Exceedingly Abundant

 

Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us.
—Ephesians 3:20


When I consider Ephesians 3:20, my mind immediately goes to the phrase “according to the power that works in us.” The Holy Spirit is working within each believer; He is bringing about something “exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think” right at this moment.

“If you look at the circumstances in my life,” you might attest, “it seems as though God isn’t doing anything beyond what I can ask or think.” But the Bible instructs us to walk by faith and not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7). It’s crucial to see beyond our physical limitations into the spiritual truths of God’s Word. 

It’s incredible to contemplate that the living Spirit of God is actively working within every believer at this very moment. He was working in me yesterday. He was working in me while I slept last night, and He’s still working. He never stops working. It’s nice to be thanked occasionally. Do I ever take the time to thank Him? It’s crucial to express your gratitude to Him by praising Him for His constant work within you. He never gives up on you.

What about those problems you’re facing? He’s doing far more that you could ever ask or imagine because His power is working within you. Choose to think on these truths in Ephesians 3:20 rather than on your circumstances.

Since the Word of God is true, the Spirit of God is actively working within us right now. When we accept and embrace what is true beyond our perception or experience, we undergo a transformative journey. We are changed from the inside out.

God is working within you and within me. He’s doing far more than we can ever imagine or ask for! Acceptance is a form of surrender. It’s giving up control and believing in something beyond our physical senses and experiences. The more we embrace God’s words over our own perceptions, the more His influence in our lives will shape the circumstances and challenges we face.

Our faith is precious to God. He considers the perfecting of our faith more precious than gold (1 Peter 1:7). He is immensely delighted when we exercise our faith during hard times, rather than yielding to fear in desperation. Trust in God’s promise that He is actively working within you to accomplish His intended plans and purposes for your life. He’s doing something so powerful in you that it’s exceeding abundantly above all you can ask or think!

God is meticulously working out His incredible plan for your life, but you must participate. When you speak God’s Word, you honor Him. You give service to His name. Don’t just read His promises; speak them. You need to hear them because they are powerful. Faith comes by hearing. So declare His words of life out loud over yourself and your circumstances. 

“God is working in me, and He’s working out a plan for me. He’s doing all of it above all I can ask or think. The Holy Spirit knows me better than I know myself. He’s working in me right now to convince me I am fearfully and wonderfully fashioned in Jesus! I praise you, Jesus, and I praise you Father, for the Holy Spirit’s powerful work in me! It abundantly exceeds anything I could ever ask or think!” 

—Your hands have made me and fashioned me; give me understanding, that I may learn Your commandments (Psalm 119:73).

Be Present, Prepared, and Praising Jesus

Do you not say, ‘There are still four months and then comes the harvest?’ Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest!  
—John 4:35
 

Has harvest time come? Are you present, prepared, and praising Jesus? You receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit just as you received Jesus as your Savior—by faith. This experience is the unshakeable assurance of the purity you have received in Jesus. It is pure fellowship with Him, a joy so unspeakable that only comes from experiencing His glory.

Have you wondered what you might encounter in the Holy Spirit? Have you invited Him? He may come as a mighty rushing wind, but most often He comes as a gentleman, filling you with an indescribable love. 

Don’t judge any spiritual gift the Holy Spirit gives you. Don’t retreat from unfamiliar experiences to the comfort of tradition. If your tradition hasn’t taught what you experience in the Spirit, your gift may falter and never bear fruit. Run to Scripture with your experience. Let Scripture evaluate it and be the final Word. The Holy Spirit will resolve conflicting perspectives in your mind and reveal the truth.

When you encounter Jesus in all His glory, religion gives way to the fullest of relationships. You are in Him, and He is in you. When you exercise the gift the Spirit has imparted, you are exercising Jesus. You are exercising the Word. Your faith grows stronger. Jesus pours Himself into you and through you into the lives of others who are hungry to receive as you have freely received.

Experience. Tradition. Scripture. Reason. Evaluate your life in Jesus. If you are sowing the Word, you are preparing yourself to receive a fruitful harvest. Lift up your eyes. The field is ripe for reaping. Be present and praising Jesus. 

Don't Miss Out On Your Harvest

 

The farmer who remains idle and watches the wind will never sow, and the one who fixates on the clouds will never reap (Ecclesiastes 11:4). The farmer in this proverb will miss the harvest. Likewise, we can become so busy calculating the “perfect conditions,” we can miss ours. We must seize the opportunities that come our way, just as a farmer works diligently when the conditions are favorable (Proverbs 10:5).

“And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart” (Galatians 6:9).

There are many reasons you can miss your harvest. Scripture enumerates them: laziness, distraction, discouragement, fear of the effort involved, sowing too sparingly, worldly cares, the allure of riches, and lust. Any one of these redirects you from knowing when it is time to harvest the field. Galatians 6:9 also emphasizes that one of the primary reasons people fail to reap the rewards of their efforts is due to weariness. Another reason you fail to reap is simply by not asking, or asking with a heart driven by selfishness rather than stewardship.

There is a designated time for everything. As stated in Jeremiah 5:24, God has set aside specific times for the harvest. When the time for your harvest comes, will you be present and actively engaged?

Pentecost was rehearsed for over a thousand years before the Holy Spirit descended on the disciples. He uses the same pattern today. He gathers believers together, fills the room, and pours out His Spirit on those who are present, prepared, and praising Him.

The fire continues to fall upon every hungry believer who is willing to praise until its time to reap. Don’t miss out on your harvest; instead, praise your way to it.

 

The Real Event Is Still For You

The feasts that God established for the Israelites weren’t meant to only remind them of what He had done. They were practiced each year so they could know what He was going to do. Each feast was a rehearsal for a real event.

Rehearsing something gets you ready for a real event. You repeatedly practice until what you do is done without thinking. When the moment finally arrives for the actual event, all the practice you’ve done becomes natural and effortless.

Throughout their entire lives, these 120 disciples had celebrated Shavuot. They had rehearsed the feast year after year, and now they were about to participate in the real event. Jesus told them to wait in Jerusalem because He knew it was almost time for the moment they had spent their entire lives preparing for.

In Acts 2, Peter, full of the Holy Spirit, preached a powerful sermon that cut straight into the hearts of his listeners. When he was finished, they asked Peter what they should do.

“Then Peter said to them, ‘Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call’” (Acts 2:38-39).

Peter not only gave an open invitation that day to the 3000 people who repented and were baptized; he also gave the invitation to those God would call through the generations to come. You are part of Peter’s “all who are afar off.” Peter’s invitation to receive the Holy Spirit is for you, your children, your grandchildren, and for all those who will receive Him.

The Holy Spirit never withdrew Himself after He fell on the disciples that day in Jerusalem. He has never stopped pouring Himself out upon hungry believers. When God said he would pour out His Spirit on all flesh, He never said that promise would one day end.

Are you waiting for the real event? Pentecost is here, and it isn’t over. The harvest is still being gathered, the fire of the Spirit is still falling, the fountain is still flowing, and God is still fulfilling His promise. God has promised the Holy Spirit to you and invites you to receive Him. 

