Fear, Go!

On March 12, 2020   /   Word of the Day   /   2 Comments

Judges 6:23

The LORD said to him, “Peace to you, do not fear; you shall not die.”

I must write again on the Corona virus, or more to the point, the spread of the virus. I have been amazed at the reaction to this virus. It seems that the reaction has been stronger than with previous contagious diseases. This has moved me to tell you one thing which feeds and spreads the virus at least as much as any other factor. Fear.

Fear is fueling the spread of Covid 19. One of my friends brought up a good point recently. The Corona virus has a name and every name must bow to the name of Jesus. Jesus is the pinnacle. He and his name are the highest things in this or any other universe. Everything, including Covid 19, must bow to Jesus, but fear is powerful.

Do you remember that Job realized that his dread had drawn the very thing he feared to him? He finally learned that faith in the Father overcomes fear and all its contaminates. Faith presides over the faithful and there is no fear in faith.

Whose banner are we flying? Even as Christians we may find ourselves falling in fear rather than standing in faith. You’ve got to say, “This virus shall not touch me or my family. We are immune to its effects.” No disease, no pestilence or plague has any right to touch your body. I don’t expect you to be foolish. Wash your hands, but tell other people and yourself that your God is bigger than any virus this planet has ever bred. Let faith words come out of your mouth. Say, “God’s protection is over my family and Father, I thank you that no disease can come near my family.” You have a promise of health. Use it! Don’t just sit and be a passive victim. Speak! You gotta say something. What will you say? Will they be fear words or faith words?

This is a great evangelical opportunity. Share the love of God. Give people the good news. Dig out some protection verses and some healing verses and make a stand. You know, you can go to our website and run a search and find lots of verses and support.

I am telling you, fear is spreading this virus. Control the fear and you will control the virus. Control the fear and you will eliminate the virus. Let the people of faith stand up and say something. My God is bigger than a virus. He is salvation to all people. Will we be counted in this time of crisis or will we be silent? May the earth tremble with our united voice. Our God, Yahweh, is King. He presides over all and everything that is named must bow to Him. He is health. He is wellness and there is no fear in Him.

I shall not fear! Will you encourage someone today with your bold faith?

Back to Top

Heal the Wounds

On March 11, 2020   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Isaiah 61: 1             Passion Translation

The mighty Spirit of Lord Yahweh is wrapped around me because Yahweh has anointed me, . . . He sent me to heal the wounds of the brokenhearted.

I have been thinking on this verse for some time now and I am not sure that we fully embrace its meaning or significance for our own personal experience. So, today, let’s think about the brokenhearted. Who are they? What does this verse imply or express for them?

First, who are the brokenhearted? Well, at some level it is each of us, right? Raise your hand if you have never had a hurt heart. Everyone has suffered heartbreak. It’s part of life but so is healing and that is where I want to focus today. Before we look at healing, let’s think about how one suffers heartbreak.

We often think of a romantic breakup, maybe even a divorce. If that doesn’t hurt your heart, then you need heart surgery to replace that stone heart with a human one. Of course, it hurts. You would be a lesser being if it didn’t. What about the death of a loved one? That’s heartbreaking. What else? Each of has lived through times that threatened to splinter our hearts beyond repair. For me, one of the hardest was the second knee injury which effectively closed the door on my collegiate sports. We each can point to many times when our hearts took a very hard knock. In some cases, the injury was so acute that we failed to heal. Some were battered and bruised; others shattered. Some healed, others continue to suffer the brokenness. However, there is hope and there is help and you know help’s name.

The Passion Translation calls this chapter, “Messiah’s Mission.” One of the anointings which is upon Jesus is for healing. Yahweh anointed Jesus to heal the wounds of our broken hearts. Many of you can attest to how Jesus lifted you in your darkest moments. You can tell of how Jesus touched your broken heart and made you whole again. Unfortunately, there are even more people for whom this story is incomplete. They have yet to experience the fullness, the completeness of Jesus’ healing. Perhaps, though, each of us has at least a small injury which is still unhealed, one that would benefit from the master’s touch.

The reason some of you are enjoying healing and others are plagued by lingering damage is your ability to open that injured heart to Jesus’ ministrations. Some of us are too busy to spend time letting Jesus touch our hearts. Some of us are just too lazy. Both are ridiculous excuses, but they work. We don’t slow down long enough or spend enough quiet time with Jesus to ever let him touch our hearts. We only slow down long enough to talk; not long enough, to hear. Some won’t even read to the end of this devotion to hear what the Lord would say to them when he is desperate to touch them and relieve their suffering.

