John 13:34 – “ A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. “

Sometimes, I am captivated by a visual as I read scripture.   Today, as I read, prayed, and considered the Word, Jesus’ words gripped my heart.   That is not unusual, but what gripped me today?   John 13:34 would not let me go!

If I hear the word “new,” I expect something not known before.   But, to love one another is not new.   That is part of the Ten Commandments.   What made this a “New Commandment?”    Let’s read on – “JUST AS I HAVE LOVED YOU…”  [Emphasis mine]  That is totally different.   Loving our neighbors, even as we love ourselves, is incomplete and may not be unconditional.  

However, the “Just As” changes that.   Jesus also said, “If you love Me, you will keep my commandments.”   He did not say “maybe.”   He said, “You Will.”    He connected love to obedience and answered prayers.   We need to guard against making it something earned.   Earning it is not an expression of recognition of Unconditional Love; it is rooted in selfishness.   

Jesus repeatedly said “if” you Love Me.  “If” you keep my commandments.  “If,” in that state, you ask Anything, you receive it.  “If” we are not receiving, we might want to check the Love Factor of our hearts.

We cannot love unconditionally until we know and receive His Unconditional Love.   Receiving Everything we ask for would destroy us if our hearts were not Totally Pure!

That which flows out of us is that which is in us. 

• If we love God with our whole hearts, then we can love people with His Heart. 
• If we love Just as Jesus loves, we love selflessly, unselfishly, and unconditionally.  

In that state of heart and mind, we are united with God and fertile ground for answered prayer.   We become those who, through love, live with no sense of lack or defeat.   We are no longer offendable and totally free of hate.   We become manifestations of Jesus.  The heavens open to us.  We live victoriously.   We know that our prayers are answered, and Nothing can stop us.  It is in the Just As…

Lord, make us “Just As” people, please.

Have a great Just As Day in Jesus!

Acts 19: 12-16 – “From then on Pilate sought to release him, but the Jews cried out, “If you release this man, you are not Caesar’s friend. Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar.” ¹³ So when Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judgment seat at a place called The Stone Pavement, and in Aramaic Gabbatha. ¹⁴ Now it was the day of Preparation of the Passover. It was about the sixth hour.  He said to the Jews, “Behold your King!” ¹⁵ They cried out, “Away with him, away with him, crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Shall I crucify your King?” The chief priests answered, “We have no king but Caesar.” ¹⁶ So he delivered him over to them to be crucified.“

Several things captured my heart and filled my thoughts as I mused on the closing chapters of the Gospel of John.   The Jewish hierarchy brought Jesus to Pilate for condemnation.   Pilate chastised them for bringing an innocent man to him.   Their jealousy and desire to protect their religious structure drove them to this action.

In John 19:15, Pilate asked, “Shall I crucify your king?”  It was another opportunity to acknowledge Jesus, but they responded out of their true hearts – “We have no king but Caesar.”   Wow!   Sadly, many are there today.   They have made man’s government and mammon their King and their God.    

When Pilate prepared the plaque identifying Jesus as the King of the Jews, those religionists protested. Pilate’s response is a reality of life: “What I have written, I have written.” The only time we can alter our story is while we are alive.   Our final chapter will end badly if we have no King but Caesar.   Many are trying to have Caesar as King and claim inheritance and family membership in the kingdom of God.

Malachi 2:17 speaks to that.  “You have wearied Me (God) with your words…”  That is an attention-getter.   How did they weary God?  “In that you say, everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the LORD, and He delights in such; OR, where is the God who judges righteousness judgments?”

Attributing to God the cause of evil and twisting His Word reveals a corrupt heart and blinded mind.  But, if one has no King but Caesar, this is the norm.

God has set before us life and death, blessing and curse.  He has opened the door, and we are writing our own book.  What we write will stay with us eternally.  The Holy Spirit wants to edit our book.

It is needful that we take a stand for God and against evil.  Tomorrow is not guaranteed, so Now is the Time!   God’s desire is fellowship and blessing for you.  Your choice determines what He does for you, in and through you.  What you write, you write. 

Take your tablet and write Victory!  That is your heritage! 

Have a Great Day enjoying the complete victory Jesus has provided! 

Acts 1:8 – “ But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.”  KJV

As I completed another trip through the Bible this year, I decided to reuse an old Bible with a wealth of notes in the margins for my next trip.   It was moving to read the Word of God and review what I had seen in the past.

The Book of Acts offers a powerful history and pattern to embrace.   Acts 1:8 brings us words in red—words that are direct quotes of Jesus.   He said they would be witnesses after or when they received the Holy Spirit. God’s choice of words is always purposeful. 

He did not say they would witness but would “be” witnesses.  Everything about them would testify of Christ and faith in Him.  This is being, not just doing!  The Holy Spirit gives the power and anointing to BE!  That anointing helps us navigate the will of God rightly.

An example of this is in this chapter and the next.   It is a visible contrast.   Peter, impetuous Peter, declared that they had to select someone to replace Judas.   Someone was to replace him. My question is, was it their responsibility to elect a replacement?  They were not elected; they had been selected by God, and now they are holding an election to determine God’s will.

They chose two men, prayed, asked God to pick from their picks, and called that His will.   Was it?   Possibly, but could it be that Paul was God’s pick, and He would have appointed him in His timing?  My thought is that without the anointing, we may make decisions attempting to get God to pick our pick.  However, with the anointing, we wait for God to give us His choice.

