The Spirit of Truth

Posted on April 22, 2024 by daaorg1214

The first born-again Christian that I met who actually talked about being filled with the Holy Spirit was a woman that I had known most of my life. I was 14 and she was a mother of seven with an abusive husband that treated them all horribly. They were poor and she was often taken with illness, no doubt from the many beatings she had endured. She told me, “I go to the Holiness church in town. That’s where I got saved and filled with the Holy Ghost!” For me, this was nuanced and shocking. I was raised in the Baptist church and Christian men and women had been my teachers, mentors, and role models, but the words this woman spoke stopped me dead in my tracks. My coloring box of ‘dignified good Christian people’ made room for a new color. For the first time I saw hope in this once hopeless woman, and it made a tremendous impact on my life.

Living with Holy Spirit power was a foreign concept to me as a young believer, still in high school. I never heard about him from anyone. When I finally did hear about the power of the Holy Spirit, and inquired about him, I was told that this wasn’t for me. It was for those folks who danced and casted out demons, but it was not for me. That simply wasn’t the truth. The Holy Spirit is for every believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. He’s not an abstract essence or an empty cloud. The Holy Spirit is a person. He’s more of a person than you and I could ever be.

The Holy Spirit is a gift from God to every born-again believer. In Acts 2:38(ESV), the Apostle Peter proclaimed, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” The Holy Spirit is power from on High. He’s the difference maker in our lives. Jesus Christ tells us in John 16:13 that he sent the Holy Spirit to guide us into all truth and to tell us what he, the Spirit, hears from Christ.

It’s not our power we’re using. You and I don’t have any power to call our own. Our power comes from God through His Holy Spirit that indwells us. God tells us in Hosea 4:6 that His people are destroyed because they lack knowledge about Him, they don’t know what’s right and true, and they’ve turned their backs on knowledge. This happened to those living in Old Testament times and it is still happening to many of us. Some of us allow religion to hold us hostage from the truth, and we deny the gift of Holy Spirit, who is the Spirit of truth.

Many of us have studied God’s Word, and some have done so exhaustively. We may comprehend God’s love intellectually, but we can’t understand it with spiritual depth because we deny the Teacher. The Word may make sense to us, but there’s no connection between our minds and hearts to help the Word sink deep because we have denied the Helper. We need to comprehend the Word of God in a way that the power of its truth sinks deep within. Only the Holy Spirit can do that for us.

Jesus Christ said in John 10:10(NKJV), “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” The thief is the devil, our adversary, and Jesus Christ has schooled us on what the thief is up to, however, he doesn’t want us to focus on that, because he has overcome the devil through his sacrifice and resurrection. Our precious Lord and Savior wants us to focus on what he has done for us, because he has made it available for every person to live with his victory, and therefore live a more than abundant life.

It’s no secret that life on earth comes with challenges and setbacks. Although we’re not to focus on the negative, our blessed Redeemer didn’t hide the reality of trials and tribulations. He told 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.” Many believers have not understood the awesome Good News of this scripture. Jesus Christ was tempted by satan, faced unparallel opposition, endured being called names and lied about, and walked with power, love, and strength throughout his ministry in the midst of murderous attempts on his life. He was fearless because he understood who he was. He knew that God was backing him through the power of the Holy Spirit, and you and I are called to walk with this same authority and power.

Romans 8:10(NLT) says, “And Christ lives within you, so even though your body will die because of sin, the Spirit gives you life because you have been made right with God.” The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Christ. It is this same Spirit that was in Christ, working in him to complete God’s mission of saving the world. There is no equal to God’s power and that power is in us through the Holy Spirit!

