Feeble or Able?

On April 26, 2016   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Deuteronomy 34: 7

Although Moses was one hundred and twenty years old when he died, his eye was not dim, nor his vigor abated.

So, if Moses’ vigor was not abated, of what did he die? We have gotten this nutty idea that the cycle of life ends with getting old, getting sick and dying of that sickness. That is an incredibly skewed view of life. Moses died of having run out of years. God had already told mankind that He was limiting their life span, “Then the Lord said, ‘My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; nevertheless his days shall be one hundred and twenty years’” (Genesis 3: 3). God told Moses his time was at hand and for him to make arrangements for his succession. So, at one hundred and twenty years of age, Moses simply transitioned to the next phase of his life. He left his mortal body and moved to heaven. He wasn’t sick, He wasn’t diseased. He was just done. He had finished his race.

This is the revelation we all need for our own health. We weren’t designed to get old, get sick and die. We were meant to live out the number of our years fulfilling our destiny just like Moses did. Then we simply change addresses. We lay down this body and move to eternity with Jesus.

There is just one more question which plagues me, if Moses could live to one hundred and twenty in the Old Testament, before Jesus, what should our life spans be?

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Half Life

On February 12, 2016   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Psalm 55: 23

Men of bloodshed and deceit will not live out half their days. But I will trust in Thee.

Now I don’t think most of us know “men of bloodshed” but I am willing to bet that everyone of us knows someone who is deceitful. Deceit is defined as: misrepresentation, deception, falseness. To deceive someone means to intentionally mislead. Of course it includes lying but one doesn’t have to lie to be deceitful. Deceit can be achieved by failing to disclose a pertinent fact such that someone is misled. It can be couching a situation in terms meant to cast one in a favorable light though the hearer is, in fact, shadowed from the whole truth. We may reveal only those facts which cut in our favor so that we intentionally mislead another. Deceit may even be achieved through our word selection. Perhaps the whole truth is that we are going to meet someone after work for a beer but we say we are going to a meeting out of the office in order to mislead someone.

No doubt you can think of other ways we can intentionally mislead others and yet allow our conscience the freedom of having not lied. Well, I don’t think Jesus is going to buy into that one. There are two points here. First, we are cutting our lives in half. Not good! Second, many times, perhaps most times, people see through our misrepresentations eventually. Then the trust and respect they have for us is damaged. Surely this isn’t what we want for our lives.

Part of the problem is that there actually is a social acceptance of lying. I have heard many people talk about lying to the IRS as though it is okay. There seems to be a general consensus that it is okay to lie if it furthers a reasonable purpose. Case in fact – there is a television commercial running right now for an intriguing new product. The product is called the Ring video doorbell. It is really a great idea. The idea is that one can view, from their smart phone, whoever is at the front door. In the ad, a woman answers the doorbell while sitting at what appears to be a sidewalk café. She tells the person at the door that she is bathing the kids. Wow! That is a blatant lie. She is not even home. You see, the people who put together that ad seem to think that it is okay to lie. What is even more disarming to me is that a lie was not necessary. The woman could have simply said, “I am sorry, I am busy right now,” or “I am not able to come to the door right now.” She didn’t have to lie in order to guard her security. This ad isn’t unique. It simply represents social acceptance of misrepresenting the truth.

We almost act, these days, as if people don’t deserve the truth. Well, maybe they do and maybe they don’t. I was raised that truth has its own value and I am glad I was. It makes life easier now. The real key here is that you deserve the truth. Your life and health deserve truth coming out of your mouth. Remember the principle of sowing and reaping. What do you think the harvest is of lying seed? God hears every word we utter and He knows all truth so He knows when we lie. That is deterrent enough for many. Cutting our life span in half might also be a pretty good constraint. Honor the truth.

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Well, Satisfied . . . I’m Satisfied

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

Psalm 34: 12-13

Who is the man who desires life, and loves length of days that he may see good? Keep your tongue from evil, and your lips from speaking deceit.

Do you desire good life? Do you desire to have a long life filled with the goodness of God? David tells us in this psalm how to get just that. He instructs us to keep our lips holy unto God. Speak words of life and healing rather than words of death and destruction. Don’t indulge in telling lies or even telling half truths because that is also deceitful.

Every time you open your mouth about a situation you can either give a report on what the devil is doing or you can report on what God is doing. You can say, “Oh, my knee hurts,” reporting on the hard work of the devil. Or you can say, “By his stripes, I am healed,” telling of the good works of God.

If you desire a long life filled with the promises of God, then you need to fill your mouth with the good news of the Lord. Speak out of your own mouth all that he says regarding every situation in your life. Are you broke? Or are you rich? Are you sick or are you healed? What does God say about your situation? Find out if you don’t know and then repeat what he says.

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Get a Life

On October 23, 2015   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Genesis 6: 3

Then the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; nevertheless his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.”

Many of you know that I have been studying diet and nutrition for the last several years. It has been the subject of much of my prayer and conversation with the Father. I have also been very interested in the expected life span of humans. Last week I drove to Huntsville, Alabama for a ministry conference which gave me plenty of time to listen to CD’s. One I listened to was by a doctor. He has no ministry affiliation and his talk was not about the God connection to our health.