The other major impediment to healing is fear. One of the reasons people don’t slow down and listen to the voice of our Lord is because they are afraid of what he will say, afraid of what he will see within us, and deathly afraid of seeing it for ourselves. We can be afraid of the healing too. That gets played out in the world all the time. People are sick but afraid to go to the doctor for a diagnosis. It’s crazy but it’s real, and it’s powerful. Some people are so afraid that the healing, whether by medical science or by Jesus, is going to be painful that they choose to live with the pain of the injury. That also is ludicrous, but we are pain avoidance organisms. Even though we have the ability to think and reason, many times base emotions overrule rationality.

I wish I could touch you and heal your emotions. I wish, with a word, I could evaporate the scars from your broken heartedness, but each of us must make that individual decision to be healed. Those who do not allow themselves to heal end up inflicting their pain on others and then it becomes a vicious cycle. Let me be the one who tells you the truth about the pain of healing. Yes, it hurts. HOWEVER, it is so very brief and miniscule in comparison to the pain brought about by the lack of healing. Yes, I remember facing down the fear in my own life, but the pain of healing is so small and temporary that I have learned to face it much more bravely. It is an instant whereas people live their entire lives with a broken heart. They live a superficial, meaningless existence because they are too afraid to go deep. It is a horrible existence when they could have freedom. They could be healed and enjoy the joy of Jesus’ Spirit. Worst of all, their misery is contagious. They spread it to their family and friends. There is no relief for them because they don’t truly know the healer. They may be Christians, but they don’t “know” Jesus. Jesus has been anointed to heal our hearts. Yahweh sent him into the earth to remedy the brokenness. If we want to live as realized Christians, we must allow him into every part of our lives, even those dark corners where we have clustered every hurt and disappointment.

Who do you know who needs a touch from Jesus? Who do you know who has, at one time or another, had their heart broken? Will you send them this word of encouragement today? Beloved, Jesus came to heal us. He is real and his love is real. He can touch a heart and make it whole. He put himself on a cross so that we would not have to live slaves to our hurts. Won’t you reach out to him today? Won’t you let him bless and heal you? Share this with someone you love and let them know that Jesus wants to heal their hearts with his love.
As always, my phone line and email inbox are open if you need assistance. Bless the Lord! Bless you!

Back to Top

Praise

On March 9, 2020   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Psalm 92: 1 – 4

It is good to give thanks to the LORD and to sing praises to Your name, O Most High; to declare Your lovingkindness in the morning and Your faithfulness by night, with the ten-stringed lute and with the harp, with resounding music upon the lyre. For You, O LORD, have made me glad by what You have done, I will sing for joy at the works of Your hands.

How good is your praise? When I read passages like this, I am both encouraged and disappointed. I am encouraged because I see what praise can be and I am reminded how great our God is. I am disappointed, though, that I do not routinely engage in good praise. Even though I think and speak about how great God is, I don’t find myself praising Him like I could.

So, maybe like me, you choose to take today’s verse as a dose of encouragement. We too, can praise like David did but it means loosening up, letting go of some inhibitions. I think it also takes practice. You can always sing a song written by someone else but I would encourage you to really let go and allow your own words and sentiments to tumble out. And, praise doesn’t have to be sung. Maybe you just want to tell the Lord how much you appreciate Him. Tell others too, how great He is. It is good to give thanks to the Lord.

Back to Top

Healing Virus

On March 6, 2020   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Jeremiah 30:17

For I will restore you to health and I will heal you of your wounds.

Okay, I will admit that today’s title sounds a little odd. Blame your Dad! That is just the way He said it to me. The point is, Jesus is on site, in your body, healing you.

Have you ever had a fever blister (cold sore)? If you ever have or ever do, the virus that causes the sore remains resident in your body forever. That struck me. Why does it not always cause a sore but sometimes will. Then our Father showed me a spin on this.

Isaiah 53: 5 says, “By his stripes we are healed.” Whose stripes? Remember the lashings Jesus took? Every part of his body was striped by the whip and in those wounds was your healing. 1 Peter 2: 24 confirms this, “by His wounds you were healed.” So, as I thought through this in an instant the Father showed me that Jesus healed us thousands of years ago and by his stripes we were and are healed, right now. If you are healed, then you are not working on getting healed. Yes?

Because Jesus lives inside of you, his healing power is in you too. It is like that virus that causes fever blisters. The virus is always there even when you cannot see evidence of it. In the same way Jesus and his healing power are always resident in your body. None the less, sometimes we do not manifest Jesus’ healing in the same way that the virus doesn’t always manifest a fever blister. Under what conditions does the virus activate and create a fever blister? How do we activate the resident healing within us so that it produces health? That is the question.

Father wants you to know that all of Jesus’ healing power is in you right now. It lives in you like a resident virus just waiting to be thrown into service. Some people catch a cold bug, but you have a healing bug that attacks any sickness that invades your body. I like that. Healing lives within you. It is always there. You were healed; you are healed. Connect with that healing virus, activate it with your faith and Be Healed!

