Month: April 2018

God is in Control – The Lord’s Reply

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“The Lord replied, “Look around at the nations; look and be amazed! For I am doing something in your own day, something you wouldn’t believe even if someone told you about it.” Habakkuk 1:5 We learn that when God appears to be silent, that does not mean that He is unaware or unconcerned. He is simply patient and has His own timetable. God is telling Habakkuk that he will be shocked and amazed at what God is doing. God exceeds our understanding, our timetable, and our ability to see what He is doing. Who are we to think that we would understand if God was to tell us what He is about to do. Even if He explained himself to us, we would not get it, which is good because we do not want a god who fits inside our little minds. I want my God to know more than I know. I want Him to be able to see things that I cannot see. I want Him to be able to see the future and help prepare me for what is going to happen. As I look back on my life, I can see where God has been preparing me for all of my life for what He has called me to do. There have been times that I have been disappointed that something did not work out. Then later I see how God was in control of my life. Today the world asks, “Why doesn’t God do something about sin?” He has done something about sin. He gave His Son to die on the Cross to take care of this problem of sin. All we have to do is accept His Son as our Lord and Savior. It is our choice. God was moving in Habakkuk’s day. In […]

God is in Control – How Long Lord

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“Must I forever see these evil deeds? Why must I watch all this misery? Wherever I look, I see destruction and violence. I am surrounded by people who love to argue and fight.” Habakkuk 1:3 Habakkuk demanded a response from God. He wanted to know how long I have to pray for these things before you answer me. He held God responsible He felt that God was not listening. God was not intervening. God was supposed to be righteous, but He was putting up with wrongdoing and allowing justice to be perverted. This was not the God that Habakkuk knew. He thought God was just and powerful and would respond to the prayers of his people, but instead it appeared that God was doing nothing to stop the terrible evil. If you notice, God never told Habakkuk he was wrong for asking these questions. It is fine to ask hard, awkward, challenging questions. Life can be confusing. Whenever we have a question about what God is doing and why, I believe we need to go to God and ask these tough questions. I know in my walk with God, I have many times asked God these questions. Most of the time when I ask these questions, the answer I receive from God is, get in my Word and start digging. It is amazing when I start doing that my answers come. I have had doubts about what God is telling me and again God tells me to search it out and see if I am not right. God gave us the intellect so that we can use our minds to come to the right conclusion. Jacob wrestled with God (Genesis 32). Jonah complained to God (Jonah 4). Even Jesus asked God to take away the cross (Matthew 26:39-42). We all […]

God is in Control – Why Lord

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“How long, O Lord, must I call for help? But you do not listen! “Violence is everywhere!” I cry, but you do not come to save.” Habakkuk 1:2 Have you ever prayed this prayer? How long Lord are you going to let this violence go on. Lord, you are just not listening. We see our world in trouble, not just our world but our communities. We ask the question, “why Lord.” This is what Habakkuk was asking. He was saying, “where ever I look there is oppression and bribery and men who love to argue and fight. The law is not enforced and there is no justice in the courts. The wicked far outnumber the righteous, and bribes and trickery prevail. God’s concept of rightness is not our concept. God can see more things that we cannot see. He knows the future and He has His plans. Habakkuk was a man that followed God; a man that wanted to do what was right. He tried to communicate with God and he just wanted an answer to his questions. I don’t know about you but I don’t understand God. As I walk, I hope closer to God than I ever have, I believe that I have more questions than answers. I want to believe the scripture in Romans, “and we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.” (Romans 8:28) Sometimes I just don’t know. Do you ever feel this way? I am starting some new devotions. I am starting a study in Habakkuk. I hope that we can get some answers to this question, “why Lord.”

Revolution, God’s Way – Restore All Things

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“Then Jesus answered and said to them, Elijah truly is to come first and restore all things. But I say to you Elijah has come already, and they did not know him but did to him whatever they wished. Like-wise the Son of Man is also about to suffer at their hands.” (Matthew 17:10-12) “And they shall rebuild the old ruins, they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the ruined cities, the desolations of many generations.” (Isaiah 61:4) As the Church, we are called to restore all things. This is the Elijah Task. Our task is to restore this dark world to the light of Jesus Christ. As we work to restore this world, God will restore our lives and the things that Satan has destroyed in our lives. We are the Army of God. Peter tells us “But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.” (1 Peter 2:9) The problem being, we don’t act like we are a special people, a chosen people. We live defeated lives. We allow Satan to tell us that we are no good, we are not a special people, and we have no power. This is a lie from Satan. He has been telling this lie to the church for generations. It has come to the time that we must accept this call from God and start doing the Elijah Task, restoring all things so that when Jesus returns, He will have the glorious church that He died for. We can have the victory over Satan. We need the fire of God in our spirit. Ask God today to give you that fire.

Revolution God’s Way – Absolute Surrender

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“But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” Matthew 6:33 Tonight in my prayer time, I just wanted to sit before God and listen to Him. I just wanted to hear the Holy Spirit leading me in the direction God wanted me to go. God told me that at times I get too busy. I don’t take time to listen. I worry more than I should. More than anything I want more of God. I want Him to fill my life. I want to feel His presence everywhere I go. Lord, what must I do? Absolute surrender. Absolute surrender is the condition for obtaining God’s fullness. God keeps bringing me back to the theme of giving everything to God. Being totally sold out to God, leaving everything to follow God and His will for my life. One day I am sold out to God and telling Him that no matter what I will follow Him anywhere. Then the next day I am back in the world again. I know that Jesus told us that we were to be in the world but not be part of the world. This is so difficult. I just sometimes don’t know how to do this. God expects our surrender. He is the fountain of life. He is the only way to peace and living the life that God has for us. The great thing about our surrendering to God is He does not ask us to have the strength for perfect surrender to Him. We can only surrender by the help of God’s power and His strength in our lives. When we allow God to be in control of our lives, He gives us all of the strength to walk with Him in […]

