Our Responsibility to God

Posted on February 19, 2024 by daaorg1214

I recently heard about an incident where a man argued with a Christian believer that was endeavoring to tell him about Jesus Christ. This man firmly believes that hell is nonsense and that all good people go to heaven. Salvation and the high price our Lord and Savior paid to make it available to us meant nothing to him, and he was adamant that the believer he was arguing with was wrong about God and wrong about heaven. It is inevitable that we are going to meet people that do not believe what the Bible says, and they are vehemently opposed to the truth. They think their opinions, thoughts, and beliefs outweigh what God has said in His Word. They have their own interpretation of the truth, and as much as we want them to know God through Jesus Christ, they will not let God’s truth into their hearts.

We are saved through God’s grace. The gift of salvation that Jesus Christ offers us is an extraordinary gift from God, and Ephesians 2:8-9 tells us that He gives us this gift by His grace; we can’t or didn’t do anything to earn it. Romans 10:9-10(NLT) says, “9 If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by openly declaring your faith that you are saved.” Our Heavenly Father is a God of order. He sets the conditions, requirements, and methods by which we must accept, worship, serve, love, and honor Him. He is so ordained that in order to be saved, we must open our mouths and declare out loud to others that Jesus Christ is Lord. And not only this, we must believe in our hearts, in the deepest part of our beings, that God raised Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son, from the dead.

This is the only way to be saved. There is no other way to become a child of God. We must accept Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Savior, and we must have faith in God’s resurrection power to be born again. Jesus Christ tells us in John 3:3(NLT), “I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God.” This is God’s truth, and what He says goes.

Salvation is an extraordinarily great gift from God and with it comes responsibility. This is the part that many people neglect. As God’s children, we can’t live any way we choose and call it holy, we must live the way God’s Word tells us to live. We must follow the example of Jesus Christ, and we are obligated to do the things he did.

In Matthew 28:18-20(NLT), Jesus Christ told the disciples, “18 I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. 19 Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. 20 Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” As believers, we have a responsibility to Jesus Christ to share his Gospel. Sharing the Good News about him and the salvation he offers is sharing his love with others, and there is no greater task or reward in life.

2Corinthians 5:20(NLT) tells us, “So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” This is our commission. We are to be ambassadors for Christ, and to share his love and light in this dark world, but there are many Christians living today that have never introduced anyone to Jesus. They have not recited a Bible verse to anyone, nor have they labored in prayer for their families and friends to be saved. They do not associate their neglect to act upon their call with the loss of momentum and stamina on this Christian journey, but they should. Hebrews 10:24 tells us that we should be thinking of creative ways to influence and inspire one another in doing good things that help and minister to others. When we are not doing our part ourselves, we are not truly able to influence others in this way.

James 2:26(NLT) says, “Just as the body is dead without breath, so also faith is dead without good works.” God designed things in such a way that our faith works together with the Christ-like works that we perform. In other words, a fully developed faith is more than just words, it’s action! It requires that we back it up, and this is where many of us get derailed. We must have it clear in our minds that Jesus Christ is where the action is. Anything that we do to follow his example and spread the Gospel is going to take us higher in the things of God.

There are many religions and many ways of believing that people have developed, but if those systems are not rooted in the Gospel of Jesus Christ in God’s Word, if they do not teach people about their responsibility to God, they are not pleasing to Him. Hebrews 10:22(ESV) echoes God’s requirement. It says, “Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith.” Well, how do we acquire a true heart in the full assurance of faith? Romans 10:17 tells us. It affirms that faith comes by hearing the Word of God.

Many people are in error by thinking they do not have to follow God’s Word. They don’t think they have to back their faith or fulfill their call, but they are sadly mistaken. Ephesians 1:3 declares that we have been blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places because of our union with Christ. We are packed to overflowing and oozing over with God’s bounty, and He expects us to do something with all that He’s given us. He expects us to impact His Kingdom by bringing glory to it.

Faith in God requires diligence in our commitment to please and honor Him. We can’t get away from that no matter what. We are obligated to share the Good News about Christ and not everyone will receive our witness. Some may be argumentative, but we must not be offended. Instead, we should be encouraged by every opportunity to speak the truth. Hebrews 11:26(NLT) says of Moses, “He thought it was better to suffer for the sake of Christ than to own the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking ahead to his great reward.” This is exactly the heart and mind that God wants each of us to have. Hebrews 11:6 declares that our God is a Rewarder! He will reward us for sharing His Gospel and for any persecution or ill-treatment that comes with following our call. We must fulfill our obligation to God through the example of Jesus Christ and know that God will bless and reward us for doing so. ■

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

The Manifestation of Your Blessings

Posted on February 12, 2024 by daaorg1214

Genesis 1:1(NLT) says, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” You and I do not know when the beginning began, but we know that whenever it was, God was there, because He tells us in Revelation 22:13(NLT), “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.” God is the only Giver of blessings, and this must be acknowledged by us in every way. Jesus Christ declared in John 4:24 that God is a Spirit, and the only way to worship Him is in spirit and in truth. In other words, we cannot worship God without knowing who He is. We must know the truth regarding the perfection of His magnificence, omnipotence, and omniscience, and we must be concerned with spiritual realities in order to worship God in the spirit. A lack of understanding and acceptance of this is the reason that many have not seen the manifestation of His blessings.

