Remove the Irritants and Thorns

But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then it shall be that those whom you let remain shall be irritants in your eyes and thorns in your sides, and they shall harass you in the land where you dwell (Numbers 33:55).

  

Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come (1 Corinthians 10:11).

 

 God’s dealings with Israel in the Old Testament are filled with truths that help us in our walk with God today. Israel being led out of Egyptian bondage by way of the Red Sea is a type of our being delivered from the bondage of sin and being born again.

 

The land of Canaan, the land God promised to Abraham and his offspring, is a type of the born again, Spirit-filled, abundant life of the child of God today.   When I was a boy we sang about Canaan’s land in church and the song referred to Canaan’s land as a type of heaven for believers. But that’s just not true! There are no inhabitants that oppose us that we must run out of heaven! Heaven is a place of rest from our labors. But here, we must fight the good fight of faith every day!

 

These inhabitants of Canaan were to be destroyed by Israel. They were gross idolaters whose habits were vile and repulsive. Israel was to run them out of every city as they conquered Canaan. In the above verse, God told Israel that if these inhabitants remained, they would be irritants in their eyes and thorns in their sides. God told them that these inhabitants of their land would harass them and make their life miserable.

 

These inhabitants of the land point to the habits of the flesh in our lives as believers. When we come out of the bondage of sin through the New Birth, there is a residue of the old man that is left in our souls. Our minds and emotions have inhabitants embedded in them from our old life before Christ. It’s our job to run them out.

  These inhabitants include selfishness, envy, greed, pride, stubbornness, rebellion, anger, lust, bitterness, malice, gossip, self-pity, and a host of other things. Our responsibility as a new creation in Christ is to run these inhabitants out with the sword of the spirit, the Word of God. If we don’t confront these inhabitants, they become irritants in our eyes and thorns in our sides. They hinder our growth in God, and quench our joy. Don’t tolerate them in your land!

 

Israel did not conqueror these inhabitants all at once, and neither will you. Israel inhabited their promised land city by city. And it’s line upon line, precept upon precept that we grow in God and run these habits from the past out of out lives.

 

Be diligent to stay in the Word and keep your sword sharp. And when you come upon some inhabitants of your promised land from your old life, don’t put up with them. Run them out. Conquer your promised land little by little and you’ll walk in the peace of God and experience the best God has for you!

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.

 

Changing Your Belief System

The Word has the power to produce deep and lasting change in the believer. The implanted word saves the soul or renews the mind. When it comes to us changing, we will not change until our belief system changes. Let me explain.

  

We have basically two kinds of thought; conscious thoughts, and underlying thought patterns which some term your belief system or your core values. The Bible calls this your conscience. These core beliefs, or belief system, or underlying patterns of thought operate almost automatically. And they are at work just under the conscious level and they motivate us in all of our behaviors; our actions, words, responses, how we see the world, how we see ourselves, how we treat others, and how we relate to God.

   

These deep underlying thoughts are what control us. And there is no personal change of lasting value until these underlying patterns of thinking change. Notice 2 Corinthians 10:3-6: For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds,  casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.

  

The strongholds mentioned here are really fortresses of thought that are built up in these underlying thought patterns. The arguments mentioned are the patterns of thinking that precede behavior. These must be challenged and changed before we act differently.

 

The Word divides soul from spirit in us, and is able to analyze these underlying thoughts in a way no psychologist or psychotherapist ever could. For the Word that God speaks is alive and full of power [making it active, operative, energizing, and effective]; it is sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating to the dividing line of the breath of life (soul) and [the immortal] spirit, and of joints and marrow [of the deepest parts of our nature], exposing and sifting and analyzing and judging the very thoughts and purposes of the heart (Hebrews 4:12- Amplified).

  

Reading the Epistles in the New Testament will give you the will of God for the believer in most of the areas of life. If you’ll read them slowly and prayerfully, making a decision to line your lifestyle up with what you read, you will be challenged to change! Ask yourself while reading; is there an attitude or motive that I need to change; is there some sinful activity that I need to forsake; is there something that I’m not doing that I must begin to do; is there some promise here that I must embrace?

