Posted by: dailywordofdestiny | August 23, 2013

STILL WATERS RUN DEEP


Usually we associate these words with a person’s nature; someone who is quiet and causes little disturbance, often thought to be a deep thinker; someone who has profound thoughts or great wisdom. Basically, “there is a lot more to the individual than meets the eye”. The underlying truth of this “word association” is that a river, or stream has areas where the water is rough and noisy and appears to be moving rapidly and other areas where the water appears to be calm, quiet, and still. The still or clam areas of the river are usually much deeper than rapidly flowing water.

I have reviewed the literal meanings of these words in the Oxford Dictionary:

Still: without motion or sound, calm or tranquil; silence; without moving.
Can you “feel” this? For me it represents the purity of complete “peace” (John 14:27; Romans 5:1; 8:6; Colossians 3:15-17; 1Peter 3: 8-12).

Run: to go at a pace faster than walking, never having both of a pair of feet on the ground at once; travel hurriedly, briefly, etc.; advance smoothly or easily, be in action or operation; be current or operative; have course, or order, or tendency; compete in race, finish race in specified position; seek election; flow; spread rapidly or beyond proper place; traverse or make one’s way through or over(course, race, distance); etc., etc.
Does this not sound like what each of our spiritual lives (sanctification) are to model according to God’s Word (2 Timothy 4: 4-8). We are called to STAY FOCUSED and to EMBRACE the call He has on our individual and corporate lives (Hebrews 6: 9-11).

Deep: extending far down or in from top or surface or edge; extending to or lying at specified depth; situated far down, or back, or in; intense, vivid, extreme; heartfelt, absorbing; fully absorbed or overwhelmed; profound, penetration, difficult to understand; deep place or state, etc.
This speaks to me about our personal “relationship” with Jesus Christ. He is calling each of us to become deeply entwined in our relationship with Him so we will be able to draw from His strength and wisdom in touching the lives of those He places about us each day (Psalm 42:7, 8; Luke 5:4-7; 1Corinthians 2:6- 13).

The only way we (as born again in JESUS CHRIST) can be sure that we know God in the right way is to keep His commandments. If someone claims, “I know Him well!” but doesn’t keep His commandments, he’s obviously a liar. His life doesn’t match his words. Anyone who claims to be intimate with God ought to live the same kind of life Jesus lived. Antichrist is anyone who denies that JESUS is the DIVINE CHRIST. No one who denies the Son has any part with the Father, but affirming the Son is an embrace of the Father as well. Stay with what you heard from the beginning, the original Gospel message. Let it SINK INTO your life. If what you heard from the beginning LIVES DEEPLY in you, you will LIVE DEEPLY in the Lord. This is exactly what Christ promised: eternal life, real life!

I’ve written to warn you about those who are trying to deceive you. But they’re no match for what is embedded DEEPLY WITHIN you – Christ’s anointing, no less! You don’t need any of their so-called teaching. Christ’s anointing teaches you the TRUTH on everything you need to know about yourself and Him, uncontaminated by a single lie. LIVE DEEPLY in what you were taught. Stay with Christ and LIVE DEEPLY in Him. Then you will be ready for Him when He appears, ready to receive Him with open arms, with no cause for red-faced guilt or lame excuses when He arrives. Once you’re CONVINCED that He is right and righteous, you’ll recognize that all who practice righteousness are God’s true children.

What marvelous love the Father has extended to us! Just look at it – we’re called CHILDREN OF GOD! That’s who we really are. But that’s also why the world doesn’t recognize us or take us seriously, because it has no idea WHO HE IS or WHAT HE’S UP TO – all of us who look forward to His COMING stay ready, with the glistening purity of Jesus’ life as a model for our own. So, don’t let anyone divert you from the truth. It’s the person who acts right who is right, just as we see it lived out in our righteous Messiah. Those who make a practice of sin are straight from the Devil, the pioneer in the practice of sin. The Son of God entered the scene to abolish the Devil’s ways. People conceived and brought into life by God don’t make a practice of sin. How could they? God’s seed is DEEP WITHIN them, making them who they are. It’s not in the nature of the God-begotten to practice and parade sin. Here’s how you can tell the difference between God’s children and the Devil’s children: the one who won’t practice righteous ways isn’t from God, nor is the one who won’t love brother or sister… a simple test.

