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God is Not Blessing Us, We are Already Blessed!
I was reminded recently how much we are blessed! Our mindset on a daily basis either decides we are blessed or decides we are cursed. How do we know the difference for certain? If you love Jesus you are blessed and if you do not you are cursed! Paul was definitely blessed by God. He was a Pharisee of Pharisees moving up in the ranks very quickly into many leadership positions. He was trained under Gamaliel, a doctor of the Jewish Law. Gamaliel warned the Pharasees not to stop the work of God (Acts 5:34-40). Paul didn’t know then his life was being orchestrated by God to get him in place to write all the letters he wrote to the churches. At the time of Gamaliel, Saul thought he was blessed because he earned it however by the time he sat to write the letter to the Ephesians he believed with all of his soul he had earned none of it! He knew he was already blessed then and now!
Paul was a man of understanding and he used it to teach the churches how they should act inside and outside of the Ekklesia. The one piece of information he wanted all of us to understand is God does not bless us, He HAS already blessed us. He tells the Gentiles in Ephesians 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. Even better to be added to this is Proverbs 11:22 The blessing of the Lord makes one rich and He adds no sorrow with it! Each one of these verses tells us Elohim has blessed us prior to us seeing the blessing and sorrow is not part of the blessing. I have learned two truths in my walk with Jesus, if we live in the blessings daily we will never need a miracle and we must never allow anyone to rob us of the blessings bestowed upon us.
Live in the Blessings
Elohim has spoken a blessing over us in His Words, which existed long before we came into being. I know how hard it is to think of being blessed when all hell is breaking loose in your life, when you lose your job, when you have used up all your savings, when family is sick and needs you taking you away from your current life. I want you to know this – it is all in the way you see, receive and speak the blessings of Elohim. We need to know God to see the blessings He has already given us to see and recognize. Once we recognize Him in everything we see the blessings and hope abounds. Hope abounds because we learn to receive the blessings knowing Elohim abounds on the earth. Knowing that we begin to speak the blessing over others and ourselves while living daily to see, receive and speak them aloud! Living for this we understand everything happening to us and the people around us will result in good rather than sorrow giving us more hope for the future. If you start looking for what you have been blessed with, receive it with joy and speak it over your life it makes it hard for someone to steal it from you.
The Blessings Bestowed Upon Us ARE Ours!
You know you are blessed and they are yours but one day while walking in God’s will for you someone says to you, “Did God really say that?” You walk away questioning your idea of what God has been clearly training you to do. At the very point you begin questioning God is the very point someone was successful in robbing the blessing then you continue to not allow the blessing to be activated in your life. You affectively quench the Holy Spirit in your life because someone asked a question to curse you. To be robbed of any blessing is to disobey God. When God blessed us with every Spiritual blessing in the Heavenly places He gave them to us to do His works on this earth so if you are not doing His works because a person got involved in a God works then you are in sin. I am not saying you should not try to understand I am saying you should never question God because a human questioned you. You know yourself better than any other human being. You know God’s work in your life better than any other and you know what God has trained you to do so just do it. If you have obeyed God in the past and it blessed you than why would you stop because a human cursed you. You see the blessing in your life, you have received it and you have been speaking it in your life, don’t stop just keep obeying God because no one has the right to question what God is doing even you.
If it is God No One Cannot Overthrow It!
We all hear the folks who are always talking about being blessed and I figure they say it because they are trying to talk themselves into it. The issue with that is they are not speaking blessing the are boasting blessings. When we become Christian we automatically are blessed with all Spiritual blessings in the Heavenly places and no sorrow is added to them. Gamaliel recognized God at work and he was a Pharisee why do we have such a hard time as Jesus followers to recognize our blessings already in place? If we see them, receive them and speak them into our lives we will recognize each and every one in place before the world was. They will be our stronghold against the robbers of this day. If it is God you cannot overthrow it so walk in it. This week ask Elohim to open your eyes to the blessings in His Words so you will recognize His works that cannot be overthrown.
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We are Ensnared by the Words of Our Mouth!
Three ways to overcome this!
