Delegating

On November 28, 2016   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

2 Chronicles 20: 20

Listen to me, O Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem, put your trust in the LORD your God and you will be established.”

It is a little bit hard learning to trust someone you can neither see nor hear. If you have never stepped out in faith and believed God for something, then you might appreciate some guidance in learning how to walk in faith. Start risk free with something small. It might be some task you are working on without a lot of success. Maybe you need to write a thank you note and the words just aren’t coming out right. For me, it was leveling a refrigerator.

It was late at night and the freezer door was not staying closed because I had moved the refrigerator and the floor was not level. I had already inadvertently thawed an entire bag of chicken breasts. So, I was lying on the floor turning the leveling legs and it just wouldn’t work. The whole thing defied logic. I was getting tired and frustrated. Finally, I stopped and prayed. Then as I looked back at the refrigerator, I had the idea to lengthen the left side. Now, that was just opposite of what you would think but I did it anyway since I had prayed. You know the end of the story. It immediately fixed my problem and the freezer door stayed closed. I was shocked and flabbergasted but really relieved at the same time. It only took a minute to fix the problem once I prayed but I wasted a lot of time messing with the thing before. I learned an important lesson that night; pray first.

That refrigerator was one of many small ways I learned to trust God. Though I am still learning, now it is much easier for me to trust him in bigger things. As we go, we begin to turn problems over to him more quickly and we learn to take our hands and thoughts completely off of the problem. You will find that you even quit talking about the problem that you have handed over to God because you have such an awareness that it is His problem and He will handle it. It takes seeing Him come through for you a time or two before you really begin to believe He can and will affect our lives here and now. Until you have witnessed it yourself it is easy to think of God as uninterested and removed from our daily lives. Once you know the truth, though, you will be thrilled at how involved with you He really wants to be. Go ahead. Look for some little thing that you can trust Him with and soon you will have fewer and fewer troubles that you have to deal with.

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Confidence

On November 23, 2016   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Hebrews 10: 35

Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward.

When your confidence is in God and in His promises, it yields its own great reward. Why? Confidence in God by another name is faith. When you are living in faith that He is well able to perform all of His promises, then you are actually exercising spiritual power. Your faith and trust in God’s ability will move mountains. One of the things that happens when you are living in your confidence is that you automatically get out of God’s way. When you do that, there is room for Him to work. He cannot work on something until you let go of it and give it to Him. Your trust and confidence in His word is the spiritual material God uses to fashion the miracle you need. And by the way, they are not miracles to God. What is a miracle to us is just everyday business to him. So put your confidence in Him and in His word because that confidence is the substance of your breakthrough and it will bring forth the answers you need. When you are tempted to worry, just remember this verse and get yourself back over into trust.

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False Feeling

On November 8, 2016   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

2 Corinthians 5: 7

For we walk by faith, not by sight.

As I apply this verse to my own life I say, “I walk by nothing which is not of faith.” In application “sight” certainly would refer to physical sight but we also speak of seeing things other than with our physical eyes. Someone explains a matter and we say, “I see that.” These kinds of sightings, it would seem to me, must stand up to the test of faith as well. I know for myself one of the most deceptive signs for me to follow is my feelings. They are often wrong. I do not deny the expression of emotion, not by any means. I just mean to say that I must still put feelings and emotions to the test of faith and the word.

One epiphany of this principle came to me shortly after I had some minor surgery on my shoulder. The surgeon put the stitches under the skin which was great because there is no scarring. A couple of weeks after the surgery, though, those sutures started dissolving and when they did, they would pop. When the first one popped my eyes probably got as big as saucers. I had no idea what it was other than a bit painful. I thought something might be wrong which was especially bad because I was out of town at the time. The sutures continued to pop one after one. I was beginning to get a little concerned about it because I didn’t know what was happening. Finally, though, I figured it out. Then I could relax as they continued to dissolve. I learned from that experience, though, that a feeling, whether an emotional feeling or even a physical one, can be misleading. I was beginning to think something was wrong in my shoulder when it was actually the healing continuing.

That is the way it is with life. Sometimes we get emotionally charged over something and can easily misinterpret the signs. I learned from the false feelings in my shoulder that I need to follow God by faith rather than simply following my feelings. God has made us many promises and the Bible has revealed many truths. We are given opportunities all of the time to choose what evidence we will follow. Are we going to trust the words Jesus gave us or are we going to believe the 6:00 news? Which one is going to inform our decisions and subsequent actions? I am telling you that you can have emotional or even physical feelings in your body that are just plain wrong. Just like I thought that popping in my shoulder evidenced a problem it is easy to be misled by these false guides.

There is only one safe trail leader, that is the Holy Spirit of God. He will never lead you astray. Whatever is going on in your life, whatever emotions you are experiencing, you can check them out with the Holy Spirit. He will guide you into all truth. That is good news in these confusing times. Trust the Word, trust the Lord. Let faith in God guard and protect you.

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Building Foundations

On October 24, 2016   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Psalm 112: 1 & 7

Praise the Lord! How blessed is the man who fears the Lord, who greatly delights in His commandments. He will not fear evil tidings. His heart is steadfast, trusting in the Lord.

The word “fear” in the above passage means to revere and worship. Therefore, blessed is the person who reveres and worships the Lord, who treasures the Word of God. That person need not live in fear of anything. The Word of God is alive in his (her) heart. When you have developed an intimacy with the Word of God, your trust grows to the point that fear becomes an insult. Fear just begins to recede as the Word of God grows in your heart. You really do not have to do much; it just begins to happen increasingly. You find you believe more in the Word of God than you do the evil forebodings that want to take root in your mind and heart. Then your faith increases because your heart is rooted in the Word. Knowing God’s will makes you steady as well as making your heart steadfast. You become a firm fixture who is not easily blown from place to place. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and you will not be easily shaken. The Word is the foundation upon which that trust is built.