Brothers and sisters, let’s not just talk about love; let’s practice REAL LOVE. This is the only way we’ll know we’re living truly, living in God’s reality. It’s also the ONLY WAY to shut down DEBILITATING SELF-CRITICISM, even when there is something to it! For GOD IS GREATER than our worried hearts and knows more about us than we do ourselves. Once that’s taken care of and we’re no longer accusing or condemning ourselves, we’re then bold and free before God! We’re able to stretch our hands out AND RECEIVE what we asked for because we’re doing what He said, doing what pleases Him. Again, this is God’s command: To BELIEVE in His personally named Son, JESUS CHRIST. He told us to love each other, in line with the original command. As we keep His commands, we LIVE DEEPLY and surely in Him, and He lives in us. And this is how we experience His DEEP and abiding presence in us: by the SPIRIT He gave us.

Friends, let us continue to love each other since love comes from God. Everyone who loves is born of God and experiences a “relationship with God”. The person who refuses to love doesn’t know the first thing about God, because GOD IS LOVE – so you can’t know Him if you don’t love. This is how God showed His love for us: God sent His only SON into the world so we might LIVE THROUGH HIM. This is the kind of love we are talking about—not that we once upon a time loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as a Sacrifice to clear away our sins and the DAMAGE they have done to our RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD!

So, if God loved us like this, we certainly ought to love each other. No one has seen God, ever. But if we love one another, God DWELLS DEEPLY WITHIN US, and His love becomes COMPLETE in us – PERFECT LOVE! This is how we KNOW we’re living steadily and DEEPLY IN HIM and HE IN US: He’s given us LIFE from His LIFE, from His very own SPIRIT. Also, we’ve seen for ourselves and continue to STATE OPENLY that the FATHER SENT HIS SON AS SAVIOROF THE WORLD. Everyone who confesses that JESUS is God’s Son participates continuously in an intimate relationship with God! We KNOW it so well, we’ve EMBRACED it heart and soul, this LOVE that comes from God. (1 John 2-4).

Everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus WILL BE PERSECUTED, while evil men and imposters will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. BUT as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and from infancy you have KNOWN the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. ALL SCRIPTURE IS GOD-BREATHED and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

“In the presence of God and of Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of His appearing and His kingdom, I give you this charge: PREACH the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke, and ENCOURAGE—with great patience and careful instruction. For, the time will come when men will NOT put up with SOUND DOCTRINE. Instead; to suit their own desires, they WILL gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They WILL turn their ears away from the TRUTH and turn aside to myths. But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of the ministry that God has personally called you to! Amen.” (2 Timothy 4: 1-8)

Leave a Comment

Posted in Uncategorized

Posted by: dailywordofdestiny | August 14, 2013

LET THE LORD REIGN


Part Two: CHRIST JESUS Our Substitute Within

“For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but TO SAVE THE WORLD THROUGH HIM.”… “If you love Me, you will obey what I command. And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Counselor to be with you forever—the Spirit of Truth. The world cannot accept Him, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. But, you know Him, for He lives with you and will be in you (also…Romans 8: 16). I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see Me anymore, but you will see Me. Because I LIVE, YOU WILL ALSO LIVE.” … On one occasion, while He was eating with them, He gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the GIFT My Father promised, which you have heard Me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days, you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” … “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave His life for me” (John 3: 16, 17; 14: 15-19; Acts 1: 4; Galatians 2: 20).