I wonder if this has ever happened to you? Have you said something then regretted it when you actually had a chance to ponder it? These words weren’t vulgar nor deceptive just unwise words, unthought-out words. Words we will now have to stand by although we really don’t want too. Maybe they were haughty words said to make you look tough and unmoving as a result someone now has the impression you are standoffish. There are many things we can say leaving people with a different impression of than we actually wanted to portray. In this day and age words mean very little but to a Christian they are extremely important. God spoke the world into being before it was!
We will speak our works into being before they ever are. We speak ourselves into being before people know us. The writer of Proverbs tells us we need to guard our heart because out of it springs the issues of life (Proverbs 4:23) and out of our heart come the words to reveal our life too. Fortunately Solomon gives us the way out, the way to be an overcomer of this issue in life. First we should keep God’s Words in the midst of our heart, second put away our deceitful mouth and perverse lips and third ponder the direction our feet are going (Proverbs 4:21-27).
His Word in the Midst of our Heart
The Words of God will never come out of our mouth if they are not in midst of our heart. We will always speak like the world. The Bible tells us the Holy Spirit will speak for us when we are in trouble (Matthew 10:20) but if we don’t know Him He cannot send words of wisdom or words to give life from us. We need to read the Scriptures with the intention of keeping it in our heart so we can speak life and not death (Proverbs 18:21) to those we are speaking too and to ourselves. God is not just worried about the folks around us He is also worried about us. When God’s words are in the midst of our heart we not only say them but we ponder them. We ponder the truth of them and the validity of them. Eventually we believe them and we live them and the issues of our life are now the issues in others lives. When we have God’s words in the midst of our hearts it gets easier to put away deceit and vulgarity.
Put away our Deceitful Mouth and Perverse Lips
Solomon didn’t just think a deceitful tongue is bad but perverse lips too. The language of the people we are around today is very curse and full of lies. I admit I was similar when I was unsaved and for some time after being saved I continued to speak like the world. I would shoot my mouth off before my brain was loaded inevitably hurting someone and becoming filled with guilt. It is hurtful and shows I care nothing about what people have to hear when I talk to them. I am worried more about grieving the Holy Spirit than I am grieving people or myself because I know His Words. When we know His Words we are held responsible for how we have portrayed them. I have to talk with myself constantly about this particular thing. Guarding our heart against this is much easier when you know what God expects from us. He expects us to put it away especially if we know our feet are headed to do God’s works.
Ponder the Direction of Your Feet
When we know God has a plan for us (Jeremiah 29:11) and we have been predestined to walk in it (Ephesians 2:10) we can ponder the direction of our feet. When we begin to look at this seriously with wisdom we begin to understand doing the will of God has consequences in the world and we need to be ready to accept them and be overcomers during the process. Elohim will equip us to do His works but we have to be able to pull all the pieces together and go in the direction we find. Pondering the direction we walk is essential to knowing what God really wants from us. When I guard my heart in the direction of my feet I am much more diligent in making the works of God happen.
His plan includes our Heart
The three ways to guard our heart and avoid being ensnared by the words of our mouth will definitely help us to be who God has created us to be. This process is cyclical. We have to do it over and over again to get it right. Put God’s words in your heart, put away deceit and vulgarity, look where you are going, get the Words, put away garbage, watch where you are walking – again – get the Word, put away, watch where you are going. It keeps going like the pink Energizer bunny but each time we are successful at accomplishing results we are given strength we did not have before and are less ensnared by the words of our mouths. We not only will say what we mean we will make our yes’s mean yes and our no’s mean no (Matthew 5:37). This is super freeing! This week free yourself from doing something or saying something unwise by putting god’s words in your ear and putting away the words that kill and the path of your feet will be directed.
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How to Get off the Ground when a Foot is on Your Back
I have fallen on my face again! It seems that position is almost permanent. I know there are things I can do to stop this from happening but I cannot see them I only feel the weight of the ones throwing me down. It’s a mystery to me why this keeps happening; I am doing my best. This time I am down longer before I am able to get up again and I know the longer I am down the harder it will be to get back up but that knowledge is useless. As I make another attempt to get up I swear I feel something holding me there this time!
