HEARING THE VOICE OF GOD

Yesterday’s sermon was on “Red Flags”. These are warnings whether it be through God’s Word speaking directly to us, conviction-knowing what the Bible says about certain situations and going against what you know in your heart to be right and having someone else either observe or have a word of wisdom about something that needs to be addressed–expressed in love. The subject never hit home as hard as that one did and I know God is waving that red flag so I can get out of the way of the oncoming train. My heart has such mixed feelings about this issue, I know it’s not acceptable yet I just can’t get my mind off of it. It makes no sense at all with all the givens and I risk losing something very precious to me and for what!!!!!! I don’t want to grieve the Holy Spirit from His work in me nor do I want to grieve the heart of God who knows my every thought and move before I think or do it. I have to refuse to justify this and humbly ask forgiveness from whom I’ve offended and that the temptation would be removed from me with the courage to stand up for righteousness. And Lord, I now thank you that you hear my cry for help and that you love me enough to bring this to the forefront of my mind because You must feel it is serious enough to deal with right now. I praise you that my heart was open to receive that word and that I was there that morning. “This I recall to my mind, therefore I have hope. Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed(praise God), because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning. GREAT IS THY FAITHFULNESS.” Lam 3:21-23

OUR SHELTER IN TIMES OF STORMS

Today as I sat down to add more to my story, I could find it nowhere and I was quite some way along.  At first, I blamed it on Windows 8 and wanted to pitch my laptop into the bayou.   Then, after my mind got into the right place, God just gave me this title and I just thanked Him ,my eyes were opened and a different attitude was born.  Who knows, the Lord must have something He wants to say that is meant for right now.  I was diagnosed with clinical depression and there are days that go by that I don’t have the strength to sit at my laptop, cook, clean the house, etc.,(and I’ll bet there are some of you out there that are being beaten up over this too).  I asked  God  why He doesn’t take this stumbling block, this stifling weight out of my mind and in that still small voice He answered “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.”  2 Cor 12:9.  Obedience to God’s Word is the Christian’s greatest freedom.  No, I didn’t feel like starting over but just the fact that The Lord speaks to ME, that in itself gives me power to accomplish the task set before me and give thanks with a grateful heart.  I  wrote this little note one day when I was really blue—I know I will be OK no matter how bumpy the road has been before. I have always come through unscathed—my faith made stronger.

God uses our problem times to wake us up so that He might move into our lives.  It seems that there are more problems today than a decade ago.  Maybe God has heated up the furnace in our lives just enough to get our attention.  He doesn’t promise to save us from the fire but He does promise to be with us trough the fire.  Through it all, God gets the glory.  Remember the three Hebrew boys that king Nebuchadnezzar was bound and determined to throw them into the most fiery, scorching furnace that was known to man.  As the three boys were wandering around(remember, they were still IN that raging fire), king Nebuchadnezzar leaped out of his seat, screamed out in rage, “Look! I see four men walking around in the fire unbound and unharmed and the fourth one looks like the son of the gods.” Daniel 3:24-. These boys refused to bow to the golden image–they would rather burn. They told king Nebuchadnezzar that they didn’t need to defend themselves in this matter.  The God we serve is able to save us from it, and He will rescue us from your hand.  But even if He doesn’t, we want you to know, O king, we will not worship your gods or the golden image that you set up. Daniel Ch 3.  Jesus was still there with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego and there is no difference with our fiery furnaces that we sometimes find ourselves in.  “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.”  Hebrews 13:8.  I would say that that would be considered one heck of a storm, wouldn’t you?  “Storms”, as we know them, are considered to be similes like using natural disasters, e.g. tsunamis, earthquakes, floods, fires, tornadoes, hurricanes and the list could go on and on.  These cause unthinkable damage that we can compare our own lives to-damage that only God knows the answers to.  In the book of Job, he had lost EVERYTHING–his family, livestock, servants, fields, etc. and yet refused to curse God…  he was blameless, feared God with his whole being, shunned evil and maintained his integrity.  The Lord asked Satan why he wanted God to ruin him without reason.  After more conversation, the Lord told Satan that he was allowed to afflict Job but spare his life and afflict he did.  This is from Job 2:2.  His own wife even said to Job, “Are you still holding on to your integrity?  Curse God and die!.  He replied, “You are talking like a foolish woman.  Shall we accept good from God , and not trouble?. And through it all by not cursing God in his excruciatingly painful and challenging time alone in the barren desert, the Lord blessed him even more than before.  He had only God to cling to during that time of intense suffering.  The same God that was with Job and those three Hebrew boys is our God too!  He is mighty to deliver, awesome in power, perfect in wisdom, mighty to save and give strength to the weary and salvation to the hopeful.  Two thousand years have passed and He needs to be praised each and every day that whatever storm comes our way that day, there He is in our midst and will never leave or forsake us.  God may send a load but will never send an overload.

