000 years; Iran and Russia are working closely together now as Ezekiel foretold (Ezekiel 38-39), and one day will seek to destroy Israel; Ethnic conflicts abound worldwide (Matthew 24:7); weather patterns have become extreme and difficult worldwide creating floods, huge storms, drought, and fires (Luke 21:11); epidemic diseases are on the rise worldwide (Luke 21:11); seismic activity has become a regular pattern (Luke 21:11, Matthew 24:7); mankind has become self-centered, sexually loose, greedy for money, cold and resistant to Christianity and true godliness (2 Timothy 3:1-5).

Conditions are ripe on earth for the Anti-Christ to introduce a peace plan between Israel and the Palestinians. That will signal the beginning of the tribulation, which I believe will occur either just before or right after the rapture of the church (2 Thessalonians 2:1-8; Daniel 9:27).

We are living in a time of tremendous change. Now is the time to seek first the kingdom of God, to wear our spiritual armor daily, and to fight the good fight of faith. God has promised that His glory would be poured out on us when things get really dark on earth (Isaiah 60:1-3). Let’s spend extra time in prayer and in the Word and position ourselves to be used by the Father to bring hope, blessing, and deliverance to those bound by sin all around us. Let’s keep ourselves clean spiritually and be the salt and light that Jesus’ has destined us to be in this hour!

As Andrea Crouch sang years ago, soon and very soon, we are going to see the King! Stay ready!

Prepare Now

Anyone familiar with what the scripture says the world will be like just prior to the return of Christ knows that we’re living in the last of the last days. 2 Timothy 3:1 reminds us: But understand this, that in the last days will come (set in) perilous times of great stress and trouble [hard to deal with and hard to bear].

Let me urge you today to not allow yourself to coast spiritually. This is a time to sharpen yourself spiritually and stay focused. Jesus literally could come back at any time. Keep your heart and your mind pure from the defilement of the flesh and of the thinking of the world.

Keep your faith in God’s Word built up. According to 1 John 5:4, the victory that overcomes the world is our faith! Take time every day to meditate on the promises of God concerning answered prayer and faith. Meditate on the Word concerning healing and health, and keep your faith built up on the Lord being your provision and safety. If you’ll do this, then you will be ready when the enemy seeks to attack and won’t be caught unprepared.

It’s difficult to get faith when crisis hits. That’s when you need to have your faith already built up strongly on the Word. Prepare now for the day of adversity. Today I want to leave you with some scripture that I meditate on daily to keep my personal faith in the Word and in answered prayer strong.

And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive (Matthew 21:22). Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them (Mark 11:24). So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened (Luke 11:9-10). If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you (John 15:7). And in that day you will ask Me nothing. Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you. Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full (John 16:23-24) And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight (1 John 3:22). Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him (1 John 5:14-15). God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good? (Numbers 23:19).

Authority

Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you (Luke 10:19).

No one has more authority over satanic forces than you, the child of God. The lowest member of the body of Christ has just as much of this authority as the most spiritual.

Serpents and scorpions in the above verse are referring to the demonic forces that are seeking to hinder the purposes of God in the earth.

Exercise your authority over these forces today that are seeking inroads into your home, your family, finances, your church, your nation, the purposes of God at large, and that are seeking to hinder your walk with God.

Jesus has given the church the exclusive use of His name against these diabolical forces. Walk in purity and holiness, and command these forces to stop in their maneuvers against you and the kingdom of God of which you are a part.

Satan wants us to get so busy that we don’t take the time to be proactive in the exercise of our rights in Christ against him and his kingdom. As a result we can see darkness increasing in our communities, nation and world. If we believers don’t take our place and stand against the forces of Satan then who will? We have been commissioned with authority, and the Father is looking to us to take our place. He wants us to work with Him in the salvation of the lost, and in the advancement of His kingdom all over the world.

The Father is depending on you and me today to pray and ask Him to manifest Himself and His kingdom all over the earth. We have not because we ask not. Let’s take our place and push back the forces that are seeking to destroy all that is holy and pure.

Remember that God gave authority over the earth to Adam when He created Him. When Adam sinned, he transferred that authority to Satan and his kingdom. Jesus returned to the church the authority that Adam gave away! God needs you to take your place in His family today. Don’t sit back. Don’t remain idle spiritually. Be aggressive. Let’s push together, walking in the light, and pushing back the darkness with the name of Jesus, the force of our praying (praying in the spirit too!), and with the power of a godly life!

Healing is a Covenant Right

Christians have a covenant right to be healed! Jesus took out sicknesses and sins on the cross of Calvary! Make sure that you avail yourself to this benefit of healing power for your body.

Notice Isaiah 53: 4-5: Surely our sicknesses he hath borne, And our pains — he hath carried them, And we — we have esteemed him plagued, smitten of God, and afflicted.
And he is pierced for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace is on him, and by his bruise there is healing to us (Young’s literal translations).

Healing is not automatic, just as forgiveness of sin is not automatic. To be forgiven of sin, you must exercise faith and believe that Jesus died for you, and then confess with your mouth that you are forgiven and that Jesus is your Lord. You have to be proactive!