“If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water” (John 7:37-38).

 

Praise Creates The Harvest

 

God established Pentecost as a single-day feast to signify the urgency of the harvest season. Exodus 23:16 refers to Pentecost as “the Feast of Harvest, the first fruits of your labors which you have sown in the field.” 

Harvest demands your complete attention. Jewish farmers would swiftly gather the first fruits of the harvest, celebrate Pentecost in Jerusalem, and then return to their fields to complete the harvest before time ran out.

The fifty day period between Passover and Pentecost is called the Omer. The counting of the Omer is not just a time of waiting. It’s a time of worship. Psalm 67, the song of the Omer, is recited throughout the fifty day period. This is a psalm of blessing, harvest, and honoring the Lord. Each day is one of worship and preparing the heart for the harvest that is coming. Praise takes the worshiper from Passover to Pentecost.

“Let the peoples praise You, O God;
 Let all the peoples praise You.
Then the earth shall yield her increase;
 God, our own God, shall bless us.
 God shall bless us,
 And all the ends of the earth shall fear Him.”
(Psalm 67:5-7)

The message of these verses is straightforward. When the people praise the Lord, the earth yields her increase. Praise doesn’t just usher you into the harvest; praise creates the harvest. We don’t approach Pentecost by stoically waiting for God to prove Himself; we praise our way to Pentecost, understanding He already has. 

After the Ascension, the disciples didn’t spend their days in somber subdued prayer. Luke 24:52-53 states that they returned to Jerusalem with immense joy and were constantly praising God in the temple. The upper room where they gathered was a room of praise and worship. The disciples weren’t grieving the loss of Jesus in their lives; they were praising God who had promised to send the Holy Spirit. They understood the way to receive the promise was through praise.

Praise isn’t responding to the promise after it has come, but rather the way to set the stage for its arrival. The disciples praised for ten days, and then the Holy Spirit fell as a mighty rushing wind, filling the room where they waited. A worshiper who has sensed the atmosphere change in a room knows what this means. The Holy Spirit falls on a gathering that has been in praise long enough to make room for Him. 

Are you praising the Lord each day, preparing your heart for the promise of Pentecost? Is your praise enough for the harvest you anticipate?

“Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name” (Hebrews 13:15).

Praising the Lord is the fruit of our lips giving thanks to Him! Praise creates the harvest. God inhabits the praises of His people (Psalm 22:3).

Keep Watch!

“Don’t let anyone mislead you, for many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah.’ They will deceive many. And you will hear of wars and threats of wars, but don’t panic. Yes, these things must take place, but the end won’t follow immediately. Nation will go to war against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in many parts of the world. But all this is only the first of the birth pains, with more to come.

“You will be arrested, persecuted, and killed. You will be hated all over the world because you are my followers. And many will turn away from me and betray and hate each other. And many false prophets will appear and will deceive many people. Sin will be rampant everywhere, and the love of many will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. And the Good News about the Kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world, so that all nations will hear it; and then the end will come. 

“If anyone tells you, ‘Look, here is the Messiah,’ or ‘There he is,’ don’t believe it. For false messiahs and false prophets will rise up and perform great signs and wonders so as to deceive, if possible, even God’s chosen ones. See, I have warned you about this ahead of time. So if someone tells you, ‘Look, the Messiah is out in the desert,’ don’t bother to go and look. Or, ‘Look, he is hiding here,’ don’t believe it! For as the lightning flashes in the east and shines to the west, so it will be when the Son of Man comes. Just as the gathering of vultures shows there is a carcass nearby, so these signs indicate that the end is near. 

“And then at last, the sign that the Son of Man is coming will appear in the heavens, and there will be deep mourning among all the peoples of the earth. And they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he will send out his angels with the mighty blast of a trumpet, and they will gather his chosen ones from all over the world—from the farthest ends of the earth and heaven.

“However, no one knows the day or hour when these things will happen, not even the angels in heaven or the Son himself. Only the Father knows.

“When the Son of Man returns, it will be like it was in Noah’s day. In those days before the flood, the people were enjoying banquets and parties and weddings right up to the time Noah entered his boat. People didn’t realize what was going to happen until the flood came and swept them all away. That is the way it will be when the Son of Man comes.

“Two men will be working together in the field; one will be taken, the other left. Two women will be grinding flour at the mill; one will be taken, the other left.

“So you, too, must keep watch! For you don’t know what day your Lord is coming.”


—Matthew 24:4-10, 23-28, 30-31, 36-42

Now Is The Time For God's Word

But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.
—Hebrews 5:14


One sign of spiritual maturity is exercising your senses—that is not reacting emotionally to people or circumstances that have the potential to hurt, confuse, or shock you. Bringing our emotions under control requires the discipline of an athlete. We must consistently practice this skill. Athletes don’t wait until the day of the race to exercise; they do it in advance.

Hebrews 5:14 states that our senses are exercised “by reason of use.” This implies that we should bring what we see, hear, and feel about people and circumstances under the truth of God’s Word. We can’t achieve this without nourishing ourselves with the Word of God, which fosters spiritual growth. The Word within us becomes our guiding force, rather than our emotions.

Our senses, while often deceiving us, aren’t inherently evil. They can be exercised to discern good. Many don’t exercise their senses. All people have muscles. However, all people don’t get the full benefit from their muscles, because they haven’t exercised them. We all have the potential, but we don’t all develop it. It’s the same with our senses. They can be a blessing instead of a problem if we will exercise them. When we don’t exercise our senses (what we see, hear, and feel) they will gravitate toward bad and not good.

The more you walk by faith and not by your senses, the greater level of discernment you will have. It will become easier to recognize good from evil. The Word cuts between soul and spirit, joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. We need discernment that comes from exercising the Word in our lives. Shifting emotions are like shifting sand, and great will be our fall because of them. We need the solid Word in these last of the last days.

Startling disclosures are coming that have the potential to wreck you emotionally and spiritually. The enemy’s purpose in these final days is to deceive the elect. He wants to steal the Word from you. He wants to destroy you. He wants to weaken and divide the church with his lies. Events and circumstances have a spiritual author—God or Satan. You must know God’s Word to discern good from evil and navigate these days we are in.

You have heard the Word from the pulpit and from others for years. What are you doing with its incorruptible seed? Time is growing short. Now is the time to sow. Now is the time for the solid food of God’s Word. His Word is spirit and life, but it will not profit you until it is yours. 

God's Wisdom And Revelation For Your Life

If you desire to receive the guidance of the Holy Spirit, having spiritual wisdom and revelation in understanding what God wishes for your life is imperative. Paul’s prayer to the Christians in Ephesians 1:17 is an important Word to apply.
 
“That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him” (Ephesians 1:17).
 
In Ephesians 1:17, the word “wisdom” comes from the Greek word “sophias.”  It describes an insight that is not naturally attained. In other words, this is not man's natural wisdom. This is a unique insight. 
 
