John 13:34-35  – “I give you a new commandment—to love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. ³⁵ Everyone will know by this that you are my disciples—if you have love for one another.”

As I read, prayed, and pondered the Word of God today, several things clamped on my mind like a bear trap.   One of them was becoming one with God.  We talk about it, confess and profess it, but do we possess it? 

Why do I ask that?   Jesus said in John 13:34-35 that His “New” commandment was for us to love each other.    New?   He had said that before, and it was an integral part of the Old Testament teaching that we are to love God with our all and our neighbor as ourselves.    So, how was this “New?”

It is in the words, “Just as I have.”   That shifts it from the “philo” human brotherly love to “agape” God kind of love.     Just as is the key, and it is humanly impossible, without total unity or oneness with Jesus.  It requires total death to the flesh and transformation into Him.   Christ in us, through us, with us, and by us.

It is vine life!    It is surrendering total control of Everything to Him.  It is to have no desire that is self-focused.  It is full evidence of the new birth.

That’s why Jesus could say in John 15:7, “IF you remain IN ME, and My Words remain with you, whatever you ask shall be done for you.”   Your oneness with God and total death to the flesh eliminates wrong motives and desires, so your asking is God-centered and flows from God’s heart. 

Our part is obedience.   John 15:10. “IF you keep my commandments,  you will abide in My love, even as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.”   That’s the key, “Loving Just as…”

Are we totally surrendered to Him and totally dead to the flesh?    That’s easy to check.   Examine your thoughts, words, and actions.   Our Walk in His Word determines our Wind Up.  

My prayer is Psalm 51:10-12.  I desire a clean heart, right spirit, and life in His presence continuously.  Psalm 19:14 – “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Thy sight, O LORD, my helper and my Savior.”

To be a friend of Jesus is my ambition.   John 15:14 – “You are My friends IF you do everything that I command you.”   We cannot do that unless we are dead to self and one with Him.  For then He lives in us and through us.  

Are we one with Him?   The evidence is in Love.

Lord help us to manifest our oneness with You!

John 8:36 – “If therefore the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed.”

As I prayed, read, and mused on the Word of God today, the danger and damage of pride gripped my heart.   Obadiah 3 warned of pride. Jonah, a prophet of God, was miraculously saved but allowed pride to consume him.

He prophesied destruction and judgment on Nineveh, and they repented.   Think about it.   If his heart had been right, repentance and restoration would have caused him to rejoice.   He saw the mercy of God through the eyes of pride.   His Word did not come to pass, so he was embarrassed.  His pride was more concerned with his prophecy being fulfilled than with people being saved.   Pride is ugly and mean.

Pride elevates religious tradition above God and people. The Pharisees took pride in their religious rigidity and were heartless.

Pride prevents repentance.  Repentance requires humbling ourselves and admitting not only that we have done wrong, but also that we are wrong and insufficient in ourselves to redeem ourselves.   It requires surrender. Pride must be placed on the altar.   Pride produces shame.   Shame is the embarrassment that comes with exposure and admission of inadequacy and being flawed in our own eyes and the eyes of others.

To overcome pride, we must see Jesus!   In Jesus is true freedom, for in Him, we are no longer dependent upon ourselves.   In Him, we are free from the three deadly, consuming, destructive traits.  Lust of the flesh. Lust of the eyes. Pride of life.   We die to ourselves to live in Him.   Pride dies in His presence.

God’s promise and provision is freedom.   Are we willing to die, truly and completely die?

John 8:36 – “If therefore the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed.”   Receive it and live with no residue of destructive pride!

May today be a day free of the ravages of pride and filled with the peace and presence of the LORD!

Joel 2:12-13 – “Therefore, NOW, says the LORD, return to Me with all your heart, and with fasting and with weeping and with mourning; AND rend your hearts and not your garments, AND turn to the LORD your God; FOR He is gracious and merciful, patient and of great kindness, AND He averts disaster.”

As 2025 began to unfold months ago, I heard in my spirit, “This is the Year of Unveiling.”   I have not said a lot about that because I did not feel a release in my spirit to do so.   Now, I do!   I kept hearing in my spirit that 2025 would be a year of unveiling (good and bad).    That 2025 would be a portal into the next dimension of God’s purposes.   That 2025 would be a day of harvest and a day of famine.   What we have depends on us.    It depends on our focus!

As I read, prayed, and meditated on the Word of God today, I saw those things.   Joel spoke of the darkness of God’s judgment and, in the midst of the sweeping destruction, hope!