It’s the same with healing of sickness. At the first symptom, don’t let anything come out of your mouth but what the Word of God says about you. When a symptom appears, speak to the mountain according to Mark 11:23; command the symptoms to go from you in the name of Jesus. Tell Satan that Jesus took your sicknesses and diseases when He took your sins and that he can’t put that on you. Then, ask God to heal you and thank Him for Jesus taking your sicknesses when He took your sins. Tell the Lord that you believe you receive healing for your body.

Continue to walk in thanksgiving and voice your praise for the Father healing you even while the symptoms persist or get worse. Satan has the ability to put a thought in your mind and a feeling on your body. Walk by faith and not feelings. Confess what you believe in the face of the thoughts and feelings. Side with the Word of God and not with your feelings and symptoms.

I’ve been healed hundreds of times from symptoms all over my body through the years by simply acting on the Word of God in this manner. He sent His Word and healed us!

Glorify God in your body today by availing yourself to the healing that Jesus provided for you. It gives God no glory for you to be sick. His will is for you to be healed and whole. Let your thoughts and Words agree with God’s Word about your healing today. Resist the thoughts that the enemy brings. Healing is yours. Walk in your covenants rights. The same faith that cleanses sin will heal sickness. Healing belongs to you!

Precious in the Sight of the Lord

I'm posting this blog today from my Palm Treo. I'm in Heath Springs, SC attending the funeral of an uncle that died Saturday night in his sleep at age 82. He was studying to teach his Sunday school class before retiring for bed on Saturday night. He didn't get up at his normal time on Sunday morning, his wife went to awaken him. He looked to be sleeping peacefully. She found that he had went to be with Jesus during the night!

Psalm 116:15 reads: Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints. My uncle saw the Lord for the first time face to face early Sunday morning.

If a person has lived a long satisfying life as my uncle David had, this is certainly a wonderful transition from earth to heaven!

His funeral is today at 3 and I'll be driving home later tonight!

Unforgiveness and Stress

Be gentle and forbearing with one another and, if one has a difference (a grievance or complaint) against another, readily pardoning each other; even as the Lord has freely forgiven you, so must you also forgive (Colossians 3:13 – Amplified).

Perhaps every day of our lives we will face opportunities to forgive those who harm us in some way. Life in a fallen world means facing imperfections at every turn. Wise living is knowing how to deal with the imperfections of others! I seek to live by Romans 12: 18: If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men. That means I must be willing to practice what Jesus said to Peter when He told him to forgive 490 times (infinitely) the brother that offends him.

Failing to forgive produces some major problems and one of them is stress. Medical research indicates that the majority of illness is stress induced, so unforgiveness plays a significant role in sickness. Proverbs 14:30 (Amplified) reads: A calm and undisturbed mind and heart are the life and health of the body, but envy, jealousy, and wrath are like rottenness of the bones.

Unforgiveness means holding on to a certain thought pattern about a person or event. That thought pattern creates emotional hurt and pain. And if the thought pattern is not dealt with by releasing forgiveness to the offending party, then it cogitates underneath the surface in subconscious thinking. And this type of underlying negative thought pattern saps needed physical strength.

I’ve had people over my years of ministry tell me that they are tired all the time. They feel drained of strength. After speaking with these people I have found that often they are carrying a list of grievances in these underlying thought patterns and their emotions are draining them of needed energy. They simply need to practice forgiveness. There’s a lot of wisdom in Ephesians 4:26: Be angry, and do not sin: do not let the sun go down on your wrath. Each day we should clear our mind and emotions of the offenses of others before we go to sleep.

In her book Who Switched Off My Brain, Dr. Caroline Leaf from South Africa mentions that thoughts release chemicals into every organ of our body through our central nervous system. She mentions that all thoughts basically come under two categories, faith based or fear based thoughts. She reveals that fear based thinking releases toxic chemicals that coats the cells of our bodies and can eventually make us ill. On the other hand, faith based thinking that trusts God and expects the best; likewise releases helpful chemicals that aid the body and help it resist illness.

Unforgiveness affects our spiritual life. According to Jesus, you can’t go to heaven with it in your life (See Matthew 18:35 and Mark 11:25-26). And unforgiveness affects our physical bodies, hindering the health and healing provided to us by the Father.

Make a choice today to quickly deal with each offense. Readily and freely forgive as the Father through Christ Jesus has forgiven you. You’ll find heaven’s smile, soundness of mind, clearness of emotion, and renewed physical strength when you choose the path of forgiveness!

Forgive

And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him and let it drop (leave it, let it go), in order that your Father Who is in heaven may also forgive you your [own] failings and shortcomings and let them drop. But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your failings and shortcomings (Mark 11:25-26 – Amplified).

Forgiving those that commit offenses against me releases me from the damage the offense can bring to my future. Unforgiveness affects me, not the person I’m holding the offense against.

My relationship with the Lord is directly affected by my willingness to quickly forgive those who do me wrong. My relationship with others is directly affected by how I deal with those who do me wrong. My relationship with my body is affected by my willingness or unwillingness to forgive. Many diseases have their origin in the stress produced by unforgiveness.