God has given us His Word because we must know it for ourselves. His Word is life to us! It is the bread of life, and without it we are malnourished and depleted in every way. We cannot do anything for the Kingdom of God without walking by the Spirit and living by God’s Word. Sadly, even many believers do not believe this to be true. God is not in heaven withholding the desires that we so desperately want for ourselves. Many people think that way, and because of it they are doubting His goodness and His Word. That is never a good place to be.

Psalm 84:11 tells us that God doesn’t withhold any good thing from those who love and honor Him. It is we who withhold His blessings from ourselves because we refuse to line up our thinking, living, and speaking with the culture of the realm where all blessings abide.

The big problem
To be concerned with spiritual realities, you must comprehend the Words of Jesus in John 6:63(NKJV), and you must do so deep down, even on a molecular level. He said “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.” The flesh profits nothing. You can’t be saved through the flesh. You can’t live eternally in the flesh, and you can’t please God in the flesh, because Romans 8:7 tells us that a mind that is set on the flesh is hostile towards God. That kind of mind is self-righteous, not faith-righteous. Therefore, a mind that is set on the flesh cannot submit to the ways of faith in God’s love.

This is a big problem with many individuals. They haven’t fully believed that life is spiritual, we are spiritual, and all blessings are spiritual. Everything comes from God and God is a Spirit, therefore, everything is spirit-u-al. 2Corinthians 4:18(NLT) tells us, “So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.” This world that so many of us are clinging so tightly to, it’s temporary. It’s here today, but it will not last, yet we see it as being more real than the Kingdom of God. That’s a serious issue. It will keep us from seeing the manifestation of our blessings.

Ephesians 1:3(NLT) tells us, “All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ.” This is extraordinary beyond belief! Pray that God gives you a revelation of the astounding truth of what He is revealing here. God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms! This is what God accomplished through the sacrifice and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The flood gates that had been locked since the sin of Adam and Eve were opened by Christ, and the outpouring of every spiritual blessing was lavished upon us through our Redeemer!

We tell ourselves that we’re walking in faith, when the reality of what God has already done escapes us. We’re assuming a posture of waiting on blessings that God has already released. We’re losing out because our minds are stuck in neutral. We’re not understanding spiritual realities, and therefore, we lack the spiritual strength to reach up and grab what is rightfully ours. This way of thinking interferes with our faith because it means we are not believing rightly. We must get to a place where we line our thoughts, confessions, and actions with our faith in God. We must recognize that He has already provided, and it is our responsibility to manifest in the natural what He has supernaturally released.

Definition of manifestation
As it pertains to the spiritual realm, manifestation is defined as the process of transferring blessings from the spiritual realm into the natural realm by focus, faith, and agreement with God’s Word. All blessings are spiritual, and they have already been given by God according to Ephesians 1:3. This puts the manifestation of those blessings to our natural realm under our privilege and responsibility. It is up to us to walk in Holy Spirit power. It’s our choice to move according to his guidance so that we loose the things that have held us back and excel in the things that propel us forward.

Your completeness in Christ was received when you gave your life to him. The work of that completeness was accomplished over two thousand years ago, through his sacrifice and resurrection. Right now, at this very moment, you have everything you need to walk in the victory of Christ and to live a more than abundant life. It is God’s delight to see you prosper in this way. Philippians 2:13(NKJV) says, “for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.” When the Holy Spirit came to dwell inside you, he brought to you God’s empowerment, and the Spirit is continually giving you the desire and the ability to do what pleases God. Manifestation of our desires takes place through our obedience to the Spirit. There is no other way.

Trust, see, and speak
We must come into the knowledge that God set the parameters for the manifestation of our desires. It is a spiritual process because God is a Spirit, and so are we! The only way to transfer from the wealth of His spiritual Kingdom is to trust Him, to see what He sees, and to speak what He speaks.

We must have faith in God’s goodness and love, and our faith is fueled by the vision that He gives us. Without a vision we perish. In other words, we’re just spinning our wheels, becoming exhausted but going nowhere. Many of us try to force faith, and we do this because we haven’t seen what God sees. We haven’t received a revelation from Him about the manifestation of the desires we seek. So, that should be the first item on our agenda. We should never try to get ahead of God regarding the timing and other details. He takes care of that. Our responsibility is to pray that He prepares us with the vision and directives for what we’ve asked to receive.

Lastly, we must understand Proverbs 18:21, that death and life are in the power of the tongue. If we don’t begin to speak what God speaks, to repeat His promises and to line up our thoughts and confessions with them, we are not in the flow of faith, and therefore, we are working against the manifestation process. You must open your mouth and begin to decree God’s favor and bounty over your existence. You must confess and affirm it so often that every cell in your makeup is drenched with the power and authority of Christ. So, work with God and partner with His Holy Spirit as he leads you on destiny’s path. Be willing to release anything that impedes your faith and believing so that your whole heart trusts God and is in agreement with every blessing that has your name on it. ■

Pay Attention When Something Feels Wrong

Posted on February 5, 2024 by daaorg1214

When we give our lives to Christ and become born-again, the Holy Spirit, God’s seed, comes to live inside us. Jesus Christ said in John 16:13(NLT), “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own but will tell you what he has heard. He will tell you about the future.” The Holy Spirit helps us to pray and to grow closer to God. He is the One who establishes the intimacy between us and our Heavenly Father that we desire so much. The Holy Spirit also communes with us spiritually, and when the enemy has plotted against us and we’re about to step into a trap, the Spirit is the One who warns us. This is why, more than any other time in history, it is crucial that we pay attention when something doesn’t feel quite right.

