Category: Uncategorized

Seeking Our Father in Heaven

John 14:9
Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip?”  He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, “Show us the Father”?
The greatest treasure of all time is ours.  The treasure of knowing Almighty God will satisfy our hearts forever.  It is ours for the taking.  Magnificent gifts of grace and anointing are awaiting us.  All we have to do is step beyond being satisfied with head knowledge about our treasure and into the world of a discovery of the heart.
Philip had seen Jesus with His eyes, but he had not fully discovered Him with his heart.  We must be aware of the importance of truly seeking a relationship with Almighty God.  He is our loving Father.  He is eager for us to approach Him as Our Father in heaven.  He longs for us to seek intimacy with Him.  

God exerted His great power when He resurrected Jesus from the dead and seated Him at His right hand.  He has reserved a place in heaven for all who believe in the Son and surrender to Him to rule and reign in their lives.  May the desires of our heart be quickened by our hunger for a deep personal relationship with Almighty God.  
Prayer,
Heavenly Father, we thank You for providing Your Son as our Lord, Our King and Our Master.  Through Him we receive our hope in knowing that His power will strengthen us and that His presence will bring us a sweet calm in time of trouble.  Open our eyes, Lord, that we may seek the fullness of the presence of Jesus in our lives.  We pray that the Holy Spirit take us beyond the knowledge of Your Son to the high places where we experience an intimate relationship with Him daily.  Help us, Father, deepen our relationship withYour Son so that we may know You according to the fullness of heart that You have set aside for us.  We ask all these things in the name of Our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Listening Only to the Father

Matthew 16:21
From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.
Jesus fulfilled everything that He was called to do.  Even though He was tested beyond human imagination, He never faltered once in His obedience to the plans of God for His life.   Through the process, it was a blessing to us all that Jesus did not listen to the voice of others around Him.  Peter specifically rebuked Jesus for proclaiming such an forbidding ending to His life.  Jesus let Peter know that he spoke Satan’s language when he suggested that Jesus step away from His mission.

It is very easy to say, “I give up.  I cannot do it.”  This is especially true when we allow others in our lives to suggest that the values of man should be given more weight than the callings of God upon our lives.  In essence, if what we are pursuing is of God, then giving up is denying the promises of God Himself.

Jesus overcame all of His trials because He was one with the Father and He trusted in the promises of the Father.  And indeed, He did rise on the third day, fulfilling all of God’s promises for mankind.  In the same way, we are to be anxious in nothing for God promises to take care of our every need and He promises to finish anything that He has called us to do.  Our victories are in fact complete before we are even aware of our calling to their pursuit.  All we have to do is stand firmly on the promises of God Almighty just as Jesus did.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for providing Your Son to be the guarantor of Your promise of eternal life available to each of us.  We exalt the name of Jesus for His complete obedience to His calling as Our Savior.  We pray for the strength and guidance of the Holy Spirit so that we may be obedient to the completed purpose and plans that You have set aside for our lives.  May we stand firmly on Your promises.  We ask these things in the name of the one who secured our victories on the Cross, Jesus Christ.

Looking For God in Our Lives

Exodus 3:4
When the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.”
Moses was going about his normal business of shepherding the flock when he came upon the burning bush.  He could not see anyone who might have started the fire.  Moses could have run away in fear or he could have simply walked away thinking that this is no concern of mine.  

Instead, Moses approached the bush to discover more of this mystery unfolding before him.   He heard a voice but there was no human there speaking it.  But it was unmistakeable to Moses, He was being addressed by someone who knew him and knew His name.  When the Lord saw that He had Moses’ attention, He called out to him and Moses responded, “Here I am.”
Moses was alert to look for God in his daily life.  More importantly, Moses was ready to hear and act upon whatever the Lord asked him to do.  So it should be with us.  We should look for God at all times.  We should expect to be surprised by Him showing up in the smallest details of our everyday lives.  Most importantly, we should be ready to respond to His calling.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for always being present with us.  We exalt Your Name for being our ever present God.  We pray that You will open our eyes so that we can see You in every detail of our lives, from the grandest places and moments to the lowliest of places and moments.  May Your Holy Spirit prepare us to be alert to see Your presence and to hear Your calling.  May we always be eager to be instruments of Your good work and vessels of Your perfect love and forgiveness.  We ask all these things in the name of our ever present Lord, Jesus Christ.

