'When and Then'....

War Cry of Israel

But Jeroboam had set an ambush to come from the rear, so that Israel was in front of Judah and the ambush was behind them. When Judah turned around, behold, they were attacked both front and rear; so they cried to the Lord, and the priests blew the trumpets. Then the men of Judah raised a war cry, and when the men of Judah raised the war cry, then it was that God routed Jeroboam and all Israel 2 Chronicles 13:13-15

Brothers and Sisters take up your position of Victory… on your knees!!

‘When’ Israel gave their war cry (for they were in desperate straits) it was ‘then’ God intervened. I feel it is time we fall on our knees and give a war cry that will be heard around the world and to the highest heavens? A war cry that is more than a shout to rally troops for battle, but one that catches the ear of our Warrior-Savior? 

When we cry out from the depths of our soul, to our King and Dread Warrior, Jesus Christ, then He will rout our enemy.

Do we not all have family members moving in their own strength and plans, even in rebellion? Are we utilizing the gift of prayer that God has provided to accomplish His will and purpose, and as that which moves the hand of God to do what only He can do? 

Prayer is the most work we will ever attend to. It is exhausting, effective, and a life-changing war cry that moves God's hand and also hears our smallest faith-cry.

God uses the prayer of faith:

to close doors and open them,

to move mountains and cast them into the sea,

to change minds, heal, prepare hearts, give rest,

to indenture our wills and  teach us to listen,

to shape and change us,

to enable us to draw near,

to draw us to Christ and His cleansing blood,

to deliver us from evil and addiction,

to free us to be all He saved us to be,

to intercede for others,

to bring God’s power to bear on a situation and accomplish His will!

to strengthen us to stand strong in the LORD and in the power of His might

to deliver us from our flesh and our well-loved sins

When we know God uses prayer so implicitly and powerfully, why are we careless with such a gift? Is it our unbelief or laziness? We are called to pray in faith… Faith and evidence must rest on facts of the Word of God.

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Hebrews 11:1

Faith is not a force we exercise or a striving to believe that something shall be, thinking that if we believe hard enough it will come to pass.  ARH

Those who take up the false teaching that believing hard enough requires God to respond in the way they think is right, end up with the perspective of making the Christian life about them. Believing hard enough does not obligate God to answer any prayer, let alone prayer under such unbelief and pride. It is pure presumption when, in our false wisdom, we pray our opinion from our miniscule understanding and pride! We carry an unwarranted certainty that we know best.

I have witnessed those who are offended with God and how He answered earnest prayer. They have not yet learned His Sovereignty nor trusted He is all-wise and good.

God wants to hear our faith cry. He calls us to be intercessors. He delights to increase our faith because faith is dependence on God. Here is a quote I have shared before:

God-dependence only begins when self-dependence ends. And self-dependence only comes to its end, with some of us, when sorrow, suffering, affliction, broken plans and hopes bring us to that place of self-helplessness and defeat. And only then do we find that we have learned the lesson of faith; to find life rushing onward to a blessed victory of life and power and service undreamt of in the days of fleshly strength and self-reliance. JM

I cannot share it more directly than this statement: … prayer should not be so much for this or that gift, or this or that result, as for Christ Himself to be manifest to us and through us. WFE

Doesn’t that impel you to shout AMEN!!! ?

Father, You who love us more than we are capable of understanding, thank You for teaching us the hard lessons of faith and prayer. Raise us up to walk by faith in ways that bring You glory. We are slow to learn and I bow and thank You for being abundantly patient and compassionate. Everything about You is hard to comprehend. We so often read Your word without really thinking about what we are reading. Establish Your word to us as that which produces reverence for You. Teach us to pray Your word. Fill us with faith to trust You implicitly. Your word is Your greatest gift to Your children, thank You. Your word lives and Your grace is more than enough. Remove the presumption from our imperfect prayers and reveal to us when we are making things about us. We take up our war-cry for our families asking You to move in ways beyond all we could think to ask. We bow and bless Your Holy Name now and forever. 

Praying for all of you who come to Dove's Eye,

 az

 
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Appropriation

Whom have I in heaven but You?

