Month: September 2014

Comfort Abounds Through Jesus Christ

2 Corinthians 1:5
For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ.

In the Bible, we are taught that we should rejoice in our trials because they are the building blocks of character in our lives.  They certainly do build character and perseverance in our lives if we turn to the Lord to get us through the challenges we face.

But beyond the character building in our trials, there is an entirely different dimension that we benefit from.  We not only gain in character, but we gain more – much more.  We gain life experiences that we are able to share with others who find themselves going through the same thing.  God prepares us to be comforters for others in their time of need.

Our past experiences give us the foundation for offering faith and hope.  It is our obligation to make suitable returns for what we received by comforting others.  It is our duty to join them in prayer, praise and thanksgiving as we seek a good end to our trials through Jesus Christ.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for the consolations and comfort that we find when we turn to Your Son, Jesus, in our times of need.  We bless the name of Jesus for the abundance of all of the fruits of His sufferings that are poured out in a greater amount than our own suffering, providing us relief from our distress and trouble.  Lord, we pray that You build our faith and hope through our trials, so that we may be comforters for those in our lives who are going through their own trials.  May it all be for the glory of Jesus, who suffered so much on our behalf.

Proclaimers of the Good News

1 Corinthians 9:16
For if I preach the gospel, that gives me no ground for boasting. For necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!

In his letter to the Corinthians, the apostle Paul makes it clear that he was called to preach the gospel. It was the calling that was given to him by Jesus.  He was commanded to proclaim the Good News to the gentiles.

Jesus has a similar calling for all of us.  Jesus commands us to “go and make disciples of all nations.” Matthew 28:19 Even though we all have that same calling, we are all called in different ways according to the equipping of the Holy Spirit in our lives.  Most of us will not be called to be preachers, evangelists or missionaries.  Some of us may be.

Most of us will be called in other ways.  We are all likely to be called in some way to provide intercessory prayer, service or financial support to the discipling of all nations.  We are all definitely called to be proclaimers of the Good News by the testimony of our lives in Christ.  Every aspect of our calling will come by the flow of the supernatural drawing in our lives.  If we come into agreement with God’s calling, we will approach our calling with the love and the zeal that the apostle Paul did.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for drawing us into Your service. We bless the name of Jesus for making us worthy to serve You here on earth and in heaven for all eternity.  We rejoice in knowing that we can disciple all nations by applying the gifting that we have received from the Holy Spirit.  We ask Father that You reveal to us the way or ways that You have set aside for us to proclaim the Good News.  May we approach our calling with the love and zeal of Your servant, Paul.

The Journey to Abandonment

Mark 10:21
And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”

When we reach heaven, we will be fully submitted to Jesus.  We will have released every single remaining carnal desire that we carried on earth.  

What Jesus is looking for from us as His disciples is the constant process of releasing of our carnal desires while we are still in our earthly bodies.  Only Our Lord achieved absolute abandonment to The Father.  Only He could.  

Very few of us have even neared the point of absolute abandonment to Jesus.  But all of us can commit ourselves to unconditional identification with Our Savior.  Through the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, we can continuously recognize and renounce our earthly desires.  Through the grace of Almighty God and the saving work of Jesus Christ, we can begin shedding all of our shortcomings one by one until we find our place with Jesus for all eternity.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your precious love and provision.  We proclaim our love for You and humbly offer to You all that You have given us.  Father, we pray that we be led by the Holy Spirit to surrender all that we have, all that we will every have, all that we are and all that we will ever be to Your Son, Jesus.  May we take hold of the fullness of eternal life as we release our hold on our worldly possessions.


Walking with Him

Luke 9:57
As they were going along the road, someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.”