Giving Up What is Precious and Dear

Matthew 20:28
For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many.
Jesus came to give His life as ransom for many.  He came to give what was most precious and dear – a life free of sin in union with the Father in exchange for the salvation of many.  To each of His disciples, Jesus gave the command, “Come and follow Me.”  He not only meant for them to join Him in His work but to follow the model of service that His life exuded.  He was asking them to give up their lives which were surely precious and dear to them in order to follow Him.
This, of course, is exactly how Jesus calls us.  He calls us to give up our lives in the flesh in order to live our new lives in Christ.  He calls us to be humble servants of the world around us.  He calls us to assist in the execution of the salvation plan.  With all that Our Savior did for us through His suffering, the shedding of His blood, His death and Resurrection, how can we deny the Lord when He calls us to serve in any measure, large or small?
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for giving us the perfect model of servanthood, Your Son, Jesus.  We praise and exalt the name of Jesus for all that He has done for us.  We pray that we will clearly hear the voice of Jesus as He calls us to join Him in humble service.  May the Holy Spirit convict us to be instruments of Your good work and vessels of Your perfect love and forgiveness.  We ask these things in the name of the Blessed Hope and Assurance, Jesus Christ.

The True Foundation

1 Corinthians 3:11
For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
In construction, if a beam is one degree out of level it is no longer true.  There is no tolerance for this measure.  The beam is either true or it is not true.

Political correctness teaches that there are many ways to heaven besides accepting Jesus Christ as Savior.  It is sad to say that Satan has done a remarkable job selling this line of thinking, putting a large portion of mankind in danger of missing the way, the truth and the life that is only found in Jesus. 
We, Christians, must be extremely careful not to bend the Word of God to fit today’s culture.  The Word of God is the truth.  God’s Word is the same today as it was yesterday and as it will be tomorrow.  Making God’s Word more pleasing to others is not being tolerant.  It is abandoning what is true.  More importantly, massaging God’s Word to make it more acceptable to the world endangers the eternal lives of those that we may be trying to appease. 
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You that Your Word is true and that Your promises are certain.  May You open our hearts to receive the fullness and truth in the precepts that You reveal to us through Your Holy Word.  May You embolden us to speak the truth about Your Son as the world around us rejects Him.  May You strengthen us to stand firmly on the foundation that only He provides.  We ask all these things in the name of the way, the truth and the life, Jesus Christ.

All Means All

Matthew 22:37
And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 
To love God with all of our heart, soul and mind requires that all of our physical strength and all of our intellect and understanding be fully engaged in turning all of our affections toward our heavenly Father.  May we always be mindful that God provided His Son to die for our sins because we can not measure up to the law.  We have to look no further than the great commandment that Jesus spoke of.  We simply do not have the capacity, except through Christ in us, to love God to the extent that our love consumes our whole heart, soul and mind.
We should also be mindful that God is completely aware of our weakness.  He provides His Holy Spirit to dwell within us to guide us along our path of sanctification.  The Holy Spirit will not rest when we depart from making God the love above all loves in our lives.  The Holy Spirit will not accept us living with one foot in God’s kingdom and one foot in the world.  It is all or nothing with the Holy Spirit.  The good news is that the Holy Spirit’s job is to follow through on God’s promise to perfect His strength in our weakness.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for the mercy and the endless grace that You provide to each of us.  We bless the name of Jesus who allows us to fulfill the law that we cannot fulfill on our own.  Help us, Lord, to be keenly aware of the urgings of the Holy Spirit.  Help us to humbly accept the corrections that the Holy Spirit is asking us to make in our lives.  We pray, Father, that Your Holy Spirit will take us to the high places that can only be reached when our hearts are fully consumed by Your love.  We ask all these things in the name of the Exalted One, Jesus Christ.

Accepting Our Place in the Yoke of Christ

Matthew 11:29
Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
In days of old, the yoke was used to pair field animals together.  The yoke enabled the pair to work together more efficiently.  In this passage, Jesus invites us to join Him in His yoke. He then points out that He is gentle and lowly in heart.  Thus, He is telling us that He is a willing servant that welcomes us along side, where He will teach us about His demeanor and bring us rest.  How could we pass on such an invitation from our Servant King?
Notice that Jesus did not place any limits on the burdens that He would share with us.  He is always along side us to bring us comfort when we are under the greatest level of stress or experiencing pain at the limits of our ability to endure.  Truly He offers us the endless joy that He shares with the Father.  When we surrender to the yoke of Our Lord, the joy of the Lord is our strength when we would have none otherwise.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for providing all that we need to get through our troubles.  We rejoice in knowing that we can find joy in the heaviest of burdens when we accept the yoke that is offered by Your Son, Jesus.  We pray that You teach us how to be lowly in heart so that we readily accept our place in the yoke. We ask these things in the name of Our Comforter, Jesus Christ. 