And besides You, I desire nothing on earth. Psalm 73:25

Precious Ones, who love the Lord,

Last week I shared about God being our Shield and what this icon reveals about who Jesus is and that His plan is for you to know Him personally as He deals very personally in your life.

As I am reading God’s word, the vowels always seem to jump out, waving their arms like a pinwheel and shouting, “Pay attention to me”!  In the Ephesians 6:10-18 passage there are many vowels. This is one of the key passages in scripture teaching us spiritual warfare, and what is expected of us in detailed instructions. Ephesians is rich with Truth in the first chapters before He even gets to the specifics in chapter 6. How can we appropriate these truths?

What are we able to trust Him for? What must we appropriate?

appropriate: To take possession of or make use of exclusively for oneself

To appropriate does not necessarily mean to gain something new but to set aside for our practical possession something that already belongs to us. In order to appropriate, for our daily walk, what is ours in Christ, there are two facets that are essential.

One: to see what is already ours in Christ

Two: we must be aware of our ‘need’ for it

W. R. Newell wrote: Paul does not ask a thing of the saints in the first three chapters of Ephesians but just listen while he proclaims that wondrous series of great and eternal FACTS concerning them; and not until he has completed this catalogue of realities about them does he ask them to do anything at all!

Once we see what is ours in Christ Jesus, our practical need will cause us to hunger for more, to appropriate Christ’s supply for our need. When you think about our life here on earth, it is set up so we will continuously be discovering our ‘need’ of Christ, from morning to night! Every time our back is against the wall and our need presses and crushes, we discover more of our helplessness.  Our inability to live the Christian life by our own mega efforts, forces us to acknowledge we cannot produce wisdom or strength or love or anything else required! It is then we hunger for the inflow of His supply and are ready to turn to Him. As He meets our need we prove His sufficiency, there is a new showing forth of His glory through us.

The reality is that seeing and needing free us from childish efforts to accomplish in our own strength what God has already provided, into a responsible walk of faith. Ms (paraphrase)

 Only what is of faith is pleasing to Him. Faith takes us from a ‘help me’ attitude to that of giving thanks for what He has already done and readily provides; from begging to appropriating. We continue to ask God to bless us in this and bless us in that when it is already done. He has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in Christ!

(In Christ) His grace is sufficient. A truth to appropriate daily. Life is difficult and when trouble hits God may feel far away as though He has left us to face things alone. He has better things to do than bother with us. The enemy comes in like a flood and we are told in Ephesians 6:10-18 how to meet that rush by satan to undo us. In our very trouble, no matter the source, it is time to stand strong in faith and live our songs. See it as an opportunity to prove His faithfulness and bring Him glory.

So far so good. The believer sees what he possesses in Christ, and the need enables him to reach out and confidently appropriate and accept His provision for the need. It must be based on clear cut scriptural Truth. Now comes the critical phase, the key to it all. In most instances of appropriation there is a waiting period between the acceptance and the receiving- often of years. Our responsibility is to patiently wait on Him during the time necessary for Him to work into our character, our life, that which we have appropriated in Christ. mjs

We must be rooted.

A farmer planted an orchard along the borders of his field and along the mountain stream, on the other side. They grew, finally bearing fruit. He gathered some of the harvest, along the field orchard, to taste its fruit, but quickly spit it out, as it was inedible and bitter. He then picked fruit from the orchard by the mountain stream. It’s fruit was sweet and delicious. He reasoned that the fruit was affected by the nutrition of the root.

We must be rooted in the Spirit to appropriate His provision. For a life rooted in self is like being planted in a poor, rocky soil lacking nutrition. It will produce bitterness, immorality, strife, and a wasted life.

“A good tree can’t produce bad fruit, and a bad tree can’t produce good fruit.” Luke 6:43

‘The Lord is looking for a man weak enough to use and He found me.’ Hudson Taylor

‘We may easily be to big for God to use, but never too small.’ DL Moody

‘It is not about what we do for Christ, not even a passion for souls, it is about a passion for Him, for Jesus Himself. Nothing, nothing, nothing, can take the place of loving Him, seeking Him, adoring Him, obeying Him, and spending time pursuing Him out of love. I just want to kneel and drink in His Presence, His sweetness and purity and love.

