Join Me On the Journey

Did you know that you are surrounded by television signals? It doesn’t matter where you are, there are television signals coursing through the air. You could say, “Well, I don’t believe they’re there because I can’t see them!”

But, I could prove to you they are there by taking a television set, plugging it in, and tuning it in. Then you would hear and see that the waves are there whether you perceive them or not. The broadcast was there before the set was turned on and tuned it; it didn’t start when you turned on the TV, it originated whenever that station opened its doors and began broadcasting. However, you only began receiving that broadcast when you began to utilize a device designed to receive that signal.

Now, if you’re watching TV and all of the sudden, the channel you’re watching goes dark, what do you think? Do you automatically think that the station stopped broadcasting? No, probably the first thing you’ll do is turn to another station. If all the stations are black, you know that there’s something wrong with your receiver, but the signal is still being broadcast.

We can apply this analogy to God. God has the transmitter. He built the transmitter. He is broadcasting. He is the giver of all earthly and spiritual blessings. Everything comes from Him.

He has already transmitted those blessings and if you aren’t seeing them manifest in your life, it’s not time for you to pray and ask God to fix His transmitter. It’s time for you to fix your receiver.

Most of us, when we’re not feeling the joy of the Lord, we go to Him and we say, “Oh God, where’s my joy? What’s wrong?” We may lament, as David did,

Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit. Psa 51:10-12 (KJV)

There’s a song that many of us have sung in church that is based on this passage of scripture written by King David; and it is a beautiful song. But, it is based on the Old Testament covenant.

When you or I pray this prayer, it makes what Jesus came to do for us on the cross of none effect (as it says in I Cor. 1:17). David did not have a New Testament covenant that God would stick with him through thick and thin. There were times when God took His hand of protection off the Old Testament man. The Old Covenant was based on performance (sacrifices, etc). Old Testament believers were not born again as we are today.

What we have is infinitely better. Jesus said:

…lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Matt 28:20b (KJV)

This is a covenant promise of the New Testament and if you’ve been born again but you don’t feel the presence of God, there are a couple of possibilities.

1. you may not truly understand the benefits of the covenant that you have with Jesus
2. or, you may be in unbelief

Instead of praying, “Where are you, God?” try praying,

“Father, I don’t feel Your presence. It seems like You’ve left me. There’s no indication of Your presence in my life…But…I know that You are here with me. I know that Your Word promises that You will never leave me or forsake me, so I know that You are here. Whatever is causing me to feel this way, I know it’s not You that’s forsaken me.

So, Father, I’m not going to pray the prayer of David and say, “Don’t leave me! Don’t cast me away! Don’t take Your Holy Spirit from me! Restore unto me the joy of my salvation.” Father, I know it’s already here. And if I’m not feeling it, it’s not Your transmitter, it’s my receiver.

Help me to fix my receiver and release the blessings that reside in me…in my spirit.”

This is a prayer of faith.

Now, what do you do if you aren’t receiving the signal from God; if you aren’t receiving His blessings? What do you do if your receiver is broken?

You go to the owner’s manual and figure out how to fix it. Can you guess what the owner’s manual is?

When we pray and read and study God’s Word, we are studying the owner’s manual.

If you’re struggling to receive the signal from God, spend some time studying the owner’s manual and learn how to repair your receiver. God is so faithful.

God Bless You on Your Journey!

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Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous. For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God? 1 John 5:1-5 (KJV)

I used to read this passage of scripture and say to myself, “OK. Starting today, things are going to be different! I’m going to start keeping the commandments. I’m going to read my Bible every day. I’m going to pray for an hour a day. I’m going to start going to church every Sunday. I’m going to be nice to people.” On and on the promised went; again and again, I would fail.

Then, someone pointed something out to me. Most Christians suffer from spiritual dyslexia. When they come across a passage like this, they read the words, but jumble the meaning.

“For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments…” When you read that, it’s hard not to think that loving God means that you have to make sure that you keep the commandments of God. But, the next phrase says, “and His commandments are not grievous.”

Well, I don’t know about you, but I found that trying to keep the commandments of God was grievous. It was just plain impossible. There are so many commandments! You start out with the 10 Commandments. Then, there are all kinds of dietary laws, there are ceremonial laws, there are festivals to keep. There are literally hundreds, perhaps thousands of “commandments” in the Bible.