Watch what you say
Your confessions are a powerful instrument towards your wholeness and happiness in life. Some people hear this and think it is too radical to believe. They think that way because for a while now, believers have been taught certain things about faith, and it causes people to try to treat the goodness of God like a kid in a candy store. That’s not faith, that’s fantasy, and it leads to disappointment.

The reality is that we can’t please God without faith. Hebrews 11:6 tells us this. Faith is a fully persuaded, sold out belief in what God has promised in His Word. All blessings come from God and abide in the realm where He lives. Faith requires the full faculty of our minds and the words of our confession. Both must work together to transfer blessings in the spiritual realm into our natural realm. This is the way God set things up.

Without our confession and believing, we could not be saved. Romans 10:9(NLT) affirms, “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” 1John 4:15(NLT) declares, “All who confess that Jesus is the Son of God have God living in them, and they live in God.” Our salvation is received by the confession of our believing, and God’s forgiveness is received by the confession of our sins. Proverbs 18:21 declares that death and life are in the power of the tongue. We must open our mouths and speak words of life.

God created us in His image. He designed us in such a way that our minds and hearts must be aligned with His thoughts in order to bring His bounty from the spiritual realm into our physical realm. We do this through prayer, by the confession of truth, and by continuing to renew our minds to what God has said in His Word. Many of us don’t do this. We have made a habit pattern of speaking words that are against what God says. Just in the span of a casual conversation with a friend, we can nullify the blessings that were slated to come our way because we failed to confess the truth. Instead, we gave into negative and unfruitful talk because this is what our friends are used to hearing and it’s how they are used to speaking. We have got to change this if we want to step into greater levels of blessing.

Out of bounds
The standard of faith set by our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, is extraordinary, and God expects us to utilize the faith we’ve been given. Jesus Christ said in Mark 11:23(NLT), “I tell you the truth, you can say to this mountain, ‘May you be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ and it will happen. But you must really believe it will happen and have no doubt in your heart.” We’re so used to listening to what society says and doing what society does that for many of us, this phenomenal truth that Jesus spoke seems radical. Some of us simply don’t believe what he’s telling us about having faith and speaking to our circumstances through the confession of our faith.

Jesus said in Mark 11:24(NLT), “I tell you, you can pray for anything, and if you believe that you’ve received it, it will be yours.” Believing and trusting God when we pray is the appropriate mindset for the believer. Nothing less will do, but most people simply do not believe they can have what God says they can have by the power of their confession. We need to get it into our minds and hearts that faith is the norm. Doubt and fear are abnormal, because 2Timothy 1:7 tells us that God didn’t give us doubt and fear; He gave us a spirit of love, power, and sound mind.

It’s our responsibility to exercise faith, and if we don’t, our lives will not be as blessed as they could be. Our lack of faith positions us further away from God. It moves us out of bounds, and this is where we experience feelings that tell us something is wrong. Often, we don’t realize it, but these are warnings that we are too far outside the boundaries of where God says we should be. We’re confessing and thinking the wrong things, and they are taking up too much space in our hearts. Our lives are heading in the wrong direction. We feel it, but because of all the noise in the background, we can’t hear the message that was spoken to our spirits.

That feeling is telling us that something is going to happen as a result of what we’ve been saying and believing, and it isn’t going to be well with us. Know that the Holy Spirit is speaking to your spirit and warning you to begin to renew your mind and change the way you think and speak. Do not allow this warning to fall on deaf ears. Often when something feels wrong, it is wrong, and we need to pay attention. Through our faith, prayers, and confession, the Holy Spirit will help us turn things around. Then, the only thing we will feel is incredible gratitude to God because He warns us when we’re out of bounds, and He is always willing to help us find our way back to Him.

Don’t Let Anything Shake Your Faith

Posted on January 29, 2024 by daaorg1214

I’m sure you know believers that have witnessed incredible manifestations of their faith. Like me, there are others you might know that have been praying for their desires a very long time, and they are still waiting. Not only are they waiting, but they are wondering. They want to know why others seem to be blessed in phenomenal ways, but they’re not seeing this kind of movement in their own lives. It can be very disappointing, and some are offended to such a degree that they leave the faith altogether. God doesn’t want this to happen to anyone. 1Timothy 2:4(NLT) tells us that He “wants everyone to be saved and to understand the truth.” Our allegiance to trusting and understanding this verse is really where the rubber meets the road. Romans 10:17 tells us that faith comes by hearing the truth, and sometimes our disappointment is a result of simply not hearing enough of the truth from God’s Word.

The psalmist wrote in Psalm 138:2(NKJV), “I will worship toward Your holy temple, And praise Your name For Your lovingkindness and Your truth; For You have magnified Your word above all Your name.” This is more magnificent than our brains can compute. God, the Great I Am, Alpha and Omega, Jehovah Elohim, the One True Living God, and Creator of all that we survey has elevated His Word above His name. Every Word spoken from the mouth of God is true. Hebrews 6:18 tells us that it is impossible for God to lie. This is our 150 million percent guarantee that God is faithful to His Word. He will forever honor it and back His Word up with all that He is.

