My Deliverer

 

This is my comfort in my affliction, for Your word has given me life.

—Psalm 119:50 (NKJV)

 

 

The words of God comforted the psalmist. They encouraged him in whatever he faced. The psalmist said God’s words had given him life. What was life to him? Life to the psalmist was pleasing God so that he could receive God’s love. This was His comfort.

 

What is comfort to you in your affliction? Is it the same as the psalmist? There is a difference for you as a believer in Christ. You have received the grace of Jesus the psalmist did not have. The days of the law—when keeping God’s commandments was the only way to find some comfort— have passed away. Jesus is the Word that gives us life. Life to you is not living to earn God’s comfort and love. Life to you is receiving the comfort and love of God that Jesus Christ has purchased for you.

 

“Now we have been released from the law, for we died to it and are no longer captive to its power. Now we can serve God, not in the old way of obeying the letter of the law, but in the new way of living in the Spirit” (Romans 7:6, NLT). 

 

If we try to please God by “obeying the letter of the law,” we end up defeated by our own attempts at goodness. We end up serving God with our actions and not with our hearts. There is no lasting comfort to be found in our own efforts. Jesus was the One who pleased God on our behalf. We come to God on the merit of Jesus’ perfect work to give us the right standing with God. We have no goodness without Jesus. We serve God living by faith in the Holy Spirit. God is working in us to give us the desire and the power to do what pleases Him (Philippians 2:13).

 

What is your real comfort in your affliction—whether it is sickness, painful circumstances, or financial issues?  Your real comfort is the truth of God’s Word that you receive by faith in your heart. For the psalmist, his comfort in his affliction was found in pleasing God. For you as a believer, your comfort is found in the atonement of Jesus Christ. 

 

Jesus, who had no sin, became our sin so we might receive the righteousness of God in Him (2 Corinthians 5:21). Jesus has born our suffering. He has carried our sorrows. He was afflicted by God for us. Our sins became His. Our illnesses became His. Our pain became His. He was wounded and bruised for our healing. He gave Himself. His precious blood has made us whole (Isaiah 53:4-5).

Jesus did not partially bear your suffering and sorrow. He did not partially bear your sin and sickness. He carried the full weight of your debt. He took the punishment for you to have peace with God. Your comfort—your peace is found in His perfect work for your sins, your suffering, your sorrow, your sickness, and all the things that resulted from Adam’s sin. Your comfort in Jesus is freedom from sin and all its destruction. You lack nothing in His perfect and finished work of grace. 

 

Your true comfort in your affliction is His life over death, blessing over curse, and healing over sickness. The Gospel of Grace speaks wholeness of life to you. The God of peace sanctifies you completely in spirit, soul, and body (1 Thessalonians 5:23). 

 

You may not have yet experienced freedom from your affliction. But just because you have not yet experienced it, does not mean it is untrue. There is not only comfort in what you face. There is life and freedom in Christ from what you face.

 

You receive God’s Word in your heart and live its truth by faith. His words are life to all who find them. They are healing to all our flesh (Proverbs 4:22)! Jesus is our comfort and deliverer! The power of sin is the law (1 Corinthians 15:56). In Christ, you have died to the law and are no longer held captive by its power (Romans 7:6). Jesus Christ is the righteousness of God in us that overcomes the power of sin and all its destruction. 

 

“Many are the afflictions of the righteous, But the Lord delivers him out of them all” (Psalm 34:19, NKJV).

We have nothing to give but everything to receive. 

© 2024 Lynn Lacher

 www.lynnlacher.com/2024/05/my-deliverer.html

 

 

 

The Profession of Your Faith

  

Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;).
— Hebrews 10:23 

Profession is the act of openly declaring a belief. A person who professes a belief does not simply repeat what someone else says. This is a person who has captured God’s Word in his heart. It has aged in him putting down deep roots until he has come into agreement with what God says. This person sees a problem like God sees it. His heart and God’s heart are so joined on an issue that their hearts beat in rhythm. When a believer opens his mouth to “profess” or “confess” God’s Word, his confession is no longer a powerless statement. What is spoken comes from a very deep place of conviction inside his heart.

Genuine professions of faith come from God’s words that have been sown in your heart. After a time of meditating and renewing your mind with His words, you begin to see what He is saying. You begin to see the way He sees. You grow to deeply believe what God believes, and out of heartfelt conviction, you begin to speak and declare your faith.

