Month: February 2015

Overcoming the Attacks of the Enemy

1 Kings 19:5

Then he lay down under the bush and fell asleep.  All at once an angel touched him and said, “Get up and eat.”

Elijah was on the run from his troubles.  He was so depressed that he asked God to take his life.  Then he fell asleep.  God sent an angel to pull him out of his despair.
It is very common for all of us to want to go into a shell when troubles seem overwhelming.  We do not always have the faith that we need when things are not going our way.  At times, we may feel like we should just give up.  This, however, is the messaging that we are receiving from our enemy.  

God knows everything about us.  He designed us.  He knows our daily work and he knows our daily trials.  He has promised that if we have faith in Him, His grace will be sufficient for us to overcome the attacks of the enemy.  

It is amazing how simple acts of love or service can lift us out of the darkness of depression or despair.  The angel instructed Elijah to get up and eat.  Through his simple act of obedience, Elijah was quickly on his road to recovery.  He was back to a place where he once again trusted in the care that God promises all of us.  

From a servant standpoint, we should all be alert to those around us who are suffering from a lack of faith.  They are seeing and expecting what the enemy is placing in their minds.  They are overlooking God’s promises.  Perhaps a simple gesture of kindness to the person in need will be enough to get them going again.  We should consider being angels of mercy to those around us.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You that Your Holy Spirit is always with us to lift us up in our times of struggle.  We pray that Your Holy Spirit will urge us to inquire how we can serve You when we feel so needy.  Inspire us, Lord, to do the simple acts of obedience that You set before us.  May we learn to comfort the world around us with the comfort that You provide us in our times of trouble.  We ask that You use us as your angels of mercy in times of overwhelming trouble for those who are in our lives.  We ask all these things in the name of Jesus Christ, the Angel of Mercy.

When We Toil Without Fruit

Luke 5:5
And Simon answered, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.”
It is important to realize that there is power in the Word of God.  If there is a promise in the Holy Bible, it holds victory over all the forces of this earth and all the forces of evil that might try to come against it.  No matter what we think the limits of this world hold in store for us, the Word of God promises exceedingly more.
Peter exhibited faith in the spoken words of His Master, Jesus.  Even though his instincts told him that it was highly questionable to expect a worthwhile catch, he dropped his nets.  He had faith that Jesus’ words were more powerful than the forces of nature that he knew were unlikely to deliver a decent catch at this place and time of day.  His faith was rewarded.  His nets were filled beyond the point of bursting.
Whether we are toiling in a ministry that is not fruitful, laboring in a vocation that is not productive or simply struggling with the issues of life, we should look toward the promises in God’s Holy Word and seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit.  Our victory is guaranteed and is waiting upon us if we have faith in the Lord.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for giving us Your Holy Word to teach us the things that we are promised as inheritors of Your kingdom.  We pray that the Holy Spirit shows us how to live our lives in accordance with Your Word and in reliance upon Your promises.  We ask that the Holy Spirit strengthen us to stand against everything that comes against us, knowing that through Our Savior we have victory over every circumstance.  We ask all these things in the name of Jesus, who gave us victory over all things when He died on the Cross.

Overcoming the Darkness

John 12:46

I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness.
When we receive Our Savior into our lives, the darkness of our sin is washed away.  But due to our sin nature, we are certain to make choices that are according the world’s standards and not Our Lord’s.  Thus we invite darkness to come back into our lives.  Fortunately, darkness cannot exist in the fullness of light.  With the Light of the World present in us, we are guaranteed a complete victory over darkness.

In our new lives in Christ, we can see clearly the darkness that the world is offering us.  We are able to overcome our natural ignorance about sin.  We are able to walk in the light of truth, faith and holiness.  We are able to walk this path of enlightenment on this earth until the day we die.  Then darkness flees from us forever as we enter the eternal kingdom of God.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for providing the way, the truth and the life that is Your Son, Jesus, so that we can have victory over the darkness in our lives.  We bless the name of Jesus and pray for the wisdom, understanding and counsel that we need to rely daily on Your Son, who came as the Light of the World.  May we be set free from the darkness of sin, whether it be by ignorance or error.  May Your grace allow us to live in the light rather than in the misery of the darkness.  May we become broken vessels that allow Your light to shine through to those around us who are still living in darkness.  We pray all these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Savior.

Our Love Allowance

2 Kings 25:30

Day by day the king gave Jehoiachin a regular allowance as long as he lived.

On Valentine’s Day, it is a delight to receive a valentine card from a loved one.  It is a refreshing of the shared love between two people.  It is a love gift that helps build the relationship.