  

If you’ll do this, the power of the word of God will begin to change you. It will analyze your thoughts, your motives, your actions and reactions, your beliefs and all your conduct. It will detect wrong underlying patterns of thinking. The Word will convict you to change! The Holy Spirit will urge you and motivate you to challenge hurtful underlying patterns of thinking.

 Tomorrow, I discuss the part that meditation in the Word plays in changing these underlying patterns of thinking. Meditation in the Word is the key to permanent life change!

 

The Indwelling Word

The entrance of Your words gives light; it gives understanding to the simple (Psalm 119:130)

My son, do not forget my law, but let your heart keep my commands; (2) For length of days and long life and peace they will add to you. (3) Let not mercy and truth forsake you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart, (4) And so find favor and high esteem in the sight of God and man.

(Proverbs 3:1-4).

I’ve been reminded recently by the Lord of the importance of meditating in the Word daily. Like no other generation before our time, we have an overload of information. As Daniel said it would be before the coming of the Messiah (Daniel 12), knowledge has taken a quantum leap! With so much available from multiple sources, it’s now necessary to become selective in what we read, hear, and watch.

   

The most important information that we need each day is the WORD! God’s Word is my standard that keeps distractions out, and keeps me focused on the necessary and important. As Isaiah 33:6 states, Wisdom and knowledge will be the stability of your times, and the strength of salvation...Without the Word, our lives will be like sand bombarded with a flood of water; we’ll be unstable!

    

The Word insulates us from the harsh environment of the world, where fear and doubt try to steal into our minds. The Word washes the debris from our thoughts that may get temporarily lodged there through daily interaction with so much stuff! And we’re admonished to let the Word of Christ dwell in us richly in all wisdom or practical application (Colossians 3:16).

    

Joshua tells us that meditation in the Word will bring prosperity and success into daily life (Joshua 1:8). David encourages that meditation in the Word will cause us to be like a tree by a river bank that has a great supply of nourishment, and from that association with the river, all that we do will prosper (Psalm 1). Solomon tells us that the Word is even like medicine to our flesh (See Proverbs 4:20-22)! Isaiah relates that the Word will give us perfect peace (Is. 26:3).

  

 If it’s available, what would keep us from pursuing that which would better us? Jesus said the cares of the world, the deceitfulness of money, and the desire for other things could steal what the Word wants to do in us (Mark 4). The enemy knows what a power house for God we will be if we act on the indwelling word, so he’s real busy these days cooking up some interesting distractions. Don’t buy his game of bluff!

   

I’ve made a fresh decision to take time each day to meditate. To take scripture and let it go over and over in my mind while a taking a quick break, or when going for a walk or jog.  To speak it out loud in my car, or to let it revolve over and over in my mind when I’m going to sleep, or when I wake up at night. The more opportunities we give the Word to dwell in us richly, the more success, favor, health, life, light, peace, and rest we will enjoy. The Word will NEVER leave us empty like so much in this information age. Let’s let it dwell in us – RICHLY!

Romance is a Heart Thing

Today is Valentines Day, a time for those in love to express their devotion to their sweetheart. Susan and I have been married now for 32 years. We had a heart connection over 33 years ago when we started dating. And then the romantic feelings came upon us.

The truth is, at one time we were complete strangers with no feeling for each other. Then we met and began to talk for hours at a time. A little later we started dating and then it happened! The feeling of romance hit us both. Now, 33 plus years later, it’s still there.

Feelings of romance take effort to sustain. They don’t just appear on their own. You have to help them along! If there is a mutual attraction between a man and a woman, doing things together can create feelings for each other. To sustain the feelings of romance you must keep doing what you did at the beginning of the relationship.

Jesus scolded the church at Ephesus in Revelation 2 for leaving their first love. He then told them what to do to return to first love status. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works…(Rev. 2:5).

Relationships are not in and of themselves self-sustaining. It takes effort to keep them going. It takes effort daily over the years of time in a marriage to keep the flames of romance burning brightly. If you have feelings of romance after many years it is not accidental. Couples in love regularly do things to keep the flame hot! What do they do? They keep doing the things that started the flame of romance in the first place. Intimate communication combined with doing things together regularly will ensure that when you are old enough to be great-grandparents, you’ll still possess the flame!

