Saved with a Purpose for a Purpose

Why were we saved?

Have you ever really pondered this question or maybe even answered it? I mean, I know how we were saved (through the redemptive power of Jesus’ blood) and the reason why God wanted us saved (to keep us from eternal damnation in the pit and to allow us to reign with Him in heaven), but I often think for what purpose did God have in mind when He decided to redeem what once had grieved him that He made us. Even though He knew some would still reject Him (when we reject Christ, we reject God) he still devised a plan to save us.

But it is good for me to draw near to God: I have put my trust in the Lord God, that I may declare all thy works, Psalms 73:28. As I meditated on this verse, I came to the realization that the remainder of my life should be lived trusting Him and doing whatever He asks of me to do, both verbally (God does still speak to His children) and from His word. So all the plans I’ve made for myself that do not align with His will, they are not important and a waste of time. I really don’t want to finally get to see Him face to face and hear Him tell me, why didn’t you do this or that? I must perform all He has for me to do while I’m still here, after all, I have to declare, make known to others what He has done.

We are saved with a purpose already set in us. The question remains, will you work out your purpose while you yet still have a chance?

Your thoughts?

Stop Believing the Lies

Since the days of the Garden of Eden Satan has been selling us lies and we’ve been buying them. We’ve believed the aged old lie that we’re missing out if we surrender all to Christ. We’ve believed that saints don’t have fun. I think that’s why some of us won’t let go of our past; it’s comfortable, it may have been daring, and probably popular. But when we really think about the things we did before we got saved, I’m sure it caused us stress, put us in debt, caused us to pray and say if you get me out of this I promise I won’t do it again, and it may have even made us thank God for saving our lives (literally from danger).

10 He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. 11 For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him. 12 As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us, Psalms 103:10-12.  As we look at today’s Scripture we see that even in our time of rebellion against God (while we were yet sinners) He did not pay us what we deserved. Instead, he loved on us and wooed us into a relationship with Him. Can you find areas in your life where God’s mercy was evident? Does those times of grace and mercy outweigh the time you spent outside of His will? Think about it. If you truly love God and have developed a relationship with Him, you really shouldn’t be missing those things that grieved His spirit.

 Put your trust and belief in God and not in the father of lies. God is the only One who knows all. But even more important, when we do make a mistake, God is the only One who is able to forgive us and cleanse us from ALL unrighteousness.

Are you believing any of his lies today?

Your thoughts?

Gift Now, Present Later

God freely gives the lost salvation (His gift) and he also gives rewards to those who are faithful in service; not just here on earth but when we enter heaven. Salvation is a free gift but we are saved unto good works. This means we don’t have to work to get salvation, but we must work to reveal it.

21What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed: for the end of those things is death. 22 But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. 23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord, Romans 6:21-23.  Some believe they have a license to sin simply because God’s word says he will forgive the sins of his people (those who confess and repent). It is pure ignorance to believe you can just say you’re a Christian and not have a life that models one. We are saved so others might see our good works and glorify our Father in heaven. We are saved to show the mighty hand of God here in this earth realm. We are saved to prove God’s word is real. We are saved that we might live again!

Let’s come out of mediocrity in our relationship with God and with others and walk in the power, boldness and revelation of El Shaddai. The Gift-giver is challenging us to awaken from the sleep we’ve been in for so many years.

Now that we’ve accepted the gift of salvation, will we be obedient to the word of God so we can get our reward (a crown filled with precious jewels) in heaven? Or will we be satisfied with just merely making it in?

Your thoughts?

What Are You Made Of?

Our Scripture on yesterday reminded us that we must be born again in order to see the kingdom of heaven. We found out that many have only one part of the two step process in salvation (confession and accepting Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection in order to be secure in an eternity with God). My question to you today is, where is the disconnect? Why are we falling short as true believers of Christ?

For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek, Romans 1:16. Are we ashamed of whom we are? Or are we ashamed of what we may become? Do we fear man more than we fear God? I really would like to hear from you all today concerning this because it grieves my heart (and I know it grieves God) to see so many people gather on Sunday and a great number of them have been hoodwinked into believing they are born again. Let me help us out a little. Salvation in Greek is soteria and it means deliverance, healing, safety, preservation and soundness. Okay, if you’re still, after umpteen years of being saved, continue to cuss people out, harbor unforgiveness, steal, cheat (homeboy hookup, taxes), lie, fight (my Lord) etc, you need to go back and check the two step process again. When we’ve been born again, there should be evidence of deliverance!