When Jesus Christ died on the Cross, we became royal inheritors of Our Lord’s kingdom.  With our inheritance, we received both the ultimate allowance and the ultimate love gift.  We were provided unlimited access to the throne of Our King, where we are allowed to go every day, throughout the day, to receive the fullness of His perfect love and to refresh and grow our love relationship with Him.  Jehoiachin’s allowance ended at his death.  Our allowance is eternal.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You that You loved us first.  We thank You that You loved us so much that You gave us Your Son, Jesus, as the perfect sacrificial gift of love that allowed us to be able to love You.  May the Holy Spirit guide us to Your throne to receive our love provision.  May we overflow with Your love so that it may be poured out on the world around us.  We pray all these things in the name of Jesus.
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Approving Ourselves to Jesus Christ

Romans 14:7
For none of us lives for ourselves alone, and none of us dies for ourselves alone.
The church is called the Body of Christ because we are all one in Christ.  Each one of us is inseparable from the other.  Each one of us is inseparable from Our Savior.
We are all different in our strengths, our capabilities and our practices.  Yet we all are the Lord’s.  We should all be looking to serve and prove ourselves as witnesses to Him.  The spiritual health of others should be as important to us as our own spiritual health.  The Body of Christ depends on our acceptance of our responsibility to be poured out for Christ.

No one who has given his or her life to Christ is a self-seeker.  The true purpose of our lives is to please God not ourselves.  Through the grace of God, we are able to identify fully with both the life and the death of Jesus Christ, Our Savior.  Let us search our own lives to insure that we are approving ourselves to Christ in service to all mankind.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for the grace that You provide that we may not live for ourselves but that we may live for Our Savior, Jesus Christ.  We bless the name of Jesus who died for us so that we may live for him and serve Him in the Body of Christ.  Lord, we pray that the Holy Spirit teach us how to be responsible members of the Body of Christ.  We ask, dear Jesus, that You help us to understand that our sufficiency is in You and not in ourselves.  Guide us to the strengths, the capacities and the processes that You have set aside for us to serve You.  Allow our lives as Your servants to be our “Thank You” for all that You have provided.  We pray these things in Your Righteous and Holy Name.

The Fullness of Our Redemption

Luke 4:18-19
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; He hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.
How shortsighted we are when we accept Our Savior’s invitation for salvation, but do not believe in the fullness of our redemption.  Not only did Our Lord come to redeem us from our sins, but He also came in His power and grace to free us from all the bondages of this world.  Though we may currently suffer in the flesh, freedom and joy in the spirit is ours to take hold of now. The promise of a perfected body and spirit will be fulfilled according to His Word.

Most importantly, the fullness of our redemption is not just for our own benefit.  We have been anointed to preach the gospel and called to do all the things that Jesus Himself was called to do as the Son of Man.  Jesus told the disciples before He left them that they would be able to do and should do more than He did.  He let them know that where they were weak in the flesh that He would send the Holy Spirit to perfect their weaknesses in His strength.  All these things have been set aside for us as well.  This is the acceptable year of the Lord.  Let us experience the fullness of our redemption.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for anointing us to do Your good work.  We bless the name of Jesus who made it possible for us to receive our anointing.  We rejoice in knowing that the Holy Spirit dwells with us to insure that where we are weak in our flesh, we will be made strong in Christ.  We pray, Lord, that you show us how to take claim of the fullness of our redemption.  Whatever our current situation may be, may we take on the joy and comfort of Your completed promises.  May we find peace knowing that Your power is working in us.  May the world see the anointing that is upon us because Our Savior is with us.  We pray all these things in the name of Jesus Christ, our Blessed Hope and Assurance. 

Speak to Us Lord

Exodus 20:19
Then they said to Moses, “Speak to us yourself and we will listen; but let not God speak to us, or we will die.”
The Jewish people were not accustom to going directly to God.  They could only approach God through a mediator.  They feared that they would be consumed by fire if they were to be in direct communication with the living God.  What an awesome privilege that we have to be able to go directly to the throne room of Almighty God.  What an unspeakable blessing that we have been provided by Our Mediator, Jesus Christ, who opened the doors of heaven for us.

Yet we often delight in and rely on the spoken and written words of men rather than digging into God’s Holy Word ourselves.  We find that the words of men lean toward messages that are meant to comfort us and not to convict us.  They also tend to require less work to digest.
By shying away from God’s Holy Word, we seek to avoid the discomfort that comes with having our weaknesses brought to light by the revelation of the Holy Spirit.   Even more so, we shy away from a personal relationship with Our Creator.  We may not fear being consumed by fire, but we fear having to let go of the things of this world.  In doing so, we miss or delay the sanctifying work that prepares us for a life of eternal comfort with Our Savior.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for speaking to us through Your Holy Spirit and Your Holy Word.  We rejoice in knowing that we can hear Your voice if we seek it.  We pray, Lord, that we will be consumed by Your Holy Fire.  We ask, Father, that You strengthen us to close our ears to the messages of leniency that the world espouses and to open our hearts to Your Holy Word so that we may bring our lives into alignment with Your laws.  We ask that the Holy Spirit teach us how to listen to You.  May we seek and find an intimate relationship with You through Your Son.  We pray all these things through the Great Mediator, Jesus Christ.

