By Every Word

I’m Doing Great…

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Aug 122010

I went into a restroom today and ran into a young guy who had a walking stick with him. He was completely blind. He had some hearing devices attached to his ears which were fairly large in size. I know technology has made huge advances in hearing equipment and the sizes of them have become incredibly small. My own grandfather is deaf without his, and even his is not noticeable unless looking directly into his ear canal. So I was aware that this guy’s hearing was severely impaired.

As I went to wash my hands I said “How are you?”

His reply “I’m doing great!”

…wow

I couldn’t help but think about the times I had complained in my mind about trivial bothers… Makes me think to myself- “Shut up with your complaining!”

This guy- who cannot see the colors of the sun, the flowers, the bright and dark greens of plants, the blue skies and white clouds, nor hear without all this equipment attached to his ears- yet he can still reply “I’m doing great!” with enthusiasm- what do I have to complain about. How blessed so many of us are that take for granted our senses.

I began to pray “Lord, if I pray for him, will You heal him?” Now I know God’s will is for him to be healed- but sometimes in the moment I can lack the faith to commit. The enemy will plant a thousand “What Ifs”. The Ifs don’t matter, for faith is believing God’s word, laws and promises regardless of circumstances. The evidence of the unseen hope is in God’s word. But before I could finish this thought, he had left.

I will see him again soon. Will those who read this do something for me, right now? Pray for this young man’s eyes and ears to be opened. Pray the Lord will heal him when I see him again and I pray for him… or before then is great too!

How am I? I’m doing great!

The Lord’s Prayer 09

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Aug 102010

Luke 11:4
And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us.
KJV

Now let’s get a couple of things clear first. When you enter into prayer you need to be prepared to enter His courts before you begin your petitions. Remember this scripture…

Psalm 66:18
If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me:
KJV

We don’t need anything to hinder us in our prayers- so we must make sure to take prayer seriously. Now we’re not doing this for show or to be religious by any means. We take this seriously because we are showing the sincerity of our hearts. Roy Porter, a good pastor friend of mine, said something in a message recently that I really liked. He spoke about Abraham building altars everywhere he went to pray. He said prayer should take time and have a commitment made to it.

I started thinking about this. When Abraham got ready to pray, it wasn’t just jump in the car and talk along the way, though I do this sometimes and that’s fine- he had to prepare. It took something from him to pray. It took a commitment. He had to lug rocks into one place and build them up to form an altar. Most of us after all that work would think “Man, I’m tired- time for a glass of tea.” But it was part of the process- to carry rocks into one place, form them into an altar, then to make petition to God. He was showing him he was serious about what he was doing. Now I’m not saying to get out in your yard and start piling rocks together, but at least prepare yourself to be presentable before the Holy God before entering into prayer. We’re His children, but even children have to show respect and honor their fathers. How much more honor is our Father in heaven deserve from His earthly children?

So we love Him by showing Him the honor He deserves in our preparation for prayer. Reminding Him of His word which shows we understand the foundation of His word that we stand on.

‘Lord, you said, “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me“– so Lord remember thy word “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9) So Lord as I prepare myself to enter into your presence prepare me with your forgiveness- so that you can hear me according to your word.’

Now we are showing God we are serious about our requests and petitions and about Who He is. Do you think this sounds too heavy? Unreasonable? Look at the priests of the time during the Ark of the Covenant. They had to tie a rope around the priest’s leg before entering the Vail where the Ark was. If they had sin upon them, they would drop dead. They had bells on the bottom of their robes and if the bells quit ringing, they would yank them out with the rope and ask the next priest if he was ready to go in. Still want to be in ministry? Has this changed today? Well, many of us have prayed, or been singing in service, or trying to worship and God had pulled our rope as soon as we entered the door. We’re clapping, singing, even shouting but no presence of God. Has your rope been pulled? Prepare to enter His presence and don’t take it lightly. God honors those whose heart is sincere and who has shown up to worship Him in spirit and in truth.

Wow, I’m going to have to continue on this part tomorrow…

For The Kingdom!