And I thought, “Well, some of those laws don’t apply to me because I’m a New Testament believer. Jesus came and fulfilled the Old Testament law for me and now I don’t have to.” But, I was left with this vague ambiguity; a question. “What was God saying here? Exactly which commandments am I supposed to be keeping?”

Then, I began to read those verses again. “By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God…”

They key here is not “keeping the commandments.” They key is “when we love God.”

By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments.

When you read this verse with and emphasis on “when we love God” and not on “and keep his commandments” you go a long way to discovering a truth that will change your spiritual life. When you begin to focus on loving God…following His commandments is a natural bi-product of that love.

Think about it.

When you love someone…I mean really love someone, don’t you naturally go out of your way to please that person? When you were first dating your husband, didn’t you wear clothes that you knew he would like? Didn’t you go out of your way to learn things about him and do things that you knew would make him feel special? Weren’t there things that you changed because you knew it would make him happy…and those things weren’t grievous. You did those things, made those changes, because you loved him and you wanted to make him feel special and loved.

What if you treated God the same way? What if you learned what He liked and began changing your life to accommodate Him? What if you fell so in love with God that you just naturally began to follow His commandments? Wouldn’t that be so much easier?

So, how do you “fall in love” with God?

It’s a legitimate question, I think. After all, God can’t “talk” with you. Remember those hours and hours you spent just gazing into your hubby’s eyes (or on the phone) talking about nothing and everything? Well, that just doesn’t happen with God. We cannot, on this side of Heaven, just sit and have a two-way conversation with God.

But, we can pray. We can read the Bible…God’s love letter to us.

Most of us have forgotten all about writing letters. We call; we text message; we email; we IM. But, not so long ago, calling on the phone was cost prohibitive; computers were unheard of. “Back in the old days” people kept in touch via “snail mail.”

Many of our grandparents “fell in love” via letters. A letter can be an intimate revelation of the heart of the person who wrote it.

The Bible is our love letter from God. In it, He pours out His heart and soul. He tells all about his family; all about His chosen people; all about His plans for those people. He tells of His heartache when His people rejected Him. He tells about how He sent His Son to redeem YOU to Him because He loved you so much.

Today, take a moment to sit down and thank God for His love. Take a moment to examine your thoughts about the Bible. Begin thinking of the Bible as a way to get to know God intimately.

Instead of focusing on what you have to do to love God, why not focus on loving God instead? If you fall in love with God, I promise, you will keep the commandments more fully by accident than you were ever able to do on purpose.

(This is a reprint of a post from June 19th.)

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When I was a young Christian, I was taught you were supposed to confess your sin…that it was necessary to confess every sin in order for it to be forgiven. I understood that if I didn’t take the time to ask God for forgiveness for each sin I committed, that sin wouldn’t be forgiven until it was confessed.

It was incredibly discouraging because I came to realize that there is no way to actually do that.

Considering what sin is and how ubiquitous it is in my life, I wouldn’t get anything done all day except confessing sin! So, I quickly gave that idea up and just began hoping that somehow, it wasn’t true.

However, it effected my relationship with God. I believed deep in my heart that God didn’t want to hear from me because I had so much sin in my life I had failed to confess.

I didn’t shed that belief until I was in my thirties. It was then that I came to realize that it just didn’t make sense.

If you had to confess sin for it to be forgiven, that would mean that a Christian who died instantly in a car crash while they were driving one mile and hour over the speed limit would go to hell (assuming they had been diligent all their life and confessed all their sin up until that time).

After all, the Bible teaches us to obey the laws of the land and if they died instantly, they wouldn’t have time to confess that they had been speeding.

Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, [obey the laws of the land] for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. 2 Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. Rom 13:1-2 NIV

Plus, what about the stuff that one doesn’t realize as sin? I know that as I mature in Christ, things that I once did without any thought, I know as sin today.

Plus, what about the stuff I know I’m supposed to do, but don’t?

Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin. James 4:17 (KJV)

I finally realized that God forgave my sin over 2000 years ago when Christ died for me on the cross. Technically, all the sin I ever did or will do is future-tense sin and it is already forgiven. My “confessing” wasn’t doing anything to help God forgive me more than He’s already forgiven me.

I’m so thankful for that realization. It doesn’t give me license to sin, it gives me freedom to come before God knowing that when He looks as me, He sees my righteous and holy spirit. He sees what Jesus did, not what I did. Praise God Forevermore!

