You Are an Overcomer

Posted on March 25, 2024 by daaorg1214

As we walk in this Christian journey, there’s no doubt we’ll learn a thing or two about troubles and how they come in all sizes, and varied degrees of difficulty. Jesus Christ said to the disciples in John 16:33(NLT), “I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.” Our Lord and Savior made it very clear that life on earth comes with challenges, especially if you are following him. There will be those who don’t like us simply because we carry his light, and these individuals will sometimes come against us and do so vehemently. Jesus Christ has given us the appropriate response to challenges like these. We should take heart, which means to take courage and be strengthened, because Jesus Christ overcame the world. He won the victory over every obstacle, and through him, we will too.

God is not redundant or nonsensical. He would not tell us to do something we were incapable of doing. He tells us to take heart and be strengthened in the victory of Christ, because we are capable, as followers of Christ, to live that reality. Christ accomplished God’s mission perfectly. He didn’t leave one detail undone. Through him, God rescued us from sin and darkness, but not everyone will believe this or live it. So, the reality is that we will live the victory of Christ parallel to our faith in that victory. To the extent that we believe it, we can achieve it.

During our most challenging times in life, we are presented with a choice. We can believe God’s Word and His promises within it, or we can choose not to believe Him, but He wants us to take Him at His Word. He wants us to have faith in Him and invite Him into every aspect of our existences.

When my friend Jocelyn was contemplating bankruptcy, she was swimming in debt. A divorced mother of two with no savings, she had tried everything she knew to save her house, and she thought bankruptcy was her only option. Many of us feel hinged in this way. In our way of thinking, we run out of options, but in the Spirit, options are bountiful and unlimited. Troubling situations can seem like mountains we can’t climb when we see them from a human point of view. Jesus Christ gives us another view. In Mark 11:23(NLT), he taught, “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.”

The condition of our minds and hearts are so important to walking in faith. Our life’s lessons are mostly about this, showing us the disadvantage of doubt and anxiety, and the advantage of having faith in God. Romans 8:37(ESV) declares, “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” We are not just overcomers, but more than overcomers through Jesus Christ, who loves us and is continually rooting for us to succeed through him. The reality of the sacrifice and resurrection of our precious Lord is the foundation of our faith, and it is the root of any level of confidence we own as residents of earth and citizens of heaven.

In our significant relationships, some of us make the mistake of placing all our eggs in the basket of someone that is unqualified to hold them. The condition of our lives will mirror our error and levy against us circumstances that are the opposite of love and light. We must wake up and change this. Miraculously things happen in our lives and within our souls when we consciously put Jesus Christ in his rightful place of Lord in our lives. This means that no one, not a man, not mother, sister, brother, child or friend can be our everything. God is our Source, and only He can be our everything, because everything we are and could ever hope to be comes from Him. This must be settled in our minds and hearts, and when it is, our faith will be firmly placed in God through the Lord Jesus Christ, and our lives will be transformed.■

English Standard Version (ESV)
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

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.

Help Is on the Way

Posted on March 18, 2024 by daaorg1214

There was a time in my life when I struggled with doubt and anxiety. I questioned if God really heard my prayers and wondered if He was happy with the kind of life I was living. I had doubts because the situations that plagued me were emotionally draining, and they didn’t seem to be getting any better. I struggled spiritually because I couldn’t make sense of anything that was happening in my life and was convinced that the scriptures in the Bible would not relate to my circumstances. Then, one day I received a phone call from a woman of God. She challenged me to be completely honest and open with God and with myself, and then trust Him with the problems I faced. She encouraged me to be committed to let go and let God for the next month, and to, “Be still, take a pause, and watch what God does.” I accepted her challenge.