Marriage is a type of our relationship with God. Husbands are to love their wives as Christ loved the church. We are to have a heart devotion to the Lord and share our hearts with Him the way a husband and wife intimately share together.

And if we are going to maintain our first love with the Lord, we must continue to do the things that began our journey of closeness with Him. Spending time with Him in the Word and in prayer daily; fellowship with other believers to keep ourselves sharp; and regular involvement in a local church are some of the things that will keep that first love romance with the Lord going strong.

Romance with the Lord and with your mate is a heart thing, and like a fire in the fireplace, fresh wood and a bit of stirring will ensure that the glowing ember remains a raging fire.

If you’re married, and the flame of romance is burning low, be encouraged. You can begin today to stir the smoldering embers. Start by talking, heart talking about the little things of life. Speak words to your spouse that you want to hear yourself. Practice the golden rule. Start doing things TOGETHER. It’s the kind words and loving things you do TOGETHER that fan romance. May your first love with the Lord and your spouse be renewed today!

Don't Quit!

For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts. "For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, And do not return there, But water the earth, And make it bring forth and bud, That it may give seed to the sower And bread to the eater, So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it (Isaiah 55:9-11).

  

And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart (Galatians 6:9).

  

When the enemy puts pressure on you, lean on the Word of God! God’s Word is His power to deliver you right in the middle of the mess the enemy tries to stir up in your life.

 

Refuse to cower to unbelief and fear when the enemy turns up the heat by affecting circumstances and senses. Remember that he is a defeated foe. The only power he has is the power of suggestion, and when you make a decision to stand on the Word of God, his power over your life is immediately nullified!

  

During that time between the time you pray and believe that you receive and the time of the actual manifestation of the answer, it’s important to say only what God says about your situation. Call those things that be not as though they were! Say what you believe, not what you have. When you voice the Word of God out loud, fear falls in its tracks. Fear thoughts may come, doubt thoughts may bombard you, but your firm stand on God’s Word will nullify fear and doubt and faith will rise up within you!

  

If you’re believing you receive healing, declare boldly that with His stripes you are healed! Though the symptoms persist, act as though you believe you receive the answer to your prayer of faith! Talk the answer, praise the answer, act the answer, live the answer. Don’t for one moment yield to symptoms and thoughts of doubt. Doubt thoughts that come to mind die unborn if they are not voiced!

  

If you’re believing for finances, a job, or a change in some circumstance, take God at His Word. If He says He hears and answers you when you pray, then that’s it. Don’t move. Take a firm stand with God and His Word. His Word has stood the assault of doubt, fear, unbelief, cynicism, criticism, and negative circumstances for thousands of years. And in all that time, not one of His promises has failed.

  

Hundreds of times over the years God has proved Himself faithful to me as I stood my ground on the Word and did not cave in to doubt and fear. Faith and patience always inherits the promises! Don’t allow circumstances, feelings, thoughts, people, or demons to move you off of your stand on God’s Word today! You’ll come out on top if you don’t quit!

Faith verses Unbelief

And they returned from spying out the land after forty days. Now they departed and came back to Moses and Aaron and all the congregation of the children of Israel in the Wilderness of Paran, at Kadesh; they brought back word to them and to all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land. Then they told him, and said: "We went to the land where you sent us. It truly flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit. Nevertheless the people who dwell in the land are strong; the cities are fortified and very large; moreover we saw the descendants of Anak there. The Amalekites dwell in the land of the South; the Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the mountains; and the Canaanites dwell by the sea and along the banks of the Jordan." Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses, and said, "Let us go up at once and take possession, for we are well able to overcome it." But the men who had gone up with him said, "We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we." And they gave the children of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, "The land through which we have gone as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great stature. There we saw the giants (the descendants of Anak came from the giants); and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight" (Numbers 13:25-33)

  

Only two out of the twelve spies that went to take a look at the land that God promised Israel had a positive report to bring back to Moses. Joshua and Caleb demonstrated an attitude of faith. The other ten spies were steeped in the tradition of doubt and unbelief.

