Life in Christ

The Word for today is prayer.

How often do you pray? When you pray do you think that your prayer is really going to be answered?

I think many of us only go through the motions not really understanding what prayer really is. Paul says in Colossians 4:2 that we are to 2 Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.

Thanksgiving comes because I know that my request has been heard and I can expect an answer.
Jesus said in John 16: 23 and 24, 23And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you. 24Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.

I don’t know about you but I am all about full joy.

When we pray we need to start off addressing the Father in the name of Jesus. It is the name of Jesus that gives us entry into the presence of God and gets God’s attention.

So often we want to run into the presence of God and not use the name of Jesus and wonder why we are not more successful in our prayer life.

We also need to worship God and enjoy being in his presence before we start naming off our request. It is not that he does not want to hear our requests, but it is a thing of honoring and being respectful of the one and only holy God.

More and more I have learned to come to God and just sit in his presence and soak up the love he has to give. By the time I am through worshiping him I forget that I even had a problem.

Let me give you a definition for prayer: Prayer is God releasing his intended purpose into the earth. We are the vessel that he uses to accomplish his work. Our prayer does not talk God into the notion of what we want. Prayer moves us in line with God’s will for our lives so he can bless us.

The more Word you know, and the more you pray the more effective your prayer life will be. God always honors his Word and says that his Word would not return to him void.

Pray the Word.

The Word for today is found in Matthew 6:25-34

25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life]? 28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Worry is the opposite of faith, and anything that is not of faith is sin.

I grew up a worry person. Everyday I wondered when the next shoe would fall. It took some real work on my part to learn to truly trust God.

We become so programmed to our past that it is hard sometimes as a Christians to let go of that part of our life. We have to change our thinking and think in line with the Word of God.

It is such a freedom to know that I can go to sleep at night and the God who never sleeps will take care of my tomorrow. The stock market may fall, the food prices go up, but I will never do with out. God said he would meet all my needs according to Christ’s riches in Glory.

And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:19)

All my needs mean all.

Turn loose and let God be the Father he has always wanted to be to you.

He wants to be your everything. He wants to show you his love in ways you can not begin to imagine.

God says to those who will hear that you need to open up and begin to experience the love of God that is based on his wonderful grace.

The Word for today is Isaiah 33:6

6 Wisdom and knowledge will be the stability of your times,
And the strength of salvation;
The fear of the LORD is His treasure.

If there is one thing that people today are looking for is stability. The world has become an upside down place. Evil is good and good is evil. People have no place to put their trust. The stock market is not a safe place. Our government has no vote of confidence. It goes on and on.

So where can you run to for safety and help? God’s Word never changes.

God’s Word inside of you pushes back as the world pushes in. It is like a pressure suit that deep sea divers use to keep the water pressure from killing them.
Wisdom and knowledge are mentioned here together.

Knowledge is taking in God’s Word, and wisdom is how to apply what we know on a day-to-day basis. Wisdom is good old common sense. What good is it to know something if you do not use it in the natural?

James 1:22 says faith without works is dead.

22 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.

God sees your faith but the world sees your works. Works is the outward expression of faith. Faith is of the spirit and works is of the natural.

We need knowledge on how to operate in faith according to God’s rules, and then we can operate in it. Stability comes as you grow in the knowledge of who you are in Christ, and knowing what God has promised to do for you. You can’t ask God to do something if you do not know what his will is in that area. Read the will.

Matthew 8:2-3 is very telling on what God’s will in the area of healing.

2And, behold, there came a leper and worshipped him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. 3And Jesus put forth his hand, and touched him, saying, I will; be thou clean. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed.

The leper told Jesus that “if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.” He knew that God could, but he did not know if God would.

We often have no problem believing that God is able; it is just we are not always sure that he will.
Ignorance will stop faith in its tracks ever time.

Jesus answered the man in a very definite way. He said “I will; be thou clean.” God said yes then, and he has not changed his will now. He is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

Go to the Word of God and become a stable believer in a very unstable world.

The Word for today is found in Philippians 1:9, 10:

9 And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment, 10 that you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ,

There are a couple of things I would like to bring out here. Love has to know something to grow. So often we think of love as being the kisses and hugs that we as Christians like to give each other in church. But love is putting our flesh and feelings under the authority of the Word of God.

Paul goes on to say that we are to be without offence. How many people to do know, or yourself for that matter, who get our feelings hurt at the least little thing; it is like some people walking around in a constant state of P.M.S.

No one can offend you unless you chose to be offended. I can not control what someone else chooses to do but I can chose how I will react to them.

The more you allow yourself to be offended the more Satan will send someone around to offend you. Love stops evil. To get even only adds fuel to the fire. Have you ever tried to have an argument with someone who only smiles back at you? You end up looking like the village fool.

Stay in love, for faith works by love. I use to wonder why my faith was not working. I said all the right things and believed the Word. My husband who at the time did not know nearly as much of the Word concerning faith had much more success getting his prayers answered. He knew how to walk in forgiveness and was slow to take offence. Trust me it does work.

2 Peter l: 2 says

2 Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord,

And verse 4 continues

4 by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature…

What is the divine nature? Love. God is love.

If you want to walk in God’s promises then grow in the God kind of love.

