“And I looked, and behold, in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as though it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent out into all the earth.” (Revelation 5:6)
Blessed rest in Your blood, covering me, in the winter
Blessed rest in Your blood, like silk, flowing upon me in summer
Blessed rest in Your blood, a color more beautiful, than changing leaves in the fall
Blessed rest in Your blood, which in spring, is falling in love after all
Resting in You Lord makes my heart a new song,
Resting in the sweet scent of Your love that carries, me along
How sweet how pure is the joy found in the compassion, of Your eyes
Eyes that burn with truth, and the heavenly skies
I am not worthy, yet I am chosen
Mysteries, of the divine, and no one can solve them
You made a world for us so organized, and complex
You show Your existence in the stars,
Putting our hearts to the test.
The question is this: who will we serve with all nerve?
The World who rejects or Your Son sent to serve?
The question is as follows: who do we believe?
The world or Your Son whose blood did achieve:
An everlasting relationship to You our Father, through His death on the cross
Everlasting life and power, through His resurrection:
“But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.” (Ephesians 2:4-5)
3 For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. 4 The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” (1 Corinthians 10:3-5)
As babies we are all born into the fight of life where we wrestle with men of flesh. As Christians we are “reborn” onto a battlefield which the bible tells us is one of the spiritual realm, and we have to be armed at all times. We have to recognize who our adversary is and lean on the Lord for our strength by the truth of His Word.
“Be alert and of sober minded. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” (1 Peter 5:8)
God has given us many promises from His Word and yet He also promises us that there will be trials and tribulations here and the reminder that we are to be firm in our faith in Him. I have been tried and am still being tried by the enemy everyday as I am sure all of my brothers and sisters in Christ are, yet we have hope and strength to be found in that thankfully the victory is not based on us but the overcoming resurrection power of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior.
The adversary often appears in our minds and in our hearts and we have to stand strong. We are called into battle so let’s fight the good fight of faith lifting up our brothers and sisters in Christ who have fallen and catch those who are in fear of backsliding. Let us lift up the souls of those who are lost and not allow the enemy to win. Too many times we are shaken by what the enemies henchmen have to say but we have to realize that just as the weapons we are fighting with are not of the flesh, our enemy is not those who are of flesh and blood. There is a place out there that the world doesn’t know. There is a Kingdom ahead of us that the world chooses not to see. There is a King on the throne on whom we choose to believe. Let us do all that is in our power to live in the light of the One who reigns and whose Kingdom has no end.
Brothers and sisters if God has made you aware of this fight and if the enemy is trying to steal your joy today, the Lord deserves all of your honor and your praise,
“Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoiceand be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” (Matthew 5:11-12)
The bible does well to advise us without apology or regret,
“Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong.” (1 Corinthians 16:13)
We have been called into battle my brothers and sisters and we are victorious in it through Christ who has already defeated the enemy for us. If we have accepted Christ we have already accepted the battle and therefore also share in its victory. Let us remember then that there is now no reason for us to live in defeat.
“No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” (Romans 8:37)
“He rescues them from death and keeps them alive in times of famine.” (Psalm 33:19)
The Lord sees to it when we place our faith in Him to protect us and to provide for us in our need while we are yet alive here on earth. Spiritually speaking, the Lord preserves our lives or our souls from eternal death and damnation apart from Him while we abide in Him, hope in Him, and yet believe. He will not allow us to fall into spiritual famine, need, want, poverty, or deprivation. He will keep our spirits nourished and well fed on the things of a Spiritual nature as we continue to seek Him and to respond to His calling.
“Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I go up to heaven, you are there; if I go down to the grave, you are there. ” (Psalm 139:7-8)
The Word of God says that God is with us wherever we go. That means that He is with us right now and forever, even in death. As believers He will be with us forever and in that our spirits can find rest for our souls, protection even in death, and while we are here on this earth. So in that sense He protects us from death; not that we are immortal but that at the end of our life we can have hope in life everlasting with Him.
Prayer:
Heavenly Father sometimes I doubt that You are the protector of all who believe as I watch so many believers struggle and suffer. At times I admit that I even doubt Your Providence as I watch this pandemic going on around me and believers and non believers alike dying and in mourning for those near to them that have passed on. I ask You to forgive me for my faithlessness and I thank You for Your forgiveness and Your loving mercy. Please help me to see that You are the Protector of my soul and my blessed Provider in the land of the living and that You are intimately acquainted with my ways. Please help me to live in the love of Your light and to know that You are protecting and guarding my soul and my heart through the blood and righteousness of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Thank You for fulfilling my needs and for providing for all those who know You as their Lord and Savior. Please save the souls who have wandered away from Your love. Thank You for providing for their needs. Please forgive us all for not baring witness to Your love and Your protection when we see it and while we get the chance. Please comfort all the sick, the mourning, the grieving, those being abused, those treated with injustice, all those who are being persecuted for their faith in You alone, and please strengthen our faith that You are just, that You are in the midst of what we see, and that You are at work in all we don’t see. Help us as believers to bless others through the blessing You so graciously share for us and to share the Good News of Your Salvation with all who we come in contact with. Lord as You promised Abraham that all nations would be blessed through him help me and help us to be blessed to be a blessing to all of Your children under the sun. We love You Lord and we ask all of these things in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. 7 You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” (John 3:6-8)
Whisper.
