Category: Uncategorized

To Be Honored by Almighty God

John 12:26
If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.
How is it possible that Almighty God would honor creatures as lowly as we are – His mere creations from dust?  As unimaginable as it seems to us, it is settled in the kingdom of God.  The process for such an honor is locked into place for all eternity.  The steps are clearly defined.  Become a disciple of Jesus Christ.  Serve Him wherever and whenever He calls.  Be honored by the Father.  

Simple enough, right?  At least it would seem so.  But as Americans, we have some social hurdles to overcome.  We were raised to be fiercely independent.  That trait, while desirable in the carnal world, can have a negative impact on how we are able to build intimacy with God.  The true intimacy of a Holy Spirit lead lifestyle is not possible until we are able to completely surrender our lives to Jesus.
Anything short of full surrender to Jesus will lead to a life on the fence – half devoted to being a disciple of Jesus Christ and half devoted to the callings of the world.   When we are in that vacillating position, we are spiritually immature.  That is not the real life that God has planned for us.  God wants a spiritually mature life for us and from us.  He wants us to reach a place where we make every decision in life with discernment of the Holy Spirit.  Our Heavenly Father wants us to be fully committed disciples of His Son, conscious of our dependence on Him without regard to the trappings of our world.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for providing Your Son, Jesus, so that we can stay in constant communion with Him and receive grace from Him.  We rejoice in knowing that we receive honor from You when we follow Your Son and accept the gift of salvation that He offers.  We ask forgiveness, Lord, for all the times that we make decisions based on the world’s standards and not Yours.  We pray, Father, that You will provide the grace that we need to heed the voice of the Holy Spirit only.  We ask for the strength and the wisdom to lay aside the trifling concerns of this life.  May we learn to exercise love, humility, patience, self-denial and resignation to Your will in the same manner as Our Savior did when He walked this earth.  May the eternal glory be Yours.  We ask all these things in the name of Our Refiner and Purifier, Jesus Christ.

Choosing Life and Good Over Death and Evil

Deuteronomy 30:15-16
See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil. If you obey the commandments of the LORD your God that I command you today, by loving the LORD your God, by walking in his ways, and by keeping his commandments and his statutes and his rules, then you shall live and multiply, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to take possession of it.
Who does not seek life and good over death and evil?  Who does not wish to live, multiply and be blessed in the land where they dwell?  Almighty God placed these desires in all of our hearts and provided simple instructions for us to attain them – obey My commandments. 
All simple and easy enough, right?  Well, our all knowing, sovereign God added an interesting wrinkle for us to deal with.  He gave us free choice.  He allows us to find the unique purpose and plan that He has for our lives through the choices that we make. Unfortunately, more times than we would like to admit to we make the wrong choices.  In the flesh, we are ill equipped to make the right choices all the time.
Knowing the inherent weakness in our flesh, our all loving and merciful God included an infallible resource to help us overcome our frailties.  He provided through our acceptance of His Son, Jesus, as Our Savior, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit provides us with supernatural assistance in making our choices. The Holy Spirit provides us with gentle urgings toward the path of obedience and clear stop signs when we are veering off the path. 
As we learn to listen and respond to the Holy Spirit, our life choices come more into alignment with God’s commandments.  The good and right way become more clearly defined in our minds and hearts.  Ultimately, our choices will be the same as God’s choices for us.  Ultimately, we will experience the blessed life that God has set aside for us.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for the blessings that You promise us if we are obedient to You.  We confess our sins that separate us from You and repent of them so that the blessings that have been set aside for us can be released.  We rejoice in knowing that You have provided victory for us over our sins through the sacrifice of Your Son, Jesus.  We bless His name.  We thank You for providing supernatural assistance for us as we make our life choices.  We pray that You will open our ears to hear the urgings of the Holy Spirit.  We ask for the grace to respond in obedience.  We ask all these things in the name of the Lamb without blemish, Jesus Christ.

