Comfort and Joy

On December 19, 2017   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Philemon 1: 7

For I have come to have much joy and comfort in your love.

Tidings of comfort and joy I bring to you this day in the name of Jesus. “Remember Christ our savior was born on Christmas Day.” He came offering us comfort. He is the gift of joy to each person. Joy is a choice, however and is the comfort he brings. His presents are offerings from God the Father but not all choose to receive.

As I listen to this Christmas carol, I hear in it Jesus’ evangelical message. It is different from many of the evangelical messages I have heard in the past. This one holds no condemnation. It does not scream that we are destined for hell unless we repent. This message from the savior king says very simply, “I have come to offer you comfort and joy.” Hallelujah!

Sometimes I think we misunderstand the word “savior.” Somehow we even confuse it with task master or condemner but Jesus, by his own admission, came to give us abundant life (John 10: 10). When all the world was lost and spiraling down to eternal torment, God, in his love, devised a plan to comfort us and to give us great joy. That was His big plan, to soothe and save us from ourselves. He sent a baby, probably the most non-threatening image in this world, to be our savior.

I hope you will sing about comfort and joy all day today and as you do may God’s love and comfort fill you. I pray that His presence within you will fill you with peace, the peace of Jesus, that peace which is incomprehensible unless you experience yourself. Love, joy, peace and comfort are His gifts to you today. Enjoy!

Back to Top

The Gift

On December 18, 2017   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Matthew 5: 23

Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar . . ..

This week I wish to bring you Christmas themed messages. I have been especially touched through Christmas songs and movies this year. One of my traditions is to gorge on Christmas music and I love, also, to watch the old Christmas cartoons of my youth. I find such beauty and inspiration in their simple but profound messages. Today, I want to tell you the story of the song, “The Gift.”

The story goes that a young orphan girl was on her way to the market when she stopped by the roadside to rest. There, where she paused, she found a small bird which had a broken wing. Maria, picked up the little bird and carried it with her to the market where she spent her last peso buying a cage for a home and corn to feed it. Over time, the little bird grew stronger and under Maria’s kind ministrations, healed.

This was the time of Christmas and everyone in the town made their way to the manger, offerings gifts of love and adoration to the baby king. Maria, poor and without resources was embarrassed that she had no gift worthy of the king. She waited until just before midnight to go in when no one would see her. As she knelt at the manger she cried for “her gift was unworthy of him,” but then a voice out of the darkness spoke to her. “Maria, what you brings you to me? If the bird in the cage is your offering, open the door let me see.” Maria opened the cage door and the little bird took flight on its healed wing. Just then the midnight bells tolled, and the little bird began to sing. The song was beautiful beyond words, a song fit for a king. This is the story of the very first Nightingale’s Song.

I was struck, as perhaps you were, of Maria’s desire to present an offering worthy of the king. Perhaps you too are grieved, as am I, that you have no offering worthy of our beloved Jesus. All we have to offer him is ourselves. In my heart I know my offering is a gift less worthy than a little bird. My offering is so insignificant that it is embarrassing to lay at the feet of the savior and king. And yet, it is all I have. As I recoil at the very thought of offering Jesus and the Father such a useless, unworthy gift, I am lifted by love Himself who says, “Thank you. This is the gift I have always wanted. The only one I wished for.”

His graciousness and acceptance is beyond humbling. He creates whole universes but the one thing He cannot get for Himself is my heart . . . and yours. If you want to give Father the one thing on His Christmas list this year, I know what it is. He wants us to strip away all of the trappings of who we are, what we do, our successes and our failures and just give Him our unadulterated hearts. He wants the heart of the child within you.

I pray that you will be overcome with the joy of the season and immersed in the love of the Father. I hope this week’s devotions will help you share your love with Jesus, the Father and with all people you come in contact with. May you be blessed beyond measure.

Back to Top

Christmas Presence

On December 17, 2017   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

I hope you will join me this week for a special series of Christmas themed messages.  I wish you a happy holiday as we celebrate the presence of God with us, Immanuel. 

May your Christmas abound with the goodness of God and the joy of Jesus.

God bless you all!

