Words Of Encouragement For Your Day (Friday 07/27/2012)

Daily Dosage For Daily Living II

1 John 2:3-5 Amplified Bible (AMP)

³ And this is how we may discern [daily, by experience] that we are coming to know Him [to perceive, recognize, understand, and become better acquainted with Him]: if we keep (bear in mind, observe, practice) His teachings (precepts, commandments). ⁴ Whoever says, I know Him [I perceive, recognize, understand, and am acquainted with Him] but fails to keep and obey His commandments (teachings) is a liar, and the Truth [of the Gospel] is not in him. ⁵ But he who keeps (treasures) His Word [who bears in mind His precepts, who observes His message in its entirety], truly in him has the love of and for God been perfected (completed, reached maturity). By this we may perceive (know, recognize, and be sure) that we are in Him:

            I have had many people say that they know me during the course of my 48 years on earth, but I can assure you that many that profess knowing, and still profess knowing me still don’t know me, to include people I have been in relationships with.  It is funny that I am aware every day who knows me and who doesn’t in spite of what people say, in reference to them being in close affliation with me.  Many more people make assumptions about me, and are acquainted with me then really know me.  I have come to find that those that know me, rarely are offended by me, and recognize the truth of which I am, who God created me to be and who I am in their lives.  I used to fret a lot over people getting it wrong and seeing me wrong but I had to realize those that really know me, every day that we encounter one another they show forth evidence that they know me well and they recognize the truth of whom I am and who I was created to be.  Those that don’t make assumptions, become easily offended, and quickly get annoyed and make accusations about who they assume that I am.

            It is funny that daily we show God how much about Him we know, understand and how close we are in relationship to Him, by our fellowship and the quality of our followship.  When we follow God closely and we are in love with Him, and desire to please Him, it is His will that we desire more than our own, it is the truth that He desires that we desire to give to Him, not our version of what truth should or could be.  We will seek good before evil, we will seek to love before we hate and we seek righteousness over unrighteousness and unbalanced scales, weights and measures.  When we are determined to daily seek God through His word and time with Him, we will daily bear fruit of that concentrated effort and application of truth to our lives.  We cannot say we love God who we have not seen, and yet walk in high levels of judgment, hate, bitterness and intolerance with those we see daily.  If God is merciful and just to forgive us, and we are walking close to Him and we know Him so well, should we not bear the same fruit?  Daily I see evidence of a friendship, relationship, with those that know me and that I possess an intimacy with that others that just hang on the outside do not possess.

            Daily are we baring evidence of our relationship with God through Christ or are we fruitless and without evidence of really knowing God?  We dictate the depth of our relationship with God by the choices that we make daily.  Will we choose what is pleasing and acceptable to God or what is pleasing and acceptable to man or our flesh?  We will choose obedience to God even when our emotions are standing in the way?  Will we really lay down our lives in service to God or will we continue to say God knows our hearts and He knows how we are?  Yes, it is true He knows how we are, BUT it is also true we also know how He is and who He is and what is daily required of us to stay in right relationship with Him!

Words Of Encouragement For Your Day (Thursday 07/26/2012)

Daily Dosages For Daily Living

Isaiah 58:1-2 Amplified Bible (AMP)

Cry aloud, spare not. Lift up your voice like a trumpet and declare to My people their transgression and to the house of Jacob their sins! ² Yet they seek, inquire for, and require Me daily and delight [externally] to know My ways, as [if they were in reality] a nation that did righteousness and forsook not the ordinance of their God. They ask of Me righteous judgments, they delight to draw near to God [in visible ways].

            Do you get the benefit from a vitamin or medication if you do not take it daily?  Do you get the benefits of controlling your weight if you do not follow a pattern of eating daily, or do what we consider is a lifestyle change?  No, you won’t!.  I recently changed my eating and exercise habits, because this year I turned 48, yes, only two years until 50, but my goal by 50 is to be in the best shape of my life.  As I approached this mission, I understood it would take a daily effort to receive results.  It meant that no matter how bad I may have wanted to fall of the wagon or as much as I want to not work out or do some sort of physical activity, to reach my goal I have to put in the work, not just some days, but daily in some way of another.