We are to forgive even as God in Christ forgave us. Nothing another person has done or will do to us can come close to the weight of our personal sin debt that we owe to God. He has forgiven us all of our past sins in Christ. We therefore have the obligation to forgive every single offense committed against us by another person. There are no exceptions.

Novels and history books are filled with the resultant harm brought upon individuals and families because of unforgiveness. No person is immune from the devastating effects of unforgiveness in their personal life. Unforgiveness will ruin life, period.

I’ll leave you today with God’s commands to us concerning forgiveness:

Judge not [neither pronouncing judgment nor subjecting to censure], and you will not be judged; do not condemn and pronounce guilty, and you will not be condemned and pronounced guilty; acquit and forgive and release (give up resentment, let it drop), and you will be acquitted and forgiven and released (Luke 6:37 – Amplified) And become useful and helpful and kind to one another, tenderhearted (compassionate, understanding, loving-hearted), forgiving one another [readily and freely], as God in Christ forgave you (Ephesians 4:32- Amplified). Be gentle and forbearing with one another and, if one has a difference (a grievance or complaint) against another, readily pardoning each other; even as the Lord has freely forgiven you, so must you also [forgive] (Colossians 3:13 – Amplified). A happy heart is good medicine and a cheerful mind works healing, but a broken spirit dries up the bones (Proverbs 17:22 – Amplified). A calm and undisturbed mind and heart are the life and health of the body, but envy, jealousy, and wrath are like rottenness of the bones (Proverbs 14:30 – Amplified). THEREFORE YOU have no excuse or defense or justification, O man, whoever you are who judges and condemns another. For in posing as judge and passing sentence on another, you condemn yourself, because you who judge are habitually practicing the very same things [that you censure and denounce (Romans 2:1 – Amplified). Exercise foresight and be on the watch to look [after one another], to see that no one falls back from and fails to secure God's grace (His unmerited favor and spiritual blessing), in order that no root of resentment (rancor, bitterness, or hatred) shoots forth and causes trouble and bitter torment, and the many become contaminated and defiled by it (Hebrews 12:15 – Amplified). Make sure no one gets left out of God's generosity. Keep a sharp eye out for weeds of bitter discontent. A thistle or two gone to seed can ruin a whole garden in no time (Hebrews 12:15 – Message).

Burnout Inventory

Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood (Acts 20:28)

I just concluded a two week vacation today and I feel refreshed! Taking a vacation is not just sitting around doing nothing, but it does involve changing your normal routines and cutting new paths for your life. Someone said that rest is not ceasing activity but changing activity.

So I went to the beach with my family for a week, I’ve visited with my parents and Susan’s parents; I’ve gone to the zoo with my kids; and I’ve just spent time reading, jogging, playing tennis, spending time with Susan and the my girls; and just generally hanging out. On purpose I’ve spent very little mental time (other than prayer) on “church stuff.”

A pastor’s life has the potential for constant high stress. And if I want to keep at this call lifelong, I must make sure that I get appropriate rest daily, a day of rest weekly, and then periodic times away from normal routine. Creativity is the results of tranquility. If you avoid adequate daily and weekly rest, and if you avoid vacation times away from normal affairs, then you’re setting yourself up for burnout. Burnout is an irritable, caustic I don’t care attitude than slowly creeps in and steals initiative and motive.

In 1991, I was in a traveling ministry and had also started a business. Susan was working the midnight shift at a hospital and we had three small children. I was up many nights after midnight dealing with the details of my new business after caring for my three children (feeding them, bathing them, and reading to them and praying with them before they went to sleep). Then I was up early the next day to spend some time with the Lord before working at my business all day.

Eventually, burnout knocked at my door. It was hard to overcome, and I made a promise to myself to never go there again. I’ve come close a few times and it’s always due to lack of periodic activity change. During this burnout time in my life, I found the book, How to Beat Burnout by Frank Minirth. The principles in the book helped me to overcome burnout, and to stay rested.

I’m ready to go back to work now, and am excited to minister tomorrow! I want to leave you with an excerpt from the book I just mentioned. It’s a burnout inventory. If you agree with most of the following 24 statements, you need to make a change and soon, or personal calamity will be a part of your future! Take your breaks, daily, weekly, and periodically take your vacations!

1. More and more, I find that I can hardly wait for quitting time to come so I
can leave work.
2. I feel like I’m not doing any good at work these days.
3. I am more irritable than I used to be.
4. I’m thinking more about changing jobs.
5. Lately I’ve become more cynical and negative.
6. I have more headaches (or backaches, or other physical symptoms) than usual.
7. Often I feel hopeless, like “who cares?”
8. I drink more now or take tranquilizers just to cope with everyday stress.
9. My energy level is not what it used to be. I’m tired all the time.
10. I feel a lot of pressure and responsibility at work these days.
11. My memory is not as good as it used to be.
12. I don’t seem to concentrate or pay attention like I did in the past.
13. I don’t sleep as well.
14. My appetite is decrease these days (or, I can’t seem to stop eating).
15. I am unfulfilled and disillusioned.
16. I’m not as enthusiastic about work as I was a year or two ago.
17. I feel like a failure at work. All the work I’ve done isn’t worth it.
18. I can’t seem to make decisions as easily as I once did.
19. I find that I’m doing fewer things at work that I like or that I do well.
20. I often tell myself, Why bother? It really doesn’t matter anyhow.
21. I don’t feel adequately rewarded or noticed for all the work I’ve done.
22. I feel helpless, as if I can’t find a way out of my problems.
23. People have told me that I’m too idealistic about my job.
24. I think my career has just about come to a dead end.