 

Unbelief looks at obstacles. Faith looks at God and His promises! What kind of report do you have of your life and your circumstances today? Do you have a God sized attitude, or do you have grasshopper vision? Are you looking at the obstacles, or are you focus on God’s promises to you in His Word?

  

With only human ability in view, the ten spies said they looked like grasshoppers beside the giants. Yet Joshua and Caleb sized up the circumstance in comparison to God and said, we are well able to over come them!

 

Doubt and fear looks at the size of the problem. Faith looks at the bigness and greatness of God, looking beyond the problem to God and His promises.

  

Allow God’s Word today to build you up. You and God are a majority! Greater is He who is in you than he that is in the world!  Let’s take our eyes off of our problems today, and place them on God, His promises, His faithfulness, and His love! All things are possible to him who believes!

Take it By Force

And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force (Matthew 11:12).

The fight is on until the end of the church age. It’s the forces of darkness verses the kingdom of light! We’re addressed as soldiers in a battle throughout the New Testament: we’re to fight the good fight (1 Timothy 6:12); we are to fight with weapons that are not carnal (2 Corinthians 10: 3-5); we as enlisted soldiers are not to be entangled with civilian affairs that weight us down (2 Timothy 2:4); we’re to put on the whole armor of God (Ephesians 6:11).
 
The great news is that the battle is already won; the outcome is set. We win! Our fight is a faith fight. We fight to maintain faith and to look beyond what we can see and feel to the never changing Word of the living God! Walking in the Word gives us security, confidence, and boldness in the face of extreme opposition.
 
It’s faith and patience that inherits the promises of God. Stand in faith today for your marriage, your children, your health, your finances, or for circumstantial change. Don’t be moved when the going gets tough. Satan’s power has been limited by the blood of Jesus to the power of suggestion and feeling manipulation! Satan is a defeated foe! (Colossians 2:15; Colossians 1:13).  The only thing he can do is to put a thought in your mind and a feeling in your body and try to coerce you to act on it.
 
So war a good warfare and walk by faith. Say only what the Word of God says about your current circumstances. Refuse to be moved by what you see and feel. If you do, the power of patience combined with your faith will secure victory over the current test!

Walk in praise and thanksgiving as you believe you receive from the Father. The more pressure Satan brings, the more tenaciously you speak the Word aloud, and the more you praise and worship the Father!

You only lose if you quit. The last chapter is already written. Take by force what belongs to you in Christ. Refuse to cower down to wrong thoughts and feelings. Hold your head high as a son or daughter of the Most High! Expect God’s best today! You’re more than a conqueror!
 
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).
 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? (Romans 8:31-32).

It is Up to Us!

The Father has done all that He can do to bless and help us. When Jesus became the incarnate Son of God, died in our stead, went to hell in our place, was raised from the dead, and then was seated at the right hand of the Father, our redemption was a settled fact in the mind of God.

 

Jesus sacrifice for us purchased our salvation, healing, deliverance, and freedom from everything Satan brought us through Adam’s sin. Victory over oppression, depression, fear, sickness, disease, poverty, all kinds of lack, personal weaknesses, and every form of sin is now available to every human being. This salvation transcends race, ethnic background, or gender.

 

Every promise of God is equally available to every human being on the planet right now. In the mind of God, our salvation has purchased our individual freedom from everything the fall of man brought into life.

  

Now it’s up to us to individually exercise our God given choice and our God given grace through faith and receive all that Jesus has purchased for us. Our freedom is no longer up to God. It’s up to us! We must choose to act on the Word of God in faith, and by faith receive all that Jesus provided. If we fail to act on the Word, God’s hands are tied. Jesus’ work is complete, and we are complete in Him. But we must by faith choose to personally act to gain the benefits.

 

What the Father said to His old covenant people is also said to us in the church today: See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil, in that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, His statutes, and His judgments, that you may live and multiply; and the Lord your God will bless you in the land which you go to possess. But if your heart turns away so that you do not hear, and are drawn away, and worship other gods and serve them, I announce to you today that you shall surely perish; you shall not prolong your days in the land which you cross over the Jordan to go in and possess. I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live (Deuteronomy 30:15-19).

