"The Virtue's Still Here"

"And Jesus, immediately knowing in himself that virtue had gone out of him, turned him about in the press, and said, Who touched my clothes?"  Mark 5:30

When the woman who had an issue of blood reached Jesus and touched the hem of His garment, He recognized that virtue had gone out of Him.  That virtue healed the woman and gave her her miracle. 

The word virtue in the original language means:  strength power, ability; inherent power, power residing in a thing by virtue of its nature, or which a person or thing exerts and puts forth; power for performing miracles.

I am here to tell you this morning that when this woman touched Him, she did not exhaust His virtue.  When His power for healing, deliverance and a miracle flowed into her, that was not the last of it.  She did not use it up.  She did not use up one of His resources and then it was gone.  He is the resource!  He is the Power!  It all flows from Who He is, not What He has.  Therefore, it can't be used up!

Rejoice this morning because that same virtue that healed the woman of her issue, the same virtue that opened blinded eyes, that same virtue that healed the sick, raised the dead, cast out devils, set captives free, opened prison doors to those who were bond, put money in the fish's mouth, turned water into wine and saves the soul of lost mankind, is still flowing, unexhausted and powerful today. 

Do you need His virtue to touch your life?  There is still plenty of it and it is available for you.

Have a great day.  The virtue of Jesus has not been and never can be exhausted!  

"Open The Door"

"If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? And if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.”  Genesis 4:7

"Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.'  Revelation 3:20
In order for anything to gain entrance into our lives, there has to be an opening.  There is, it is called a "door".  There are two things that desire access.  One is sin and the other is not a thing but a person, Jesus Christ.  Though they both desire access, there is a difference in the way they gain that access.  

Sin crouches at the door waiting for any opportunity to weasel, deceive, slip, push, barge or squeeze its way in.  Sin came into our lives originally through deception and disobedience in the Garden of Eden.  It still tries to enter the same way.  It desires access so that it can destroy you through guilt and condemnation.  Its desire to enter is never for a good purpose but to steal and to kill and to destroy you.  It comes in and takes its liberty until it abuses and uses you up.

Jesus, on the other hand, knocks at the door.  He patiently waits for you to open the door and receive Him as a welcomed guest.  He waits for you to invite Him in.  His desire for access is so that He can lavish His love on you.  His desire is always for a good purpose.  It is so that He can bless you with eternal life, spiritual blessings, every good and perfect gift, peace, joy, wisdom and everything else that tends to life and godliness. 

The question then is-- who will you open the door of your life to?  Will you allow sin to enter uninvited?  If you do, it will set up residency there before you even realize it and take over to do its destructive work, reeking havoc of your life.  Or will you open the door to Jesus' loving, patient knocks?  If you do, He will set up residency and as a welcomed guest bring healing and restoration into your life.  Once He is a permanent residence, there will be no place for sin and Him both.  He will give you strength and power to keep the door closed to sin, and victory over it so that it cannot gain access again. 

Have a great.  Sin and Jesus both desire access into your life.  Which one will you open the door to?        

"It Is A Time..."

"To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven."  Ecclesiastes 3:1

When you face troubles, problems, hardships, heartaches, trials, tribulations and difficulties, how do you see them?  A phrase came to me that encompasses how we handle them.  The phrase-- it is a time.  See these as a time in your life for one of two things to happen.   

When these times happen, it is a time for you to draw near to God or a time for you to distance yourself from Him.  It is a time for you to learn a great spiritual lesson through it or it is a time for you to quit and give up.  It is a time for you to be strengthened in your faith or get weary and not press forward.  It is a time for you to seek the Lord or a time to walk away from following Him.  It is a time for you to grow in grace and knowledge or a time to complain and stop growing.  It is a time for you to get revelation of His ways and acts or get discouraged and go in the opposite direction.  It is a time for you to walk by faith or a time for you to walk by sight.  It is a time for you to trust Him in spite of it all or a time for you to accuse Him.  It is a time for you to lean to your own understanding or a time for you to acknowledge Him and get His understanding.  It is a time for you to surrender to His will or a time for you to turn to your own will.  

During these times, you have a choice to do one of two things.  You will either make what you are going through a time to get closer, go higher, get stronger, gain more, overcome and be victorious in the Lord, or you can choose to make it a time to walk in defeat, confusion, discouragement and give up.  Which will it be?

Have a great day.  When the trying times of life come, what kind of time will you choose to make it?    

"Open The Gate"

"Open to me the gates of righteousness:  I will go into them, and I will praise the Lord."  Psalm 118:19

How are the gates of righteousness opened?  Are they opened by our own righteousness?  No, our righteousness is as filthy rags.  Are they opened by our good works?  No, it is not by righteous deeds that we do.  They are only opened to us by Christ Jesus' righteousness.  They are opened to us by and because of what He did for us at the cross.  He is the only One who holds the key to open the gate.

Gates are meant to keep someone or something out.  These gates kept us from the presence of God.  We were unable to come to Him.  No matter how hard we tried, no matter how good we were, no matter how much we may have wanted to enter, access to us was denied. 

The gate to keep us out was not God's will or plan.  It was our sins that caused it.  But because of His great love and mercy for us, He made a way to open the gate.  That way was through Jesus Christ.  He is the Way.  Before Him and without Him there is no other way. 

Are you on the outside of the gate because of your sins?  Are you trying to get through the gate by your good deeds?  Are you attempting to climb over the gate in some way?  The gate has to be opened by a key.  That key is available.  Jesus not only holds the key, He is the key.  Come to Him in repentance and the gates of righteousness will be opened to you.  Then you can go in.

Have a great day.  In order to get through the gates of righteousness, you have to have a key.  Jesus has the key.  Go to Him and He'll let you in.

For further reading:
Isaiah 64:6
Titus 3:5
Revelation 1:18; 3:7

"Infestation"

"Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God."  2 Corinthians 7:1

I had a dream a while back about two things-- twigs and roaches.  When I woke up, the thought came to me that I was "cleaning" up some things.  The part of the dream with the roaches was more pronounced. 

As I prayed about it this morning, I believe I am supposed to share it with you because the dream was not just for me personally.  In the dream there were an innumerable number of roaches.  A few cockroaches but mostly small to mid-size ones.  They were everywhere.  I was having to fight to keep some of them from getting on me.  I decided I needed to try to get rid of them.  I got the roach spray and began to spray.  To my surprise it worked.  They didn't just drop dead; they began to vanish until there were none left.

What the Lord gave me to share from this dream was this:  These roaches represented things that contaminate our hearts and minds and distract us.  They can be pet sins, evil thoughts, wrong thinking, lusts, materialism, the cares of this life, pain, wounds in our hearts, fear, mistakes from the past that try to haunt us, or any number of other things.   We must keep ourselves clean of all those things that would contaminate our flesh and spirit and distract us.  If we don't, they will continue to grow and multiply in our lives until they overcome us. 

How do we overcome them?  How do we destroy them?  The solution is easier than we think-- just like in my dream.  You bring your thoughts toward them into subjection to God's Word.  You use the Word of God against them.  When temptation comes, quote the Word and then do what it says.  When fear comes, quote the Word and resist it.  When the cares of this life get more than you can bear, look to the Word and find peace and rest in it.  If you don't use the Word (like I used the bug spray in my dream), you will wind up with an "infestation".  But if you take action and use the Word instead of just watching them, accepting them and being overwhelmed by them, you will see them stop multiplying and vanish.

Have a great day.  If you don't take care of those small things that contaminate your flesh and spirit, you will wind up with an infestation of them.