You LORD are Jehovah Jira my Provider. You have not forgotten I am needy and hopeless without Your continuous loving watch-care over me.  Thank You for every failure, sorrow, affliction, disappointment, and every broken plan and dashed hope that brings me to helplessness and the end of trusting myself. There is nothing but goodness in You and I am reminded You wrap every trial in Your loving kindness. I am blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ. Teach me  LORD to appropriate all You have provided in Your plan for me. It is true, You are good, Lord, all the time. I love You Abba, my Abba.

az

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Shielded by our Dread Warrior!

I love you, Lord; you are my strength. The Lord is my Rock, my Fortress, and my Savior; my God is my Rock, in whom I find protection. He is my Shield, the power that saves me, and my place of safety. Psalm 18:1-2

Brother and Sister Warriors,

Shields. Shields have been continually in my thoughts. What comes to your mind when you think of shields? War? Battles? Protection? Weapons? Our dread Warrior?

This is so powerful! Our God reveals Himself as a shield. Our shield.

Doesn’t it make you want to fall on your knees and worship? This reveals just how personal God is. His faithfulness is our shield. Look at these two scriptures!

He will cover you with his feathers, and under His wings you will find refuge; His faithfulness will be your shield. Psalm 91:4

The Lord your God is in your midst a victorious warrior. He will exult over you with joy, He will be quiet in His love, He will rejoice over you with shouts of joy. Zeph 3:17

Someone shout ‘Amen and Hallelujah!” Is this not powerful? It moves me to tears. Hang on there is more…

He is the shield of our help and the sword of our majesty so that our enemies will cringe before us. Deut 33:29b

 But the Lord is with me like a dread champion; therefore my persecutors will stumble and not prevail. Jeremiah 20:11

Ancient battles and skirmishes were fought with different shields. For skirmishes and close combat the smaller shield was used. The major battles were fought with a curved shield that protected the whole body.

Why did our God feel it was necessary to be a shield and also in Ephesians provide a shield? What is He shielding us from? A more relevant question for us personally may be, ‘’do I understand why I have a shield’ and ‘am I using the shield God has provided?’

He provided more than a shield, He provided the whole armor of God for us to wear daily, that we might stand strong in the LORD and in the power of His might. Why do we need to stand strong? Because this is WAR! Within these words, in Ephesians, are the principles for the Christian walk, and how we should stand during trials and troubles that attack us from the enemies camp. Never think the ‘basics’ are too basic for you and therefore unimportant. Without the basics we will not be able to apply advanced principles. We will always need to use these fundamentals, because all things are related to the spirit world. They are the key to standing strong in the LORD and in the power of His might.

Taken from Ephesians 6:10-18

 Girdle of Truth: I put on girdle of Truth. Give me Divine wisdom, knowledge and discernment, to detect the devil at work with his lies and secret workings.

Breastplate of Righteousness: I put on the breastplate of Righteousness, Jesus own righteousness. Thank You for the cleansing blood of Christ. I refuse to own the devil’s accusations for my sin and failure. I am forgiven and forgive those who sin against me.

Shield of Faith:  Above all I take the Shield of faith whereby I can quench all the fiery darts of the wicked that are hurls at me. By faith I will stand, knowing this pleases you. I’m saved and healed by faith. I walk by faith, and I’ll die by faith. I choose to trust You regardless of how I ‘feel’, for I live by faith, not by feelings.

Helmet of Salvation:  I put on the helmet of Salvation. My mind is under the protection of your blood shed at Calvary. I have the mind of Christ. I recognize the enemies thoughts and cast them down for the evil they are and take captive every thought to the obedience of Jesus Christ as I direct my thoughts to the victory that is in the Lord Jesus Christ. Let me not forget ‘the battle is the LORD’s!’