Doubt Is Never An Option

Galatians 2:20
I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
The living water, which is Jesus Christ, is within us when we receive Our Lord as Our Savior.  The living water is ever present.  It is never removed.  It is always available to us and to those around us.  The only restrictor of the living water is our own faith.
When we have no faith in the indwelling power of Our Lord, we build a dam from which no living water can flow.  With little faith, we restrict the level of the flow.  With great faith, we release an unlimited torrent of absolute power into our lives and into the lives of those who surround us.
Doubt should never be an option for a believer under any circumstances.  Jesus loved us so much that He was willing to die for us.  How could we ever doubt His presence and His power in our lives?  How could we ever fear with the King of Kings as our protector?  We should live in the triumphant belief of who He is.  Our faith must be, not in ourselves nor in the world, but in the One from Whom our salvation springs.  His countenance shines upon us and His grace is always with us.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for giving us the Cornerstone of our faith, Your Son, Jesus Christ.  With His death on the Cross, we received victory over all evil.  We bless the name of Our Savior who made it possible for us to live our lives without fear.  May we live by the faith that we have been given.  We pray, Lord, that You will give us the wisdom and the strength to fasten ourselves upon Jesus Himself.  May we learn to live in the fullness of the One who dwells within us.  We ask all these things in the name of the strength of our lives, Jesus Christ.

The Union That We Share With Our Savior King

John 14:20
In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.

What a union…the Father and the Son partaking in the same nature, the same perfections and the same glory.  And to think that we share in the same union through our saving relationship with Jesus Christ.  We are righteous through the atoning work of the Son of God on the Cross.  We are risen with Him through the supernatural ascension of His body into heaven after His death.  We sit together with our Savior King just as He sits at the right hand of the Father.
As new men and women in Christ, the world can see us in union with our Savior.  We become identified by our obedience to God’s commandments and the fruit that we bear from His callings.  Our lives become expressions of the gifts of the Holy Spirit that have been given to us through our union with Christ – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  In everything we do, we share the perfect love and forgiveness that we received from the Father through the Son.  We please the Father by bringing honor and glory to His name, the name of His Son, Jesus, and to the Holy Spirit.
And we know with absolute certainty that there is no possibility that our lives are the result of our inherent holiness.  All that we see that is good that is being manifested in our lives is being worked out through the power and presence of the Holy Spirit.  Our union with Our Savior is the foundation of our lives and our reasoning.   
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for sending Your Son Jesus to be Our Savior.  We rejoice in our new lives that we take on when we receive and accept the redemptive work of the Cross.  We pray, Father, that we may be emancipated completely from the darkness in our old lives.  May we walk in the fullness of the union of the Father and the Son as we surrender to the work of the Holy Spirit.  We ask all these things in the name of the One who sits at the right hand of the Father, Jesus Christ.

Putting Our Faith to Work

Genesis 22:2
He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.”
We are going to experience trials in our lives.  This is as certain in our lives as death and taxes.   Some of the trials will be small and some will be so big that we will nearly faint.  In each case, no matter the weightiness, the real test will be the test of our faith.
Who of us could have answered God’s request to sacrifice a child like Abraham did?  It was his faith that allowed him to go.  Notice what Abraham said to the men who were with him before he headed up the mountain to the place of sacrifice.  “I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you.”  Abraham was resting on God’s promise to make him the head of many nations.  Abraham knew that this was only possible through his son.  Abraham had the faith that in some manner God would provide a way through this test.
Trials and tests are God’s way of drawing us close to Him and teaching us His ways.  It is through the trials and tests that our faith is built up so that we can become the person that God has intended for us to be.  God may not have created us to be a leader of a nation like Abraham, but He does have a specific plan for our lives.  We can only fulfill this plan by putting all of our faith in the One in whose hands we rest.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for each trial that You allow in our lives.  We rejoice in knowing that we are resting in Your hands as we go through each of these challenges to our faith.  We ask, Lord, that we will have the faith of Abraham.  We pray that we will not turn away from any test that you set before us.  May our character and our faith be built up in accordance with Your perfect plans for our lives.  We ask these things in the name of the One upon Whom our faith is built, the Chief Cornerstone, Jesus Christ.

