Posts

Showing posts from December, 2022

Filled with the Holy Spirit!

Image
           Filled with the Holy Spirit “God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”  (Romans 5:5) We live by the Spirit. When we are filled with the Spirit, we will not fulfill our own desires, but those that God has given us. We are talking Son Power here, power that enables us to accomplish all that God has for us to do and be. Paul said it well in his letter to the Corinthians: “That is what the Scriptures mean when they say, ‘No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him.’ But it was to us that God revealed these things by his Spirit. For his Spirit searches out everything and shows us God’s deep secrets” (1 Corinthians 2:9–10). You and I are like ink pens. An ink pen is an instrument to be used by another. Without ink, the pen is useless. A pen without ink is left on the desk. Only with ink is it fit for use by the writer and prepared for the mission it was designed for. Th

PRAY!

Image
  Merciful and loving God, I pray that you keep me from falling and bring me faultless and joyful into your glorious presence. To you, the only God my Savior, through Jesus Christ my Lord, be glory, majesty, might, and authority, from all ages past, and now, and forever and ever! Amen.

Tune Your Heart In!

Image
  O LORD, do good to those who are good, whose hearts are in tune with you. Psalm 125:4 Tune Your Heart In Notice in today’s Scripture that you can be in tune or out of tune with God. If you go around thinking, “I’ll never get well, I can’t get the promotion, things just go from bad to worse,” you’re not in tune with God. In the Scripture, He says, “I am all-powerful. I am healing. I am provision. I am abundance. I am protection. I am favor.” If you’re going to get in tune with Him, you can’t think weak, defeated, get-by, hope-this-works-out thoughts. The way to get in tune with God is to think what He says about you—not what you feel, not what it looks like, not what the experts say, and not what the economy says. You have to say what the Most High God has spoken about you in His Word. The Scripture says, “Whose report will you believe?” The way you get in tune with God is by thinking victorious, overcoming, faith-filled thoughts. Think favor thoughts, abundance thoughts, healing thou

Focus on God’s Power!

Image
                                                                                               Focus on God’s Power “God stirs up the sea with His power, and by His understanding He breaks up the storm.”  (Job 26:12) When we take time to reflect on God’s power, we’re amazed. And this in turn expands our vision of what God can do in us and through us. Images of God’s power are presented throughout the entire Bible. His power gives us confidence that he can overcome anything that is causing difficulty in our lives. His presence can dissolve any obstacle. Since he is the creator of all things, he knows all about our world and has the creative ability to deal with anything that is in need of repair. God sent Jesus Christ into this world to bring us salvation and hope. I have often heard it said, Jesus is “God with skin on.” Jesus Christ is God incarnate; God embodied in human flesh. Because of Jesus Christ we have seen God at work in our world: loving people, healing disease, doing miracle

Don’t Miss Your Moment!

Image
  On the day Jonah entered the city, he shouted to the crowds: “Forty days from now Nineveh will be destroyed!” Jonah 3:4 Don’t Miss Your Moment God told the prophet Jonah to tell the people of Nineveh that in forty days He was going to destroy their wicked city. God put a time period on it. He was saying, “You have forty days to get your lives right.” He didn’t say, “Whenever you feel like it is okay, just as long as you do it.” When Jonah told the people, they and their king immediately confessed their sorrow and declared a fast of repentance. They didn’t wait a week or twenty days, and God spared the city. Is there something you could change in the next forty days, and you would see God’s favor in a new way? Maybe God is saying, “You have this much time to get your priorities in order, to forgive that person, or to get serious about your relationship with Me.” I don’t know what it is for you, but there’s a window of grace that doesn’t last forever. It comes with a time limitation. D

Call on God!

Image
                                                                                                  Call on God! “Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.”  (Jeremiah 33:3) This is a statement made by the Creator of the universe himself! When I first read this verse, my initial thought was,  How can this overwhelming promise become personally operative in my life?  The statement seems so simple, but the reality of it is almost beyond belief … almighty God will answer me! All I need to do is call out to him. Second Chronicles 16:9 explains, “The eyes of the Lord search the whole earth in order to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him” . I want my heart to be fully committed to God because then I can be strengthened and empowered by him. We need to remember how great the counsel of God is and how mighty his work is. By his mighty power he created the heavens and earth. Throughout the Old and New Testaments we read of

Have an Uncommon Commitment!

Image
  But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God.” Ruth 1:16 Have an Uncommon Commitment In the Scripture, Naomi’s husband died unexpectedly, then ten years later both of her married sons died. When Naomi decided to move back to Bethlehem, her daughter-in-law Orpah took the easy way out and stayed where she was. But her other daughter-in-law, Ruth, refused to leave her, even though it meant hard labor and poverty conditions. She was willing to live by a higher standard. That uncommon commitment to do the right thing brought uncommon favor. Not only did God bless Ruth with a husband and son, but their great-grandson was named David. Ruth went from barely surviving to ending up in the family line of Jesus Christ. It wouldn’t have happened if she was common. Are there areas that you’re being common in, taking the easy way out, doing what everyone else is doing

Son Power and Spiritual Opposition!