Yesterday’s Scripture talked about being born of water and of the Spirit. In the rebirth process, some of us have not allowed the Holy Spirit to do the work of delivering and healing us. When we’re born of the spirit of God, we need to allow him to cleanse us from all filthiness of the flesh.

If you really looked at your walk, what would you be made of, spirit or flesh?

Your thoughts?

You Do the Math

If we look at Scripture to determine what salvation really is, we would see that it is actually a two step process; one being confession by mouth and the second being believe in the heart that Jesus is who God says he is (Romans 10:9-10). Therefore if one plus one equals two, then how can you have salvation if one of the two pieces is missing?

3) Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God, 5) Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God, John 3:3,5. Many church goers have one foot in and the other out, they have no faith and no vision, they walk in fear and are double minded: this kind of action is not “born again.” God said he has anointed us to set the captives free, give sight to the blind, in order that we might be born again.

The question we must ask ourselves is do we believe in our heart Jesus is Lord? If the answer is yes, then this means we believe the word of God. Oh, I may have lost a few right there. To believe in Him is to believe the word, especially since He is the word made flesh. Wait for it…If we don’t believe the word, we can’t believe in Jesus. If we believe the word then this means we must obey the word. Is there demonstration in your life that says you are born again? Or are you still doing things the way you used to? The word of God washes us and regenerates us and conform us to the image of Christ. Is there any evidence in your walk that you are who you say you are? Or are you simply a “church goer,” one who does not possess a relationship with God Almighty?

We will go a little further tomorrow. Meanwhile, you do the math!

Your thoughts?

To See or Not to See

Have you ever noticed when we ignore something it still doesn’t go away? Likewise if we neglect to address an issue or concern, it tends to get worse? I can look back at a particular time in my life and honestly say, I saw the truth in that situation but I didn’t want to see it. I knew if I acknowledged it, I would have to confront it, and back then, I did not like confrontation.

The Lord openeth the eyes of the blind: the Lord raiseth them that are bowed down: the Lord loveth the righteous, Psalms 146:8. When we join the Body of Christ, God is obligated to begin the sanctification process in us and part of that process is to open our eyes to the truth. When we were in the world, not only were we enemies of God, but we were blinded to His truths. Now that the blinders have come off we should stop ignoring those things in us that may cause us to err against God or even cause others to err.

God not only said He will open our eyes, but He will also raise us up when we worship Him. It’s in those times of worship that He will allow us to see things we never saw before, so please let us not neglect times of individual worship. The more we worship Him, the more He will reveal. We should never shy away from confrontation, especially when our motives in confronting a person are pure. Ummm.

To see or not to see; which will it be!

Your thoughts?

What We See Is Where Our Focus Is!

We need to meditate on the title alone for a few moments. Okay, question, are life issues compounding themselves upon you? Do you have a full load and feel overwhelmed? Does it appear as though everyone look to you to get things done? I’ve been there more times than I care to remember, but since the last time God has illuminated in my spirit what I see is where my focus is.

 Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus, throughout all ages, world without end. Amen. Ephesians 3:20-21. The cares of this world aren’t going away, they may at times, increase but our focus should not be on the cares of this life, but should be on the One who is able to give us rest from our cares (as we cast them upon him). Our focus should be on the One who can do greater than what we can experience in life or imagine in our minds.

What we see through eyes of fear, frustration and inadequacy, will keep us paralyzed and hold us in a place of disappointment. Where is our focus? What thoughts are consuming our minds to the point we’re not living out God’s will for our lives? If God has blessed us at any time in our life, our focus should be there right alongside our faith which knows God cannot fail!

Let’s change what we see by focusing on God’s grace and mercy towards us which are new everyday! The power is already in us to do so.

I see and focus on Jesus this morning!

Your thoughts?

Do-It-Yourself

I’m sure many would agree that there are some things that we just have to do ourselves. I have projects around the house that require repair; repairs that are minor enough for my husband to do and that may cost an arm and leg if we called a licensed repair person in to do them. These are often called DIY projects or do-it-yourself projects.

O taste and see that the Lord is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him, Psalms 34:8. Just as there are benefits to doing those projects around the house ourselves, so is it so with reading and learning the word of God for ourselves. It’s good to hear the word spoken by others because faith comes by hearing, but it’s even more beneficial when we do it ourselves. David said taste and see that the Lord is good. Here he encourages us to eat the word individually and have our spirit man enlightened. The more we read on our own, the more we come to know God. And the more we come to know God (more intimately to where He’s divulging secrets) the more we will trust Him at His word.

