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Wednesday, October 10, 2012
Psalm 139:1-18 NLT O LORD, You have examined my heart and know everything about me. You know when I sit down or stand up. You know my every thought when far away. You chart the path ahead of me and tell me where to stop and rest. Every moment you know where I am. You know what I am going to say even before I say it, LORD. You both precede and follow me. You place your hand of blessing on my head. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too great for me to know! I can never escape from Your spirit! I can never get away from Your presence! If I go up to heaven, You are there; if I go down to the place of the dead, You are there. If I ride the wings of the morning, if I dwell by the farthest oceans, even there Your hand will guide me, and Your strength will support me. I could ask the darkness to hide me and the light around me to become night—but even in darkness I cannot hide from you. To You the night shines as bright as day. Darkness and light are both alike to you.
You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother's womb. Thank You for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—and how well I know it. You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed. How precious are your thoughts about me, O God! They are innumerable! I can't even count them; they outnumber the grains of sand! And when I wake up in the morning, You are still with me!
All right, you guessed it! Today is my birthday! I love this Psalm because it speaks of how God formed me in my mother's womb; how He was involved with all the intricate details of who I am, what I look like and who I belong to. Sometimes, because of the busyness of life, those close to me may forget the special day of my birth, but I know that My God doesn't ever forget me or any one of the days that I live. He knew about them before I even lived a one of them. There is One who still goes before me into every day; still loves to hear me when I call out to Him and still thinks about me so much that I couldn't even count the thoughts that He has about me! Isn't that awesome?! To think that we have a Creator who knows and cares about every aspect of our lives!
Isaiah 49:15-16 “Can a woman forget her nursing child, And not have compassion on the son of her womb? Surely they may forget, Yet I will not forget you. See, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands; Your walls are continually before Me.
In years past there were two things I would never tell anyone: how old I was or how much I weighed. Both of these were sensitive areas to me. I often think about my mother and how proud she was of how long she had lived. In her later years she often said to new acquaintances: “I bet you don't know how old I am”. She was so proud of the length of her life. She lived to be 90 ½ years old before she went home to be with Her Creator.
As I travel through life I've come to realize that it's not as important how long I live as it is what I've done with my life. The important part to me is to give back to the One who knows me the best and loves me the most! The quality of my life is worth much more than the quantity!
So today I want to say “thank you” to My Creator, my Heavenly Father, my Savior, Jesus Christ and my best friend, Holy Spirit! I owe my life to You, Lord and I love You with all my heart! You are My reason for living and the One that I long for, cling to, rely on and trust in. You are my life for it is in You that I live and move and have my being. Thank You for loving me and for having such a wonderful plan for My life. You have truly done exceedingly abundantly above all that I could ever ask, think, hope or imagine in my life. I am blessed! Thank You, Father! Amen.
Friends, God has a bigger plan for you than you have for yourself. You may not understand why everything has turned out the way that it has in your life, but God has a good plan for you, even now if you're experiencing heartache and difficult times you can be assured that it's not too late for things to turn around and for you to experience the goodness of God in the land of the living! Just one word from God can change your life and turn things that the devil has planned to harm you for your good. God loves you with an everlasting love and He hasn't forgotten that you are going through a difficult time.
Father, I pray for my friends this morning that You will hear their prayer and send the deliverance that they need right now as they experience the trials and testing of life's challenges. I pray that You will wrap your loving arms around them and let them feel Your presence and give them peace. Thank You, Father, for watching over them and protecting them from the evil one. Thank You for providing for their every need and for turning the bad into good in their lives. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.
And now, Friends, HAPPY BIRTHDAY to ME!
Tuesday, October 09, 2012
I recently prayed with a young lady to receive the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. As we prayed together I told her her that I was going to pray in the Spirit next to her and for her to relax and just speak out those words that the Holy Spirit would give her as we prayed together. I told her what I was doing was similar to “priming the pump”. Of course, as a teenager she had no idea of what I was talking about as her generation has never really heard of or seen a hand pump such as this one. It was a foreign concept to her. But the purpose was in getting her mind off of herself and what her mind wanted her to say in the natural so she could hear from the Spirit to speak out of that supernatural heavenly language that He was giving her. She needed to make the shift from her own natural language to the language of the Spirit.