When a believer gets God’s Word so deep into his heart that he comes into agreement with it, he no longer speaks empty words or copies something he has heard. He speaks boldly from a legitimate place of faith.

Many people go through life repeating what they have heard someone else say without ever developing any depth of understanding and faith behind their words. They may say the right things, but since these words come out of their mouths and not out of their hearts, their confession does not produce results. 

Your faith and what you say have to connect. A mindless profession does not come from the heart. It cannot produce any fruit. Your profession of God’s truth must come from your heart before it comes out of your mouth.

How can you avoid making mindless confessions?

Choose to believe what God says. Commit your mind, heart, and all your strength to believing the Word of God—no matter if it does not make sense to your natural mind. 

Ask the Holy Spirit to make God’s Word so real to you that if anyone implies that it is not true, you will not doubt or waver in your belief. A man who doubts the truth of the Word in his heart will not receive (James 1:6-8).

Open your Bible and do some serious study and meditation. Sow His Word in your heart until you and God are in total agreement on your problem.  

Out of the abundance of your heart, you speak (Matthew 12:34). When God’s Word is deeply sown in your heart, you believe you have His abundant life. When what you believe aligns with what God says, begin to speak His truth by faith over your issue. Consistently, speak your deep-seated belief of His truth into your life. One day every part of you—spirit, soul, and body—will align with His Word (1 Thessalonians 5:23).

A confession of faith can only be a mountain-moving confession when it comes from the heart before it comes out of the mouth. If you have planted God’s Word in your heart so that it is now your word as well, you can speak the truth of His Word over every concern of your life.

Take God’s Word into your heart and mind. Meditate on it until what you believe agrees with it. Once that Word becomes so real inside you that it becomes your heartfelt belief, speak it. Speak His truth into your life. Life is the power of your tongue (Proverbs 18:21). 

When what you believe in your heart is spoken, the mountain will be removed (Mark 11:23-24). Don’t give up because you don’t see immediate results. When Jesus cursed the fig tree, its roots immediately died from the power in His words, but the withered results were not visually seen until later (Mark 11:12,20-24). When you speak God’s Word out of a convicted heart, His truth is released in your life. However, you may not see its visual truth until time has passed. 

Every part of your life is meant to come into alignment with God’s Word. This is His will for you, and He is faithful to His Word. Your part is to take God’s Word into your heart until it becomes who you are—until you take ownership of His truth and believe what God says without a doubt. You receive by faith when you agree with God’s truth about your problem, your illness, or your need. Never stop speaking His truth over your life and praising Him for its results. The Lord who promises you is faithful. If you will hold fast to God’s truth and profess it without wavering, you will see your life changed by His everlasting and unchanging Word.

www.lynnlacher.com/2024/05/the-profession-of-your-faith.html

 

 

 

 

Soar in Me

 

Have you not known?
Have you not heard?
The everlasting God, the Lord,
The Creator of the ends of the earth,
Neither faints nor is weary.
His understanding is unsearchable.
He gives power to the weak,
And to those who have no might He increases strength.
Even the youths shall faint and be weary,
And the young men shall utterly fall,
But those who wait on the Lord
Shall renew their strength;
They shall mount up with wings like eagles,
They shall run and not be weary,
They shall walk and not faint.

—Isaiah 40:28-31

 

 

Have you heard in your heart that the everlasting God, who created the earth and created you, never faints or grows weary? The all-powerful Creator, who created you and has always known you, became as you are so you can have a relationship with Him and know Him intimately. His understanding was unsearchable. But now, Jesus has torn the veil that separated us from Him, and we can know God, the Creator of all that is good, as our Abba Father. 

 

Before you received the love of Jesus by faith, your spiritual eyes and ears were closed to the things of God (Ephesians 2:8, Matthew 13:15). Your knowledge of Him was veiled. But when you believed in Jesus as your Savior, the mystery of God hidden from you was no longer hidden (Colossians 1:26). Your Father wants to give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in your knowledge of Him. He wants to enlighten your understanding so that you may know the hope of the new life He has given you, the riches of your inheritance, and the greatness of His power toward us who believe (Ephesians 1:17-19).

 

The revelation of the knowledge of God is now just waiting for you to ask and receive; to seek and find. If you knock the door of understanding will open to you (Matthew 7:7).