Let’s not wait until Sunday morning church service or Wednesday night Bible Study to rightly divide (read and study) the word of truth, but let’s take the initiative to learn of our heavenly Father so we can be better ambassadors for Christ and walk in God’s power to disrupt the plans of the enemy. If we are fighting a spiritual battle (and we are) we can’t advance unless we have the word of God hidden in our hearts. Did you catch that, I said hidden in our hearts as opposed to having them on the surface of our lips. The word must take root in our hearts in order to be effective. Stop waiting on someone else to tell you about your Father, you inquire in His temple!

Are you working on you? I know I’m a work in progress!!!

Your thoughts?

What Do You See?

There comes a time in our Christian walk where we must mature in the things of God. One area in particular is our faith. I believe we’ve seen and experienced numerous amounts of things to cause us not to be on the same level of faith from whence we began.

19) Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble. 20) But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead, James 2:19-20? We’ve gotten good at saying what we are and what we have, but have missed the mark in proving it to be so. Just because we say we have faith, doesn’t prove that we have it. James is urging us to stop saying what we have and start having it! Prove it!

Faith is nothing we can see, rather the evidence of what we desire before it manifests. Faith stretches us to go beyond the intellect and into the supernatural. Some of us want no part of it, but if you want to be pleasing to God you must operate in and by faith. Faith also is seeing what is not there in the natural but trusting God enough to know it shall be.

Let’s begin to look at things we’ve petitioned God and interceded on other’s behalf, through the eyesight and faith of Jesus. Let’s believe Him for the impossible. Exercise your faith today and show forth that faith without works IS dead!

Now, what do you see? Is it resurrected faith?

Your thoughts?

How Do I Look?

Many of us go through life looking for love and other things, all in the wrong places. We look to the world to give us advice. We look at life through eyes of unbelief instead of faith and we look at man’s outer appearance as opposed to trying the spirit by the spirit. We also look at our walk with Christ as a religion and not a relationship.

Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world, James 1:27. This verse in James lets us know what a child of God should look like and what we should do to please Him. It does not say one who is prideful and who boasts about what they’ve done for others. But rather it commends that a person truly walking after God, takes care of those in need and who have been afflicted. It also says that we should keep ourselves from looking and acting like the world.

Let’s begin to take ourselves out of the equation and make our walk and talk be about esteeming and caring for others. Take a look around you; I’m sure you will find someone in need of help.

Now, how do I look?

Your thoughts?

Undisturbed Peace

Before I got saved, peace to me was equated to quietness and also whether I felt good or not. In other words if I was in a terrible mood, I had no peace. But since I’ve come to the faith and have matured in my faith, I see now that my peace could not sustain me. I realize peace should never be measured by feelings; true peace that is. Trust me; staying in my peace, I would have literally lost my mind.

And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus Philippians 4:7. Here we have the peace of God at work in the lives of the believers which clearly states that God’s peace, though it cannot be comprehended by worldly measurement, will keep our hearts and our minds, stable, sharp and alert.

Many of us are going through things right now that requires us to do something we would not be able to do or withstand in our own minds, but God’s peace supersedes the understanding of the natural mind and will have us do the right thing even though it may appear crazy to others. Now the Scripture before that one lets us know, we must first put things to prayer and supplication with thanksgiving. What it’s really saying is, once you’ve done that (prayed), believe what you’re petitioning God for and your belief/faith alone will cause Jesus to activate God’s peace in you.

Do not be moved by what you see for that is not faith, nor will it give you peace. The peace of God in us must be undisturbed. Is your peace undisturbed today? In order to have a peace of mind, we must have the peace of God.

Your thoughts?

What's On Your Mind?

Everyday our minds are bombarding with thoughts. We think about family issues, our work environment and even church. Today I wanted to hit on the latter part of a familiar verse in the book of 2 Timothy that deals with the mind.

For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind, 2 Timothy 1:7.  Fear is a heavy topic but we’re not going to deal with that just yet. We witness through Scripture that God gives us a sound mind to combat fear (actually He gives us three things to fight fear; power, love and a sound mind). What is it like to possess a sound mind? Well, I’m glad you asked.

A sound mind is a mind that does not waiver, it does not doubt, and it does not ask “how long Lord” because it knows our time is not like God’s time. A sound mind operates in exceptional faith in spite of circumstances, it thinks victoriously because it knows there’s no failure in God and all of His promises are yea and amen, and a sound mind also walks in expectation of miracles because it knows God is still able to perform them.

