The God Version

On November 6, 2023   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

John 14: 20

On that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you are in Me, and I in you.

This is the great miracle, that Jesus lives in us. It is really quite amazing if you stop to think about it. Jesus brought a whole new way of thinking about our relationship with deity. He is the present God, God with us. And yet . . . we often think about God being off in heaven somewhere. We have this nebulous idea of God apart from us. God with us is, truthfully, God in us and that is a defining thought.

Who are you? Doesn’t that question take on new richness when you consider God in you? Wait, let me ask you this question, who is God? Now, get ready for a startling answer.

There is an amalgamation of you with God once you let God intertwine Himself in the fabric of your life, thoughts and dreams. No longer are you the simple you. You have become God with you. This is so important!

I told you this little story once. It’s about the day I rode my mountain bike through a lovely pine forest. The smell of pine was invigorating, the sound of pine needles crunching beneath my tires, mesmerizing. Above all, though, was the absolute beauty of that forest. It truly was remarkable so, I remarked to God about the loveliness of the entire scene. I, at once, felt silly for telling Him about this beautiful landscape as if He had never seen it before. He, after all, did make it. His response was startling though. He said, “Ivey, I’ve never seen it through your eyes before.” Wow! You see, in that limited way, He had never seen it before.

We are complex organisms. Our perceptions are colored by all the experiences of our lives. Even our thoughts are unique. That is why it is beneficial to have different folks in any planning committee. We see things differently, perceive things differently and will come with different thoughts. It always fascinates me how it isn’t a mere function of intelligence but also of all the tastes, flavors and experiences of life. People come up with ideas I would have never dreamed up even given hours, days and years of cognitive effort. All of this is going somewhere, and it is circling back around to God in you.

When you honor the intertwined you and give place to God to speak into your heart and thoughts, you become a God engine yourself. Your thoughts can be God inspired. The pictures in your mind go beyond what you would have imagined on your own. Here is a key bit. God can speak into you in ways that I may never be able to hear. He can paint on the canvas of your imagination in colors and shapes that others don’t see. Therefore, the thoughts you have, the truth you are able to share may be slightly nuanced from what someone else has perceived. That’s great! It’s not bad at all. When we combine our revelations, we see a much more complex and wonderful tapestry. How marvelous!

For this reason, I wish to encourage you. You should honor your thoughts as unique. The synergy that we should all seek is oneness with our Lord and Father. In that synergistic union, He will speak through your filters. He will see through your eyes. Had you been on that bike ride with me, you may have seen something different from what I saw. Maybe you would have noticed the crispness of the air or the way the light streamed through the pines. If your perception was different from mine, and it is almost a surety that it would have been, that does not make it wrong, or right. It is purely a celebration of God in you while my perception is an observation on God in me.

This Word of the Day is meant to encourage you to honor your thoughts, hopes, dreams and ambitions. Your thoughts are valuable when you are intertwined with the Holy One. God thoughts are light and life, but I want you to understand that none of us has a patent on those inspired thoughts. This is why God has more than one minister of His gospel. We each teach according to the light He has inspired within us. You too can have God thoughts.

Look for God, but don’t look to the sky. Look within. Let Him touch your thoughts. Your Father has much to show you and tell you. In your quiet time with Him, He will lead and inspire you. Be still and listen to that voice with you. God is speaking to you!

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Getting to Know You

On October 30, 2023   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

1 Chronicles 28: 9         Living Bible

“And Solomon, my son, learn to know the God of your ancestors intimately. Worship and serve him with your whole heart and a willing mind. For the Lord sees every heart and knows every plan and thought. If you seek him, you will find him.”

The presumption of the Word of the Day is that God’s Word has power and inspires our lives. I hope you find this verse incites something within you for I find it very enticing.

David is a Biblical icon. Many of our best stories involve him, particularly, his defeat of the giant Goliath when David was still quite young. His faith in God was larger than any giant and that faith won the day. What I love most about David is his relationship with the Father. That relationship gave the world a glimpse into what Jesus would bring to individual lives. So, when David paused to impart wisdom to his son, Solomon, I find myself intent on gleaning the meat of his message.

From his years of experience David taught Solomon that God could be found. He wanted Solomon to know that Yahweh is not far off, but rather that he could have intimate conversation with God Almighty. Most of the people around Solomon would have had a view of a distant God, but David knew better. It was this experiential knowledge of Jehovah that David revealed to Solomon.