In this same verse, the word “revelation” comes from the Greek word “apokalupsis.” It signifies something veiled for a long time and then suddenly, almost instantaneously, it becomes visible to the mind’s eye. A revelation is that moment when you first see something that has been hidden and realize it has always been there, even though you couldn’t see it before.
 
The spiritual truths of God we now understand have always existed in the realm of the Spirit, but at one time, they were hidden from us. The time had not yet come for those truths to be revealed, so they had remained hidden from our sight, even though they had always existed. But our minds instantly saw and understood once the right time came and the Holy Spirit removed the veil that hid that truth. When this occurred, we received a revelation.
 
Think of a time when you suddenly saw something in the Word you had never seen. That truth had always been there, but it had been hidden from your sight. Then, unexpectedly, one day, it jumped off the page and came to life. You saw it, and you understood it. You had a revelation.
 
Spiritual truths are hidden until the Holy Spirit reveals them to us. Paul prayed for God to give the Ephesian church “a spirit of wisdom and revelation.” The Ephesians Christians needed wisdom (and so do we) beyond their human understanding. He asked God to give them a unique insight. Then, he explained what he meant by adding the word “revelation.” This is the incredible moment when you see what you have never seen. That veil is suddenly gone, and you are enabled by the Holy Spirit to see what you could never see by yourself. The truth that was always hidden is now seen and understood.
 
The Ephesian Christians were not smart enough (and neither are we) to figure out their lives, so Paul prayed for God to give them a unique insight into His knowledge. He explained that this kind of wisdom could only come through a revelation, and only God could provide them with the wisdom they needed. 
 
Are you looking for direction right now? Ask God to give you “a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him.” God has all the answers you need—answers you will not find with your natural reasoning. They are not as far away as you might think. In one moment, He can remove the veil that has kept you in the dark and help you see clearly what you need to understand. 
 
“If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him” (James 1:5).
 
Ask Him. He wants to help you. He doesn’t withhold His insight from you.
 
*******
 
Lord Jesus, I ask you to give me the insight and wisdom I need for this time in my life. You have so much for me to know that I don’t know. You have wisdom. You have answers.  But I can’t find them without You showing me. I need you, Holy Spirit, to give me understanding. You say if I ask, it will be given to me. I ask right now that you take away the veil that has blocked my vision. Open my eyes to see exactly what I need to see. Give me a real revelation about my life, this issue that is before me, and the truth I need. 

I pray in Your Name, Jesus, which is above every name and above this issue. I shall receive your wisdom and revelation. 
 

Our Hope Is In The Lord

Lord, my heart is not haughty,
 nor my eyes lofty.
 Neither do I concern myself with great matters,
 nor with things too profound for me. Surely I have calmed and quieted my soul. 
Like a weaned child with his mother;
 like a weaned child is my soul within me. O Israel, hope in the Lord
 from this time forth and forever.

—Psalm 131


Trusting in the Lord and recognizing that we don’t have to do everything ourselves is incredibly comforting. While there are aspects of our lives that we can control, there are also things that are beyond our control and are under God’s control. It’s wise to discern the difference.

Little children are indifferent to others. They desire what they want when they want it and resort to crying or making a scene to obtain it. However, as they grow older, they gradually gain control over their emotions. David exemplified this in this psalm.  

God had Samuel anoint David as King of Israel although Saul was still on the throne. The Spirit of the Lord had left Saul due to his ongoing disobedience to God's commands. Saul refused to relinquish his rule. Without the Spirit of the Lord to guide him, Saul allowed his emotions to have control. In his rage, he tried to kill David again and again. David responded to Saul by fleeing for his life. And when presented with an opportunity to kill Saul, David refused because Saul was still on the throne. David would not take the throne by killing Saul. What incredible emotional maturity on David’s part! We shouldn't be surprised. God was with David, and he knew it. He trusted in the Lord and didn’t try to take the throne until God had taken care of Saul. He exhibited maturity by behaving appropriately and calming himself, which was a clear sign of emotional control.

We don’t have to be as Saul. We can be as David. When our hope and confidence are in the Lord, we act differently. We are able to control ourselves because we don’t take all the responsibility upon ourselves. Our hope is in the Lord.

Don't Be Deceived

 

The signs of the end of the church age are evident. We are in the very final days of this era. Before judgment comes upon the world, God shall send Jesus to get His bride, His church—to bring her home. In the meantime, the enemy is doggedly and actively pursuing his evil agenda to deceive the blood-bought church of Jesus Christ.

Over the past two thousand years, Satan has discovered that the Holy Spirit-driven church has successfully withstood his attempts to steal, kill, and destroy the Gospel message. He has employed every tactic and used every weapon in his arsenal to belittle its unwavering faith and destroy its purpose. He has attempted to discredit the church from the outside, only to find that in doing so, it becomes more resilient and purposeful. Consequently, he has resorted to attempting to discredit the church from within—not only through discord and dissension, but also through deception. The enemy’s goal is to sow division and unbelief, thereby stripping the church of its power. 

The church is commissioned to carry God’s Word—His unconditional love and grace revealed in Christ’s dying on the cross for all of mankind.  When received in the human heart, Jesus exchanges sin for God’s righteousness. He imparts a new life of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. Jesus overcomes the enemy’s agenda to steal, kill, and destroy before it’s too late. If Satan can deceive and divide the church from within, he can weaken the church's purpose and the strip it of power to spread the Gospel. And his deception will keep people who have never known the love God from experiencing the love of Jesus and eternal life.

Spiritual deception can undermine our allegiance to the Father. It can make us question the message we have received and question ourselves in sharing it. It’s easy to recognize blatant sin, but evil is devious. It comes in where least expected and misleads those who don’t know the Word of God.  Revelations and experiences are not truth. The Word of God is truth. All prophetic revelations and personal experience must be judged by the Word. There are true prophets, but false prophets rise to deceive the body of Christ. You should humbly pray and seek God’s Word about any word or prophecy you hear before believing and declaring its truth. If it is from God, the Holy Spirit will confirm it with Scripture, imparting His wisdom and revelation in your knowledge of it. 

In Matthew 24, we read that nation will rise against nation. There will be wars and rumors of war. There will be famines and earthquakes. Many will turn away from their faith, filled with bitterness and hate. False prophets will come and deceive people. Wickedness will increase, and the love of most will grow cold. We read of these things, but do we really grasp how great the deception of the enemy will be?

Be prepared for the enemy’s deception in these final days. Things that are revealed will frighten the world to its very core. If we, the church, allow what is revealed to instill fear in us, then we are weakened. These disclosures and the explanations concerning them may appear truthful. But don’t be deceived by events or disclosures. The Word is our truth. Satan is working overtime to deceive and divide the brethren. He knows his time is short. He has an evil agenda, and he trembles at the power of a unified church.