Back to Top

In Stillness

On December 15, 2017   /   Word of the Day   /   1 Comment

Psalm 46: 10             KJV

Be still, and know that I am God.

This is one of those verses which I like and often quote from the King James Bible. It is also probably the one scripture that did more for my ability to converse with God than any other. To come to know God, I had to be still. The NASB version is very instructive on this verse. It reads, “Cease striving and know that I am God.” This rendering of the verse spoke loudly to me. I was very frustrated with my inability to hear God speak to me. It turned out that I needed to not try so hard. I just needed to be still physically and mentally, then I could and did hear him.

You have heard me mention Dr. Mark Virkler’s Four Keys to Hearing God’s Voice and Dr. Jim Richard’s Heart Physics. Each of these are good tools for helping you calm yourself down so that you can hear God speaking  inside of you. My favorite tool of all is breathing. Yep, I said breathing. I have learned how to take a deep breath and clear the stress and anxiety from my mind so I can hear Him speak. Sometimes my mind is so active that it is like a pinball game inside my head. That is when I just need to take a deep breath and relax. In the beginning it might take me a while to settle but now I can usually notice a difference with one big breath. I also turn my mind to a picture of Jesus. Usually in times of busyness and chaos, there are lots of pictures and words running through my mind. So, I take a deep breath and perhaps picture Jesus seated next to a mountain stream. In a moment I join him there and the rest of the world slips away for a few minutes.

You will learn about journaling in the Four Keys. Check out, also, some examples of my journaling at http://www.bornofthespirit.today/learning-to-hear-directly-from-god/. Journaling is another good way to calm your mind. When you give your mind and hands something focused to do the chaos calms.

Once I could hear Father speak to me, our relationship began to change quickly. I began to recognize Him as a Dad every bit as much as God. From there I soon recognized His presence with me. More and more He became an integrated part of my life and more and more I yearned to have Him in every moment of my day. He and Jesus have become my friends. They are who I like to talk with. I point out my observations to them and they share their perspective with me.

As, I said, I have not arrived at the end of the journey by any means, but, becoming more intertwined with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit has changed my life, as you would expect it would. I find I long for them even more because life with them is good. Life has stress but when you have best friends like Yahweh and Jesus, it sure helps. They fill me with their peace and take my stress. They take my judgment, replacing it with compassion. Living in them and with them is just better than life without them.

I have shared some of my journey to getting to know the Holy Trinity and how I am intertwining my life with theirs. I invite you to share your experiences and successes so others may find a closer walk with Jesus. Simply click the link below to share your thoughts. Thanks.

Back to Top

Jesus is Real

On December 14, 2017   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

John 20: 27

Then He *said to Thomas, “Reach here with your finger, and see My hands; and reach here your hand and put it into My side; and do not be unbelieving, but believing.”

Yesterday I promised we would tackle the question of how we intertwine with Jesus. It can be frustrating when a pastor gives a directive without directions, I know. So, let’s see if I can help you find your path. I don’t pretend to have arrived. All I can do is show you the path I have traveled and try to share those things which have worked for me.

Here is a beginning place and though rudimentary, still necessary. We must come to the place where we realize and are convinced that Jesus is real. Thomas, called Doubting Thomas, didn’t appreciate Jesus was still alive. He saw him die, how could he be alive? Well, that is what the resurrection is all about. We, like Thomas, have to come to the same conclusion; that Jesus is alive. He is a real person with real substance. He isn’t an angel or some ethereal legend. He is a living person whom you can relate to and talk with. Okay, sure; he isn’t flesh and blood like the people you see everyday even though he can materialize when he chooses. None the less, he is real; he is alive. He is a living personality and until we really and truly embrace that idea, there is no way we can intertwine with him and him become an integral part of our everyday life. Jesus can become your best friend and your closest ally but first we must believe that he is real right now today and that he is present to interact with and in our lives.

The single thing that was most important to my walk was learning to commune with God the Father. Jesus is the way to him but eventually we have to reconcile our feelings, understanding and beliefs about God. Is he a religious image, a deity or is he a Father? I discovered that although I had a good relationship with Jesus, I had almost none with the Father.