 

Are you seeking the understanding of God with all your heart? The enemy is terrified you will spiritually see with God’s eyes and hear with His ears, understand with your heart, and be healed (Matthew 13:15). As you grow to understand the love of God revealed to you in Christ, the enemy’s attempts to destroy you are more easily defeated. You grow to understand the strength the Lord gives to the weak and your authority to exercise His power over all the power of the enemy (Luke 10:19). You receive a revelation of the resurrection power you have received in Christ. 

 

Even though those young in the faith may grow weary—even though the spiritually immature may utterly fail, you will not grow weary or fail when you have the spiritual maturity to know His authority in your life. You will prosper just as your soul prospers (3 John 2:1). God fully stands behind the power of His Word with the authority He has given you. He is the Word (John 1:1). When you speak the Word you have believed in your heart, you speak His power into your life. You receive blessings instead of curses, health instead of sickness, peace instead of fear, joy instead of mourning, and His beauty for the ashes of your once despairing life.

 

The word “wait” in Isaiah 40:31 does not speak about someone waiting as though they are sitting idle just looking for the Lord to do something. Rather, the “waiting” here is talking about “waiting” like a waiter who constantly seeks to meet the needs of his customers. Those who wait and look to the Lord for their strength will never faint. They will draw on His limitless strength.

The Hebrew word, QAVAH, in Isaiah 40:31, is translated as “wait.” It means “to bind together (perhaps by twisting), i.e. collect; (figuratively) to expect” (Strong’s Concordance). 

 

As we grow in our understanding of who we are in Jesus, we “bind” ourselves more closely to Him. He replaces the limitations of our human strength with His limitless strength. Because we know and trust Him, we "expect" Him to meet our needs and guide us in life.

 

An eagle soars on currents of air without using its wings. It glides on the power of the wind and not on its own strength. It can ride those currents for hours with little or no effort. Those who wait on the Lord are like the eagle, moving on the flow of the Holy Spirit and not their own effort. They can outlast others who are stronger or more talented and who do what they do in their own strength or ability.

Do you soar in life? Are the things that attempt to steal your joy, kill your faith, and destroy your life beneath your feet? You must “know” intimately the One who has given you His life. He hides nothing from you. He renews your strength with His strength. He lifts you in His power. You do not grow weary or faint.

What is your doubt—that one question? Have you not seen or heard? Your Father does not grow weary. He is in you—sustaining, empowering, guiding, and overcoming.

“You are Mine,” Jesus says. “Find Me. Soar in Me.”

 

 

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His Plans

 

 

We are just not competent to direct our own lives. 

 

“O Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself. It is not in man who walks to direct his own steps” (Jeremiah 10:23).

 

The Lord created us so that we would need Him to guide us in the best direction. He gave us the freedom to choose the way to go in life (Deuteronomy 30:19). However, left to our own reasoning, we will think everything is alright. We will think nothing is wrong with our sins. But when what is wrong is uncovered by the truth of God’s Word, our foolishness becomes obvious. We must constantly renew our minds with the truth of God’s Word for our thoughts and our plans to be established (Romans 12:2).

 

“The preparations of the heart belong to man,

But the answer of the tongue is from the Lord” (Proverbs 16:1).

 

Proverbs 16:1 speaks of our hearts being “prepared.” Psalm 10:17 says that the Lord will prepare the hearts of those who are humble. If you connect Proverbs 16:1 with Proverbs 15:33 (the verse preceding it), it is proof of how crucial humility is in preparing our hearts. Therefore, humbling ourselves before the Lord is the single most important thing we can do for the Lord to begin to prepare our hearts. 

 

“Commit your works to the Lord,

And your thoughts will be established” (Provers 16:3).

 

Proverbs 16:3 speaks of our thoughts being “established.” We prepare our hearts to receive God’s truth when we humble ourselves and are renewed in our hearts by the Word. We conform to His Word when His truth is established in our hearts (Romans 12:2). 

 

Strong’s Concordance says the Hebrew for “works” in Proverbs 16:3 means “an action [good or bad]; generally, a transaction; abstractly, activity; by implication, a product [specifically, a poem] or [generally] property.” 

 

When we throw all concern about our “works” (our actions and activities) over to the Lord, then our thoughts—our plans—will be established. In other words, when we believe and trust that the Lord will establish our plans, He will. We will have His perfect peace (Isaiah 26:3).