If you agree with most of these statements, you’re in the burnout mode sand need to change!

From How to Beat Burnout, Minirth, Frank B (Chicago: Moody Bible Institute, 1986) p. 37-38

National Blessing or Cursing

People of Israel, listen to the LORD's message. The LORD has this against you who live in the land: "The people are not true, not loyal to God, nor do those who live in the land even know him. Cursing, lying, killing, stealing and adultery are everywhere. One murder follows another. Because of this the land dries up, and all its people are dying. Even the wild animals and the birds of the air and the fish of the sea are dying. No one should accuse or blame another person. Don't blame the people, you priests, when they quarrel with you. You will be ruined in the day, and your prophets will be ruined with you in the night. I will also destroy your mother. My people will be destroyed, because they have no knowledge. You have refused to learn, so I will refuse to let you be priests to me. You have forgotten the teachings of your God, so I will forget your children (Hosea 4:1-6- New Century Version).

I was reading the book of Hosea during my personal time with the Lord today. And this verse seemed to stare at me again. We in America have been blessed due to our forefather’s honor of God and His moral laws. Our system of government was based upon the ethics of the Ten Commandments. Sure, not everyone involved in leading our nation has been godly, but enough have been that there has been a defining influence of godliness here. And we live in relative opulence and prosperity as no other people have because of the light of the gospel that has been here.

God asked the prophet Hosea to marry a prostitute and to remain faithful to her while she committed adultery. His life was to be an example of the way backslidden Israel treated God.

Israel lost God’s promised blessings due to their disobedience. Slowly the Lord removed His protective hand from their nation and the enemy came to wreck havoc. It was all due to their choices to sin. In the above verses you see that even the land and the animals were affected by the sins of the people.

Are the fires, floods, droughts, severe weather, and national and international problems that are rising in our land due to our national attitude as a whole towards God and His Word? No, God doesn’t bring hurtful things to His people. But disobedient living hinders God’s hand of blessing, and gives the enemy opportunity to steal, kill, and destroy. God has no choice but to back away from sin and disobedience. The results is calamity after calamity coming in due to His removal of protection as He is forced to back away the choice of the people.

Let’s hit our knees daily in prayer for our nation. God’s people went into captivity right along with the rest of Israel when the Babylonians removed them from their land. Yes, God protected and made provision for His own during these times of national disobedience, but the results affected everyone, God’s folk as well as unbelievers.

We need to be aware that if we as the church don’t rise to the occasion and live for God and be the salt and light He’s destined us to be, then the end results of national disobedience will affect us and our children right along with the unbelievers. Yes, God will make an ark for us, but the land will be affected, lifestyle will change, and we’ll be living in in a lesser condition instead of the peace and prosperity we have now.

Heaven

Do not let your hearts be distressed. You believe in God; believe also in me. There are many dwelling places in my Father's house. Otherwise, I would have told you, because I am going away to make ready a place for you. And if I go and make ready a place for you, I will come again and take you to be with me, so that where I am you may be too. And you know the way where I am going (John 14:1-4- New English Translation)

Heaven is our destiny as believers. Most Christians today don’t think much about heaven, but we should. Saints of yesteryear plodded through harsh, difficult years of toil and labor by keeping their eye on the goal of heaven. In western culture, our creature comforts, toys, and nice homes, have had a dampening effect on us when we think of going to heaven. We don’t want to leave here to get there!

Many people think of heaven as a place where there are hours of boring church services and where you just sort of float around and do much of nothing. This attitude is summed up in Mark Twain’s book, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Chiding Huck of his fun loving spirit, a Christian lady named Miss Watson gave Huck a negative view of heaven. In Huck’s words: She went on and told me all about the good place. She said all a body had to do there was go around all day with a harp and sing forever and ever, so I don’t think much of it…

But heaven will be a place of bustling activity and will be the fulfillment of all of our desires as a human. Charles Spurgeon said about heaven: To come to thee is to come home from exile, to come to land out of the raging storm, to come to rest after long labor, to come to the goal of my desires and the summit of my wishes.

Our future home in heaven will be a place far better than what we have now. Paul said, But I am hard pressed between the two. My yearning desire is to depart (to be free of this world, to set forth) and be with Christ, for that is far, far better (Philippians 1:23 – Amplified).

John saw the New Heaven and New Earth in vision form while on the isle of Patmos: Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea. Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away (Revelation 21:1-4).

