Blessed

On June 17, 2024   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Psalm 3: 8

Thy blessing be (is) upon Thy people.

God’s blessing is upon you right now. That’s great news, don’t you think? Imagine, If you will, standing before God and Him blessing you. Is that image a blessing to you? But, what is the blessing and what does it mean to have been blessed by God?

God’s blessing is an empowerment. What would you expect the result to be if you really stood before Him and received a blessing? It would be something grand, wouldn’t it? You would imagine that His blessing would endure also. It would never wear off. Don’t you think it would be imbued with power?

God put His blessing on you so that you would have power to meet every circumstance of life. The blessing empowers you to overcome all obstacles. God’s blessing causes you to succeed in every area of your life. If you are a child of God, then His blessing is on already on you. You don’t have to earn it. Further, knowing it is on you might change the way you think about your circumstances. Don’t expect to fail, expect to succeed. Expect favor on you. Expect His blessing to follow you everywhere you go and be sure to thank Him for it every morning.

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Testing

On December 5, 2022   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Mark 4: 24

And He was saying to them,. . . “By your standard of measure it will be measured to you; and more will be given you besides.”

Last week’s Word of the Day was about our God meeting our needs. God does meet our needs. However, the passage for the Word of the Day was taken from Philippians where Paul taught that needs are met through the fulfillment of our own giving. Paul told the church that his God would meet their needs because they had met his. This is such a powerful lesson, but few grasp it. In fact, since last week I have wondered how many of you really believe me and the lessons I send. Therefore, I thought I would tell you a small story this week about the time I put God, and these scriptures, to the test.

Some years ago, I sowed one dollar into Ivey Ministries. It is the only dollar I have ever given to my own ministry. I believed God for a return. Shortly thereafter, I received a check for $50. I was pretty excited; not because I got fifty dollars, but because it appeared God’s Word worked. My tithe on that would have been $5, but I decided that if I was going to put God to the test, I had to press on, so, I decided to sow the entire fifty dollars.

I wish you to understand that at this point things became a bit more challenging for me. It doesn’t sound like a lot of money, but it was hard to let go of the full fifty dollars when my obligation was for five, but I believed Yahweh was continuing to lead me in this area. So, believing for a hundred-fold return, I sowed the entire amount into a ministry. Then came the really hard part, the waiting.

Here is where we often fail. There was not $500 in my mailbox that week nor even that month. Time dragged on and on with no visible return on my seed. I prayed about it, I journaled with God about it, but no resolution came to my mailbox or my heart. Often, I forgot about the seed as if I had never given God that fifty dollars. It sometimes became lost seed to me. But, I have read a few things in the Bible so I would pick myself up and dust off my faith. Believe me, this was an ongoing challenge. I would stand, full of faith and believe for my harvest. Before long, though, my strength and resolve would ebb. Finally, I became convinced in my heart that God is not a man that He can lie (Numbers 23: 19). With a firmer resolution in my spirit, I began to believe in my seed and my harvest.

Now this may sound crazy to some of you, but I want you to understand how far this goes. As my faith grew, I began to realize that the seed had to produce. It is a spiritual law. The seed doesn’t get to choose whether or not it will obey the law of the Spirit. That is when things changed. I no longer whined to God about my harvest. Nope, I confronted Him. What? Yes, confronted! When I prayed, I said, “Father, you owe me money.” Not only once did I approach Him with my demand but rather, it became the way we spoke about that seed. And, guess what. Yahweh was not intimidated by my demand. In fact, He acknowledged it. Once He told me that one way He was going make up part of the return was in my new car. Inside I was like Sarah who laughed at God’s promise because I knew I couldn’t afford a new car, at least not the one I wanted. Well, time went on and I returned to talk with Him about this money. I was no longer falling back into doubt. I no longer failed to remember I had good seed in good soil. That had been, it turns out, doubt. I forgot about my seed because I had stopped believing in the return. In truth, I had lost my belief in the principal of sowing and reaping. However, my faith began to grow and my resolve stiffened. I started out testing God on this principal of sowing and reaping with one dollar and I was not giving up now.

I have taught about giving many, many times. I teach it and try to encourage everyone to give because I want you to be blessed. I thought I believed God’s Word, but I found out that when I set out to test God’s Word, it was really I who was tested. I stumbled and fell many times. I learned, though, that when you fall, when you fail, God doesn’t consider it final. He did not burn my seed in the ground when I failed in my belief. Instead, and this is amazing to me, He preserved that precious seed until such a time as He could get me to be as determined as that little seed. He is an amazing, generous and kind Father. He loves us and wants us to be blessed and He has taught us the way. He told us that if we would give, it would be given back to us multiplied (Luke 6: 38). Those are words on a page though. Does it really work? Is that actually a lesson from God?