 

“All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the spirits” (Proverbs 16:2).

 

Only the Lord can correctly evaluate and direct our lives. We can’t correctly evaluate and direct ourselves. Realizing this truth humbles us and makes us realize the importance of the Holy Spirit’s involvement in our lives. This is why we need the Word of God to teach us the way to go. It is only in our union with God that we can ever fulfill our God-given potential. So we should not lean on our own understanding but acknowledge Him in all of our ways, and He shall direct our paths (Proverbs 3:5-6).

 

Solomon’s wisdom reveals what will happen when you subject your “works”—all of your actions, plans, and activities to the evaluation of the Lord. The Holy Spirit will weed out all that is wrong. 

 

What is left will be established. It will be His will. His plans will be your plans, and they will succeed.

 

Humility is honoring God above anything else (Proverbs 15:33). Take a step back from what you think and subject your thoughts to the Lord’s evaluation. Surrender your accomplishments, failures, ideas, and questions to God in prayer every day. Your heart will be guided in the way you should go (Proverbs 23:19). Ultimately, your heart will follow your prevailing thoughts. If you keep your mind on the Lord, your heart will follow. And Jesus said that is where your treasure will be (Matthew 6:21).

 

 

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His Sheep Hear His Voice

When you have a need where is the first place you go? The first reaction to a need for many believers is to reach out to someone who they feel might be able to help them. Even though they have been taught that the Lord is the best response to their need, it isn’t going to happen if they haven’t developed their relationship with Him. 

 

Is this you? If you haven’t learned to trust God and hear from Him, you aren’t going to go to Him first.

 

People are real. They can touch and hear you. They can relate to you because they also struggle. God is real. You can hear Him, and He understands you 100% because He created you. He breathed His life into you. He is the One who has the perfect answer in your time of need. But for so many, God is just an “idea” or a “concept” instead of the loving and powerful God who cares for them. Having fellowship with Him is the only way He becomes real and tangible to you as the loving and powerful Father who is concerned with your every need.

 

Wise counsel might be helpful. But counsel is always subject to the heart and the degree of the spiritual understanding of the person giving counsel. God has given us the Holy Spirit to be our best counsel.

“And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever” (John 14:16).

 

We have been given the Holy Spirit so we can intimately know our Father. He abides with us forever—never leaving or forsaking us. We have fellowship with the Father through Him. We can hear His Word quickened in our hearts knowing it will come to life in us. We can come to Him in time of need. We can touch the heart of the One who created us. The Holy Spirit guides us in each need throughout our day. However, many believers haven’t grasped His role in their daily lives.

 

Talking to God should be the very first thing we do. He should be “alive” in us—in our minds and hearts from the moment we wake up in the morning. We should speak His Word into our needs and praise Him for meeting them before they are met. The more time we spend time with God, the easier it is to hear His counsel and to be directed by Him. It is easier to trust Him in the storm that suddenly arises. 

 

“Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God” (1 Cor. 2:12).

 

We have the Holy Spirit to know what has been freely given to us in Christ. The wisdom we need to navigate this life, the peace we need to empower us, the joy we need to fulfill us, the love we need to encourage us, and the words we need that speak life to us, are all available by the Holy Spirt through fellowship with God. Prayer is our honest discussion with the One who loves us and has all our answers.

 

“I called on the Lord in distress; The Lord answered me and set me in a broad place” (Psalm 118:5).

 

God is so faithful. A lot of our distress is self-inflicted. Yet, the Lord graciously ministers to us in our distress and grants us deliverance. When He delivers us, it is accomplished in more than just a little way. Praise the Lord! He puts us in a large place.

 

Your Father is the first place to go when life is difficult. He will answer you and guide you in anything you should do or if you should be still and allow Him to take care of your concerns. Develop your personal fellowship with Him. Vocally talk to Him about everything. He is concerned with the least little thing that concerns you. Expect to “hear” Him. Expect to receive His wisdom, guidance, understanding, peace, and faith. 

 

You are His, and His sheep hear His voice (John 10:27).

 

 

www.lynnlacher.com/2024/05/his-sheep-hear-his-voice.html

 

 

The Promise of His Blessings

 

To many Christians, God is seen as a secretive puppet master who pulls their strings—loving and providing one moment and depriving them the next. The Christian life is seen as something you have to endure, hang on, and, hopefully, make it to the end. The promises of the Bible are often met with comments such as: “Not in this life,” “I tried that and it didn’t work,” or, “I don’t know why God won’t do that for me.”  

