Something made me think of my Grandmother the other day; she would often call and say, ‘I don’t know nothing….I just called to find out how you were doing’. She was a busy woman, probably too busy, but I was amazed that she could find the time to do the things she did. “I don’t know nothing” may not be good english, but it made me think about her and the love she had for me. It makes me lovingly think of others I care about and how I should find the time to reach them. The truth is, I don’t have much to offer and I really don’t know much… but, for the grace of God I am nothing and I have nothing. While in that momentary thought of, ‘what little I could offer anyone’, I found myself praying; God save my children, save my family, God save me, and Lord save others through my life…oh, how I need Your power.’ Your life is a powerful thing, a tool created really for only for one purpose and that’s to be used by the power of God to influence others for His cause. Your life is to become a living testimony made by what only the Holy Spirit can reflect upon you, so others could be saved. I love the place where Jesus says, ‘Come to Me all you who are weak and heavy laden, and I will give you rest….’ The word says, Jesus lives at the right hand of God (Mk16:19). Residing in power, He lives to make intercession for us’ (Heb7:25). He lives to call us to rest ourselves in His finished work and be connected to His life and power by the Holy Spirit whom He sent as our Helper and His agent of extra-ordinary benefits. He lives to bring you into a restful place to stop thinking there’s anything you could do for Him. He lives so you might realize it’s in only what He can do for you– to reflect His life by powerful changes in your character and demeanor. The Spirit of God moves in the place of prayer connecting us to the will and intention of His heart. While men search for the perfect; the perfect life, a perfect home, the perfect love, it can only be found in the perfect heart of God, known only by time in the presence of His own dear Son. E.M. Bounds one said, “Prayer is far reaching in its influence and worldwide in its effects. It affects all men, affects them everywhere, and affects them in all things. It touches man’s interest in time and eternity. It lays hold upon God and moves him to interfere in the affairs of earth. It moves the angels to minister to men in this life. It restrains and defeats the devil and his schemes to ruin man. Prayer goes everywhere and lays its hand upon everything.” It’s prayer that makes us behold Him who is perfect, so we should reflect His glory. The enemy would have you weak and giving up over the things you see, but Jesus would have you pray and He says, ‘come to Me!’
Tag: church
Change My Heart O God
There is a instance in the dialogue between the prophet Samuel and the newly appointed King Saul concerning what would be for the Lord’s chosen vessel. Samuel said, ‘The Spirit of the Lord will come upon you mightly and you shall prophecy, and you shall be changed into another man. The word states in 1 Samuel 10:9, after being told he must wait, ‘God changed Saul’s heart in one day’. The point is that in one instant God with one thought, one word can powerfully change your heart to His. The question for you today as was always with Saul is this; will you serve God under His distinct annointing which can loose your tongue and change your life? Today I am impressioned with the simple little song which says, “Change my heart O God, make more like you….” So great is His influence He can change your heart today! A friend recently shared a letter written by Corrie Ten Boom in which she declares strength for every believer in these days by saying each must find their own Pentecost and be endued with power for what comes on the whole world. Will you get yourself still before the Lord today and let Him inspire and create in you a clean heart filling your life with His power and purpose? You are His Ambassador–but only with the changes He can make in your heart–today!
The House of God
Someone recently confessed they were presently walking through a fog, but in spite of deep hurts they were choosing to trust God. They went on to say, “When life doesn’t seem fair, the Word can give answers man cannot give and when you commune with God moment by moment you learn to hear His voice alone, even amongst the noise.” I have a question for you. Are you hearing God “amongst the noise”? Isaiah declares those who come to minister to the Lord find the house God chooses to live in. Jesus said in Luke 19:46; “My house shall be called a house of prayer”. Did you stop to think that God lives in a place of prayer. In a place where men would call on His name for refuge and strength. David says in Psalm 61:1-2, “Hear my cry, O God; Give heed to my prayer from the end of the earth I call to you when my heart is faint.” Are you about to faint on some things? Prayer is the address to God’s house. David’s prayer is not just any prayer; no, it is a cry–a prayer of desperation. He is saying, ‘Lord I am at the end of it all about to faint and I desperately need you to lead me to a higher plane of thinking–there on the solid place where you dwell. In Genesis 35, God tells Jacob to go to the house of God and live there, but doing that would require removing some things that were unwelcome in God’s presence. In Isaiah 57, God rebukes those disobedient children who had been so influenced by an idolatrous culture they had failed to understand God’s silence and their own subtile rebellion. His word came then as it does now to shake men from their numbness to understand only those who find a refuge in Him will have an inheritance. God says, ‘My house is a house of prayer and I dwell in a place of refuge and deliverance.’ In Psalm 32 David declares, ‘God You are my hiding place’. Colossians 3:1-3; reminds every believer to stand because our life is hidden with Christ. Simply put, life is found in a hidden place there in the presence of Christ when we stand and find His refuge. As I recall, the storm didn’t stop for the disciples, just because Peter chose to get out of the boat and come to Jesus. But there was clearly a place with Peter where the storm couldn’t touch him. This storm may have fogged you in, but you have God’s address, and He is refuge from the storm. There is a sanctuary in the inner place of God’s house and a song being sung by a heavenly choir. Can you hear it? God says I want you to hear it…Psalm 32:7, “You are my hiding place; You preserve me from trouble; You surround me with songs of deliverance.” If you understand the song it is more like a shout because living in the refuge of Christ produces victory–because He has already overcome and there in God’s House He lives and prays for you…
The Application of the Cross
Sometimes I am wanting to find the application of this word into my life, but I’ve got no aptitude for it. To that I would say, “God give me a mind for what you think, so I could be effective as your disciple.” I came across this scripture the other day taken from Isaiah 50 which says; “The Lord has given Me the tongue of disciples, that I may know how to sustain the weary one with a word. He awakens Me morning by morning, He awakens My ear to listen as a disciple.” Often, we look for ways to apply this word in our lives only to find the simple truth is not merely conveyed with great oration or vivid illustration. The truth however is best understood by what Jesus said in Luke 14, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.” While men often go here and there to find great preaching looking for that one great illustration, nothing connects me to Jesus like the cross. Jesus is affirming the cross as a means of application but more importantly as a means of identity. When by taking up our cross we deny ourselves, we are saying no our thinking and to our own reasoning and even our own cause. When we do that, we are identifying with the thinking that had Him at the cross for us in the first place. Taking up my cross aligns my life with the cause and thinking of Christ. Presently, most Christians know more about God than they are able to apply for lack of the cross. All of us have a cross to be sure, but is yours currently out for repairs? Paul said in Galatians 2:20; “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered Himself up for me.” Paul saw himself as crucified with Christ because He’d taken up His cross. There was with Paul a death to this world and its thinking, but also the applied ability to actually live as Christ would because he had nothing else to live for. Full faith in Jesus had taken over his mind to actually comprehend the height and depth of Christ’s love for him. That is ultimately what Jesus is saying in Luke 14, namely this: that as long as you have something else your living for, you won’t carry your cross. Jesus is saying, ‘nothing can come ahead of me, so get square with me and I will order your thoughts aright and connect your head with your heart and you will live and speak as my disciple.’
GraceLife 