Every consideration of following Jesus, using logic and forgoing the direction of the Holy Spirit and the inspiration of the Holy Word, will end up in a decision of “no” or “not now.”  Without faith in the Word of God or through the power of the Holy Spirit, we will follow the callings of our flesh which are never ready to be laid down at the feet of Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Praise God that He knows us so well, loves us still, has mercy on us and provides His Son for our salvation.  May we claim all that He has set aside for us because He sees us, not in the flesh, but in the image of His Son.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for accepting us as heirs to Your kingdom.  We rejoice in knowing that You see us only in the image of Your Son who has washed away all of our iniquity with His precious blood.  We pray, Lord, that You open our minds and hearts to the fullness of Your Holy Word.  We ask that You show us how to fully surrender to the direction of the Holy Spirit in our lives.  We beseech You, Father, to give us the grace to fall at the feet of the Cross so that we may walk in the way, the truth and the life that is in Your Son, Jesus.

Perfect Love and Forgiveness

Matthew 5:22
But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.

Jesus was very clear on His position about forgiving others.  There is no leeway given for those who are unwilling to forgive.

Jesus Christ is the essence of perfect love and forgiveness.  His perfect standard is the same standard that we are all called to meet.  When we fall short of this standard in our daily lives, we are commanded to right ourselves before we come to Him with our offerings and our prayers.  

The process of recognizing, reconciling and asking forgiveness for our shortcomings in sharing the perfect love and forgiveness of Jesus with the world around us is essential to our growth as disciples of Jesus.  It also prepares us to receive the fullness of His love and forgiveness in our own lives and makes us worthy to bring our prayers and offerings to the Father.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for the loving kindness, the mercy and the grace that You have shown us.  We bless the name of Jesus who is the essence of Your perfect love and forgiveness.  We pray, Father, that we may become instruments of Your good work and vessels of Your perfect love and forgiveness.

Living the Life of a Disciple of Jesus

Matthew 5:40
And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well.

The instruction is simple enough.  It just does not make sense to us.  It is not natural for us to bear an injury for the sake of peace.  In the flesh, it is difficult for us to meet this standard.  

As we become disciples of Jesus Christ, we learn to commit our concerns to the Lord.  We learn to avoid the disputes that our flesh would demand.  We come to recognize through the supernatural influence of the Holy Spirit that our flesh and blood will not inherit the kingdom of God.  Only our spirit will find its resting place with the Father.  And it will be our spirit that will find supernatural peace and comfort on this earth when we follow the principles that Our Lord teaches.

Being a disciple of Jesus Christ cannot be carried out in the flesh.  God does not start with our natural ability and build on it.  He only asks that we rely on His grace and submit to the presence and the supernatural work of the One that dwells within us.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for the all-sufficient grace that You
provide that allows us to live as disciples of Your Son, Jesus.  We humbly acknowledge, Father, that You do not see us as who we are today or who we have been.  We rejoice in knowing that You see us as who we are in Christ.  We pray, Lord Jesus, that You will walk by our side and lead us to the way of peace.  We ask that You show us how to draw the world to You through our living testimony as Your disciples.   


The Prayers of the Righteous

Mark 11:25
And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.


There is but one Cross – one atonement for our sins.  Our time on earth is to be spent reconciling ourselves to the Cross.  Nothing we do has value in the eyes of the Lord unless it has been put in proper order in our lives.  The Heavenly Father must be the first consideration of every conscious moments of our lives.  If there is anything or any person the comes before the Father, He will not hear our prayers.

When we come before the Father in prayer with anger and uncharitable feelings for another, He cannot grant us spiritual power.  We have supplanted His place as The First by coming to Him with our transgressions mixed in with our prayer offering.  The transgressions must be reconciled or we have no hope of receiving a favorable answer from God.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your promise to hear our prayers when we are righteous.  We praise the name of Our Savior, Jesus Christ, who made it possible for us to stand before You as righteous men and women.  We rejoice in knowing that our sins are forgiven because of the sacrifice of Your Son.  We pray for the wisdom and strength to forgive others as You have forgiven us.  May we humble ourselves and kneel at the Cross daily so that we may receive the grace that we need to remain righteous. 