Whatever you see happening in this world, whatever knowledgeable people reveal, and whatever you hear about what you have seen, don’t believe the enemy’s deception. Don’t give in to fear. Defeat it with faith in Jesus. We are the church so we are the enemy’s target. When we submit to God’s truth, the devil can’t stay in our presence. He flees from the truth that is in us.  We have the power of the blood of Christ, and the word of our testimony. We have the resurrection power of God, and a pastor, who takes his responsibility to pray and lead us into the truth of God’s Word very seriously. The Holy Spirits co-labors with us to share the love of Jesus to a lost and dying world. The enemy wants to destroy our testimony. He uses fear to torment and destroy God’s work in us. But we won’t be deceived. We have the perfect love of Jesus Christ that casts out fear. We have the love of God that overcomes. 

No matter what you see—no matter what you hear—no matter what you experience, you don’t have to be shaken to the core. You have Jesus. Be careful no one deceives you—that includes me, any preacher, teacher, or prophet. Hold whatever you see or hear or read up to the measure of God’s Word, and trust what the Word reveals to you. To trust His Word, you must know it. To know the Word, read it until it talks back to you.

“Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap” (Galatians 6:7). 

Are you washed in the soul-cleansing blood of the Lamb? If you are, you were made for such a time as this. Sow the Word faithfully into the lives of other people while it is still day. Whatever you sow, you will reap.  May we all reap Jesus.






The Power of Agreement

“Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.”
—Matthew 18:19


This agreement Jesus speaks of isn’t just mental. It’s a spiritual agreement. Deep within you know what God’s Word has revealed to you. Nothing can shake your belief. It’s in your heart that your mental agreement with God’s Word begins to take root, grow, reproducing, and manifesting itself. 

You become spiritually one with your Creator when you are born-again, but that spiritual oneness doesn’t benefit you until it becomes sown and nourished in your heart. When the seed of God’s Word is sown by faith and nourished in intimacy with Him, it becomes knowing. It becomes unshakeable. It becomes powerful. You know that you know. You are in spiritual alignment with the Word you have sown in your heart. His truth produces the belief that it has revealed to you. 

When two or more believers spiritually align with God’s Word—when their belief out-weights any doubt, they have prepared themselves to receive the fruit of their sowing. The Lord is spiritually one with them. He is one in belief with them. They have mentally and spiritually come into agreement with Him, and His Word manifests its purpose just as He sent it to do.

This is the power in knowing you are one with the Lord: If two or more are in agreement with God’s will, it shall be done.

Come, Holy Spirit

You form me. You fire me. You fill me. Jesus, l lay myself down at your feet again and again. I lay myself down in the hard moments that come unexpectedly. I lay myself down in the joyful moments because my joy is never enough. You are the choice I make everyday. But one choice alone isn’t enough, Father. One time isn’t enough. This morning I choose you again. I desire you in me. You come. No longer me, but you. I’m completed in you. 

The spiritual joy I have when your light touches, fires, and fills me is nothing like the joy of a moment. Your joy is eternal. Your joy is knowing that I’m known fully. It’s coming into agreement with your will in time and substance. It’s knowing that, although I might not understand what I’m praying, you are the one praying for people and circumstances beyond my knowledge. Jesus, you are praying right now in heaven. And you choose to come and pray in me. You choose to be completed in me. This is beyond my mental understanding . But my heart gets this. I receive you again and again. I pray your will and your purpose for someone or for a need. I pray your will that changes circumstances. I pray your will that heals and restores. You praying within me is the uttermost joy. It’s my privilege, Jesus. It’s touching you like nothing else touches you.

Holy Spirit, you seal Jesus in me. Thank you being my constant companion. You convict, Holy Spirit. You correct. You comfort. You teach. You reveal my Jesus to me. You reveal need to me. You come alongside me in whatever I’m facing. You empower me beyond my capability. Come and complete Jesus in me. Breathe His life. Pray through me. Be at home in me always. Be one with me forever, Father. The depths of your grace are my greatest revelations. You intercede for me in heaven. Holy Spirit, intercede through me for those you choose and for circumstances that seem to have no answer. Use me. 

I pray for those you have called to lay themselves down at your feet. I pray for any hesitation, religious thought, or fear of your baptizing fire to be denied. I pray that the desire of all of you, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, is greater than any fear, distraction, tradition, circumstance, or opinion. You come to complete and empower us. You come to impart gifts that fire the body. You are always reaching for us. I pray we receive from you. Your flame wants to ignite us. Lord, ignite me and fill me. Ignite our pastor and fill him. Ignite and fill our church. Ignite the whole blood-bought church with power to share your gospel of grace with this world. Ignite and burn within us. May we use the gifts you have given us. May we step out in faith, believing we have received even if we haven’t evidenced it. May we exercise the authority you have declared is ours. You collect our prayers in your golden bowl in heaven. You wait for our intercession to pour your answers. Others have not received because of a lack of intercession. When we intercede in the Spirit, Father, you are the fire within us. We pray, believing, and mountains move.

May I always run to you, Father, as you have run to me. You never leave. It’s in you I move and have my being. Form me, fire me, and fill me again and again. Though I might not physically see you, I see and hear you in my spirit. I believe you are in me, and I am in you. I rejoice with a joy inexpressible and full of your glory. For you alone are my glory and my joy.

May you come to life in us, working in and through us more abundantly than we ask or think. May we exercise the gifts you have given us. May we hunger again and again, and walk after you, Holy Spirit, all the days of our lives.

Come, Holy Spirit. Complete the work you wish in me. 

The Father's Love

We believe Jesus came to save us from our sins, but if we only stay focused on this, we miss the profound reason of the story of the Father’s love for us. Saving us from our sins was never His ultimate purpose. His greatest purpose was to bring us home to the Father.

The story of the Prodigal Son isn’t only about a son who sinned and required forgiveness. It’s primarily about a son who left home, took his rightful inheritance, and lived his life as if his father didn’t even exist. When he had finally squandered his inheritance on sinful behavior, the Bible states that he came to his senses and headed home.

The Father wasn’t waiting for his son with “I told you so.” He didn’t watch for his son’s return determining what would be expected of him. No! The Father had been longingly looking for his son’s return for a long time. One day he saw his son in the distance coming home. The Father didn’t hesitate. He ran to him. He didn’t walk. He joyously ran. He threw his arms around him before he could complete his prepared apology. The Father didn’t need to hear anything. The son that had been lost was now found. The son who had been dead to him now lived again.

This is the love of the Father Jesus brought to you. He’s not waiting to beat you up because you left home and squandered your life in sin. He doesn’t require for you to appease Him so you can come to him. He’s not a Father who loves you in proportion to how good you are. He doesn’t wait for you to get your life together before He comes to you. He’s your Father who sees you in the distance struggling home, and runs to you.

Many today have constructed their faith on a God who bears no resemblance to the Father depicted in this story. Instead, their faith is built on a God who judges how well they manage their sin. They see God as distant and needing to be approached carefully and in the right way. They see God’s love as just beyond reach until they have done enough to be eligible for it. God’s love is the power that casts out our fear, but this image of God produces fear and a striving that doesn’t please Him. It creates believers who are worn out from trying to overcome a separation that no longer exists. The separation was never on the Father’s side. The separation was on the son’s side. We, like the son in the story, left home, and moved away.