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I have been meditating on faith over the past several months.

Have you had that experience when God drops something in your heart that you think about all the time. Then, whenever you hear a Bible teacher speak, whatever you read, things that people say in passing seem somehow to be related to what you have been meditating on. It’s been that way for me lately.

I have written quite a bit about faith over the last several weeks. Feel free to go back and read what I’ve read. (Go to the “Categories” section down the right-hand side and click on “faith.” That will bring up all the posts that I have on faith.) If you have been reading here, you know now that we have all been given “the measure of faith.” You also know that one of the fruit of the spirit is faith.

So, if this is true, how do we get that faith to work?

Today, I would like to share an awesome little verse tucked away in Philemon that will give you a clue.

…that the communication of thy faith may become effectual by the acknowledging of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus. Phil 6 (KJV)

What does that tell us about faith?

When you acknowledge “recognize or have full discernment of” every good thing which is in you in Christ, your faith becomes effectual. The word effectual is from the Greek energes (en-er-gace’) and means active or operative. It is translated either effectual or powerful in other verses of the Bible. This is where we get our word “energy.”

In other words, an acknowledging of what Christ acquired for you—and then gave you when you accepted Him—will cause your faith to become effective or active or operative.

Now, some of you have a hard time thinking that there are good things in you. You might ask, “What about that verse that says there’s nothing good in me?” Well, I’m glad you asked. Romans 7:18a says:

For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing… (KJV)

This verse says that in your flesh dwells no good thing. The flesh is another word for your body and soul. Remember that the part that is regenerated when you accept Christ is your spirit, and that your spirit is made perfect by what Christ did for you on the cross. It is part of the atonement. Your spirit is the part of you where all those “good things” referred to in Philemon are stored. Those good things are sealed there by the Holy Spirit…safe from any type of defilement.

The way you activate your faith is to acknowledge those good things that reside in your spirit; this includes (but is not limited to) the fruit of the spirit, which includes faith.

This “acknowledgment” isn’t a passive head knowledge. It isn’t something that you can think about just once and just forget about. You have to meditate on the fact that you already have all the faith you need on the inside of you; meditate on the implications of that knowledge.

Won’t you take some time in your quiet time to meditate on the good things that are in your spirit?

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Have you ever thought that you would like to have more faith? I know I have!

Well, Jesus’ disciples thought they needed more faith, too. Let’s look at what Jesus said when they asked for more faith.

One day the apostles said to the Lord, “We need more faith; tell us how to get it.”

“Even if you had faith as small as a mustard seed,” the Lord answered, “you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘May God uproot you and throw you into the sea,’ and it would obey you!” Luke 17:5-6 (NLT)

Jesus told the disciples that they didn’t need more faith, they just needed to use the faith that they had. Then, He proceeded to tell them a parable.

Before we look at the parable though, let’s take a moment to look back at what we have learned about faith over the last weeks.

1. Faith is one of the fruit of the Spirit.
2. Faith is tangible.
3. We all have the same amount of faith.
4. Faith helps us withstand the deception of Satan.
5. Faith just appropriates what God has already provided for us.

Now, what is Jesus telling us about faith via this parable?

“When a servant comes in from plowing or taking care of sheep, he doesn’t just sit down and eat. He must first prepare his master’s meal and serve him his supper before eating his own. And the servant is not even thanked, because he is merely doing what he is supposed to do.” Luke 17:7-9 (NLT)

Our faith is to be something that we command and control.

Most of us do not relate well to having a servant or a slave, but imagine for a moment that you hired someone to come live with you to do all the things that you didn’t have the time to do.  This person was paid to go out and work in the garden, do the yard work, the cooking and cleaning, the shopping, etc.

If you hired this person to do this job and they came in from a day of work and then expected you to serve them supper, you wouldn’t be too happy, would you?  If you hired someone to do all those jobs, you would expect them to do what they were hired to do.

It’s the same with our faith.

Our faith is tangible…it’s like a servant that we send to appropriate those things that have already been provided by Christ’s atonement.  All of the promises of healing, abundant life, prosperity, etc are there in the spiritual realm, we just have to help it to manifest in the physical realm.  And that is the job of our faith.

Jesus said that we don’t need more faith, we just need to use the faith that we have.

Spend some time meditating on that truth today.

