WE ARE THE BODY

We are the body of Christ. We are called to have faith in others in the body even when their ideas are not exactly our own. We need to recognize them for the individuality they bring to the whole church family. The Apostle Paul mentions the importance that each part brings to the body. There is no least or great. When each part is not functioning to its capacity the whole body suffers.

Trust holds the body together. Trust does not mean we all agree, but it does mean that we have an obligation to hear another person's point of view with respect. It means that we recognize the importance of each individual, and believe they have something valuable to offer. It means that we state concerns with love. It means that what we bring to the table is spoken with regard to each one present. It means that we consider the one next to us or across the table more important than ourselves. It means that we recognize that we are human and fallible, and we do not have to make our point known at the cost of another one's pain.

What we are called to be is the body of Christ. That body suffered for us. That body took the nails for us. That body took within Himself all the sin and pain of the world. That body became less so we might know the joy of freedom from suffering and harsh attitudes. What does our body do for Him? Do our actions as individuals bring pain to the body of Christ? What do we give back for all He has given us? Is our individual need so great that we would wound each other? Or do we see the whole body as a place we can lay my life down for others? There is freedom in not needing to have the last word. There is freedom in laying down our lives for each other. There is freedom in the body when we remain on our knees, and lay our hearts on His altar.

We have a special church body that strives to live His love. Our church family does have a special bond. However, there's a danger in believing we will always be a church filled with love for each other. Love takes work, and we must work at it. Let's never become complacent and give the enemy a foothold. Let's always see potential in each other, and listen to the concerns of each other with respect and love. Let’s always live His love, and continue to make our body into the whole He desires.

Waiting on the Lord

Wait on the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord” (Psalm 27:14).

 Fall is my favorite season of the year. Hot summers of the south welcome cool breezes with the brilliant color of falling leaves. It seems like a prize that has long been anticipated.

We are always in some season of life. Sometimes a tough season can seem drawn out. Stresses of life, like the the loss of a loved one, health issues, or financial struggles, may fall on us and make a longer season. It takes every ounce of our strength to get through the day. Oh, the joy of the Lord has to be our strength!

Praise Him in the waiting room of life when the season is long and it is taking forever to get an answer! God heals the hurt and cleanses our hearts with tears! Find comfort in His promises and bow in His presence. His love will intercede in our season and give us the peace that we need.

Be strong and take heart in your waiting, God will never leave or forsake you..

Leisa Rayborn

I CHOOSE FAITH

“Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see” (Hebrews 11:1, NIV).

Do I have confidence in what I hope for? Do I have assurance about what I cannot see? If I have faith the size of a mustard seed, I must reach for confidence to believe in His promise. I must reach for His assurance for that which my physical eyes cannot see. I must plant my mustard-seed faith in order for it to take root and grow. I must make the effort to believe. He will not make me believe. He offers faith to believe. Just like He gives me a free will to choose Him or not, He also gives me a free will to believe or not. It is my choice.

I must pray daily for greater faith. The Word says that He is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8). He is solid. He is constant. He is my anchor when all around heaves and rocks my life. He is trustworthy, and I must be faith-worthy. Faith is the greatest requirement to see His hand move. To have greater faith, I must pray and have that close communion with Him. In that time with Him, I learn that I can truly trust Him in every moment and every struggle. I learn that because I trust Him, my faith brings forth His work in my life. I can step out in faith knowing that He will provide all that is needed.  Not only prayer is needed. Obedience is necessary. I must reach out in His name to fuel my faith. As I choose to believe and step out in faith, I realize my helplessness, and I turn to Him for power to accomplish what I cannot. In my weakness, I realize His strength, and then my faith grows.

Faith is my weapon to overcome all that might come against me in this life. It is my power to accomplish His will, and, in doing so, learn that He is constant and trustworthy in every moment. Faith is His gift to me. My faith in Him, which requires His work to be alive and well in my life, is my gift to Him. I will not grow tired in choosing faith in Him. I will not grow tired in serving Him. I know that once I have done His will, I will receive His promise (Hebrews 10:35-36).

I choose faith.

Approach Him

“But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you” (Matthew 6:6).

Seek time alone with God. In your time of heart to spirit prayer, you shall find one-on-one spirit communion with the Lord who brings down walls, and changes the lives of those for whom you plead mercy. There on your knees you can discover the humble service of prayer that changes the world. You will see the hand of God touch lives, realize miracles happen, and know lives have been changed. Every time that you bow on your knees in prayer, heaven rejoices, and hell shakes. There is great power in the prayer of one who surrenders his heart to the Lord in prayer. 

What is wrong in the world, in your country, with its leadership, and with its people?  Make these concerns the cry of your heart. What is it you see in another person's life that is destroying him?  Make it the cry of your heart. Make all the matters that break your heart, the very things that drive you to your knees.

“Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need” (Hebrews 4:16).

THEN

“The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it” (1 Thessalonians 5:24).

