Has the Lord's Arm Been Shortened?

And the Lord said to Moses, “Has the Lord’s arm been shortened? Now you shall see whether what I say will happen to you or not.”

Numbers 11:23

At this point in the story of the exodus of Israel from Egypt Moses had already seen many miraculous events. 

He had witnessed the ten plagues inflicted on Egypt in order to deliver Israel from Pharaoh. (Exodus 7-11)

He had witnessed God provide a way where there was no way by splitting the Red Sea. (Exodus 14:21)

He had witnessed the dew of the desert miraculously become manna from heaven. (Exodus 16)

He had seen God's glory directly on Mt Sinai. (Exodus 19:18)

He had witnessed God's guidance through a pillar of cloud and a pillar of fire. (Exodus 13:21)

Think about those events that Moses had witnessed with his own eyes! These are things that the majority of God's servants have only dreamed of. And yet in Numbers 11:21-22 we see Moses questioning God's ability to do what He said. After seeing all of those miraculous events Moses questions if God can really provide enough meat for the people of Israel to eat for a month. 

This seems ridiculous but isn't this how we all are? We see God come through in our finances time and time again but whenever a new situation comes up we fret and worry. We see God's healing power come through in one instance but the next time we are sick we question whether He will heal us. Then God has one question for us:

"Has the Lord's arm been shortened?"

Has God's power and ability changed since the last time? He has already promised us that He doesn't change (Malachi 3:6; Hebrews 13:8). So clearly His power is not less and He can do the same things that He did before. 

If God healed before then He will do it again!

If God provided before then He will do it again!

If God delivered before He will do it again!

Just put your trust in Him and you will see whether what He says will happen!

God Lives in You!

Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.

1 John 4:15

Abide in Me, and I (Jesus) in you...

John 15:4 

But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.

Romans 8:11

the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.

John 14:17 

Think about these scriptures.

Read them out loud so you can hear them.

Meditate on them.

Memorize them.

If you can get this one truth it will revolutionize your life completely! 

God Himself lives in you!

Think about what that means. Why should we ever be timid or shy if God is living in us? How can we ever think that we are incapable of anything if God lives in us? Why should sickness be allowed to live in the same dwelling place as God? It is time for us to recognize this wonderful truth!

John G. Lake was known for standing in front of the mirror in the morning and saying: "God lives in that man, in that suit of clothes. And where that suit of clothes goes, God goes." John G. Lake had many wonderful miracles wrought through his ministry and the secret was an understanding that God lived in him.

Of course there is one criteria for God to live in you, you must have invited Him in. If you have not invited Him in yet then please visit What is the Gospel for an explanation of how to do that. God is waiting for you. He has already done everything required for your salvation and all you need to do is accept it. 

Then after you have accepted the salvation through Jesus Christ you can pray and ask God to baptize you in the Holy Spirit. Jesus, in Luke 24:49, called it being "endued with power from on high." Jesus also promised that God would give the Holy Spirit to those who asked Him (Luke 11:13).

It's time for the church to recognize who lives in them!

Agree With Me in Prayer!

“Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven."

Matthew 18:19

There is power in agreement!

Anytime that we recognize and walk in the authority that we have through Christ there is power but there is something even more that happens when we stand in agreement with another believer. God made us to be communal beings. That is why He said we are all His body, each a different member meant to work together (1 Corinthians 12; Romans 12). 

God created us to work together and a part of that is praying together!

In my post, The Power of Prayer, I lay out the authority that we have on this earth and how powerful our prayers are when we understand that authority, but that power is multiplied when we are in unity with fellow believers. 

By uniting our faith together we can even more effectively call the supernatural into the natural world!

Also in The Power of Prayer I shared how God had led me to pray for the churches that I drive by on a regular basis. I am praying for revival, for the full measure of the Spirit to be poured out on their congregation, for the bondage of religion to be broken, and for their influence in their community to be increased. 