You enter my heart with a flutter of wings
The calling of butterflies; the loveliness of all things
Whisper.
A stir in my soul.
The rapture of love that never grows cold.
I remember Your blessings in the joy of the morning.
I listen to Your whisper;
I joy to respond to Your calling.
Whisper to me in the starlight, in the heat of the sun
Whisper to me in the heat,
of a day just begun
Whisper sweet whispers that even I, can’t claim to hear
Your whisper is a tugging on my heart
That never fails to appear.
You are a person, a helper, an advocate, sent to lead
By the whispering to my soul
For the benefit of all beings
You are the peace that pours out life to the world
You are the wisdom to the simple
The truth that unfurls
Wrapped in Your whisper
I’m taken over sweetly like the feathering of lace
“Take care brothers and sisters, that there not be in any one of you a wicked, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But continually encourage one another every day, as long as it is called “Today.”, so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.” (Hebrews 3: 12-13)
As brothers and sisters in Christ we are blessed to serve the One true God the living God who is spirit and intimately acquainted with all of our ways. We also have a physical symbol which is real, bold, and powerful to hold onto the one on which Christ died for us for the cleansing of our sin; the cross of our Salvation. In Hebrews we are taught by Paul that we need to be continually clinging to our faith on a daily basis and be steady in encouraging one another in our faith knowing that although we are saved there are all sorts of temptations of the world and from the enemy set on leading away from our first love, that is Christ.
“Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings. “(1 Peter 5:9)
“For we have become partakers of Christ, if only we hold firm our newborn confidence until the end, while it is said, “Today if you hear His voice, Do not harden your heart, as when they provoked me.” For who were they who heard and yet provoked Him? Was it not all those who came out of Egypt led by Moses? And with whom was He angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose dead bodies were scattered in the desert?” (Hebrews 3: 14-17)
In the book of Exodus we are told of how God led His people Israel through the wilderness and out of their slavery in Egypt under the rule of Pharaoh. The Israelites watched God protect their children by the presence of blood on their door posts, they saw Him rain down judgment upon judgment upon Pharaoh in the form of plagues, gnats, frogs, and a river turned to blood. They saw His provision for their needs when the Egyptians offered them their gold and their own possessions, when He caused the sky to rain down manna for them to eat, when He caused water to flow from a rock to quench their thirst, and when
“By day the Lord went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to given them light…” Exodus 13:21
Yet after every miracle and after everything that God was continually doing for them to protect them and to get them to place their faith and reliance on Him they complained, they didn’t believe in Him, and they even wanted to return to their bondage of slavery. Paul pleads with us not to go that route. In this message to the Hebrews Paul is speaking with the Jewish converts to Christ encouraging them to hold onto their faith instead of going back to the Law and to the religious rites that can’t save them and yet he is speaking with all of us today, starting with me. I encourage all of us here to hold fast to the cross of our salvation no matter what it costs us in this lifetime because the prize so often is greater than the effort and the trials it took to gain it. We have a lot to hope for and we have One who we can without any doubt place our trust and our faith in. So today if you find yourself wavering, hold firm to Christ and let us hear the voice of Paul encouraging each one of us to reach out to one another, in encouragement and in love.
