Made Strong

On July 3, 2015   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

2 Chronicles 32: 7

Be strong and courageous, do not fear or be dismayed.

Here is a very important key in spiritual warfare. Be not afraid. If you want to know the key tenets of the Bible this is certainly one. I have heard it said that there are 365 places in the Bible where we are instructed not to be afraid. I have not counted them myself but if you take notice as you read your Bible, you will probably begin to believe that count is accurate. 

There is an interesting story in Luke 8. A synagogue official named Jairus entreated Jesus to go to his house because his daughter was ill. Before they could get there messengers approached him and Jesus with the news that his daughter had died. Before Jairus could take a breath or utter an exclamation Jesus said to him, “Do not be afraid, only believe and she shall be made well” (v. 50). Jesus knew that the outcome of the battle hinged on whether Jairus chose faith or fear.

If you think about it, fear really is faith in the negative outlook. Belief is faith in the positive outcome. You wouldn’t experience fear if you thought there was no merit to the negative report. It is only when we begin to doubt God that fear enters in. The more we yield to that fear the harder it will be for us to move back in faith and faith is what fuels our miracles and even our everyday answers. We must look to God and expect Him to be bigger than every situation of life, even death. Fear contaminates faith so in every situation we must hear the Lord saying to us “Do not be afraid.” This is a spiritual key.

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Leadership Trait

On July 2, 2015   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

2 Chronicles 32: 1 – 8

After these acts of faithfulness Sennacherib king of Assyria came and invaded Judah and besieged the fortified cities, and thought to break into them for himself.  Now when Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib had come and that he intended to make war on Jerusalem,  he decided with his officers and his warriors to cut off the supply of water from the springs which were outside the city, and they helped him. So many people assembled and stopped up all the springs and the stream which flowed through the region, saying, “Why should the kings of Assyria come and find abundant water?”  And he took courage and rebuilt all the wall that had been broken down and erected towers on it, and built another outside wall and strengthened the Millo in the city of David, and made weapons and shields in great number.  He appointed military officers over the people and gathered them to him in the square at the city gate, and spoke encouragingly to them, saying,  “Be strong and courageous, do not fear or be dismayed because of the king of Assyria nor because of all the horde that is with him; for the one with us is greater than the one with him.  With him is only an arm of flesh, but with us is the Lord our God to help us and to fight our battles.” And the people relied on the words of Hezekiah king of Judah.

You’ve heard it said that attitude determines altitude. A person’s attitude towards the situations of life determines how they will come through those circumstances. King Hezekiah shows us the attitude of a good leader.

The scripture says that in the face of Sennacherib’s threats Hezekiah gathered the people and spoke encouragingly to them. That is what we should be doing. Encouragement is a big deal. In fact, God has told us to encourage one another (1 Thessalonians 5: 11). Since discovering that God commands us to be encouragers I have been watching people. Some people are very good at it. Some people even seem anointed of God as encouragers. Then I discovered something. Leaders are encouragers. It turns out that encouraging others is a big part of what it means to be a leader. I didn’t know that.

Hezekiah saw that the threat to the people of Judah was not only to their persons but first to their psyche. The Assyrians were not knocking on their door for a tea party. Hezekiah knew that people would begin to be afraid so he gathered them together and encouraged them. You don’t have to hang out with God, the Father very long to find out where Hezekiah learned this skill. God constantly encourages and uplifts. We have all heard this verse from Ephesians, “Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear” (4: 29). We have focused on restricting unwholesome words but there is a second mandate; make it a point to speak words which build people up. That is what edification is, building people up. When someone does a good job, leaders tell them so.

I wonder sometimes if we have become such a broken people that we feel like we are diminishing ourselves if we lift others up. Really the opposite is true. We build ourselves when we lift others. This is such a big deal that the Apostle Paul wrote about it at least five times. I like what he wrote in Romans 15: 2, “Each of us is to please his neighbor for his good, to his edification.” Did you know this was the message of Christianity? Can’t say that I did but now none of us have the excuse of ignorance any longer. We have all been called by Christ as leaders. We are the ones who are supposed to be encouraging the frightened, and lifting up the weary. Start today being an encourager. If you cannot find someone to encourage, you aren’t trying very hard. Be a blessing of the Lord.