On the Way to Jerusalem

Luke 18:31
And taking the twelve, he said to them, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished.

Jesus was perfectly attuned to the work that He was called to do.  He spent His entire time on earth completely focused on doing the will of His Father.  He did not care if He preached to one or to ten thousand.  He was not seeking recognition for the good work that He was doing in the sense that we would seek recognition for ourselves.  

Jesus was only concerned with pleasing the Father.  Nothing could discourage Our Lord on His way to Jerusalem to meet His fate at Calvary.  No amount of suffering could deter Him.  No distraction could lead Him to hurry to the next task.  The only task that Jesus was concerned with was the one that the Father put before Him.  

It is important that we tune into the voice of the Holy Spirit in our lives so that we can learn to align our personal plans with the plans that God has for our lives.   We must find our way to our Jerusalem.  We must let nothing take us off our path.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for providing for our eternal resting place in the New Jerusalem.  We praise Our Savior, Jesus, for clearing our path to get there.  We ask for the Holy Spirit to direct us to our path and prepare us for the journey.  We pray that we may be strengthened so that we may be steadfast in doing only the things that are pleasing to You, Father.  May all the glory be Yours.

My Lord, My Master and My King

John 13:13
You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am.

In every other religion in the world, the final goal is to have done enough to satisfy a god who provides eternal rewards for those who fulfill the demands.  The followers of these gods live under a task master who has nothing to offer to those who bow before him.

For followers of Jesus Christ, the servitude to the Master is totally different.  The Master has taken care of everything that is necessary for the servant to be worthy of eternal reward with Almighty God.  The Master promises to perfect His strength in the weaknesses of every follower so that they are healed of their wounds, redeemed from their transgressions and made holy and worthy to stand before The Father for all eternity.

Sitting under this Teacher and Lord, Jesus Christ, means that we have someone who knows us better than ourselves, who is closer to us than our friends and family, who understands the deepest desires of our hearts and fulfills them.  Through this Master, the Son of God, we have the security that our eternal destination is settled.  There is no need to question whether we have done enough.  In the words of Jesus himself, “It is finished.”

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You that everything that needed to done for us to meet You in heaven for all eternity was finished on the Cross.  We bless the name of Jesus, Our Master and Our King, who completed it all on our behalf.  We pray, Lord, that we may sit humbly at the feet of Our Master and surrender to the way, the truth and the life that is in Him.  May we become vessels of His perfect love and forgiveness.  May we become instruments of His good work.

For the Glory of Almighty God

Isaiah 49:5
And now the LORD speaks–the one who formed me in my mother’s womb to be his servant, who commissioned me to bring Israel back to him. The LORD has honored me, and my God has given me strength.

We learn three important things from the prophet Isaiah that pertains to each of us:  
1) God created us.
2) He called us to serve Him.
3) He will give us all we need to fulfill our calling.

The entire human race was created to serve and glorify God forever.  We cannot fulfill our responsibility to glorify God if we live in darkness.  We must live in The Light.

Christ dwelling in us and reigning in us is our hope for living a life that glorifies Almighty God.  Through the presence of Jesus Christ our calling to serve God will be revealed to us.  Through the presence of Jesus, all the mysteries of heaven will be revealed to us.  We will not be shortchanged in any manner when it comes to us being able to glorify God.

As we surrender to the direction of the Holy Spirit in our lives, we will fulfill everything that the Lord has prepared for us.  We will receive all of God’s loving kindness, mercy and grace.  We will be given all the tolerance, patience, discernment, wisdom and strength that we need to fulfill God’s creative purposes for our lives.  Through it all, we will glorify Our Heavenly Father.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for the loving kindness, the mercy and the grace that You have bestowed upon us through Your Son, Jesus.  We rejoice in knowing that You have a wonderful plan for our lives that will bring glory to You forever.  We pray, Lord, that You bring us to a place of repentance so that we may turn away from all that displeases You and turn toward every good thing that You have set aside for us.  May it all be for your eternal glory.