The Lord’s Prayer 07

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Jul 242010

Luke 11:3
Give us day by day our daily bread.
KJV

Wow! Isn’t God’s word amazing? It took us 6 posts to get through verse 2! God has been revealing even more to me in my study of this subject and I am so blessed by it- I hope you are.

So here in verse 3 we see “Give us day by day”. Let’s look at another scripture which helps us to understand this part of the prayer.

Matthew 6:34
Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

What you need, is what you need today. We sometimes want more than what we actually need. We want surplus of our needs. But this is bad management of resources. Before I continue, I think it’s important to clarify that I am not speaking about your savings or retirement- all of that is great! After all it was Joseph’s management plan in storing the corn for the 7 good years so they would have food in the 7 years they would lack. What I am speaking of is your needs today.

We pray all of our needs are met today. Sometimes we put to much emphasis on next week, next month and we don’t thank God for all of our needs being supplied today. Trust He will supply all your needs today. Think about it… will you go hungry today? Will you go thirsty today? Will you have a place to lay down tonight? Do you have a house or apartment to go to tonight? Thank Him for that today. Thank Him the power will not be cut off today. Thank Him for everything the kingdom has supplied today. Then give surplus to those who don’t have. One of my favorite quotes is “If God can get it through us, He’ll always get it to us.”

Funny thing happened. I do these write-ups in spurts as I get free time to write. So sometimes I do a writing in one sitting while other times it can take a couple of days. This also gives me time in between writing to think on what God is showing me and He will give me revelation on the subject that I add to these posts. Well during this writing a storm hit and our power was knocked out for about 13 hours. I laid in the bed and had to practice what I teach. I began to pray

“Lord, I thank you I have a roof over my head keeping me out of the rain. I thank you for the technology we have to harness power and the benefits it brings us in life. I thank you for all the days I’ve had power. I thank you I’m saving money on my energy bill right now with the electricity being out.”

We can talk the talk sometimes, but do we walk the walk? We say “I will serve you Lord with my whole heart!” but when things are not going well do we still speak in faith and praise Him then?

Are we thankful because He’s God in our life… or because things are going well in our life? Does God’s place in your life change, depending on the season your life is in? He’s still God, He’s still Provider, Source, Sustainer… God will sometimes let tests come into our life to see if we really mean what we say- and to reveal to us where our heart really is.

Pray and thank Him for the needs that are met today… day by day.

The Lord’s Prayer 05

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Jul 212010

Luke 11:2
…Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done.
KJV

We’re wanting His kingdom- not man’s kingdom- but His kingdom. To what?… to come! We need it! Our kingdom’s have failed, our kingdom’s become corrupt without His influence. Without the influence of heaven’s government we self destruct.

Not only His kingdom, but His will. We want what He wants. This is another area we get off in sometimes and miss the mark. We don’t know His word and so we can’t pray effectively according to His word and we wonder why we don’t see results.

1 John 5:14
This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.
NASB

See, we’re praying “Lord give me some money. I need some things. Give me a new job.” But we don’t have God’s word in order to back us up. We have to know HIS word and ask Him according to His will. The good thing about God though is that when He speaks it becomes law and God cannot go against His own word. So all you have to do is read and understand His word and then ask Him according to His will.

[Ineffective Prayer] “Lord, bring me some money.”

[Effective Prayer] “Lord, you see our financial situation, but you always take care of us. You said in Your word Lord- that we are to be lenders and not borrowers and that we’re to be above only!”

What’s the difference in these two prayers? The second puts pressure on God because it reminds Him of His word and His promise. To some who still have religious roots they’re trying to get rid of this will sound slightly shocking… “pressure…. on God?”

God said in His word “prove me”. He is waiting for His people to realize who they are- that they are His children, and He is their Father- and a good Father always takes care of His children. Those that truly call Him Lord, do what He says. Look again at Jesus prayer- “thy will be done”. It’s not your will- it’s His will- so we need to find out what His will is and line up with it and ask according to His will. Search the scriptures and remind God of His word.

Have you ever read in the bible many times where God says “I remembered my covenant with my people“? Does God forget? Of course not- someone is praying and asking Him according to His will! God hears us when we ask according to His will. (1 John 5:14) There is a scripture for every prayer you can possibly pray- we just have to know His word and His promises and then say “Lord, this is what you said- not me.” God wants us to trust His word so much that we live and die by it and expect His word in our life to be fulfilled because He said it. We have to understand His word is law and His promises are rights!