David mentioned what the full manifestation of the presence of God brings with it: You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore (Psalm 16:11). That’s what heaven will be like.

In heaven, you will be the you that know now, minus the flaws. You’ll look like yourself, you will eat, you will walk, you will laugh, you will be busy with life, you will know your family members there, you will take your thoughts, your memories, your likes and dislikes, and your personality with you. Heaven is planet, but not like earth. It is a perfect environment for life. You will experience perfect life there. You will experience the senses that the glorified human body has. You will be totally satisfied. Earth is but a pattern of what heaven is like. You will feel at home there!

The current state of affairs on earth seems to point towards our going to heaven sooner rather than later! Let’s stay ready to go! I’m personally looking forward to it!

Praise Produces Spiritual Strength

Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants You have ordained strength, Because of Your enemies, That You may silence the enemy and the avenger (Psalm 8:2).

But when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that He did, and the children crying out in the temple and saying, "Hosanna to the Son of David!" they were indignant and said to Him, "Do You hear what these are saying?" And Jesus said to them, "Yes. Have you never read, 'Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants You have perfected praise'?" (Matthew 21:15-16).

Jesus quoted Psalm 8:2 when challenged by the religious leaders because of the children’s voiced praise to Him. But notice that instead of saying You have ordained strength, He rephrased it to say You have perfected praise.

Praise creates spiritual strength! How does this happen? Well, Psalm 16:11 reads: You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore. And we find in Nehemiah 8:10: Then he said to them, "Go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet, and send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared; for this day is holy to our Lord. Do not sorrow, for the joy of the Lord is your strength."

And we know that praise brings a manifestation of the presence of God according to Psalm 22:3 (KJV): But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel.

When you put all of these scriptures together you find that when you praise God His presence manifests, and in His presence is fullness of joy. And the Joy of the Lord is your strength! So God has ordained that we be strengthened when we praise Him. Praise brings a manifestation of His presence which brings in it joy producing spiritual strength!

That’s the reason you should practice praise when going through tests and trials. You’ll find strength from the Father during the hardship when you praise instead of gripe and complain and whine! Paul and Silas were set free from a remote dungeon where they were shackled in Acts 16 after they spent time in praise!

If you find yourself in a habit of complaining when things go wrong, start practicing praise! You’ll be strengthened by His joy if you’ll just do it! I’ll leave you with a kind word about praise from our beloved friend James: Consider it wholly joyful, my brethren, whenever you are enveloped in or encounter trials of any sort or fall into various temptations. Be assured and understand that the trial and proving of your faith bring out endurance and steadfastness and patience. But let endurance and steadfastness and patience have full play and do a thorough work, so that you may be [people] perfectly and fully developed [with no defects], lacking in nothing (James 1:2-4 – Amplified).

Be Prepared

But understand this, that in the last days will come (set in) perilous times of great stress and trouble [hard to deal with and hard to bear] (2 Timothy 3:1- Amplified).

I’ve enjoyed my vacation thus far! And I’ve missed everyone at Victory! I’m looking forward to seeing you on Sunday.

The last week or so, I’ve been impressed of the Lord about the closeness of His coming for the church. We’re watching in real time some steadily increasing changes in the world at large that are beginning to have an impact on our present daily lifestyle. The perilous times of great stress and trouble are upon us!

This not a time to worry, but it is a time to prepare. Each day, we should spend time in the Word to keep our minds renewed from the filth of doubt and unbelief around us. And we need daily time in God’s presence in prayer to keep His holiness wrapped around us like a coat of armor.

Feeding our faith on the Word is a necessity right now. A wise person prepares for a storm well before the time it strikes. The Father had promised us His care, provision, and protection, but remember that it is our faith that overcomes the world. And faith comes from spending time in the Word.

Our faith is also built up as we act on what we believe. This is most often accomplished by simply speaking the Word out loud to the Father reminding Him of what we believe. He watches over His Word, and delights to hear it come out of our mouth!

During this hour, calamity could strike at any time. That’s why it’s so important to keep yourself built up on your faith. When things suddenly occur, you’ll be prepared and will be used by the Lord to minister to others.

There is an assault on truth today. Behind this assault is the scheming of the evil one who is seeking to minimize truth in the name of openness and diversity. Prepare to be criticized for what you believe. Prepare to be persecuted by well meaning people who will call you narrow minded and bigoted.

Our response is to walk in love and to speak truth in love. We never respond to criticism with angry retorts. But we must loving confront error with truth; truth in our words and truth in how we live our daily lives.

Notice what Jesus said about persecution: God blesses those who are persecuted for doing right, for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs. God blesses you when people mock you and persecute you and lie about you and say all sorts of evil things against you because you are my followers. Be happy about it! Be very glad! For a great reward awaits you in heaven. And remember, the ancient prophets were persecuted in the same way (Matthew 5:10-12 - NLT).

Let’s be prepared for the days ahead. Jesus return is causing exactly what has been predicted by the prophets for thousands of years. And it looks as though we are the privileged generation that gets to watch it happen!

The Confident and the Ashamed

And now, little children, abide in Him, that when He appears, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before Him at His coming (1 John 2:28).

