Month: May 2013

Any love that is felt for another person will be challenged at some stage in the relationship.  Without the love of Jesus strengthening us, we will readily withdraw our love for others when they fail us.  And they will fail us.  It is only a matter of time.

With the Holy Spirit within us, we are called to keep the flow of love for others constant, as constant as the love that Jesus has for us.  It cannot be done without His presence in our lives.  He is the source and the cultivator of our ability to love.

God sets the vision for our lives and puts all things in place for us to fulfill our plans.  Along the way, Satan will challenge every step in some evil manner.  He may create simple distractions, inconvenient illnesses or perhaps he may even create what we perceive to be a major obstacle to our success.  

Satan is dedicated to breaking us down so that we lose faith and give up on our plans.  Once we really start making spiritual progress, Satan will pull out all of his tricks.  These tricks will often include attacks on those closest to us.  We must keep ourselves ready for his assaults through prayer and reading of God’s Word.  Fasting may even be necessary depending on the nature of the assault.

We can be certain of one thing.  God will never leave us to fend for ourselves.  His power will prevail over the enemy.  All honor and glory will be His.  

God wants to give each and everyone of us a vision for our lives.  He wants us to see not only beyond where we are, but also beyond what we can even dream that we are capable of doing.  

God wants us to come to the realization that He is going to fulfill His plans through us as we become His instruments through the power of the Holy Spirit.  But before we can be given the visions for the bigger plans that He has for us, we must first establish our relationship with Our Heavenly Father through obedience to the small things that He asks of us.

God is the great potter.  He keeps His hands on us, His clay, at all times.  He is in no hurry to form us according to His purpose.  He knows that He will take whatever time necessary to get us to conform to the purposes that He has for our lives.  

As the great potter, God will break the clay if He sees that the clay is not going to yield the final form that He has chosen.  As the clay, we must yield to Him, knowing that He will form us perfectly.  In faith, we can rejoice in knowing we will be perfected in our final finishing.

Our plans are of no value unless they were first planted in our hearts by the power of the Holy Spirit.  Once planted by God and planned through the guidance of the Holy Spirit, our plans are certain to be fulfilled no matter how big or small they may be.  And they will have great value because they will bring honor and glory to God. 

God does not know defeat in any manner nor does He know failure in any fashion.  If we have gone to Our Heavenly Father to secure our plans,  we have made certain of their success.  And we have made certain that our plans are pleasing to the Father.

We often struggle to find the right words to say to others when we know that they fall short of having a relationship with Jesus.  In an effort to avoid offending the other person, we may offer a watered down version of God’s Word.

It is OK to build a relationship with a person before approaching them with God’s Word.  When we do approach them, however, it should be with the full Gospel.   When we choose a diluted version, we do an injustice to the person to whom we are speaking.  

There is no substitute for the perfect Word of God.  We should demonstrate our faith in its power by delivering it in its fullness.

Through the initiating power of the Holy Spirit in our lives, we are able to accept the salvation available to us and able to enter into the intimate relationship with God that awaits us.  From that point on, it is all about surrender.  

God demands our surrender.  Without surrender there is no salvation.  Without surrender there is no submission to the Lordship of Jesus Christ in our lives.  Without surrender to Jesus, there is no relationship with Our Heavenly Father.

God understands our weakness.  Through His mercy and His grace, He provides the Holy Spirit to dwell within us after we accept His Son as Our Savior.  Through the Holy Spirit who initiated our first surrender, we are able to subsequently surrender all areas of our lives to the Lord.

God answers all prayer according to His perfect will and timing.  When we do the work of intercessory prayer, we must understand that there is no power in us that brings about the good we seek for another.  We are simply vessels of God’s perfect love and instruments of His good work.  

If we ever start to believe that answered prayers come as a result of our power, our prayers will become ineffective.  All the honor and all the glory must go to the Lord.  It was He alone that provided the way for us to approach His Throne in intercession for others through the holy blood shed by His Son and Our Savior, Jesus Christ.

The work of prayerful intercession can be quite confounding.  Have the prayerful needs of the person involved come about as a result of Satan’s desire to destroy them or have the needs come as a direct result of God’s rebuke in the person’s life?

Before praying for anyone, it is important that we pray first for guidance for ourselves.  We must consider the fact that our prayers could actually be working against the plan that God has for the individual’s life, if our prayers are not in alignment with the work of the Holy Spirit.  God’s interest in the individual is more important that our sympathy for their condition.

Once we have received Jesus into our hearts as our Lord and Savior, we spend our remaining days on earth preparing to meet Our Savior in heaven.  Our preparation time with Jesus Christ allows us to be presented to the Father covered by perfect white garments supplied through the sacrifice of His Son.

Before we started our perfecting journey through Christ, we were in filthy rags, wholly unacceptable for presentation to Our Heavenly Father.  We must learn to be patient with the steps in our perfecting journey.  It takes time for the Holy Spirit to reveal each and every sin stain in our lives.  Each one requires confession and repentance so that it can be removed.