The first amendment in the Bill of Rights of the U.S. says this
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

This is a right! We have freedom of religion and the freedom to exercise it. If we were unsure about being able to exercise our freedom- and had to ask permission to do so, and even then our request might be denied- we would not put faith in this statement. But because it’s a right we fight for it because it’s the right of every citizen of the United States to have freedom of religion and to exercise it. We don’t even question it- it belongs to us.
My question to you then is… why do we not understand the rights our God has given us in His word? Now God’s rights are unwavering, His promises never fail, What He has said He will perform! No one can have God’s rights changed in court- there is no amending His word because you don’t agree with it anymore. As a citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven you need to believe in His words and trust them- and know they are for you- for your benefit and pray according to your rights- which is His will!

I’m not supposed to be in debt, because God says in His word we’re not to be borrowers!

My status in life is not where God would have me to be because the bible says I am supposed to be above only!

I’m not supposed to be destitute because the bible says I’ve never seen the righteous forsaken!

This poverty is a curse and is not supposed to be so in God’s kingdom because He said He would have me to prosper, even as my soul prospers!

It doesn’t look like I have any choices on which way to go, but I know my God said in His word He shall supply all my need according to His riches in glory!

Get in His word, understand His word, understand His promises- your rights in His kingdom. He said them for a reason! If you don’t grab a hold of the promises God has had for you- you will be like the prodigal sons brother. He was always in the house, never left, but didn’t use what his father had for him in his kingdom. So when the prodigal son returned- the other son who stayed said “Father, I never left. Why have you not given me a robe? Why didn’t you kill the fatted calf for me? Where is my ring?” His father said “Son, you have always been with me.” What he is saying is – you had access to these things all along but never used them, never asked for them- so ‘shut-up!’ my son who was lost is home and we’re going to celebrate! Look at God’s word- let His kingdom be effective in your life!

Scripture quotations taken from the New American Standard Bible^®,
Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973,
1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation
Used by permission.” (www.Lockman.org)

The Lord’s Prayer 04

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Jul 192010

Luke 11
2) And he said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
KJV

Did you ever realize how deep this prayer was? I hope this is touching those who read to understand the concept of this model prayer taught to us by Jesus.

The next few words in this prayer are “Hallowed be thy name”. So we have established this corporate prayer, we’ve acknowledged Who we are praying to and What He is (Source and Sustainer), and where He is, Heaven.

Now this is where we usually mess up. We come into His courts and say “Gimme this, Gimme that, Gimme those, I need this, Why don’t I have that?” And God says to this…

Psalm 100:4
Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.
KJV

Where is your praise for the king? You don’t enter into a king’s court, before His throne without offering up your praise, your worship, gratitude for Who He is, and blessing Him. People in the old days bowed before king’s. They would bow and blow kisses when His chariot rode by, because they knew everything they had belonged to him. The land was his that he let them farm, the water was his that he let them drink, and everything else within the king’s borders was the sole property of the king. God is Lord (owner) over all the earth!

Psalm 24:1
The earth is the LORD’s, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.
KJV

He evens owns the people in His kingdom, and so He is responsible for them.

Listen to this very carefully…

God is not increased in stature, made God, or made King by our praise, worship or acknowledgment of Him. He is king by creation rights- He is king no matter whether we worship Him or not. Therefore praise and worship does not benefit the king… It benefits the worshiper!

When my son tells me how much He loves me, it doesn’t make me anymore his dad than if he didn’t. But, it does bring more of my attention on him. When he is good, and obedient, and listens to what I have told him- I notice it! I recognize him with my attention and affection. I want to buy him things and make him happy. We all do this. Do you buy things for your children, and give them whatever they want when they are disobedient, backtalk, don’t listen and run all over the store? NO! You get them in line… QUICK!

So it’s important to realize Who God is, and what He has done in your life. Then when you enter into His courts, into His presence, in prayer- you enter with praise and thanksgiving. This is the fastest way to get in the king’s favor. You bless Him and lift Him up! Tell Him how thankful you are and show Him how much you love Him!