Hebrews 11:1(NLT) tells us, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” God is a Spirit, and He gives to us what He is. Every good thing originates from Him, and everything that comes from Him is spiritual, because it can’t be anything else. Ephesians 1:11(NLT) declares, “All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ.” God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing, and every blessing, without exception, is spiritual.

Faith is a gift from God, and it is spiritual. It’s the spiritual substance that He used to create the universe. There’s no one greater than God and there’ s no greater authority than the truth of every Word that He speaks. He created faith to come wherever the His truth is spoken. This is law!

When God said “Let there be light” in Genesis 1:3, light had no other choice but to obey the authority of God’s faith. He has given us this same faith through our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. So, according to the Words spoken by God in Romans 10:17, you and I can know resolutely that faith obeys the authority of God’s truth. Faith comes wherever the truth is believed, and the result of believing the truth of God’s Word is the manifestation of His blessings in the natural realm.

Faith is God’s law in operation! Again, faith is a spiritual substance. We know that life is in every gift that comes from above; therefore, faith has life because it comes from God. Like everything that comes from the Father, faith is immutable, righteous, lovely, and perfect in every way. Our mission, then, should be to live on par with the life of faith, so that Christ is manifested in all that we do. Hebrews 12:28(NLT) tells us, “Since we are receiving a Kingdom that is unshakable, let us be thankful and please God by worshiping him with holy fear and awe.” From this we should clearly see that God expects our faith in Him to be as unshakable as the Kingdom that we represent.

Even if you and I are not manifesting ‘all spiritual blessings’, God’s Word declares that we can, and that is His desire for us. He blessed us with all spiritual blessings in Christ from the very beginning. It is our standing, our sonship right. The reality of how bountifully He’s provided is true even if we do not walk in all He has provided. Our lack is never the authority in any situation. God’s Word is the authority, and our level of believing must rise to this awesome truth.

We must stand on the truth that produces faith in our hearts and minds. The truth must be an internal reality that you live in every moment of every day. God commands us in Proverbs 3:5-6(NLT), “5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. 6 Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.” You and I are required to seek God’s Will. Jesus Christ affirmed this in Matthew 6:33. He commands us to seek God’s Kingdom and righteousness first in everything that we attempt to do. This means that we must pursue the wisdom and knowledge of God’s Word, because He has magnified His Word above His name.

Hebrews 11:6(NLT), “And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him.” More than anything, more than we want the desires of our hearts, we should want to please God. The way to accomplish this is to know Him through His Word. This is what means the most to Him, therefore it must mean the most to us. Don’t let anything shake your faith in God. He must see in you and in your heart that your relationship with Him will always come first. He loves you and wants you to grow in Christ. When knowing Him through His Word is what you truly desire, you’ll continually walk in the truth and witness the manifestation of His many blessings. ■

Convinced of His Love

Posted on January 22, 2024 by daaorg1214

Colossians 2:10 (NLT)
“So you also are complete through your union with Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority.”

When relationships don’t work out, it can be devastating to our lives, especially when it’s clear that our partner’s feelings have changed for us. When things were good, you never thought that he would betray your trust and diminish what you brought to the relationship. You were friends, and you can’t believe that your friend would cause you so much heartache. When we go through hurtful situations like this, the emotions and feelings we experience from the aftermath can be very surprising.

One of those surprising feelings is the sheer terror that we experience internally from the loss of the relationship. We don’t quite know what to do with it, and the anxiety it causes sometimes makes us do things we never thought we would. Some of us will badger the ex or worse, go after his new girlfriend. We lose it emotionally, and we’re terrified of reaching the bottom of all that pain and only find that there’s more of it.

God commands us in Psalm 37:8(NLT), “Stop being angry! Turn from your rage! Do not lose your temper–it only leads to harm.” When we use profane language, slander, and violence as a way of coping with pain, we’re providing an opening for satan to punish us more. When we take our disappointment, anger, and sadness out on others, we’re punishing ourselves by digging a deeper hole of darkness. These are actions that keep us separated from the right person that God has ordained to walk with us through life. Actions that go against the grain of God’s love are never sanctioned by Him. Jesus Christ offers us the best way to deal with our heartache, and it requires us to keep a steady head, a stable heart, and a deep commitment to prayer.

Another emotional low is the dip in our self-esteem when someone falls out of love with us. We sometimes beat ourselves up for not recognizing the signs, or we become depressed because we think we’re not enough or not loveable. Feeling this way is a sure indicator that we need to seek the Lord with all that we are. We allow a broken relationship to injure our self-esteem because we depended way too much on another individual to validate our self-worth.

Only God can validate our worth, and He did this thousands of years ago when He sent His only begotten Son to the earth to give his life as a sacrifice for our sins. If we treasure the gift of eternal life, and if we honor our relationship with God, one of the things we must make absolutely sure we never do, and that’s nullify the cross of Christ in any way. Jesus died for us, and this shows us the depth of God’s love, and the depth of Jesus’s love. If we have placed more focus on our pain than we do on the suffering of Christ, we need to make a change, and do it quickly.

1Corinthians 6:19-20(NLT) tells us, “19 Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, 20 for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.” We are God’s children. We belong to Him totally and completely. Christ purchased us from the realm of darkness with his blood. So, we should never look to another human being for validation. Do as Jesus Christ commanded the disciples in Matthew 10:15(NLT). If a household did not accept his message, he told the disciples to “shake its dust from your feet as you leave.” In other words, Jesus is instructing them to shake off the rejection, the sadness, the putting yourself down, and continue walking in the confidence of who God has made you.