A Wonderful Hope in God’s Promises

2 Thessalonians 2:16-17
Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal comfort and a wonderful hope, comfort you and strengthen you in every good thing you do and say.
When we are in full submission to Jesus Christ, we have prepared ourselves to allow the bountiful power of the Holy Spirit to be released in our lives and through us to the world around us.  At this juncture, we are capable of doing all that God has created and willed for our lives.  In this process, we have to learn that God is using us from His personal standpoint.  All that He asks is that we trust in Him.

Even when it seems to us that our lives are a tangled mess, there is always the wonderful hope in the promises of Almighty God.  Through His grace and His mercy, we will come through whatever trials that we see ourselves caught in.  We will find our comfort and our strength by listening for and responding to the urgings of the Holy Spirit.  If we are diligent in listening and responding to the Holy Spirit, our paths will be productive and our fruit will be plentiful.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for the free grace and mercy that our hopes are based on.  We praise the name of Jesus, who is the fountain of all the good that we have hope for.  Father, we pray for the strength to overcome our doubtful minds that make us halting in our duties.  May You grant us the unwavering faith that we need to set aside our own self-reliance and to learn to trust in Your promises.  May we be comforted in our hearts as we await all the good things that You have already set aside for us and our loved ones.  We ask all these things in the name of Jesus Christ, the complete fulfillment of all of Your promises.

Foolish Frets and Fears

Isaiah 40:28-29
Have you not known? Have you not heard?  The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth.  He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable.  He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength.
With so much going on around us that we are troubled by, but have no control over, it is easy to become frustrated at our station in life.  With so much evil in the world today, it is very easy to become despondent and depressed.  But how is this so?

How is it that we do not now trust in that which has been recorded throughout history and is prepared for our understanding in God’s Holy Word?  How have we missed being enlightened to the ways in which Almighty God has been forever with us when we have the experiences of good men through their own observation and the God-inspired writings of His apostles and His prophets to instruct us?  How have we not learned that the Maker and Former of all things, who upholds, governs and judges all that is under His kingdom, never tires of providing for and protecting the creatures that He created for His own glory?  Why do we continue with our foolish frets and fears and not find peace in the storm when the One who vanquishes all that comes against us is always with us?

We should not be surprised at our weakness or lack of understanding.  God was perfectly aware that we were not capable on our own to cope with the attacks of the flesh and the attacks of the enemy.  Through His immeasurable grace He sent His Holy Spirit to dwell with us.  For those that He knew were weak, He provided all the strength required for victory.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for providing all that we need to overcome this world.  We bless the name of Jesus who died on the cross so that we might have victory over all evil.  We rejoice in knowing that Your Holy Spirit is always with us to provide peace, comfort and strength through all trials.  Father, we pray that our hearts and minds are put to rest with the certainty of Your presence and Your promises.  May those around us be comforted by the peace that they see in our lives during times of trouble.  We ask all these things in the name of Jesus Christ, our ever-present Lord.