Under the Authority of Jesus Christ

Ephesians 1:10
And this is the plan: At the right time he will bring everything together under the authority of Christ—everything in heaven and on earth.
This passage indicates that all things were once united together in one.  Man and all the things of the earth and heavens were one with Christ.  It supposes a disunion and scattering of them.  We know that this scattering was the result of sin.   The passage confirms that Jesus Christ will once again restore and renew the former state, bringing together under His authority all of heaven and earth.  
While Our Father has blessed us with the capacity to enjoy all that He has created, He leaves a void in our hearts that can only be filled by His Son.  Only when we fill the void with Our Savior are we able to fully experience the abundant life that we have been created for.  When we become one with Christ, we inherit everything in heaven and on earth.
When we become one with Christ, we see His glory in every sunrise, every sunset, every full moon, every star, every mountain, every valley, every ocean, every lake, every river, every stream, every tree, every flower, every blade of grass, every grain of sand, every animal, every bird, every fish and in every man and woman.  When we surrender to the authority of Jesus Christ, we are in position to experience the fullness of heaven and earth as God intended it before the fall.  
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for making us a part of Your creation plan.  We bless the name of Jesus, through whom we are able to experience the fullness of Your creation.  We long for Jesus to make His home in our hearts.  We pray that we may have the wisdom to understand the depths of His love.  We ask that the Holy Spirit will teach us how to trust in Him completely.  We pray for the humility to surrender totally to His authority.  May we experience the joy of being one with Christ in heaven and on earth.  We pray these things in the name of Jesus, Our precious Savior.

Let the Heavens Reveal Him

Isaiah 40:26
Look up into the heavens. Who created all the stars? He brings them out like an army, one after another, calling each by its name. Because of His great power and incomparable strength, not a single one is missing.
The prophet Isaiah wrote these words to the people of his time because they had turned their attention to idols.  Isaiah was redirecting their focus from their man-made idols to the Creator of all things.  He was testing them.  He wanted them to use their imaginations to find the might, the power and the presence of God Almighty in everything in nature that surrounded them. 

Jesus has authority over all creatures and all created things on this earth.  Through the prophet, Isaiah, we were directed to use our senses to consider who created everything and give honor to Him.  We should test ourselves.  Have we replaced God Almighty with our own idols – ourselves, our work, our avocations, our idle time?  
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for directing our imaginations toward You.  We pray that the Holy Spirit show us how to get past the business of our lives so that we can enjoy Your presence in all that we do.  We ask that You teach us how to praise You in every breath, exalt You in every provision and worship You in every activity.  May we find the essence of who You are in our every high thought.  We pray these things in the name of Jesus, Our Most High God and Creator.

The Infinite Fount of Our Lord

Isaiah 40:28
Have you never heard? Have you never understood? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of all the earth. He never grows weak or weary. No one can measure the depths of his understanding.
Whenever we do the work of the Lord, we are like broken bread and poured out wine.  We are providing nourishment to those around us.  It does not matter what we are doing.  We may be serving.  We may be giving.  We may be praying.  Whatever it is that we are doing for others can drain us to the point of exhaustion. When the body is physically or emotionally drained, the spirit can also be exhausted.  To keep up our strength, we must insure that we are seeking our power from the One who never wearies.  Our affections must be with Him and not with the world.

As we draw on His strength to carry us, we also are privileged to draw on His infinite wisdom.  He is never weary in attending to the countless needs of His children.  He is never at a loss to provide the perfect measure of His treasures against our needs.  He is never unaware of every single need that we have.  No matter how we are serving Him, no matter how challenged we may be, we should always be inspired and filled with confidence that we rest in His hands.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You that our every need is known to You and that You never weary in hearing and responding to our pleas.  We rejoice in knowing that Your response to our needs is always perfect and always perfectly timed for our good and for the good of Your kingdom.  We pray, Father, for the grace to never lose faith in Your faithfulness as Our Provider.  We ask that you show us how to draw on the endless reservoir of the Holy Spirit within us to provide our strength.  May our ears be opened so that we hear the urgings of the Holy Spirit as we humbly submit to the process of overcoming our unbelief, our pride and our self-confidence.  We ask all these things in the name of Jesus Christ, our Wonderful Counselor.