2 Corinthians 9:6-9 – “But this I say: He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. 7 So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver. 8 And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work.”  NKJV

I’ve known people in my years of Christian service that would be quite generous providing the spotlight was shined squarely upon them, and they were lauded and praised for their generosity.  They wanted the praise of men and would never give anonymously.  I’ve known others who would restrain their giving if it could not be done without fanfare and notice.  Both gave but one gave in a way that God loves and the other gave in a way that they loved. 

In this passage the subject is not just giving but how you give.  The admonition and clear fact scripturally is that if you put little in you get little out.  It’s like the old story that I heard when I first began preaching about a man who had prepared all week to speak at a small country church and when Sunday arrived he took his young son with him to the service.  As they entered the church they noticed a box in the back that was locked and the father took a half-dollar and dropped it through the slot. 

The service began and the man delivered his heart and God moved in a special way.  At the conclusion of the service, the pastor handed him a key and said the box in the foyer is our offering box and whatever is in it is yours for the service.  The man and his son went to the box and he opened it to find only the half-dollar he had dropped in.  His young son looked at him and said, “Well dad, if you had put more in you, would have gotten more out.”  We truly reap what we sow, later than we sow, and more than we sow.  That is a natural and spiritual principle that is timeless and infallible.

The issue of giving was further presented that God’s desire is for, giving to be done “cheerfully.” It is not out of necessity or grudgingly or even for show but cheerfully and the amount is to be what is purposed in the heart.  God will direct each of us the amount He has chosen to give through us.  Paul tells his listeners that as you do that God is not only able but will make All Grace abound toward the cheerful giver so that they will Always have All Sufficiency in All Things and may have an abundance for Every Good Work! That sounds like God is going to “give good measure, shaken down, and running over” to us so that we can Give Cheerfully !

I’ve observed people squeeze their gift so tightly that if it were a pig it would have squealed.  They gave but not cheerfully.  They gave because they had a religious sense that if they did not they would be condemned.  They gave out of fear, not faith.  They gave out of an unwilling heart rather than cheerfully.  They gave because a sense of guilt not because of love and joy to do so. 

God is not broke so if you cannot give cheerfully you would be as well off in the eyes of God keeping your money it will profit you little.  But, if you realize that everything you have is a direct result of God’s grace and provision and that He has allowed you the privilege of sowing into His field and that God will never fail to provide a harvest on seeds that we sow in the good ground for good purposes with a cheerful heart.  I do not suggest giving to obligate God but give because you love God and are thankful for what He has given you.

May God bless you as you go through your day!

Luke 10:17-20 – “The seventy returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name.” 18 And He said to them, “I was watching Satan fall from heaven like lightning.  19 “Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing will injure you.  20 “Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are recorded in heaven.”  NASU

Now some may wonder about my title and even ask, “Why would I want to know how to become puffed up?”  Hopefully you wouldn’t, but I feel the need to sound a warning that if we focus on the wrong thing, the lesser in importance, or anything that might open the door for the devil to suggest – “You are something” we are in danger of becoming puffed up and that is seriously dangerous.

Jesus had commissioned seventy and sent them out two by two and when they came back they were in awe of the power of God and what they had been able to accomplish.  They said, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your Name.”  If you will grant me a little leeway here I’d say they came back with their chests poked out having experienced the euphoria and adrenaline rush that comes from seeing the power of God move, as I and many of you have. 

They were able to take authority over demonic spirits in the Name of Jesus and saw amazing results.  Jesus, knowing the hearts of men and all things, said, “I was watching Satan fall from heaven…”  As they were ministering He was watching Satan being brought down.  He further said that He had given them authority over all the power of the enemy and that they were afforded divine protection.  They were in a position and condition to do mighty things spiritually in the Kingdom.  But Jesus suggested that was not the most important thing to focus on.