If you can agree with this prayer then I encourage you stand with me. Here are the churches in the Portland area that I have been praying for on a regular basis:

Connections Church

City Bible Church

Life Christian Church

Life Christian Center

Gracepoint Church

Milwaukie Covenant Church

Southeast Christian Center

St Paul's United Methodist Church of Milwaukie

Oak Grove Methodist Church

Milwaukie Lutheran

Two Rivers Church

Immovable Foundation Church

Oak Grove United Methodist Church

Milwaukie Christian Church

Join with me in prayer and help to usher in revival to the Portland Metro area!

Becoming a Faith Giant!

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

One of the most repeated phrases in the Bible is, "The just shall live by faith." (Hab. 2:4; Rom. 1:17; Gal. 3:11; Heb. 10:38) If God chose to have a phrase repeated that many times in the Bible than it must be important. This phrase shows us that faith is not supposed to be a 'once in a while' action.

Faith is the lifestyle of the righteous person!

As we continue to read the Word we find more statements that show us how important faith is in the Christian walk. We see that:

It is the way we access grace for our salvation. (Ephesians 2:8)

It is the only way we can please God. (Hebrews 11:6)

The lack of faith hinders miracles. (Matthew 13:58)

It is through faith that we get answers to prayer. (Mark 11:24)

So it is clear that faith is important. In fact faith is absolutely necessary for the life of a believer! The question then comes, "How do we get faith?"

Our first answer to that question is that we already have faith. Romans 12:3 states that "God has dealt to each one a measure of faith." However there are ways that we can build the faith that God has given us. 

1) We build our faith through hearing the Word.

So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

Romans 10:17

This is the number one way to build faith in our lives, through the Word of God. This means that we should be constantly immersing ourselves in the Word. We should be reading the Word, quoting the Word, listening to sermons based on the Word, reading books that expound the Word, and meditating on the Word. This should be our constant practice throughout the day, every day!  

2) We build our faith through praying in the Holy Spirit. 

But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit

Jude 1:20 

Praying in the Holy Spirit is allowing the Holy Spirit to pray through us. One way to do this is to pray in tongues. By praying in tongues we let go of control with our minds and allow the Holy Spirit to pray through us in a heavenly language. Paul said:

For he who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God, for no one understands him; however, in the spirit he speaks mysteries. 

1 Corinthians 14:2 

Praying in tongues is a way that we speak directly to God His perfect will for our lives and therefore build up our faith.

3) We build our faith through prayer and fasting.

So Jesus said to them, “Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you. However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.”

Matthew 17:20-21

Jesus said that the unbelief only goes out through prayer and fasting. Fasting, in many ways, has become The Forgotten Power of the Church. It is through fasting that we can build our faith to truly do the impossible! 

In these three ways we can build our faith and become faith giants!

You Can't Handle It... But God Can!

They say He won't give me,

more than I can handle.

Well is it true, can it be,

because my life is in shambles

I try to go to church

but even my pastor

doesn't have answers

for what I'm going through.

Lord what can I do?

If you're out there

Please come and show me through.

Have you ever felt this way?

Actually this is a good place to be. It is a common thing to hear in the Christian world: God won't give you more than you can handle. But that statement isn't true!

God never promised we wouldn't go through anything we can't handle, but He did promise He would help us handle it!

In fact, God told us to cast our whole burden on Him! In other words, if we will let Him, He will take it from us completely. But we need to seek Him through it!

What is it that you are going through?

What has been weighing you down?

What has been holding you back?

The Bible says that we should cast all of our cares on Him (1 Peter 5:7). Jesus wants it all! He wants to take our burdens and cares and He promised that His burden is light (Matthew 11:30).

This lie has been going around for many years now that God will not give us anything that we can't handle so when we hit those situations we think we have to take care of it ourselves. If we can't we feel like we are weak or a failure.

But God never meant for you to handle it alone!

He is there for you, waiting for you to run into His arms. He wants to hold you and comfort you and strengthen you. He is simply waiting with arms wide open for you to turn to Him, and He will bring you to victory!