Often times, as believers in Christ Jesus and in our desire to be all that He created us to be, we become “introspective” and through our focus on “what's wrong with me” we forget to listen to the Holy Spirit and follow His direction for life instead of our own thoughts and actions. Our focus becomes clouded by our desire to be “perfect”, to not make any mistakes in our walk with the Lord, and to become “sinless”. But the problem with that is that in focusing on self, we take our eyes off of Jesus, who is the author and finisher of our faith. We then become self-conscious, instead of God-conscious. It is not up to us to change ourselves, but God does the work within us as we cooperate with Him. The work that He completed on the cross was a complete work and through Him we receive the freedom of our sins being forgiven! It is not a work that we have to do, but a work that was done on our behalf by the Savior of the world. We are now free to live according to His Spirit and not our flesh.
Galatians 5:16-18 MSG My counsel is this: Live freely, animated and motivated by God's Spirit. Then you won't feed the compulsions of selfishness. For there is a root of sinful self-interest in us that is at odds with a free spirit, just as the free spirit is incompatible with selfishness. These two ways of life are antithetical, so that you cannot live at times one way and at times another way according to how you feel on any given day. Why don't you choose to be led by the Spirit and so escape the erratic compulsions of a law-dominated existence?
My question today is: Are you experiencing the freedom of being led by the Spirit or are you following the erratic compulsions of a rule based religion?
Matthew 5:6 MSG “You're blessed when you've worked up a good appetite for God. He's food and drink in the best meal you'll ever eat.”
“Child, whatever a person hungers for is what they will seek to satisfy. When you hunger and thirst for Me you will be satisfied by My Spirit; your spirit man will be nourished and satisfied. Your flesh seeks it's own and your spirit seeks My own.”
Father, I come before You today just to say that I love You and my desire is to follow the leading of Your Spirit in what I say and do. I desire to feed my spirit through Your Spirit's leading. I am hungry for You, Lord! I pray that my heart is pure before You and that what You say to me will be what I heed and do rather than living my life according to a set of rules and regulations or by the erratic behavior of my feelings. Father, I pray that my friends will also seek Your direction and walk according to the freedom of Your Spirit to live and do as You would desire rather than their own motivations. May we be pleasing in Your sight, Oh God! In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.
Sunday, October 07, 2012
Just finished my walk---nothing chased me!
Sunday, October 07, 2012
Jeremiah 18:1-8 The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying: “Arise and go down to the potter's house, and there I will cause you to hear My words.” Then I went down to the potter's house, and there he was, making something at the wheel. And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter; so he made it again into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to make. Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying: “O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter?” says the LORD. “Look, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel! “The instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, to pull down, and to destroy it, “if that nation against whom I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I thought to bring upon it.”
“Am I not the potter and you are the clay, Child? Will the clay question the potter about what He is doing it it's life? And yet My people have questioned Me in that way. My people have lived in prosperity without an understanding that I have given them all things richly to enjoy. They have given credit to themselves for the prosperity that comes only from Me. Am I not the One who gives you the power to get wealth? Did I not warn the Israelites to not forget Me when they entered into their Promised Land and experienced the abundance of goodness that I had provided for them? So it is with your people, My Child. They have forsaken Me for their own evil ways. I am the fountain of living water but they have hewed out cisterns of their own evil ways and have turned from Me to embrace the ways of the world. If only they would turn back to Me so they would not have to experience the calamity that awaits them. Turn back to Me, Child and I will once again pour out blessings upon your people, upon your nation. Turn to Me and allow Me to form you into a vessel of honor just as the potter forms the clay. Warn My people of the upcoming disaster and tell them to turn back to Me, the One true God. I will touch them and heal them and cause their land to once again be a light house for the hurting and the lost. Seek Me while there is still time.”
Oh Father, I pray that you will forgive us for turning from You and embracing the ways of the world. I confess our sins of idolatry, Father, in that we have worshiped the creature more than the Creator. Please forgive us, Father, and heal our land. Father, we are a nation founded upon You, upon Your godly principles. I pray that You will turn the eyes of our people back to You and cause us once again to be One nation, under God, with liberty and justice for all. Father, You have said that You hold the king's heart in Your hand like the rivers of water and You turn it whichever way You want. I ask You to turn the heart of our President to You, Lord. Cause Him to choose Your ways to lead our nation. I pray for godly leaders to be placed around Him. Leaders that will seek Your face and offer godly wisdom to Him for our nation's good. Father, I pray that You will once again reign supreme in the hearts of our people. I pray that You will forgive us for our ungodly ways and bring us back to You, Lord.
And now, father I pray that You will mold me and make me into the person that You want me to be. I pray that I might be as the clay in the potter's hand. Lord, fashion my heart to seek You and serve You according to Your will. May my life be a reflection of You as You fashion me into the image of Jesus. Cause my life to be formed into a vessel of honor that You can flow through to touch the world to further Your kingdom and to benefit them for their eternal destiny. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.
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