“If you have seen me,” Jesus said, “you have seen the Father.” Jesus died for us when no one else would. He ran to us.  Jesus mirrored the Father’s true nature. Jesus is how we can know the loving nature of our Father.

The cross wasn’t God deciding to punish Jesus so that He could finally love us. No, God has always loved us. The cross was the love of God destroying everything that separated us from Him. It was His love reaching its utmost for our lowest. It was the ultimate love of the Father, wiping out every barrier between a son and his Father. 

Coming home isn’t impossible. Jesus says that he’s the way, the truth, and the life. He’s the way home. He’s the one who shows you what home looks like, and the one who takes you there. Home is the Father. It’s knowing the Father, being known by Him, and trusting Him with everything within you. It’s trusting Him without the fear that He will withdraw His love from you. Home is resting in the knowledge that your Father sees you, knows you, and loves you, not because of what you do, but because of who you are.

Yes, Jesus came to give us forgiveness and a way to heaven. Yes, He came to give us freedom from sin, but the ultimate purpose was a restored relationship with the Father. Jesus gave us the Father Himself. The Christian life isn’t proving to God you have a reason to come home. It’s accepting that Jesus is the reason you can. It’s learning to believe that God created us to receive His love. It’s believing that His love is genuine, allowing that truth to penetrate every hidden place within us, and letting the Father to be as good as Jesus showed us He is. 

When you truly perceive the love of the Father, everything transforms. You cease striving to attain what you already possess, cease fleeing the One you were created to pursue, cease managing the distance, and simply return home. 

You run to Jesus because you know He’s already run to you.
 

No Longer Divided

Division wasn’t God’s original design. Life had been perfect in the Garden of Eden. Since the Fall, heaven and earth had been ripped apart. Sin had caused it. This impervious barrier between the natural and spiritual worlds remained intact until Mount Sinai when God began the process of dissolving that barrier and restoring His creation.

Prior to God giving the Law to Moses, no man could stand in God’s presence and remain alive. Man was protected by the veil separating the natural and spiritual worlds. However, at Mount Sinai, the situation changed. Moses stood on the mountain, enveloped in the cloud of God. Seventy elders climbed the mountain and witnessed the God of Israel. In His presence, they shared a meal and drank together (Exodus 24:9-11). Since the Garden, this was the first time man had stood in the glory of God’s presence.

Now Mount Sinai was completely in smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire. Its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked greatly.
—Exodus 19:18

Alan Didio uses a Jewish rabbi’s illustration of a burning candle to explain the connection between the spirit and the body. The flame ascends higher as it burns, but the wick keeps it joined to the candle. In the same way, the wick joins your spirit to this world. Without your body, your spirit has no way to connect with the physical world. 

God is a spirit (John 4:24). In the Bible, He comes frequently as a fire. Yet, because of man’s sin, these appearances were short term. Without a wick, God would eventually return to the spiritual realm beyond the veil.

God’s love could no longer stand any division. Man couldn’t bring down the barriers. This is why God becoming flesh is so important. Jesus didn’t temporarily assume a physical body; He completely and fully became flesh, destroying sin and revealing that the physical and spiritual worlds could live together forever.

“Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them” (Acts 2:3).

In Acts 2, the Spirit of God, did not merely linger over the disciples; it “sat upon each of them.” As the Spirit of God found a wick, single flames rested upon each disciple and remained. His glory, which had long filled the temple and the tabernacle, moved into its new dwelling—man. 

Pentecost is the celebration that marks the reunion of the physical and spiritual worlds. At Pentecost, the power of the Spirit destroyed the barrier sin had erected since Eden. The spiritual and physical realms that the Fall had divided became as one.  

God created you to be One with Him spiritually. You have a hunger to be joined again to your Creator. He created you as a human being in His image and likeness. The Holy Spirit needs you to experience this Oneness with Him. You were created to carry His light on this earth. Pentecost is the assurance that you are no longer divided. The flame wants to sit upon you, and remain. Receive, and let Him burn.

No Longer Divided

Division wasn’t God’s original design. Life had been perfect in the Garden of Eden. Since the Fall, heaven and earth had been ripped apart. Sin had caused it. This impervious barrier between the natural and spiritual worlds remained intact until Mount Sinai when God began the process of dissolving that barrier and restoring His creation.

Now Mount Sinai was completely in smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire. Its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked greatly.
—Exodus 19:18

Prior to God giving the Law to Moses, no man could stand in God’s presence and remain alive. Man was protected by the veil separating the natural and spiritual worlds. However, at Mount Sinai, the situation changed. Moses stood on the mountain, enveloped in the cloud of God. Seventy elders climbed the mountain and witnessed the God of Israel. In His presence, they shared a meal and drank together (Exodus 24:9-11). Since the Garden, this was the first time man had stood in God’s presence.

Alan Didio uses a Jewish rabbi’s illustration of a burning candle to explain the connection between the spirit and the body. The flame ascends higher as it burns, but the wick keeps it joined to the candle. In the same way, the wick joins your spirit to this world. Without your body, your spirit has no way to connect with the physical world. 

God is a spirit (John 4:24). In the Bible, He comes frequently as a fire. Yet, beacuse of man’s man’s sin, these appearances were short term. Without a wick, God would eventually return to the spiritual realm beyond the veil.

God’s love could no longer stand any division. Man couldn’t bring down the barriers. This is why God becoming flesh is so important. Jesus didn’t temporarily assume a physical body; He completely and fully became flesh, destroying sin and revealing that the physical and spiritual worlds could live together forever.

“Then there appeared to them ]divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them” (Acts 2:3).

In Acts 2, the Spirit of God, did not merely linger over the disciples; it “sat upon each of them.” As the Spirit of God found a wick, single flames rested upon each disciple and remained. His glory, which had long filled the temple and the tabernacle, moved into its new dwelling—man. 

Pentecost is the celebration that marks the reunion of the physical and spiritual worlds. At Pentecost, the power of the Spirit destroyed the barrier sin had erected since Eden. The spiritual and physical realms that the Fall had divided became as one.  

God created you to be One with Him spiritually. You have a hunger to be joined again to your Creator. He created you as a human being in His image and likeness. The Holy Spirit needs you to experience this Oneness with Him. You were created to carry His light on this earth. Pentecost is the assurance that you are no longer divided. The flame wants to sit upon you. Receive, and let Him burn.


 

You Were Created for Completion

In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.
—John 1:1

The Word existed in the spiritual realm before God’s creation of the universe. It was with Him in the beginning, absolute, perfect, and complete.

God created the world because He desired a place where time and substance could respond to the truth of His Word. He created man in His own image so His Word could live and produce fruit. The Torah, the Law and teachings of the Pentateuch, existed in the beginning before it was ever given to Moses on Mount Sinai. There, God gave the Ten Commandments, speaking to those He had delivered from oppression. He spoke the Word that had existed before time began.

“Did any people ever hear the voice of God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as you have heard, and live” (Deuteronomy 4:33)?

When God spoke His Word, His voice was heard by Jewish men on earth, and they lived. They didn’t die. His Word is creation. It's life. God’s voice met no opposition because the world was the Word’s creation. It was His life. The world had been saturated with the Word from the moment it was created.

