My heart has been beating differently these last couple of days. Something is stirring inside me. I picked up a book yesterday and read the entire thing from front to back and something began a stirring within me..

I woke up this morning with some verses going through my head. I began repeating them to myself aloud. “I die to myself daily”. “Less of me and more of You”. “Humble myself under the Mighty Hand of God and in due time He will lift me up”. Not realizing I was setting myself up for the day..

After I finished that book I really started considering how closely I was listening to the voice of God throughoutmy everyday. Obeying His every prompting. And how so often over the years I’d failed to do this. It hurt my heart. How could I just walk passed someone in the store, hear God tell me to stop to talk with them, share the love of God with them, and not even turn my head and yet walk right on by? There have been SO many instances over the years where I walk through the store wondering how many of these people know Jesus? And how many people are headed straight to hell? I repented and finished my day.

Today I went to the grocery store. I had to pickup a few items. I found myself actually teary-eyed walking through the store. I was wondering as I passed people if they knew Christ. Then I started stopping people to tell them God loves them and Jesus died for them. Many replied they knew that and kept on walking. I came across a young girl with a little boy in her cart and looked right at her and told her God loved her. We began a conversation. I asked her if she knew the Lord. She replied that she did. I asked if she’d received the Holy Spirit. If she had been baptized in the Holy Spirit. She asked if that meant she spoke in tongues. I went on to tell her this baptism was important for her to be able to walk in victory in her relationship with the Lord. She said she hadn’t and so I asked if I could pray for her right then and there. I asked her name and laid my hand on her shoulder. I began praying for her to receive the Holy Spirit. I began weeping for her as I prayed. I asked the Lord to meet her needs, whatever they were. I asked her if she went to church. She named a place but asked where I went. I told her where I went and told her not be content with what she was learning but to go after MORE of God. I gave her my card with my phone number on it.

Over the last few weeks God has been giving me revelation on just what will happen come the time of judgment. How many people believe they’re headed to heaven because they made a confession of faith once, maybe as a child or sometime in their adult years but walked away in disobedience. Never lived their lives for Christ. And when they’re called to give an account for their lives they won’t measure up.

As Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 9:24, 26, 27: Don’t you know that the runners in a stadium all race, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way to win the prize…So I do not run like one who runs aimlessly or box like one beating the air. Instead, I discipline my body and bring it under strict control, so that after preaching to others, I myself will not be disqualified.

This is what my heart misses. The pleasure of pleasing my Lord completely. NO more will I fear. NO more will I walk on by opportunities. I ask for them. I will step into them. God use my life. Lord please don’t let me waste my life on myself. Use it for YOUR glory.

If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples.Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. (John 8.31-31)

O Lord God (Adonai) You have begun to show Your servant Your greatness and Your strong hand; for what god is there in heaven or on earth who can do such works and mighty acts as Yours? Deuteronomy 3:24

Let’s be clear who our REAL enemy is.. its not our brothers and sisters in Christ. If they preach Christ and HIM crucified that’s TRUTH (1 Cor 2.1-2). ITS the spirit behind anybody that comes against that truth by words or actions. Anybody that teavhes you to go further into your walk w Christ is FOR you NOT against you.. There’s nobody on this earth that has perfect knowledge. We are all off until we meet Christ. Let’s be united in Christ not competing for doctrine of men sake. Work together to bring the world to saving grace of Jesus Christ. Because once its over its over. There’s no 2nd chances in eternity. You go 1 of 2 places FOREVER.

“Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others” (PHIL 2.1-4)

Gods Word is truth. We can either swim around in deep truths or we can wade in the shallow waters of the Gospel. In retrospect I can see how God takes a willing person from glory to glory. I can also see how some can get stagnant in their walks because of sheer boredom.

Sometimes we read the Bible and interpret a verse one way on the surface. But when we’re tuned into deeper teachings of the Word it can open your eyes to new truths that you can walk in and transform your life. And if I ask whose gonna raise their hand to say they don’t want that?

Sometimes we can get bored and frustrated in our walks with the Lord and one way to avoid that is to ask God to teach you. Start listening to new preaching and new teachers. Then you can venture into new territory with the Lord. Then when you obtain new characteristics of Christ you can walk in a vibrancy for all to see. Psalms 138:6,8 says, ‘Though the Lord is high yet He has respect for the lowly.. But the proud He knows from a distance.’ In order to be teachable we have to cast down our pride. Realize we don’t know it all. This sets is up to experience God in BIG ways.

Job 8:6-7 says ” …if you are pure and upright, then he will move even now on your behalf and restore the home where your righteousness dwells. Then, even if your beginnings were modest, your final days will be full of prosperity.”

