"It Is War"

"...a time of war..." Ecclesiastes 3:8

I think that many times we forget that we are involved in a "spiritual" war. For many of you that is what is going on in your life at this moment. You have been feeling pressed on every side. Things are not going right. Your mind is constantly bombarded with thoughts it should not be thinking. Your home is in a state of uproar. You're having problems on your job. You are going through difficulties. You are being easily offended. You are depressed, anxious, discouraged even to the point where you feel like "throwing in the towel". There is confusion and distraction. You don't know why this is happening. You can't figure it out or put your finger on the source. Let me put my finger on it-- it is "spiritual warfare".

 

Life as a Christian is not just a life of blessings. You have a very real enemy who is not happy that you are living for the Lord, and he is out to destroy you. He has schemes, plans, devices and weapons that he uses to wage war against your soul. He has you in his "cross hairs" with one goal in mind-- to kill you. 

 

When you look at the life of Job, who came after him to attack him? The devil. Job was attacked in his prosperity and material possessions. He was attacked in his health. He was attacked through his emotions, his feelings, in his mind, through his spouse, through his friends and in every way from every side. Job was in spiritual warfare. Don't forget that you are in a battle. Don't lose focus that there is a real enemy out there wanting to destroy you. Don't just think this is a natural occurrence. It is spiritual. 

 

Stop whining, crying and bemoaning your situation. Stop rolling over and "playing dead". Stop fearing the enemy. Don't just sit back with the attitude "Que Sera Sera (Whatever will be will be)". Fight back. Get up and fight the good fight of faith. Get up and fight the enemy (remember the enemy is NOT flesh and blood). Use the mighty weapons that God has given you- put on the full armor of God. Bring those raging thoughts captive. Pull out the sword of the Spirit (God's word- the scriptures). Pray in the Spirit. Put on the garment of praise and break the enemy's hold on your emotions. We tend to focus on the fact that we are heirs and joint-heirs, accepted in the beloved, blessed of the Lord, blessed with all spiritual blessings, children of God-- we focus on all the "good and pleasant" things. But we forget that we are also mighty warriors dressed for battle. We are soldiers in the Lord's army. We take the Kingdom by force. And as we do, we are more than conquerors. We are victorious. We have power over all the powers of the enemy. We are over-comers. We win! Job was victorious in his spiritual battle. Why? "For I know that my redeemer liveth. Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold." (Job 19:25,27) He kept his focus on the Lord. It did get hard, and he did wonder why, and he did suffer, but he trusted God would be with him and see him through to the very end. Know that the Lord is with you in your battle, and He has given you the victory through His Son Jesus. 

 

Have a great day. Have you forgotten that we are in "spiritual warfare" and much of what is happening to you is an attack of the enemy? Get up and do battle. 

 

For further reading:

John 10:10

Ephesians 6

"Interpreting God's Plan"

"And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it his brethren, and said, Behold, I have dreamed a dream more; and, behold, the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance to me." Genesis 37:9 

The dreams that Joseph had were a vision of God's destiny and plan for his life. The dreams of the wheat, sun and moon bowing down before him represented that he would be in some sort of authority. I wonder if when he had them, he automatically thought-- "in fourteen plus years I am going to be a ruler in Egypt, second in command, next to Pharaoh. I am going to rule the entire nation, and everyone will have to answer for me." I really don't think that was what he thought. He probably did ponder it and try to figure it out-- just like we do when the Lord speaks to us or shows us something about our lives. His "interpretation" of the dreams, I am sure, was definitely not what God's interpretation was. Joseph's interpretation probably centered around his homeland, his father, blessings, etc. Never in his wildest imagination would he ever have thought he would wind up where he did. 

 

When God reveals something to us, it usually doesn't mean what we think it means. We usually have one interpretation and God has another. What God says He is going to do through our lives doesn't always mean He is going to do it the way we think. And it doesn't always mean what we think it means. Paul knew he was going to stand before kings and preach the gospel, but at first he probably didn't realize it would be in chains. Years ago, the Lord let me know that this ministry would be "world-wide". I thought that meant that He was going to send me physically around the world. Several years later He showed me that it is a "world-wide" ministry through the Coffee Break and Internet. I have been contacted by people from all over the world that receive the devotional. (So daily I get to "preach" to the nations.) 

 

So, when God gives us a glimpse (like He did Joseph) into His plan for us, we don't need to try to figure out what He means, and how He means it. We don't need to have any preconceived ideas about it. We just need to trust Him and let Him unfold His plan before us and bring to pass what He intends. 

 

Have a great day. When God shows us something about His plan for our lives, don't try to figure it out, don't have any preconceived ideas about what it means, because usually we are wrong, and it doesn't mean what we think it means. 