Boy, this was more challenging that I thought it would be. I became more observant of my thoughts and habits, and I began to see that some of them had been holding me back for a very long time. It was a fight to stop worrying, and I had to continuously tell myself, “Give it God. He’s got it.” I started to read in the Bible about those that had endured great difficulty and leaned on God to get them through it. Hebrews 12:1 tells us that we’re surrounded by a huge crowd of witnesses who walked this earth with their hand in the hand of our Heavenly Father. They grew in their faith and learn to trust Him utterly and completely. God tells us to look up to those folks, Abraham and Sarah, Abel, Enoch, and Noah, because their records of believing prove that God cannot fail. Their examples show us that God keeps His promises and His Word is true.

Hebrews 12:1(NLT) encourages us to “strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up.” In most cases, a person won’t strip off a weight if we don’t know what it is or realize that it’s weighing them down. God tells us in His Word that sin and the oppression from not knowing Him or what He requires of us weighs us down. Bad attitudes and feelings of jealousy, envy, bitterness, resentment, arrogance, and selfishness weigh us down. When we entertain thoughts of sexual immorality and practice it, this is a heavy weight. Many of us have never confronted the reality that we’re participants in these things, and they are weighing our souls down. They cause us to draw into our lives the very situations, people, and circumstances that we don’t want.

Even though we may not have ever confronted the weight, we feel something blocking our journey forward and upward. We sense very deeply that something is wrong, and its draining us emotionally. Many of us think it’s someone or something in our external environment that is causing this, but no person or situation on the outside has the power to rule what is going on inside you. God didn’t give human beings the ability to look inside another’s heart and mind. We live from the inside out. God has given us the gift of free-will, and He holds us responsible for what is in our hearts and minds. The internal workings of your soul are your responsibility and only you can change how you act and what you think, speak, and do.

It’s internal, that’s what spearheads the issues of life. God instructs us in Proverbs 4:23(NLT) to “Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.” We must come clean to God and lay bare before Him. He already knows what’s in our hearts, but we need to acknowledge it as well. We must humble ourselves before Him and recognize that He has the power to transform us into the people He desires us to be.

Hebrews 12:1 tells us that God has set a race before each of us, and His Will is that we run it with endurance. This means that we must have spiritual strength and stamina. If we refuse to strip off the weight, we will continue to move at a snail’s pace toward our destinies. But if we are obedient to God’s Word, and if we seek God’s help, He will open our eyes to see the things we need to release so that we can have the kind of life He wants to give us.

In Colossians 3:10(NLT), Heavenly Father commands us to “Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him.” If we don’t recognize the things we have to put off, we might not recognize the things we need to put on. We must read God’s Word and learn about Jesus Christ because his is the example that God commands us to follow. If you’re anything like me, I was so accustomed to handling problems on my own terms and under my own conditions that I blocked out God’s help. Because of this, my limited resources were constantly exhausted, but God’s resources are unlimited, and He offers them to us freely.

In the Old Testament, God’s people refused to change their thoughts and attitudes and would not be humble in the sight of God. They refused to seek only our Heavenly Father for provision and help. Instead, they went off the rails, worshiping idols, and bad things happened because they turned their backs on our Heavenly Father. God reminded them in Isaiah 41:27(NLT) that He was the One who told them, “Look! Help is on the way!” and He delivered on His promise. It doesn’t matter what situation we face in life; God is willing to come to our aid. Things can get very uncomfortable for us when we take our eyes off Jesus Christ, but when we anchor our confidence in God, we can be assured that His help is on the way.

Through A Dark Valley

Posted on March 11, 2024 by daaorg1214

Psalm 23:4-5(NLT)
“Even when I walk through the darkest valley, I will not be afraid, for you are close beside me. Your rod and your staff protect and comfort me. 5 You prepare a feast for me in the presence of my enemies.”