Sometimes I pray to God for the thousand-fold return. You won’t find it in the Bible, per se, but when I look at the Bible in its fullness, I see it all over the place, and more beyond. Abraham received way more than a thousand-fold. Jesus received a greater than thousand-fold return. It is my way of speaking with God about His willingness and ability to do, “far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us,” (Ephesians 3: 20). He is not limited to the hundred-fold or even my thousand-fold. He is super-abundant, beyond my ability to comprehend, and that is the moral of this story.

I did receive a new car and it is a blessing. I also received a gift that will mean more than $90,000 over my lifetime. These are part of the glory of Christ. I am beyond grateful. However, I have a new challenge. Is this the fullness of God’s blessing? Is He done? Shall I cut Him off here? It is certainly much more than I expected when I began. The hundred-fold return on my $50 seed would have given me $5000 and that is what I believed for. Yahweh went far beyond, but who is to say He is done? Only my faith limits Him. He is waiting to see if I will allow Him to do more. My answer is, “Do all that is in your heart Father,” because what I know is that the financial blessing is wonderful and amazing but the best part of it is that He has brought us closer together. I live in a new space of gratefulness. I see His heart more clearly and I am completely overwhelmed by the knowledge He has imparted to me through this experience. When I say, “Our God is good!” I have the weight of a mountain behind it. Those few words have more love and meaning in them than can be contained in this one universe because His goodness is so vast.

God challenged us to test Him, “put Me to the test now in this,” says the Lord of armies, “if I do not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows.” (Malachi 3: 10). He told me to test Him. I wasn’t impudent. I was obedient. Now for you few with brave hearts, I have given you the link for Malachi 3:10 so that you can easily see for yourself how God’s statement began for as you can see, I only included the end of His statement. Simply click on the verse citation above and you will be transported to the full scripture.

Maybe you too should test Him. He welcomes it and I encourage it because in the end, you are going to be very blessed.

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Above and Beyond

On November 7, 2022   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Ephesians 3:20

Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us.

Not only is God able to do more than we ask or think; He is willing, and I can prove it.

This is a small story about something that isn’t important. At some level, though, I think it is all the more powerful in that it shows how our Father cares about all the things in our lives, even the small ones.

My roommate and I have begun to unpack our Christmas decorations to get ready for the Christmas season. I have a painting which I had framed last year. When I tried to hang it this year, I discovered that the hanger didn’t fold down correctly. Bummer! It made the painting stand out from the wall such that the wire could fall off the hook.

Additionally, roommate bought a print this year to hang over the fireplace. It came with an odd sort of hanger, not the typical wire. The problem there is that this print will temporarily replace the picture that usually hangs over the mantle. So, as I looked at it, I thought that having two sets of hangers would be undesirable and the second set might even show when we put the regular painting back. So, I decided to take both prints to Michael’s where I had the one framed last year. I was hoping they would repair that one at no cost, but it’s been a year so it is reasonable that I might have to pay for it. No worries, I figured. The other one, the new print, well, of course I would have to pay to have the hanging system on it changed out.

The bigger concern was how long we might have to wait to get the prints back. Again, it is not a big deal since we are ahead of schedule but not being able to hang the one above the fireplace would make it a challenge to move forward with decorating the mantle. These are all little things, right? And yet, sometimes it is the accumulation of lots of little things which burden us.

So, my roomie and I packaged up the two prints again and off we went to Michael’s. Along the way we said a prayer about this hiccup in our decorating plans. Phrased differently, we asked, we asked our Father to be with us and to be in this situation with us. Now, He is able to do beyond what we ask or think, but step one is inviting Him into the situation, and that is what we did. We asked Him for Michael’s to repair the one from last year at no cost and, most importantly, for us to be able get both of the prints back in a reasonable time. We were thinking, worst case scenario, it would be nice to have them back by Saturday.  It was Thursday.

We arrived at the Michael’s framing counter with our arms full of boxed prints. First, we unpackaged the painting from last year. Before we could say a word, the gentleman behind the counter said, “Oh my, someone had a moment!” He saw more than we could even comprehend about how things should be done. He was very positive, wouldn’t disparage the person who put the mounting hardware on last year but also clearly was not satisfied with how it was done. He immediately took the painting back to the work room to repair it. We just looked at one another with questioning looks upon our faces. “Is he fixing it right now?” I asked. Sure enough, he came back a few minutes later with it repaired. What!!!  I didn’t expect that.