Revolution God’s Way – Total Abandonment

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“The Lord had said to Abram, “Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father’s family, and go to the land that I will show you.” Genesis 12:1 God did not tell Abram (Abraham) where he was going or what would happen when he got there. God spoke and Abram just went. This is the start of faith; a call to total abandonment of oneself to the will and calling of the Lord. God told Abram simply, “Go, I will show you the way.” He did not tell him the name of the country or his destination. He did not tell of all the trials and tribulations that he would face. God only told him to leave his comfort zone and go where I tell you. He told him to take a leap of faith and depend on me. Let me show you a whole new way of living. If you will just listen to me, I will show you step-by-step directions if you will just trust totally in me. This was no small thing for Abram. He had a family and responsibilities. How could he just leave when God told him to leave? He believed God and He had faith that God would care for him. Abram’s calling was not to a life of ease. It was to a life of peace. Abram did not continue to have the faith in God that he had at first. When things got rough, Abram tried to handle the problems himself, but this never works and he returned to his faith in God. I know this from experience that when we can have total abandonment to the will of God, life is full of peace. The peace that passes all understanding. “It was by faith that Abraham obeyed when God called him […]

Revolution God’s Way – The Fire of the Holy Spirit

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“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Acts 1:8 If we are going to see Revolution God’s Way in our community and our churches, we need the fire of the Holy Spirit in our lives. How are we to have the fire of the Holy Spirit and the power of God in our lives? Jesus gave us an outline in Matthew 21. “Then Jesus went into the temple of God and drove out all those who bought and sold in the temple, and over turned the tables of the money changer and the seats of those who sold doves.” (Matthew 21:12) We are to clean out of our lives everything that is not of God. We must let the power of God into our lives so that He can heal all the hurts that are in our lives. “And He said to them, it is written, my house shall be called a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves.” (Matthew 21:13) The fire of the Holy Spirit only comes to us if we become a person of prayer. Praying always, praying in the morning, praying in the night, being in prayer in everything we are doing. “Then the blind and the lame came to Him in the temple, and He healed them.” (Matthew 21:14) When we see the fire of the Holy Spirit in our lives, we will see the revolution of God in our community and our churches. We will see signs and wonders. “But when the chief priest and scribes saw the wonderful things He did, and the children crying out in the temple and […]

Hope and Rest – Grow in the Word

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“Solid food is for those who are mature, who through training have the skill to recognize the difference between right and wrong.” Hebrews 5:14 As we grow in the Word, we learn to use the Word in our daily life. It is a characteristic of little children that they lack discernment. A baby will put anything into its mouth. An immature believer will listen to any preacher on the radio or television and not be able to identify whether or not he is true to the scripture. The ability to discern good and evil is a vital part of Christian maturity. The nation of Israel in Moses’ day lacked this discernment and failed to claim its promised inheritance. The readers of the Book of Hebrews were in danger of making the same mistake. It is impossible to stand still in the Christian life. We move forward and claim God’s blessing, or we go backward and wander about aimlessly. Today our problem is that we don’t know God’s Word and we listen to preacher that are false prophets. We allow them to lead us away from God and His Word. We do not have the spiritual discernment that we should have. The only way to build your discernment is to stay in the Word of God. “I pray that your love will overflow more and more, and that you will keep on growing in knowledge and understanding. For I want you to understand what really matters, so that you may live pure and blameless lives until the day of Christ’s return.” (Philippians 1:9-10)

Revolution God’s Way – Can These Bones Live

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“The hand of the Lord came upon me and brought me out in the Spirit of the Lord, and set me out down in the midst of the valley; and it was full of bones. Then He causes me to pass by them all around, and behold, there were very many in the open valley and indeed they were very dry. And He said to me, “Son of man can these bones live?” So I answered, “O Lord God, You know.” (Ezekiel 37:1-3) I have been concerned about our county and the direction it is taking. I have been just as much concerned about our churches. I see too many dead dry bones in our churches. The power of God has left our churches and we must get this power back if we are to save our county. I am just like Ezekiel when God asked him if these bones can live. Can our churches live again and can the power of God be back in our churches and our nation? His answer was, yes, but only by the power of God. To know that this can happen, all we have to do is look at the early church. “The early church was walled in on one side with the mightiest military machine in history, the power of Rome. It was walled in on the other side with the Greek intellectualism. It was blocked ahead by the monopoly the Jews thought they had on God. These men and women who turned the world upside down had no colossal intellectual capacity, no great financial backing, no social standing. They were about the most despised men in and around Jerusalem. And yet they broke out somehow.” (Leonard Ravenhill) How did this happen? How did this motley crew of men and women set […]

Revolution, God’s Way – The Storms of Life

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“You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to Myself.” Exodus 19:4 Eagles love a storm. When clouds gather, the eagles get excited. The eagle uses the storm as winds to lift it higher. It locks it wings and uses the storm to reach high above the storm. Once it finds the wind of the storm, the eagle uses the raging storm to lift him above the clouds. This gives the eagle an opportunity to glide and rest its wings. In the meantime all the other birds hide in the leaves and branches of the trees. We can use the storms of life to rise to greater heights. This scripture was God talking to Moses telling Moses to go back and tell the people how He brought them through many storms. He did as the eagle does and had showed them that they had been above the storms. We have the same promise that God will bring us above the storms that we face every day. We do as the eagle does, we lock our wings on God and we allow Him to bring us not just through the storms but above the storms. All we need is the faith and trust in God. We can go through any storm and come out on the other side better than before. “But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” (Hebrews 11:6) This faith is what it takes to start a revolution God’s way.