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Tag Archives: great faith

14 Feb

Can’t reason with God

Genesis 12:1-4    Now the Lord had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, From your family And from your father’s house, To a land that I will show you. 2 I will make you a great nation; I will bless you And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” 4 So Abram departed as the Lord had spoken to him, and Lot went with him. And Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.

“Just do it. Just do the thing I am placing on your heart. Just do the thing that requires great faith in Me, and not your own abilities. You don’t have all the answers, but I do.” That still small voice has the ability to be very loud and clear sometimes. You cannot run from your conscience speaking to you, for His Spirit is the one there. He seemingly comes in waves; He will press these things upon your heart, then lighten the load, and see how you respond. Do you go back to “normal” and act like nothing happened? Do you act like God has not spoken to you regarding anything he has set before you? Oh yea…..I have too. I justify it over and over again, but in reality is is plainly being disobedient. I am saying no to God.

Abram is known as the great patriarch of faith. He was blindly obedient to all the calls God placed on his life. He was far from perfect in many of his decisions, especially those that seemingly always revolved around his wife, but when God said “go”, he went, always. Abram picked up and left all that was coming to him in the family inheritance. God was telling him that he would bless all his descendants, yet his wife was unable to have children. 2 I will make you a great nation; I will bless you And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing. Abram was leaving everything to follow the call the Lord had given him. He simply could not make sense of it all; but his faith was so strong, how could he say no? Even later in his life he took the step of seemingly sacrificing his only son; in the understanding that the Lord will provide. Genesis 22:14 And Abraham called the name of the place, The-Lord-Will-Provide; as it is said to this day, “In the Mount of The Lord it shall be provided.”

The Lord has been speaking to me in this season of my life regarding these leaps of faith. He has placed something on my heart that is outside my capability to reason through. He brought it before me and pressed; he let it lie in the undertone; he is pressing again because I went back to “normal”. It is no coincidence that he has had me spending so much time with His servant he has used to teach me obedience. I feel trapped and cannot reason of a means escape, yet I feel God is showing me a door that requires a leap of faith. I think things to death, but I cannot reason with God. Isaiah 55:9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.

 
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Posted by on February 14, 2013 in Daily Devotions

 

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The up escalator

12 Dec

The up escalator

Genesis 22:14 And Abraham called the name of the place, The-Lord-Will-Provide; as it is said to this day, “In the Mount of The Lord it shall be provided.”

If I were to give my testimony, there is a clear financial side of it. I lived much of my life grabbing all the wants I could get my hands on. I was running what I then thought was a successful business knocking on the door of becoming a million dollar company. Over the past couple years I have seen that million dollar company go time after time to less than $1000 in multiple bank accounts; being told by everyone to file bankruptcy; selling almost all the assets; working for free to keep the doors open; now working by myself in the field; I could go on and on. I have also seen money appear time after time, right on time, to make payroll or pay an overdue bill. It happened again yesterday in a very humbling way. I continue to live on the daily manna God provides me just as He did the Israelites when they wandered in the desert for 40 years.

Abraham had an only son through his wife Sarah; a cherished son that God had blessed him with very late in his life. God came to Abraham and told him to sacrifice the boy. Genesis 22:2 Then He said, “Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.” Abraham was obedient to the highest imaginable call of God; he rose the next morning and prepared to do what God had told him to do. When they arrived at the mountain his son asked where the offering was. Abraham replied “My son, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering.”(vs 8). Abraham was just about to sacrifice his son when an angel stopped him and showed him a goat caught by its horns in a thicket on the mountain top; just as he had told Issac that the Lord will provide. Abraham is called in the Bible the Patriarch of Great Faith.

When we are obedient to what we feel God pressing on our hearts to do, most likely it is a two-fold blessing in some way. We may be blessing someone in that act of obedience, the testing of our faith, in what God is pressing upon us. We also are blessed by the act in remaining in God’s Will for our lives. I believe each act of obedience draws us that much closer to God, each step of a stairway to heaven. I believe that is shown in Paul’s writing in Romans 6:16 Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness? Are you saying yes to the thing He is asking of you? The stairway is an up escalator; you are either moving up, or sliding down.