We often think of our Christian life as a “changed life” but I think what God really offers us is an “exchanged life” and He gave Jesus to be our Substitute within. “I live; and yet no longer I, but Christ liveth in me.” Our “new” life is not something which we ourselves have to produce. It is Christ’s own life reproduced in us. Regeneration means that the life of Christ is planted in us by the Holy Spirit at our new birth (John 3: 3-6). Reproduction goes further. It means that new life grows and becomes evident progressively in us, until the very likeness of Christ begins to be reproduced in our lives (see Galatians 4: 19). For example, last week I wrote about asking the LORD to surround me with peace at work, yet when I arrived at the office it seemed that immediately chaos reigned. I have often heard people say that you shouldn’t pray for patience because the LORD will surely arrange for you to be tested through giving you many trying situations. Well, in part I agree. But really, I believe we are praying in vain when we pray for “patience, peace, etc.” Why? Because it is not “patience, etc.” that we have need of. IT IS CHRIST. God will not give me humility, patience, love, or holiness as separate gifts of His grace; He has given only ONE GIFT TO MEET ALL OUR NEED: HIS SON, CHRIST JESUS! As I look to Him to live out His life in me, He will be humble and patient and loving and kind and everything else I need—in my stead. “And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life IS IN His Son. He who has the Son has life: He who does not have the Son of God does not have life” (1 John 5: 11, 12). The life of God is given us in the Son: it is “eternal life in Christ Jesus our LORD” (Romans 6: 23) and our RELATIONSHIP with the Son is our relationship to life.

Fruit of the Spirit In 1 Corinthians 1: 30 we read that “Christ Jesus …was made unto us wisdom from God, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.” The common idea regarding sanctification is that every item of our life should be holy; but that IS NOT holiness, it is the FRUIT of holiness. HOLINESS IS CHRIST. It is the Lord Jesus being made over to us to be that. So, I can put in anything there: love, humility, power, self-control. If I call for patience today: He is my patience. If the call tomorrow is for purity; He is my purity. He IS the ANSWER to EVERY NEED. That is why Paul speaks of the “FRUIT of the Spirit” as ONE (Galatians 5: 22) and not of “fruits” as separate items. God has given us His Holy Spirit and when love is needed the fruit of the Spirit is love; when joy is needed, the fruit of the Spirit is joy. It is always true. It does not matter what your personal deficiency , or whether it be a hundred and one different things, God WILL ALWAYS HAVE ONE SUFFICIENT ANSWER; HIS SON, JESUS CHRIST, and HE IS THE ANSWER TO EVERY HUMAN NEED! Hallelujah!

How can we know more of Christ this way? Only through an INCREASING AWARENESS of NEED. Some of you may be afraid to discover deficiency in yourselves and so you never grow. Growth in grace is the only sense in which we can grow, and grace we have said, is God doing something for us. We all have the same Christ dwelling within. But revelation of some new need will lead us spontaneously to trust HIM to live out His life in us. Greater capacity means greater enjoyment of God’s supply. Another letting go, a fresh trusting in Christ, and another stretch of land is conquered. “Christ is my life” is the secret of enlargement.

We have to get to the stark reality and say “LORD, I cannot do it; therefore, I no longer try to do it.” This is the same point most of us fall short of. “LORD, I cannot, therefore I will take my hands off; from now on I trust Thee for that.” We refuse to act; we depend on Him to do so, and then we enter fully and joyfully into the action He initiates. It is not passivity; it is a most active life, trusting the LORD like that; drawing life from Him, taking Him to be our very life, letting Him live His life in us as we go forth in His Name. Hallelujah!

“The kingdom of God is within you. It is true. That is where you draw near to Me before you are conscious of My nearness. And promptly, lovingly I am there. For comfort or peace, confidence or companionship. Never lose heart or be wearied of turning…or forgetful. It is My presence that transforms all life from ugliness to beauty, from chaos to tranquility, from hateful to loving, from disorder to harmony. Trust Me and be not afraid. Just leave in My hands the present and the future. I can bring order out of chaos, good out of evil, peace out of turmoil. Only believe! The success you harvest will be the result of work done in peace. Abide in Me and you shall bring forth much fruit.”