A Tribute to My Egyptian Brothers

And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was committed to them. Then I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.

Revelation 20:4 

Praise God for the boldness of men and women around the world to stand up in the face of death for the name of Jesus Christ!

Praise God for the promise that these men and women would reign with Christ in the end!

Praise God for the "crown of life" (James 1:12) promised to those who are persecuted for their faith in Jesus Christ!

There has been a recent increase in publicized graphic violence by Islamic extremists but let us change our focus from the persecutors to the persecuted. This persecution has been happening since Stephen was stoned to death in Acts 7, it is just that we in the western world have been blind to what is going on. 

There was a brief example in the U.S. back in 1999 when it was reported that during the Columbine massacre, Cassie Bernall was asked if she believed in God right before being shot. For once martyrdom was close to home and the entire nation was shocked. But then Christians went one with their lives mostly unaware of how many of their brothers and sisters were dying or being persecuted around the world. 

Richard Wurmbrand, founder of Voice of the Martyrs, wrote a book about his own persecution called Tortured for Christ. If you have not read it you can get the book for free here. In this book he shares a new perspective on martyrdom. He tells a story of a man who was constantly beat in an attempt to get him to deny Christ but he would not give in. Finally his captors brought this mans son and proceeded to drown his son by forcing his head in a bucket of water. Each time they brought the boy's head out of the water the boy would plead with his father not to give in, to not deny Christ. He would remind his father that he was just going to go to a better place. 

As I read this I was horrified the same way that many of us have been horrified by watching a recent video that has come out. How can such evil exist in human beings? But Richard Wurmbrand, after telling this story, made the statement, "It was so beautiful". 

Wurmbrand focused on a different side of things then the average person. He was stating that the devotion of the father and son to Jesus Christ was beautiful. Of course he thought that the actions of his persecutors were horrible but that was not his focus. 

So I had this account in mind as I watched the video. Instead of focusing on the evil of the Islamist extremists, an evil straight from Satan himself, I was able to focus on the beautiful devotion of those Christians, of my brothers. And let me say:

Hani Abdel Messihah

Yousef Shoukry

Towadros Yousef

Maged Suleiman Shahata

Milad Makeen Zaky
Abanub Ayad Atiya

Kirollos Shokry Fawzy (Kirollos Bashree Fawzy)
Bishoy Astafanus Kamel
Malak Ibrahim Sinweet
Girgis Milad Sinweet
Mina Fayez Aziz
Samuel Alham Wilson
Samuel Astafanus Kamel
Ezat Bishri Naseef
Loqa Nagaty Anees
Munir Gaber Adly
Esam Badir Samir
Malak Farag Abram
Sameh Salah (Sameh Salah Farug)
Girgis Sameer Maglee
 

I am proud to be your brother! 

You Will Seek Me and Find Me...

And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.

Jeremiah 29:13

What a promise! 

If we seek Him we will find Him! 

This promise was made to the children of Israel during one of the darkest times in their history. This was a time where they didn't experience God at all. They were taken captives by their enemies and forced to live in a land of foreign gods. And it was in this time that God makes the promise, "...you will seek Me and find Me..." The only requirement is that it has to be "...with all their heart."

What does it mean to seek Him with all our heart? 

It means that finding Him, experiencing His presence, is our number one goal. It means that we make the decision to sacrifice those things that hinder us from seeking Him. It means that activities like prayer and Bible reading no longer are just religious activities but life giving passions.

Are you seeking Him with all your heart?

What is it that holds you back from seeking Him? Is it a particular sin? An addiction? Movies or television? Something else that is taking your time? 

You will never experience Him fully until you decide He is more important than everything!

If you truly want revival in your city then it has to start with you. Revival starts with people who seek God wholeheartedly. Then when God shows up it draws people to them. 

Revival has to start somewhere, why not with you?