We underestimate our ability to soar like eagles, to conquer obstacles victoriously, and to overcome any situation because we have not allowed God’s Holy Spirit to be at work in our lives to the extent he can. When we don’t know God’s Word, and we’re ignorant about the Helper, we can be stolen from, killed, and destroyed. Many of our beautiful brothers and sisters have fallen because they didn’t realize that God has given us the Gift of Holy Spirit to protect and keep us, and to help us live powerfully. Not every person will accept what Jesus Christ has made available. Some will continue to live beneath their privilege, but don’t let that be you. God has commanded us to live by the Spirit, because the Spirit will preserve and help us to be strengthened with God’s love and power so that we can be like Christ and live a successful Christian life.■

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.

Where Are You?

Posted on April 15, 2024 by daaorg1214

A very nice lady in her senior years said to me recently that she’s been praying to God a long time to heal her right leg. Her last words to me were, “…And I’m still waiting.” This is a sentiment we no doubt hear expressed from many believers, particularly those over 50 that may be dealing with minor health challenges. We need to look under the hood of this, because the idea of praying and waiting long periods of time for the manifestation of the blessing is one that has become a fixture in our way of thinking. When it comes to meeting our future spouses and being delivered from sickness, ailments, and disease, many of us believe that God has delayed the blessing, when the issue is that we have stalled in our faith.

Some of us have never witnessed God heal someone miraculously, and because we haven’t seen it, we’re challenged to believe it. We may not have heard of sisters in Christ fasting and praying for six months and meeting their destiny partners shortly thereafter. Because we’re not witnessing and hearing about the miraculous in the lives of those close to us, it’s possible that our believing has flatlined, and we need to pump some life into it.

“How did I get here, Lord? My heart has been scarred from years of fractured and broken relationships. I’ve been abandoned, talked down to, relegated to the sidelines in so many ways, and I’m just waiting for the weight of all this to move out my way so I can breathe. I want my life to be light and free, like the air You allow to flow in and out of my nostrils. I no longer want to feel powerless and hopeless, Lord, but these seem like constant companions, like I can’t shake them loose for nothing. How did I get to this place where my dreams, once so relentless in my heart, are now like a mist that flutters about and teases me only every now and again? No one understands my pain. I’m disappointed and sad, and I don’t even know how I got here.” The very nice lady didn’t say these words to me, but ‘I’m still waiting’ painted a portrait of pain way beyond that of her right leg.

When Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden, their sinful actions didn’t remain outside the perimeters of their physical bodies. When they bowed to the devil and disobeyed God’s Word, sin entered their bodies and brought death with it. They were not ignorant. They knew better. As Adam and Eve walked together with the Holy Spirit in communion and fellowship, the Spirit taught them many things because this is what he does. The Holy Spirit is our Teacher. Jesus Christ said in John 14:26(NCV), “But the Helper will teach you everything and will cause you to remember all that I told you. This Helper is the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name.” God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He does not change. Because of this, we can have some idea of Adam’s and Eve’s days. They were learning from the Holy Spirit and working in the garden of Eden, because that is what God told them to do.

Regarding things that were forbidden, God gave Adam only one commandment, and Genesis 2:16-17(ESV) lays it out. It says, “And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “16 You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” From the Word of the Lord, we can understand that once a wrong decision or choice is acted upon, sin enters the body. Without repentance, sin sits, festers, and corrodes us from the inside out. Praise God for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who rescued us from this terrible fate! Through Christ, God handled our sin issue. Our problem is that even though we’ve been rescued from the curse of death and darkness, some of us are still going back to our old ways and picking up old dead things.

When Adam and Eve sinned, they followed the next course on the path that sin lays, which is shame. They hid themselves from God because sin brought an awareness of nakedness, of not being covered by holiness and sacred connection to our Heavenly Father. They were ashamed of their sin, and this was a new and dark development. Shame had not entered the picture until sin came on the scene. Disobedience opened their eyes to sin, and all its cousins. So, they fell. They were out of place and lost their holy positioning, and Genesis 3:9(ESV) tells us, “9 But the LORD God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?””