The Word for today is found in 2 Timothy 3:16,17:

16 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness,
17 that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

I am afraid too may Christians either do not see the Word as a living Word inspired by God, or do not realize that it is the means to our growth and success as a believer.

Too often we get one saved, delivered from hell and into heavens door and leave it at that. There is so much more to this Christian life. How much time you invest in the Word of God is equal to how much of an overcomer you will be today.

Faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of God.

Faith is a growth process and if you do not feed your faith you will not grow.

In 2 Timothy 4:2 -4 we read,

2 Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. 3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; 4 and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.

God’s word is not a fable to be taken out of context to fit our beliefs.

I have had people and ministers say “well I believe such and such because it is my church doctrine”. If it does not line up with the whole Word of God then you’re on the wrong path. We are not called to follow men but Jesus.

Jesus and the Word are one and the same. It is a dangerous thing to add to or take away from the Word. It is God’s last will and testament and you do not have the right to change it anymore than someone can change your will. Read the Word for yourself and make sure that what is being taught lines up with what God is saying.

Today’s Scripture is found in Psalm’s 131:1-2

1 LORD, my heart is not haughty,
Nor my eyes lofty.
Neither do I concern myself with great matters,
Nor with things too profound for me.

2 Surely I have calmed and quieted my soul,

David was a man after God’s own heart so what was it that caused him to have such favor with God?

David understood why he was king but he never forgot where he came from. David’s heart was not lifted up in pride. He knew that it was God who got him what he had and put him in the place of authority that he walked in.

David also was quick to repent when he missed it. A proud person covers their sins and shortcomings and oftentimes will not humble themselves before God. To ask for forgiveness is to admit that you have come up short and failed. To fail is not bad, except when you allow your pride to not acknowledge it.

We all have things hidden in the attics of our soul that we need to do some cleaning up on. We need to let the Holy Spirit look into those hidden place and put God’s light on it so we can clean it up.

Let the word of God work in you life to clean you up and present yourself to God as a workman that need not to be ashamed. God corrects his children by the Word but only as much as we allow him to.

Do some early spring cleaning and get rid of those things in your life that drag you down spiritually. While you are getting rid of the trash, be sure you put the Word in its place.

The word for today is snow. I love snow. I grew up in Florida and can’t get enough of the white stuff. It is so clean and pure. God leaves a learning lesson in all of nature for us if we will just take the time to look at the work of his hands.

Snow is like the wonderful cleansing blood of Jesus. It covers all our sin and washes us white as snow.

The Word for today is found in Romans 4: 19-22 (KJV)
19And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah’s womb:
20He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God;
21And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform.
22And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness.

The key verse here is that Abraham staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith giving glory to God and v21: And being fully persuaded that what he had promised, he was able also to perform.

Stagger in the dictionary means to waver in purpose. Abraham was fully persuaded that God would be true to his word. He was persuaded not in his spirit but in his mind. James 1:6-8 tells us that we must be in faith, not wavering. Here is that word again. He goes on to say that a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. Not just some, but all.

The difference between unbelief and doubled-minded is in unbelief you have made up your mind and will not be convinced otherwise. Double-minded is one who vacillates between two opinions. Mark 11: 24 says:
24Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.
The receiving is in the present tense not the future. Faith is now, not when the answers come, but when you ask.
Faith comes by hearing and hearing the Word.

Read and continue in the Word and faith will grow and you will be steadfast in your thinking.

Think on these things. What things? The Word of God and all his promises that make you more than an overcomer in Christ Jesus.

Be blessed and be a blessing to someone else today.

The Word for today comes from Psalms 107: 8, 9, and 20:

8 Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!

9 For he satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness.

20 He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.

The gospel of John says in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.

When I think how often I take all the wonderful things that Jesus has and is doing for me for granted I stand in amazement at his long suffering, patience and grace toward me.  He always reminds me that he is as close to me as the whisper of his name on my lips.

We have a rescue dog who is very special to me.  I call her Sadie and she is so sweet.  She is half Bassett hound and half pointer.  She has one eye larger than the other and walks like a duck.  She would never make it in the Westminster Dog Show.  I would not have her any other way.

What is so special about Sadie is her total trust and love for her new family.  She follows us everywhere and looks at us with such loving and grateful eyes.

How easy it would be for us as Christians if we would learn to lean on God in such trust and humility; to hear his voice, to follow him where he leads, and to learn to walk in his grace.

Knowledge is the key. Peter says as you grow in knowledge of the Word then peace and grace will be multiplied to you.  What you don’t know you can’t operate in and what you do know you must put it into action by faith.

Peace comes as we learn more about grace.  Want more peace? Then study the Word.

Thursday Jan. 6, 2011

The year 2011 will prove to be a turning point for this nation both in the natural but more so in the spiritual realm.  It will be a time when you will have many choices and the choices you make will bring either spiritual blessing or destruction.  There will be no middle ground.  This is the day you must choose who you will serve: God or the God of this world system.

It will require discipline and a putting away of self.  God is tired of his people playing church and being so set in their ways that they either can’t or don’t want to hear from the Lord of Hosts.  He gave me Psalms 18 to read today, but I want to pull out two verses.

Verses 1 and 2 say

“I will love thee, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliver, my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower.  Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not to your own understanding and he will direct all your ways.

Discipline is the word for the day.  Put God first and he will exalt you in due time.  May God bless you and all that your hand touches for his name’s sake.