You are God’s creation. When your spirit is quickened and you  receive the Word, you aren’t receiving something unknown. You are coming into agreement with the Word—aligning with who God created you to be. The Word works in you as God intended for it to work, reproducing its life within you.

Although, the Word existed long before creation, man lived in this world thousands of years without knowing the reason for his existence. God never gave His Word to Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob. But on Mount Sinai man finally discovered his purpose. God wrote it on stones at Sinai and later on hearts gathered in Jerusalem in anticipation of the Spirit. Both Sinai and the descent of the Spirit came with a sound and a demonstration of God’s presence. One event gave the Word, and the other gave its revelation. Pentecost is the moment God’s eternal Word touched His creation, revealing its purpose to those He had chosen.

You are God’s creation. You are chosen for His purpose. He created you to receive. The Holy Spirit stirs hunger in you for the completion of the Word in your life. And only the Holy Spirit breathes life into the Word that He’s given. Only He fills the spiritual hunger that He created in you. The fullest of God's fullness is available.  He never withholds. He pours. Just believe. 

The Jubilee of Pentecost

 

And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a Jubilee for you; and each of you shall return to his possession, and each of you shall return to his family.
—Leviticus 25:10


In the Bible, the number fifty holds great significance. It symbolizes completion. This verse in Leviticus describes the Year of Jubilee, which was celebrated every fifty years. During the Year of Jubilee, debts were forgiven, slaves were freed, and property was returned to its rightful owner. The Year of Jubilee represented a complete restoration. When the fiftieth year arrived, it signified the completion of what had been and the release of something new.

The period between Passover and Shavuot is called Omer. It consists of forty-nine days, which forms a perfect square, symbolizing balance, stability, and divine order. During Omer, there are seven weeks of seven days. The number seven represents completion or fullness. When multiplied by itself, seven signifies the completion of completion, or the fullness of fullness. Pentecost, which occurs fifty days after Passover, follows a pattern of seven sevens, similar to how the Year of Jubilee follows seven sevens or forty-nine days. This period following Passover is the countdown to Pentecost, when something perfectly complete is released. The fullness of the fullness of God is set free.

“And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God,
That I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh;
Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
Your young men shall see visions,
Your old men shall dream dreams” (Acts 2:17).

Luke was quoting Joel’s prophetic message from the Lord. The Lord’s words are full of absolute authority and determination. “I WILL,” God declares. God didn’t say that he might pour out His Spirit, or He was thinking about it. He didn’t say that His Spirit depended on how much the people equipped themselves. Instead, He spoke with unwavering determination about the promised outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

The disciples faithfully followed Jesus’ instructions and did nothing but wait in one place. They could not make the Spirit descend. It was all God’s timing. When the time of completion arrived, the Holy Spirit descended as a powerful rushing wind. God Himself filled each one present. The Holy Spirit infused each one with dynamic power, liberating them from their limitations and perfectly empowering them to spread the Gospel.

No effort you make can earn the promise of the Spirit. God pours out His Spirit on all flesh. This outpouring of God Himself isn’t limited to those who have tried to prepare themselves, but is true for all who expectantly wait with open hearts. God Word is true. When God says He will pour himself out on all flesh that is what He means. We can’t make anything happen. The Holy Spirit shall fill us if we choose to make ourselves available. 

Do you expect Him? He’s near. Abandon every preconceived notion and believe He wants to pour Himself into you. He’s determined for you to receive His promise.

The First Pentecost

 

When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
—Acts 2:1-4

We read of Pentecost as that incredible moment when the Holy Spirit descended from heaven, fulfilling Jesus’ promise and empowering the church to go into all in the world with His Good News. 

However, do we realize that Pentecost wasn’t the first Pentecost? The first Pentecost was called Shavuot. 

Pentecost comes from the Greek word, “pentekostos,” which means fiftieth. The Hebrew name for Pentecost is Shavuot and comes fifty days following Passover.

Shavuot is one of three pilgrimage feasts. Deuteronomy 16:16  says that God required Jewish males to travel three times each year to the temple in Jerusalem. Shavuot was one of these fixed times. God wanted to meet with His people in one place. Now consider the fact that we celebrate our New Testament Pentecost fifty days following Passover. Jesus was crucified and rose from the dead at Passover. Before He ascended to the Father, He told His disciples to gather in one place and wait for the promise of the Spirit to come. It wasn’t an accident that “Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven” were gathered in Jerusalem on the day the Holy Spirit would come (Acts 2:15). They were there to celebrate Shavuot.
 
Passover celebrates the Israelites being delivered when the angel of death “passed over” them because the lintels and door posts of their homes were marked with lamb’s blood (Exodus 12:13, 23, 27). God's divine punishment that killed all the firstborn sons of Egypt, except for those of the Israelites, convinced Pharaoh to free the Israelite slaves. Fifty days after the Israelites’ deliverance from Egypt, Shavuot, the first Pentecost, took place at Sinai. Moses came face to face with the Spirit of God (Exodus 33:11). He received the Law, which required the Israelites’ perfect adherence. Knowing we could never meet His Law, Jesus came as the Lamb of God to be slain at Passover one time, once and for all, to meet the Law in our place (Romans 6:10). On the cross, Jesus delivered us from the Law’s condemnation (Galatians 3:13). Fifty days later at Shavuot (Pentecost) the Holy Spirit came from heaven, to empower the great exchange that had taken place at Passover.

The Old Testament Shavuot pointed to a promise that that had not yet occurred. God had freed Israel from Egypt so they could meet the Spirit at Mount Sinai. Jesus freed us from the Law so we could receive the fulfillment of the Spirit. Jesus didn’t bring us out of bondage just to deliver us. He brought us out of bondage to bring us into His presence to fulfill His purpose in and through us.

At Passover, the kindling was lit, and at Pentecost the Holy Spirit breathed an inferno into each one present, eagerly awaiting His presence. God didn’t merely save you from hell; He saved you so that He could fill you and bring His purpose to life within you, allowing the world to experience the same new life you have received.

On the cross Jesus delivered you from death.Three days later He rose, giving you new life. Pentecost was the purpose of Passover. Without it, the Israelites would never have known the God who had delivered them. Without Pentecost, the church would have died, and we would have never known the grace and love of our Father. Without a personal Pentecost, your faith won’t come to life in the power of the Holy Spirit.

The day Hebrews celebrate each year is coming. The day Christians celebrate Pentecost is coming. The Holy Spirit has already come. Have you experienced a personal Pentecost? Has His tongue of fire rested upon you, filling you? Does He continually fill you?  

Come, Holy Spirit. Reveal to us Pentecost.

Walk Not After The Flesh But After The Spirit

Walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
Romans 8:1b


The Holy Spirit empowers us with new life. He’s eager to impart wisdom to guide us in everything and, especially, in our relationships. However, without a healthy relationship with God, we’ll find it challenging to build healthy relationships with people. When our hearts are not aligned with the Holy Spirit, our efforts won’t reflect God’s wisdom and strength. We’ll respond to other people out of the flesh. When we don’t grow in our relationship with God, there will be no profit in our relationship with others.

