Power of Gods Word

Something I've been thinking about for a while is the power of Gods word that we don't take advantage of.  Isiah 55:11 says " so is my word that goes out from my mouth: it will not return to Me empty, but will accomplish what I desire & achieve the purpose for which I sent it." God has given us His word & all of the power & promises in it.  I don't know about you, but I spent a lot of my early Christian life not realizing that power & not knowing how to use it. I did my devotions & read my chapter because that's what I was supposed to do.  It wasn't until I realized I needed to really pursue a relationship with my Lord & Savior that I really started digging into Gods word. The more I get into it, the more I'm realizing the great gift He has given us.  I'm starting to realize the need to prayGods word, to speak Gods word, & to get in agreement with Gods word.  I believe it brings great joy to Gods heart when He hears His children speaking it.  I think when we do that,He wants to move.  Remember , He says that His word will accomplish what He desires when it is spoken.  So what would happen if we started speaking & proclaiming His word.  His word could accomplish what we can't.  It heals, restores, leads, comforts, & on & on.  Today I challenge you to dig into Gods word & start speaking it, praying it, & get into agreement with it.  If you do, it will change your life!

My healer

At our church, we are asked to share a promise of God that we have claimed for he week.  We have done it since the beginning of the year & it's been very powerful.  I have been claiming many promises lately & the one I'm claiming this week is Psalm 103:3'" He forgives all my sins & heals my diseases." What a powerful God!  He is powerful enough to remove our sins for them to never be remembered.  That's freedom!  And we can go to Him when we need healing, & know that He created us & He knows how to fix us.  So our sins are gone forever & our diseases are gone forever.  He doesn't do things halfway.  Once He does something, it's done.  As I said last night, we need to understand what a powerful God we serve.  When we go to the throne of God in prayer, we need to understand the power He possesses.  Take your sins & your sickness to His feet & leave them there.  He is more than capable of taking care of them.  He is Jehovah Rapha- our Healer, Jehovah Nissi (Battle Fighter), & Jehovah Tsidkenn (our righteousness).  God has really been working on me about faith this year (specifically increasing mine).  I don't think any of us have a clue how much He loves us, how big He is, & how much He wants to bless us.  I think the more we can understand those things, the more we can see His power in our lives.  I don't know about you but I'm ready to see His power more & more in my life.  Not just a trickle but a flood.  How about you?  Do you think God is who He says He is & that He could do that in your life?  Are you ready for it & believing for it?

By their love

It seems like today I hear a lot about Christians not practicing what we preach & I'll be the first to admit that sometimes we do fail & some are just playing at their Christianity.  But I have to tell you that I was at two different churches today & was around some real deal Christians.  At both services, I had hands payed on me as I was prayed for.  They prayed for me for healing & they also prayed for me in my ministry.  I have also had numerous real deal Christians who have contacted me over the last few weeks & my original church home praying fervently for me.  So I would like to tell you that there are a lot of sincere, committed Christians out there demonstrating Gods love.  If you are missing out on this wonderful blessing you can & need to find one of those churches & get involved in it.  The bible says the world will know we are followers of Christ because of our love.  I have definitely experienced that & it is indescribable.  To know that people are truly concerned about you & that they are praying for you daily means more than words can express.  So the most effective witness we can have is to show the love of our Lord & Savior Jesus Christ.  And thanks to all of those who have been showing it to me so effectively lately.

More than conquerors

Alright, we'll its been a few days since I've written.  I've been out for just a little bit having surgery.  Thanks to God for His healing power & for bringing me out stronger.  I feel like God had some things that He needed me to deal with & I feel like that's what we've been doing the last couple of weeks.  One of the verses that has come to me a lot lately is Romans 8:38. " No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him Who loved us." I think the important part of this is "through Him".  We are nothing but defeated without Him but through Him we are more than conquerors.  I realized over this last couple of weeks that daily I have to trust & rely on Him.  It has been another reminder that its not about me. I have to trust that if I can rely on Him He will overcome my obstacles, heal me, make me strong, etc. all to do His work.  He is always faithful to me  & oh how I've been reminded of that lately.  So today I would like you to encourage you to place your name in this verse & realize that if you are His child, you are more than a conqueror through Him as well.  Don't let Satan tell you otherwise.  Remember this verse is what God says about you.  You can disagree with me but you shouldn't disagree with Gods word. As the book says that I've been reading lately by Beth Moore, "Believe God!"