If you want to make the decision to seek Him wholeheartedly I gave some good ways to start in my post Four Ways We Should Seek the Kingdom First. 

Remember His promise is that you will find Him!

If you have never sought Him before then feel free to visit my page What is the Gospel for some direction on what it means to be saved.

God is speaking! Are you Listening?

"If you are alive and born again God is speaking to you! 

The question is are you taking time to listen?"

Gloria Copeland

So many Christians get discouraged because they feel that God doesn't speak to them and probably even more are in a worse state because they don't even care that they never hear God. There are even Christians who make the claim that God doesn't speak today. That is one of the worst deceptions that Satan can make you believe. 

Without consistently hearing God speak to us, we will never experience the true life that was meant to be in our relationship with God!

It is through actively hearing God that we find our true ministry, our full calling, and the vision that God has placed on our life. Even beyond that, when we begin actively listening to God we will find out how many opportunities to bless other people we have been missing out on.

Dan Baumann, a popular speaker in YWAM and the writer of Imprisoned in Iran, told a story of a time that he went shopping. He went to a large shopping mall with one item in mind that he needed to buy but he didn't know where to find it. So as he walks into the mall he prays, "God lead me to where I can find this item". God lead him turn by turn to the right store and then to the right aisle to where he found the exact item that he needed at a cheaper price than he expected! 

While he tells this story we are all amazed. Most of us are thinking about how close of a connection to God he must have to hear God's voice in such a mundane situation. But he finishes it up with this simple statement:

It is abnormal for us to hear God in our everyday life because it is abnormal for us to listen to God in our every day life.

It is that simple! Think about that story, how many of us have ever even thought to ask God where to find something in a store? We might seek out information, or spend time trying various different stores until we find the right one, but we never even think to ask God.

This is especially true when it comes to daily opportunities to minister. 

When was the last time you opened up your spirit to hear whether God wanted you to minister to someone as you're walking down the street? 

When was the last time you stopped for a moment and asked if God wanted you to do something different than you were planning?

On Monday I went to down town Portland to take a test. As I was leaving I realized that I got done early and still had more than thirty minutes on my parking pass so I asked God if He wanted me to do anything while I was there. God led me to walk and pray so I did. I just randomly started walking the streets where I was and prayed. 

I prayed for revival in Portland, I prayed for God to lead me on how I could reach the people in the city, I prayed that a strip club I walked past would shut down and that God would reach the dancers and the customers, and I prayed that God would bring a Paul-like encounter to the head of the Church of Scientology in Portland.

Basically I sought the Kingdom of God through prayer.

Then as I came around full circle and found myself back at my car I asked God if there was anything more He would like me to do. I felt that gentle nudging in my spirit to keep walking past my car so I did. I walked about a block past my car and found myself at a max stop. As I was walking I was praying if God wanted me to talk to anyone but I didn't feel that direction, instead I was led to a certain spot where I looked down on the ground. On the ground was a Key Bank debit card. I picked it up and asked God what I should do with it and God reminded me that I had walked by a Key Bank when I was praying so I took it back there and the teller I gave it to knew exactly who it belonged to just by seeing the name!

This is just a small example of what God can use you to do when you let Him lead you. I have also had times where I listened to God and God led me to people who were ready to hear the Gospel and gave their lives to Him right there on the street! 

It's time we start listening to God daily and letting Him use us on a regular basis!

The Five Purposes of Life

What is the purpose of life?

Philosophers have mulled over that question for thousands of years. They have discussed it, theorized answers to it and written books about their theories. Many people these days believe that there is no purpose to life. If you listen to the popular atheistic 'scientific' theory of the beginning of the universe, everything, including human life, was just an accident. It's no wonder that so many people are wandering around with little sense of purpose. It's also no wonder that people are filled with selfish inclinations and goals:

How can I improve my life?
How can I reach my goals?
How can I be successful?