  

Let’s make a clear choice today to act on the Word in every circumstance, to speak God’s Word in the face of the negative report and the feelings of defeat. We cannot be defeated if we make the choice to fight the good fight of faith. The battle has already been won. The victory is ours to possess. Let’s stand our ground and receive God’s best through Christ Jesus!

Our God Reigns

Therefore do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble (Matthew 6:31-34).

  

In these closing moments of the church age, the Father wants to shine through us! As the world situation continues to grow more challenging, our response is to trust the faithfulness of our God!

 

An ark was provided for Noah as God instructed him on how to survive the flood. The Israelites were fed by manna in the wilderness for almost 40 years! God provided water for them out of a rock when no water was in sight!

  

God fought for Israel when they trusted implicitly in the covenant, and they won every battle during the time they walked in the covenant. Lot and his believing family were spared the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah as the angel delivered God’s word to them to flee. Elijah was fed by a raven as he sat by a brook. Daniel was saved from the lion’s terror. The three Hebrew men thrown in the furnace escaped without even the smell of smoke on their clothes.

 

Jesus fed a multitude with a little boy’s lunch. Peter went fishing and found the money to pay their taxes!

 

God’s has a great record of taking care of His people. And He hasn’t brought us this far to leave us to fend for ourselves. He’s planned this day for a long time. The prophets have mapped out for us what will occur in the last days, and here we are.

 

We’re covenant people with the King of the universe! Don’t be moved by the naysayers that predict gloom and doom on us all. The Father will do for us what He has done in the past. He will guide. He will supply. He will set us apart. He will protect. He will empower. And one day, in the thick of the fray, Jesus will appear in the clouds and take us home!

  

Pray about every event and issue in your life. Believe that you receive the answer when you pray, and praise God for His provision. This is the day for us to shine. This is the day for celebration. Our God reigns. He honors His Word. He meets our needs. Let’s rejoice!

Restitution and Forgiveness

When a man or woman commits any sin that men commit in unfaithfulness against the Lord, and that person is guilty, then he shall confess the sin which he has committed. He shall make restitution for his trespass in full, plus one-fifth of it, and give it to the one he has wronged. But if the man has no relative to whom restitution may be made for the wrong, the restitution for the wrong must go to the Lord for the priest, in addition to the ram of the atonement with which atonement is made for him (Numbers 5:6-8). Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift (Matthew 5:23-24).

 

Restitution is something that we don’t hear much about in our day, and it’s an important part of walking uprightly before the Father.

  

When we sin, and confess our sins, the Father is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from unrighteousness (1 John 1:9). And when God forgives, sin, He forgets what we did, and we can then move on.

  

However, If our sin and misdeed affects another person, it is not enough to just go to the Father and ask Him only to forgive us! In order to bring closure to that misdeed or sin when others are affected, we must go to that person, and confess that what we said or did was wrong, and tell them we’ve repented before God and asked Him to forgive. Then we must ask them to forgive us for what we did. This is a part of restitution.

  

If a thief steals what belongs to another, becomes convicted of his misdeed or sin and repents, then he must also give back the stolen items to the person he stole them from. That is restitution. And when our sin affects others, we must deal with how that sin altered the relationship! Don’t just go to God; go to the other person also!

  

I’m talking here about things that are done out in the open and are known by others. If you’re holding a grudge or have been judging someone, and the person is unaware of this because you’ve hid it well, then this doesn’t need to be confessed to the person. No restitution is necessary. In this instance the person had no idea that there was a problem.

  

But if you do something and it has harmed another in some way, then part of the repentance for these sins must include restitution.

Of course, there will be times that when we go to another person to ask forgiveness and make restitution that they shun our attempts and turn a cold shoulder to us. In these instances, we should let the person know that we’re open to talk when they would like to and then just let it go. Our responsibility ends where another person’s responsibility begins. Pray for the person, that the Father would work in their heart and that they would become open to reconcile.

  

Let’s keep short accounts with the Father and with others, and let’s be responsible for our actions and choices and how they affect others!