This is the foundation of everything. We must know Him. We get to know somebody by spending time with them. All the other stuff we do might be great but this personal time must come before all of it.
grace and peace
Monday, April 29, 2013
Monday, April 22, 2013
Sometimes All You Can Do Is Stand
This will be short. It relates to seeing your prayers answered and/or seeing a miracle birthed in your life. When you are waiting for your prayer/miracle to show up, sometimes the battle is so hard you dont even have the strength to pray inside your head. I've been there. There is nothing wrong with you and you should not beat yourself up when you are in these times of low strength. What should you do when you can't manage to pray or rejoice or give thanks or ask or seek or knock etc? Just stand...
Its okay!! This is battle, this is war. Sometimes you cannot gain an inch of ground so just stand firm on the ground you've already gained. Do not retreat, just stand.
Proof to back this up?
grace and peace
Its okay!! This is battle, this is war. Sometimes you cannot gain an inch of ground so just stand firm on the ground you've already gained. Do not retreat, just stand.
Proof to back this up?
| Therefore, my brothers and sisters, you whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, dear friends! ... //bible.cc/philippians/4-1.htm - 18k |
| So then, brothers and sisters, stand firm and hold fast to the teachings we passed on to you, whether by word of mouth or by letter. ... //bible.cc/2_thessalonians/2-15.htm - 19k |
| Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong. ... Be on guard. Stand firm in the faith. Be courageous. Be strong. ... //bible.cc/1_corinthians/16-13.htm - 18k |
| ... Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. ... Stand firm then and don't submit again to a yoke of slavery. ... //bible.cc/galatians/5-1.htm - 18k |
| Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, ... //bible.cc/ephesians/6-14.htm - 18k |
| They are brought to their knees and fall, but we rise up and stand firm. ... Those nations will fall down and collapse, but we will rise up and stand firm. ... //bible.cc/psalms/20-8.htm - 17k |
| ... Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the LORD will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. ... //bible.cc/exodus/14-13.htm - 19k |
| ... If you do not stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all.'" .. ... //bible.cc/isaiah/7-9.htm - 18k |
| But the plans of the LORD stand firm forever, the purposes of his heart through all generations. ... His thoughts stand firm in every generation. ... //bible.cc/psalms/33-11.htm - 17k |
| ... Take up your positions; stand firm and see the deliverance the LORD will give you, Judah and Jerusalem. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. ... //bible.cc/2_chronicles/20-17.htm - 20k |
| LORD, when you favored me, you made my royal mountain stand firm; but when you hid your face, I was dismayed. ... //bible.cc/psalms/30-7.htm - 17k |
| ... for now we really live, if you stand firm in the Lord. ... For now we live, if you stand firm in the Lord. ... //bible.cc/1_thessalonians/3-8.htm - 17k |
| When the storm has swept by, the wicked are gone, but the righteous stand firm forever. ... //bible.cc/proverbs/10-25.htm - 17k |
| Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. ... It is God who enables us, along with you, to stand firm for Christ. ... //bible.cc/2_corinthians/1-21.htm - 18k |
| ..... Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. ... //bible.cc/1_corinthians/15-58.htm - 20k |
grace and peace
Saturday, April 20, 2013
Driving Cross Country
Driving across country right now guys I have something for you just no time to write it now. Its called "sometimes all you can do is just stand."
Will get it posted when I can.
grace and peace
Will get it posted when I can.
grace and peace
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
The Power of One Word From The Lord
The short version of this is go into the Bible and find one sentence that speaks to your spirit and hang onto it. Why? You don't have to read the Bible from cover to cover each day to get the power you need from the Lord.
How much power is in one sentence?
How much power is in one sentence?
| And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. |
What happened there?^^ This is what happened:
In one simple sentence...let there be light.
Find one sentence, one word, one promise that truly and deeply speaks to your spirit and take it to the Lord each day as a gift back to Him. Then watch what you need come back to you.
The Lord is looking for faith and His Word to come back to Him out of our mouths. Faith mixed with the Word is an explosive combination.
grace and peace
grace and peace
Friday, April 5, 2013
Why Many People No Longer Pray Part 2
When you feel like God does not answer your prayers, consider David the beloved of the Lord. David it says was a man after God's own heart and yet what do we read from David's heart?
Psalm 31
.
Psalm 31
.
9 Be merciful to me, Lord, for I am in distress;
my eyes grow weak with sorrow,
my soul and body with grief.