Naturally we as Christians can look to the Word of God to find our purpose but often we do it with the eyes of the world. Often we still look at the Bible with the above questions in mind when we should be looking at the Word of God with a different set of questions:

What did God create me for?
How can I fulfill God's mission on this earth?
How can I share God's love with those around me?

You see the world is self centered but we as Christians have been called to be God centered. God has promised that as we fix our eyes on Jesus he will keep us on the right path, the path that we were created for.

In A Purpose Driven Life Rick Warren does a great job of laying out our five purposes according to the Word of God:

1) We were planned for God's pleasure

2) We were formed for God's family

3) We were created to become like Christ

4) We were shaped for serving God

5) We were made for a mission

To shorten it up even more:

We were created for worship, fellowship, discipleship, ministry, and evangelism!

Everything we do should somehow fit under one of these purposes, if it doesn't it's a waste of time. Of course we all do things that don't directly fall under one of these things and that's okay, but the question remains:

How much time are you wasting?

What's your ratio between time spent pursuing your purposes and time doing other things? Are there any of these purposes that you are not fulfilling at all?

"I am the Lord who heals you"!

"who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed" 

1 Peter 2:24

Divine Healing

For some reason this is a very controversial subject in today's church. For me the Bible makes it clear that it is God's will and desire to heal just like it is His will and desire to save us. However, many people don't seem to believe so. They struggle with it because of how many people they have seen who didn't receive healing, and it is true, many faithful Christians die early of sickness never receiving their physical healing. But I think we need to ask ourselves a question:

Are we going to twist the Word of God to fit our experience or are we going to find a way to change our experience to match the Word of God?

Throughout the Word of God we see God presenting Himself as "...the Lord who heals..." (Exodus 15:26). Way back in the Old Testament He reveals Himself as Jehovah Rapha and Jesus simply clarifies that role in His life here on earth.  

Constantly we see Jesus "...healed them all." 

(Matthew 12:15; Luke 6:19)

Some people would like to say "Well He was Jesus. Of course He could heal." But Jesus sent His followers to all do "the same works that [He did]." (John 14:12) The only prerequisite in this verse is that we believe in Jesus. Then in Mark 16 Jesus describes the signs that should be following us:

"And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”

Mark 16:17-18 

Notice again that the only prerequisite is belief. So who are we going to believe? Are we going to believe the Word of God or our experience? 

It's time for the Body of Christ to start making our experience match the Word rather than trying to make the Word match our experience!

How do we do that? We believe!

We need to build our faith so that we can use it to mold our experiences according to the Word. There was one point where Jesus did not "heal them all". In Matthew 13:58 and Mark 6:5 we read the story of Jesus returning to His hometown. It says that he couldn't do many miracles due to their unbelief. 

Belief is the quality that produces miracles!

If we are not seeing miracles regularly then we need to build our faith and we do that through the Word of God and through spending time in His presence.

A Call to Evangelism - In Rhyme

 

We've got too many Christians just filling up the churches

What about the people Christ died to purchase?

We must realize this isn't just a game

The lion that we're fighting isn't even close to tame.

He'll take anyone he can with him to hell

While we sit here in our pews willing to sell

Someone else's soul

And give up our goal

So we can sit lackadaisically

And stare in wonder amazedly.

How can you work so lazedly

Doing little to nothing

While you try stuffing 

yourself with spiritual blessing

When really you're just messing yourself

By refusing the stretching and the testing

That causes growth from the crying and fussing

of a little baby

I hope that maybe

One day you might be

Grown straight to maturity

Then you'll take your place in this war

Cause' that's what we're here for

To battle for another's soul

Sometimes it causes you to take a toll

But it's worth it

To birth it

Into existence

And push through the resistance

For the greatest miracle of all

When a lost soul answers the Father's call

And falls under command of the general

And when I'm dancing in eternity

That soul will be dancing right next to me

That's the only reward I want to see

So it's time for us to truly be

Warring soldiers in the Lord's army

You know that's all there is for me.

Four Ways We Should Seek the Kingdom First!