Then we unboxed the new print. The worker saw the hanger system and explained its use to us. He also thought it was uncommon to have that type of hanger on this type of print. He agreed that the simple wire would more than suffice and that way we could use the hanger that is already in the wall. Now, the big question, how long was it going to take to get this print back? Would you believe he picked up the print and, again, headed back to the workroom? I thought, “He is probably just going to put it back there and then come write up a ticket” except he didn’t immediately return. We looked at each other and today’s verse came to my mind. We started saying how great our God is and that Jesus is so cool.

We were both so thrilled, not so much about the prints, though. What was so exciting is that our Dad showed up on the scene for us. His hands were upon the situation and us all. He was paying attention to the details of life and His presence seemed to resonate loudly through the store. I think others must have felt His presence too.

Soon the clerk came back and placed the print on the counter. He helped me box it back up in its many layers of corrugation. Once packaged again, I turned to the clerk and asked, “What do I owe you?” He raised his hand, shook his head, and said, “Nothing.” Okay, so I already knew Dad was in the situation, but I was still surprised at this additional blessing. I thanked the gentleman and blessed him. He smiled, thanked us and we turned to go, still a little in shock at how amazingly well the situation worked out for us. I know God is able and willing to do exceedingly above and beyond all I can think or ask, but He really surprised me this this time. Not only did we get our prints back, repaired right then on the spot but we weren’t required to pay for any of it.

The morale of the story for me was two-fold. First, when you think you’ve thought big enough, think again. Second, pray about everything. Don’t get weird and holy about prayer. Just tell your Father what you are hoping for, what result you would like. Then, get out of the way and be astonished at what He will do. It is so fun watching Father move through our lives. Yep, it is great to be blessed.

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Blessed of the Lord

On October 31, 2022   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Genesis 26: 28 – 29

And they said, “We see plainly that the Lord has been with you; so we said, ‘Let there now be an oath between us, even between you and us, and let us make a covenant with you, that you will do us no harm, just as we have not touched you and have done to you nothing but good, and have sent you away in peace. You are now the blessed of the Lord.’”

Wouldn’t you just love to have people to say about you, “We see plainly that the Lord has been with you” and “You are now the blessed of the Lord?” The story here is that Isaac had settled in the land of Gerar and he prospered there even in the time of famine. The people of that land were, therefore, leery of him so they forced him to move to other lands. As he moved, he opened up wells that his father, Abraham, had dug when he lived there but that the Philistines had filled when Abraham died. Each time Isaac dug a well, though, the people of Gerar would contend with him over the water and he would end up moving on. Finally, though, Abimelech, the king of Gerar, sought out Isaac to make a covenant with him because he saw the hand of God on Isaac. And while he was willing to bully Isaac, he wanted no part of God’s fury.

Would that the world would say those types of things to us today. Would that the hand of God on our lives was so evident that people would decide it is in their best interest to be in our good graces rather than opposed to us. If we will develop our relationship with the Lord to the degree that Abraham and Isaac did, then evangelism will not be a thing we have to give any thought or energy to. People will flock to the God of Abraham, Isaac and you. That, I believe, is supposed to be our living legacy, that we live a life of testimony. When people see the blessing of Abraham flowing in your life, they will want to know your God too. God should receive glory for supernatural miracles happening in our lives every day. We need to seek Him and dedicate ourselves to Him so that He may open the storehouses of heaven and pour out, on His kids, a blessing so great that it will be unrestrained. When that happens, we will be able to take care of many needs in this nation and others. Our God will receive His due glory and the needs of His children will be met. We will get to be the instruments for introducing other people to the loving Father of the blessing. Keep seeking Him with all your heart and with your time so that very soon people will be saying of you, “It is plain to see that you are blessed of the Lord.”

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Blessed Beyond Measure

On November 1, 2021   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Proverb 22: 9              NIV

The generous will themselves be blessed, for they share their food with the poor.

For some, generosity seems to come naturally. Others of us struggle. I do not believe that this lack of generosity always stems from greed. Sure, some people are tight fisted because they want everything for themselves. They are, in fact, selfish. I think, though, that some of us are generous of heart but fearful. The truth is we are not as generous as we might be because we lack faith in our God and Father. We don’t truly believe He will take care of us. That is why we hold on so tightly.

I have seen much in the scriptures lately about giving and though I consider myself a pretty good giver, I have found myself challenged. I need to do more. One of the things Father has shown me is that sometimes I hold on so tightly to what I have that He can’t get more to me. The expression, tight-fisted, is apropos. My fist is clenched and that is what I present to the Father rather than a hand outstretched and open. He cannot give into a clenched fist.