Acts 2 is a totally different scene.  It reminded me of an event some years ago as I led a congregation. I had exhausted all efforts to reach a man and failed each time.   One Sunday, I was preaching, and suddenly, I began to speak in an unknown tongue for several minutes.   Then, I finished my message in English.  It was an unusual occurrence!

A few days later, the man’s wife told me what had happened. Her husband asked, “Where did your pastor learn Swedish?”  She assured him that I did not speak Swedish. He said, “Yes, he does. ” Sunday, he spoke to me in fluent Swedish and told me things no one could know.”  A couple of weeks later, he was in the hospital, and I visited him.  He related that event, and in the course of our conversation, the man accepted the Lord. 

My human efforts had failed, but with the anointing, I became a witness that produced God’s desired results.   I have, at times, acted out of my knowledge, emotions, and preferences and failed.  I have tried to convince myself and others that our plan, like replacing Judas, was the right way.   It birthed an Ishmael or a Mathias who was obscure.  But the anointing produces an Acts 2 result.

We should seek God and refuse to act without His anointing.   Jesus ONLY did what He saw and ONLY said what He heard through the anointing.     We have the anointing if we have the Holy Spirit, and we “are” manifestations of Him.  I encourage you to begin exercising your spiritual authority today.  It is your heritage!

Have a Great Day, and may the Holy Spirit guard and guide your footsteps!

Genesis 26:2 – “The Lord appeared to Isaac and said, “Do not go down to Egypt; settle down in the land that I will point out to you.”

Genesis 26 was the launching pad for the reminder that the Holy Spirit impressed upon my heart today.   Isaac had received Rebekah, his God-chosen bride, and then a problem surfaced.   It was not a problem between then or because of the union but a famine. 

The famine (though real) is a picture of troubles in life.   Difficult times came upon them and the land.   Isaac wanted to flee to Egypt.    Man tends to seek help from what he knows and to look for the easy way out of difficulty.

God said, “Do not…”  If God says, “Do Not,” it is time to stop the presses and Listen!    God said, “Do Not go down to Egypt; Stay in the land (place) of which I shall tell you.”    That’s the key – Careful and Detailed Obedience!

God rehearsed the Covenant Promises to Isaac.   Isaac obeyed the directive but almost messed everything up. He allowed fear and human reason to control him.   He told the king, “She is my sister.”    No, Isaac, she is your cousin and your wife, not your sister.   That was a lie.   Thankfully, God intervened.

Genesis 26:12 – “Now Isaac sowed In the Land…”  Of course, he planted seeds in the ground, but the land is the place God directed.   Sowing in any field that God has not directed will produce little.   It says, “…and reaped In the Same Year a hundredfold.  And the LORD blessed him.”   A hundredfold return sounds like a blessing to me; notice the word But…  The “But” indicates that God lavishly blessed him.   He became extraordinarily wealthy or blessed.

The Key is that if we run from trouble, we get into more trouble.   Each new trouble is piled on top of the original trouble, and we reach a state of hopelessness.   But, if we obey and stay where we are assigned, heaven opens, and blessings flow. Please remember that this may not be monetary, but we will become rich in God, and in that blessed state, we will have Perfect Peace and learn to live with No Sense of Lack!

Think about this reality – We cannot lack because we are His, and He has no lack!  Visualize the provision for whatever you truly need.  Health, peace, guidance, authority, finances, Anything and Everything!   What is there that God does not have or cannot do?

We can only enjoy access to the promises and provisions by staying where He assigned us and facing any lion in the street.  Remember, “We are More Than Conquerors!”

God has provided us the doorway to victory; let’s enter the door and embrace the provisions of the Kingdom.   Have a Great Day in Jesus!

Numbers 13:33 – “We even saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak came from the Nephilim), and we seemed like grasshoppers both to ourselves and to them.”

I pray that God will set divine appointments and encounters for each of you.  I ask that he bring angels unaware to lead you into His fullness and enable you to fulfill your purpose(s) in Christ.    I ask that whatever you need be provided materially, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.   I pray that no weapon will be able to stand and no obstacles able to hinder you!

A word kept echoing in my heart as I contemplated this devotional today.  It was the word “Grasshopper.”    Grasshopper?   Yes, the tiny creature that has little power and intimidates none of God’s creations.

In Numbers 13:33, the spies or forward recon squad saw the Nephilim (demonic giants), and fear overwhelmed ten of them.  They saw themselves in the mirror of their minds as grasshoppers.  As a result, the Nephilim saw them and saw themselves as grasshoppers.    They became grasshoppers figuratively.

2 Corinthians 3:17-18 speaks to this condition.  As we look into the mirror of life (our mind’s creations of reality or God’s Word), we become what we behold.  If we have the veil of doubt removed through Jesus, we look into the mirror of the Word and are Transformed into what we see!

How do we see Jesus in our lives?  We tend to separate and compartmentalize ourselves.   But what we are, we are in totality.   How do we see Jesus?  How do we see Jesus in us? That determines how we see ourselves.   Are we Spiritual Grasshoppers or Overcomers?

God says that we are overwhelming conquerors.  The devil says we are grasshoppers.   How we think, live, talk, and react reveals who we are.  How do you see yourself?  How do you want to see yourself? 

Make it a practice to look into God’s mirror rather than the mirror of the mind.  You will become what you focus on.   Are you a grasshopper or an overcomer?  It is your choice; therefore, choose victory!

May you become Mighty in Jesus and not see yourself as a Spiritual Grasshopper.  Today is a day of overcoming!