Imagine my surprise when he said that we ought to be living to 120 years. Wow! Now why did he pick that number? Does he know what the Bible says? He explained that physiologically humans should be living to 120. Of course, I knew that. God said that thousands of years ago. But, to tell the whole truth, that should be the minimum. You see, in Genesis 6: 3 God was speaking to a disobedient and rebellious people. Today’s verse isn’t really granting 120 years, it is limiting people’s life span to 120 years. Human beings were wearing God out. He said, “I am not going to strive with man forever!” So, he cut their lifespan off to 120 years. Isn’t that amazing? So, this doctor sees physiologically the result of God’s words in Genesis 6: 3.

Now then, the first response I often get when I tell people they should live to 120 years is that they don’t want to live all crippled and feeble. Really? Are you kidding me? Do you really think that was God’s intention? Did God say, “I am going to limit your years on the earth to 120 but I am going to make you decrepit and feeble at 60 or 70.” Of course, if you listen to the world today you will hear that we should begin to fall apart at 50. I’m sorry guys. I am just not going to do it and I hope you will join me. I have a vision for riding my bike at 120 years old. Moses wasn’t feeble at 120 years old and I am not going to be either.

So now let’s allow the big revelation to go off in us. If Moses and all of those rebellious Israelites were allowed 120 years, honestly, what should we, the redeemed of God, expect for a life span. Since we are covered with the blood and resurrection power of Christ our Lord, shouldn’t we have a bigger vision than those desert wandering, lost in the fog, idol worshipping, rebels? I mean, I love them and I want every one of them to be in heaven but they weren’t washed in the blood, were they? Their sin stuck to them whereas ours is washed away. So, if the sin stained live to 120 to what age should the redeemed of Christ live until?

So, sign a new lease on life. Renew for another 50, 60 or 70 years. Renew for 100 if that is what is in your heart. I believe with you. And be healthy until the day you decide to change addresses. Jesus is health as well as life (Psalm 107: 20). Go on, get a new life today!!

For additional insights Please See the Word of the Day for July 22, 2015.

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Living Long

On July 22, 2015   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Genesis 6: 3

Then the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; nevertheless his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.”

How long should we live? In this passage from Genesis God says a hundred and twenty years. Personally, I think that should be a minimum because this was after the fall. In other words, man in his fallen state should live to be one hundred and twenty years old. How long, then, should redeemed, restored people live? Before the fall and before the curse presumably people would live longer. Or before people learned how to die young, they lived longer.

Even in the depths of our disobedience people had an expectation of long life. In Psalm 90: 10 Moses wrote, “As for the days of our life, they contain seventy years, or if due to strength, eighty years, yet their pride is but labor and sorrow; for soon it is gone and we fly away.” In this Psalm Moses wrote about the Israelites’ fallen state and how they had invoked the anger of the Lord. It is a lament, not a declaration. He is almost weeping as he writes this dirge. The Israelites were not living in the grace of the Lord. They had spurned the loving grace of God and chosen instead to worship idols. Still you couldn’t kill these guys. The life of God within them continued to bear witness in their flesh despite their gross disobedience. And to further undermine this life span limitation, Moses lived to the age of one hundred and twenty. Furthermore, “Although Moses was one hundred and twenty years old when he died, his eye was not dim, nor his vigor abated” (Deuteronomy 34: 7). Moses was still climbing mountains when he reached the end of his life. He wasn’t feeble and broken and you are not meant to be either. We are children of the King, endowed with the life giving power of God Almighty living in our bones. He that called forth life from the very beginning is alive and well in every cell of our bodies right now. Only, we have the switch. We can be in life and health or we can increase in sickness. God said, “I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants” (Deuteronomy 30: 19). Why, then, do we keep choosing death? For goodness sakes, Moses was 80 years old when he went into ministry. “Moses was eighty years old and Aaron eighty-three, when they spoke to Pharaoh” (Exodus 7: 7). His ministry was just beginning. The job that he is still known for didn’t even begin until he was what some may consider advanced in years and then he stayed in that job for forty years. Let’s get a revelation folks. We have been lied to.

Now let us quickly look at Psalm 91: 16, “With a long life I will satisfy him and let him see My salvation.” While the 90th Psalm was written in the context of disobedience and God’s anger with the rebellious Israelites, the 91st Psalm is written about they who trust in the Lord. If you have section headers you may want to look in your Bible at this Psalm. My chapter heading reads “Security of the one who trusts in the Lord.” This is a direct promise to you if you live your life in Christ as we have been taught. If you trust God with you daily life then you should move out of the 90th Psalm into the 91st and expect to be satisfied with a long life. The late Kenneth Hagin said, “If you hear I have passed on you will know that I got satisfied.” And he did. He was satisfied with a long life and just laid his body down and moved to heaven.

Live as long as you want to and remain in good health the whole time. Be active and fruitful. Our Father has said “And I shall fulfill the number of your days” (Exodus 23: 26). So don’t go early unless you are satisfied. If you want to see your great-grandchildren then hang around and rely on the life giving power of our Heavenly Father.

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