Two classes of believers will stand before Jesus when He returns; the confident, and the ashamed.

The confident are those who loved not their lives to the death. They resisted the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. They kept the world at a distance by bathing themselves daily in the Word of God, and by constant communion with the Father. When they did slip up and sin, it broke their hearts and they cried out to Jesus, confessing their sin, and asking for His power to overcome the weakness
and to walk in the spirit.

The ashamed are those who were born again, but did not take advantage of their rights and privileges as a child of God. They were rarely found bathing in the cleansing lather of the Word. The cares of the world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the lust for other things overpowered their desire for God, and they mostly walked in the flesh. Church attendance was hit and miss since they did not value the power of the spoken Word of God through the ministry gift of a pastor.

For the ashamed a guilt conscience was their constant companion. They knew what to do but rarely did it. They were saved so as through fire (1 Corinthians 3:15). Jesus blazing eyes will look into yours and mine one day. He will look deep into our souls with His piercing gaze and immediately discern the thoughts and motives behind every word and action in our lives!

General William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army had a vision of the rewards seat of Christ (1 Corinthians 3). He saw multitudes of believers who had arrived in heaven, and Jesus was there, going from person to person. In His hand was a torch. As Jesus approached each person, the flame from the torch would immediately consume all wood hay and stubble their earthly lives had produced (1 Corinthians 3:12). All that was left was gold, silver, and precious stones.

Some people touched by the torch had nothing left when the smoke cleared. No precious stones were found. Others had a pile of beautiful gems at their feet after the fire.
One other notable thing happened in General Booth’s vision. As Jesus approached each person, He heard either guttural sobs of remorse for opportunities not taken, or he heard ecstatic shouts of joy.

A hymn sang in my church as a boy went; must I go and empty handed, must I meet my Savior so, must I go and empty handed, must I empty handed go. We are each day accruing by our actions and motives either gold, silver, precious stones, or wood hay and straw. What will be left at your feet to present to Jesus when the smoke clears?

I want to be in the company of the confident and not be one of the ashamed when I meet Jesus. Come with me on the journey for God’s best today. Let’s consecrate ourselves to the Father. Let’s be the good ground believers found in Mark 4 who acted on the Word with all their hearts. Forget the failures of the past. Reach forward today in repentance and consecration and let’s go for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ!

You and God are a Majority

Then David said to the Philistine, "You come to me with a sword, with a spear, and with a javelin. But I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied (1 Samuel 17:45).

I 1 Samuel 17, you find the Israelite and the Philistine armies facing one another in a valley ready to fight. Mountains surrounded the armies, with the Israelites camped in the mountains on one side of the river valley, and the Philistines camped on the opposite side.

In between the two armies stood a man named Goliath, a Philistine. Goliath was a descendant of the race of giants in the land of Canaan. He was the offspring of fallen angels and men (See Genesis 6). Goliath stood a bit over 13 feet tall. He weighed between 400 and 600 pounds. His body armor weighed around 300 pounds. He ominously taunted the Israelites each morning and night for forty days. No man in the Israelite army dared fight him, for fighting him meant certain death.

David was a shepherd boy who had been sent by his father to deliver some food to his three older brothers who were in the Israeli army. As David gave them the food, Goliath came out to challenge the Israelites as he had for many days.

David became enraged that this giant of a man was holding the entire Israeli army captive. After obtaining permission from King Saul, and after being disdained by his brothers, David went into the valley to challenge the huge hulk of a man. He carried only his shepherd’s rod and his sling with a pouch for stones.

David was only a boy with red hair and freckles. The giant was infuriated that Israel would send a small boy to challenge him. But David was not naïve. As a shepherd, he had killed a lion and bear when they attacked his flock. He had become skilled in the use of the sling.

Some armies of his day would go to battle armed with only slings. A sling was a powerful weapon in trained hands. Some men were so skilled with the use of a sling that they could hit any small target from a great distance. The sling could be used with such force that a stone could pierce heavy armor and easily kill in battle.

David had no doubt honed his skill in using a sling, and had also developed his faith in God. When he approached Goliath, he did so knowing that God’s power and ability was on him as a covenant man with Almighty God. He also knew that with God on his side, this towering giant was defenseless. He remembered how he with his sling had killed a raging lion, and a fierce bear. He believed that if God had protected him from the mouth of the lion and the paw of the bear, then certainly God would be with him in this conflict.

The stone landed in an opening in Goliath’s helmet at his forehead and the giant bit dust. David’s covenant God had come to his aid once again.

As you face your life giants, realize that you have a better covenant with God than David had that is established on better promises! If God can deliver David from what looked like impossible odds of being killed, certainly he can deliver you from what looks like a life disaster.

Feed on God’s Word and develop your faith in His absolute integrity. He will not forsake you in your tough times. Develop your faith by exercising it every day. The Father’s desire is to fight and win the battle for you as you stand in uncompromising faith. What the Father did for David He is willing to do for you. Expect miracles!

The Word Produces Stability

Wisdom and knowledge will be the stability of your times, and the strength of salvation; the fear of the LORD is His treasure (Isaiah 33:6).