Sword of the Spirit:  Finally I take the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God. Your word is true and is a lamp to my feet and light to my path. Help me stand in the Victory You have won, LORD, for ‘the battle is the Yours!’ I am

not in self-effort to try and produce it, but I am to receive  from You, the victory already won.

Think of all a shield represents. God’s favor is like a shield surrounding us. He alone has power to deliver, encourage, rescue and give favor with others. He shields us in ways that only heaven will reveal. His shield affirms His love for us in an amazingly creative way. He can open doors that no one can close. Let the truth of His being your shield, amaze you.

Our soul waits for the LORD; He is our help and our shield. For our heart rejoices in Him, because we trust in His Holy name. Psalm 33:20-21

Jesus shielded us from eternity in HELL. He paid our sin-debt in full.

My feet are dancing!!

“Many [Western Christians] habitually think and act as if there is no eternity. . . . We major in the momentary and minor in the momentous.”  Randy Alcorn

Abba, my Shield and Defender, how great You are! You who watch over me in loving kindness and discipline me in love… thank you. Thank You for being a Shield to me and for providing a ‘shield of faith’ for me to take up and wield. It is overpowering at times, to have You delight in me and to be loved so fiercely. By the Creator God who spoke billions of galaxies into being. Blessed be Your holy name.

In His love we are shielded and with our shield we will stand strong,

 az

 
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LORD, What Do You Want Me To Do?

Now that we have been put right with God through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. He has brought us by faith into this experience of God's grace, in which we now live. And so we boast of the hope we have of sharing God's glory!  We also boast of our troubles, because we know that trouble produces endurance, endurance brings God's approval, and His approval creates hope. Romans 5:1-4

Brothers, Sisters, you who endure….

A minute, an hour, a day, a year, even 50 years… I am to endure! Yes, I am to endure even that which I feel I have endured too long already! One of the most difficult aspects of enduring makes it self known, when my taxing circumstances, remain endlessly the same. Despite all my prayer and fasting, and my desire to please God, how easily I find myself pouring out the words, “LORD, help, I don’t know what to do!” Is it possible His answer is, “My precious daughter (son) I do not want you to do anything. I want you to ‘BE’.

Delayed answers to prayer are not only trials of faith, but confidence in Him under apparent repulses.---“ Charles H. Spurgeon

Are my emotions mucking up my desires? Have I convinced myself I want God’s will, when the sad truth is I actually want my own way? For months now and not infrequently, I have heard Him whisper two words in response to my plea: ‘TRUST ME.’

“Trust Me” and BE filled with faith.

“Trust Me” and BE filled with peace.

“Trust Me” and BE filled with rest.

“Trust Me” and BE filled with My Holy Spirit.

“Trust Me” and BE fruitful for my glory.

You have probably heard said, “We are human beings not human doings. Would anyone define us as such if they were taking account of our daily living? Far more often we are so busy ‘doing’ we are not being. What ever is done in our own strength and wisdom is not eternal- because it is all about us.

God understands our struggles!  Our Father allows us to be independent until by that means we cone to know our own weakness and need. The very essence of the condition of a soul in a right state is conscious dependence. Two things must be realized to be in right relationship with God. The first being a deep awareness that self-confidence is the height of presumption and we must acknowledge our absolute need for God ‘s cleansing and of His filling of our being, by His Holy Spirit.  For we know we cannot do one thing, for one second without Him. Secondly we must believe the love and acceptance God has for us, in His Son Jesus Christ. He is for us!

What a glorious God we serve. Troubles are not eternal and will pass and we will be with the LORD forever, in His glorious forever.

Father, You who understands every struggle and catches every tear... You give hope and life and by Your strength I stand and endure. Nothing is wasted that I entrust to You. Thank You. It is You I long for and desire to be with. I ask You to keep me faithful for Your glory. I pray in the Name that will cause every knee to bow and every tongue confess that You are LORD to the glory of God. amen

You are prayed for dear ones,

az

Persevere:  continue in a course of action even in the face of difficulty or with little or no prospect of success  

Endure:  suffer (something painful or difficult) patiently

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LORD,

Riches of His Word... immeasurable!