Humbling & Exciting

Well the journey for today has been very humbling & exciting.  I'd like to talk first about the humbling part.  Shortly after I posted on Facebook what had happened yesterday, my phone started lighting up from family & friends.  You all will never know what that means.  It says in Matt. 18:20 that where two or three gather together in His name , Christ is in the midst of them.  I am humbled & thankful that I have we'll over two or three joining with me in prayer.  I know that aged hears & moves when that many people are praying together.  All I can say is than you & to all those who talk about hypocritical Christians, the last couple of days I have seen the real deal Christians.  I have seen love, service, sacrifice, & prayer warriors go into action.  My family as always is tremendous & they strengthen & encourage me each day.  Also as someone who has only been on Facebook for a few months, it's been great hearing from all of my friends through there, texting, & calling.  You're all awesome!

Secondly, it's been exciting.  My sister texted me today about a church looking for a pastor.  I contacted them & well see what God brings about.  So he praying about that too.  And how it all happened, just lets me know that it was from God.  So after yesterday, I feel like God is saying we're going to deal with this giant & I've got work for you to do.  Isn't He amazing!  It brought to mind Philllipians 1:6 where it says when God begins a work in you that He will carry it out to completion.  Praise The Lord,  when you don't know how, he does.
    So from an unqualified Christian, I just want to say thank you!  Thanks to my amazingly family!  Thanks to all of my friends!  And most of all thanks to God for being faithful!  Thanks for all of your support & to God of or enabling me to do things I can't do on my own.

Facing my giant

Last time I talked about going into the Promised Land.  Today I got a view of my giant to be faced.  He is noisy, scary, & he yells a lot of scary things to try to intimidate & defeat me.  But remember Caleb's faith in God.  He realized that the giant didn't matter because the Most High God was walking with him.  Sometimes God doesn't just make our fears & giants go away but He has us face them to show how he delivers us through them & gives us the victory.  He wants to see that we have enough faith in Him to stand against that giant.  This year has been my year of facing a lot of my fears.  I believe that God is wanting me to move past those fears & into His grace & strength so that I can do the work He has called me to do.  Christ already knew this giant & He already knows the way to victory.  Not only that but He knows how to further use it to more "qualify" me for His ministry.  Today I give all praise to Jehovah Rapha & thanks to all my friends & family for the prayers that I know are going up on my behalf.  It's yet another step in the qualifying process.  The verse & promise for the day is : "I will give you back your health, & heal your wounds, says the Lord, "for you are called an outcast -Jerusalem , for whom no one cares." (Jer. 30:17 NLT)

Clobber your fear

Alright so today I had another thought.  I have to admit sometimes I feel like the Israelites wandering around in the wilderness.  That does get tiring sometimes.  But today I got to thinking that the "Promised Land" is right there & I thought why can't I get in there?  I realized that there are giants in the Promised Land but I also realized God has given me the victory over those giants.  Satan however likes to make those giants appear too big to handle but those giants are nothing for God to handle.  I think it's in how I view the Promised Land.  Are the giants too big or has God given me the victory & the milk & honey He has promised.  Satan wants me to believe the first because it keeps me from entering into Gods promise.
     I think I (we) need to be like Caleb.  He saw the same giants as the others but he had a different view of his God.  Numbers 13:30 says "But Caleb tried to quiet the people as they stood before Moses, "let's go at once to take the land ", he said "we can certainly conquer it." His view was not on the obstacle, it was on God.
     How many times do we do that?  We fail to reach what God has given us because we let Satan scare us & take our focus off God.  We just keep wandering & struggling because our focus is in the wrong place.  As I heard in "Facing the Giants", "your fear is about to clobber your faith".  I think it's time to switch things up & let our faith clobber our fear.  It's time to go in!

Run to win

I began running a few years ago.  I don't always enjoy it, especially when it's in the nineties, it's not always a lot of fun.  But most of the time I do enjoy getting outside, running, & clearing my mind.  Today as I was running I got to thinking about some comparisons to running & my journey with Christ.  The first thing is that when I started running, I couldn't run as far, as fast or as long.  I just started making goals of running to the next pole at the track.  But through training I gradually increased all three of those areas.  My goal was for my progress to not become stagnant & stale.  This is like in our life with Christ, we shouldn't be at the same level in our walk with Christ as when we began that walk.  I think one of the keys is to keep training.  We can't let our relationship with Christ become stagnant.  Hebrews 5: 11-14 talks about moving from milk to solid food.  If we want to be effective for Christ & grow, we need to get to the solid food.
      Secondly, when I run I want to see results.  There are all kinds of running plans but I want the one that gives me the best results.  John chapter 15 tells us how to see those results.  Stay connected to the vine (Jesus Christ) & then we will bear fruit.  If you run but you don't see results from it why would you keep doing it?  In the same token, why would you not want to see results (fruit) in your Christian life?
     We need to be growing in our Christian life & we need to be living to see results.  If we're not seeing those things, it's time to dig deeper into Gods word, spend more time in prayer, seeking His face & praying for revival in us.  Run the race to win!

