Wise and Blessed

Teach me to number my days aright, that I may gain a heart of wisdom… Satisfy me in the morning with your unfailing love, that I may sing for joy and be glad all my days. Psalm 90:12, 14

Brothers and Sisters,

I was thinking about desire to live a life that brings God glory. This would mean I would live victoriously in my circumstances, albeit great or small. I long for the Holy Spirit to fill me with power to the deepest part of me. (Romans 12:1-2) I refuse to let circumstances bully me by putting me in an arm-lock. I will not be dominated by the tactile, the world of feelings,  held captive by all that is ‘seen’ and ‘felt’! In Christ's strength I will choose to live by faith that I might be living proof my Father is continually faithful, His grace sufficient.

Psalm 84:5: Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee… not partially in ‘God’ and partially in myself or in something is temporal, earthy! The enemy can make me strong, strong in myself to move and think as the world does, to unknowingly operate by the world’s system of thinking, as I begin to rationalize and reason in the flesh. Too late I realize I have embraced the good, missing the best.

I long to ‘feel’ strong but God makes His servants weak that we might see our nothingness! This is a life-long lesson. When I fail and miss the way, I am to run to Him, not from Him! My natural inclination, like Adam and Eve, is to hide grasping a futile handful of leaves to cover my sin and shame. That is one of the worst things about sin, its power to rob us of fellowship with the One who knows all about our sin, despite our hiding in plain sight. We must learn to run to Him… His arms are open wide.

“Faith counts on the Word of God outside and apart from everything and everyone here. When you are in faith your life is centered in the Lord Jesus. The moment the heart is detained by anything here, faith is obstructed. If you walk in the Spirit you will be sensible of this in a moment; the effects and influences of the visible are counter to the invisible.” jbs

Eve lost faith when she saw the tree was good for food and pleasant to the eye. If she had kept faith with her focus on Jesus, dependent on Him, she would not have looked. It changed everything.

Once we fully accept His purpose for our lives His will becomes our will. How God will work to bring about His will for us and in us, ceases to be an issue.  His one great purpose is to conform us to the image of His Son, Yeshua. Even the mundane, the boring and the daily repetition of duties matters and is of eternal value to Him. He does not over look anything no matter how small. O to trust Him and find rest! We will sing his praise. Victory is a matter of receiving the daily bread of His provison, not working to produce our version of trust and rest.

Know His Word. Know His work. Know His voice. Know His touch.

Father God,

Redeemer of all my failings, and good intentions gone awry, I hunger to draw near to You. Give me a teachable spirit…  and teach me, that I may gain a heart of wisdom. What is it that You have given me to do daily in my work, that is of eternal value to You? Let me see through Your eyes and value what You value. Keeper of the stars, sustaining them by Your great power, lift me eyes to focus on You, even when I am hurting, for only You can redeem my messes and my brokenness and all the ways I fall short of Your glory. Forgive, cleanse, restore and purify me with the precious blood of the Lamb. You leave me in awe of who You are, I love You Lord and pray in Your name.

az 

The Hem of His Garment

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…and besought him that they might touch if it were but the border of his garment: and as many as touched him were made whole. Mark 6:56

Hi Brothers and Sisters,

Have you ever longed for the Lord Jesus to be so near you could fall on your face and touch His robe and have your world be ‘made whole’? Oh how I long for this again and again.

It happens when reading His word and He gives you something. You know it has occurred but you would not be able to explain how it happened. All we know is something has passed from Him to you!

It may be the courage you need for something yet unknown or patience  to bear with a certain difficult person or inner strength to go on when we are sure we cannot. It may be the sweet inner freshness in our spirit as a precious, renewing gift!

God’s way of passing by, of letting His ‘hem’ come near us, is to take some single word in His Book and make it breathe spirit and life into us. Then, relying upon His word- meditating, feeding our soul on it- we find it is suddenly possible to go from strength to strength.” ac

And so whether the struggle that engages us has to do with our inner life, or our outward circumstances there is nothing to fear, “For your Father is pleased to give you the Kingdom.” ac

I received an email from my mentor and feel led to share it with you.
Arlene, these are quotes from David Roper’s book 
 “The God who walks beside us.”

God’s call to serve is a call to suffer. Deep wounds seem the norm for those whom God is determined to use. Pain is needful, not for our sake alone, but also for those we are destined to serve.

As Paul put it, “We who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body. So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you” (II Corinthians 4:11-12,)

“These are the channels by which our souls are enlarged and our sympathies deepened.”