Have you felt this way? You are not alone. Every Christian who attempts to do the will of Elohim has been in this position. We cannot see what is holding us down but can certainly feel it! We use both our hands to push ourselves up but it is of no use! We are stuck there because we just cannot muster the strength we need to change the situation. Every ounce of our strength is required to breathe. Soon enough, breathing dirt is the only thing we know. We are accustomed to lying down so we don’t try to get up anymore. My lovelies, you are exactly where the Devil wants you to be. With no effort on his part at all we just get on our face! We have developed some industrious skills while down on the ground, to breathe and to maintain this position comfortably. He has effectively taught us how to throw ourselves on the ground with the blink of an eye. How was he able to teach us this trick and how can we break the cycle?
Dogs aren’t the Only Animals who Learn Tricks!
The Devil knows the world better than we do because he has been in it longer than we have. He knows the Bible better than we do because he was in the world when the Bible was written. His tricks are ancient and his wiles are common. He roars around like a lion after each and every one of us who profess Jesus as our Lord and Saviour. Hell was made for him and he is intent on bringing some earthly souls with him. He has developed some very good tricks to train us and he will not stop coming after us until Jesus comes to fulfill His Words.
Every action we take is from a learned behavior. Ecclesiastes 1:9 tells us there is nothing new under the sun meaning nothing from today, yesterday or tomorrow has failed to happen before and if it has not happened it has been spoken by Elohim. The tricks the Devil teaches us have been taught before and he will teach them again. We need to know, there is no temptation that has seized us except what is common to man but Elohim is faithful to not allow us to be tempted beyond what we can bear (1 Corinthians 10:12-13). Temptation is what the Devil uses to trip us until we fall on the ground from the weight of our sin. James tells us our evil desires, conceived through temptation, gives birth to our sin (James 1:14-15). This sin is what knocks us to the ground because we have not developed the skills we need to see the path Elohim has provided for our escape (1 Corinthians 10:14). The skill we need the most is discernment in this case. We need to discern the tricks of the Devil faster so we can get up faster when we fall.
An Eye for the Tricks
To see the tricks of the Devil we need to know the character of God. The more we know God the faster we will recognize the Devil. When we develop eyes to see God’s character we will see the devil at work against Elohim. To know the difference we need to know the truth! God’s truth can only be found in His Words. Keeping His Words in our mind is the only way we will be able to get up faster when we are down and avoid being thrown down again.
Our Muscle to Get Up Faster
We need to develop endurance muscles to be able to get up when we are weighted down by our sin. The only sustainable muscle capable of lifting us up and keeping us up is our brain. We can develop our arm muscles, have large pectoral muscles and sizable glutes but none of those will lift us onto our feet with more sustainability than our brain. The way to get this power into our brain and build this muscle is to know God’s Word line for line, precept by precept. Memorizing God’s Words not only gives us the power to lift ourselves up it has the power to keep us up. Planting Scriptures in our brain and using the power now in our mouth to push us off the ground is the most effective way to get up and stay up. It takes effort to memorize Scripture but it is the only way to sustain the power to walk away from temptation and make the devil flee. Start small by memorizing the smallest verse, “Jesus wept!” then move onto something bigger. One day you will be able to memorize full Psalms. When we affectively start using God’s Words to fight the Devil we will spend more and more time on our feet and less time on the ground breaking in the Devils dust.
Our Work does not go Unrewarded
Fear not because Elohim is faithful to reward us with the crown of life for those who love Him and endure the testing through trials (James 1:12). Knowing God’s character and memorizing His Words will never go unrewarded. The reward for this lifetime is going more and more times without breathing dirt but in the next life the crown of life. That crown is your ticket into the New Jerusalem where God is our light, the road is made of gold and we will be with Jesus every day for eternity. This is my prayer for you and for me so let us be overcomers that we may be found in the Lambs Book of Life and go into the City.
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I’ve Gone into Shafts for the Gold Mine!
I do not know how many times I have picked up a self-help book completely excited about what I would learn only to find out it was what I learned in the last book. If that is the case why do I read so many of them? Why bother to read any at all if they say the same thing? It’s for the nuggets! Did you know there are nuggets of gold in every book that we read but the Bible has a big advantage over all those books; it is the gold mine! All the other books are in the shafts leading to the Gold Mine! I willingly go into the shafts mining for nuggets knowing they will all lead me to the ultimate gold mine.
At this moment around my desk I count five books with bookmarks in them. Each one of them is meant to help improve my life because that is what I am all about! My focus, in reading these books, is about improving my life by changing the way I approach decision-making and problem solving. We can be sure of those two very things; each day we make decisions and each day we solve problems. Those are the two things that also hang us up and get us into more trouble than we bargained for.