Let us admit, we are a people who tend to forget. The word of God is chock full of people who have forgotten the word of the Lord, gone their own way towards destruction, and done what was right in their own sight. The word of God is also a Holy Book of repetition that reminds us continually to fix our thoughts on the Lord. One thing I continue to learn in my walk of faith is that what fills my mind is what I am. If I speak words of failure and words of negativity, if I watch things which are harmful to my spirit and grieve the Holy Spirit of God, if I hang around people who speak expletives and foul language all the time… the list goes on, then my mind will tend to become clouded with thoughts, words, scenes, and lead to actions which will harm my spiritual growth. We have a choice every moment of the blessing of our lives and we can choose to as the word says, “take every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5) or not. Today I invite us to take heed of the word of God choosing to be doers of the word and not only hearers. In 2 Peter 1:15 Peter tells us plainly, “And I will make every effort to see that after my departure you will always be able to remember these things.” May we all be careful to remember to,
“Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. Keep your mouth free of perversity; keep corrupt talk far from your lips. Let your eyes look straight ahead; fix your gaze directly before you. Give careful thought to the paths for your feet and be steadfast in all your ways.” (Proverbs 4: 23-27)
When we focus our mind on those things which are God edifying and God glorifying we will begin to notice a change in ourselves and our transformation in Christ will be more evident to others. There is power within us brothers and sisters by the power of the Lords Holy Spirit which today indwells within us thanks to the resurrection of Jesus Christ! Hallelujah (Praise the Lord)! We don’t have to be partakers of sin. We don’t have to allow the negative thoughts from our past and the words people have said to bring us down, keep us in their trenches. We don’t have to give into despair at the world collapsing around us. May we never forget that,
“The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you.” (Romans 8:11)
Truly when we make the choice to give our minds over to the will of God rejoicing will take over us as we see the Word come true,
“But in that coming day no weapon turned against you will succeed. You will silence every voice raised up to accuse you. These benefits are enjoyed by the servants of the Lord; their vindication will come from me.” I, the Lord, have spoken! (Isaiah 54:17)
I know that times are hard and it can be difficult to change our tune when we find ourselves in a rut. I know that it can be a lot to change our thoughts about ourselves. Yet we have to realize that the choice is ours but the power is not. Victory is from the Lord (1 Corinthians 15:57) and when we give our thoughts over to Him the peace of God can be ours. Let us agree with the Apostle Paul in this,
“8 And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. 9 Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me—everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you.” (Philippians 4:8-9)
Let’s pray together:
Beloved heavenly Father please help me to guard my heart and mind today so that I don’t let in the lies the enemy has told me throughout the years, so I watch what I watch, and am careful who’s spirit I allow to drive Yours out. I believe that Your Holy Spirit indwells me and I thank You for such a powerful, victorious, and conquering gift. Help me Lord by the power of Your Holy Spirit to fix my eyes on Your good so that I don’t lose sight of You in my darkest moments. Keep my eyes fixed on You. Keep my ears open to Your voice. Keep my lips speaking words out loud and in my mind that are glorifying and sweet to You. May I rejoice in Your power though my circumstances haven’t changed. May I radiate Your joy in the glow of my face all of this day. Thank You my Lord. In Jesus name. Amen.
“Let your heart therefore be wholly devoted to the Lord our God, to walk in His statutes and to keep His commandments, as at this day.” (1 Kings 8:61)
The Lord placed on my heart a question. “How devoted am I to the Lord?” Sometimes God hits us with difficult questions that help us to grow closer to Him and make us think about how our relationship is with Him. This question let me know that perhaps I am not so devoted to the Lord as I think and I was led into prayer for strength in temptation, courage and boldness to share the word, faithfulness in prayer, wisdom and discernment to make decisions that are in alignment with His will, and the willingness to rest which sometimes can be the most difficult thing to do in a world which never seems to slow down. Then the question stirred up another one as I asked myself, “What does it mean to be devoted to God?” Here is what the Lord has laid on my heart. My hope and prayer is that if you come across or think of anything else to include that you will share it with me and with all of us in the comment section. I would love to hear and to learn from all of you.
Devotion to God is an act of faith in that,
“We live by faith and not by sight.” (2 Corinthians 5:7)
The world sees with it’s eyes but we know that we serve a God that is unseen and yet came down to earth from heaven in Jesus Christ who was fully God and fully man. When we come to Salvation in Christ the world sees that there has been a change in us by the way we love and by the way our lives, our desires, and our wants have been transformed.
Devotion to God is a firm act in that we trust in, rely on, lean into, and believe in God without doubt in our hearts and minds. It is an action that doesn’t waver depending on who is around us or what is popular at the moment.
“If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. 6 But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. 7 That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. 8 Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.” (James 1: 5-8)
Devotion to God is being devoted and continual in our prayer lives; praying continually for our brothers and sisters in Christ and ourselves throughout the day.
“Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving;” (Colossians 4:2)
Devotion to God means that we live into our new identities in Christ and make a choice to live in the attitude of Christ Jesus.
“So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience;” (Colossians 3:12)
When we are devoted to God we take heed to listen, to hear, and to do as He does and not as the world does.
“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” (Romans 12:2)
When we are devoted to God and abiding by Him we begin to live differently and to be conformed into His image.
“Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.” (Ephesians 5:1-7)
When we are devoted to God we become devoted to His Word, captivated, and captured by it’s teachings and we learn to live it by the Lord’s leading through obeying and applying His Word to our lives.
“But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.” (James 1:22-26)
Being devoted to God also means being alone with Him in our prayer closet, being with Him instead of always concerned with “doing” for Him, and listening to Him speak to us.