10 My life is consumed by anguish
and my years by groaning;
my strength fails because of my affliction,[b]
and my bones grow weak.
11 Because of all my enemies,
I am the utter contempt of my neighbors
and an object of dread to my closest friends—
those who see me on the street flee from me.
12 I am forgotten as though I were dead;
I have become like broken pottery.
13 For I hear many whispering,
“Terror on every side!”
They conspire against me
and plot to take my life.
my eyes grow weak with sorrow,
my soul and body with grief.
10 My life is consumed by anguish
and my years by groaning;
my strength fails because of my affliction,[b]
and my bones grow weak.
11 Because of all my enemies,
I am the utter contempt of my neighbors
and an object of dread to my closest friends—
those who see me on the street flee from me.
12 I am forgotten as though I were dead;
I have become like broken pottery.
13 For I hear many whispering,
“Terror on every side!”
They conspire against me
and plot to take my life.
Read the words David prayed to the Lord ^.^. Think about how low David must have been to pray these words yet we do not read him saying "God does not answer my prayers." Apparently this walk we walk is not easy. We will have to fight, it will be tough, there will be tears shed and faith tested but you need to remember how David writes the rest of Psalm 31
Praise be to the Lord,
for he showed me the wonders of his love
when I was in a city under siege.
22 In my alarm I said,
“I am cut off from your sight!”
Yet you heard my cry for mercy
when I called to you for help.
for he showed me the wonders of his love
when I was in a city under siege.
22 In my alarm I said,
“I am cut off from your sight!”
Yet you heard my cry for mercy
when I called to you for help.
23 Love the Lord, all his faithful people!
The Lord preserves those who are true to him,
but the proud he pays back in full.
24 Be strong and take heart,
all you who hope in the Lord.
The Lord preserves those who are true to him,
but the proud he pays back in full.
24 Be strong and take heart,
all you who hope in the Lord.
Look where David was and how he responded to being drug through the mud. Look at Job and his situation and how he responded. Now look at yourself and those around you at your situation and how will you respond. How we respond makes all the difference. Will we say "God does not answer my prayers" or we will respond like David or Job. We decide. We play a part in what happens. Too many people today throw their hands up in the air and blame everything on God. God does most of the work but He does expect us to play our part during our time on earth. Consider how David and Job played their part, perhaps we should do our best to respond as they did.
to be continued..
grace and peace
Thursday, March 28, 2013
Why Many People No Longer Pray or Ask or Believe For Miracles
This will be a work in progress, I will add to it in time.
Many people say:
"God does not answer my prayers"
or
"God breaks His promises, they don't apply to me"
or
"I tried praying and it didn't work"
or
"God seems to enjoy punishing me"
or
"Many bad things have happened to me, God wouldn't let bad things happen to good people"
How do we begin to understand these statements in light of what the Lord told us?
We can begin with the story of Job:
Job 1:1In the land of Uz there lived a man whose name was Job. This man was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil.2He had seven sons and three daughters, 3and he owned seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen and five hundred donkeys, and had a large number of servants. He was the greatest man among all the people of the East.
Read that ^^ and if you don't know the story of Job go grab your Bible and read it, its important. Was Job a good man? Yes. Read how the Lord describes Job, do we consider ourselves to be better men or women than Job? Probably not. And look what happened to Job...Of particular note is this statement:
He was the greatest man among all the people of the East.
Now think about that. Would any of us consider ourselves to be the greatest person in the north or south or east or west? No. So think about how far Job had to fall. If you are already skimming the bottom and you hit the bottom you really didn't take much of a drop. If you are riding the heights of the heavens and you are brought to rock bottom that is quite a fall. That's what happened to Job. And yet, what was Job's reaction?
Was Job a great man. Yes, he was VERY great. Who among us could take a vertical free fall like that, smack the ground with a thud then get right up and worship the Lord? Notice the Lord's comment on this:
22In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing.
Do bad things happen to good people? Yes. Did the Lord ever promise any of us an easy ride into eternity? No. Some of the greatest. most righteous and sinless men went through absolute HELL and in spite of it all held onto their faith and did not charge the Lord with wrongdoing. Please understand this writer absolutely trembles at the story of Job and the bad things that have happened over and over again to some of the greatest saints to ever walk this earth. This brother has been shown his own weakness by up close and personal inspection and I am in awe of my own weakness. Just think about what Job went through, he lost sons and daughters and wealth and stature and respect, his health, sound mind and peace, he lost EVERYTHING, and yet look at how he responded.