“Death” (to our old sin nature) is the inevitable, earthly lot of those whom God has called, the lonely, invisible burden of those whom God is using. Sickness, loneliness, clamor, unrequited love, incessant demands, and mundane duties---all conditions that seem to epitomize the frustrations of life---become the means by which the spirit of sacrifice and service begins to emerge in us.

Arlene, is God using His plan to bring salvation to the earth through your ministry and life?  I believe so.

“God uses everything---suffering, sorrow, even sin---to draw us to Him and remake us in His image.”

Dear Father in heaven, You who give Yourself to us, I long for you. I come to You most often with requests to do something ‘for’ me… yet You  want to do something ‘in’ me! I yield myself to You today, to work Your will in me by the power of Your Spirit, work the likeness of Your Son, the Lord Jesus in me. I believe You have me in the place You want me right now… even if I got here by because of other people’s sin and wrong choices or rebellion or indifference You are incorporating them into Your plan to draw me near and mold me in Your image. Thank You for Your Sovereign will and wisdom and power and goodness that can take all of my past mistakes and failures and work Truth and Hope and love in and through me for Your glory. I rest in the truth that You have me here in this place right now for Your perfect purposes. I praise Your holy name, now and forever.

Love in Christ,

az

When God wants to drill a man

And thrill a man and skill a man,

When God wants to mold a man

To play the noblest part;

When He yearns with all his heart

To create so bold a man

That all the world will be amazed,

Watch his methods, watch his ways;

How God relentlessly perfects

Whom he royally elects;

How he hammers us and hurts us

And with mighty blows converts us

Into trial shapes of clay

Which only God can understand,

While our tortured heart is crying

And we lift beseeching hands.

How God bends, but never breaks

When his good he undertakes;

How he uses whom he chooses

And with every purpose fuses us;

By every act induces us

To try his splendor out---

God knows what he’s about!

---Dale Martin Stone

http://www.gramzkidz.com

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Amazing, Astounding, and Undeserved Grace

John 1:14, 16-17

And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory,

glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth . . .

For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace. For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.

Brothers and Sisters of my heart,  

You have probably heard the idiom, ‘where there is smoke there is fire’. Truth is often found in an idiom. Albeit the source of all truth is God’s word the Bible.  Hear this powerful idiom: ‘where there’s sin in abundance, there’s even more grace in abundance.’ This reflects the Truth we find in Romans 5:20-21:

‘but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.’

That is truth enough to live on until Christ returns for us! As we grow in likeness to Christ God reveals our sin to us, allowing trials to expose it. Think how terrible that would be if it were not for grace! Dreadful except for the Truth found in Romans chapters 5-8. Romans is rich with life changing truth.

I want to share the beginning of a poem I read yesterday.

Drive Me Deep to Face Myself

Lord, grant me your peace for I have made peace with

What does not give peace, and I am afraid.

Drive me deep, now, to face myself so I may see

That what I truly need to fear is my capacity to deceive

And my willingness to be deceived,

my loving of things and using of people, T. L.

Thankfully there is ‘grace’, unlimited, beautiful grace. Sets my feet to dancing!

In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace Ephesians 1:7

Grace is infinite, but I don’t want you to strain to understand infinitude. God never measures anything else in Himself, against Himself. That is, God never measures His grace against His justice or His mercy against His love. God is all one. But God measures His grace against our sin. (read the scripture above again.) There is nothing in God that can compare itself with anything else in God. What God is, God is. When scripture says grace does ‘much more’ abound,’ it means not that grace does much more abound than anything else in God but much more than anything in us. a.w.t.

Hallelujah! Celebrate this Truth that has the power to overwhelm. This One who is outside of time, who cannot be contained or measured by any dimension, is our great God! Let us live aware of the daily bread of His grace, us who are hopeless sinners and helpless without Him, how is it possible? It is incomprehensibly immense and vast! Our small brains cannot and never will be able to grasp the greatness of His being. Do you think God would have put up with us for all these years if He had a limited amount of grace? How vast and immeasurable to forgive all my sin and make me His beloved child.

 ^‘to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace, which He lavished on us. In all wisdom and insight.’ Ephesians 1:6-7

As we grow in God’s grace, the more we will see that it comes at Christ’s expense. The more deeply we believe this truth, the more we see we are totally undeserving.

Let us embrace this truth and celebrate our beautiful Savior-God, Giver of all grace.