“Where are you” indeed. Of course, God knew the physical location of Adam and Eve, because God knows everything. When we examine the translation of these words in Genesis 3:9, we discover that God is making a statement regarding His relationship with Adam and Eve. Sin caused their disconnect from Heavenly Father, and the catastrophe this set-in motion was conveyed in the Father’s question to them. That vulnerability, innocence, and humble dependence on God was lost, and even though many of us are saved today, we’ve lost it too.

2Corinthians 5:17(ESV) tells us, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” Our old nature was crucified with Christ when he sacrificed his life on the cross. The Apostle Paul said in Galatians 2:20 (ESV), “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.” This is us! We were with him when he nailed our sins to the cross. The flesh has been crucified, and we are new creations in Christ, but some of us didn’t let some parts die. We’re holding on to them and they are harming us.

The disappointment and nagging heartache are always just beneath our resolve of “I’m okay.” They leave us with just enough hope to make it through the day but not enough to live confidently and boldly in Christ. Pain is not a natural state, and neither is loneliness, but they are the familiar. We see these, pain and loneliness, so often in the eyes of others, and sadly, even after some of us are saved, there’s no difference between the fainting faith of those deeply wounded and us. We’ve acquiesced to the level of their apathy and melded our unbelief with their doubt, and this is mainly because we’ve kept some things, some habits, some wrong thoughts, some errors in our hearts and minds. We didn’t kick doubt and wrong believing out the door. For some of us, the heavies that we should have repented, surrendered to God, and released are still hiding out in our hearts and minds.

Our Heavenly Father does not want us in pain. He does not want us to be lonely. Wherever we are in our life’s journey, we must be completely sold out to these truths. Where are we in our faith? Where are we in the level of intimacy we’ve developed in our relationship with God? Where are we in our heads and hearts, and have we released the bitterness, the jealousy, the envy, doubt, lying, and all the other negativity God commanded us to let die? These, and anything like them, are at the root of all our pain, and if we’re wise, we’ll pray for a revelation to see them, confront them, and let them go so that God’s love can heal up our broken places. ■

New Century Version (NCV)
The Holy Bible, New Century Version®. Copyright © 2005 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.

All Things Working Together

Posted on April 8, 2024 by daaorg1214

When it’s time for a believer to be at a certain point of spiritual maturity in the Lord Jesus Christ, and this person has no recognition or awareness of this appointed place, it can be said that he or she is asleep as it relates to their spiritual appointment. Many will argue that this isn’t true, but our circumstances will bear it out repeatedly. Even as believers, sometimes our lives come to a standstill. It seems that things just aren’t moving, and we’re not as satisfied or fulfilled as we once were. We have a choice. We can remain at a standstill, or we can accept the reality that we’re late for our spiritual appointment, and we need to seek God with all our hearts and minds, because He has some place for us to be.

Make no mistake, there’s a place where everything for us comes together in an amazing and fulfilling way. Romans 8:28(ESV) says, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” Be clear that ‘all things working together for good’ is a process of God’s perfect timing. It doesn’t mean that our circumstances and conditions are continually in a state of bliss. We live on earth where people and things are coming against us all the time. Jesus Christ told us in John 16:33 that in the world we will have tribulation, but we can be encouraged because he overcame the world, and through him, we will too.

So ‘all things working together’ is not a drop-off location where things are perfect and pleasing as punch. We don’t get to remain planted there with our hands tucked beneath our laps. But this is the way some of us have trained our minds to think. We forget that this earth experience is grooming ground for our faith, and that our faith will indeed get a workout here. Instead, we have immediacy on the brain. When we’re in a bind or we’re expecting an answer to prayer, we want things working out on the double. Again, ‘All things working together’ is a continual process where we have a starting point and a destination according to our faith. And as soon as we we’ve reached one destination and gained a higher level of faith; another starting point will be revealed.

‘All things working together for our good’ is God working powerfully behind the scenes. We can’t see all the details of what He’s doing, and this is one of the reasons that so many of us become anxious and worried that things are not going to work out. We lose faith because our timetables lack the patience and endurance that God is requiring of us.