Jesus said in verse 20 – “Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are recorded in heaven.”  That keeps it in perspective and helps one to remain humble and yet productive in the battle with demonic forces.  It continually reminds one that it is not we that are doing this but God.  It is not our goodness, strength, spirituality or anything else but GOD through which we exercise this ability and power.  We are more than conquerors through Him that loves us – JESUS!  It is in Jesus Name, Jesus Power, and as a result of Jesus’ sacrifice that we have Authority over the Power of the devil. 

So to help us avoid becoming puffed up and thinking more highly of ourselves than we should but maintaining the authority and power of God to combat the forces of hell we should always keep the focus on the source of our salvation and authority.  As we do that we will humbly stand before God and boldly combat the forces of hell with no fear of falling to a puffed up spirit.

May God be with you as you go through your day!

Mark 14:38 – “Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”  NKJV

In this passage Jesus was in the Garden praying before His time of crucifixion was to take place.  He had asked Peter and others to pray but they succumbed to the flesh and fatigue and fell asleep.  Jesus chastised them for their inability or lack of resolve to join Him in prayer but truthfully I believe that it was God’s design to allow the tremendous message of the above verse to be driven home to them and all future generations.  They could not have stopped the events of the Cross by any amount of intercession but they should have prayed because as this passage reveals it is through prayer that our spirits are strengthened to overcome the flesh.

Thus we have the directive of our Lord to “watch and pray”.  If you think about the events surrounding Jesus’ arrest and trial you will remember that “everyone forsook” Him.  Peter had declared that he would be the exception and even if faced with death would stand firm but he like a reed blown in the wind succumbed to the fear of death and the Jewish hierarchy. 

I believe that Jesus words in this verse were more directed to those events than any thought that had they prayed they might have altered the events of the Cross.  Jesus knew that the Cross was a must but he also knew that the carnality or flesh of His followers would render them sniveling cowards when the time came and He was trying to warn them that only in watching and praying would they gain the heavenly strength to stand.  They would use this after that event and many of them died martyrs deaths ‘standing’ and even when faced with the weakness of their flesh their spirits soared into the heavens and drew strength for God Himself.

You and I sometimes fail to understand the power and importance of watching and praying.  We fail to understand the need to so have our spirit’s strengthened that we can overcome the flesh and that when our spirits say YES our flesh obeys.  Sadly, too often we hear the NO of the flesh and it overrules the YES of our spirits.  It does not have to be that way and we can walk as overcomers but we cannot without watching and praying!

So today find time to watch and pray.  Find time to allow the Holy Spirit to strengthen and embolden your spirit so that when the flesh protests the spirit is strong enough to overrule it and you YES becomes YES both in spirit and flesh.

May God be with you as you go through this day!

1 Thessalonians 1:5 – “…our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction…” NASU

I never cease to be amazed at how frequently in church, spiritual things, and the life, we are willing to accept something less than the best available.  So many times politically we seem to be choosing between the “lesser of two evils,” and in life relegate ourselves to “average” and deem that acceptable. 

When it comes to spiritual matters and the church many have bought into the idea that the miracles and power that was exhibited in the Old and New Testaments were for another era and are no longer available for today.  I can only ask, “When did Jesus change?”  The Bible clearly says in Hebrews 13:8 – “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” NASU It also tells us in Malachi 3:6 – “…I, the LORD, do not change…” NASU  Then Jesus said to His disciples and to us generations later in John 14:12 – “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father.” NASU

WHEN DID THAT CHANGE?  I suggest that it has not and that the Power of God is still the Power of God today as it was in the yesterdays of our human history.  God is Omnipotent, Omniscient, and Omnipresent today just as he was in the beginning as we read about in Genesis and in the end as we read about in Revelation.  HE DOES NOT CHANGE! 

If He confirmed His word with “signs and wonders” in some bygone era will He not do the same today?  I can attest that I have seen the Miracle Working Hand of God in demonstration.  I’ve experienced it personally, seen it come for others and have two miracles of healing that I have documentation from medical doctors confirming. 