Joel 2:12-13 is powerfully revelatory and pertinent!  What was happening was in the midst of the events of Joel 1:4 – “What the palmerworm has left, the locust has eaten; AND what the swarming locust has left, the crawling locust has eaten; AND what crawling locust has left, the cankerworm has eaten.”   They were facing total destruction with wave after wave of disasters.  It was going from bad to worse.

Joel 2:28 is the promise of God’s purposes as the judgment turns hearts to or away from God. It is the promise for those who return.  Amos also shows a progression of judgment as God seeks to bring His people back.

• Amos 4:6 – shortage of food.
• Amos 4:7 – drought.
• Amos 4:9 – Blight, mildew, hail.
• Amos 4:10 – pestilence.
• Amos 4:14 – Overthrown.
• Amos 5:4-6 – God’s call to national and personal repentance.
• Amos 5:14-15 gives God’s desire with the promise of deliverance.

Restoration is like a rose in the desert.   We are facing dire times, but have the promise of hope if we turn to Him with our whole hearts.  I did announce that 2025 was the year of Thrive or Strive to survive. Which year are you experiencing now?   You still have time left to get on the track!

LORD, unveil to us that which You desire and enable us to Thrive, not just Survive!

Hosea 4:12  – “My people ask counsel of their own imagination, and their staff declares to them directions.”

There will be victory for all who do not succumb to deception and chase fantasies.   Those whose total trust is God will endure and produce fruit in a time of deep barrenness.  

As I read, prayed, and pondered the Word of God today, I was reminded of something I discovered years ago.   If our hope is in something to happen to change our circumstances, we need to ask, “Am I hoping in this or God?”  Deception convinces us of things that take away from God.  Deception convinces us of fallacy and bleeds into all areas of life.  It will ultimately be the root of our destruction.  Trust must be exclusively in God!

Hosea 4:12 is an interesting passage that provides a much-needed revelation and warning.  “My people ask counsel of their own imagination, and their staff declares to them directions…”   The picture is of a blind man’s staff guiding him.   He can’t see, doesn’t know, but hopes his inanimate staff will guide him rightly.

The word ‘imagination’ could be rendered as ‘idols’ or ‘false hopes.’  We all dream.  The question is whether the dream is God-inspired, God-focused, and produces humility and dependence on God, or elevates the flesh.

The Holy Spirit is tugging at my heart for Total Surrender of everything to God.   My hopes, dreams, visions, ambitions, and all the good I hope to achieve and accomplish.  He wants our Entire Self.   He calls us to die so that we can live.

The question in my heart today is, “Do I truly trust God?”   The answer is in my words, deeds, and dreams.  The answer is in my attitude.  The answer is in my response to everything!   My goal is Total and Complete Surrender of All I am to Him.   Philippians 3:10-11 is my target.   I desire to know Him in… 

“My aim is to know him, to experience the power of his resurrection, to share in his sufferings, and to be like him in his death, ¹¹ and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.”

LORD, give us God inspired Hope!

Luke 16:13 – “No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.”

As I read, prayed, and mused on the Word of God today, I was drawn to the thought of commitment and service.   As I read in the Book of Daniel, I saw this truth. Daniel, a captive, chose to serve God faithfully, and out of that flowed faithful service to his captors.  His commitment to God produced an unimpeachable integrity.

In Luke 16, Jesus emphasized commitment and service.   He revealed the necessity of choice in verse 13.  In verse 17, He revealed the eternality of God’s Word and the impossibility of God to fail.

Luke 16:17 – “It is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one letter of the law to pass away.”   Then, He seems to totally go off message in verse 18 – “He who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery: And he who marries the one who is illegally separated commits adultery.”

Is that off message?   No, I believe He was emphasizing the requirements and importance of commitment and service.  First is commitment to God, which translates into service and commitment to others.

Many Christians seem to think they have punched their ticket to heaven by doing their religious duty.   Luke 17:9-10 blows that out of the water.   We think we will get in and be rewarded for the dutiful things we do.   Commitment of the whole self translates into service that reflects the heart of God and is above and beyond.   It is service out of love, not duty or expectation of Reward.

Daniel first gave Himself to God, and then he was able to serve, which brought honor to God and reward to Daniel.  If my whole being is committed to God, it becomes impossible not to serve others.

Luke 17:20-21, Jesus said, The Kingdom is not discovered by what we see or do; it is who we are…“for behold, the kingdom of God is within you.”   What is in us flows out of us and impacts everything!  We win the lost through commitment and service, not eloquence and oratory.

Determine, like Daniel, to give your whole self to God and watch things around you change. It may not become trouble-free, but will be it will be victorious!

Lord help us to be servants even if we find ourselves in servitude!  Help us to manifest the heart, nature, character, and presence of Jesus!