Father of all grace, Immeasurable One, beyond numbers or words or space, uncontainable, forever God, It overwhelms that You would bend low and pick me from the dung pile of self-righteousness and sin and wash my sin away and give me a new nature, and then indwell me by Your holy Spirit, that I might know You personally and be forever changed, from glory to glory, into Your likeness. We are in awe of You Holy, immeasurable One. I thank You.

Dear ones, I hope you have been encouraged over God’s great love for you! He says even the hairs on your head are all numbered. Praying for you all.

Until every knee shall bow,

az

 email devotional: http://az-doveseye.blogspot.com/
http://www.gramzkidz.com

Evangecube

http://youtu.be/GhVldzsGEck

 

Can You Say with Paul, "I am well content?"

Precious Ones, immeasurably loved by God,

The Bible has much to say about contentment. May you have ears to hear.

I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through Him who gives me strength. Phil 4:11-13

Then I read this a few days ago:

“Self-revelation precedes divine revelation- that is a principle for both spiritual birth and spiritual growth. The Christian who is going through struggle and failure is the Christian who is being carefully and lovingly handled by his Lord in a very personal way.” MJS

God uses self-revelation to reveal our discontent, exposing our unbelief, our unrest and our striving to live the Christian life by self- effort. Also revealed is a daily busyness in our life that keeps us from His  life-giving Word. When we take vacations with the purpose of refreshing and rest, we often return from vacation in need of a vacation. So to we blame much of our discontent on our circumstances. Each of us would change many things if we were presented the opportunity, beginning with our income. We tear down houses and build bigger ones with bigger storage areas; to fill with more stuff to store and we eventually forget we have it.

Hebrews 13:5

Make sure that your character is free from the love of money, being content with what you have; for He Himself has said, “I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you,”

 Then there is our discontent with our weight, our height, our build, our spouse, the climate we live in, the car we drive… and a myriad of other things in our life we are bent on changing, even good things in our life, let alone how quickly we would rid ourselves of trials if it were in our power to do so. We have created a god that is not God, but one who is required to remove our troubles and bless us with riches and abundance. We expect Him to answer the opinions we pray and take offence when He does not kowtow to our demands, joining our pursuits.

We know that Joy is not found in circumstances and is fruit of the Spirit, not fruit of self-effort. So, too, contentment, though not listed as a fruit of the Spirit is something we are to learn, it takes time. We must join God in His pursuits.

II Corint 12:7-10 Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me—to keep me from exalting myself! Concerning this I implored the Lord three times that it might leave me. And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.

God told Paul, “No”.

Paul in surrender finds he is more than content, he is well content!

I was quickened to consider just what Paul’s circumstances were when he said he was ‘well content’? I realized he was given a gift. A gift/thorn God allowed to bring Paul to weakness. A gift he begged to return to the giver. OUCH! Can we know contentment in distresses and persecutions and insults and difficulty?

God considered Paul’s circumstances rich soil for teaching Paul contentment. I believe our circumstances are rich soil for God to do the same in us. See what Paul says? Amazing words: Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Paul says he will choose his troubles. We will only know contentment to the degree we trust Him and we will only trust Him to the degree we know Him. There are no short cuts. We mature by growth and growth cannot be hurried.

We must be willing to embrace our trials like Paul to be “well content”. We are more likely to be resisting, wrestling, refusing, rebuking the enemy, while lost in tears of unbelief. We may see it as a lack of faith when our binding the enemy results in “no” as our answer. Albeit, the real lack of faith is our refusal to learn contentment in any and every circumstance. We are focused on changing our circumstances instead of learning to dance with the pain God is using in our life.

I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through Him who gives me strength. Phil 4:11-13

This doesn’t leave us room to keep living day after day in a restless discontent.

In this scripture Paul speaks of learning to be content in any and every situation and shares the secret he learned. A secret with power to redeem our trials to serve His purposes. The word does not say that God will remove all the difficulties from our life and then contentment will be ours. Paul states he has learned to be content because Christ gives him strength and in II Corinthians 12, two little words that are part of the secret, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.’ Doesn’t this move you to tears? O the wonder of it all!

We will know contentment even in our tears, as we trust Christ to give us strength and God to give us grace. He knows all about our weakness and it doesn’t stop Him from using every situation for His glory and our good.

“Truly to rest in God is to yield oneself up to the highest activity. We work because He works in us both to will and to do. Entering into the rest of God is the ceasing from self-effort and the yielding of oneself in full surrender of faith to God’s working.” A.M.