The Lord is our rock, in Him we hide,

Secure whatever ill betide

A shelter in the  time of storm

The raging storms may round us beat

We’ll never leave our safe retreat,

A shelter in the time of storms.

By:  Ira Sankey

SPIRITUAL WARFARE

Every morning I read a prayer on spiritual warfare for the day. This is the most awesome prayer on binding and loosing that I have ever read. I have actually gained much insight in praying this prayer each day and it is actually instilling the very vital elements into me about the importance of spiritual warfare and the awesome power behind it. It is actually renewing a very crucial element needed in my walk with the Lord. There are so many scriptures God gives us in His Word to combat the enemy–”Man does not live on bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” Deut. 8:3 The Lord has instilled in my memory so many spiritual battle scriptures that as I pray they just pop right out–scriptures that have buried in the archives of my mind for years even(yet the Word says the Holy Spirit will bring to memory those things that were learned and thought forgotten right at the proper time). King David said”Thy Word I have hidden in my heart so that I might not sin against You.” The Bible tells us to study to show ourselves approved as workmen unto the Lord. That means STUDY the scriptures and apply them to memory–they are not only our directions for life, comfort, support, wisdom, knowledge but our weapons of warfare. Even Jesus quoted scripture when He was out in the wilderness for forty days and forty nights when the Satan tempted Him. The Word of God is sharper and more powerful than any two edged sword…

“Therefore you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God, to walk in His ways and to fear Him.”Deut. 8:6
The last request on that prayer is Order My Steps And Guide Me Today In Your Word, Dear Lord. I looked up order and ordered in my concordance and in both the Hebrew and the Greek the word means the same. When we ask God to order our steps we’re asking for an awful lot from Him and need to be aware or what we asked Him to do. To define ORDER from the scriptures in the way that we ask is to firmly establish, set in order and maintain, direct, determine, command, appoint, arrange, give charge, ordain, commit. Now when we ask that request, can we honestly say we’re ready for all that? That would take a lot of discipline. I believe that the Holy Spirit won’t expect more than what we can handle and with that, will give us the wisdom and knowledge on how God wants to direct our paths–straight, I know. So, to order my steps, just let me be open to Your will and walk as humbly as my feet and mind take me. “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

I NEED ENCOURAGEMENT !

For the past few days I have had some sort of writer’s block and nothing seems to come to mind to write about. Church Sunday was awesome, awesome, awesome!!!!! It was about the checkered flag–the finish line. With a sermon like I heard you’d think I’d have my mind kick started and ready to roll–to run for the goal set before me, to want to win and finish what I start. It doesn’t matter if I finish first, second or fifty third, just as long as I finish what I set along to accomplish. Another thing is about the “thing” that has me confused, discouraged, sorry, sad and a host of other adjectives. I just can’t seem to kick it and it sets up roadblocks and I sabotage myself around that. I wish the Lord would remove it–anything that prevents me from having an intimate relationship with Him. Proverbs 18:10 says”The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous run to it and are safe.” Just His NAME is strength, comfort, joy, peace– no wonder He is called “the Name above all Names”. I so much need Him to fill the gaping voids of boredom and loneliness in my life. I struggle so much with these things and realize that I have to make an effort to get myself out there too but it still remains such a merciless effort. I feel empty right now but I will look to His Word for encouragement today and in Hebrews 6:18 it says” It is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope offered to us may be greatly encouraged”. That’s what I need is encouragement!! Encouragement to know there IS encouragement even when we feel like our circumstances surround us, hope springs eternal and we can rise above those weights, feelings and disappointments because “WITH MAN, NOTHING IS POSSIBLE BUT WITH GOD, ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE!!!!!