I’ve had broken bones healed and cancer driven from my body. I saw my mother healed of a broken back and the paralysis relieved.  I’ve watched people recover from sickness in which the doctors said there was no hope.  I cannot explain God and won’t try.  I’ve prayed for people to be healed and they weren’t and prayed for others and they were.  I can’t explain it and won’t justify failure to receive. But I feel like Peter and John as they came to the lame man at the Beautiful Gate and Peter said, “Silver and Gold have I none, but what I’ve got I’ll give to you.”  He then reached out his hand took the man by the hand and lifted him up only to see the power of God flow into his legs and he walked. I want to give what God has deposited in my heart to everyone in need.

I’ve seen hard-hearted men, physical giants, crumble before the power of God’s Word and their hearts melt. Tears would stream down the cheeks of those rock hard men as they wept before the Lord broken and repentant.  I’ve seen homes restored as the Power of God transformed hearts and brought reconciliation.  I’ve seen financial disaster averted by a miraculous supply. 

Yes, I’ve seen the POWER OF THE GOSPEL and long for more and more of it.  Not so that I will be noticed but so that lives will be rescued by the Power and Grace of God.  I get angry at what I see the devil doing in lives and cry out continually for the POWER OF THE GOSPEL to be manifest in my life and the lives of those I come in contact with.

May God be with you as you go through your day!

John 15:7 – “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.”  NASU

From time to time, we come face to face with truths and declarations in God’s Word, from the Lord Himself that we confess to believe but do not see the practical application in our lives and worlds.  I have often questioned, in my own heart and mind, “Do I really believe that?”  I also, ask, “Did God really mean what He said?”  You may never ask those questions, but I have of myself and others.  I seldom challenge anyone else with a truth that I have not reconciled in my heart and adopted its implementation in my life. 

I wonder, at times, if we, the Body of Christ and the world of Christendom, believe some things theoretically but not literally.  I know the answer to that but will leave it to you to answer in your own heart.  There are some statements in Scripture so powerful and life-changing that implementation and adoption of them in our daily lives would be transformative beyond our wildest imaginations.  This is one of them.

Any time Jesus said “IF” there was always a requirement on the part of His followers and a promise on the part of God.  Here He addresses becoming one with the Word of God.  I mean that literally, emotionally, experientially, mentally, ideologically, doctrinally, and spiritually.  He said, “If you…”  That is us.  We are the you of this passage.  The “If you” indicates an action and responsibility on our part.  There is something that we must do to enter the doorway or the storehouse of His Promise and Provision as indicated in this passage. 

I am 100% convinced that the reason this passage is not a current or constant reality in our lives is because we have not fulfilled our part of the equation.  He said, “if you abide in Me…”  We get that part right.  I believe that when we come to Jesus in repentance and receive His salvation we begin abiding in Him.  Of course, there are steps of maturity in our relationship, but we are either “in” Him or we are not.  There is no sort of saved any more than there is a sort of pregnant.  We are either born again or we are not.

The second part of the directive is where I have fallen short and would venture a guess that many of you have as well.  He said that we were to ‘abide in Him’ but also that His Words were to “abide” in us.  The word in the Greek is ‘meno’ and it means to stay in a given place, state, relationship or expectancy.  It has the idea of permanence laced in its meaning. 

Too frequently, we read the Bible but do not ingest that Word and allow it to become who we are.  Are we one with the Word?  Is the truth of what God says in His Word so much a part of our thinking and living that regardless of circumstances, conditions, situations, opinions, people, or anything, that Word is manifest in us as current reality?  I suggest that it is one thing to ‘abide in Christ’ and another to have His word ‘abide in us.’ 

What is the Promise for those who are both Abiding in Christ and His Word is Abiding in them?  It is mind-boggling!  He says, “…you will ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.”  Let me clarify a pertinent point in this.  We must never forget the warnings of Scripture about asking amiss and for the purpose of feeding our own desires and lusts.  God’s promise to give us the desires of our hearts is in direct connection with this directive of abiding in Him and having His word abide in us. 