Back to Top

Obedience

On March 5, 2020   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Exodus 24: 7

Then he (Moses) took the book of the covenant and read it in the hearing of the people; and they said, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient!’

We know that the Israelites did not always do everything as God directed. In addition, they often complained bitterly to Moses. And yet, they did have the best intentions at this point in time. Is this like many of us? We have the very best of intentions but somehow, we get off track. Then we need a reminder so that we can renew our conviction. The quote in the above message is really strong and it would be great if we would all live up to it all of the time but sometimes we do lose our way.

What was the last thing that God told you to do? Are you doing it or did you get side tracked along the way? Renew yourself to doing all that God has directed. This, of course, includes all that we see in His Word. As you will notice, Moses read to the people the words that God had given him. We have those words and more. You cannot do all that God has spoken if you aren’t spending some time in the word finding out what he has said. Re-commit yourself today just like it is January 1st again. Every day you get the chance to start over, so take advantage of it. Commit yourself to reading His Word and doing all you find there. Let the Holy Spirit guide you. Let Him show you passages you need for your life and journey and then declare that you will do all He said and be obedient.

Back to Top

Restful Presence

On March 4, 2020   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

“My presence shall go with you, and I will give you rest.”

Lest there be doubt, this is the voice of God speaking – to you!

What a fabulous statement and promise. Perhaps this is one of those “promises” that you want to claim as your own. Maybe post it in your office or on in your car.

Even while you are the go, while you are active, God is not only with you, but He will give you rest. You do not have to go in the power of your might, but rather by His. He will be the fuel in the gas tank. As much as I love biking, this is the perfect time to realize that you don’t have to pedal. He is giving you rest while you go.

The more I see of the Bible the more I see how God has always intended to be an active partner with us. We remind me of young adults who are so intent on their independence that they do not realize they have willing partners. It is as though, in our spiritual life, we never outgrew adolescence. Somehow, we have the idea that we must make our own way in this world. That was never the plan. God always intended to walk with us, daily.

I know that when people hear that, they have little appreciation that those words could speak of a real world, tangible partnership. We get so spiritual and have such spiritual ideas that we have forsaken the reality. “I know God is with me daily,” we say but we have such a distant, ethereal viewpoint of that partnership as to relegate it to the world of fiction.

The promise that He will go with you and along the way give you rest has real world, everyday implications. It is the way we get things done, especially when we have neither the time nor the energy. I remember once when a friend was over-taxed with work and simply did not have the time to do all that needed doing. I advised her to take a few minutes and focus on God. Now, what sense does that make? She didn’t have enough time as it was and yet I recommended spending time on something other than the myriad of tasks on her burgeoning list. She heeded my advice and guess what, it worked. Somehow God was able to multiply time. She was able to get more done in less time with less stress. I am telling you; this stuff really works but you have to remove it from the realm of fantasy to real world application. You have to believe that God is here with us, right now, ready and willing to make things happen. If you can do that, you will be amazed at the results.

God wants to give you rest even as you go. He wants to be the wind beneath your wings and a shelter from the storms. These sound like clichés; I know, but they are not. They are reflections of how God thinks. Let Him be your strength today, while you rest.

Back to Top

Year of Prayer

On March 3, 2020   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Acts 6: 4

But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.

At the beginning of the year many ministers seek the Lord for a word about what the new year will hold for believers. Some of you may have noticed that I was quiet on the topic this year. The reason was that I did not seek the Lord on the subject, I rarely do, but He often speaks something to me. I didn’t feel like I had heard Him this year, but now I am certain that I did, and have.

I actually had the sense on January 17th that many of us were being called into a deeper prayer life (See the Word of the Day for January 17th). Coupled with that is a Word of the Day from December 20th, 2019. That was when I first began to talk about the new year. Now two months of the new year are behind us and I have a very clear idea about what God is saying to us about this year. We are called to prayer: to deeper prayer, different prayer and more prayer. He wants to change the way we have prayed in the past, add to it or maybe deepen it but there is definitely a call to prayer for this year and this call is to every one of the saints. I thought initially that it might be to just some of us. As I have pondered Lent and meditated on other topics the same answer keeps arising, “Pray.”

Each of us must approach God for ourselves and ask what He wants for us individually. Some of you have already told me you are being encouraged to spend more time in prayer. Others, it’s about the depth of prayer. For me, the Father wants me spending more of my prayer time in tongues. So, you see, it is not one size fits all. You cannot go wrong with any of those options, but it is best if you ask the Father what He has in mind specifically for you.

I am convinced, though, that this is the Year of Prayer and each of us are being called to prayer. Lives change, circumstances are altered, and revival is ushered in by prayer. We will be adding more members to our prayer team too. If God is calling you to help us by praying over the prayer requests we receive, then please connect with me by simply replying to this devotion or emailing me directly. Be blessed!

Back to Top