When we are aware of the things the enemy uses to create offense, jeaslousy, anger or emotional turmoil within us, then we are able to guard ourselves from responding as the world does. We can surrender to the Spirit, crucifying the desires of the flesh and refusing to carry unforgiveness as our hallmark.

We’ve all faced challenges in relationships. Some people bring persistent issues that require attention into a relationship. Others carry emotional and mental wounds from devastating experiences. The world offers numerous reasons to remain offended, wounded, and hurt. Yet, if you’re willing, the love of can God heal your issues and wounds, and He has the power to do so miraculously.

God’s Word—His truth—is an active and living force. It is sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing through the soul and spirit, and separating the joints and marrow. It unveils our deepest thoughts and desires. It ignites faith in God’s eternal truth. Our hope lies in the Word and in the relationship we share with the Lord. Amidst the chaos of filthy, muddy, tangled, and messy emotions, God’s Word stands more powerful than anything else. It reigns supreme. It heals supernaturally.

As a child of God, you possess Christ’s spiritual authority to govern your emotions and reactions. You have His authority to bring your thoughts and the images they evoke under the control of the Holy Spirit. If God’s truth doesn’t permeate you, this authority seems beyond your reach. Instead, you are emotionally wrecked. You heart isn’t in tune with the Lord’s. Your senses declare your pain is simply too overwhelming to bear. However, the truth is that you have the authority to reject your issues and embrace the healing of the Holy Spirit. If God’s Word permeates you, you will receive God’s wisdom to deal with your flesh.

“But the wisdom from above is first of all pure. It is also peace loving, gentle at all times, and willing to yield to others. It is full of mercy and the fruit of good deeds. It shows no favoritism and is always sincere” (James 3:17, NLT).

God’s wisdom is pure, full of mercy, and willing to yield to others. However, aren’t we sometimes biased towards our own feelings and desires? God’s wisdom teaches us to be impartial, to prioritize others over ourselves. We have the ability to live peacefully with others and extend kindness towards them. We have the power to relinquish the grip of resentment and hurt. We can earnestly seek God’s wisdom to gain His perspective on an issue, determine the appropriate response, and decide whether an apology is warranted. My friend in Christ, we have the Holy Spirit living within us. We can draw from our renewed spirit and demonstrate love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

God desires us to live in agreement with Him. We are called to walk after the Spirit and not our flesh. The Spirit has equipped and empowered us to do this. If we walk after the Spirit, we will remain in the Word, be open to His voice, and be always open to learn from Him.

When you know who you are in Christ, you are in tune with the Father. You never have to let pain or hurt define you. You have nothing to prove to anyone else. You don’t take offense, but allow any offense or emotional pain to roll off you shoulders. You walk after the Spirit and take authority over your emotions. You fulfill the desires of your Savior who brought you into perfect union with the Father.

Is your heart in agreement with the Father? Allow the Holy Spirit to examine your heart. Remain in the Word, be open to His voice, and to always learn from Him. There is power in agreement. 

Exercise Your Faith

Sometimes, we pray about things God has already given us authority over. We implore God to restrain the devil, even though God has already instructed us to do it. We beg God to move for us when He has already commissioned us to step out in faith. We plead with Him to unlock doors He has already given us the keys to open. 

We label this disobedience as humility, when it’s really refusing to submit to what God has told us to do. It’s like Peter refusing Jesus' offer to wash his feet. His refusal appears as humility, but it’s really renouncing the gift Jesus wishes to give him.

Jesus says in Matthew 18:18: “Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” 

Jesus instructs “you” to bind and loose. Not God to bind and loose. Jesus has redeemed and empowered “you.” His verdict of “not guilty” has already been rendered through the cross. It is finished. God has already seated you with Christ in heavenly places (Ephesians 2:6) and given you authority over all the power of the enemy (Luke 10:19). 

There’s no question that God is willing to move on your behalf. Are you prepared to exercise your authority and enforce the verdict He has made?

My friend in Christ, you are no longer a pauper. Jesus has made you a royal priesthood. He has declared you worthy. He has washed you clean. Don’t renounce His instruction. Come boldly as a son, a daughter, and a joint heir with Jesus. Don’t plead for what is rightfully yours. Declare the excellency of the One who has saved you. Exercise your faith, and walk in your inheritance.

Wisdom And Revelation In My Knowledge Of God

The book of Proverbs isn’t meant only to help the foolish and ignorant. It will make a wise man wiser and give more understanding to those who already have understanding. As Proverbs 9:9 says, “Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be yet wiser: teach a just man, and he will increase in learning.”

Proverbs 9:10 says, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.”

The fear of the Lord isn’t all there is to wisdom, but it’s certainly where wisdom begins. Those who have no fear of the Lord aren’t wise, regardless of how smart they are. This fear or respect of the Lord, honors His moral law and stirs obedience in us. Those who look for wisdom outside of the moral laws God has given are fools (Psalm 14:1, 53:1). Any search for wisdom must begin with seeking the Lord as the source of all wisdom.

“God gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding” (Daniel 2:21). 

Daniel realized that God was his total source. Many more of us would get more revelations from God if we would recognize Him as our only source. But many of us think our power and the strenght of our own hands have obtained us all we possess. 

“Whoever trusts in his own mind is a fool, but he who walks in wisdom will be delivered” (Proverbs 28:26). Trusting in yourself  is being self-dependent instead of God-dependent. It’s pride, and it’s foolish. It isn’t in man to direct his steps (Jeremiah 10:23). We have that choice, but it’s the wrong choice. We need God as our source. We need His wisdom.

“If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways” (James 1:5-8). 

God gives wisdom liberally if I ask. But if I doubt Him, then why should I receive wisdom from Him? Why should I receive anything from Him? When I don’t recognize Him as my source instead of myself, I end up having not because I haven’t asked. I have not because I haven’t sought. I haven’t received because I have doubted His faithfulness. However, when He is my unchanging and never-ending source, I can ask for wisdom in faith and receive it. He never withholds His wisdom from those who truly seek Him.

When God’s wisdom is sought, His truth is revealed, but just because you know God’s truth doesn’t mean you will submit to it. What you know cannot become understanding until you apply it in your life.

For the Lord gives wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding” (Proverbs 2:6). Godly wisdom comes as a gift through His Word. 

If I desire God’s gift, I’ll honor God and His Word as my only source. I’ll believe Him and not doubt. I’ll unceasingly seek wisdom and revelation in my knowledge of Him and submit to it so I can understand what He has given me. 

May “the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 1:17-20).

Lord, give me wisdom and revelation in my knowledge of you. 


 

Confidence In Your Relationship With God

 

 

The only way we can come to God is in humility. God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble (James 4:6). Humility before God doesn’t demand anything based on what you do or your accomplishments or your worth. Humility is also not groveling and begging God to answer your prayer. Humility before God is coming to Him in confidence knowing that He gives mercy and grace in your time of need. It's knowing the worth Christ has placed on your life.

“Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16).

When you come boldly to the throne of grace, it doesn’t mean you come instructing God. That isn’t the surrender that expresses humility. That is pride. When you come boldly to God, you come knowing who you are in Christ. You come knowing your right-standing with Him. When you know and believe in your heart the righteousness that is yours in Christ’s “once for all” atonement for your sins, there is nothing standing between you and God. You have confidence in your relationship with Him. He’s your Abba Father.
 
“Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him” (1 John 5:14-15).
 
Do you have this confidence? When you are confident in your righteousness in Christ, you are at peace in your relationship with God. You walk in the freedom His grace has given you. You come freely to God without fear of reproach or judgment or retribution. You come knowing what the love of Jesus has redeemed for you. You come knowing your Father loves you and you will receive His mercy and grace to help. You come with a heart of praise because you believe.
 
True humility isn’t promoting yourself. Neither is it demeaning yourself. True humility only glorifies the Father. When you have confidence in your relationship with God, you don’t need to beg for mercy and grace. You don’t need to beg God to give you anything that He has already provided in the finished work of Jesus. You don’t need to beg for forgiveness, or healing or your needs to be supplied. Jesus paid the price for all these things long before you even existed.
 
“But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: ‘God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble’” (James 4:6).
 
You have received the grace of Christ. God pours more grace into the lives of those who have confidence in their relationship with Him and walk in true humility. You must believe there is nothing between you and the Father. No sin. No sickness. No need. In true humility, neither inflating or deflating yourself, present your needs to God with the confident assurance that Christ has made you worthy to receive the petitions you have asked of Him.

Complete In Every Good Work

There are two ways we work for God. One way is born of faith in Christ, and the other is born of the need for recognition and acceptance. One way is with the guidance and strength of the Holy Spirit, and the other is with our own strength. The first way surrenders to the righteous work of Christ in us. The second way works to prove its own righteousness. The first way is life. The second way is death.
 
“There is a way that seems right to a man,” Solomon said, “but its end is the way of death” (Proverbs 14:12).  
 
What appears right to our natural mind is what we think is right. What we think is carnal. And to be carnally-minded is death (Romans 8:6).
 
“I am the way, the truth, and the life,” Jesus said. “No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6).
 
We don’t work our way to God on our own merit. We come to God on Christ’s merit. He is the way, the truth, and the life. The only way to experience God’s acceptance and approval is by understanding spiritually who we are in Christ. And to be spiritually-minded is life and peace (Romans 8:6).
 
Yet, don’t we sometimes work for God hoping that He will heal or bless us—not seeing that if we spiritually understood the right-standing we already have in Christ, we would experience His life and peace? If we would labor with His power working in us and not on our own strength, wouldn’t we live the truth of the new person He has made us?
 
“To this end I also labor,” Paul wrote, “striving according to His working which works in me mightily” (Colossians 1:29).
 
Paul strived with God’s guidance and power. He shared the Gospel out of His right-standing in Christ. He knew He had nothing to prove to God. Christ had already proved him righteous.
 

“But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior” (Titus 3:4-6).
 
It is Christ’s mercy that saved us and His righteousness that works in us—not our own. The Holy Spirit draws and empowers us to work for Christ. We surrender to the righteousness that is ours in Him. We have God’s power but we must surrender our natural understanding—our ways—our ideas—our circumstances—our issues—our opinions—and everything to the new life we have received in Christ. Any work born of our need for acceptance and approval has no power. 

 

We are called to work for Christ. However, works born of our need instead of faith in Christ have no life (James 2:17). The difference lies in the motivation for our work. Is our work born of the incorruptible seed of God's Word in our heart or born of our own corruptible need to prove ourselves? 
 
When you know how much Christ values you, your life is no focused on self. It is focused on Him. You have no need to prove yourself. God’s Word transforms your understanding. You conform to your salvation by being renewed by His Word (Romans 12:1-2). Allow the incorruptible seed of God’s Word to take root and grow in your heart (1 Peter 1:23), and then you can labor out of the righteousness Christ has earned for you. Working without faith is death. Working out of the faith that is yours in Christ is life (James 2:20-22).
 
“Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us” (Ephesians 3:20).
 
It is God’s power that energizes us (Colossians 1:29).  It is His work in and through us that brings life to our “yes.” 

“May the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you complete in every good work to do His will, working in you what is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen” (Hebrews 13:20-21). 
 

Follow God's Peace


And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful.
—Colossians 3:15


If there is one thing we can learn from hardship or worry, it’s that they can steal our peace. When we endure hardship or experience fear, we often look for encouragement from someone else or in improving circumstances. We attempt to reach a mental place of peace instead of allowing the spiritual peace God has given us to rule in our hearts. His peace isn’t the peace we receive from better circumstances or feelings. His peace comes from the perfect love we received in Jesus. And God’s perfect peace carries us through any hardship without fear if we choose to draw upon it (I John 4:18, Isaiah 26:3).

The peace of God is our guide to what the will of God is in different situations. We have to learn to listen to what the spiritual peace of God is trying to tell us. We need to give it priority in our lives and follow it. We cannot find God’s spiritual peace trying to reason out His plan with our carnal minds. The only way to life and peace is to be spiritually minded (Romans 8:6).

God’s peace is a fruit of the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:22). It is something that every born-again believer possesses. His peace continually attempts to guide us, but many times we just don’t listen. We go against the peace of God instead of letting it rule in our hearts, and we act according to our plan. Later, when tragedy results from a bad decision, we acknowledge the unease we initially felt in our hearts. That unease was the peace of God trying to guide us, but we were too determined to go by our rules instead of His.

There are some things we can do to help the peace of God guide us. 

We should contemplate all our options. Wrong decisions are made when all options aren’t considered in prayer.  And we can’t let doubt rule out what might be God’s possibilities. As we visualize the results of each different option, we should perceive greater peace when considering the option the Lord wishes for us. This doesn't mean there will be total peace with any choice. Since we aren’t always spiritually minded, it’s not unusual for us to have some questioning and unrest. We need to be courageous enough to follow the decision that gives us the most peace. 

Often, we must step out in faith before the peace of God gives us direction. Sometimes we will make a mistake. When we make a wrong decision trying to follow the peace of God, the Lord will certainly bless it more than indecisiveness and indecision (Proverbs 16:3).

God has not given us a spirit of fear but of power and love and a sound mind (2 Timothy 1:7). God’s peace is the spiritual state of mind in which we are always called to live. When we allow His peace to rule our hearts, it settles the questions that arise in our minds. When we step out in faith following God's peace, He will guard our thoughts. Praising God for His spiritual peace, regardless of our circumstances, will guard our hearts and acknowledge His spiritual priority in our lives.

A naturally minded man will only know fear, and fear is death to his faith. A spiritually minded man will know life and peace (Romans 8:6). We have God’s power to be spiritually minded. We have received the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16), but it is our choice to exercise the peace that is ours in Him.

Let the peace of God direct your thoughts, deciding and settling your questions. Surrender to His peace, and let it guide you. Follow His peace.