Simple Obedience Opens the Door for Supernatural Results

1 Corinthians 12:6
There are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone.
Spiritual gifts are bestowed upon us for the sole purpose of spreading the Gospel.  These gifts are freely given to us by Almighty God for the salvation of others.  When we try to teach, preach or evangelize by our own strength and capability, we will be unsuccessful.  The power is not in us.  The power is in the Holy Spirit that is within us.  We must let the Holy Spirit lead us and let the outpouring of the Holy Spirit be our product.
It is not our job to convert people.  It is our job to have people drawn to us by the way that we live our lives in Jesus Christ.  Even though our labors may be ordinary, if they are done as works of faith, labors of love and with persistent hope in Our Savior, the Holy Spirit will carry on and complete the work of Our Heavenly Father in His children. 
Once drawn to us by our walk with Jesus, the people around us will have Jesus revealed to them as the way, the truth and the life. The supernatural work of salvation will begin through our simple natural acts of obedience to the Holy Word of God.  Through our living testimonies, those around us will be able to receive every good and perfect gift of The Father.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for revealing Yourself to the world through the obedient works of Your humble servants who are so undeserving.  We thank You, Lord, for assigning to us various gifts, administrations and operations for us to carry out in the name of Jesus.  We rejoice, Father, in knowing that the world can learn of Your good and perfect gifts by observing the lives of those who have already accepted Your gift of salvation and are obedient to You in the ordinary things of life.  We pray, Lord, that Your grace will fill our hearts so that the world will know You.  We ask all these things in the name of the Captain of Our Salvation, Jesus Christ.


Transfer Agents of His Treasures

2 Corinthians 4:7
But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.
We are vessels of the living water that dwells within us.  We are not the the stream or the rain shower that brings the precious water.  We are only the collecting places where the thirsty can come to be quenched.
We are the lanterns of the Light of the World.  We are not the sun or the moon that brings the precious light.  We are only the beacons that allow the light to shine into the darkness of the world around us.
We are the temples of Jesus Christ.  We produce nothing on our own, but we are the repositories of the gifts of the Holy Spirit – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
We are conduits of the perfect love and forgiveness of Our Heavenly Father.  Nothing that flows from us is of ourselves.  It is all the perfection of Jesus Christ within us.  God could have chosen angels to deliver His message, but He chose weaker vessels so that His power might be glorified and His treasures might be shared with all men.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for choosing us to deliver Your treasures to the world.  We rejoice in knowing that You have pulled us from the pit, cleansed us with the blood of Your Son, Jesus, and made us worthy to be lamps upon a hill.  We pray, Lord, that You will reveal to us everything in our lives that hinders the flow of Your gifts.  May we live in the fullness of Our Savior.  May all the glory be Yours.  We ask all these things in the name of the Living Water and the Everlasting Light, Jesus Christ.

The Give and Take of Intercession

1 Thessalonians 5:24
He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.
The God who calls us to our Christian faith is faithful to fulfill His promises to us.  From the moment that we surrender to His Son, Jesus, as Our Savior, He commences a good work in us that He promises to finish.  He will be steadfast in His continuous work of sanctification in our lives.

New government authority, new boss, new co-worker, new neighbor, new acquaintance, new friend – not a single one is new by chance.  God has placed each of those that are around us to teach us new things about ourselves.  It seems impossible that such a plan could be put in place for each of us.  But our God is a God of the impossible.  He has no limits to His power and His authority.  He loves us so much that He goes to an extraordinary, nearly unimaginable, level to insure that we are surrounded by a host of intercessors.  These intercessors in our lives are placed there for one reason.  God in His mercy and His grace wants to insure that we are properly prepared to spend eternity with Him.
In the life of the believer, there is no such thing as chance.  Our sovereign God is always in total control of everything.  Do not miss the flip side of our relationships with our surrounding intercessors.  God wants us to join Him in the work that He is doing in the lives of those around us.  We are simultaneously the other half of all of these relationships in our lives – the new boss, new co-worker, new neighbor, new acquaintance, new friend – and again, not a single one is new by chance.  God has purposely placed us in each relationship to be a giver as well as a receiver of His intercessory work in our lives.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your providence in our lives.  We rejoice in knowing that You understand our weaknesses and provide intercessory support through those that You place around us.  We pray, Father, that Your Holy Spirit will alert us to the intercession that You have planned for us.  May we learn to grow through the circumstances that engulf us from time to time.  May we be gracious and willing receivers of the intercession that You have placed in our lives.  We pray that in turn You will provide the wisdom that we need to be fruitful intercessors for others as we engage them in the journey that is life.   We ask all these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Our Most High Intercessor.