At first I was gleaning huge nuggets from the self-help books and my life was improving significantly. I was mining every piece of gold I could get from those books and applying them to my life. These authors are geniuses. I became debt free because of Dave Ramsey and Mary Hunt. I made significant strides in my thinking patterns thanks to many women authors especially Beth Moore. Even though the authors I listed are Christians I don’t shy away from non-Christian books and authors such as Napoleon Hill, Dale Carnegie and the like. Seems I had a fondness for self-help books Christian or otherwise. I had heard the Bible was the book of Life but to be honest I thought they were talking about the verse that tells us that Jesus is the Life (John 14:6). How could a book about Jesus show me how to improve my life?
What I didn’t take into account is our awesome God who knows all and sees all. He continually impressed me with the Words in His Book. I told you in a previous post (blog post) that I write life skills workshops to teach women using the Bible. I decided I would research the Bible, before I actually read the whole Book, to see if each of the topics I was going to teach about was somehow, miraculously, talked about by Elohim. I called the workshop Leading Yourself to Success (2005) having criteria I wanted to follow. First, I wanted them to see themselves as a success right where they were, then begin to change their thinking from negative to positive (James Lehman teachings), discover who they are, set boundaries and goals and finally commit to the change. I knew this to be a task but I started writing and every time I made a point I looked for proof in the Bible that my point was valid. I could not believe my own eyes; the Bible already spoke of every point I made. The workshop became a secular representation of how God wants us to live.
I had found my way into the gold mine through the many shafts. My nose went straight into this Gold Mine every time I needed information about life. Each and every year I live I read other books only to find my way back to the Bible for where the information actually originated. I have discovered every self-help book on the market is published because God ordained it therefore in each one of those books we will find the nuggets we need to bring us right back to the Gold Mine – the Bible.
Don’t stop going into the shafts because they all lead to the Gold Mine! Every written work published is meant to bring us back to God! When you look at these books, meant to help us, we can always compared them to the Book of Life and find multiple similarities. Make sure you set your mind to read the Gold Mine to test this theory for yourself. You will be amazed how our ELOHIM has used secular writers to bring us back to Him. Go to Proverbs first to see wisdom in her full display then find the Gospels (Matthew; Mark; Luke; John) to meet Jesus. Not one day will go by with regret for spending time learning from God Himself, I can guarantee it! If other folks can do it and live a better life as a result so can you!
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A Soul in Sync
I want to first start with a description of what the soul is because I keep forgetting myself. Our soul is our life and defines who we are, what we believe and what we stand for. It is our volition (desire), our mind (intellect), and our emotion. Our soul is moulded by experience, knowledge and understanding. God gave us talents that we nurtured with our soul. The Bible talks incessantly about soul, heart and mind being something that we need to guard. Our soul is what the world is after. They want us to think like them and in doing that we become them. They will not be happy until we are all like them. We are called by Jesus Christ to think differently from the world.
One Foot in the World One Foot in the Church
Our soul is sanctified (separated) from the world for us to think like Jesus., to take on the mind of Jesus. This is not as easy as it sounds. We read in the Bible we are being called out of the world but the world will hate us (John 15:19). This is why some of us have one foot in the world and one foot in the body. There are some who are just dipping their toe in the body because their soul is weak. A weak soul is a direct result of quenching the Spirit. A weak soul will not be allowed in the New Jerusalem because a weak soul has a penchant for sin. It follows its flesh and makes the flesh its master instead of the Spirit (Galatians 5:19-21).
Sanctification Not a Choice; Soul Sync a Choice!
Being sanctified is not our choice, it belongs to God alone, but after salvation we have the choice to live in the world or live in the body of Christ. We can choose to have our mind changed by God or we can choose to have the same mind as the world. The choice is ours to sync our soul with His Spirit or to sync it with the World. When we sync our mind with the Spirit we can expect change, we can expect wisdom, we can expect understanding and we can expect Jesus to move in us. We cannot expect any of this with the world. I do not need to go into a list of things the world expects from us but God expects Jesus from us. We are to have the mind of Jesus (1 Corinthians 2:16) therefore the deeds of Jesus. We are to sync our mind with the Spirit and bring our body into submission with our soul (1 Corinthians 9:27).