The only consistent thing in the universe is the Word of God! It is forever settled in heaven. Jesus said heaven and earth would pass away, but His Word would never change.

In a world of increasing instability, we have a rock upon which to stand! Jesus said that practicing the Word is like building your house on rock instead of shifting sand. When difficulties come, you’ll be unmoved!

The more Word you practice, the stronger the foundation of your life will be. All weakness is the results of our leaving the Word in some way. The strength, the life, the wisdom, the rest, the grace, and the power of the Word of God will sustain you in life’s most arduous circumstances.

I had been a believer for just a few years when a spiritual leader rocked my world. He said some things to me in a private meeting that were untrue but very hurtful. The impact on my life was severe. I was only 20 years old, and his words affected my mental and emotional equilibrium.

Day after day his hurtful words ravaged my mind. The enemy used them to bring great condemnation and discouragement. I felt hopeless, alone, and abandoned.

But I was not without help. I decided to ignore my feelings and these aberrant thoughts that ceaselessly attacked my mind. I would spend the entire day forcing a scripture to revolve over and over in my mind. I chose to believe God’s Word over man’s Word. And after a period of time, I regained my mental and emotional balance, and found peace again.

This experience taught me the power of the Word in my life, and how the Word can bring stability. Since then, I have given the Word room in my thoughts and in my life every day. And the stability of the Word has rooted itself into who I am and what I do.

Regardless of how tough the circumstance may be that you’re facing, choose to act on God’s Word. Say it aloud. Let it role over and over in your mind. Refuse to let your emotions rule you. The Father will provided you with needed wisdom, and the Word will produce freedom and liberty. You’ll come through the hard place. And you’ll know that God’s Word produces results.

Give room in your thought life today for the Word to dwell in you richly, and you’ll find the Father’s stability and strength for every situation!

Virtue Maintains Freedom

Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people. (Proverbs 14:34).

Freedom is an expensive thing. Its cost is blood. Our spiritual freedom was won by Jesus spilling His blood for us. The freedom that we have to worship, to express ourselves, and live as we please has cost many thousands their life. Let’s take moment and thank God today for the privilege we have of living in a free country. And let’s remember that with freedom comes responsibility.

We’re responsible as citizens of a free society to uphold the law and to honor God. No nation can remain free if it does not adhere to moral law, and each citizen be held responsible for his own actions.

Back in 1983, during the cold war, the Christian school in our church had a guest speaker from Russia speak to the high school. He was a former military man in his country. This man was not a Christian, but had a message for America. I will never forget his words. He said, “If you want to remain a free country, you must be a moral people. If you lose your morals, you will one day lose your freedoms!” His words have resonated within me since that day.

I’ll leave you with a few quotes from our civil leaders of the past. Let’s remember to pray for our president and leaders daily.

It is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favors. (George Washington - 1789 Thanksgiving Proclamation).

We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other. (John Adams - 1798 Address to the Military).

The only foundation for a useful education in a republic is to be laid in religion. Without this there can be no virtue, and without virtue there can be no liberty, and liberty is the object and life of all republican governments. (Benjamin Rush- 1806).
Statesmen my dear sir, may plan and speculate for liberty, but it is religion and morality alone, which can establish the principles upon which freedom can securely stand....The only foundation of a free Constitution, is pure virtue, and if this cannot be inspired into our people, in a great measure, than they have it now, they may change their rulers, and the forms of government, but they will not obtain a lasting liberty. (John Adams -1776 letter to Zabdiel Adams)

Obedience is Better than Sacrifice

So Samuel said: "Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He also has rejected you from being king (1 Samuel 15:22-23).

A somber lesson of obedience can be learned from the life of Saul. He was chosen to be Israel’s first king because of his physical attraction and height. He stood head and shoulders above everybody. He was so meek and humble that he didn’t want to be seen and hid himself.

After being anointed king his character flaws came to the surface. Due to his impatience, he intruded into the priest’s office and sacrificed burnt offerings to the Lord. Samuel the prophet was delayed and Saul took matters into his own hands, offering sacrifices that by law only priests could offer.

Saul went to battle without consulting the Lord. And then here in 1 Samuel 15, he directly disobeyed the direct command of the Lord.

The Amalekites had oppressed Israel for many years. God told Saul to attack them and kill every living thing; animals, children, and adults. The Amalekites were detestable idol worshippers and were totally depraved and corrupted.

Saul had spared the best of the animals to sacrifice to the Lord, and had kept Agag the Amalekite king alive as his prisoner. When Samuel came to Saul, he heard the bleeding of the sheep and asked Saul if he had completely obeyed the Lord. Brazenly, Saul told Samuel that he had completely obeyed God when he had not.

Samuel told him that God had removed the kingly anointing from his life that day. Saul immediately began to go downhill mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.

Obedience to God can never be replaced by our personal sacrifices of time, talent, or possessions. Samuel told Saul that rebellion against the known will of God was paramount to witchcraft. Remember that Satan was once the anoint Cherub that protects, having his beginning as one of the angels of God that protected God’s throne in heaven. Through pride and self-will he rebelled against God’s sovereign rule and was removed from his high office and kicked out of heaven.