 
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Posted by on December 12, 2012 in Daily Devotions

 

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Not gonna let it get me down

10 Jul

Not gonna let it get me down

Matthew 11:28 Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

Some days we just get the blahs. The weight of the world comes crashing in; all our anxieties about the present and the future grab hold and drag us down. Satan has a powerful tool rooted in fear, that shifts the scales in lieu of your faith. Faith and fear may easily be placed on a balance, for one will always dominate the other. You cannot proclaim great faith and have fear control you. Your relationship with God could easily be described as that balance. You are either focusing on your fear, or on your God. 2 Timothy 1:7 For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

I am no different than you. If I were to open my doors and let you into my world, you would understand what I am facing, and these battles with fear. Big things, but none bigger than what you are facing. But on what front do you fight the battle? Is it running away, in retaliation, in substance abuse, denial, or in seeking God? He knows exactly where you are at right now, and where you will be next. He can use where you are at to draw you closer to Himself if you will seek and not stray. 1 Peter 5:6 Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, 7 casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.

Many times the reason we are drug down is the worry about the future. If we are worried about tomorrow, we will waste today away in that fear. Matthew 6:34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. We can loose some of life’s best days being lost in worry about the days to come. Take today and cherish where God has you. Turn Satan’s tool of fear against him, and let God use fear to draw you closer to Himself. Today, and only today are all you need to worry about.

 
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Posted by on July 10, 2012 in Daily Devotions

 

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On Track

17 May

On Track

2 Timothy 2:3-4   You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier.

If we are not to become side-tracked, then are we able to say we are focused? If we are focused we should have a sole purpose, a goal we are trying to attain. If we are focused on that goal, anything that doesn’t pertain or help us accomplish that goal is a deterrent and side tracks us from stepping closer. The apostle Paul writes much in analogies of the focus of our Christian life using many metaphors. The verse above is the relationship of a soldier to his commander and the focus it demands. So much of our Christian life is warfare and our enemy provides all the distractions here to draw our focus away from Christ.

Our focus could be a measurement of our faith. Our faith is the hope of things unseen, and the enemy desires to draw our focus away with things we can see, and even feel we can attain. Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Paul was spending much time encouraging Timothy in his faith, for Paul knew he was surrounded by those who could deter, or side track him from his faith and purpose. 2 Timothy 3:10-11 But you have carefully followed my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, love, perseverance, persecutions, afflictions, which happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra–what persecutions I endured. And out of them all the Lord delivered me. The ability to remain focused, the ability to have great faith, is gained through time spent with God in His Word and prayer. These daily times of preparation allow you to remain focused, to strengthen your faith, and to remain on track with the sole purpose you have for the day. Your sole purpose for the day is wherever Christ has you at that time; to represent Him and reflect Him to those surrounding you. That is where you show the great faith that you possess in your Risen Savior and your ability to share Christ with others.

 
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Posted by on May 17, 2012 in Daily Devotions

 

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Cause & Effect

05 May

Cause & Effect

Ephesians 2:8-9 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.

When from deep within you begin to realize your sin, your depravity, your desire to know God and live for Him, your life changes. The Gospel teaches us that the first step into that change is the realization of that sin, and the acceptance of the free Grace that God has provided through His Son, and the desire to live for Him. Once you accept Christ as the Redeemer of your soul, your faith in Him has assured your Salvation. It is by no work or good deed that you can accomplish, it is only through that humble realization of your sin, and the debt Christ has paid for you. You now are truly seen “not guilty”, or justified in the eyes of God who demands perfection. Romans 3:27-28  Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No, but by the law of faith. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law.