A LOVE WE CAN TRUST

How many of us have thought or said “Ya know, if I only had a boyfriend or husband(and it would be even more wonderful if he were Christian) then I could serve the lord with more purpose and charisma. Maybe the Lord will answer the requests for some but you still find yourself waiting for that day to come when Mr. Spiritual will appear on the scene. During that time, you will never be alone. Even when things seem to be falling apart, you will be safe in His arms. There may be something He has picked especially for you to do but are so caught up in your pending mate that you miss out on a splendid blessing that following His still small voice would have lead you to. God wants all our attention, praise, humbleness, etc. at all times and that means in everything give thanks in Christ Jesus concerning you! When God sees fit for Him to be “your husband” for a time, praise God, He’s still there even more than ever as that gives you more quality time to just sit at His feet and glean the good part. He loves us so much in whatever state we’re in and He can be oh so trusted to never leave your side–sharing your tears, your fears and your blessings.

Now I’m going to change my context in order to show some contrast. Perhaps the most painful statement a person can hear is, “I don’t love you anymore.” Those words end relationships, break hearts, and shatter dreams. Often, people who have been betrayed guard themselves against future pain by deciding not to trust anyone’s love again. And the most saddest of all is that it settled the desire to maybe even include the love of God. The prophet, Jeremiah, experienced devastating circumstances that left him emotionally depleted. His own people rejected his repeated calls to respond to God’s love and follow Him. Think about it, Jeremiah, at a low point said,”My strength and my hope have perished from the Lord” (Jeremiah 3:18). Yet in his darkest hour Jeremiah considered God’s unfailing love and wrote, “Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul “therefore I hope in Him!” The remarkable thing about God’s love for us is His promise that it will never end.

A person may vow to love us forever yet fail to keep that promise, but God’s love remains steadfast and sure. “He is the One who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you.” (Deuteronomy 31:6)

To tie things up, it doesn’t matter if we are single, married, an intercessor prayer warrior or sing in the choir, we all have times of brokenness and wanting to just sit down and give up but praise be unto God that—-“The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him. It is good that one should HOPE and wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord” (Lamentations 3:25-26 THIS IS WHY WE NEVER HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT ALWAYS KNOWING WE HAVE A LOVE WE CAN TRUST!!!!!!! Praise You,Jesus!

PERFECT HARMONY

I have been listening to Pandora Christian radio stations on my laptop almost every day now and what a joy and honor to even be a part of listening to such Spirit filled words set to music!! Each song ministers to me in a different way and lifts my soul to the clouds that I could stay up there forever. Since I quit smoking, my voice doesn’t have such a raspy sound to it and it is returning back to my voice I had when I could sing. I have always had such a desire to be able to sing well enough to be in the music ministry like when I was in the choir, Sounds, sang special parts and trios but the longer I smoked the more my voice was taken away from me. I was even diagnosed with mild COPD. It would grieve me to the point of exasperation because I couldn’t sing at all. The only noise was a hoarse version of a bad record. I’ve been singing the lyrics with the music and all of a sudden it hit me “my voice is actually coming back, I can hit the high notes and it’s almost there!!! Hallelujah!!! If the Lord decides to bless me with a voice to serve and honor Him that is exactly what I’ll do–Sing for HIS glory and by faith, I claim the victory. Lord, I ask that each day You clear my throat and touch my vocal cords to produce a lovely melody pleasing to You. I offer up the sacrifice of praise unto You for what You are doing and can do. I lift my voice rejoicing that I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me and that NOTHING is impossible with God.

Just listen

This morning’s Daily Bread was on stopping and focusing on the importance of calm and quiet before God.  I thought this was well said by the author “That even Jesus knew it wasn’t wise to accelerate through life with our gas gauge registering on “weary” all the time.”  We need to turn off the distractions that keep us from listening to God’s voice, let Him speak to us through His Word and let Him refresh our heart and mind.  Our soul needs to be refueled like our bodies need sustenance from the food we eat.  “Be still and know that I am God”.  If I don’t do that occasionally, it is very easy to fall into a manic high where the devil steers me into overload and at that point pride sets in ;and I’m flying around doing everything that comes to mind even if it wasn’t meant for me to be doing in the first place–like if I didn’t do it, it just wouldn’t get done and done in the kind of “spiritual” manner that would really get the job done.  So, I contemplate today on what God has to drop into my heart and take it from there.U

TEARING DOWN STRONGHOLDS

 

 

 