I heard Myles Munroe explain a good example of this one time. He said “If I give you $100.00 and you say ‘Thank You’, so I give you another $100.00 and you say ‘Thank You’, and I give you another $100.00- what are you going to keep doing? Saying ‘Thank You’!”

Don’t enter His courts with requests and petitions of your needs without giving Him the praise, honor and glory He is worthy of! He is the King! You tell Him ‘Hallowed, Holy is Your name!’. Build Him up and get in the favor of the King!

The Lord’s Prayer 01

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Jul 142010

Luke 11
1) And it came to pass, that, as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.

Don’t read the bible too fast, otherwise you’ll miss important parts of God’s word. Look what His disciples asked Him.

‘Teach us how to pray’.

Now me personally, before learning this, I would have said “Teach me how to heal the sick, teach me how to open blinded eye, teach me how to make a pillar of fire come down from heaven, teach me how to walk on the water, teach me how to raise the dead…”

But no… they asked Him to teach them how to pray. This shows that prayer is something that needs to be taught. Do you know how to pray?

“Well, I just talk to God”

No, no, no… That’s not what Jesus taught. I will show you in the next few posts as we discuss the order of prayer. It was so important that the disciples asked Him- how to pray.

Purpose of Prayer – Lesson 1

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Jul 092010

This is message 1 of the Kingdom Study Series on Prayer. In this message we explore the question “Why do we pray?” We first have to review God’s purpose which will open up questions we have all asked our self. There is a reason for prayer… as kingdom citizens, it’s time we discover what it is. Understand the purpose of prayer, and you can finally pray with purpose.

Sacrifice

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Jun 302010

Why does every American get into the same scenario?

Mortgage they can’t afford or renting something above their means
Car payments they can barely afford
Clothes they spend twice as much on then they have to
Living paycheck to paycheck

It’s because we consume everything we get, making us what the system wants us to be which is CON-SU-MERS.
It’s time to break this cycle. It’s not God’s will for His people to be this way- it’s not kingdom.

When a person of Asian descent comes to America- they do something different. They live on nothing so they can buy and own a business. They sacrifice the things we consider necessities so they can win later. As Dave Ramsey says, ‘You have to delay gratification’.

It’s a different mentality in cultures that we have. We have to have nice clothes because everyone else does and we want to look and feel good… Now. We don’t want to be seen riding a bike to work, we need a car and we want a nice one… Now. We want to live somewhere nice even if it means being stressed about paying for it everyday when we come home.

We have things we consider “we are owed”.

“I’ve had it rough- I deserve something nice.”

So we get those things and then cannot afford them and we stress. We do this all of our lives until we get a stress related illness and wonder what happened to our dream.

Sacrifice now, Win later. And later is sooner than you think. When you start managing your finances properly, you are in right standing with the kingdom, and you begin to see more come to you. (Parable of the talents)

Destroying Evidence

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Jun 242010

Have you ever felt you were wronged by someone in a way that it came against your character?
Ever felt like you were trying to prove who you were? And just when you did- someone tries to destroy the very thing that finally displayed beyond a shadow of a doubt you are who you say you are.

Well, I have good news for you, so did Jesus. I want you to take a look at this verse.

John 12
9) Much people of the Jews therefore knew that he was there: and they came not for Jesus’ sake only, but that they might see Lazarus also, whom he had raised from the dead.

10) But the chief priests consulted that they might put Lazarus also to death;

11) Because that by reason of him many of the Jews went away, and believed on Jesus.

Wow! What a revelation this can be in our own life. Someone is going to read this next part and be uplifted and encouraged.

You may have had people come against you in the past, but don’t worry so did Jesus. These things must happen- because remember He said “No servant is greater than his master, they persecuted Me, they will persecute you”. The pharisees spent so much time trying to disprove who Jesus was- because they didn’t want to acknowledge Him. They even went as far as trying to destroy the very thing that proved He was who He said He was.
In law this would be called ‘destroying evidence’. When you are leading, when you are triumphing in life, when favor is upon you- people will come against you because you’re rising- don’t be surprised when this happens, in fact expect it. People will try to destroy the evidence of your calling… of your work.