But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, 

and all these things shall be added to you.

Matthew 6:33

Yesterday I wrote about how God Wants to Glorify You. In the post I describe how many people are not glorified to the extent that God desires them to be only because if they were, they would stop seeking after God. Because God cares more about the relationship than their status or calling He, by His grace, holds them back from the calling in order to preserve the relationship. This is why Jesus told us to seek the Kingdom first. 

If our eyes are focused on the Kingdom 

then we will suddenly realize that everything else has fallen into place.

But how do we seek the kingdom first? In what ways are we supposed to focus on the Kingdom of God? Here are four ways to do just that:

1) We seek the Kingdom first through prayer.

What are your prayers like? Do you constantly pray asking God for your needs? I believe this is the foundational way that we can set our priorities straight. In what is commonly known as The Lord's Prayer, a model prayer that Jesus used as a response to the question "Lord, teach us to pray..." (Luke 11:1), Jesus's first actual request to the Father is:

...Your kingdom come.

Your will be done

On earth as it is in heaven.

Luke 11:2

Later in the model prayer Jesus does ask the Father to "Give us day by day our daily bread." (Luke 11:3) but I think it is telling which comes first. 

Our prayers should focus on ushering in God's Kingdom!

I think most people get it confused. They pray for their own needs to be met 90% of the time and then devote maybe 10% of their prayers to kingdom pursuits. 

When was the last time you prayed for your lost family member or friend? 

When was the last time you prayed for your pastor or the missionaries that your church supports? When was the last time you prayed for revival in your city?

These are the things that should occupy your prayer life. What truly matters more your bills being paid or the eternal state of your co-worker's soul? The answer is obvious but do your prayers reflect that answer?

2) We seek the Kingdom first through our finances.

No one likes to talk about money unless it has to do with making it, but this is an important one. There is a reason the Bible talks about giving the "firstfruits" (Ex. 23:19; Prov. 3:9; Neh. 10:35). The Old Testament calls it the tithe which means literally "a tenth", but the new testament talks about giving generously. 

Because the tithe is barely mentioned in he New Testament there are a lot of people who have made the argument that it is a part of the law that has been done away but there are two things that are very clear in the New Testament: we should seek God's Kingdom first and we should give generously from our finances. In my opinion, when we consider that all of our money is God's anyway, 10% can barely even be called generous, but since the tithe is a Biblical idea it is a good place to start.

We should financially support the Kingdom before paying anything else!

Even if God hadn't promised to take care of our needs and to give back to us we could simply use the argument of eternal significance. Not paying our bills may make life on earth difficult but it has no eternal significance, but preaching the Gospel will rescue souls from hell and bring them into eternal life! The least you can do is set aside 10% of your money and put it towards something with eternal significance.

3) We seek the Kingdom first through service.

Through serving the Body of Christ we are seeking the Kingdom. What kind of priority do you put on your service? 

Have you used your work schedule as an excuse not to serve? 

Do you refuse to serve in your local church because you're afraid you'll miss the game? 

Do you pass up opportunities to visit the sick, help the widows or mentor the fatherless?

These things have eternal significance. It is funny how often we say that we don't have time to serve and yet we have time to watch a movie. Think about how much you could do in those two hours! I'm not saying it is wrong to watch a movie, however I think we need to realize how much time we truly have. I used to say that I had no time due to my two jobs but I would spend hours at one job watching Netflix. When I finally realized how much time I had I was able to find again how to serve the Body of Christ. 

Our service strengthens and enables the Body of Christ to fulfill her mission!

4) We seek the Kingdom first through evangelism.

Ultimately, the purpose, the mission of the Body of Christ is to reach as many as possible with the Gospel of Jesus. This is how we spread the Kingdom. 

Have you spoke to anyone about Jesus in the last week? 

Do you shy away from discussion about any Christian things when surrounded by non-Christians? 

Do you actively pray for opportunities to share the Gospel?