“But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” (Matthew 6:6)
38 As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. 39 She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. 40 But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!” 41 “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, 42 but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.” (Luke 10:38-42)
Today and everyday let us seek to live upright and devoted lives to the One who has saved us by His blood.
“Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.” (Ephesians 4:31-32)
Pray with me:
Lord I admit that I am not always devoted to You. Please help me to be more devoted to You by the strength and the power of Your Holy Spirit. Help me to live according to Your will and to Your way fleeing from sin in my day to day life, and seeking Your will and Your way in all things, even the mundane. Teach me to cling to You tighter than I cling to anyone or anything on this earth. Be with my brothers and sisters Lord and help them to do the same all to Your honor and glory. Draw near to me Lord and keep me always drawing near to You. I love You and I thank You. By the power of Your Holy Spirit and in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. Amen.
“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” (Jeremiah 29:11)
Sitting here crying, my heart calls out to You.
“Lord O, Lord my God what will You do?”
You made the heavens.
You made the stars.
You uphold me with Your right hand,
You shelter me in Your arms.
I’m in need of deliverance.
I know You have redeemed me for a reason.
The clock stands still as I wait on dry mountains for Your reply
“Save me my Lord for without Your saving I shall die.”
Crying on dry mountains
My tears the only water to fertilize the soil
My heart reaches out to the Lord for strength
Even as my spirit is screaming all the while
Crying on dry mountains
Alone with only my Lord to hear
Space lifting to eternity I still know my Lord will lend His ear.
If you are finding yourself crying on dry mountains today with all of the struggles of life piling up and your faith growing distant I applaud you for getting this far and I encourage you to keep going on. The word of God says in Exodus 15:2 “The Lord is my strength and my song; he has given me victory. This is my God, and I will praise him— my father’s God, and I will exalt him.” Praise the Lord for what you have and hold on to Him that is near and dear. The Lord will see you through. For He is faithful and He has promised you to.
“And those who know your name put their trust in you, for you, O LORD, have not forsaken those who seek you.” (Psalm 9:10)
Today was a bit of a day let me tell you. I woke up and I spent time in the word, I was singing “New Wine.” by Hillsong Worship, and I was in solitude in the Spirit. Then somehow as it always does… life set in. I’m a type 1 brittle diabetic which means that my sugar levels have the tendency to be all over the place and today was one of those mornings when my sugar was a little on the low side and as luck had it it happened during the filming I was watching of my churches service. So, the Pastor was giving a great sermon then my mood shifted and I began to get really irritated for no reason. I am sitting there still watching like, “what is wrong with me? The enemy must be really upset that I am here watching the sermon because my Pastor is on fire today, and yet I am really annoyed.”
In the middle of the sermon (and this had to be God) I decide to make some breakfast all without checking my sugar mind you and as I’m doing so the utensils get really heavy, I feel my face go all sour, and then I remember “Hey I’m a diabetic. Maybe I should go check my sugar.”, and lo and behold it’s low. So I take in some sugar tablets, my sugar is going back up, I eat breakfast and then think my day is finally going to go right. Dead wrong. The phone rings while my mood is still on the rise and my boyfriend is telling me about the bad things that have been going on in his day. I start telling him about my day and then about himself… and life is just not going the way I had intended. So I turn to pray.
I begin asking the Lord to change my day from worse to much better. I expect Him to answer in a mighty big way; to part the red seas and do some miracle that the world will see and come to glorify God, but that didn’t happen and the message to me became clear. Sometimes answered prayer has a different outcome. We can expect things to go one way and God sees a different way of doing things that far outreaches our small expectations of Him. What I had in mind was prayer answered on a monumental level that would not have caused me to grow spiritually. What God had in mind was a change of my heart and my boyfriends in the form of prayer and guidance from close Christian friends.
When I met up with my boyfriend we were both a mess. We have been speaking with a close friend of ours who happens to be a Chaplain and he has been leading us to put God at the center of our lives, guiding us along in our soon approaching marriage. This day we had an appointment with him and we had had homework to do. I had completed mine and had bible verses and a prayer to hit the meaning home and my boyfriend hadn’t even done his, but he had it in his mind what he was going to say. I had had some words about that but when he did open his mouth to speak a breakthrough occurred and as I listened and watched him struggle with the words I began to see him in a new light. I saw his humanity, his struggles with God, and his struggles within himself. We cried and we held onto one another close and although the day still wasn’t perfect, to us in that moment it sure was. Our relationship grew with one another through the struggle and our friendship with my friend and his wife got closer and stronger too. I say all this to say my brothers and sisters out there, trust in God’s way. It is always better than ours.
Be blessed to be a blessing today. In Jesus name. Amen.
Facing Life In Christ 