For the Lord God is a sun and shield; The Lord gives grace and glory;
No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly. Psalm 84:11

Brothers and Sisters blessed in the LORD,

We serve a God who is good, period. Always. There is no unrighteousness in Him. Everything He does springs forth from His goodness. He cannot be anything other than good. God’s goodness alone should cause us to bless the LORD. Many testimonies are spoken about God’s goodness in relation to how He answered their prayers. Often His goodness is related to timing of something requested.

A person who receives a ‘no’ from God often makes a personal journey that takes him through doubt, as he questions God’s goodness and wrestles with fear, while learning to walk by faith and not live by feelings. If in earnest he continues to choose to trust God, even when it doesn‘t make sense to him, he will again arrive, stronger than ever, at the assurance that God is good. Just as David reveals his faith struggles in the Psalms, so will all with authentic faith make their own journey, arriving at truth of God’s goodness unrelated to what they previously decided defined that goodness.

Faith is not the direct result of answered prayer it is the fruit of the power of God’s word. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Romans 10:17

I remember many years ago the verse in Psalm 84 being applied in my life to hopefully attain what I decided was good. Some pray for a husband and have decided this alone is good. But God may have called them to singleness and all that is a precious part of being ‘wed’ to the heavenly Father, in a holiness others cannot understand. Why do we think we should tell God how and when to answer our prayers?

 In Psalm 103 David starts with a heart overflowing with praise. He reminds himself of God’s goodness to him.

 Bless the Lord, O my soul,
And all that is within me, bless His holy name.
Bless the Lord, O my soul,
And forget none of His benefits;

I have questions LORD,

Am I faithful to praise You with all my heart, all that is in me? You are worthy!

Have I thanked You for all You do every day in my life? You are faithful.

You alone have cleansed me from sin! You are my Sin-bearer.

You have given me a wonderful body that is able to heal itself. My Creator.

You lift me from the pit of my own bad choices. You rescue me.

You pour out your undeserved love and compassion on me. You are merciful.

You satisfy my years with good things and because of all this, my youth is renewed like the eagles. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is Your lovingkindness toward those who reverence You. And the most amazing thing is Your lovingkindness is from everlasting to everlasting for us who fear You! 

The Lord has established His throne in the heavens, and His sovereignty rules over all. Psalm 103:19

Do I just read these truths or do I believe them?  Psalm 103 is rich with Truth that is worth meditating on, verse after verse.

We may question ‘why’ God allows things in our life we would never choose, but we are not ask to understand, we are ask to trust Him. He has reminded me to trust Him again and again this past week; especially when I think I cannot take another step. Life is unfair. Life hurts. Or it may be life never changes… and the sameness is choking the life out of you… faith is always a choice. Look how David begins Psalm 103 and how he ends it!

Part of not forgetting God’s benefits is recognizing His kindness and wisdom in what He sovereignly permits and what He does not. RA

After reading this we each face a choice. Trust God or focus on self and demand God explain Himself to us. Is Psalm 84:11 a contradiction to Psalm 103:5?

‘Who satisfies your years with good things.’

What if God in His sovereignty withholds your hearts desire (good things), when it says He will not withhold any good thing in Psalm 86? I remember when the meaning became clear to me; If God is withholding something from my life, it may be ‘good’ in itself, but it is NOT good, for it to be in my life right now. We can find ourselves alone again, to be crowded to Christ. Is there really any other place you would rather be? He is life and breath, love and purpose.

Father-God, You who look on us with love so powerful it cannot be measured. You who spoke the universe into being, know the number of hairs on our head. You know the depths of foolishness and selfishness in our hearts and are in our life to be ‘living hope’. You are never halted in Your purpose of creating the likeness of Christ in us! You who cannot be explained or dissected or defined, Holy is Your name. Your purposes are great. You alone are worthy to be praised. I pray in the Name above all names, Jesus. amen

With all that is in me….. I bless His holy name,

You are loved and prayed for precious ones,

az

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Why are we Surprised?