Stamina and momentum are not words we typically hear in Christian vernacular, but we should hear them more often because they are very important to our walk in Christ. Stamina and momentum have everything to do with the endurance and patience that God expects all believers to produce. He tells us in Hebrew 12:1(NLT), “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.” Notice in this verse that God didn’t tell us that HE would strip off every weight that slows us down. He’s given this responsibility to us, and when we reach a point in life where the weight is barreling down on us, we should know that it’s stripping off time. The longer we wait to strip it off, the more stamina and momentum we lose.

Our blessings are not delayed, we’ve yet to catch up to them. God does not slow the rotation of the earth to catch up with our pace; we must catch up to His pace. This is one of the reasons He is continually reminding us in His Word to put on our new nature which is created to be like Christ. If we do this, we will be prepared for all that God has in store. Some of us have delayed our spiritual growth and maturity to such a degree that our eyes no longer recognize opportunities. They slip right by us. God has designed the universe in such a way that it is continually pouring out the overflow of His blessings, but we’ve not positioned ourselves to be at the right place at the right time.

1Corinthians 14:33 (NKJV) tells us, “For God is not the author of confusion but of peace.” Heavenly Father is a God of order, and one of the greatest disservices we commit against ourselves is to underestimate His nature of peace and His allegiance to structure and order. You and I don’t have the mental and emotional capacity to absorb the true majesty and supremacy of God. It is impossible to even skim the surface of it without the help of the indwelling Holy Spirit. This is one of the reasons why God is so patient with us. He doesn’t punish us for not reading and studying His Word. He leaves the level of intimacy in our relationship with Him totally up to us. We can seek Him first, or we can seek other things, but we will always move at a snail’s pace to blessings if we don’t seek God with all our hearts, minds, and strength.

Romans 8:28 reminds us that God has called us to His purpose. The revelation of our purpose in the Will of God must combine with our intelligence and intention to walk it out. Many of us are finding ourselves in a predicament of stagnancy when it comes to blessings, and it is most often due to the failure to soak in the knowledge of God’s Word and connect it to purpose and action. This causes us to lose momentum on this Christian journey, and it decreases our strength and ability to reach out and grab what is rightfully ours.

Blessings come from our knowledge of the Word of God. When we’re in a season in our lives where we’re not seeing the kind of movement we expect, it isn’t a time to be complacent. It’s a season to seek God like never before and draw nearer to Him with the full assurance that He will draw nearer to us. In Revelation 3:2 (NLT), God warned, “Wake up! Strengthen what little remains, for even what is left is almost dead. I find that your actions do not meet the requirements of my God.” Everything, and I do mean absolutely everything is spiritual. The Spirit of God is forever and always causing all things to work together for our good. The closer we draw to our Heavenly Father, the more we will see the many blessings He’s placed before us, and we’ll have the spiritual strength to reach out and grab them. ■

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

Trying to Get the Man to Change

Posted on April 1, 2024 by daaorg1214

Free-Will is a gift of God that we must become intimately familiar with in our significant relationships. Many women are praying that God will change a man for them, that He will overstep a man’s thought patterns and ways of behaving without the man’s consent. This will never happen. There are pieces of information that we must know so that we remain grounded in wisdom. These will keep our expectations in check when it comes to the significant relationship in our lives. The first is that God will only send you a man that knows Him. This man doesn’t have to be super knowledgeable of the Bible, and he may not be religious, but he knows the reality of God’s sovereignty and righteousness. He desires to do right because he wants to honor God and honor himself. If he doesn’t honor himself, he will not honor you. Secondly, a man must desire to change. He must see the value in it by recognizing the harm that a failure to change will cause. Lastly, a man must love you enough that if something he is doing, thinking, or feeling is causing you distress, he will choose to change.

Romans 12:2(NLT) says, “Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.” In this verse, God tells us exactly what we should not do, and exactly what we should do. We should not copy the behaviors and customs of society or the world, because those are contrary to the Word and Will of God. Instead, He directs us to allow Him to transform us, and we give Him permission to do this when we change the way we think.