We are constantly seeking after success in our careers, how to get ahead, how to live in abundance but we forget that there are billions of people in this world on the road to hell and we know the road to salvation! Rick Warren, in his bestselling book A Purpose Driven Life, made the comment:

"A church that doesn't want to grow is saying to the world, 'You can go to hell.'"

How often have we as individuals said that very thing through our action, or lack of action? There is someone in your life waiting for you to tell them about the Gospel. They may not be ready for you to preach it to them directly but I believe if you let the Holy Spirit guide you He will give you creative ways to plant seeds into that person. 

Winning souls is our ultimate mission and purpose on this earth!

Note: If you have not received the salvation from Jesus Christ then please go to What is the Gospel?

God Wants to Glorify You!

"Surely you shall call a nation you do not know,
And nations who do not know you shall run to you,
Because of the Lord your God,
And the Holy One of Israel;
For He has glorified you.”

Isaiah 55:5

God wants to glorify you!

In a recent post I discussed how we should be seeking after God's glory, but sometimes we forget that one of the ways He displays His glory is through us. When we allow Him to glorify us then we begin to display His glory through our own glory. When we allow Him to lift us up then He is lifted up through us.

God does not want you to be poor, sick, and tired!

He does not want you to be miserable!

If you are miserable it doesn't bring Him any glory. He desires you to be lifted up out of your situation but He desires even more to keep His relationship with you. I believe some people are never glorified to the extent that God has planned for them because He knows that the moment they receive that glory they will stop seeking Him. This is why Jesus said:

But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.

Matthew 6:33

If we are constantly seeking after the 'things' then that is a sign that once we get the 'things' we will stop seeking. For that reason God will often provide just enough to get by in those cases, but I believe that if we truly are seeking His kingdom, His way of doing things, His mission, then we will see an abundance flow into our life like never before. 

God wants to glorify you but He is waiting for you to be humble enough that you won't take the credit. Remember the Israelites? Looking through the Old Testament you can see a consistent pattern. 

God made Israel great, 

Israel became proud and thought they did it on their own, 

Israel turned away from God and calamity hit the nation, 

Israel realized they did actually need God and started seeking after Him, 

God rescued Israel and made them great again.

That cycle repeated itself over and over again. God doesn't want to have to go through the same cycle with you so sometimes He holds off on making you great until you figure it out. 

Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.

James 4:10 

Start seeking His glory in humility and watch God glorify you!

Lord, Make Me Hungry For More of You!

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
 For they shall be filled.

Matthew 5:16

Are you hungry?

Jesus said that those who hunger and thirst after righteousness are blessed! So are you hungry? Righteousness is basically the right things of God. Do you hunger after the right things of God? Or are you still driven by your carnal desires? 

What drives you? What directs your decisions throughout the day? Do you constantly try to learn how to make more money, or look after what kind of food or treat you can get? Are you driven by a desire for power or by lust? Or are you driven by a desire for more of God?

We should be praying daily God make me hungry, increase my hunger for you!

God make me hunger after you, after the things of you! God never let me be satisfied! "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst... for they shall be filled." This is a promise! "Shall" leaves no room for doubt. It leaves no room for 'if' or 'maybe'. "they shall be filled"! 

Do you want more of God? Do you want to see more of His power manifested in your life? Do you want to see His Spirit flowing out of your belly like rivers of living water? Then it's time to get hungry!

Almost a month ago I wrote the post Rivers Are About To Spring Forth as a word for the year 2015. I know that God is speaking that word into my family but I also believe that it is a prophetic word for you. However when we receive a prophetic Word from the Lord we often have to accept and seek after it for it to come to pass. 

If you do nothing with the Word it will not come to pass!

You have to receive, grasp onto it with your faith, and you have to be hungry for it! 

Are you hungry for the rivers of living water?

Do you desire greater revelation of Jesus Christ?

Do you want to see the glory of God? 

Make this your daily prayer:

Lord make me hungry for more of you!