Dear friends, don’t be surprised at the fiery trials you are going through, as if something strange were happening to you. Instead, be very glad—for these trials make you partners with Christ in his suffering, so that you will have the wonderful joy of seeing his glory when it is revealed to all the world. I Peter 4:12-13

Dear Ones who are in the heart of Creator God,

“You are so loved!

We see so many Christians in spiritual warfare unlike anything in my lifetime. The enemy comes in like a flood, not for a short time but often year after year! God will use every spiritual attack and all we go through, to strengthen and prepare us for what He knows is coming.

 He Himself has said, “I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you.”

 Hebrews 13:5b

“Don’t be surprised if there is attack on your work, on you who are called to do it, on your innermost nature- the hidden man of the heart. It must be so. The great thing is not to be surprised, not to count it strange- for that plays into the hand of the enemy.

Is it possible that anyone should set himself to exalt our beloved Lord and not become instantly a target for many arrows? The very fact that your work depends utterly on Him and can’t be done for a moment without Him calls for a very close walk and a constant communion of spirit. This alone is enough to account for anything the enemy can do. It costs to have a pure work. Not for nothing is our God called a Consuming Fire. ac

Have you truly opened yourself to “I will never desert you…” When the battle rages and it seems He is not listening or is so far away that you “feel” forsaken, it does not change the Truth of His words. By faith I am learning to run to Him. Praising Him for what I know is true no matter what arrows of the enemy are being hurled my way. “Thank You Lord, you are right here with me. You are my Victory and You are all I need. Greater are You, O Lord, now and forever” It is a matter of receiving from the Holy Spirit strength and truth for each step. Walking by faith is not something we do by trying hard in our strength; nor is it fueled by emotional thinking such as: ‘Jesus gave His life for me, now I am to give my all for Him.’

How many messages exhort and pressure us to consecrate, surrender and commit our life, out of gratitude for His sacrifice at Calvary? Altar calls are often a manipulation of your earnest desire to live for Christ! And a believer who is hungry to live for Him and has the ‘will’ to obey thinks he should attempt to carry it out through his own effort. He thinks that because he has the will, he has the power. He soon finds out how little his gratitude supplies the power! But it is God who works in you to will AND to obey. Then he may think what is needed is more prayer… but all this may end in frustration.

All is not lost. Listen to this: “as growing Christians, it is time for us to see the necessity of going beyond the love motive to the life motive. “For me to live is Christ” Philippians 1:21a Our consecration, surrender, or commitment will never hold up if we our responding to Him from any other motive than the response to His life in us. Yielding to Him on any other basis will simply amount to our trying to live for Him in the flesh. And God can accept absolutely nothing from the old. jcm

Consecrating our old man to the Lord, and then working hard to live for Him, in the strength of that flesh, will end in disappointment deep within. Well meaning believers struggle hopelessly for many years until they begin to receive truth from the Holy Spirit. The believer must identify Galatians 2:20 ‘I am Crucified with Christ’ before he can apply being risen with Christ.

 It is important to realize we cannot go from the substitution truths of Romans 3 & 5 to the deeper truths of Romans 8 & 9, skipping over the identification truths of Romans 6 & 7. God has arranged the book of Romans in His divine order.

The power ‘to will’ is a permanent gift, an attribute of the new nature. The power ‘to do’ is not a permanent gift, but must be each moment received from the Holy Spirit. The man who recognizes his own impotence as a believer, who will learn that only by the Holy Spirit can he lead a life of holiness.

God has provided abundant grace… if that doesn’t set you to worship. Read it again and hear what the Spirit is saying, Those who receive the abundance of grace….will reign in life through One, Jesus Christ. Romans 5:17 I read that this was written to slaves in Nero’s wicked palace. Wow! What faith was given to Paul.

Us Too!
 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”  II Corinthians 12:9

Abundant grace, all we need, when we need it! Divinely powerful strength and mercy and love and wisdom and hope that we might take another step and grace to sing His praise and grace to bow and worship.