Are your thoughts consumed with the issues of the day to the degree where you have no room to meditate and spend quiet time with God? Do you constantly think and speak negatively and have no or very little patience? We all must take on the mind of Christ so we can think and know that we’re at the end of our situation even when our circumstances say we’re just beginning. Look through eyes of faith and think with a sound mind and begin to see yourself where you want to be, not where you are now.

What’s on your mind today?

Your thoughts?

What you say?

It is important we live according to the spirit of God and not after our fleshly nature and desires. Keep in mind, someone is always listening to what we say, but even more important, watching what we do.

And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night, Rev 12:10. It’s not enough that those around us talk about us and make accusations toward us, but we see here in Scripture that the enemy does it too, day in and day out. It’s his job to discredit us. Now when we mind the things of the spirit, the only thing the enemy can use against us is our past. When you’re free in Jesus, your past can’t hurt you any longer, because ALL things work for your good!

When the enemy comes your way with railing accusations, tell him he needs to update your resume cause that old stuff don’t work anymore (my brother told me that!). When the enemy starts reminding you of your past, you remind him of his future; eternal damnation in the lake of fire! Saints let us (you and me) walk what we talk. Let not our good be evil spoken of!

What you say?

Your thoughts?

You're Just Like Your Father!?.

Or you’re just like your mother! Some of us have heard these words, but when spoken, it may have been used in a negative connotation. When we’re born, we are born into sin and we take on the natural or characteristics of what we are born into (the ruler of this world, Satan). This is no fault of our own per se, but it is the fault of mankind; Adam and Eve. Since the fall of man we are born body, soul and spirit.

And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose, Romans 8:28. I don’t care what your momma did and I don’t care what your daddy did, once you’ve given your life to Christ, you now become spirit, soul and body and you begin to take on the spiritual side and characteristics of your heavenly Father. Don’t replay in your head what you’ve heard in the past, but live out what God’s word says you are. We have the same creative ability our heavenly Father has, that when He spoke things into existence, it was so. When we speak (life) it is so. Everything you’ve experienced will work for good (either for you or for someone else you may be called to minister to, someone who may be experiencing what you have already gone through). Get to know who you really are according to God’s holy word and not by man’s word.

In the beginning it was declared you were just like your parent! Before your transformation, you questioned and you may even have walked as your parent did (?).

But now, you ARE just like your Father (period)

Your thoughts?

I Give Myself Away

Last week proved to be a bit trying; one of self examination, identification, and extermination. Believe me it wasn’t easy seeing some of the things I’ve experienced and been privy to in my past, but it was truly necessary! Now, as we turn the pages of last week and begin a new one, we also begin the ending of our process; we end with rededication.

Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new, II Corinthians 5:17. Isn’t it awesome to serve a God of another chance? This Scripture reminds us, as long as we are in Christ, (and we go to God with a sincere heart), we can begin again. All of our old mess (our worldly nature) should be dead (passed away) and we should be giving ourselves to the new way of living, holy and right living in Christ Jesus.

Let’s break it down just a little further because I don’t want you to miss this one. With God there appears to be a give and take. We give up our old nature. We give up acting like the world (system). We give up our sin. We give up what the world says about us. But we take the gift of God which is salvation. We take on newness of life. We take freedom. We take peace and joy. We take love. We take the attributes of Christ. God wants something from each of us, but He wants us to GIVE it to Him.

Today…I give myself away!!!

Your thoughts?

Will you get...that?

Trust in him at all times; ye people, pour out your heart before him: God is a refuge for us. Selah, Psalms 62:8 (KJV)

Since we’ve swept our spiritual houses clean, let’s begin the extermination of our unwanted house guests. Please do not misunderstand, I am well aware that this process may take longer than the days we’ve been discussing it. So do not be discouraged, this is so we won’t be ignorant of the enemy’s devices and to get us started on doing some housecleaning before the Master returns.

When we began we talked about the “strongman” found in Matthew chapter twelve which mentioned that we cannot take control of the things in a house until we bind the strongman (Matthew 12:28-30). Once we’ve taken our vices (sin) captive, we must cast them out which in turn, causes our houses to be clean. This next step is crucial, yet many miss it and find themselves worse off than before. Matthew 12:43-45 states, 43) When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none. 44) Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished. 45) Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation.