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Have you ever noticed that much of the book of Ephesians is in the past tense?

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. Eph 1:3-6 (KJV)

What does that mean?

Sometimes, it’s so easy to read over things in the Bible. Many of us are so familiar with the words that we don’t even see them any more. That’s why lately, I’ve been reading from different translations during my study time. It jars me and makes me see the Word anew.

I love the book of Ephesians because it is a book that illustrates what Christ obtained for me and for you when He died on the cross. It is a book full of revelation of what already resides on the inside of us, in our spirit. It is a book that encourages us to appropriate what Christ obtained for us and cause it to manifest in physical realm.

Won’t you take some time in the next few days to read through Ephesians and see what I mean?

God Bless you on your Journey!

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The book of Ephesians is written to remind us that all things are accomplished in Christ. However, most Christians don’t live their life that way. We spend our entire lives asking the Lord to heal us; to deliver us; to bless us; to prosper us. We’re always asking God to do something.

Most of us believe that God can do anything, but we don’t truly believe that He has (past tense) done very much; or we believe that God can do something, but we doubt that He will do it for us.

And yet, the book of Ephesians is written from the exact opposite perspective. It’s all about what God has already done. As victorious Christians:

• we aren’t seeking victory, but rather enforcing the victory that has already been purchased for us through Christ
• we aren’t trying to win a battle, but rather we are coming from a battle that has already been won for us
• we aren’t trying to live a victorious life, but rather we are fighting to keep the victorious life Satan is trying to steal from us
• we aren’t asking God to bless us, but rather we are receiving the blessing God has already commanded on us

What we should be doing is fighting a good fight of faith to get rid of our our poverty mentality and begin believing that we’re blessed, start acting like we’re blessed, and start talking like we are already blessed. As we do these things, we are just appropriating what God has already provided for us through Christ’s death and atonement.This requires a big change in thinking for most of us.

I’ve been writing to you about faith and that you already have all the faith that you are ever going to have in your spirit. If you aren’t seeing that faith manifest, it’s a matter of changing your thinking; your focus.

I’ll be writing more over the coming days so look for that.

God bless you on your Journey!

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I’d like to take a few minutes today to talk with you about the devil.

Now, there is a lot of incorrect teaching in the church today concerning Satan. There are some who would discount the existence of the devil, but the Bible clearly says that there is a devil. There are close to 100 references to Satan and the devil in the New Testament.

On the other hand, I would say that most Christians who acknowledge the existence of the devil ascribe him more power than he truly possesses. Satan does not have power to cause a person to sin.

A few of you may remember a comedian named Flip Wilson. (I’m dating myself here.) He created a character named Geraldine and her famous line was, “the devil made me do it.” Though it was meant for entertainment, the truth is, there are many people, non-Christians and Christians, who believe that. Oh, they may not say it out loud, but in their heart, they believe sometimes you just can’t help yourself; the temptation is too great.

Well, I’m here to tell you, the devil can’t make you do anything. Satan’s only power is to deceive.
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I promised yesterday that I would be defining faith for you. How fortunate for me that the Bible does that for me.

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Hebrews 11:1 (KJV)

Substance here is a compound word in the Greek, hupostasis from the words hupo or “under” and histemi which means “to stand.” It is also translated “confidence” in other scriptures. In Hebrews 11:1 it has the meaning of “confidence, assurance, giving substance to.” So, faith gives substance to the things that we hope for. Faith goes in to the spiritual world and makes tangible those things that Christ obtained for us with His death on the cross.

The second phrase in this definition is perhaps a little easier to wrap our brains around. Faith is the evidence of things not seen.
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I wanted to respond to a comment made by Elaine a couple days ago when I posted about faith. She talked about throwing down the shield of faith and I thought that was such an incredible word picture. I have plans to write more about the armor of God in the next issue of Intentional Living! so watch for that.

Let’s explore the phrase “shield of faith,” but first, allow me to put it in context.

Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God: praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints; and for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in bonds: that therein I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak. Eph 6:13-20 (KJV)

I don’t know about you, but it is hard for me to really grasp the concept of “the whole armor of God” and specifically “the shield of faith.” Of course, I know what a shield is, but it’s hard for me to imagine a situation in which I would need something to protect my physical life. I just don’t have experiential knowledge of armor and warfare, so I needed to go and read about it.
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