Who among us has been through a "Job experience" and responded like he did. Who among us had that much greatness and took that kind of fall and responded the way Job did? I dare say none of us. We all have tribulation and we all have hard times but lets compare what we have been through to what some of the greatest saints went through then recalculate how good the Lord has been to us.
Recently the Lord performed another miracle in this brother's life but part of that process was being drug down to the bottom of a very dark place, to the depths of despair where my faith was tested like it never has been before. While I was at the very bottom the enemy spoke to me and told me exactly what Job's wife told him "curse God and die." Thanks be to God that moment was brief and the Lord enabled me to quickly recover from it but I can tell you I did not think I could be brought to such a place and I was taken there. It happened in a flash and what we decide in those moments of testing makes all the difference.
Another thing that happened when I was dragging the bottom is the enemy and my flesh wanted to install a "root of bitterness" within me. That comes from asking "why?" over and over again.
Once we allow a root of bitterness to grow inside us what happens? It causes trouble and it defiles many (you and those around you). How? How can you hold onto faith and bitterness at the same time? What happens to your testimony when a root of bitterness is poisoning your words?
Often when you listen carefully to what someone says when they are telling you how "God does not answer prayer" or any of the other statements at the top of this post, you will detect that root of bitterness has taken hold within them.
to be continued..
Many people say:
"God does not answer my prayers"
or
"God breaks His promises, they don't apply to me"
or
"I tried praying and it didn't work"
or
"God seems to enjoy punishing me"
or
"Many bad things have happened to me, God wouldn't let bad things happen to good people"
How do we begin to understand these statements in light of what the Lord told us?
We can begin with the story of Job:
Job 1:1In the land of Uz there lived a man whose name was Job. This man was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil.2He had seven sons and three daughters, 3and he owned seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen and five hundred donkeys, and had a large number of servants. He was the greatest man among all the people of the East.
Read that ^^ and if you don't know the story of Job go grab your Bible and read it, its important. Was Job a good man? Yes. Read how the Lord describes Job, do we consider ourselves to be better men or women than Job? Probably not. And look what happened to Job...Of particular note is this statement:
He was the greatest man among all the people of the East.
Now think about that. Would any of us consider ourselves to be the greatest person in the north or south or east or west? No. So think about how far Job had to fall. If you are already skimming the bottom and you hit the bottom you really didn't take much of a drop. If you are riding the heights of the heavens and you are brought to rock bottom that is quite a fall. That's what happened to Job. And yet, what was Job's reaction?
20At this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground in worship 21and said:
“Naked I came from my mother’s womb,
and naked I will depart.c
The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away;
may the name of the Lord be praised.”
22In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing.
Was Job a great man. Yes, he was VERY great. Who among us could take a vertical free fall like that, smack the ground with a thud then get right up and worship the Lord? Notice the Lord's comment on this:
22In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing.
Do bad things happen to good people? Yes. Did the Lord ever promise any of us an easy ride into eternity? No. Some of the greatest. most righteous and sinless men went through absolute HELL and in spite of it all held onto their faith and did not charge the Lord with wrongdoing. Please understand this writer absolutely trembles at the story of Job and the bad things that have happened over and over again to some of the greatest saints to ever walk this earth. This brother has been shown his own weakness by up close and personal inspection and I am in awe of my own weakness. Just think about what Job went through, he lost sons and daughters and wealth and stature and respect, his health, sound mind and peace, he lost EVERYTHING, and yet look at how he responded.
Who among us has been through a "Job experience" and responded like he did. Who among us had that much greatness and took that kind of fall and responded the way Job did? I dare say none of us. We all have tribulation and we all have hard times but lets compare what we have been through to what some of the greatest saints went through then recalculate how good the Lord has been to us.
Recently the Lord performed another miracle in this brother's life but part of that process was being drug down to the bottom of a very dark place, to the depths of despair where my faith was tested like it never has been before. While I was at the very bottom the enemy spoke to me and told me exactly what Job's wife told him "curse God and die." Thanks be to God that moment was brief and the Lord enabled me to quickly recover from it but I can tell you I did not think I could be brought to such a place and I was taken there. It happened in a flash and what we decide in those moments of testing makes all the difference.