 

Does this life sound like the abundant life that Jesus came to give us? (John 10:10). Does this sound like a loving God who is the same, yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8)? 

 

Sin once separated us from God and all His blessings. But Jesus has restored us to the Father. In restoring our right standing with God, Jesus has restored all of the blessings of God that sin stole from us. Everything God has promised us in His Word has been provided through the finished work of Jesus. The provision is there. We receive what Jesus has restored to us through faith. 

 

Jesus lavished the love of God on you. God loves you and favors you with all He created to be yours. It is your Father’s desire for you to receive the promises that are yours in Christ. Don’t doubt God’s love because you haven’t experienced His promises. Doubt keeps you from receiving from God (James 1:6-8). What you experience in this life often does not agree with what God’s Word says is true. But no matter what you experience, His Word is still true. His promises are still waiting to be received through faith. 

 

When you live by your experiences, you are not living by the Word. When you agree in your heart with the Word—when you truly believe His Word, God’s power impacts your life. His Truth brings life to your mortal body (Romans 8:11). His power works in and through you to accomplish exceedingly and abundantly the truths of your new life in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17, Ephesians 3:20). It is not your work to make yourself believe. It is His work of faith in your surrendered heart. By His grace through faith, you receive and experience the Truth of God’s Word. 

 

“He (Abraham) did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform” (Romans 3:20-21).

 

For many years I allowed what I experienced to define my life instead of allowing God’s Word to define who I was in Christ. I didn’t realize that doubting God was unbelief. If Abraham, the Father of our Faith, was strengthened in faith and fully convinced God would bless Him with what God had promised him, then how much more can we, who are God’s heirs in Christ, be strengthened in faith and fully convinced God will bless us with what He has promised us.

 

Over the years, I saw growth in many areas of my Christian life, but in other areas, I was hindered. I was not receiving what the Word said was true. I felt like God was holding back His blessings in my life. I doubted that I was worthy enough to receive His love. Fear directed my life. One day the Holy Spirit revealed that the problem wasn’t with God. The problem was with me. There was nothing more to be done that Jesus had not already done. The problem was that I had not believed in my heart the perfect love God had for me. I simply did not believe that God could love me that much or that He could ever be that good to me. 

  

I finally chose to rid myself of all my negative thoughts of unworthiness, guilt, and doubt. I began to believe in the promise of all God's blessings that I had thought I didn’t have a right to expect. I finally realized that the blessings of God were never about my rights. I had no right to receive God's blessings. Jesus had the right, and He had favored me with His right. His blessings were mine just because of His amazing love for me. If I could believe the Word, I could receive.  

 

When it says that all of His promises are “yes and amen,” (2 Corinthians 1:20), it means just that. His “yes” isn’t the problem. It is our “amen” that is the problem.  We often subconsciously change it to “yes and maybe,” “yes and hopefully”, or “yes but probably not.”  Unbelief is destroying more of God’s blessings than we can imagine. 

 

What desire do you carry in your heart?  What would bless you?  What would you love to do for someone else if you could?  What would bring you joy?  God is for you. He is always, “yes and amen.”  Your blessings are not about you. God receives the glory when you are blessed. Don’t feel guilty and doubt God’s blessings in your life. Don’t feel unworthy to receive what Jesus loved you enough to restore to you. Jesus made you worthy. Don’t let unbelief rule in your heart. 

 

In Luke 12:12-34, Jesus speaks of God’s purpose to take care of you. 

 

“But seek the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added to you. Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom” (Luke 12:32).

 

God created everything you would ever need in life before He ever created you. You don’t have to doubt. You don’t have to fear. It is God’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. It is not just His pleasure. It is His GOOD pleasure. Seek the kingdom of God. Sow His Word in your heart. Protect it from the enemy and all the voices which are not His. Don’t allow the cares of your life to keep you from trusting His provision. Believe His Word in your heart. Ask in faith. The way you receive God’s blessings is by faith. And faith comes by hearing the Word in your heart (Romans 10:17).

 

“Until now you have asked nothing in My name,” Jesus said. “Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full. (John 16:24).

Help My UnBelief

 

Yes, again and again they tempted God,

And limited the Holy One of Israel.

They did not remember His power:

The day when He redeemed them from the enemy.