His Children Shall Not Fail

Psalm 55:22
Cast your burden on the LORD, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved.
It is obvious from this verse that we are to have burdens in our lives.  But God in His mercy promises us that He will not give a burden that is larger that the provision that He will grant to overcome the burden.  
God gave His own Son a cup of sorrow and suffering that was so intense that Jesus sweat blood as He faced His upcoming crucifixion.  But Jesus did as the verse commands, He cast His burden upon the Father.  Thus He was provided with all He needed to face the Cross and rise from His trial in victory.
To cast our burden upon God, is to rest upon his providence and promise.  Our Heavenly Father will not let His righteous children fail.  It is indeed His promise to us.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for giving us cups of sorrow and suffering that we must swallow.   We thank You for using our trials to build our faith in who You are.  We thank You for insuring our righteousness through the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives.  We pray for Your mercies to be granted us each day as You release fresh supplies of strength and comfort just as we need them to overcome our trials.  We ask these things in the name of our all sufficient Lord, Jesus Christ.

Standing Firm Against the Enemy

Nehemiah 2:20
I answered them by saying, “The God of heaven will give us success. We his servants will start rebuilding, but as for you, you have no share in Jerusalem or any claim or historic right to it.”
Nehemiah was inspired by God to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem which were in ruin.  Because God was with Him, Nehemiah was given complete authority and financial support to rebuild the walls by King Artaxerxes of Persia.  When Nehemiah reached Jerusalem to begin the work, He encountered much resistance from the likes of Sanballat, Tobiah and Geshem.  Nehemiah quickly put them in their place and moved forward building the walls.

We have to be like Nehemiah when we rebuild the walls of our lives which are in ruin due to the sin in our lives.  We can be assured that Satan will come to discourage us.  We need to let Satan know that he has no claim nor historic right to interfere with the rebuilding of our lives as temples of Jesus Christ. Further we need to stand firm, knowing that we are in the favor of God who promises to complete the good work in us.  The God of heaven will prosper us, protect us and insure the success of all that He has called us to do. As we depend on Him, we need not have a concern over what the enemy can bring against us.  The victory is ours through Jesus Christ.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your promise to complete Your good work in us.  We bless the name of Jesus whose death on the Cross gives us victory over all evil.  We rejoice in knowing that You will give us success in all that we do in Your name.  We pray, Father, that Your Holy Spirit will strengthen us to stand firm against the enemy who comes to destroy us and our families.  May our hearts be prepared to live in dependence upon You as we rebuild our lives as temples of Jesus Christ.  We ask all these things in the name of the One that dwells within us.  

Suddenly Able to Serve

John 16:12
I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.
Almighty God has created each of us to fulfill a unique need in His kingdom.  His plan for our lives is much, much bigger than anything that we have ever imagined.   We are just not ready to take it all in. Our flesh simply gets in the way with what the Holy Spirit has to teach us.  And of course, for many of us, we dig our own holes which makes the process even harder.  Nonetheless, for those that have accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior, His spirit will provide our strength where we are weak.

Even the apostles were not ready to receive and understand all the teachings of Jesus.  Without the filling of the Holy Spirit, their flesh simply could not handle what was going to be revealed to them in the spirit.  It was only after Pentecost that the apostles were able to boldly proclaim the full gospel.
What a wonderful transformation when the Holy Spirit opens our minds to receive and understand the things that made no sense to us or had no value for us before.  In the blink of an eye, our blinders are removed.  Without even being cognizant of the process, we begin to assimilate truths that had been unavailable to us before.  Then, just as suddenly we are able to share them with those who have been prepared to receive them.

Let us prepare our hearts to receive all that the Holy Spirit has for us.  Let us fulfill the plans that Almighty God has created us to fulfill.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for the Wonderful Counselor that You have provided to guide and instruct us.  We humbly ask that You prepare us to receive all that the Holy Spirit has to teach us.  May we become willing vessels – ready to take on the fullness of Your living water and eager to have the living water pass through us to bring life and enlightenment to those around us.  We ask these things in the name of the Living Water, Jesus Christ.