            Why do we think that we can have results with God without daily applying His word to our lives? How can we think that we can receive revelation and change without knowledge of what is available to us, by daily learning?  How can we know God better if we do not daily spend time in His presence or seeking Him out?  We don’t take a daily dose, but we expect, daily results; well I will be fair and say that some of us don’t expect results daily but we think that God will answer when we call even if we don’t know Him, put in the time to become close enough to Him, that He will respond when we call.  Just as God gives us what we have need of daily (“Give us our daily bread”), we need to give Him what He deserves daily, which is worship, praise, glory, honor, love and respect.  Most of us have not yet seen the value in our relationship with God to make Him a priority and to make Him a part of our daily lives.  We can stick everyone else into our schedule and do for everyone else, but yet we have not time or room for Jesus.  What if our life depended on daily interaction and relationship with God?  But it does and most of us just don’t realize it; we are wondering why we are up one minute and down the next or we will blow up one minute and repenting the next, worrying, stressing and freaking out first and pray last, or pick up the Word of God last.  Many of us say with our mouths that we want a deeper relationship with God and that we want the blessings of God and all His benefits, but we don’t apply the time it takes to really get next to Him and learn His ways, inquire of Him and get our daily dosages of what we need from Him, like His word, communication through prayer, intimacy through worship, and His strength and power through tapping in and learning what He has given us.

            If we want something we have never had, we have to do some things we have never done before.  Most of us do not want to discipline ourselves enough to become healthy in a natural way, by a daily regimen that is why we find it nearly impossible to do what needs to be done in our spiritual life.  Just as we need to drink daily and eat daily, it is the same with God; we need to connect with God daily, we need to find out something about Him daily that helps us to know Him better and to draw closer to Him.  We need a daily dose of God’s mercy and grace and we desire daily dosages of God’s favor and Blessings, so then why are we so resistant to daily drink Him in, and eat of His word?  Why do we daily resist obedience and submission unto Him, who has created us?  If we are to receive daily we must daily give ourselves away to Him, for the benefit and privilege of knowing Him alone!

Words Of Encouragement For Your Day (Tuesday 07/24/2012)

What’s With You

Titus 1:10-11 & 15-16 Amplified Bible (AMP)

¹⁰ For there are many disorderly and unruly men who are idle (vain, empty) and misleading talkers and self-deceivers and deceivers of others. [This is true] especially of those of the circumcision party [who have come over from Judaism]. ¹¹ Their mouths must be stopped, for they are mentally distressing and subverting whole families by teaching what they ought not to teach, for the purpose of getting base advantage and disreputable gain.

¹⁵ To the pure [in heart and conscience] all things are pure, but to the defiled and corrupt and unbelieving nothing is pure; their very minds and consciences are defiled and polluted. ¹⁶ They profess to know God [to recognize, perceive, and be acquainted with Him], but deny and disown and renounce Him by what they do; they are detestable and loathsome, unbelieving and disobedient and disloyal and rebellious, and [they are] unfit and worthless for good work (deed or enterprise) of any kind.

            Whenever my young people act out of character and out of the rearing that I am sure that I modeled and instilled in them, I ask this question, “What’s with you, man or little girl?”  At first when I was asking this question it was simply a way of asking what is going on with them, but then I came to realize I was asking a more relevant question about what was with them; what had come to reside in or with them, that was causing them to be who they were presently exhibiting. We rarely realize that when our thinking and behavior isn’t right that we have allowed something to come along with us that is counter-productive to our act right, do right and get right. Often I would look at who my young people had been in association with, who they had spent time around that caused a shift in their thinking and in their behavior that caused them to think unacceptable things would become acceptable. We often miss that what and who we let in will eventual become a part of our character, and our behavioral pattern.

            My question to us today is what is with us?  What are we allowing to abide in our mind, our spirits and our hearts that is impacting our walk with the Lord, our interaction with people and the example that we should be setting for our families?  Many of us have allowed some nasty things into our lives that have us going backwards instead of forward, exhibiting behaviors that we struggled with as a baby in Christ or for some of us these behaviors are all brand new, because the things we have allowed ourselves to be exposed to are brand new, and extremely lethal.  When I was a teen ministry leader I used to explain to my teens that when we connect with people in an intimate way before marriage we are not just out of God’s will but we are connecting with everyone that they have connected to and we are becoming subject to the spirits that are on them as well as the ones that are on the people that they have been with.  We don’t realize that when we connect with people period, if we are not careful we will find ourselves picking up, their habits, behaviors, thinking and conduct, whether good or bad.  Then we are wondering why we can’t get certain things out of our mind or out of our heart, because we have allowed people to speak into our lives that don’t qualify, or we have allowed associations and connections to be in place that are not Godly but carnal, and they are sowing carnal seeds into us and corrupt thinking and behavior. One thing I always encourage is accountability, but not with people that are going to tell you what you want to hear, but with individuals that you understand are appointed by God in your life to recognize what is really with you and call you on it.