Rebellion to the known will of God in our lives open us up to demonic influence today just as it did with Saul. Be sure to humble yourself daily under God’s mighty hand. Daily acknowledge your dependence on Him. Practice instant obedience. God judges spiritual sins of pride and self-will more quickly than sins of the flesh. When we do things that hinder God’s people and His plans for them, God doesn’t take it lightly.

Let Saul’s life be a lesson to us all of the great price of disobedience. It may take years to play out in real time, but disobedience will eventual bring ruin to a promising life. Let’s give the Father our best today!

Watch What You Pray For

And when you saw that Nahash king of the Ammonites came against you, you said to me, 'No, but a king shall reign over us,' when the Lord your God was your king. Now therefore, here is the king whom you have chosen and whom you have desired. And take note, the Lord has set a king over you (1 Samuel 12:12-13).

Be very careful about what you ask for in prayer. You just may get it! In the verses above, Israel had asked God for a king to reign over them. They had seen other nations that were led by a king, and that’s what they collectively desired.

But it was never the will of God to have a king reign over His people. God wanted to be their king. He wanted to be close to them all (See Exodus 19:5). But the Israelites persisted in their request for a king, and that’s what they got!

The point here is that God will actually give you something that is not His best if you ask and then persist in your faith. God will honor His Word in your life if you believe it. And that’s the reason that I’m very careful as to what I ask for in faith.

It takes me longer to figure what to pray for than to actually do the literal praying for it! God will honor your faith if you really want something badly enough even though it may not be His best for you. I know this goes cross-grain to most religious thinking, but it’s true.

Jesus said, If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you (John 15:7). So when I am praying about something, I first of all ask the Lord what He wants me to have. Instead of bullishly coming before the throne of God, I step back and humble myself. I ask Him to show Me His highest and best will in the matter I’m praying about. That takes time. I usually pray and wait before God sometimes, days, weeks, and even months for big things I’m praying about. I don’t want to step out into presumption and do what Israel did by asking for what is not His best for me!

Understand that I’m not talking here about praying about being healed from sickness and disease, or about the Lord supplying a real time need, or about someone being born again. The Word is clear about God’s will on these subjects. I’m talking about things like where to purchase land for building a church, or which job to take, or which city to live in. I call these things gray areas, where the Word doesn’t specifically tell you the will of God.

Jesus said again, If you abide in Me, ask...If you’re really abiding in Him you’ll not ask for something that is not His will; you’ll patiently wait in the gray areas of life until you’re sure of the will of God. Then when you pray, you’ll have confidence that you’ll receive God’s best because He is giving you His desires as you pray.

Psalms 37:4 applies so well here: Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart. When you spend time with the Lord and put Him first in your life by putting His Word first place, then He will place in you what He wants you to do.

I’ll leave you with Proverbs 16:3 in the Amplified Bible today. Walk cautiously with the Lord and seek His best in the gray areas of life. He will answer prayer if you stand in faith and believe. Just make sure you’re praying for the right thing!

Roll your works upon the Lord [commit and trust them wholly to Him; He will cause your thoughts to become agreeable to His will, and] so shall your plans be established and succeed (Proverbs 16:3).

God is a Shield

Every word of God is pure; He is a shield to those who put their trust in Him (Proverbs 30:5).

When the harshness of life settles in like long monsoon rain, it gives hope to know that God your Father is taking good care of you. Some tests are of long duration. These are the times you must be rooted in the fact that God your Father always has His eye on you, and He has made promises to shield you and deliver you from the day of test. Tests and storms may come to your life, but the Father has promised that you’ll come through them every one. We must never forget that underneath us are the everlasting arms.

Years ago, during a particularly grueling trial, it seemed as though I would never see the end of the difficulty I was in. The Lord urged me time and again to go to His Word, and there He met me. What He shared has become very close to me now, and I often reflect on the verses He gave me. I’ll share them with you today the way the Lord gave them to me. If you’re in a tough place, and the test is hard, take my word for it, you will come though this thing on the other side as a better version of you than you are now. As you read the following, know that God keeps His promises!

For in the day of trouble he will keep me safe in his dwelling; he will hide me in the shelter of his tabernacle and set me high upon a rock (Psalm 27:5 NIV). The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears them; he delivers them from all their troubles (Psalm 34:17 NIV). A righteous man may have many troubles, but the Lord delivers him from them all (Psalm 34:19 NIV).The Lord redeems his servants; no one will be condemned who takes refuge in him (Psalm 34:22 NIV). The salvation of the righteous comes from the Lord; he is their stronghold in time of trouble. The Lord helps them and delivers them; he delivers them from the wicked and saves them, because they take refuge in him (Psalm 37:39-40 NIV) And call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor me (Psalm50:15 NIV). God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging. Selah (Psalm 46:1-3 NIV). Because he loves me," says the Lord, "I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name. He will call upon me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him. With long life will I satisfy him and show him my salvation" (Psalm 91:14-16 NIV).