 

For further reading:

Genesis 37:1-10

 

"Preaching Jesus"

"For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake." 2 Corinthians 4:5 

The majority of the book of Acts is about Paul the Apostle's journeys preaching the gospel. As you look at the life and ministry of Paul you see he had one message--- Jesus. Yes, he taught the believers how they should live but his main theme was always Jesus.

 

What is the church preaching today? Are we preaching Jesus? For the most part-- especially in the church in America-- we are preaching a lot of other things. We preach about our plans, our programs, our churches, our visions, ourselves, money and politics. But where is the preaching about Jesus? 

 

Jesus is the central theme of the whole Bible. God Himself preached the first message about Jesus in the very beginning in Genesis. "And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." (Genesis 3:15) From Genesis to Revelations Jesus is there. All the prophets preached through prophecy Jesus. The early church, the apostles, the disciples, they all preached Jesus.

 

What are you preaching? Pastors, teachers and ministers, what are you preaching from the pulpit? Don't think the rest of us are exempt from that question. You may not be called to preach the gospel through an office (Ephesians 4:11-12) in the body of Christ, but you are called to "preach the gospel" (share the good news) where you are. So what are you preaching in your conversations? What are you preaching to the strangers on the street? Is Jesus what you talk about? Or do you talk about everything else but Him? Are you lifting up Jesus to others? That is the preaching of the gospel--- Jesus.

 

Have a great day. If we aren't preaching Jesus, then we don't have a message. 

 

For further reading:

1 Corinthians 1:18,23

"Great Praise"

"Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain of his holiness." Psalm 48:1

God is great, so our praise to Him should be in proportion to His greatness. God is great; therefore, He deserves great honor; He deserves great praise; He deserves great worship. We worship Him in proportion to who He is--- great! So, God is worthy of not just praise, but great praise. He is worthy of our praise in every way, with all we have and on every level. 

 

There are seven Hebrew words for praise:

1) Shabach: to shout, to address in a loud tone.

2) Towdah: an extension of the hand in adoration.

3) Yadah: to worship with extended hand.

4) Halal: to boast, show, to rave, celebrate, to be clamorously foolish.

5) Barak: to kneel down, to bless God as an act of adoration.

6) Zamar: praise with musical instruments.

7) Tehillah: to sing in adoration.

 

Great praise, to this Great God, shouts to Him with the voice of triumph and is not afraid to let His greatness be known. Great praise lifts up its hands in surrender and adoration. Great praise does not mind getting "beside" itself and dancing before the Lord like David did. Great praise celebrates God's greatness. Great praise kneels and bows down humbling itself before the Lord acknowledging how great He is. Great praise praises Him with musical instruments and singing. 

 

Great praise, to this God Who is great, involves our whole being and not withholding anything from Him-- shouting with our voice, kneeling with our knees, lifting up our hands, dancing around on our legs, using our fingers to play instruments, and using our breath to sing unto Him. What kind of praise are you giving to this great God?

 

Have a great day. Our praise to God should be in proportion to who He is-- great!

 

For further reading:

Psalm 95:6; 21:13; 22:3; 47:1; 63:1; 149:3

"Don't Spend It All"

"Much food is in the tillage of the poor: but there is that is destroyed for want of judgment." Proverbs 13:23 

I recently went to the market to purchase a bag of peanuts. I wanted to get the jumbo size but was told that they would no longer be getting that size because the farmers are not selling them any more this year. They are putting them back for seed for next year. This is a wise move on the farmer's part. Although they could sell those peanuts now and get the extra money for them, they made the choice to save them.

 

The Proverbs addressed this very thing in the verse above. Sometimes we complain about not having enough but the truth is it is not because the Lord hasn't blessed us, most the time it is because of what we do with it. Often, we use poor management with what we get--- we want to spend it all now with no foresight. Those peanut farmers had the foresight to know that if they were still here next year, they would need seed to plant another crop, so they saved them in order to get more later instead of a little now. We don't use good judgment at times-- we want to spend it on needless things that have no value. 

 

Let me give you an example of this. Many years ago, my husband worked offshore. I will never forget this one guy he worked with and his wife. As soon as they got his paycheck they would go to town and spend every bit of it on needless things. (They would spend it all and have nothing to show for it.) The next day they would be crying and worrying about how they were going to pay their rent, car note, utility bills and buy groceries. The man made a good amount of money, but one day after he was paid it was all gone and nothing important was paid. 

 

What are you doing with the material things that God has blessed you with? Are you being a good steward with it? Are you making wise choices? Are you managing it well? Are you using good judgment? Are you thinking ahead? Or does it (like my mama used to say) "burn a hole in your pocket"? I know that often what we do have may not be much, but if we will use good judgment and take care of it properly, we will have more than we realize.

 

Have a great day. Don't spend all you have without any thought to tomorrow.

 

For further reading:

Proverbs 6:6-8