Image
  Son Power and Spiritual Opposition “Jesus gave his life for our sins, just as God our Father planned, in order to rescue us from this evil world in which we live.”  (Galatians 1:4) Let’s face it, the difficulties we see and experience on a daily basis are beyond our ability to fix. Satan is doing everything he can to convince us that we really don’t need God or his power working in us, for us, or through us. The world around us continues to become increasingly hostile to anything remotely related to God and his purposes. But the fact remains, a life without God is a life without meaning or purpose. How do we deal with the opposition we inevitably are encountering? The Bible is clear that we are facing a very real enemy. Paul wrote these words to the Ephesians: “For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12).

Bigger Than!

Image
  Let God arise, let His enemies be scattered. Psalm 68:1 Bigger Than in today’s Scripture, “let” means you have to allow God to arise in your thoughts. When you let God arise, you make Him bigger than your problems, bigger than any sickness, bigger than financial troubles. You focus on His greatness. You think about His power. You talk about how He’s brought you through in the past. You go around bragging on what He’s done and declaring His promises. The bigger you make God, the smaller your problems become, and the more faith will rise in your heart. The enemy is always trying to get us to let the problem arise. That’s why it’s so important to keep a song of praise in your heart all through the day. Instead of worrying, thinking about all the things that are wrong and what might not work out, turn all that worry time into worship time. That’s not just being positive, that’s letting God arise. That’s what allows the most powerful force in the universe to go to work on your behalf. A P

Your Daily Commitment to Perseverance!

Image
  Your Daily Commitment to Perseverance “In view of all this, make every effort to respond to God’s promises. Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness.”  (2 Peter 1:5–6) I know God has work to do in my heart, and so, I daily ask him to shed the light of his presence into the inner recesses of my heart to show me whatever needs to be changed. Then his Word can prosper and accomplish in my heart whatever is needed to be done to strengthen it for his purposes as the Spirit works within me. As his Word grows in my heart, I am set free. I begin to see the finger of God at work in me and in my circumstances. I learn to trust him, and by the power of the Holy Spirit I am able to put to death all of the sinful desires and works of the flesh that want control over my life. However, this can be a painful process, and somet

Because of the Blood!

Image
  And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death. Revelation 12:11 Because of the Blood It’s easy to live under guilt and condemnation, feeling we’ve made too many mistakes to be forgiven. Our enemy, the accuser of the brethren, will remind you of everything you’ve ever done wrong. Do you think your mistakes are too much for the blood shed by the sinless, spotless, all-powerful Son of God? The blood of the Lamb is the blood that defeated the enemy, it’s the blood that crushed Satan’s head, it’s the blood that took away the keys of death and hell, it’s the blood that makes demons tremble, it’s the blood that caused the earth to shake and the sun refuse to shine. It’s because of the blood of Jesus that the blind were healed, the lepers cured, the lady caught in adultery was restored, and the soldiers who crucified Him were forgiven. No mistake you’ve made is too much for that blood. So shake off the guilt

Your Daily Commitment to Setting Your Eyes on the Heavenly Prize!

Image
  Your Daily Commitment to Setting Your Eyes on the Heavenly Prize “I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.”  (Philippians 3:13–14). It’s difficult to stay focused. Many things vie for our attention: family, friends, work, hobbies, sports. Many of these things are good, but they can actually get in the way of God’s plans and purposes for us.  As you consider your days, do they just “happen” or are you intentional in how you are going to use your time? Are you focusing on earthly goals or heavenly goals? And how do you balance it all? As we focus on God’s purposes, read his Word and apply it to our lives, and take time to discuss all of it with God, the Holy Spirit will empower us to keep our eyes on the heavenly prize. But it takes time. Time every day with God. And in the process, it is imperative that we choose to br

PRAY!

Image
  Lord Jesus, you are the Living Word and source of life. You are the true Light that no darkness can overcome. Grace and truth come through you. Out of the fullness of your grace, I am blessed. Because I believe in you, I know that I am a beloved child of God. Thank you, Lord Jesus, for coming into the world. In your holy name, I pray. Amen.

Your Daily Commitment to Exalting Christ!

Image
                                                                                  Your Daily Commitment to Exalting Christ This people I have formed for Myself; they shall declare My praise.”  (Isaiah 43:21) The apostle Paul was committed to exalting Jesus Christ in all things. In Colossians 1:15–20 we read: We look at this Son and see the God who cannot be seen. We look at this Son and see God’s original purpose in everything created. For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible, rank after rank after rank of angels— everything  got started in him and finds its purpose in him. He was there before any of it came into existence and holds it all together right up to this moment. And when it comes to the church, he organizes and holds it together, like a head does a body. He was supreme in the beginning and—leading the resurrection parade—he is supreme in the end. From beginning to end he’s there, towering far above everything, everyone. So spacious is he,