David gave Solomon his secret to success. That is what this passage is about. It is a father passing on his wisdom to a son. A king preparing his successor. The key bit of advice for success was, “get to know God.” God is in a realm where you can know Him. He is here with us. That is even more true now that Jesus has come. Jesus, also called Immanuel, is God with us. David told Solomon that God is not only a God who is with humanity. He is more than the God of Israel. When David said that God knows every heart, he was telling Solomon that Yahweh is the friend of individuals in addition to being the God of nations. This was a huge statement at the time because God was not generally known in this way. David said, if you seek God, you will find Him. He was trying to encourage Solomon to seek a personal relationship with God. Not only did Solomon have access to the prophets and through them access to God, but David wanted him to understand that he could have direct contact with God. The way to establish that direct connection was to seek Him. Seek God and you will find Him.

This is some of the best advice any of us could receive, and I, for one, am happy to receive advice from King David. I can certainly attest to the veracity of it. Each of us can have the same kind of close, personal relationship with Yahweh that David had. David modeled the relationship for us. I strongly recommend reading the psalms that David wrote to get a view into their relationship. Not all Bibles indicate the author of an individual psalm. If yours doesn’t, you can always go to www.Biblegateway.com and read the New American Standard Version.

What would you like the Word of the Day to address? Send us a comment or an email. Maybe an upcoming Word of the Day will be inspired by you.

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Power and Life

On October 23, 2023   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Psalm 19: 7 – 8

The law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple, the precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.

One message I would like to impart to the body of Christ is that God’s word is power and life. There is nothing that the Word of God cannot do in your life. It has the power of restoration, healing, enlightenment, wisdom and salvation just to name a small number of its graces. Too few Christians really understand the power the Word has. To many it is just a big book we used to put on the coffee table where it collected dust. However, that may be an improvement from where the Bibles are these days. How many “Christians” even know where their Bibles are? How many have opened it in the last two months?

It’s like you have water from the fountain of youth or a miracle fountain and you can’t get anyone to drink it. Well, the good news is that this living water does not go bad. You can leave it on the shelf as long as you like, and it will still be good. An excellent practice would be to take a slug of water every day. You know, we have learned how to take prescription medicines and vitamins daily. How do we teach ourselves to take a dose of the Word daily?

I want you to have every good thing you want. I want you to be healthy emotionally and physically. I want you blessed coming in and going out. You are the head and not the tail. Miracles should rain on you like a summer shower. The only way I know how to get all those blessings to you is by giving you the Word. I pray that you receive a new revelation of and relationship with the Word of God today. It is life and power.

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Listen

On October 16, 2023   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Isaiah 50: 4

He awakens my ear to listen as a disciple, the Lord God has opened my ear.

When I began studying the Bible seriously, there was one thing that really amazed me. I was surprised how easily people heard God speak to them. I was unaware of God speaking to people today. I mean there were a few special ministers, I guess, that God spoke to, but not to regular people. That was not Biblical though and I had to face the truth. God didn’t lose His voice and people still hear Him today.

It is a good thing that God is still speaking. We need to hear His voice today. You too can begin to hear His voice clearly if you do not do so now. First, you must believe that He will speak to you. This verse ought to help in that regard. Ask God to open your ear then ask Him to speak to you. Next is the hardest part of all; find some quiet in your life. I don’t mean you have to just sit in a dark room for hours, though if that is what it takes for you to hear God it would be well worth it. In my own life I found that I had very little quiet in my world. There was almost always some kind of sound machine on in my world. If it wasn’t the television, then it was the radio or stereo. Sometimes I was listening to Christian teaching tapes, but even Christian teaching tapes and CD’s do not take the place of the voice of God.

I was amazed at how little time it took for God to begin speaking to me. In fact, I discovered that He had been talking all along, I was simply unable to hear. As soon as I set my heart to hearing God, there He was.

One word of caution, and this is something I did almost clinically in the beginning though automatically today. As you begin to hear a voice in your head, check it out against the Word of God. God will never contradict His word. If what you hear doesn’t line up with the Word of God, reject it. I also asked God to confirm His word to me. When I thought I had heard God speak to me, I would ask Him to confirm it by another witness and He always would. Usually, He would show me a scripture that agreed with the word I had heard. Sometimes he would use a minister to confirm it. Regardless, I didn’t move until I was certain that it was indeed God.

And that is all there is to it.

Also see: John 10: 27

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Rich in Mercy

On October 9, 2023   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Ephesians 2: 4 – 5

But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved).