A Mind Meld with the Master
I know you are reading this thinking how impossible it is to kick habits, change ways, and most ridiculous to think like Jesus! God sent His only Son as an example to us but He also wrote this great book called the Holy Bible that we would have a reference book. Paul told Timothy All Scripture is given by the inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be complete thoroughly equipped for every good work (2 Timothy 3:16). ALL Scripture can be used to train us up into the mind of God and that is exactly what we will do. We are going to create a mind meld with the Master that we will be equipped for every good work the Master sends us to do. God is more than willing to reveal Himself in the Scripture and reveal Himself in us to others. I pray that He reveal Himself in you just as He is revealed in me!
Action
For this week pray to the Master He would give you an open heart for knowledge while we mould our mind into the mind of Christ using Scripture to solve about worldly issues. Pray for me also to bring today’s problems to Him for solution. If you have an issue that keeps plaguing you please IM me or send me an email at Kathleen@thelifeskillsstrategist.com and I will point you in the direction of Jesus and His Word for correction advice.
I know that if we choose life in the Word we will find solid Biblical strategies to improve our life. I ask Jesus to reveal himself in you just as He is revealed in me.
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It Goes Beyond Heaven!
By Kathleen Derbyshire
If we are lucky the Father will call us into Salvation when we are younger rather than older. Time is a factor for us! We know that anyone can be saved on his or her deathbed. Rumour has it Jeffrey Dahmer got saved before a fellow inmate beat him to death. We might say, “I have been saved for what seems like forever living a decent law abiding life and I will be sitting next to him at the bride’s supper?” How unfair is that? May I remind you of the story in Matthew 20:1-16. The workers were coming all day to work until the end of the day but when quitting time came the boss gave them all the same pay. Some of the workers were annoyed because they’d been working all day and thought they deserved more [paraphrase mine]. Salvation is the same for every Christian regardless of when the time of their Salvation. Jesus and the other writers in the New Testament talk about being in Heaven but God gives us Revelation.
The hope that we have is now about being with Jesus wherever He is. Now, it goes beyond Heaven. Revelation tells us a whole host of things are going to happen that I will let you discover on your own but what we want to concentrate on is when it’s all over. When all is said and done, what will happen to us, those who are saved? Revelation 21 and 22 tell us exactly what will happen to us Saints after the Lake of Fire is gone. John starts with Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea. So, everything that happens from here is after the devil and all the unbelievers are in the Lake of Fire. I want you to pay particular attention to the City. The New Jerusalem is where Jesus is going to live; the tree of life will be in the city. Remember the only people left are the Saints. When you get to chapter 21 verse 27 you have already read about how wonderful the City is going to be. 1500 square miles filled with light because the Lord will be its light.
The New Jerusalem is set on the New Earth and the saints are around to watch it happen then Jesus says something peculiar, But there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles, or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. Remember the Lake of Fire is gone and only the Saints remain so who are these people who cannot enter the New Jerusalem. For this answer we need to go to Revelation 22:14-15 Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city. But outside are dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and whoever loves and practices a lie. Jesus makes it very clear who can enter and who cannot enter the gates of the New Jerusalem. Those who do His commandments while they are here on this earth will have the right to the tree of life and may enter through the gates into the city and those who do not are outside.
Are you going in or staying outside? I want to encourage you to be able to present yourself mature in the things of God so you can be inside. I want every woman I teach to learn and be able to apply what they have learned into their life so they may enter through the gates into the city. I know that each and every one of you can do exactly that because I am doing it and many other women are too. On this very day I challenge you to read the Word of God and ask Him to reveal to you what He is calling you to do. Learn how to do His commandments so you are walking with me and many other women into the New Jerusalem when it comes down to meet the New Earth.
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Our Weapons for War!
We are going to 1 Samuel 17 today to the story of David and Goliath. We think much about this story and the content of it because David is the hero. We love David because he is the underdog in this story but there is so much more to it for us to learn then just that. We are all underdogs compared to God. David displays that we are nothing in our own power but when God sends us to do a job He equips us to do it the way He wants us, in particular, to do it. He gives us our own weapons to fight His battle.