True faith should and will produce good works. They go hand in hand, but the works are not the key to Salvation. The works are the product of Salvation and the proof of Christ that resides in you. Luke 6:43-44  “For a good tree does not bear bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. For every tree is known by its own fruit. For men do not gather figs from thorns, nor do they gather grapes from a bramble bush. James 2 speaks of these works that are a product of the great faith that resides in us. James is speaking of how they prove our faith, but we are not justified by them. James 2:22 speaks of “works faith made perfect” and this is where James is speaking of mature and complete faith. The closer you draw to God, the stronger your faith becomes, and many times even unknowingly, you are producing good works that are evident to those around you. These works are the proof or maturity of your faith in the One whom saved your soul.

 
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Posted by on May 5, 2012 in Daily Devotions

 

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The day between

07 Apr

This morning I have been seeking answers on this day between Christ’s death and Resurrection. The shock of His death has left those followers in disbelief and great sorrow. They are in wonder of what is next. They are even about to return to their old jobs and go back to life as they knew it before Christ. They feel like life is over. The hours and days following death are traumatic

The day between

Mark 15:42-43 Now when evening had come, because it was the Preparation Day, that is, the day before the Sabbath,  Joseph of Arimathea, a prominent council member, who was himself waiting for the kingdom of God, coming and taking courage, went in to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus.

They day between death and Resurrection. Christ is in the grave. Joseph of Arimathea had gotten the nerve to go before Pilate and ask for the body of Christ. Courage is doing what you must do even when you fear the consequences. Joseph was held in high regard, but may have feared what could have been said or done by him placing honor on the dead Christ. Matthew Henry spoke of him saying, “Those who wait for the kingdom of God, and hope for an interest in the privileges of it, must show it by their forwardness to own Christ’s cause and interest, even then when it seems to be crushed and run down.” Joseph put his great faith before anything man could do to him and honored God. This even as all Christ’s disciples had abandoned him over the last hours of His life. God raised up Joseph to honor His Son.

1 John 2:12 I write to you, little children, Because your sins are forgiven you for His name’s sake. Most of us have lost someone close, and in those first hours and days questions fill our minds of the why’s and where they are now that they have left their earthly body. Most all of Christ’s followers were in disbelief of the events that had taken place and were in great sorrow. They were gathering together and trying to understand the events. Questions filled their minds. When we loose someone now to death, Christ has brought us the possibility of the understanding the answers to many of these questions. This price He paid on the Cross for our sin, gives us the assurance of passing into heaven with Him, and can remove much of the sorrow and doubt we feel if those we loose are Saved. Hebrews 6:11-12 And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end, that you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. Rest in the assurance of the promise of this day between.

 
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Posted by on April 7, 2012 in Daily Devotions

 

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Just Go

21 Feb

This morning I awoke not feeling too good, and have been in Genesis reading here, and studying the scriptures. I have had that “pit” feeling all morning like something is wrong. I hope that it is just the Holy Spirit working His conviction work in me, for my disobedience for going against what I am speaking of here.

 

Just Go

Genesis 12:1    Now the Lord had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, From your family And from your father’s house, To a land that I will show you.

We all know Nike’s famous slogan, “Just do it”. It seems as though God all the way back in Genesis coined that phrase when speaking to Abram, who will later be called Abraham, and a patriarch of faith. God was telling him to leave all he knew. He was with his entire family and is about to become the leader of the family when his father dies, and inherit all that he leaves. Only criminals in that time would flee their clans and run. He was going against traditions, but following God as an act of great faith. God was simply telling him to ‘Just Go’, and not laying out the entire plans before him, as a test of faith for Abram.

We get so scared when we feel God is asking us to do something out of our comfort zone, or even better worded as out of our control. As a business owner, I too struggled with God’s calling to just go, out of my control and comfort zone. The delayed obedience is an act of disobedience in God’s eyes. We can’t wait to move when we are ready. When you feel those tugs of God to move into the unknown, remember what Hebrews 13:5-6 says” Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” So we may boldly say: “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me? We too can become a leader of faith by demonstrating it to those around us, and moving when God is telling us, by just going out on faith.

 
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Posted by on February 21, 2012 in Daily Devotions

 

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