If you are living a purpose-driven life for Jesus Christ, there will be times when others do not understand the work you do for Him. They will judge your motives or question if you are really doing what God has called you to do. Don't hinder His work by feeling you have to justify your calling. If you try, you will fail, and it will bring spiritual frustration. It is not your place to explain. It is His place. Any explanation or justification must come from Him. Just do your work in His name, and the result will be your reward.

Keep your heart humble and pliable in His hands. Realize those who question your calling have their own hurts, pains, and needs. Place yourself in their shoes to understand the reasons that they question your motives. Pray for these reasons to be resolved in their lives. Sometimes it is jealousy because they feel inadequate in their own Christian lives. Sometimes it is jealously that God has not brought forth their own promise. Sometimes it comes from spiritual legalism. Whatever the problem, don't try to take care of it within your own strength. In any difficulty with another put yourself in his place and pray that his problem with you will be resolved. Be humble enough to know that you are not perfect, and sometimes there must be a change in your own perspective.

The power to realize the needs of others can only come through a yielded and loving life. It can only come by continual contact with God in prayer and purpose. You can't do your work without deep spiritual contact with Him, and you can't put yourself in another person's place without His love alive and well in you.

When you understand your calling and live it..... when you know you don't have to justify it..... when you put yourself in someone's place to understand his judging spirit.... when you pray for God to work mightily in that person's life... when you pray for God to keep you humble ..... when you honestly assess what you do in His name.... when your will is totally yielded to God... THEN you are walking in His spirit. THEN you are an instrument to be used at God's will. THEN you will know the fulfillment of being in His will, and the flowing freedom of His spirit.

Your purpose is to live a life which reveals His power working through a yielded life. His purpose is to do the work.

HOLD TO THE HOPE YOU PROFESS

Bar your mind against doubt and fear. Bar the windows and doors of your souls against them. The enemy is the thief who comes to steal and destroy your faith. Create a fortress in your mind that allows no access.

You have been given great gifts of peace, joy, and love. These gifts can be taken away by doubt and fear. Anchor peace, joy and love in your spirit, and face each day with praise for God's faithfulness. Laugh at the enemy's lies...for that is what they are. Lies. You will discover that God's anchor holds strong.

“Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful” (Hebrews 10:23). Unswervingly profess your hope. Speak it until the healing balm of His presence protects you from the lies that bring fear. Repeat that “all is well” until the wound in your spirit is healed. He is faithful.

FAITH AND POWER

“If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you,” (James 1:5).

“Think about what you are thinking about,” Joyce Meyer teaches. Instead of dwelling on what is wrong in your life, or on the lies Satan throws at you, think about the strong omnipotent power that God brings into your life. Think about open heart-felt prayer between you and God. Seek greater faith to trust His faithfulness.

Without faith it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6). Pray for greater faith to believe. Think about having greater faith to believe. Dwell on that thought. Roll it around in your mind until it is what you think about continually. Get into the Word and learn that faith comes by hearing and understanding the Word of God (Romans 10:17). Ask for wisdom to discern the Word. He does not withhold it from you. He gives it generously. That wisdom helps you discern the author of your thoughts, and His power brings your thoughts under His control (2 Corinthians 10:5).

Faith enables you to test His power in your life. As you give Him the gift of your determined and mustard-seed faith, He gives His faith back to you with increasing power to believe. But that power must be exercised. Determine to overcome Satan's lies or your own fearful thoughts, and determine to believe in His truth. His power and your faith go hand-in-hand. His faith in you is completed by the power you exercise.

My All-Powerful God

“Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you” (Deuteronomy 31:6).

He is with me constantly. His presence blesses me. He helps me no matter what I face. I will not falter in my prayers. I will be determined, and believe He hears each one. He is all-powerful. I will say that again and again. Faith will rise. He gives ALL of His power to grant my petition.

If I dwell on the negative, I give permission to the enemy to claim my thoughts. If I face life with a hopeless attitude, I will not be able to rise in faith. I will dwell on the positive and His faithfulness until expectancy grows in my heart. I will focus all my thoughts upon His great love, and the fact He will never leave me. He will never forsake me. He speaks peace to my mind, and the enemy speaks turmoil, despondency and despair.

My God is all-powerful. He loves me, and He is with me. He desires my love, my obedience, and my trust in return. I will think about these truths over and over until they are ingrained in my mind. I will wake expectantly each morning, and dwell upon His faithfulness until there is no room for the enemy's lies.

I will praise Him until my heart rejoices with His love. I will praise Him until faith rises into great trust and I believe in His omnipotent power, and His overwhelming personal concern for my life. I will say “He is all-powerful” until it is ingrained in my very being and etched in my mind. I will say it over and over until victory is secured, and peace reigns

IF MY PEOPLE

“My people are fools; they do not know me.They are senseless children; they have no understanding. They are skilled in doing evil; they know not how to do good” (Jeremiah 4:22).