We must have faith in our Heavenly Father. Be convinced of God’s love for you and let that be your anchor continually in life. We hurt down deep because we haven’t allowed that place to be exposed to the love of Jesus Christ. We can change this. We must pray for God’s healing, commit ourselves to be guided by His Holy Spirit, and have the courage and faith to push past the fear.

As a woman of God, you are never to be stuck in the quicksand of doubt and self-sabotage. Shake that loose! You are a child of the King. Let the love of Christ be your everlasting garment, and never stoop so low as to want someone that doesn’t want you. If the brother has not chosen to value you as God’s daughter and to see you as the treasure God created you to be, shake it off, bid him well, and in God’s grace, keep it moving.■

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

Godly Treasures

Posted on January 15, 2024 by daaorg1214

God told His people in Isaiah 45:3(NLT), “And I will give you treasures hidden in the darkness- secret riches. I will do this so you may know that I am the Lord, the God of Israel, the one who calls you by name.” As believers, we should never underestimate or overlook the reality that God tied treasures and riches to His identity. This is astoundingly good news, especially for those of us that are seeking Him to cross paths with our marital partners.

For single believers that have been praying for marriage a while now, we have an acute awareness of ‘treasures hidden in the darkness and secret riches’, because ‘hidden and secret’ is exactly how finding the right person feels to us. We know that marriage is God’s institution, and that it is ordained and blessed by Him. He has given this institution to us as a way of blessing us and our family units. He desires that Godly parents will raise Godly children, and He has commanded parents to take care of their kids and bring them up in Godliness. So, marriage is a really big deal in the Will and Plan of God. It is to be honored as such, and this is one of the reasons why most of us view a Godly compatible, loving, and compassionate partner to be such a treasure.

In this verse in Isaiah 45:3, when God refers to treasures that are hidden in the dark and secret riches, He is instructing us about treasures and riches that are hidden from our physical eyes. Our Heavenly Father is not withholding these goodies from us, and they are not treasures that belong to the realm of darkness, but somehow satan has managed to hide them from our physical eyes. The reason for this is because we do not yet have the spiritual vision to see beyond satan’s tricks and plots.

1Corinthians 2:14(NLT) tells us, “But people who aren’t spiritual can’t receive these truths from God’s Spirit. It all sounds foolish to them and they can’t understand it, for only those who are spiritual can understand what the Spirit means.” Every person that is born-again through the Lord Jesus Christ has received God’s Spirit, but every person that is born-again is not walking in God’s Spirit to the extent that they can and should.

Just as we have five senses in the physical world, we have senses in the Spirit as well. It would benefit us greatly to strengthen them. In the physical realm for instance, newborns have five senses, but as infants that are not adept at using them. They can see no further than eight or twelve inches away, and anything further is blurry to their little eyes. Most often, if a child continues to grow and flourish, their vision, hearing, and other senses will sharpen and increase. Likewise, in the spiritual, God expects that we will spiritually grow in Christ. He expects that as we increase our faith through the knowledge of His Word, our spiritual vision will not be foggy or blurry. Instead, we will mature from spiritual infants to spiritual maturity in Christ.

In 2Peter 3:15-17, God warns us not to misuse the truth of His Word by twisting it to mean something other than what He has spoken. He warns us not to be tricked by wicked people who use clever words to distort the truth. We will slip away from the faith if we do this. If we fail to seek the truth by walking in the Spirit, we might become full of ourselves and think we can bend God’s truth to fit our selfish desires. This is not good. It will work against us. God warns that it will bring destruction to our lives.

We can’t navigate being single without God’s guidance and leadership. Many single people don’t believe this, and they are committed to doing what they’ve always done. They think their way will lead to success, but Proverbs 19:21(NLT) tells us, “You can make many plans, but the LORD’s purpose will prevail.” When we ask for God’s help in our quests for marriage, He’s going to examine if we are spiritually mature enough to steward or manage His Godly treasure. Are we still spiritual infants, not yet pursuing God’s Word the way He expects? If we are, God doesn’t tell us “no”, He waits for our spiritual maturity to increase and equal the blessing we seek. Physical maturity occurs as we age, but unlike the physical, God has given us the responsibility for the acceleration of our spiritual maturity, so we should never blame Him for not blessing us. Instead we should pray and increase our commitment to grow in Christ.

The blessing is ours, but we can’t do things our own way and neglect to meet God’s requirement. We must humble ourselves before Him. We must attend to our relationship with God and be committed to go and grow higher in Christ. God commands us in 2Peter 3:18(NLT), “Rather, you must grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” Spiritual maturity is obtained by reading, studying, and meditating on God’s Word. Our level of commitment to this will increase our spiritual vision and strength. Then, the Godly treasures we seek will no longer be hidden, they will be in plain sight, clothed in all their glory, and perfectly suited to fit our lives. ■

Worthy of God’s Love

Posted on January 8, 2024 by daaorg1214

Roman 8:29-30(NLT)
“29 For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. 30 And having chosen them, he called them to come to him. And having called them, he gave them right standing with himself. And having given them right standing, he gave them his glory.”