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Arrayed Against Us

On July 1, 2015   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

2 Chronicles 32: 1 – 8

After these acts of faithfulness Sennacherib king of Assyria came and invaded Judah and besieged the fortified cities, and thought to break into them for himself. 2 Now when Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib had come and that he intended to make war on Jerusalem, 3 he decided with his officers and his warriors to cut off the supply of water from the springs which were outside the city, and they helped him. 4 So many people assembled and stopped up all the springs and the stream which flowed through the region, saying, “Why should the kings of Assyria come and find abundant water?” 5 And he took courage and rebuilt all the wall that had been broken down and erected towers on it, and built another outside wall and strengthened the Millo in the city of David, and made weapons and shields in great number. 6 He appointed military officers over the people and gathered them to him in the square at the city gate, and spoke encouragingly to them, saying, 7 “Be strong and courageous, do not fear or be dismayed because of the king of Assyria nor because of all the horde that is with him; for the one with us is greater than the one with him. 8 With him is only an arm of flesh, but with us is the Lord our God to help us and to fight our battles.” And the people relied on the words of Hezekiah king of Judah.

This book of the Bible, 2 Chronicles, is such a great teaching on spiritual warfare. My favorite chapter on this topic is chapter 20 of 2 Chronicles. Today’s passage shows some of the key elements to prevailing over the enemy.

First, you see that the attack began after Hezekiah’s many acts of faithfulness to the Lord. Don’t let this frighten you but also be not unaware. Satan will try to dissuade you from doing the good things you are doing in Christ’s name.

Back in 2002 I went through a period of constant challenge. I remember some words of encouragement my pastor gave me. He said, “Ivey, this isn’t an attack. It is a counter-attack.” Now when you are going through some trouble the first thing that comes to your mind when someone says something like that is, “Whatever I did, I wished I hadn’t.” Of course, it isn’t true but you want relief from the present trouble yet it did, in fact, encourage me. I kinda liked knowing I got under the devil’s skin. It also renewed my strength. Most importantly it defined the situation for me. Once I got the revelation that this was spiritual warfare I pulled out the book of Isaiah and started attacking my enemy. Before that he was running over me at will. My pastor and friend from San Diego called me one day and started quoting from the book of Isaiah to me and from then on the attacks waned and then stopped all together. How bad was it? Well, I was in three auto accidents in three weeks, two nationally recognized banking institutions bounced checks to me for mortgages and so on. Every day it was a new problem until I realized that the devil was waging war against me. Once I recognized he had thrown down the gauntlet and that the battle lines were drawn I picked up my sword and started swinging back. That was that. 

The key here for me was realizing that I was in a war. Once I knew that I was fine. We have the might and power in our Lord Jesus to beat the devil every time but sometimes we fail to respond in kind because we have not identified the dynamic. I used to think, many years ago, that being a Christian meant we were going to live some kind of charmed life. Wow, I don’t know where I got that because it sure isn’t scriptural. Jesus told us that we would have trouble but to have no fear because he had already triumphed over it (John 16: 33). You see, Jesus’ victory becomes ours. We don’t even have to fight, if you want to know the whole truth. Jesus has won. We just take his victory and beat the devil over the head with it until he runs away. Your life in Christ isn’t charmed, it is victorious and we need to start taking the devil to task when he comes against us.

Tomorrow I will share with you another lesson from Hezekiah.

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Finding Answers

On June 30, 2015   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

John 14: 6

I am the way, and the truth, and the life.

I think we sometimes become so familiar with certain verses that we cease to hear what they have to say. This is one of those verses. It is amazingly powerful. The world is out there looking for answers to all kinds of problems. Unfortunately, we Christians often look to the world for every kind of answer too. We have forgotten that Jesus came to earth to be the answer. He is the way for which we are searching. Jesus has paved the way for us to go to the Father of all for every answer that has or ever will exist. The creator is standing by to give us answers and show us the way. Don’t look to the world for your answers; they do not have them. Ask your Father. He knows all and is more than willing to share all of the wisdom he has with you.

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Battle Lines

On June 29, 2015   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

2 Corinthians 2: 10 – 11

But whom you forgive anything, I forgive also; for indeed what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, I did it for your sakes in the presence of Christ, in order that no advantage be taken of us by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his schemes.

There is a quick way to let Satan into your life – stand in unforgiveness. However, it is just as easy to jerk the rug out from under him – forgive. I imagine this like a line drawn in the sand. On one side is the devil and the other side is the Father. When you forgive you step across into the garden of the Lord. When you stand in unforgiveness, you are playing in the devil’s sandbox. If you stay there, you give him (Satan) permission to come knock over your sand castle. 