Jeremiah weeps for his people, and the disaster he knows is coming because of their sin. He cries out to the Lord how long this must go on? How long must he see the death and coming destruction? And this is God's answer. His children don't really know Him. They have never grown up to be responsible spiritual adults. They are senseless, and have no understanding of what it means to live a righteous life. The selfishly live for themselves, and in doing so they epitomize what is evil. Life is all about what they want. His children have become fools because they have refused to live in integrity and honesty.

As I read this Scripture this morning, I prayed for our country. The correlation between Jerusalem and America is very strong. We live foolish lives as if nothing matters. We shake our fists in God's face and demand our own way. We, who claim to be Christian, don't lead responsible lives. Honesty and integrity are two virtues that have become foreign to us. We live as if there will be no accountability for our actions.

“The whole land will be ruined,” the Lord says, “though I will not destroy it completely. Therefore the earth will mourn and the heavens above grow dark, because I have spoken and will not relent, I have decided and will not turn back” (Jeremiah 4:27-28). Jeremiah speaks of the marching armies that will come against God's children, and how pretense of good will not save them. They can't make themselves look God for God. He looks for clean hearts. Jeremiah hears “a cry as of a woman in labor, a groan as of one bearing her first child—the cry of Daughter Zion gasping for breath, stretching out her hands and saying, 'Alas! I am fainting; my life is given over to murderers'” (Jeremiah 4:31).

Our country may also be ruined if we do not repent of our evil ways. We, too, shall one day be overrun, and we will be cornered.... just as the woman who cries out for deliverance in verse 31. If we are not careful, God will one day turn us over to our reprobate ways. One day he may not have anything more to do with us.

“Go up and down the streets of Jerusalem,” God declares to Jeremiah, “look around and consider, search through her squares. If you can find but one person who deals honestly and seeks the truth, I will forgive this city” (Jeremiah 5:1). Just as God looked for that one person in Jerusalem, He looks today for people who are faithful to Him....who seek Him...who pray... who love Him above all else.

Pray to be a person of honesty and integrity. Pray for our nation to rise up and live in virtuous integrity. Pray for our leaders to live lives of integrity and honesty. “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land” (2 Chronicles 7:14). God looks on the heart, and that is where He makes His assessment. How is yours? How is mine?

JOYEFUL OBEDIENCE

Do you know this story? I know I do, and if I honestly admit it, at times, it is my own. God tells me to do something that I find terribly difficult, and I find a reason not to listen. If God is the greatest reason for my life, then my obedience is not an option, and it does not just happen. It is born of deep commitment to God. It certainly calls for my personal sacrifice. When it is born of sacrifice, obedience speaks my willingness to submit to God’s desires instead of my own. Often obedience contradicts the desires of my heart.

We all can find reasons not to obey. “It is too hard for me to do that! I can’t give it up, Lord! I don’t have time to study the Word and pray. Lord, what would others think of me? What if I fail you, Lord? I can’t see how my doing this will help, Lord. I don’t feel the need to do that, Lord.” The excuses mount until God’s voice echoes like distant thunder. With our backs firmly turned, and our hearts grown cold, we suddenly declare, “I refuse to do that, Lord.”

Refusing God means the loss of God's presence in our lives. David, when confronted by Nathan for his sin with Bathsheba, immediately repented. “Do not cast me from your presence,” he cried out to God, “or take your Holy Spirit from me” (Psalm 51:11). He understood the danger of being separated from God was the loss of God’s presence. His cry for forgiveness speaks of his loving respect for God and his commitment to God’s desires (Psalm 51). Solomon refused to listen to the Lord, and allowed his weakness for the things of the world to destroy his relationship with the Lord. Near the end of his life, he looks back on wasted years and declares in Ecclesiastes, “Meaningless! Meaningless! Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless” (Ecclesiastes 1:2)! The life of Solomon is a sad account of how he blew the undeserved opportunities God had given him. Chuck Swindle refers to Ecclesiastes as a “graphic portrayal of a life lived apart from God.” Jonah ran from the Lord’s instruction to witness to the depraved city of Nineveh, and he ended up in the belly of a whale. It took disaster to bring Jonah a repentant heart. Even following repentance, Jonah argued with the Lord and his obedience was less than perfect. Refusing the Lord’s call devastates our lives in Christ.

The Lord yearns for us to have an obedient heart—one that listens to the conviction and direction of the Holy Spirit as David listened—one which, unlike Jonah, follows God’s will without argument. I certainly do not wish my life to be likened to Solomon’s life—one lived apart from God. It is our responsibility for holiness of heart and obedience to God to be the most important disciplines of our lives. Disobedience stems from pride. Longing for personal acceptance by others, it says “no” when the sacrifice involves humility. However, true obedience reveals respect for the cost of Jesus’ sacrifice, and goes where disobedience never will— into the very heart of God. This is where the joy of obedient sacrifice is discovered.


God loves a obedience servant who invests richly in His kingdom through a surrendered life. “Remember this,” Paul wrote, “whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work” (II Corinthians 9:6-8). My compliance to God’s will speaks of joy in my own sacrifice. If I invest with joy, I shall receive the grace of His total supply. I shall discover His joy in giving—the joy of giving as He gave His life for me.