—Psalm 78:41-42 (NKJV)

 

 

After all, God had done for them, the Israelites rebelled against Him in the desert and grieved God. He had rescued them from Pharaoh, parted the sea, led them by day and night, provided for their needs, and these things were still not enough to convince them of His faithfulness. They kept forgetting His righteous power and deliverance from the enemy. And in doing so, they limited God.

 

Do we limit God? Do we forget what He has done for us? Do we remember our salvation from the enemy and death? The Israelites’ faith extended only to what they had experienced in their circumstances—to what they felt in each moment or circumstance they faced. They didn't trust God, who had rescued them from Pharaoh. Too often, we allow our faith in God to extend only to what we have experienced or what others tell us is true. We forget God's power, which saved us from death. We forget that this same Resurrection power lives in us (Ephesians 1:19-20).

 

Our faith needs to reach past what we see, hear, and feel. The Word of God needs to penetrate our hearts and transform us to believe past what we experience or what anyone tells us. The Word is our final authority regarding what is true or what isn’t. 

 

An example of the final authority of the Word is what it says about healing. 

 

Do you believe that Jesus is the same today, yesterday, or forever? (Hebrews 13:8)?  Jesus healed all who were brought or came to Him during his earthly ministry. We can believe He heals today—just as He did on earth. Do you remember what Isaiah said of the Savior to come? "By His stripes, we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5). In Matthew 8:16-18, Jesus declared that He was the fulfillment of this prophecy and confirmed it with physical healing. The Word declares healing accomplished in 1 Peter 2:24: “By His stripes, you were healed.”

 

However, there was a place where Jesus became limited in healing and miracles. That was in Nazareth, his hometown, where He was recognized as just a carpenter's son (Mark 6:5-6). Because of their unbelief, He only healed a few (Mark 6:5, Matthew 13:58).

 

Do we limit the Holy One as He was limited in Nazareth because we don't believe Him for who He really is? “If you believe, all things are possible,” Jesus told the father of the boy tormented by a demon, and then delivered him (Mark 9:23). Jesus taught that faith was the key to receiving healing (Mark 5:34; Mark 5:36, Matthew 8:13). Jesus said in Mark 11:24 that believing was the key to receive anything from God.

 

Is Jesus without honor in our lives as He was in Nazareth? Do we forget the power of God and wander around in our deserts of unbelief?  We can believe God for His promises. We can stand on His Word. If you need healing, you can believe God for it. Even if you feel pain—even if you see your physical issues, you can trust what the Word says. God sent His Word—Jehovah Rapha sent Himself—and healed you (Psalm 107:20, John 1:1). Jesus became as you so you might become as He is.

 

What other needs are in your life? God created everything you would ever need before He ever created you. Sin became the problem in the Garden that separated you from what He had created. But Jesus removed that separation caused by sin by recreating you with His precious blood. The Lamb of God died to save you, heal you, and provide for you. What God created for you is now yours. Do you believe what Jesus has done for you? You can trust God's promises revealed in His Word. The Word of God is the final authority in your life—not what you experience or what anyone else tells you. 

 

God is not limited, but so often we limit Him by our unbelief. We appeal to Him out of our human understanding instead of seeking to have a revelation of His. We see our lives as unfinished and lacking instead of believing the truths Jesus’ finished work has accomplished for us. 

 

“According to your faith, let it be done to you,” Jesus told the two blind men who sought healing (Matthew 9:29). “Daughter, your faith has healed you,” He told the woman who touched His garment. “Go in peace and be healed of your suffering” (Mark 5:34).

 

***

Lord Jesus, help me to never make cheap what cost your life. I never want to limit you. I never want to make less of your precious blood with doubt and unbelief. Jesus, you never limited your love for me. I want to love you and not limit you as you have loved and not limited yourself for me. I do believe. Help me overcome my unbelief.  