Paul says, “Hey guys, we are not ignorant of the devil’s schemes.” Satan wants you to get offended and remain hurt and angry. Paul and the early church understood that this was Satan’s ploy. The church today teaches forgiveness but doesn’t really seem to understand the spiritual battle that is played out in this scenario. If we remain in unforgiveness, Paul says, we give Satan the opening to take advantage of us.

Now that is really a pretty simple teaching. I should think that no one wants to give Satan an opportunity to take advantage of them. Therefore, the simple conclusion is to forgive everyone who offends you (emphasis on everyone). Let their actions be between them and Jesus. Make your focus undermining the devil’s scheme by forgiving. That is where the battle line is drawn.

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Reluctant Warrior

On June 26, 2015   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Luke 6: 32 – 35

And if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Fore even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, in order to receive back the same amount. But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men.

You can know that God did not choose me as the editor of His book because had he, this section of text would have been edited out. This is Jesus speaking and presumably he is teaching from a position of understanding and wisdom. Whatsmore, everything Jesus teaches us is for our own good even though sometimes it is hard to see the spiritual law behind the command.

I suppose everyone has a thorn in their flesh and thorns are usually people. The worst part about it is that the person Jesus is speaking about above is someone you know. I hope it is not your spouse but it likely is someone in your family or church. It is usually someone close to you. That is what makes this so difficult. You can’t get away from them. Maybe it is someone you work with. No matter what a jerk they are you still have to practice your grown up Christianity. That means that we have to love the jerks even though it is to us that they are being unkind. And guess what. You really don’t even get to call them jerks. Verse 36 says for us to be merciful and verse 37 says “Do not judge.” I have to make a judgment in order to conclude someone is a jerk. 

Did you see the part about loving our enemies? How about doing good to them? What!? Are you kidding me? Now I will tell you honestly, you may be a bigger person than I but I cannot love them in my own strength. I feel strong, negative feelings bubbling up from deep within me and I want to give voice to them and they are not nice. That is me in the natural. If I am going to love them and be nice to them then it is going to have to be through the love of God within me. I am going to assume most of you are like me, still struggling a little with the flesh when you are injured. This is where we have to dig deep. We have to fill up on the love of God. We need Jesus to step out front. 

The first thing is not to let the junk come out of your mouth. Your will can help you with that but it really requires the strength of the Lord. Then start praying for the offender. You aren’t going to want to but do it anyway. Jesus wants you to pray blessings over them. It is crazy. Here is the part that is so hard. You pray for God to bless them and because God honors your prayers, even though that person is not walking in the light, they get blessed. Then they act ugly to you and Jesus wants you to pray more for them. “Look Jesus, I was already gagging on the last blessing they got and you want me to bless them more? Did you not see and hear what they just did to me?” That is what my flesh is screaming but then I am reminded of Jesus’ walk on the earth. One of his beloved betrayed him. That had to hurt. Others disappointed him but through it all he remained the picture of grace, love and blessing. And then I am challenged. I say I want to walk in this earth as did Jesus. Well, here is my opportunity. What will I choose? Shall I rant and rave and tell of the injustice done me? Or will I pray? “Okay Lord, you win, I will pray for them but you must help me as it catches in my throat.”

I imagine everyone can relate to this scenario. We have all been through it, haven’t we? So, you pray but a half hour later you find yourself angry again. Stop right then and forgive them and pray for them. Then when it rises up in you again in an hour, forgive them again and pray again. This is a battle but we are not unwise children. We have the might and the wisdom of our Lord. We’ve got to tag him and let him jump in the ring for us. He has already defeated the enemy and given us power to win. Our victory is in Jesus and in taking his advice. If we will let him be our strength and humble our wills before him, we will come through these battles victoriously.

And don’t miss the end of the passage – great will be your reward and you will be honored as a child of God.

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Sure-footed

On June 25, 2015   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Psalm 37: 31

The law of his God is in his heart; his steps do not slip.

Wouldn’t it be great to know that your steps will not slip; that your steps are sure? Of course it would. The way to accomplish that is to put God’s Word in your heart. The more you establish the Word of God in your heart, the more his wisdom is imparted to you. Then you are able to walk securely. God’s word has answers to all of life’s problems and it also has encouragement and strength. The more time you spend in the Word, the more you fortify yourself. Your steps will be sure because you will be well grounded. We cannot under-estimate how much good putting the Word of God in our hearts actually does us. It is a key to living a successful, peaceful life.

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