I am convinced that anyone who really loves God and does a study of the scriptures cannot continue to horde their wealth. These believers give beyond the tithe. They constantly find ways to bless others. I love these folks because they continue to show me ways I can give and I am often overwhelmed by their goodness, which is one of God’s qualities. I am still living in the glow of the outpouring of gifts for the Multiple Sclerosis charity bike ride. Many of you showed the most tender part of your hearts in your giving.

If I may, I would also like to be so honest as to say, some gave nothing. I do not believe it is because they lack kindness. Some may have chosen other charities for the year. That’s fair. Others though, may suffer this depression era mentality that causes us to hold on too tightly to what we have. If that is you, I sympathize because I stumble over that line too. However, there is hope for us and I want us all to be blessed in the full measure that God desires.

Father, bless those people who so demonstrate your kindness in their own giving. Pour out upon them a blessing so large they cannot contain it. And Father, for those who have not become great givers yet, teach us by your gentle Holy Spirit that it is your way and part of our calling. Relieve us of fear and boost our faith in you and your provision. Give us stalwart hearts and bless our giving as you do those who have already learned this important lesson. Father, make us, everyone, givers beyond the ten percent tithe and Father, for those who have not yet learned to tithe, encourage them that this is your way of meeting their need. Give them extra faith in your Word. Challenge them to take this first step. Give us all hearts of the giver, Father that we might be like you, and I thank you for this and bless you in Jesus’ name. Amen.

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Blessed

On May 12, 2021   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Psalm 115: 15

May you be blessed of the Lord, maker of heaven and earth.

I have noticed that there is a new expression that has gained much popularity. It seems I hear it mostly on voicemail messages not actually spoken person to person. That expression? “Have a blessed day.”

It is a nice sentiment but at the same time can be pretty empty. I expect that the people who leave this on their voicemail message are very sincere about wishing you to be blessed; I hope they are anyway. But it is good to remind ourselves from where blessings come.

God is the source of all blessing, but we are the hands of the Lord here in the earth. So, although all good things come from above, it is through us that the Lord reaches out to others. And while it is nice to wish others a blessed day, let us not forget that we can effectuate that ourselves. You can be the one that ensures that they have a blessed day by blessing them.

Hasn’t Jesus taught us that it is not enough for us to just say to a hungry person, “Be fed.” He taught us to feed them. When we wish for someone to be fed or to be otherwise blessed aren’t we really saying that I hope someone will bless you today? Aren’t we really expecting the person’s blessed day to come through other people? Well, why should we wait for someone else to have the idea to bless them? It is already in our mind and on our tongue.

Additionally, hungry and homeless people aren’t the only persons needing blessing today. Everyone you see could use a blessing. Also, do some kind thing for someone wherein you have no benefit in the blessing. In other words, bless someone in a way that you are not also reaping a benefit. It is alright to have win/win situations, but we need to learn to do what is in the best interest of others even if it is not in our interest. How much of a blessing is it really if your blessing of someone else is reaping a benefit for you? You’ve got to ask yourself how true your motive is if that is a constant occurrence.

And lastly, become a giver. Let being a giver become part of your personality. Look for opportunities to bless others. Try to figure out a way every day to do something kind for someone. What if we all got in the habit of blessing one person a day? Wouldn’t that be something? We might start some kind of revolution. I think it could really have an impact on our communities. So, shall we start today? Find someone to bless. Do something kind; give to others. I guarantee that you will end up being the most blessed person of all.

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Called

On February 27, 2020   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Isaiah 45: 2 – 3

“I will go before you and make the rough places smooth; I will shatter the doors of bronze and cut through their iron bars. I will give you the treasures of darkness and hidden wealth of secret places, so that you may know that it is I, the Lord, the God of Israel, who calls you by your name.”

What is most exciting here, that God will smooth out the rough places, give you hidden wealth or that you are called by name? One exciting bit is that God is willing to prove by these measures that you are called by Him and for Him. He doesn’t call you as a servant then leave you to your own devices. It is by His strength and His power that accomplishments are made. God is willing to give you attesting miracles to prove, not that He is almighty God, but that you are called by name. That’s pretty exciting! He will validate your calling with Him signs.

This is also a good verse to think of when you are faced with a big project. When God first spoke these words, He spoke literally about rough places and doors of bronze. Those were the obstacles of the day. Today your rough places aren’t quite as literal and Father doesn’t need to shatter strong doors for you but still, isn’t this attractive? You will not have to endure closed doors and God will make the way smooth for you. By prospering you, He shows Himself. God, Himself, becomes your attesting witness.

You should expect to be blessed. You should expect favor. You should expect to be successful in everything you do because He has promised to bless the work of your hand. God isn’t looking for downtrodden Christians. He wants to show off so that everyone knows that you have been called by the God of Israel, the Almighty Lord and that He is well able to care for His own, and in style.

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