We have to believe

I have done martial arts for years.  I love doing it.  I even trained at a professional mma gym for a while.  While I was there I sometimes didn't feel like I belonged.  There were professional fighters there who I trained with & I felt like I was just a guy who loved training at martial arts.  I took all of the classes, I trained very hard, & the trainers told me I was doing well enough to actually fight if I chose to.  Even though professional trainers were telling me that, I never believed I was good enough to do it.  I made excuses as to why I couldn't do it.  Today I was thinking about that & I began thinking how we do that as Christians.  We can do all of the studying & preparing, which are good, but if we never believe in what Gods power can do through us, it doesn't make a difference.  I think we too often believe God did great things in the bible but not so much today.  It's time to realize that He still has the same power today as He did then.  It's time to increase our faith & increase our expectancy.  Its time to boldly go to the throne of God & ask Him to move through us & on our behalf.  Ephesians 1:19 says "and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe".  It's time we start understanding how great God is & that He is still working today.  It's not enough for me to tell you, you have to believe in Gods power.  I believe God wants to do a great thing but it is up to each of us to believe in Him & in the work He wants to do.

More opportunities

Today, I am going to start journaling some of my thoughts on this journey of an unqualified Christian.  Today I have thought a lot about Romans 1:16.  It says " For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first & also to the Greek,".  I have thought today how many opportunities I miss everyday to share Christ with someone.  I've been thinking about people I know who are searching for something & I know what they really need is Christ.  Then I think if I miss that many opportunities everyday, how many opportunities do we as Christians miss everyday?  The times at work, school, with our kids, the store, doctors office, etc., that we could be telling someone what God is doing in our lives.  I believe people are seeking for & needing God in their lives & were not sharing Him.  If we're not being the example & reflection of Christ , how are they going to find Christ?  I am going to pray for me to have more opportunities to share Christ & that I would take better advantage of those situations.  I am praying for God to work through me to do this.  I'm asking you to pray that for me as well & I will pray that for you too.  With God working through us, we can make a difference!

Get off the sidelines

We've been spending time talking about the qualification process.  That is a never ending process.  God is constantly shaping & growing us to be who He wants us to be.  The truth is its really not about being qualified, it's about being available.  God wants us to just rely on Him to take us through the qualifying process.  He wants us to follow His commission.  In Matthew 28:19, He says, " Therefore, go & make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, & the Son & the Holy Spirit".  First keyword is "go".  Christ wants us to be out doing & sharing.  He doesn't want us to be on the sidelines.  We've been there too long.  It's time to get to work & get involved.  What has God placed on your heart to do?
     Secondly, He says to "make disciples".  We need to be out sharing Christ with others & we shouldn't stop at them making a decision for Christ.  We then need to teach them how to follow Christ.  That's what a disciple is.  We can't just drop them after their decision, we are called to make them disciples.  Who has God asked you to help be a disciple of His?
     I think it's time to realize that God is constantly working on us, that we have to trust in Him, & that we have to get off the sidelines & go.  Go implies action & it's time that we get involved.  What I want you to remember is God qualifies you.  Trust Him that He's going to work through you if you allow Him to, & then do it.

Know God

In the last blog we talked about knowing Gods word.  Today I want to talk about knowing God.  When I decided to go into ministry (actually I think God decided), I decided I needed to know as much about God as I could.  After all He is Who I'm following& Who I am supposed to be telling others about.  So as I started seeking knowledge about God, the strangest thing happened.  God began revealing Himself to me.  Second Chronicles 15:2 says "whenever you seek Him, you will find Him".  And that's what happened!  I started out seeking knowledge of God & instead, I found God!  Now I don't have the corner on knowing God, He is available to all who seek Him.  I found out that even though I have been in church my whole life, there was so much more I needed to know.  I needed to dig deeper.  The more I learn about Him, the more I realize I need to know.  You see, He doesnt want us to know "about" Him, He wants us to know Him.
     If we know Him, we know He loves us.  If we know Him, we know He works out everything for our good.  We know He has good plans for us.  We know He is faithful, all knowing, all powerful, & all present.  He is the Almighty!  We don't have enough paper to write everything He is.  He is our Healer & our Provider.  As He told Moses, He is "I Am".  As we get to know Him, we find out we can trust Him.
     What more do we need to "qualify" us?  If we know Christ & we are willing to share Him with others, what other "qualifications" are necessary?  God doesn't need us to "sell" Him, He has everything anyone could possibly need.  He needs us to know Him & share Him & He will take care of the rest.