God is telling us what to do here, but He will not force us to do it. He has given us free-will, and we have the great privilege to follow what He says. We decide whether we will change the way we think and receive the reward of His blessings. The choice to renew our minds to God’s truth is ours to make. Whether we choose to accept it or not, the reality is that: #1 God only sends a woman a man that respects His sovereignty and righteousness, #2 the desire to change according to what is right is a person’s free-will choice, and #3 truly loving someone will motivate a person to change. These are true for all human beings, both men and women. However, as women, we must be especially attentive to remind ourselves of these jewels of wisdom so that we do not punish ourselves continually with wrong actions, bad decisions, and false expectations.

Often, we expect an unattainable outcome in a significant relationship because our expectations are outside the boundaries of right believing. Some of us get into relationships with men that might have peripheral qualities we’re attracted to, but after some time is spent in their company, we find that they are far from being a match for our level of spiritual, emotional, and mental maturity. We may not articulate this, but when we pull back the layers, it’s the reality we must face. Even when there are many good qualities that we appreciate in the man we’re involved with; he can still have non-dominant negative behaviors that sneak out at the most irritating and inappropriate times. These are not insignificant and can ultimately ruin a relationship if we’re not walking in faith.

There’s a place in every woman
Amos 3:3(NKJV) asks, “Can two walk together, unless they are agreed?” This agreement between two individuals that intend to commit to one another is one that is more than verbal. As it relates to marriage, it is a spiritual agreement that is made at the deepest level. Some of us are praying for the man we’re involved with to change. If after many arguments and disagreements, he does not seem to alter his behavior, we’re at our wits end. We’re not being heard, valued, and respected in the way we feel we deserve. It makes us feel helpless in the relationship because the agreement that two committed individuals should have with one another is not working both ways.

Within every woman, God has created a place at her very core, and her destiny partner is a man that will respond to that place within her. It’s a deep place that we may not be aware of and we cannot define, but we will know definitively when that place has made contact with the right man. We must trust with every fiber of our being that there is something about the right man’s manhood that will come into agreement with that place in order for us to have confidence in his fidelity, loyalty, and commitment. Many of us try to force this with the wrong man, but that is an unfruitful move on our parts. It will not yield the results we seek, and history has taught us this.

Many of us choose a man, give ourselves to him, and make future plans for marriage with him when his manhood has not connected with the very core of us. Often, this is why we are exasperated, because we are expecting something he cannot give. We lose so much stamina and momentum on this journey of life when we do this.

You must be led by God
We cannot make a man change. No words of a mere human have caused another human being to truly change. Only God and His Word can do this. He has commanded us to seek His Will in all that we do. We need to hear from Heavenly Father that His blessing is upon our relationships. We can never get ahead of God, and if we do this, we must seek the Lord’s forgiveness and ask for His help and wisdom.

It isn’t God’s Will that we are involved in relationships that are rollercoasters of ups and downs. We must be spiritually prepared for significant relationships because the wrong one can mess us up. We must be sharp in recognizing the Spirit’s directives, and we should have proven that we are humbled in total surrender and submission to his direction and guidance. If you have not made a habit pattern of walking by the Spirit, you will not perceive the warnings, information, and guidance necessary to preserve a union.

Know that he’s for you
If you are of the Lord, and the Lord is not in him, do not risk your life. Seek God with your whole heart! The man that is the one God has sent will not think it is a burden to change the things that jeopardize your relationship, because he will have confidence in the love of Christ in you. No longer will you allow yourself to be concerned with attributes and small things that irritated you in the past. This man will humble himself before God, and because of this, he will move you at your core. The Holy Spirit will testify in you that he is indeed the one that God has sent. Then you can have confidence that no matter what comes your way, the two of you will walk together in agreement as the love of God in Christ works within you both.■

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.

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.

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.■

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. ■

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. ■

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. ■

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