To be pure is to be clean. Proverbs 20:11 says,” Even a young man is known by his actions —by whether his behavior is pure and upright.” Are you clean because of yourself or because of Jesus? The answer to this will lead you in one of two directions. Hopefully it leads to a prosperity and blessing others can see.

Prosperity comes in all different forms. It could be financially. It could be relationally. It could be emotionally. It could be spiritually. When I started writing this blog I had the thought that more truth is given to those who are faithful with little. We can prosper in the Lord. Walk in victory over everything in our lives. We can have a vibrant relationship with God.

I challenge you this week to ask God to teach you. To step out and listen to different teachers. To receive more understanding. See what happens in your life when you do that. The Bible says that God’s got so much blessing for you that you cannot contain it all. Receive what is rightfully yours in Christ. Go as deep as you can into the waters. Don’t wade around in the shallow end.. See what happens.

“Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God.” (Luke 9.27)

Why are so many Christians not walking in God’s best for them? Maybe its because we don’t take God at His Word. And we miss out because of that. We walk in fear instead of faith. Jesus didn’t pay high price for us to miss that boat.

Luke 9.23 says if we want to come after Christ we must, “deny ourselves take up our cross daily and follow Him”. Do you suppose that means we reject or refuse or die to our fleshly thinking of Who He is so that we can enter into the Kingdom of God? The Strongs Concordance shows the word ‘follow’ in Greek akoloutheo leads to Revelation 21.6 which says, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will freely give to the thirsty from the spring of the water of life.” He quenches our thirst if we truly follow after Him. That means we can walk confidently in His freedom. The Kingdom of God, the authority, expressing itself through us because we’re denying ourselves, which could be taking place through the denyl of our own understanding and opening up to learning new characteristics of Christ, even if we’re old in our faith.

Verses 24-26 of Luke 9 say that if we don’t forsake ourselves and allow the world to influence our judgment of what is most important, it clouds our understanding of God’s Word. As a result we will be ashamed of His life giving Words and not be recognized by God when He appears in His glory.

So what is the fruit you’re producing that shows you’re connected to the Vine? (John 15.5) Is your life showing that in your weakness He is strong or does it show in your own strength and understanding you are strong? And where does that lead you? I think that Luke 9.23 comes first in this passage because its necessary for us to deny ourselves in order to experience the Kingdom of God before leaving this earth. Something for ALL of us to really consider as the days get darker around us.

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Sometimes in order to reach new heights with the Lord, we have to leave our past victories to reach new heights of understanding. For myself I have continually tripped over my past lessons how I’ve experienced God and these thoughts lead me to prideful thoughts, that lead to a comparison game. And then I stop growing and remain there in my thoughts.

I awoke early yesterday morning and felt led to open my Bible to Ephesians 3. Reading Paul’s writings about the Holy Spirit being revealed and bringing insight into the mystery of Christ, where the Gentiles are included in the divine promises through Jesus Christ. All this by the grace of God and receiving it as a gift. Paul wrote that we are to be filled with the fullness of God. Therefore, being strengthened with a mighty power in our inner man. And because Christ dwells in our hearts through our faith we can actually understand the depth of the love of God. And by experiencing love we will be fully flooded with God Himself! (v19)

Then I was led to read Ephesians 2 which speaks of our new life in Christ. Recounting the ways of our past lives before coming to the knowledge of Christ. But God so rich in His mercy, even while we were still dead in our sin made us alive and brought us into fellowship with Christ (v4-5). He demonstrated the immeasurable riches of His free gift of grace, not by our works He seated us in Heavenly places in Christ Jesus (v6-8). And through the Holy Spirit we gained access to the Father. We have a sure foundation that cannot be torn down because it is built upon Christ Himself. And as it continues to be built, grows as the holy temple of the Lord. As we fellowship we are built up in Christ through the Spirit.

This led me back to chapter 1 of Ephesians. Speaking of the grace of God and the blessings actually led Him to hand pick each one of us for Himself before the foundation of the world (v4). To display His grace through our redemption by Christs’ blood. Verse 10 says, [He planned] for the maturity of the times and the climax of the ages to unify all things and head them up and consummate them in Christ [both] things in heaven and things on earth. Having received the down payment of our inheritance, the Holy Spirit, that the Father will grant to us relevation into the deeper knowledge of Christ. By having the eyes of our hearts flooded with light so that you can know and understand the hope which He called you and how rich is His glorious inheritance in the saints (His set-apart ones). And [so that you can know and understand] what is the immeasurable and unlimited and surpassing greatness of His power in and for us who believe, as demonstrated in the working of His mighty strength…Far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and every name that is named…And He has put all things under His feet and has appointed Him the universal and supreme Head of the church…Which is His body… (v18-23)

I was led to read the complete book of Ephesians, starting in chapter 4 and going through chapter 6. Verses that stuck out were 4:1 That we are called to live worthy of the [divine] calling which we have been called to…keeping unity in the Spirit and by that same Spirit manifest the gifts we were given to perfect and equip the saints. So that we will no longer be like the immature and fail to grasp the fullness of Christ. And as we’re renewing the spirit of our minds we can walk confidently in our new nature. We can be useful to God as we serve one another in love.