As Children of God, we don’t have to be afraid of what’s to come, nor do we have to fear the unknown. Our only requirement is to trust God as He instructs us in Psalm 23. Many of us have been through some dark valleys. We’ve dealt with someone abusing us, taking our love for granted, and speaking down to us instead of lifting us up. Still, we loved them. We told ourselves to just keep hanging in there, thinking that sooner or later, he would turn around; he would recognize the treasure he has in us. We’ve dealt with crisis after crisis, and the emotional exhaustion is more than we ever thought we could bear. It’s a dark valley, and God wants us to know that we’re not in it alone.

No matter how hurtful your circumstances may be, you are not without the love of God. It’s having faith in His love that stumps some of us. We fail to recognize His amazing grace, and to learn more about it from His Word. Because of this, our worries and fears get the best of us. The wisdom of Proverbs 12:25(ESV) says, “Anxiety in a man’s heart weighs him down, but a good word makes him glad.” Anxiety is difficult enough when it’s on our minds, but when it’s in our hearts, it weighs us down. It makes us think and feel like we’re not going to rise above our circumstances and conditions, but instead we think and feel we’re going to be crushed by the weight of them. We may think and feel this way, but a ‘good word’ from God can turn our whole lives around if we’ll trust it.

A Good Word from God is exactly the spiritual counseling we need in order to change the way we think. We desperately need to do this, to change the way we think. We need to renew our minds to what God says. Psalm 34:17-19(ESV) is a Good Word about God’s protection, provision, and care. This passage tells us, “17 When the righteous cry for help, the LORD hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. 18 The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. 19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivers him out of them all.” There are many promises from God in His Word, and they will comfort and encourage us to trust Him.1Peter 5:7 tells us to cast all our anxieties on God, because He cares for us. We can fully surrender all to Him and trust that He will work all things out for our good.

As believers, we should never give the enemy a seat at the table. We shouldn’t allow him to steal the Word of God from our hearts and minds and make us think that God won’t help us because He’s forgotten about us or because we’re not good enough. This simply isn’t the truth. Romans 5:8 tells us that our Heavenly Father showed His great love for us all when He sent Christ to die as a sacrifice for our sins, and He did this while we were at our worst. God knows we’re going to make mistakes, and He doesn’t hold them against us. What He requires is for us to have faith that He can turn our pain into gain, and that through Him, we can become stronger, better, and wiser.

When darts are flying at you from every direction and you’re in the midst of a storm, take cover in Christ. In Ephesians 6:11, God tells us to put on all the armor He has provided through Jesus Christ, so we’ll be able to stand firm against the strategies of the devil. This is something we must do every day. Every morning, even before our feet hit the ground, we should pray and ask God to take over our day through His precious Holy Spirit. We should surrender it all to Him, and trust that He will lead, guide, and direct us as He promised in His Word.

When abusive relationships take us through a dark valley, sometimes we let our armor down. God is not punishing us. He wants us to know we can put on His armor at any time, as long as we do so with total trust in His power. Isaiah 40:29(NLT)declares, “He gives power to the weak and strength to the powerless.” The internal struggles we have are about whether we will believe in the love and power of a God that we cannot see, and whether we will see Him bigger than our problems. Don’t let doubt and insecurity win. Don’t allow them to take hold of your spirit. Make the simple but life changing choice to walk with God every moment of every day. God is close beside you and He will never leave you. Let Him control your life and trust Him to show you His marvelous light and love. Don’t listen to the enemy’s lies, listen to God! Read His Word, pray often, and have faith as He protects, comforts, and strengthens you.■

English Standard Version (ESV)
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

God Heals the Brokenhearted

Posted on March 4, 2024 by daaorg1214

1Peter 1:5-7(NLT)
“5 And through your faith, God is protecting you by his power until you receive this salvation, which is ready to be revealed on the last day for all to see. 6 So be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you have to endure many trials for a little while. 7 These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold–though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world.”

