Dear Beloved Of God
I want to communicate to you what I am receiving from our Heavenly Father: He desires us to fellowship with Him in worship. In the epistle of John 4:23-24, Jesus teaches us that the hour has come for all true worshipers to worship the Father in spirit and in truth. He actually says that the Father seeks those to worship Him in this manner.
Interestingly, Jesus does not relate worship to a place, as the woman to which He was directly speaking did. She said she was taught that the Samaritans worshiped in this mountain and the Jews spoke of worshiping in Jerusalem. Our Lord teaches that genuine worshipers humble and prostrate themselves from a heart of thanksgiving and gratitude. This worship takes its form of words spoken to our Heavenly Father or our Mediator, Jesus Christ.
King David, in Psalm 8:1-2, states, “O Lord, our Lord how excellent is Your Name in all the earth… and that He has set His glory above all the earth”. David didn’t just think only these thoughts of God, but verbalizes them in songs. Verse 2 states, God has established strength to flow from the mouths of youths (babes and unweaned infants) to silence the enemy and the avenger. What this meant is clarified by Jesus Christ Himself in Matthew 21:15-16. Young boys and girls were crying out Hosanna to the Son of David (Jesus Christ) and the chief priests were indignant.
Jesus refers to Psalm 8:2 when David speaks prophetically, “Out of the mouths of babes and unweaned infants You have made (provided) perfect praise”. I don’t understand completely how this all works, but God gives understanding to those that ask. Praising God is a strength that is able to silence the enemy and stop him in his tracks. This strength is available to all Christians. It doesn’t matter the maturity level of the believer. Jesus said baby, and even those that are still on milk, new babies.
Today let the strength of God flow from your heart in the form of praising Him for all His works and benefits. (Psalm 103) In doing so we magnify our Heavenly Father and silence the enemy; give weight to what God has said; glorify what He has done; and shut-up the enemies of God at the same time! Satan can not stand before us when we praise our Father God.
Jesse Kelly
Read MoreGod’s Grace
God’s Grace – It is not just unmerited favor – but the power that we have in Him.
For by God’s grace (power) are you saved through faith.. and that NOT of yourselves, it is a gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast. I cannot in myself be good enough, beg enough, say enough, confess enough, do enough things, try to live the best I can, and walk in my own self to be eligible for God’s grace. It only comes through faith in HIM and His grace to us. In ourselves – our selfish selves – we cannot ever be holy enough to deserve His grace. Holiness is a byproduct of you wanting to live for God; wanting to change your life because you love Him.
His grace is power and freely given. It is a gift that you can receive by just reaching out and accepting His love, His peace, His joy, and His grace to us. When we really realize that God loves us so much. He does not put sickness and disease on us, as He is our Heavenly father and wants nothing more than to have us walk in divine health. 3 John 2 says “Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.”
When I was a child I heard a lot of people say- well you are sick because of what you did in the past and God is punishing you. I am so thankful that God is our healer. He does not put sickness and disease on us, and even though we do things in our life and we suffer the illness from the things that we have done, God is still our healer. He bore the stripes on the cross for our healing. I praise God that He loves us so much – unconditional love – as stated in Romans 8: 38 & 39. I’m absolutely convinced that nothing—nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable—absolutely nothing can get between us and God’s love, because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us. Praise God for His Grace.
Read MoreAll About Moses’s Circumstances
Pastor Jeff recently taught us how to hear God’s voice. Without a doubt, the majority in the Body of Christ that Wednesday night were glued to their seats with ears and eyes wide open. In an almost uncomfortable way the listeners were very quiet. There was no hand clapping, no “Amen, Brother!” just a purely focused silence to Pastor Jeff’s every word.
When God spoke to Moses on Mount Horeb, Moses’s circumstances completely changed. His anxiety level shot up. After he heard exactly what God wanted him to do, that would be God’s plan for Moses’s life, he pushed the panic button.
Moses’s circumstances pushed him into the “what-if’s”? He said, “God, suppose I go to the people of Israel and I tell them, “The God of your fathers sent me to you; and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ What do I tell them?”
Do you see that panic attack coming over Moses? Then God tells Moses, “I-AM-WHO-I-AM!” Can you imagine what the people of Israel had for initial thoughts?
I noticed when I re-read Exodus Chapter 3 that my e-sword commentary pointed out that God’s call to Moses may be divided into 5 parts. They are: circumstances, confrontation, consternation, instructions, and complaints. The question is: can we learn from Moses? By his story, do we see the truth on how to answer people today when they ask about our God?
What is your reply? Myself? I stick to what I know: my God is my healer; my God died on the cross for my sins; and He rose again to prepare a home for me in heaven. My God supplies all my needs; my God is my friend; and He loves me. My God had plans and a purpose for me before I even arrived on planet earth. My God is love. My God gives me my daily bread. My God left an instruction manual for me to read, my Bible. For me, my God is everything, and that’s exactly what He wants to be for you.