Chapter 5 begins that we are to imitate God. We are to walk as children of the Light. As we do this we reject immorality of every kind and produce the fruits of the Holy Spirit as we walk in the Light. Paul says in verse 14 Awake, O sleeper.. and Christ will shine upon us and give us His light. And he wrote how marriage displays the relationship of Christ and the Church; of love and respect between a husband and a wife.

Chapter 6 gives us relevation into the real battle in this life. Verse 12 states we fight not flesh and blood battles but spirits behind those battles. Spirits of darkness and wickedness is behind it all. Paul gives us a winning battle plan beginning with the use of our battle gear, beginning with the supernatural strength of our God. And placing over our entire person the Whole Armor of God that we be able to stand when the enemy comes at us.

Before I’d gotten up yesterday morning I began a conversation with the Lord concerning what was stopping me from moving to bigger and better things with my God. Something finally gave way in my heart.. Then I started singing a Travis Greene song Made a Way and repeating the verse:

Restore to me the joy of my salvation (Ps 51:12).

What about you? What will you do to receive the over flowing presence of God today? Don’t miss your opportunity. Use your time. Receive the grace of God completely. Ask for it.

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“And Jacob awoke from his sleep and he said, Surely the Lord is in this place and I did not know it. He was afraid and said, How to be feared and reverenced is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gateway to heaven!” (Gen 28:16-17)

Well if we believers are now the house of God, what does that mean for us? The church is not a building put together by human hands but it is collectively the people of God (Acts 7:48). That means through our fellowship with God, we should be the way to experience heaven on earth. As the writer of Acts put it, “Heaven [is] My throne and earth the footstool for My feet…” (Acts 7:49). Blessings descending from the Father onto His children. Do we live like we have an open gateway to heaven?

The story from Gen 28 amazes me everytime I read it. Also in this chapter Jacob was blessed by his father, with the same blessing that Abraham received. He was obedient to his father’s wishes to relocate from one city and journey to another to find a wife. He stopped in a certain place for the night to rest. Reclined his head on a stone to sleep and had an annointed dream of a ladder resting on the earth pointed up to heaven, with angels ascending and descending upon it. God Himself prophesied in this dream the blessings he would incur, were the same ones spoken to Abraham. Amazingly, despite the kind of deceitfulness Jacob displayed, in order to receive this initial blessing from his father, God still planned to bless him abundantly. When Jacob awoke from his sleep he had a revelation that God’s presence was so near to him. Therefore, he gained a referential fear of God. He was in awe of God’s presence and how real it was. He set up something to remind himself of his experience. And marched forward knowing that if God was for him all of his needs would be met. And in the next chapter Jacob journeyed forward vigorously and joyfully 400 miles until he came to his destination (Gen 28;12-22, Gen 29:1).

His experience with God motivated him to actively to reach for and obtain his calling. We as children of Abraham get to benefit from that same promise because we were grafted into the family of God, by accepting the payment Jesus made with His blood shed for us on the cross; for our sins and our whole well-being (Eph 3:6, Ps 103:3). Do we live like that’s true? If so, do we have lives that reflect that?

God wants us to have life and life abundantly (John 10:10). Are we experiencing and displaying that life to a lost and dying world? How important is this in leading people to Christ? (1 Cor 2-3).

I just want to challenge us all to really consider where we stand in our relationship with God. Are we only surface deep and externally devout, while missing the internal experience of our God?

My experience lately has been God is at a distance. The Bible does say the proud person God only knows from a distance (Ps 138:6). I sincerely hope that this is not my problem. I sense that I’m just in a season that will end as I go deeper with Him. I feel like the Lord wants to take me to new places with Him. This will mean I can’t use the same means I have in my past with which to reach Him.

Just as Jacob wrestled with the Angel of the Lord for a blessing, we should be wrestling with the Spirit to obtain this blessing of deeper fellowship with God and letting our lives display this (Gen 32:22-32). While we’re quarentined in our homes we have lots of time to spend with our God. Let’s make the most of our time people of God.

“Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need” (Heb 4:16).

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