They may even be the ones you wouldn’t expect. They may dress the part, have the robes, hold the office, have the title- but their deeds are not kingdom intent. The pharisees were more worried about losing “members’ than pleasing God. Members and worship of the letter of the law was all they had. Jesus came to fulfill the spirit of the law and brought what they couldn’t… results. So they consulted to destroy the evidence.

Do not fear what man can do to you though. They can only- HEAR ME! – They can ONLY do what is allowed for them to do by our God in heaven. We have nothing to prove. The evidence of our lives will speak volumes.

I love this kingdom!

If It Was Easy

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Jun 162010

If the things worth achieving were easy they would already be done. This also goes with the phrase ‘Nothing worth having is free’.

I heard Dave Ramsey answer a question about why he charges for his Financial Peace University DVD set once. He said (paraphrase) ‘That you don’t hold value in things that you get for free, but if you have to sacrifice money then you want to make sure you get your money out of it.’

This is so true! Anything worth having has a cost associated with it. Electricity is nice to have and has a cost. A good job has the cost of hard work. A good relationship has the investment of time in it. Vegetables and fruit have the cost of sweat and labor. Sweet victories have the cost of trials and battles. Everything has a cost.

There are some who define themselves as a Christian… but they show no sign of the cost of their old ways. They haven’t sacrificed the pleasure of getting high, they haven’t kept themselves from their lusts, they haven’t forgiven those who have offended them- they continue to hate. We cover these issues up and don’t deal with it by calling a lot of it… human nature. We say things like “Well the Lord knows you need a little break sometimes.” What?!?

Isn’t it funny how we try to associate the Lord with many of our pagan activities. We preach a God of only love, peace, and understanding. We speak about Him this way as to assume He is OK with the breaking of His law. You catch that? H-I-S LAW.

OK- look at this. Many times when we start reading these types of paragraphs, like above, our mind starts racing for a scripture to defend our life. We’ll remember that one scripture but will not study the whole law. Could you be an effective lawyer if you only knew one article of law? You would be clueless the first time the other lawyer says “I object your honor!”. You would think ‘Why? How can he object, this law says this…’
But you see, you only studied that one little article of many articles of that one subsection of many subsections of one section of many sections. How can you be effective with your one article.

How could God be less thorough than man?

The awesome thing about God’s word though is it is easier to understand than man’s laws. You don’t have to pass a bar exam or go to some high end college to understand His law- in order to have it be effective in life every time for you! He has designed it with such complexity where it covers every single area of life- but so simple because He wants everyone to know His word and understand it. The wonderful thing is all you have to do is read and obey it. The sad thing is we won’t read it.

His law are instructions for life.

Instructions come with new devices not to make you’re life hard but so that you can get the full use of the device and not destroy it by using it in a way it was not meant. Would you buy an iPOD and go swimming while listening to it? No, why? Because you know it was not made to be submersed underwater and will short circuit the device and will not function. You have that knowledge so you act accordingly. Your body was made to take in food, water, and oxygen- but we neglect the natural and put drugs, high fat content foods, and nicotine in our bodies. Then we wonder why do I have high blood pressure, bad health, clogged arteries, and failing lungs. We have violated the natural laws of our bodies. We violate God’s law when we don’t obey it, regardless it we know it, and wonder why we’re not getting results.

Law determines everything in life. It’s not always easy to follow law but remember God is the designer and He gives us law, not to make it hard, but for our good. It will bring us the best results and we’ll get the full and correct use out of our life, our purpose. It’s not always easy quitting smoking, giving up those fatty foods all the time, or sustaining ourselves from unrighteous desires- but it will bring about rewards that are worth it. The lessons Dave Ramsey teaches has a reward of getting your financial life in order, which is also a kingdom law. Giving up cigarettes has the reward of healthy lungs and heart. Giving up those high content sugary foods will increase your energy when substituted with fruit. It’s a law that is in place! If it was easy everyone would do it!

So get in line with God’s word, study it, understand it. We get in line with His law and it works, not the other way around.

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