Saul is King of Israel at this time but God has already left him and anointed David to be His King. David knows he is anointed to be King but has become a servant to the man he would replace. God has positioned David into the kingdom but has not moved him into his anointed position. David had gone home to take care of his fathers flock when Goliath becomes a phenomenon to Israel. He comes out 40 days straight and taunts God’s chosen people who respond by allowing fear to overtake them.
Young David is told to bring goods to his brothers and the supply master by his father to the battlefield. Goliath, the challenger, was almost 10 feet tall and the hero of the Philistines but he is no match for God’s man. He was not a hero to David either because he was defying God. Saul, who should have offered himself up to protect his people only offered up his gear and weapons to the man who would kill this hero of Philistia.
God sent David into his battle with his weapons and He sends us into our battle with our weapons. For ten years I heard that our battle should be on our knees but for just as long I had no understanding of what exactly that means. My number one weapon was not prayer it was problem solving. Yours might very well be something else like love, compassion, nail banging or house building. We take what we have as a weapon and use it to solve problems but mostly in the physical world. Our enemy is in the Spiritual world. Once we become Christians we are given a great vision of the Spiritual world and it doesn’t just include God and the angels but Satan and his demons too.
Saul tried to supply David with his weapons to fight but David said he had not tested them but he knew what he had tested and they were tried and true. God gave him the weapons he was to fight this giant with and he gave Saul his. Saul chose not to use his. God gives us the weapons we are to fight with too and they are perfectly suited for us to fight the giant we are fighting at this moment. We are not to use untested weapons of war we are to recognize and use our own weapons because they are what God has given us to fight with. Up until this year I did not fight my battle with prayer nor did I prevent a fight with prayer but I did fight my battles with the weapons God gave me. He has given me a fantastic memory for Scripture! Those were my weapons but now He is giving me a new weapon. This weapon is mine alone and I intend to practice with it and get so good at it that I will be able to knock down any giant.
What is the weapon that Jesus has given you to fight with right now? Do you use it or do you attempt to use someone else’s? Spend the next day or two answering these questions then own the weapon He has given you right now and perfect it’s use just as David perfected the use of his sling. For the battle you fight is the Lord’s and your weapon is from Him so He can deliver your enemy into your hands.
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Focus on Doing My Best
In my quest to become useful in the Kingdom of God I have done a ton of things, some failed, some successful for a time and some never got off the ground. Some I told God I would do and some He told me to do. I am somewhere in between right now. I am working on projects that have been going for a couple of years but they need more of God in them or they need to end. I have to tell you I am a little scared to do anything right now because I am gun shy. I don’t want to give up what I am doing now but I don’t want to start anything new either because I am scared.
I am not allowing fear to cripple me but I am allowing it to stop me from making mistakes – if that makes any sense to you. I think my fear at this moment moves me into the sound mind realm. In my not so sound mind I made decisions that cost me a lot of money and a lot of time only to see them fail. In my not so sound mind I made decisions that cost me emotionally and physically. Each of these has taken its toll on me and made me scared today. As a result my decision-making is much more thought provoking and much more focused. My first thought when I have to make a decision is – what is this going to cost me? I am not just talking about any decision I am talking about all decisions.
My goal daily now is to talk to Jesus about everything. I am trying to focus on doing my best at everything I do. Today was my first day at it and I have failed miserably already. As I was driving home from my day job the Spirit told me to pray before changing tasks from now on so on my way into the house I prayed that I would be a better wife, a better cleaner, better at everything that I do in this house. Then I went to my kitchen and did what I do and forgot to pray but then I came down to write this and prayed. For someone who used to pray once a month (if that) God is really doing a work in me daily to keep me in communion with Him.
Pray for me to continue this goal of doing the best I can with everything I do and to be in constant communion with Jesus. If you want to join me in this task let me know you are coming along by commenting and we will banter back and forth through out this quest. Comment regarding what you are learning and how you are learning it. We are going deeper with Jesus so not all He reveals to you is for my ears but some can be. Ask Jesus how you can teach me and I will ask Him how I can teach you. Enjoy these next couple of days communing with Jesus and expect to be transformed through all He reveals to you!
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Cry out to Him and See!