We forget we need to replace where we’ve cleaned out. If you used to have fits of rage and you’ve cast that out, you now must replace it with some characteristic of Christ, love, joy, peace and self control. If you used to steal, you need to replace that with giving. If you’re having sex outside of marriage, you need to stop having sex until you’re married! This blog will never be written to condemn, but rather to convict us all to do better. I’ve fallen short in a number of these and even more, but I can tell you with assurance that God is able to deliver you from anything you may be facing. But until you give Him permission, His hands are tied. Let’s stop going through our days looking good in our outward appearance to man, but jacked up in the spirit before God. Let’s desire a change so that we CAN be changed. Let’s get rid of the junk we’ve been carrying around for years and years. Let’s say today, enough is enough, I want more of God and less of this mess I’m holding onto and covering up.

Today, let’s ask God, “Will You get that for me please?

Your thoughts?

Who...me?

Prayerfully we’ve spent the last two days taking a constructive look at ourselves. It is also my prayer that you’ve spent time in God’s presence seeking His wisdom and knowledge concerning the very things that have caused you to operate, less than, how He ordained you to operate. At this juncture, we must come forth from our time alone with God, with specific things we’ve struggled with or still continue to struggle with.

Once we identify the issue(s) we need to acknowledge it (them) so we can then escort that thing out of our lives. You know, those things that if anyone in your inner circle or even outside of your circle knew, they would say, “who you?” The point is not that your friends need to know, the point is, you need to stop hiding it. Whatever we hide the enemy uses it to torment us and continues to keep us in bondage. Think about it, to hide means to cover; to reveal means to bring forth! Read that again. To bring forth sounds a lot like freedom to me. And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free, John 8:32 (KJV).

Let’s take a quick look at the Scripture. And you shall know the TRUTH (Jesus) and the TRUTH shall make (deliver, heal you) free (not bound, not hidden). Now let’s get real and break it all the way down. There is no way you can know Christ intimately and be in His presence and not be CHANGED! The question is “do you really know Him?” Another question is “are you cool with where you are?”

Who me?  Yep YOU!  Next up…Extermination!

Your thoughts?

What's the Verdict?

Yesterday we began the process of dealing with our vices or sins. Today we will start the examination process to determine exactly what they are. I mentioned a few of them on yesterday to get us jumpstarted. But let’s not get it twisted or make excuses on what our shortcomings are and try to limit them to what I like to call, sins of the flesh. You know what I’m saying, those sins we can see like stealing, anger, adultery, lying, and gossiping. Ah contrar, we must not leave out what I like to call the sins of the spirit (even though all sin affects the spirit) like unforgiveness, resentment, manipulation and fear.

We go through life doing what we do and we honestly believe its not affecting anyone, so we continue on. Examine yourself! In I Corinthians 11:31-32 it says we should judge (examine, look at) ourselves so we won’t have to be judged because when we as believers are judged by God, he chastens us so we won’t be condemned with the world (paraphrased). In other words, if we look at ourselves, acknowledge our wrong and seek God for help (repenting), we are once again in right standings before Him and He won’t have to correct us.

Here are some ways to begin the examination process: Get alone in a quiet place; ask God to walk you from childhood through adulthood and show you the times in your life where you first experienced, hurt, pain or disappointment, at the hands of someone else. It could be abuse (physical or verbal), neglect from a parent, rejection from an absent parent (in the home or out of the home), a divorce that left you bitter and angry, hostile work environment, church hurt, or maybe you’re angry with God. I didn’t say this would be easy, but it is necessary.

Only YOU know what you’ve experienced and YOU know that something isn’t quite right with what you’re doing or the way you’ve been behaving.  So you’ve been covering it up or even going so far as to blaming others for it. Share it with Jesus, even though He knows, so He can help you with it. Our next step, the Identification process!

So…what’s the verdict?

Your thoughts?

What's your...?

What's your vice today? A vice is an immoral or evil habit but for the sake of simplicity lets call it sin. When we look at it as a vice, we tend to dismiss it, water it down, ignore it or even cover it up. Oh but on the contrary, a vice is something we definitely need to look at and address. The Bible has referred to a vice as a "strongman," (Matthew 12:29).

So what's your strongman today? Is it anger, regret, fear or even unforgiveness? Whether you've identified it or not, make no mistake, we ALL have them and they need to be addressed. The question really is, are we addressing them or are we hoping or wishing no one notices, or if they will just go away? If there is sin in your life, it needs to be dealt with, cast out if you will. Sin left alone is a death sentence to eternal damnation. Remember, light and darkness cannot be joined together, but light shall overtake darkness.

Today we begin the process of dealing with our strongman! In the next few days we will look at examination, identification, extermination and rededication. Are you ready?

Your thougts?