 

 

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Pray for Laborers

Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest. —Matthew 9:38   People are born again through the power of the Word of God (1 Peter 1:23). Our prayers for others are essential, but they aren't a substitute for the message of the Gospel heard in the human heart (Romans 1:16-17).     Many of us pray to God for others to be saved and can’t understand why it hasn’t happened. We don’t have to ask the Lord to save people. He isn’t willing that anyone should perish (2 Peter 3:9). He has already made provision for everyone’s salvation (John 3:16, John 1:22). The freedom to choose or reject Him is a gift He has given us. He won’t violate anyone’s will.    Since everyone decides for himself about Jesus, how do we pray about our loved ones coming to the Lord?  Jesus said to pray that the Lord would send laborers across their paths. They need to hear the Word (Romans 10:14-17). We should also bind Satan’s purpose to blind them to spiritual truth (2 Corinthians 4:4).    God is more determined to save our loved ones than we are. We don’t need to plead with Him; rather, we need Him to flow through us to reach those who don’t know Him. We do that by sharing the Good News and praying other Christians will come across their paths who will do the same.   The Gospel is God's successful and effectual power to everyone who believes. It is the Good News that although we are sinners and worthy of God's wrath, God, in His love, sent His Son to be our substitute, bearing our punishment, so that we could be made righteous in His sight. If a person needs healing, it is in the Gospel. If deliverance is needed, it is in the Gospel. Provision, answered prayer, joy, peace, and love are found through understanding and believing the Gospel. Our salvation is based only on our faith in the completed work of Christ and not on our own performance. Now that's Good News to share with a hurting and dying world.   Yes, you want those you love to know Him. Perhaps, they have closed their hearts to the message coming from you. Pray in faith for God to send laborers with the Gospel. Pray your loved ones will be receptive. Pray knowing He will send those whom He knows will hear Him, follow His leading, and share His message in a way that will reach their hearts. Don’t doubt. If you know He hears you, you can rest assured He sends laborers across their paths. It is God’s will for everyone to know Him. God will do all that He can so no man will perish.        www.lynnlacher.com/2024/05/pray-for-laborers.html

What Are You Going to Do?

 

 

Several years ago, I was praying about something, and the Lord spoke to my heart: “What are you going to do about it?” 

 

It was as if a light suddenly came on. I realized that so many things in life depend on vision and faith. God has already done His part. Jesus’ perfect work is complete. It is finished. There is nothing more for Him to do that He has not already accomplished. The question is what am I going to do about His Truth—His Work—His reality that abides forever. It is already finished in the spiritual realm.

 

The Word is God (John 1:1). God gives the vision of His Truth being real in our lives through the revelation of His Word (Ephesians 1:17-18). The incorruptible seed of His Word produces a harvest of God’s Truth in my life. But for it to produce a harvest in me, I have to sow His truth, protect and nourish it (Matthew 13:18-23, 1 Peter 1:23). Just as a ripened crop does not harvest itself, so does the Word not harvest itself in my life. I harvest His truth by faith. I appropriate it by faith as my own. As I believe, so I receive (Matthew 9:29). It is absolutely true that as a man thinks in his heart, so is he (Proverbs 23:7).

 

Are you struggling with a physical issue? A medical diagnosis? A broken relationship? A financial need? So often our response is to plead with God to please do something right now, when He is waiting on us to initiate through faith what He has given us.

 

God wishes you to prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers (3 John 1:2). Life and death are in the power of your tongue (Proverbs 18:21). Have you spoken life and health to your body?

 

Have you prayed for and forgiven those who have hurt and offended you (Matthew 5:44-45)?

 

Have you honored God with your giving and sowed it in faith (Proverbs 3:9-10, 2 Corinthians 9:6-11)?

 

Have you resisted the enemy (James 4:7)?

 

Have you spoken to the mountains in your life and believed you have received the victory (Mark 11:22-24)?

 

Too often we are passive and fatalistic about the circumstances of life. Many times we plead with God to do something and later are hurt when the problems have not been resolved. Rather than believe God and act on His promises, we frequently sit back and hope that God will make our problems go away. God is waiting for us to step out in faith. He is not going to push us out of the boat to receive His Truth. You are going to have to step out on water believing you will not sink.

 

"The heaven, even the heavens, are the Lord’s; but the earth He has given to the children of men" (Psalm 115:16).

 

"You have made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet" (Psalm 8:6).

 

God has given us dominion on this earth. Synonyms for “dominion” are authority, control, and ability. God has put all things under our feet.

 

You can take control of your life and all God entrusts to you. Submit to God, and the enemy flees. In humility, you receive more grace (James 4:6-7). Let the Word reveal God’s vision for your life. Renew your mind with it. Sow it in your heart until faith comes alive (Romans 10:17). Rise up in faith and realize the victory that is yours in Jesus.

 

 

 

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