In 2005, I learned that the fullness of truth is that God is every bit as much my Dad as my biological father. That revelation became very real to me. It was through communing with Him and getting to know Him that I came to understand that. The revelation was possible because some years before I chased God down. I knew others could hear Him but I could only occasionally hear Him speak to me. I was frustrated and angry so I flew out to LA to a conference I knew He would be at. I like to say, “I sought Him until He found me.” The Bible says if we will seek Him, we will find Him. It’s true. When I set my heart and mind to seeking Him, He revealed Himself to me in some awesome ways. So, first, let us seek Him out with all our hearts. Second, we must learn how to commune with Him. I will tell you how I was able to learn that tomorrow.

Back to Top

In Me, In You

On December 13, 2017   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

John 17: 22 – 23

The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me.

There are so many pieces in this segment of Jesus’ prayer. He was preparing to go to the cross, his mission coming to an end. I am immediately struck that he said to God that the glory God gave to him, he has given to us. Did you ever consider that? If we have been given the glory of God, how does it show? How do we even perceive it for ourselves?

Jesus went on to say that the purpose was for us to become one – one with him and the Father and one with each other. It can be difficult for us to intellectually embrace what it means to be one with the Father and Jesus. Ivey Ministries slogan is, “Intertwined with Jesus,” but can we truly be intertwined with him while we live on earth? If we cannot, then what did Jesus mean in this passage? The end game for this is that the world will see that God loves us even as He loves Jesus and that He sent Jesus. So, this intertwining really is essential because it is through our life in and with Jesus that the world gets to see him.

Life integrated with him is not the same as us acting like him. That is a good start but Jesus is talking about something much more intimate. He means a shared life. Have you ever been so close to someone that your lives express elements of the other? Was it hard, sometimes, to see where your life ended and theirs began? Although we need healthy boundaries in our relationships, there are also those relationships which grow so close that they are intertwined. Jesus is offering that and more. Our lives can be hidden in him and he can live in us and give expression to our lives from within. Imagine for a moment, walking along holding someone’s hand. Do your hands swing a bit? Who causes that motion? Is it you, the other person or perhaps the union of the two of you? Jesus’ joining his life with ours is something like that only much more profound. He doesn’t take over and move our hands and feet against our will or even of his own will. He also isn’t stagnate like a lead weight we carry around in our hands. His life with us is an intertwining, like your fingers interlaced with his so that who you are and who he is evidences as an even greater self. The joining of his spirit and yours doesn’t take away who you are it just joins two beautiful items together like putting a diamond in a beautiful gold setting. Together the two are even more lovely to behold and more functional.

Now, how do we get there? How do we experience this integrated life with Jesus? That is the key question and we will look at that more closely tomorrow.

Back to Top

Life and Health

On December 12, 2017   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Proverb 4: 20- 23

My son, give attention to my words; incline your ear to my sayings. Do not let them depart from your sight; keep them in the midst of your heart. For they are life to those who find them, and health to all their whole body.

Sometimes there is a war raging in your body. It is the battle between sickness and health. I know for many of you that daily battle is very real. It is not very different from the war that rages around us in the world, the war between good and evil. That war is being played out in a very real sense in your body. Well, we have something to say about the outcome. Our Father has given us some weapons of warfare. One passage says that, “He sent His word and healed them” (Psalm 107: 20).

We do not understand at the deepest levels yet how this works but we know it to work. Nor am I here to try to explain it today. But this we know, God’s word does heal. The thing is, you have to take it like medicine. In other words, you have to take regular doses for it to work. What is regular? Perhaps it depends upon the size of the battle you are in but I would think it careless to prescribe less than daily doses. Three times a day is not too much if you are in a real struggle. As you feed your body the Word, you arm it with the weapon it needs to fight sickness and sustenance with which it sustains itself. You also shore up your mind for the fight.

Believe me, the agents of sickness and disease are out there trying their best to destroy the children of God. We need the protections and armament provided us by the Father. Light and darkness cannot exist in the same space so send the forces of darkness to flight by shining more light into every area where you are challenged. Let the word of God be a lamp unto your feet and all your life.

Back to Top