Hallelujah!  Even in those times when you have to face your shortcomings, there is always this great word. God loved you beyond reason yesterday, and the day before that. And He knows your heart. He sees your goodness even when you fail miserably. But don’t use all your energy trying to succeed; in anything, even Christian things. Give up, give in and let God in. Use your energy in prayer, praise and thanksgiving and let Him do all of the heavy lifting for you. He loves you so much and He wants to help. As you expose all of your “stuff” to Him, He heals, soothes and comforts. He longs to take you into His arms and heal you. You don’t have to be so strong. You were never called to be tough. You were called to be His child. You were called to be the object of His love and attention. You can do that, can’t you? Let Him love you. That is His job. He is rich in mercy. He has more than enough. Receive an additional measure of Him today because He loves you with all His being.

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Peace, Peace

On October 2, 2023   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Isaiah 9: 6

For a Child will be born to us, a Son will be given to us . . . and His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.

Ephesians 2: 17

And He came and preached peace to you who were far away, and peace to those who were near.

One of the greatest commodities of Christianity is peace.  If you want a revelation, run a search on the word peace. Even if you run the search in the New Testament alone, you will see an amazing mosaic unfold before you.

Besides being the Prince of Peace, Jesus is also called the Lord of peace (2 Thessalonians 3: 16). Father is the God of peace (1 Thessalonians 5: 23). Paul opened many of his letters with the blessing of peace and grace. Peace, living in peace, being at peace with others and in life’s circumstances, is part of our heritage, our inheritance. When Jesus was about to leave the earth and return to heaven, he told his disciples that he was going to leave his peace here, for us. His peace, he said, is different from the peace we have known in the world (John 14: 27). What is different about it? To start, it is perfect. You are, therefore, entitled to his perfect peace.

Jesus warned us that the world has trouble in it and as long as we live in the world, we will be exposed to this trouble. Fear not, though, because he said that even in these times of trouble, we may have peace. In fact, the words he spoke, his teachings, were intended that we may have peace. “Take courage,” he said, because he has overcome the world and all it’s trouble (John 16: 33).

So, what is the point of all this? You know things happen which are unpleasant. Occasionally you must deal with unpleasant people as well. That is life on this planet, for now. However, you are not required to live in that unpleasantness. Your inheritance is peace. So, how do you go from unpeaceful situations and stress to living in the perfect peace of your Lord? Well, the answer is actually there in the question. Living in the Lord, is the answer, and the way to his perfect peace. I wish this came easily but for some, it does not.

Sometimes we must be uncomfortable enough to invest some time and energy. We don’t have to live in torment, but the way out is through. Jesus is the prince of peace, the Lord of peace. Time spent with him is the way of peace. To have the peace he left for us, we must seek him and his peace. I wish it fell out of the sky onto you, but it doesn’t. It is in Jesus and when you are in Jesus, then you will find you are in his peace too.

It is challenging for me to give an entire lesson of getting into that space with Jesus in this format, but if you feel challenged, please, feel free to contact me. Above all, don’t live in turmoil and torment when Jesus made a way for you.

Blessings, peace and grace to you!

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Balance

On September 25, 2023   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Philippians 2: 3 – 4

Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility consider one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.

There are two sides to this coin. The first I think is obvious and was the thrust of Paul’s message. Namely, we are not to be so self-absorbed that we fail to be mindful and attentive to the needs of others. Paul wanted Christians to get themselves off their minds. Truly, this is a restatement of the love commandment.

Natural man is self-concerned. Self-preservation is a primitive urge that, in civilized society, has morphed into many other forms of self service. God, however, has called us out of our “natural” state and into the Kingdom of His son. In that Kingdom, each of us is cared for by the Father so we have no need to worry about our needs or even our wants. In the Kingdom, we turn our thoughts to others. This is the perfect order, the way of the King. This is a very simple and understandable message. The only difficulty is in execution. Fulfilling our divine order becomes possible when we intertwine with the Father. Then His ways become our ways.

The other side of the coin and the one not overtly discussed, but certainly implied is that we must give some care to ourselves. Do I contradict myself? No, not at all. Father has the care of you, but He may have told you to rest your body or your mind and you have forsaken His instruction. That is failure. Father has not asked us to martyr ourselves. He wants you to take care of yourself. He just doesn’t want us to be selfish ignoring other peoples’ needs in favor of our desires. We are to follow Him in all things. That necessarily includes obeying His instructions for our well being.

In the Kingdom, there is no selfishness. When we understand the Father and understand the Kingdom we will not feel the need to fight for our wants and needs. In fact, all of our needs are in the Lord. Partake of Him and you will be filled. Then you will be well able to meet the needs of others.

If all your resources are going to feed your passions, you may need to check in with the Father, but do not fail to listen to Him about your welfare either.

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