Father of our abundance, You who over flow Your abundance of grace on us and give us faith to believe You, we cannot live the Christian life out of gratitude! Teach us to receive from Your Holy Spirit, moment by moment, the power that enables us to bring You glory. We want all our acts of service and love to be the produce of Your Spirit . Thank You for abundant grace to meet whatever comes our way. We have You, our ever- present, ever-faithful Father, now and eternally. O God of abundant grace humble us that we might bring You glory, I pray in Jesus name.

All is abundant grace,

az

 
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God's Approval

And without faith it is impossible to please God… Hebrews 11:6a

My Brothers and Sisters who walk by faith in the Lord Jesus,

Favorites. Something you give time and special attention. It may be a favorite old shirt, ragged and well worn; reserved for wearing at home. Or a favorite dessert you would choose above any other. One of my favorite chapters in the Bible is Hebrews 11and is often referred to as the ‘faith chapter’.

I see it as God’s “well done good and faithful servant” chapter.  We read that men of old, from Abel to Samuel and many unnamed hero’s, gained God’s approval by faith. We most often dwell on the ones we are familiar with, such as Abraham and Moses, David and Gideon to name a few.

It tells us in verse 27 ‘Moses endured’. Do you ever get weary of ‘enduring’? I do. I wish I were a ‘Moses’! But I am just ordinary me. I am challenged that because endurance is by faith, even I can endure. My name will not be listed in Chapter 11, but I can please Him, who is Sovereign over my life, by choosing faith daily. We are what we are, when no one is looking!

One of the most interesting things in Hebrews 11 is the change that comes as verse 33 is interrupted with a powerful list of troubles and actions that are so far from my daily reality. When is the last time you quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, and received back your dead or conquered kingdoms? They are not checked off on my ’to do’ list; in fact, they are not on my list.

A poignant change moves us from ‘delivered’ and ‘miraculously victorious’, to the undelivered: those who die and suffer when tortured, mocked, scourged, chained and imprisoned, stoned, and sawn in two. None of these are on my list of troubles either. I have lost no one who has been tortured to death. But notice right there in the middle of the list is a word we can all relate to: “tempted”. The list goes on and I am reminded with every reading, these are my brothers and sisters in the faith. Many of my brothers and sisters whom I have never met in this world, have suffered terribly and ‘endured’ by faith. 

We have trouble enduring without complaint, our rather small troubles. Yet, we can embrace verse 39, knowing it includes us!! For we too can please our Lord by enduring whatever we are facing with faith. They endured and trusted God even when they did not receive what was promised, because God had a better plan, better timing. We will make them complete!? All that was promised and more will be theirs. I do not understand this, but it is none the less true.

And all these, having gained approval through their faith, did not receive what was promised… Hebrews 11:39-40

They gained approval by faith. So can we!

Endurance: to persevere, remain under, endure as to things or circumstance especially enduring in reference to suffering in faith and duty.

The faith chapter doesn’t really stop at verse 40, but moves right into the first three verses of Chapter 12. This is so cool. I am dancing… We are to run ‘our’ race ( the race marked out for us) ; and we are to run it with endurance not looking around at others and their races, but we are to have our eyes fixed on Jesus, who Himself set the standard by enduring the Cross. He endured the hostility of sinners against Himself, so that we will not grow weary and lose heart. Amazing Grace….

All His suffering was for more than our salvation!! It was to enable us to endure and not lose heart and not grow weary. Doesn’t it make you want to kneel down and weep with joy?

He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? Romans 8:32

We have seen God purifying His church in the past few years. Suffering that has brought many to their knees. He is preparing us for what He knows is coming. Revival or Destruction? Much of the church is locked in an apathetic, materialistic, stupor. May God have mercy on us and quicken us to truly know what it is to walk by faith. We are to “Consider Him….” So we will not grow weary and lose heart.” This is my prayer for each one of you this week.

LORD, establish Your word to us as that which produces reverence for You. And for this we thank You. Quicken every cell of our being and dig deep into our hearts to break up the fallow ground and revive us for Your glory. Thank You for your death on the Cross that provides for our daily living; for You knew how easily we would be discouraged and grow weary. What an amazing and great God You are Jesus. I bow and give you thanks in the name of Your Son, Jesus.

Consider Him and endure,

az