Oh the beauty and power of His Spirit indwelling us until we can rejoice in our weakness! Wow my feet are dancing, Christ filling us with strength and delivering us and keeping us until the tears we weep are sweet worship to our King! Hallelujah and blessed be His name.

Great God, holy perfection, You are all we could ever desire, thank You for teaching contentment amidst tears. How gentle and kind You are… allowing me to know You more and more. You give me grace and strength I will never deserve. Thank You that ‘all is grace’.  The world so quickly loses its attraction when we know You intimately and as You  gift us with Yourself. Thank You for the suffering You give. A gift that brings with it a freedom to prove You faithful as I learn to be content. Only in You can we know what it is to be ‘well content’. LORD give my sisters and brothers a desire to know You intimately and learn to be ‘well content’. I boast in You, O Lamb of God, in Your name I pray amen.

Learning contentment,

az

 http://www.gramzkidz.com

 Come see the meerkats! God's amazing creation. Go to By Design.

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Truth is a Person

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Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. John 14:6

Brothers and Sisters of the Way,

We live in a world where deceit and lying are a way of life for many people. My attention was arrested by what I heard this week, “Liars cannot worship the holy God.”  Now read this verse with a hunger to know Truth. “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth. John 4:24.” (or there is no worship my emph’)

Colossians 1:6 states even our understanding of grace is by truth. “since the day you heard of it (Gospel of hope) and understood the grace of God in truth’.  

No matter how people define truth in their lives, we know from John 14:6, that ‘Truth’ is a person’. He is 'the way' not  'a' way, the Truth not a truth!

“Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

Apply following definitions to your life, asking yourself how you live 'truth'.

The quality of being true as:

conformity to fact or reality;

exact accordance with that which is, or has been; or shall be, (exaggeration is a form of lying)

speaking what is true; freedom from falsehood,

that which is true or certain concerning any matter or subject,

honesty; accuracy, correctness, validity, factuality, authenticity.

“The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it.” fc

Truth is not open to being twisted, redefined, or manipulated or it is not truth.

Anything said to mislead or cover up or rationalize our behavior and choices is dishonesty. To lie to someone is to do the opposite of love.

“If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything. A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.” ― Mark Twain

When I find myself giving in to discouragement I need to stop and ask “What lie am I believing?” Did God’s grace suddenly become less than sufficient? Has He stopped giving strength and wisdom or has the whole armor of God proven weak? Is His word suddenly just print on a page? Or is He still the God who spoke billions of galaxies into space and ruling in loving Sovereignty?

Did I suddenly stop trusting Him for the pain and trials in my life? Where then is the faith I am to walk by? We live this Christian life by faith and Truth or we are not living it at all. Thankfully He has made it impossible to live on our own and for good purpose. We need the daily bread of Him, living Truth through us. In order for this to happen I must feed on the daily bread of His word. Denying my flesh daily I take up my cross and follow Him. To take up my cross is to appropriate the truth that I am crucified with Christ, yet alive with Christ, risen with Him. Colossians 3:10 This week has been one of dancing on the edge of discouragement and looking to ‘things’ or ‘food’ for comfort. Albeit I am learning the simple act of “Say no to yourself, Arlene!”

Father who loves me more than I can fathom, it is You I hunger and thirst for... yet it is never enough! I have tasted and know You are good! I have hungered and now I hunger and thirst even more for You. You are my daily bread of life and I long for You more than ever before. I think of Moses crying out to know You by asking to see Your glory and that is my prayer, “LORD show me Your glory!” I long to know thee more deeply for You are Life and Truth. Cover my mind in the blood of Jesus and enfold me near Your heart that I might ever walk in Truth for Your glory, I pray in Jesus, my Master. Amen.

You Sisters and Brothers are loved and prayed for every week, yes every day.

Let us allow Truth to shine forth from Christ's life in us,

az

http://www.gramzkidz.com. 

 

The comical Meekats! God has a sense of humor. Go to 'By Design' at GRAMZ KIDZ

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No Good Thing Will He Withhold...

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The Lord gives grace and glory; no good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly. O Lord of hosts, How blessed is the man who trusts in You! Psalm 84:11

Brothers, Sisters and all whose steps are established by the LORD,

The Lord gives grace and glory; no good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly. O Lord of hosts, How blessed is the man who trusts in You! Psalm 84:11

Brothers, Sisters and all whose steps are established by the LORD,
We are told to wait on the LORD and how to wait. Patiently. As we wait God is working in us the likeness of His Son Jesus! Time waiting on God is never wasted time. There is truth reflected in our waiting. To wait in rest on our God is to trust Him by faith. He delights in the one who gives Him freedom to ‘establish his steps.’