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Trust Me

On October 6, 2016   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

Isaiah 26: 3                 NIV

You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you.

Father God will keep your mind in perfect peace. How does that sound? Imagine, no matter how much stress or turmoil is going on around you, your mind will be abiding in perfect peace. But wait a minute, does that describe you and every other Christian you know? Are we all perfectly peaceful? No. This promise comes with a condition. God will give us perfect peace when we trust in Him. So, to state it a bit differently, “For those who trust in you, Father, you will keep their minds in perfect peace.”

There are a lot of verses which encourage us to trust our Father. The most well-known is probably Proverb 3: 5 – 6, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths straight.” That is such an inspiring verse that you would expect us all to make a Herculean effort to put all of our trust in God. So why don’t we?

We have learned too much from the world and we just hold on too tightly. It is hard to let go of the things about which we have concerns. However, we can begin by acknowledging Him in everything and that will help us to move into deeper trust. That means that we include Him in everything we do. You know, the Bible says that we are to pray at all times (Ephesians 6: 18). Praying all of the time makes perfect sense if you are going to acknowledge Him in everything you do. Of course, prayer has to get real if you are going to do this. If you think and expect prayer to be amazingly eloquent and formal, you are never going to make it. Prayer is just talking with your Father. When you make it an ongoing conversation, as if you are talking with a friend who is going to accompany you all day, then it becomes really easy to pray at all times. There is another verse which says to pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5: 17). How are you going to do that if you ritualize prayer? The answer is that you are not. This relationship with the Father needs to get out of church and into your life.

Another big factor is just lack of experience. Once you begin giving Dad your trust it becomes easier to do it next time. A friend of mine just sold a house. She had written down exactly what she wanted and expected in a buyer. Well, there were two contracts which fell through. What? This had been prayed over. Here is where trust comes in. She never lost her peace, never left the facts dissuade her from what she believed God was going to do. She placed her trust in the Father and He kept her in a constant state of peace and her mind tranquil. Do you want to know the end of the story? Yep, the house sold for the full asking price and everything else she asked for when she wrote down what she wanted also came through. Her trust and faith had been built by years of trusting God with small things and then bigger things. How much easier do you think it will be for her to trust Him next time? Nothing breeds success like success.

Trust me in this as I attempt to entice you into trusting the Father. I am being honest with you. The Father can keep you in perfect peace but first you must let go. You’ve got to give Him the reins and expect, and trust, that He is going to come through for you.

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Follow the Leader

On October 5, 2016   /   Word of the Day   /   Leave a comment

2 Chronicles 31: 21

And every work which he began in the service of the house of God in law and in commandment, seeking his God, he did with all his heart and prospered.


This verse is about a fellow named Hezekiah. Hezekiah taught me how to follow the Lord. I remember clearly the day in 2005 when the Lord gave me this verse. It radically transformed my life and I hope it will have the same effect for you. I saw in this verse my way through the maze of all of the things I thought I should do. I gained an understanding of how I would make important decisions in my life. This verse was part of an epoch journey that has led, and is leading me, into a deep, abiding trust in the Lord; a trust that is freeing and optimistic.

The Lord showed me that if I would seek Him, He would show me the way to go. Even if, or when, the path looks danger fraught or even just silly, He taught me that I could trust Him. He taught me to throw my whole heart into whatever He has shown me. It has been difficult putting aside my reservations but therein lies the freedom.

Whatever God is telling you to do, throw your whole heart into it and trust Him to work out the details. It is His job to prosper you, not yours. Your job is to follow His leading and trust Him. Your job is to seek Him. The rest is on Him. Once you are sure of the way the Lord is leading you, toss your worry aside and put your whole heart into that which He is leading you, even if it makes no sense. He knows what he is doing. Really! Trust Him with all your heart.

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The Facts Don’t Count

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

Romans 4: 19

And without becoming weak in faith he contemplated his own body, now as good as dead since he was about a hundred years old, and the deadness of Sarah’s womb.

If you want to know one of the secrets to living successfully in the Spirit it is this, don’t let the facts interfere with the truth. Abraham had a promise from God that not only would he and Sarah have a child but that he would be the father of nations. How does an old man whose body is as good as dead and whose wife is not only elderly also, but who has always been barren, have a child? Well, in the natural, and according to the facts, they don’t. But, you see, that is where we must depart from the reasoning of this world and move over in to Jesus thinking and Jesus faith. 
Abraham did not become weak in his faith. Now what is faith really? Sometimes I think we make it too hard a concept. Here is a simple illustration. If I tell you that I am going to give you a pen when I see you will you be expecting to receive a pen? How confident are you that you will be given a pen? That is the measure of your faith in me? If you have a high expectation, even an assurance, then you have a lot of faith in me. That is all faith is, believing. You believe that what I say, I will do. Now, how assured are you that Dad is going to do what He has said? Somehow, Abraham was able to believe God’s word over the evidence which he saw in the world. Which one do you think you would have a tendency to believe? When you believe God, then that belief turns into trust. In the example of the pen, do you trust me to give to you what I promised?

Verse 18 says that Abraham believed even though there seemed no cause for hope. He saw the evidence that the world presented to him and chose to instead believe what God said. That is so hard for us to do but it is a super-key to living in the supernatural blessings of God. If we want to walk on the water, and who doesn’t, then we have to renew our minds with this kind of thinking. We have to ignore the facts. We don’t deny their existence we just deny their power. Abraham decided that God’s word was the final word, that it superseded the physical facts. That is the way we need to be, the way we need to think if we wish to walk in the kind of miracles that Abraham did, the kind of miracles that God wants to be our everyday experience.

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