Another thing that happened when I was dragging the bottom is the enemy and my flesh wanted to install a "root of bitterness" within me. That comes from asking "why?" over and over again.
| ... you fails to receive the grace of God. Watch out that no poisonous root of bitterness grows up to trouble you, corrupting many. |
Once we allow a root of bitterness to grow inside us what happens? It causes trouble and it defiles many (you and those around you). How? How can you hold onto faith and bitterness at the same time? What happens to your testimony when a root of bitterness is poisoning your words?
Often when you listen carefully to what someone says when they are telling you how "God does not answer prayer" or any of the other statements at the top of this post, you will detect that root of bitterness has taken hold within them.
to be continued..
Tuesday, March 26, 2013
March 25, 2013 Miracle Baby Born
The Lord delivered the miracle yesterday afternoon, how did it feel? You can imagine. Once again the Lord came through at just the right time. I admit the timing is beyond what I asked for or wanted but looking at it objectively He did right and I am very very thankful.
This miracle birth process was a battle. I still feel beat up from the daily struggle of asking, seeking, knocking and holding on. I knew with certainty He would answer me but I did not know when and in this case 'when' was a very big deal. Why don't I say what the miracle was? Because it doesn't matter for the purpose of writing this. Your miracle and answer to prayer is going to be different than mine and this is written for you. If the least among the brothers can see multiple miracles and an unending string of answered prayers so can you. That is why this is written.
One of the important pieces to believing for answered prayer and/or miracles is understanding the Lord's love for us. Consider:
Psalm 32 8I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go;
I will counsel you with my loving eye on you...Does it make a difference that He who will deliver our miracle also loves us beyond what we can imagine? Yes. He knows how much we can handle. He knows when we are despairing to the point of death. He knows and understands and that does make a difference. He loves us, He knows and understands but He still does things according to His timing. We will have to be patient, persistent, and willing to fight to see our prayers answered and miracles birthed.
Why does it always have to be a fight? We are in a spiritual war as long as we live on this earth. The stakes are life and death both physically and spiritually. We battle ourselves, the world and the devil but we have a resource that completely outdoes all of them: The Lord. If God is for you who can stand against you?
The Lord brought me through this particular miracle with struggle and pain and bruises to share with you that you too can see your prayers answered and miracles realized but there is a cost. It won't be easy. The Lord never promised us an easy ride into the kingdom of heaven. What did He tell us?
John 16:33These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world. Never before have I seen so many people struggling and in despair. We have entered a very dark hour for this world but we are not without hope. Be of good cheer, our Lord has overcome the world.
If you are reading this you have been prayed for. I pray that the Lord will grant you wisdom and strength and that He will add to your faith today so you can believe for the answers you need today and in the days ahead.
May the Lord grace and peace be upon you.
This miracle birth process was a battle. I still feel beat up from the daily struggle of asking, seeking, knocking and holding on. I knew with certainty He would answer me but I did not know when and in this case 'when' was a very big deal. Why don't I say what the miracle was? Because it doesn't matter for the purpose of writing this. Your miracle and answer to prayer is going to be different than mine and this is written for you. If the least among the brothers can see multiple miracles and an unending string of answered prayers so can you. That is why this is written.
One of the important pieces to believing for answered prayer and/or miracles is understanding the Lord's love for us. Consider:
Psalm 32 8I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go;
I will counsel you with my loving eye on you.
I will counsel you with my loving eye on you...Does it make a difference that He who will deliver our miracle also loves us beyond what we can imagine? Yes. He knows how much we can handle. He knows when we are despairing to the point of death. He knows and understands and that does make a difference. He loves us, He knows and understands but He still does things according to His timing. We will have to be patient, persistent, and willing to fight to see our prayers answered and miracles birthed.
Why does it always have to be a fight? We are in a spiritual war as long as we live on this earth. The stakes are life and death both physically and spiritually. We battle ourselves, the world and the devil but we have a resource that completely outdoes all of them: The Lord. If God is for you who can stand against you?
The Lord brought me through this particular miracle with struggle and pain and bruises to share with you that you too can see your prayers answered and miracles realized but there is a cost. It won't be easy. The Lord never promised us an easy ride into the kingdom of heaven. What did He tell us?
John 16:33These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world. Never before have I seen so many people struggling and in despair. We have entered a very dark hour for this world but we are not without hope. Be of good cheer, our Lord has overcome the world.
If you are reading this you have been prayed for. I pray that the Lord will grant you wisdom and strength and that He will add to your faith today so you can believe for the answers you need today and in the days ahead.
May the Lord grace and peace be upon you.
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