A woman in her senior years heard that I’m an avid reader of the Bible. She said to me, “When you’re reading the Word, and you come across the statement, ‘Kingdom of Heaven’, ask God to make you worthy of reading His Word.” To some, this might sound like a very pious and humble practice. It was sincere no doubt, but sincerity is no guarantee for truth. Believers living in our era are blessed beyond measure because we have tremendous access to God’s Word. Our all-powerful, all-knowing, all-loving God did this deliberately. The revelation and understanding we have today exceeds anything that you and I could have ever imagined. Because of what God has done, we have liberty! Galatians 5:1(NLT) tells us, “So Christ has truly set us free. Now make sure that you stay free, and don’t get tied up again in slavery to the law.” Christ has freed us, and we must do all that we can to ensure we never go backwards when it comes to the liberty we have obtained in Christ.

If a person never reads this wonderful truth in Galatians 5:1 because they felt unworthy to do so, they might not ever be saved. That would indeed be tragic, and it’s not what God wants. Jesus Christ died on the cross for everyone, not just the saved and religious. 1Timothy 2:4(NLT) declares that God “wants everyone to be saved and to understand the truth.”

The Bible is a spiritual book written to God’s spiritual people. Everyone that is living today doesn’t want to be considered as God’s spiritual people, so the Bible isn’t written to them. Many in the world today have never picked up a Bible or attempted to read it, but for those that are genuinely interested in learning more about our Lord and Savior, God has a plan for them. Romans 8:29 tells us that He chose us in advance to be brothers and sisters of Christ, and He gave us right standing with Him. He stamped us “worthy” through Jesus Christ, and then He gave us His glory! God is God all by Himself. He isn’t redundant in any way whatsoever. So, we can trust and believe that if He stamped us worthy through Christ once, He doesn’t have to do it again.

You and I didn’t choose God first, He chose us first, and our right standing in Him makes us worthy of reading His Word. Ephesians 1:3(NLT) declares, “All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ.” When God says, “all”, He means “all”. Because of the finished work of Christ—the sacrifice and resurrection of our blessed Savior, God has given us ALL spiritual blessings. Not one spiritual blessing do we lack. This is the Gospel! It’s the Good News about Jesus Christ and what he has accomplished for our salvation and eternal life.

In the Old Testament, God’s people were under the covenant He made with Abraham, who is our father of believing because he was fully persuaded that what God promised, He was also able and willing to fulfill. Genesis 17:7(NLT) tells us that God told Abraham, “I will confirm my covenant with you and your descendants after you, from generation to generation. This is the everlasting covenant: I will always be your God and the God of your descendants after you.” There is, and never was, anything more precious, wonderful, and life-giving than being God’s people. He loved them so much that He made a covenant with them, but God’s people did not keep this covenant. They refused to obey His Word.

God did not stop loving them, but He always had a plan for our salvation through Jesus Christ. Hebrews 8:6(NLT) says, “But now Jesus, our High Priest, has been given a ministry that is far superior to the old priesthood, for he is the one who mediates for us a far better covenant with God, based on better promises.” The heart of God was to dwell with His people and keep them safe, just as His desire is to be with us, but those living in Old Testament times would not obey His Word and remain holy. In the New Testament, Jesus Christ established the new covenant between us and God, and now through the new birth reality, God dwells IN us through His Holy Spirit. Hebrews 9:12 tells us that with his own blood, Jesus Christ entered the Most Holy Place once and for all and secured our redemption forever. Verse 15 tells us, “That is why he is the one who mediates a new covenant between God and people, so that all who are called can receive the eternal inheritance God has promised them. For Christ died to set them free from the penalty of the sins they had committed under that first covenant.”

This was God’s plan, not ours. He’s the One who chose us to be His children. Ephesians 2:10(NLT) tells us, “For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.” The wealth of what God has planned for us in beyond our greatest dream and imagination, and He planned these good things for us even before we were in our mother’s womb. Romans 5:18(NLT) declares, “Yes, Adam’s one sin brings condemnation for everyone, but Christ’s one act of righteousness brings a right relationship with God and new life for everyone.” We do not need to ask the Father to make us worthy when He sent Christ to do that over two thousand years ago. God is not redundant in any way. He’s perfection beyond perfection. He sent Christ on a mission, and he accomplished it perfectly.

Think about all that God wanted for us, all that He sent His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to earth to accomplish for our redemption. Think about how he agonized and suffered on the cross before God rose him from dead. Why would God go through all this to make us righteous before Him, and then have us think we are unworthy to read His Word? The answer is that He alone has already made us worthy through Christ by giving us His Holy Spirit to dwell within. God alone has made us worthy of His love through Christ, and we are fully redeemed from the curse of the law. We are free to read and study His Word, to live for Him, and to bring Him glory in all that we do!■

Get Up and Pray

Posted on January 1, 2024 by daaorg1214

Luke 22:44-44 (NLT)
44He prayed more fervently, and he was in such agony of spirit that his sweat fell to the ground like great drops of blood. 45 At last he stood up again and returned to the disciples, only to find them asleep, exhausted from grief. 46“Why are you sleeping?” he asked them. “Get up and pray, so that you will not give in to temptation.”