Another scripture that blessed my socks off this week is found in the Psalms also. I have read this many times but I did not connect verse11 with 12 until I saw this connect.

 Question: What comes to mind when you read verse 11? Many like to use this to ‘name it and claim it in prayer’, even if God has not promised them what they imagine. They are empowered by their own fleshly desires to do’ or ‘to have’ or ‘to be’. This verse covers their ‘want’. They justify this by defining what the key word ‘good’ means. They may long to be married and good is defined as; God bringing a husband or a wife that fits their list perfectly! To another it may be to be happy, or healed from disease, or buy a new car or change jobs.  Their focus is on a thing or a person or a situation. But this results in many disappointed saints who then feel God has let them down.

Wake up church… let God decide what is good to put in your life and stop leaning to your own understanding! A thing may be good in itself, yet not good for you to have, so God withholds it according to His plan. There are lessons of God’s Sovereignty to be learned until we let go of that last breath here on earth. There have been many things I have asked of God and He has withheld them from me. I truly believe it is because they would not have been good for me to have at that time no matter how I yearned or prayed for it to come about.

Our Father often encourages the weak in faith by giving speedy answers to prayer; but the strong in faith will be further developed by God’s delays. ms

See it as an opportunity to die and to prove Him faithful?

Do not over look the condition preceding the promise and do not overlook the promise following the condition. This got my heart beating praise. The condition is we are to walk in righteousness, positioning ourselves for blessing. The Psalm states unequivocally, that the man who trusts in his heavenly Father, to decide what to give and what to withhold, will be greatly blessed. Blessed means happy. Are you willing to trust Him, not only for all He gives, but also and more importantly, for all He withholds? He promises grace for either.

And even further are you able, willing to trust Him for what He takes away?

A young girl’s heart desire was to have a dog. She prayed for a dog that was free, potty trained, and non-allergic. And in God’s wonderful way He gave her a wonderful, small dog named Dallas whom she loved fiercely. This past week God took her doggie. Dallas just couldn’t overcome his health problems. With heart rending emotions, she let Dallas go, freeing him from pain. She chose to trust God and not give into her feelings. She gave no complaint, no resentment. She journaled this quote from Job,

‘The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.’ Job 1:21

She knows God’s ways are perfect and that He never makes a mistake. No one has ever heard God say “Oooops! She chose to trust Him to make the perfect decision about what was good to give her or what was good to take away. She refused to be offended by what God allowed. (Matt 11:6) Her tears will bring healing in time and thoughts of Dallas will be more than good memories, they’ll be treasured memories. She believes God is good…. He cannot be anything but good, for it is WHO He is. This young teenager was embracing God’s Sovereignty.

God took me a step further… this is so exciting! God describes Himself as ‘good’ in scripture. He refers to His character qualities as good. His creation as good. And Himself is the good Shepherd. He said, no good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly. When we walk uprightly, by faith, the good He gives us is Himself! He quenches our thirst to know Him and it is good. In John 14:21 He said,

‘He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose  (give) Myself to him.’ He gives us Himself through the word, by His Spirit. He gives understanding that allows us to draw near and drink deeply of Jesus.

He will reveal more and more of who He is to those with a hungry heart, who walks uprightly. Let this promise sink in and warm you from heart to toes. Dance in joy. Raise your hands, sing and shout His praise! Kneel and worship with thanksgiving.

They shall eagerly utter the memory of Your abundant goodness, Psalm 145:7

I said to the Lord, “You are my Lord; I have no good besides You.” Psalm 16:2

How great is Your goodness, Which You have stored up for those who fear You. Psalm 31:19

Father all wise, forever good, You who love us beyond words to describe and wrap every test and trial in your loving kindness, Thank You there is no one like You! You are God and You are good. Teach us to trust You implicitly for what You give and what You take away, knowing You never make a mistake, only You see all our tomorrows. You are so precious Lord.  You are the ‘Good” you give all the time. Thank You for the greatest gift of all, Jesus our Savior, Substitute, and sacrifice for our sins.  In His name I pray, Thank You.

 Blessings to my Sisters and Brothers who are immeasurably loved by Jesus,

az

 email devotional: http://az-doveseye.blogspot.com/
http://www.gramzkidz.com

Evangecube

http://youtu.be/GhVldzsGEck

'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

 
http://www.gramzkidz.com  Want to see a Dragon? Go to 'By Design' at Gramz Kidz. Be amazed at God's design.

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