            Really look inside of yourself today, and ask yourself, “What is with me?”  What have I allowed to come into my spear of influence that is affecting my thoughts, my actions, and my conduct?  What have I allowed to come in and exalt itself against God’s knowledge, will and ways in my life? Who have I allowed around me that have taken me away from God and what He desires for my life?  If we are truly honest with ourselves we will see that the thoughts we have that are negative, the behaviors that we have that are ungodly and out of God’s will and the content of our character and heart that has become corrupt is because we have allowed it to be, we have let things, thoughts and people into our lives that are polluting our pool of thought and our river of life that should be flowing unhindered and untainted as a result of our relationship with Christ.  Ask God to open up your mind to His ways, His will and His design for you. With a sincere heart ask Him to remove every person, every influence and every thought that is contrary to Him.  Ask Him to truly be with you, and to influence your thoughts, your visions, your behavior and your conduct, to include your speech. Because as the scripture states when we allow corruption in, we are not fit for good deeds and the enterprise the God has prepared for us; in other words we are not fit for kingdom duty or any other duty for that matter!

Words Of Encouragement For Your Day (Monday 07/23/2012)

Shifting The Atmosphere

Genesis 30:27-30 Amplified Bible (AMP)

²⁷ And Laban said to him, If I have found favor in your sight, I pray you [do not go]; for I have learned by experience and from the omens in divination that the Lord has favored me with blessings on your account.²⁸ He  said, State your salary and I will give it. ²⁹ Jacob answered him, You know how I have served you, and how your possessions, your cattle and sheep and goats, have fared with me. ³⁰ For you had little before I came, and it has increased and multiplied abundantly; and the Lord has favored you with blessings wherever I turned. But now, when shall I provide for my own house also?

            The other day, I was not feeling well, and I was struggling with my environment and some things that I found myself in the midst of.  Normally I would wrestle with my issues and pray myself to a place where I could feel some peace to settle the struggle within me, even if it wasn’t eliminated.  In the midst of my struggle my husband was communicating with me, it was he who reminded me of some things that caused me to see my situation differently.  He has a way that can encourage me into a place of peace even though nothing has changed because he can encourage perspective where little existed.  He can remind me of who God is to me, in me and through me and get me to a place of seeing God who has been there all of the time, even in His silence.  I have watched him intently over the last year and I have watched how he can come into situations and change the very atmosphere.  He is anointed as an environment and game changer.  He challenges people to look beyond what they see, and to look up to God and know that even when we don’t see anything differently, we can visualize as we get over this mountain or over this hill there is a different viewpoint and a different vantage point.  He has even been told by those he works with and for that when he is not present that there is something missing in the atmosphere in which he normally finds himself.  He changes the lives of anyone he encounters for the better, and one that does not benefit from there contact with him, is making a conscious effort not to be better and benefit from his powerful insight care and leadership.

            How is the atmosphere in which you abide affected when you are in it?  Are you missed when you are not present?  Do the blessings of God that permeate from your spirit positively affect others and cause them to grow, prosper and to grow?  Do you leave people that you encounter and interact with better or worse?  Have you ever spent time with a person or people and felt that you could leap over walls and that you could conquer the world?  I have, I am so grateful that I am married to such an individual.  But I have also found myself in relationships and connections that did the exact opposite.  When I left those atmospheres I felt I could breathe, that I was better out than in because all they did was take and drain me, criticize and belittle or tear down instead of make me better.  I am learning to evaluate the relationships I am in and ask the pivotal question, am I better for knowing them, have I increased or grown in some way, or do I feel as I am going in the opposing direction of progression?  As our Bishop has said on occasion and I have repeated many times, any words that ends in “Ship” like relationship, friendship, partnership is meant and intended to take us some place to move us, and to benefit our lives in some way.  Especially when we are in Christ there is never a time that we should find ourselves leaving people, situations and environments worse than we entered or found them.  It should be our mission or duty to represent God and His kingdom well, by being a benefit to others and to bless the atmospheres that we find ourselves in.  Blessings do not even have to mean monetary, but knowledge and wisdom are an immense blessing, as are the love of God, and His word.  Laban was blessed because of Jacob’s presence.  Laban increased because of his association with Jacob, why because God was with Jacob.  Anytime God is with us, wherever we find ourselves people should find themselves blessed because of us.

            What and who goes with you when you enter an atmosphere?  Are you known for how your presence blesses the atmosphere or how your attitude corrupts it?  Do people understand that there is something that you bring to the table that shifts the atmosphere, bring accountability, blessings and growth or are they asking why they are even in association with you?  If we thought of God and who He is to us, would we safely be able to say that He goes with us and favors the atmospheres that we abide in or that we find ourselves occupying, or does Jesus leave the building when we enter it, because He does not want to be associated with our ways or us?  I am prayerful every day that my life is a worship and is a praise to God’s faithfulness towards me.  Even when it doesn’t seem that I may be blessed and highly favored, that the atmosphere in which I find myself entering God through the vehicle of Jesus Christ and the inspiration of intention of the Hoy Spirit