It is at this point that we have the desires of God as our desires and I dare not omit the incredible statement of I John 5:14-15, “This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.  And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the request which we have asked from Him.”

The bottom line for me is, Abiding in Him and His Word Abiding in me.  I believe that I have accomplished or am accomplishing the first part of that equation or directive.  It’s the second part that has caused me heartache and disappointment.  I keep seeking to know Him and asking the Holy Spirit to help me embrace the Word so fully that it becomes a part of me and becomes me.  I want to make no excuses for my failures and the lack of the demonstration of His power at any time in my life.  I want to press into the Promises and see the Atmosphere of Heaven a present reality.  I want to develop the culture of the Kingdom of God in my life and live there daily.  I want to be an Abider!

God bless you as you enjoy this day in Him!

Psalm 46:1-4 – “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.  2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change and though the mountains slip into the heart of the sea; 3 Though its waters roar and foam, Though the mountains quake at its swelling pride. Selah. 4 There is a river…”  NASU

Before someone takes me to task for not completing verse four it was with purpose, so bear with me.  The longer I serve God, the more I discover that I discover new things about Him virtually every day.  The longer I serve Him, the more I discover that I am hopeless and helpless without Him.  The longer I serve Him, the more I discover there is to love about Him and find new reasons to Worship and Praise Him!

It is a most wonderful truth to realize, believe, and embrace the present reality that God is our refuge.  When we study the Old Testament the word ‘refuge’ is always used in connection with a threat.  Something is wrong or dangerous and thus the need for a ‘refuge’.  The threat can be physical, emotional, financial, or spiritual, but it is real and if we are left to contend with it in our strength it will overwhelm us, thus the need for a ‘refuge.’

The word ‘refuge’, as used in the Bible demands that we turn our attention to God and His Power, Promise, Provision, and Protection.  He is our shelter from the storms of life.  Unfortunately, some believe that He fails if He does not keep us out of the storms, but God’s promise is to ‘go with us’ through the storms.  Jesus confirmed that in praying to the Father that He was not asking that His followers be taken out of the world but kept in the world. 

The ‘refuge’ not only affords safety and protection but divine enablement and power to handle the storms and difficulties of life.  It is in His Pavilion Tent that we are refreshed, and His Grace is infused into our beings that we are enabled to deal with those things confronting us.  We do not cope, we overcome, through Him. 

In the ‘refuge,’ we find shelter, safety, and protection.  The first six words of this Psalm are powerful and so enriching we need to go no further but when we expand our consideration of the next six words we discover some incredible.  “a very present help in trouble.”  What?  When we get to heaven we will be relieved of the struggles of life?  When we get to heaven we will enjoy His promises and provisions?  Yes, but it says so much more than that, it says that God is our ‘Right Now Help’.  Present Help.  When?  In the time of trouble not when we are promoted to that world where there are no more troubles! 

THAT IS MY GOD!  He is the Right Now, God!  He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.  He is the Eternal, Living, and All-Powerful Creator of All Things!  He is the Only True God!  The Psalmist goes on to encourage us that even when things seem impossible to contend with and beyond our ability to handle, God is our Present Help.  Even if the world falls completely apart, He is our Present Help.  Even if Earthquakes send tall mountains into the sea, God is our Present Help. 

I love the beginning of verse four – “There is a river…”  Remember what Jesus said, “Out of your belly or innermost being will gush forth a River…”  Hallelujah!  That is My God!  He is my river.  He is my Present Help.  He is my Strength. 

My prayer and encouragement for each of you today is – God Is Our Present Help!  He knows, He cares, and He will not leave you helpless!  Rejoice even when you don’t feel like rejoicing because He Is!

God bless you as you enjoy this wonderful day in Him!