At one of the most challenging times of his life, our Lord and Savior wanted those closest to him to pray with him. There’s no doubt that part of his laboring in prayer to our Heavenly Father was for the disciples. He wanted the Word that he taught to them to be anchored in their hearts and minds, and to be so to such a degree that they would not fall for the tricks of the enemy and yield to temptation. He knew what he had been sent to do, and it’s not too much of a stretch to think that in his humanity, he wanted to see the disciples persevering with vigilance and prayer during that difficult time. It was not to be. His disciples fell asleep when he had asked them to stay awake and be watchful. They were asleep at the wheel, so to speak, and as children of God, this is the kind of behavior we should never want to mimic.

There’s no question that life comes with opportunities for both joy and pain. However, we are often surprised by just how challenging situations and circumstances on the painful side of life can be. It can be tough to face pain, disappointment, and a broken heart with the joy and faith of Christ. Sometimes, we feel like laying in the bed and crying for days, but our powerful Lord offers us another more meaningful way to handle the hiccups and dilemmas of our lives. His instruction and encouragement to us is to ‘get up and pray’.

Each of us may process emotional distress differently, but at some point, we have to ask ourselves if we are going to believe and trust God to do what He’s promised in His Word. We have nothing like the circumstances our precious Lord and Savior faced, but his example is the one we’re commanded to follow. He was not weak by any means. There has never been or will ever be any human as strong as he was when he carried out his ministry within the earth. Our Heavenly Father was the Source of his strength. So, if there was anyone who would have been exempt from prayer, it would have been Jesus Christ, but he prayed all the time because it is required to remain spiritually strong.

We must pray continually because this is what our Savior has taught us. Mark 1:35(NLT) says, “Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.” Prayer was his habit pattern and praying early in the mornings meant that before he saw the face of anyone else, he sought the face of God. Again, a habit of earnest prayer is a standard that allows us to remain spiritually strong, so that the difficult seasons of life will not cause us to turn our backs on our faith in God.

1Peter 4:12-14(NLT) says, “12 Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though something strange were happening to you; 13 but to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that at the revelation of His glory you may also rejoice and be overjoyed. 14 If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory, and of God, rests upon you.” It’s a myth to assume that just because we are followers of the Lord Jesus, and filled with God’s Holy Spirit, that we will not face fiery ordeals. Sometimes, our weaknesses are attacked by the enemy. Other times, we might have to keep quiet when we really want to give people a piece of our minds. We have to make sacrifices and not do some of the things we enjoyed in the past. These sufferings are far from what our Master Jesus endured, but because we are lights living in a dark world, we do share in his sufferings on some level.

He tells us to keep on rejoicing because even though things are not comfortable, God has blessed us, and the Holy Spirit will comfort and help us to be victorious in Christ. We must not forget that we have the strength of God because our bodies are the Holy Spirit’s temple; he lives inside us. Our Heavenly Father knows that we’re going to go through some tough times, but through Christ, we have the strength to stay encouraged and never give up. So, whatever you’re facing, get up and pray. Pray often. Even though you might have tears and sadness, God is able to heal, deliver, rescue, and restore you, no matter the circumstance. He will show you His power and love if you have faith in Him and make turning to Him in prayer the most important practice of your life.■

Celebrate that He Came, and He’s Coming Again!

Posted on December 25, 2023 by daaorg1214

Jesus is the reason for the season. We hear this truism everywhere during this time of year, and rightly so. Those of us that love God and are followers of the Lord Jesus Christ herald the truth of Christmas from the roof tops. We know that the celebration is not about how many presents we have under the tree. It’s about the joy of our blessed Savior being born into the world over two thousand years ago. The blessing of Jesus Christ coming into the world to save us is beyond anything we can imagine. However, as we celebrate his birth, there’s also a little bit of disappointment as well. The world has tried to overshadow the true joy of the birth of Christ with commercialism and anxiety about finances and gift-giving. We live in a time where many children grow up thinking that Santa is deity rather than our glorious Creator and Heavenly Father. They aren’t being taught about the goodness of God and the miracle of Jesus’s birth. This is very sad indeed.

We all remember having butterflies in our tummies as children because we couldn’t wait until Christmas morning. It’s one of the reasons we love it so much today, but the wonder of Christmas is the miraculous change that the life of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, made in us and all of creation. So, we can’t allow ourselves to get lost in the glitz and glamor of the world’s Christmas culture. We can’t lose sight of the reality of God’s glory that is revealed to us in Christ. Our Heavenly Father changed everything for humanity through the birth of His only begotten Son. He demonstrated His great love for us all by allowing His Son to come into the world, and this must be our true focus.

As followers of Christ, of course we focus on his first Advent, his arrival—his birth, which was prophesied by God through His prophet, Isaiah. In Isaiah 7:14(ESV), God told His people living during Old Testament times, “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” In Isaiah 9:6-7(ESV), God proclaimed, “6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7 Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.”

As we know, God is perfect and precise. He keeps His law and accordingly, He establishes His truth. The law given in Deuteronomy 19:15(NLT), says “You must not convict anyone of a crime on the testimony of only one witness. The facts of the case must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.” This is a theme of God’s truth that can be found throughout His Word. Jesus Christ is the promised One, the Messiah and Wonderful Counselor, the Prince of Peace that God prophesied about through Isaiah over 700 years prior to His only begotten Son’s birth. God establishes this Word spoken through Isaiah in the Gospels, and He does so through Simeon and Anna, in Luke 2.