There is nothing like a death in the family to make us evaluate (or me anyway) the things we are doing. We watch as people walk through the room and how they react. We react with curiosity about how they have impacted the lives of those they knew. We evaluate how they have impacted our life. The only real way we can know what they have done for others is to listen to stories and listen intently to how people felt about that person. This is a skill that we must learn to utilize as we get older because we learn much about ourselves and about others. We can know someone all of our life and still not know the impact that person has had on others outside of our own relationship with them.
This begs me to ask of myself, “How have I had an impact on those in my life?” Have I created an atmosphere of love or contention? Have I taught my loved ones that I am determined or lazy? BUT the biggest question is, “Have I shown (not told) them that I love Jesus?” Will that be the first thing people say or will they have to find out from the pastor during my service. I have no other desire for you to know anything other than my love for Jesus and how I work that out in my life. What I want you to see is I love Jesus, I love my family, I love my friends and anyone whom I can touch through my teaching of Jesus Christ and my writings about how we can learn from Him.I want you to see my passion for the Word when I teach you what Jesus has been teaching me. I want you to see my determined devotion to Him while I help you learn what I have learned. I want you to see my steadfastness in doing what Jesus has asked me to do. In this you will find out that I have dedicated my life to knowing Jesus by studying His word so I can be of use to the women in the area in which Jesus has placed me. I cry out to God daily for them and I ask Him to position me to be of the most use to them.
How can we go forward when we feel like we are not doing enough? Jeremiah 33:3 says “Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.’” Cry out to Jesus and ask Him daily what He has planned for you. He will reveal in you just as He will reveal in me just exactly what He wants us to learn and how He wants us to use that knowledge. Then we must do it!
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My Soul Longs for Him!
I have been juggling three very good books over the last week and wonder how much more does God need to teach me. The most phenomenal thing is that they all are related to each other at this very moment. How amazing is that? Not at all because we are dealing with our God here! I am reading The One Year Chronological Bible, Water in the Dessert and The Spiritual Man. Each book has its own theme yet each book at this moment is speaking to me loud and clear.The One Year Chronological Bible is designed to allow us to read Scripture in the order in which it happened. I have read the New Testament already and am reading the Old Testament now, Numbers 5. I have read about the building of the Tabernacle and the placement of the tribes around the Tabernacle. Since I am not a numbers person I have to really force myself to go through any part of the Bible that adds, subtracts and divides people. I am reading it differently now based on the other books I am reading at the same time. What I learn in this Book continuously is when God chooses His people He takes good care of them and since I will never be done reading this book He will continue to teach me this fact. This Book continuously makes my soul long for Him.
The second book I pick up is Water in the Dessert by Sherry Stahl. To tell you the truth I didn’t want to pick this book up at all because first, I am not in a dessert right now and second, the green eyed giant. Each of them was a darn good excuse for not reading this book but they were just that, excuses. Sherry bases this book, so far, on the Exodus account of the Israelites being freed by God. Ironic enough that is what I just got finished reading. My Spirit was there but my soul and flesh did not want to pick this book up. That giant had a hold of me and I couldn’t shake it so I have to have a talk with soul. Had my soul not been transformed by the Spirit I could have been years longer letting that giant take me down. This book (or study) has helped me to bury deep in me the truths I know about our Jesus Christ and make my soul long even more for Him!
Then I pick up the most simple but complex book The Spiritual Man by Watchman Nee. This book is most fantastic. It is a pondering book for certain. It is not one of those books you can read and walk away from without pondering the information. I have read a couple of Watchman’s books thus far and my soul is changed forever because I understand my soul better. As I read this book (I am on page 61) my soul becomes more aware of exactly what it should be doing. What wonderful information to know! It makes every Word I read in the Scriptures jump out at me and leave a mark so deep that I will be able to feel it forever. It, and Watchman’s other books together, have helped to create in me a longing for Jesus that cannot be quenched with just Sunday meetings. I long to hear the Spirit talk to me all day long.
Reading three books together may sound daunting to you but to me it is exciting. I read the Bible to know Jesus so the rest of the books I read have meaning in my life. Can they help me to understand the Word better? Can they help me live the Word better? Can they help me teach the Word better? These are the questions I ask when I read a book. If I am stranded on an island and I could pick three books to have I would choose these three books. BUT if I could only choose one it would most definitely be the Holy Bible. We will never long for Jesus by reading any other book! When God reveals Himself to us He does it through His own Word! Choose the Word over any book and He will reveal Himself to you!
