Matthew 22:37  – “Jesus answered him, “ ‘Love the Lord your God with every passion of your heart, with all the energy of your being, and with every thought that is within you.’”

As I reflect on things today, the overriding thought in my heart is LOVE!   God’s incredible, unalterable, and unconditional love!    The Love God has for us is impossible to fully comprehend because we tend to compare it to human love.   God’s Love is unselfish, but human love always seems to have an element of selfishness in it.

Matthew 22:37 instructs us to Love God with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind.   That is very interesting.   Repeatedly in the Bible, we are told to believe in our hearts and forgive from the heart, and now Jesus says we are to love from the heart. 

The heart is the seat of who we are!   He says we are to love with the soul, and most definitions of the soul are “mind, will, and emotions.” However, when He included loving God with our minds, that causes one to possibly reconsider that definition of the soul. Maybe there is more to it than we have considered.

The emphasis is that we are to love God with our ALL.   Body, Soul, Spirit, Heart, Mind, and Emotions – With our entire being!   He is to be the focus of our lives, the center of our universe, and the all-consuming passion of our ambitions and dreams. 

If God is sought first above and before everything, He will make everything else better and properly relegate things in our lives.  Life has no easy buttons, but when God truly holds our hearts, minds, wills, bodies, goals, dreams, ambitions, and souls, Life becomes easier because we operate from His Strength!

In Gethsemane, Jesus said, “Not My will but Thine be done!”   He asked if there was an alternative plan but surrendered to the plan.   It would not be easy, but it was the only possible way for mankind to be redeemed, so He said Yes!    Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil.  I ask, did He?  I believe the answer is yes!

If He did what He was assigned and He did, why do we not exercise the authority He says we have?   Why do we live settling for less than God’s promises?  Why do we justify our inadequacy when we have the promise of His adequacy to guide and empower us? One reason is that we believe the devil’s report and have a wrong view of who we are. 

• It is time we reprogram our minds to become filled with Him and His Promises and Provisions. 
• It is time that we live as though God is telling the truth because He is. 
• It is time that we enforce the victory of Calvary. 
• It is time for us to exercise the spiritual authority He has given us. 
• It is time that we become manifestations of the Kingdom of God and pull down the strongholds that hinder us. 
• It is time for us to set the captive free and do the works Jesus did and the greater works He declared we could do! 

Today is your day of victory!  So, let us begin to expect God’s promise to be realized in our present.   This is the day the Lord has made; we should rejoice and be glad in it! 

Victory is ours, in Jesus!

Matthew 21:21-22 – “Jesus replied, “Listen to the truth. If you do not doubt God’s power and speak out of faith’s fullness, you can also speak to a tree and it will wither away. Even more than that, you could say to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and be thrown into the sea’ and it will be done. ²² Everything you pray for with the fullness of faith you will receive!”

As I read in Matthew from chapters 17-21, several things kept repeating themselves—healing, deliverance, authority, and faith.

We make faith mysterious and intentionally or unintentionally, consciously, or subconsciously blame God when we do not receive the desired answer.

It is NEVER God’s fault.  That is absolute.  We seek justification for why we did not receive it.  We say, “God knows best!”  Yes, He does, but He never contradicts Himself.   Jesus died for our salvation, and it is never God’s will not to save.  Yet in healing, deliverance, provision, etc., we say it must not have been God’s will.   Chapter and verse, please!

Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil. Did He defeat the devil?  Absolutely!  Then, why would Jesus take the stripes and revoke the curse, which was death, sickness, disease, and poverty, but will not give us what Jesus died to achieve?  He said repeatedly, “If you believe in your heart, you receive what you ask.”

I’ve been seeking the key to understanding and not bringing condemnation to myself or others.  Understanding so I can pray effectively, live victoriously, and manifest Kingdom Life now.

That key is the heart.  Not the mind but the heart.   The mind filters what gets into the heart.  If we develop negative thinking and adopt thinking that justifies failure, the heart is not exposed to truth and expectation.

I’m not there yet, but I’m pressing in.  If God makes a declaration or issues a promise, I am determined to believe it, seek it, and not be distracted.  I will guard my thoughts and words to focus on the promise rather than what I see or feel.  Either I believe God and act like He is telling the truth, or I do not.  I’ve had miraculous healing, deliverance, guidance, and provision.  Sadly, those have not been the norm, but the unusual.

God can not lie. Therefore, if He says or promises anything, it is 100% reliable.   My cry is for me, you, and everyone to recalibrate our brains, restructure our words, and renew our anticipation in Him. 

It is Finished!  That means nothing more needs to be done for us to receive God’s promises now! Total Victory is available and attainable today!