I read a prayer this morning about taking a stand against all the workings of the devil that would try and hinder me and my family from best serving You. But then I realized, have I really been doing this–leaving out this crucial part of binding and loosing? Have I prayed a hedge of protection every day around my body, soul and spirit, my husband, our home, finances, health and all the workings of the devil that would try and hinder me and my family from best serving You? Shame on me! I have at my command all the weapons of warfare at my disposal and haven’t even so much as given that part a chance of what it takes to live a victorious life in Christ. I bind him from my mind and stand on (2 Timothy 1:17) that You have not given me the spirit of fear but of power, love and of sound mind. I refuse to allow doubt or worry to rule my mind because You are in control and I claim absolute victory over the forces of darkness that come to steal, kill and destroy. I tear down and smash the strongholds of Satan formed against my emotions today and give my emotions to You, Lord, and cover myself with the blood of the Lamb and pray that Your Holy Spirit would flow in and through me today. Help me to be mindful that You have given me the whole armor of God and to use it faithfully for my defense against the enemy. Holy Spirit, open my eyes and show me the areas of my life that do not please you and give me the strength, grace and wisdom to remove any sin or weight that prevent our close relationship. Work in the areas of my life that would give the devil any ground or foothold against me. Make my steps pleasing to You and guide me in Your Word, dear Lord. Amen

THANKFULNESS &GRATITUDE, CON’T.

I am still learning about thankfulness and gratitude. This is a subject that will never be obsolete from God’s perfect will or His Word. It takes practice all the time especially when we have been in a rut of despair and dissatisfaction for too long a time. I wish there was an instant burst of healing that would deliver us as soon as we recognize it and ask for deliverance. We didn’t get there over night and there needs to be a sense of spiritual accountability for how we managed to end up there. In some of our cases, God needs to rough us up a bit in order to literally GRAB our attention to learn about the GRACE OF GRATITUDE. He allows circumstances to knock away that ugly shell of ingratitude so the Holy Spirit can reveal that with gratitude comes PRAISE. Praising God and thanking Him go hand in hand. Sometimes God has to use these methods to change and conform us into His image even though it is painful and unfair to us at the time. Then we can have PEACE!!!!!! “And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body AND BE THANKFUL.” Col 3:15

Ms. Thelma has been so heavily on my heart lately. She still grieves over losing her husband two years ago. I feel so helpless in this matter except to turn it over to you and pray that she experiences the breakthrough of gratitude, thankfulness, praise and peace in order to heal her broken spirit. Lord, please show the both of us how to overcome depression and the claw-like grasp is has. Show us Your way of deliverance and no matter how we “feel” to push through with everything You have given us to be overcomers through Your Son. Help us to be patient and attentive to what You are teaching us during that time. Let us learn so that we can catch it before it has a chance to bury itself into our thoughts and minds again. And even if we don’t feel like it the most, cause us to praise you and thank you for every blessing in our lives.

GRACE OF GRATITUDE

I am still learning about thankfulness and gratitude. This is a subject that will never be obsolete from God’s perfect will or His Word. It takes practice all the time especially when we have been in a rut of despair and dissatisfaction for too long a time. I wish there was an instant burst of healing that would deliver us as soon as we recognize it and ask for deliverance. We didn’t get there over night and there needs to be a sense of spiritual accountability for how we managed to end up there. In some of our cases, God needs to rough us up a bit in order to literally GRAB our attention to learn about the GRACE OF GRATITUDE. He allows circumstances to knock away that ugly shell of ingratitude so the Holy Spirit can reveal that with gratitude comes PRAISE. Praising God and thanking Him go hand in hand. Sometimes God has to use these methods to change and conform us into His image even though it is painful and unfair to us at the time. Then we can have PEACE!!!!!! “And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body AND BE THANKFUL.” Col 3:15

A friend of mine has been so heavily on my heart lately. She still grieves over losing her husband two years ago. I feel so helpless in this matter except to turn it over to You and pray that she experiences the breakthrough of gratitude, thankfulness, praise and peace in order to heal her broken spirit. Lord, please show the both of us how to overcome depression and the claw-like grasp is has. Show us Your way of deliverance and no matter how we “feel” to push through with everything You have given us to be over comers through Your Son. Help us to be patient and attentive to what You are teaching us during that time. Let us learn so that we can catch it before it has a chance to bury itself into our thoughts and minds again. And even if we don’t feel like it the most, cause us to praise you and thank you for every blessing in our lives.