Managing emotional and mental anguish seemed like something that was only discussed within the confines of family interventions and therapy. Now it’s open topic of conversation on just about every platform out there. People are tired of hurting in silence, and they’re looking for help and making use of the many resources and tools that are available in our modern times. Not all these resources and tools are helpful to our relationships with God. As believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, we must be so very careful. Jesus Christ said in John 10:9(NKJV), “I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.” The world offers many doors, but our minds and hearts were created by God for fellowship with Him through Christ. So, we must be extremely discerning because we might open the wrong door, and there’s no telling what we’ll let in.

1Peter 1:5 tells us that through our FAITH, God is protecting us by His power. In faith, joy is an inside job. It’s given to us by Christ when we accept him as Lord over our lives. Our joy and rejoicing are not interrupted by the cares of this world, even during the times when life seems crazy. 1Peter 1:7 says that our faith in God is more precious than pure gold. You and I didn’t assign the value of our faith, God did. Faith in God is a powerful reality. It’s precious to Him, therefore it must be extremely precious to us, and we must treat it that way. In life, there will be troubles and tribulations, some of them are doozies, but we must have faith that God did not cause them but will deliver us from them.

God understands all the things we go through on earth. He knows that we will experience loss, heartache, and sometimes devastation. We have an enemy, and 1Peter 5:8 tells us that the devil walks around the earth like a roaring lion, looking for those he can devour. God commands us in verse 9 to stand firm against the enemy by being strong in our faith. We must be convinced of God’s love and goodness. He knew about the problem before we did, and He already has the solution. You might ask, “well why didn’t He give it to me?” He will ask, “Why didn’t you ask me for it?” God requires us to seek Him and to understand who He is.

Nothing compares to God’s healing power, and He has already made us complete in Jesus Christ, but you and I must partner with God’s Will. We can’t stand outside of His love and power, waiting for Him to move. God has already moved. He accomplished everything for His children by giving Jesus Christ as a sacrifice for our sins. Now, it’s our move, because His door is always before us. All we have to do is open it and allow Him to lead, guide, and direct us through life.

Christ commanded us in Matthew 6:33(ESV), “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” Many of us haven’t taken the Lord at His Word here. We’ve made of a habit of seeking other people first. We have conditioned our minds to trust and believe people and things that work against God’s power and love for us. He doesn’t want us to live that way because it’s beneath our rights and privileges as His sons and daughters. Jesus Christ said in Revelations 3:20(NLT), “Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends.” This is the only door God has given us to open for salvation, healing, strength, love, and power. Everything we need is in Jesus Christ.

Psalm 147:3 (ESV) tells us, “He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.” Be careful not to seek the wrong place for your healing and wholeness. Let God guide you so that you do not open a door that looks promising but is actually an entrance to chaos and confusion. God is the One who heals our broken hearts. Through Christ, He causes a radical transformation in our lives, but we must stop looking for love in all the wrong places. God never intended us to do that. We’re to look to Him for our needs.

Our Heavenly Father doesn’t want us to remain hidden behind the walls of pain and hurt, suffering in silence. He wants us to have faith in Him. It’s ok to ask God questions, but recognize that you’re standing before the Almighty, All-loving-and-knowing, All-powerful God who has created you. He knows everything about you and knows what you need before you even ask him. Again, He knows you, but He wants you to know Him as your Healer, Protector, Provider, and Loving Father. Open the door to God through the Lord Jesus Christ. Let Him heal your broken heart, and trust with all your heart that He will.■

English Standard Version (ESV)
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

No Enemy Can Reach Me

Posted on February 26, 2024 by daaorg1214

Matthew 11:28(NLT)
“Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.”

As parents, we go to great lengths to protect and keep our children safe. I remember hearing my mother tell the story of me falling out of our moving car while she was backing out of the driveway. Back then there were no laws about child restraints like the car seats we have today, but it just goes to show you that as a society, the desire for us to protect our children has evolved and the technology to do so has advanced as well. Acknowledging what is truly valuable in life fundamentally connects us, and the glue for it all is love.