Read MoreLearning To Bloom Where You Are Planted
Plants can grow in very strange places. The Lord gave me a ‘teaching moment’ about ten years ago on a trip to the mountains. I was admiring the wonderful scenery, when I heard a word from the Lord. He said, look at the trees growing out of the side of the mountain. I said, that’s a hard place for them to grow, but yet they found a way. Then He said, this is what I want my people to do; “Bloom where they are planted”.
Just imagine, the blades it took to cut through the mountain to make the highways. The trees and plants just grow with ease though that’s the hardest ground. The trees and plants not only grow from the hardest ground, but they point themselves toward the SUN. It’s amazing how God has created them to reach upward to the sun for nourishment. In our lives, we find someone to look up to. That’s how we grow. We look up to the SON of God. He gives us strength in the hardest of places.
The places we are planted in our lifetime sometimes are very hard places. The word says in Is. 43:2 -When you pass through the water, I will be with you, and through the rivers they shall not overflow you when you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.
We must believe and have confidence in God and His Word, which is Jesus, in order to bloom where we are planted. II Timothy 1:12 says, – For the which cause I also suffer these things; nevertheless I am not ashamed; for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day. Romans 4:21 – And being fully persuaded that, what He has promised, He was able also to perform.
God has given us promises in the Word of God to stand on. We must find those promises and put them in our heart so that we won’t forget them in time of trouble.
What’s down in the well, will come up in the bucket! Be a doer of the word (James 1:22; John 3:21).
I believe that God wants us to bloom, because He has a plan for our lives. That’s why we should remember: Hebrews 12:2 – Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. Jesus will finish what He has started in us. Never, never, give up!
God values us so much that He calls us salt: Matt. 5:13 – Ye are the salt of the earth; but if the salt have lost his savor, wherewith shall it be salted? It is thence forth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and trodden under foot of men. He wants us to bring flavor to the world around us.
God also calls us light: Matt. 5 :14 -Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. 15- Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. 16- Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. That is our goal; to glorify our Heavenly Father!
If God values us so much He numbers the hair on our head, then as in- Luke 12 :7 says – How much more should we value Him, to honor and obey His Word. This is how to bloom: to honor and obey my Abba Father; to be salt so others will thirst for the Christ in us; and to be a light for the world to see.
Jackie Kelly
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Christ In You The Hope of Glory!
We go from faith to faith, power to power, glory to glory, trial to trial, and one measure of grace to another measure of grace. He only is the author and finisher of my faith. Pastor Duane has started the “Mysteries of God” series and shared the anagram below about faith, the 2nd sermon in this series.
Mystery of Faith
F = Christ died F or us
A = Christ died A s us
I = Christ lives I n us
T = Christ lives T hrough us
H = Christ the H ope of glory
It all begins with a revelation of Jesus and ends with Him. We begin with faith in Him; we live by faith in Him; and we finish by faith in Him. It began on the Cross and was finished on the Cross. Christ lives through me. We are renewing our soul (the mind, will, and emotions) by revelation given by the Holy Spirit through the Word (Jesus is the living Word). My spirit man has everything it needs, because it was born again. I have Christ in me the hope of glory!
I was my problem before Christ. He has delivered me from the dominion of sin. I can run to Him now, and the sin that use to keep me in bondage has no more power over me. I don’t have to be bound to the same things that kept me in bondage previously. My old man was crucified with Christ. It is a daily walk with Christ and I working together to overcome what the devil and my flesh throw at me.
As I read the Bible and renew my mind to what the Word says about situations, I have a choice. I choose to obey the Word, what it says, or I listen to the voice of the world. Pastor Duane brought up a couple of ways that Satan diminishes the power of the Cross.
1) Law=self effort (When you look to yourself or works, you diminish the power of the Cross. The whole Christian life is: I believe I receive, thank you, Jesus! The Good News is “you” aren’t in the equation.)
2) Philosophy=man’s wisdom (Not by faith in myself or human reasoning, but faith in Christ and what He did for me on the Cross. Human reasoning diminishes the power of the Cross.)
Colossians 2:6-10 GNT 6) Since you have accepted Christ Jesus as Lord, live in union with Him. 7) Keep your roots deep in Him, build your lives on Him, and become stronger in your faith, as you were taught. And be filled with thanksgiving. 8 ) See to it, then, that no one enslaves you by means of the worthless deceit of human wisdom, which comes from the teachings handed down by human beings and from the ruling spirits of the universe, and not from Christ. 9) For the full content of divine nature lives in Christ, in His humanity, 10) and you have been given full life in union with Him. He is supreme over every spiritual ruler and authority.
Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. We should listen to God only. We should not listen to worldly news, traditions of man,and ruling spirits of the universe (the devil). They diminish the power of the Cross in our lives. It goes back to this: Jesus is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. He who began a good work in you will finish it.
Phil 1:6 Amp And I am convinced and sure of this very thing, that He Who began a good work in you will continue until the day of Jesus Christ [right up to the time of His return], developing [that good work] and perfecting and bringing it to full completion in you.
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