During the time of the birth of Jesus, the custom was to make a purification offering after the birth of a child. If the child was a boy, he had to be dedicated to the Lord. So, Mary and Joseph, Jesus’s parents, took him to Jerusalem. Luke 2:25-31(NLT) says, “25 At that time there was a man in Jerusalem named Simeon. He was righteous and devout and was eagerly waiting for the Messiah to come and rescue Israel. The Holy Spirit was upon him 26 and had revealed to him that he would not die until he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. 27 That day the Spirit led him to the Temple. So when Mary and Joseph came to present the baby Jesus to the Lord as the law required, 28 Simeon was there. He took the child in his arms and praised God, saying, 29 “Sovereign Lord, now let your servant die in peace, as you have promised. 30 I have seen your salvation, 31 which you have prepared for all people.”

Simeon was one witness according to God’s law of Deuteronomy 19:15, Anna was another. She was a prophet, the daughter of Penuel, and was at an advanced age of 84. Anna’s age equals seven twelves, a sign from our Heavenly Father of divine completeness. Anna’s father’s name was taken from the name of the place where Jacob, Abraham’s grandson, saw an appearance of the face of God, and unlike many who could not survive the sight, Jacob lived. Genesis 32:30(NLT) says, “Jacob named the place Peniel (which means “face of God”), for he said, “I have seen God face to face, yet my life has been spared.” And, so it is with Anna and Simeon, they were waiting in the temple to see God in Christ face to face.

Imagine the joy that Simeon and Anna experienced. They waited decades for the comfort of seeing the Savior that had been promised. They were God’s appointed witnesses that the Messiah, the Prince of Peace had been born! The joy of that moment was inexplicable, but it is the joy you and I should express every day. He was born! The Savior of the entire world was born into the world! It should fill our lives with excitement and glee every day that we live and breathe.

God always, always completes what He begins. He is the same today, yesterday, and forever. He is faithful, true, and brings life and light to us all. In the hustle and bustle of the season, we so need to keep our eyes focused on the reason for the season. As the Body of Christ, we are standing between two proclamations, the Lord is come, and the Lord is coming again. So, with all that is going on, let’s celebrate the birth of Christ with joy. Let’s focus on his love, because you and I are the witnesses and recipients of the gift and glory of Jesus Christ, and we can hold on to the jubilant reality that indeed he is coming again! ■

God is With You

Posted on December 18, 2023 by daaorg1214

Isaiah 41:10(ESV)
“Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”

God is with us when we go through some of the darkest times of our lives. When we feel lost and don’t know what to do, and we’re wondering how we ended up in the space and place we’re in, we can be encouraged in the Lord. Our Heavenly Father is with us all the time, and He is always willing and able to help us in our times of need. Sometimes, we let our feelings get in the way of accepting this truth. Then we fail to acknowledge the presence and power of God. Romans 8:1(NKJV) says, “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.” Feelings of condemnation can enter the picture when we don’t feel good enough, or we think that God won’t hear our prayers because we’ve done wrong things. This isn’t true, and we shouldn’t let feelings of unworthiness keep us from reaching out to our Heavenly Father.

God tells us in Revelation 22:13 that He is Alpha and Omega, the first and last, and the beginning and the end. He knows the end at the beginning, and He knows the beginning at the end. He’s not forgetful, and there isn’t anything that He does not know. He said in Isaiah 55:9(NLT), “For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.” God has all power and intelligence, and our problems and issues are never too big for Him to solve.

Domestic violence and abuse usually occurs in the shadows, and most victims try to keep it hidden, but we can’t hide it from God, although many of us behave as though we can. We might think He doesn’t see our pain and that He will not help us escape the constant fear that many live under. With those who suffer domestic violence and abuse, relationships become an emotional roller-coaster. The abuser may be charming and sweet at times. They are often apologetic and very passionate, and this leaves us torn between staying and leaving. It’s also the reason that many individuals remain in abusive and unhealthy relationships. They feel imprisoned on so many levels, but rest assured, through Jesus Christ, there is a way of escape.

Abusive relationships and situations can bring a lot of shame as well as other emotions that keep us living life on the edge, but no matter the circumstance, we can’t limit what God can do to bring us freedom and wholeness. Things happen in this world that we live in that are brutal, chaotic, and bring a lot of suffering. This gets complicated by our lack of knowledge about our identities in Christ and a misunderstanding of who God is. Proverbs 19:21(ESV) tells us, “Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand.” The burdens of life weigh heavy on us, so much so that we forget that God has a purpose for our lives, and there’s no way to get around the reality that His purpose must be fulfilled.

God’s purpose is for us to live in Christ, to be in relationship with Him through Christ and to do all the good things that He planned for us long ago. His purpose is not for us to be abused in any way or to suffer in life, and we must allow for the reality that our minds and hearts need to change to see His love in a greater way.

We should never allow anything to cause us to shrink away from God. He knew the mistakes we’d make before we made them. He knows our weaknesses and said in 2Corinthians 12:9(NLT), “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” The most important thing in life is to be in relationship with God. It’s so wonderful to know that our relationship with God isn’t dependent on us and how much we love Him, it’s all about Him and His love for us, because He loves us no matter what. So, the very best thing we can do for ourselves is to acknowledge and be thankful that God is always with us. He is always willing to come to our aid, and if we ask Him in prayer, He’ll take the things we did wrong and use them to teach us to love Him, ourselves, and others through His grace, strength, and power. ■

Domestic Abuse Awareness.Org

Breaking the chains of domestic abuse through the power of Jesus Christ.