We protect what we value, and for Christians, the Word of God is the most valuable asset we have. 2Peter 1:3(NIV) tells us, “His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.” The Bible contains knowledge about God, and it’s all that we need to live a Godly life. It contains the necessary information to live a bountiful existence on earth.

1John 4:7(ESV) says, “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.” When it comes to our children, we find it so easy to love and to do what it takes to support them, but when it comes to loving and supporting ourselves, many of us fall short. One of the biggest reasons for this is that we lack faith in God and the love He has for us. God’s love is the most powerful reality that exists, and it beautifully and wonderfully takes up all of life’s space, but it requires us to trust this deeply in our hearts.

Throughout our lives, we’ve received a ton of messages and a lot them were not good for our souls. Some of them have shaped and molded the way we see our Heavenly Father. Many of us were told that we weren’t good enough and that we would never amount to anything in life. Messages like this are very damaging because for many of us they stick. We approach life as if it is a disappointment waiting to happen. God tells us in Proverbs 4:23(NLT) to “Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.” He tells us to not allow our hearts to be governed by doubt, insecurity, and negativity, because these will give us a stony heart, and no seed can grow there when that happens.

Romans 5:8(ESV) says, “But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” God loved us even when we were at our worse, and He loves us just the same now. He gave His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, as a sacrifice for our sins, and this shows us how much we can count on His love. When He resurrected Christ from the dead, God demonstrated His incomparable power.

In Psalm 62:6-7(NLT), the psalmist declared, “6 He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress where I will not be shaken. 7 My victory and honor come from God alone. He is my refuge, a rock where no enemy can reach me.” This is a powerful passage! We have a spiritual enemy, satan, who is out to do us harm, but with God on our side, we can live through the victory that Jesus Christ won for us on the cross! Romans 8:31-34 The Message (MSG) says, “So, what do you think? With God on our side like this, how can we lose? If God didn’t hesitate to put everything on the line for us, embracing our condition and exposing himself to the worst by sending his own Son, is there anything else he wouldn’t gladly and freely do for us? And who would dare tangle with God by messing with one of God’s chosen? Who would dare even to point a finger? The One who died for us—who was raised to life for us!—is in the presence of God at this very moment sticking up for us.”

2Chronicles 17 in the Old Testament gives us a record of God’s faithfulness and willingness to help us. Jehoshaphat was a very successful king of Judah because of his diligence to seek God in all things. 2Chronicles 17:6(NLT) says, “He was deeply committed to the ways of the LORD.” Naturally, being a king, Jehoshaphat had tremendous responsibility and great wealth, but he understood that all his blessings, wealth, and the strength of his nation was because of God. When asked to join another king in battle, Jehoshaphat was cordial, but knew such a decision could not be made without consulting God. He told the other king in 2Chronicles 18:4(NLT),
“But first let’s find out what the LORD says.”

Jehoshaphat went to battle, and the Lord protected him from his enemies, and He will do the same for us, but we have a part to play as well. So many of us are sad and feeling defeated because we believe life is against us. The person we love is hurting us and nothing seems to go the way we thought. God wants to help us. He’s our protection and refuge. He will put a hedge around us, and no enemy can reach us, but we must trust the Lord with all our hearts. He’s the One that takes care of us and our children. To show God that we’re serious about honoring Him as our all-powerful and all-knowing Creator, like Jehoshaphat, we must seek Him. Inviting God into our lives through the Lord Jesus Christ is the first step. The second is to love ourselves by trusting God’s love and committing ourselves to learn more about Him. ■

English Standard Version (ESV)
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

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. ■

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.

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.■

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!■

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Tag Archives: Love of Christ

You Are an Overcomer

Help Is on the Way

Through A Dark Valley

God Heals the Brokenhearted

No Enemy Can Reach Me

The Manifestation of Your Blessings

Don’t Let Anything Shake Your Faith

Convinced of His Love

Godly Treasures

Worthy of God’s Love