Lord, let today manifest Your truth in our lives.

Psalm 37:25-26 – “I was young, and now I am old, Yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his seed begging bread.  26 All day long, he is gracious and lends, and his seed is a blessing.”

In my devotional time this morning, I was reminded of a condition among people, even people of God, that hinders the Kingdom: having a bad short-term memory. A flawed short-term memory can be okay in some things, but not so much when it comes to God.

Israel repeatedly saw God’s mighty hand in Egypt and the wilderness.  Those miracles should have kept them in constant awe and faith, but they quickly forgot and made the moment their focus.   They saw and experienced God’s power and faithfulness but let selfishness control their thoughts, words, actions, and hearts.

Even the twelve demonstrated a flawed short-term memory.   Jesus fed the 5,000 miraculously. Just days later, the 4,000 and the disciples still thought naturally.   Then, almost immediately, they demonstrated a deficient short-term memory fretting because they only brought one loaf of bread.   Jesus reminded them of the 5,000 and 4,000.  Little is much when God is in it!   In God, supply is endless!   In God, ALL has been provided!

• Jesus said It is Finished, not almost finished.  
• Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil. 

Did He Finish It?   If All is Finished, then He did.   We are not tasked with defeating the devil or destroying his works but enforcing the Victory of the Cross, taking the thief to court, and reclaiming what he has stolen.

If we believe Jesus saves us, why don’t we as readily believe His other promises and victories for us?  He has authorized and empowered us through the Word and by the Holy Spirit to enter the Kingdom, receive the Promises, and bring the Kingdom to Earth.  Why don’t we?  When will we?  If not now, when? 

We need to reject the loss of short-term memory that is rooted in what you have done for me lately and embrace His demonstrated faithfulness.   We must never fail to remember! I urge everyone to let what He has done propel us into a new dimension of faith and trust.  It is not what we see or feel that is important but what He says!  His Word Cannot and Will Not Fail.

I urge you to begin meditating upon the Person, Promises, Provisions, and Power of God.  Train yourself to only allow His Word to occupy your mind.  Refuse to walk by sight but rather by faith. What God says is the only true reality.

Today is your day of victory.

Matthew 6:21 – “Where your treasure is, there also is your heart.”

I pray that each of us will enjoy God’s perfect peace, precise guidance, and the anointing to break every yoke and pull down and destroy all strongholds of the mind. I pray for God’s power to be manifested in and through each one!

As I read this passage, I was impressed by the Holy Spirit’s urgings of the importance of having an undivided heart and a singleness of purpose, which is God’s purpose.

In Matthew 6:21, Jesus said, “Where your treasure is, there also is your heart.”  What holds our hearts?  What is our focus?  Is our desire first Him and the kingdom, or does Anything else hold our hearts?

Dual service is not truly possible.   God is first, or something else is.  If anything becomes a greater focus than God, the Kingdom, and our purpose, it can become an idol, and even if it is good, it becomes a weight that hinders us.

One of the most horrific thoughts is that after life on earth has ended, would be to discover that I had lived with a divided heart.  Not hearing the words “Well done” would be eternally devastating. Instead, we would hear the words of Jesus in Matthew 7:23.   He said to those who had been in the church, ministering, preaching, and prophesying, “I have never known you.”  That would be beyond horrific!  

Yes, I believe! Yes, I have received His pardon, experienced the new birth, and been born again.   Not to get into a theological debate, but those who thought they were okay were involved in labor for the kingdom but had divided hearts did not enter in. God does not want any to perish but for all to have eternal life, but our choice is a part of the equation. John 3:16 is for whosoever will, that indicates choice.

The cry of my heart is to have God as the ultimate focus of my heart, mind, soul, and strength.   We must not get sidetracked by what we want if it hinders us from what His call is.  He gives the desire of the heart when the heart is undivided.  Jesus said that His food and focus were to do the will of the Father.

Matthew 10:38-39 are keys to victory and purpose.  “AND whoever does not take up his (personal) cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me.  39 He who is concerned (focused on) about his life shall lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake shall find it.”  If we follow Matthew 6:33, we find that God FIRST creates a platform for life to the fullest.  

In Proverbs, there is an obscure directive – prepare your field, then build your house.  In capsule form (give your heart to the call and purpose of God, then focus on your desires). 

My heart cries for God’s purpose to be fulfilled in me without division or distraction.  What I want or perceive I need is secondary to God’s purpose.   I want the heart of Jesus. I want a heart that says, my food, sustenance, and joy is to do the will of God.  Having an undivided heart is what I am hearing.  God’s call is to Singleness of Purpose.!

Today is a day of victory for everyone who seeks God First. It is your day to rejoice and enjoy God’s goodness!