Leave a Comment

Posted in Uncategorized

Posted by: dailywordofdestiny | August 11, 2013

LET THE LORD REIGN

PART ONE
Hidden in Christ

“Therefore, my dear friends…continue to work out your salvation in fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to His good purpose. Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God. Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. He chose to give us birth through the word of truth (see John 1: 12-14), that we might be a kind of first fruits of all He created (see 1 Corinthians 15: 20). For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For, I have the desire to do what is good but I cannot carry it out. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. The flesh lusts against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?” (Philippians 2: 12, 13; 2 Corinthians 3: 5; James 1: 16-18; Ephesians 2: 10; Romans 7: 18, 22-24; Galatians 5: 17).

Have you ever wondered what it really means to “live in the Spirit?” I have heard and read these words thinking that I had a pretty good understanding of what they meant. God always has His way of revealing how little I actually do know. It is my prayer that this message will perhaps give you added understanding and that it will truly help “set you free.”

I Am Free! There are two aspects of our Christian experience; how we were saved by faith in Christ from our sinful nature (Ephesians 2: 4-9) and the second is related to our practical daily Christian walk (Romans 7: 1- 8: 39). To live in the flesh is to do something “out from my “self”. It includes all my past ways of coping and dealing with things in a way I felt comfortable with up to Christ. When I gave my life to Christ, my old ways of handling things were not acceptable anymore. It is a fact that in Christ my old man was crucified, and it is a present fact that I am blessed “with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ” (Ephesians 1: 3); but if I do not live in the Spirit, then my life will contradict that I am in Christ. His life and His ways will not be expressed in and through me. For example, my old temper still shows up, or my desiring to control my environment and those about me may still be a problem. What is the trouble, oh wretched woman that I am? It is that I am holding the truth objectively (I believe what I see around me and react to it), where what is true must be made true subjectively (I believe in Christ and His Word even though I don’t see it) and that is brought about as I live in the Spirit.

Not only am I in Christ, but Christ is IN me. As man can’t live and work in water but only in air (oxygen), so spiritually, Christ dwells and manifests Himself not in terms of “flesh” but of “spirit”. So, if I live “in the flesh”, what is mine in Christ is held in suspense in me. Even though I am in Christ, I may still live in my own strength and under my own direction and because of this, in daily experiences my “old sin nature” shows up. If I want to experience all that is in Christ, then I have to live in the Spirit.

Living in the Spirit means that I will trust Holy Spirit to do in me what I cannot do myself. Every time I am faced with a new demand from the LORD, I look to Him TO DO IN ME WHAT HE REQUIRES of me. It is not TRYING, but TRUSTING; it is not STRUGGLING, but RESTING in Him. If I have a hasty temper, impure thoughts, a quick tongue, or a critical spirit, I SHALL NOT SET OUT WITH A DETERMINED EFFORT TO CHANGE MYSELF, but instead, reckoning myself dead in Christ to these things, I shall look to the Spirit of God to produce in me the needed purity, humility, or meekness; CONFIDENT THAT HE WILL DO SO. “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the LORD will bring you today…The LORD will fight for you, you need only to be still” (Exodus 14: 13, 14). When Holy Spirit takes things in hand, there is no need for strain on our part. It is not a case of “clenching our teeth” (as I often do) and taking “a grip on ourselves” (I do that too), and thinking that we have “controlled ourselves beautifully” and had a glorious victory. No, the REAL VICTORY is where the LORD carries us through!

I like the passage in 1 Corinthians 10: 13 that promises God’s faithfulness in not letting us be tempted beyond what we can bear; however, if you are tempted, that He WILL provide a way that you can stand up under it. I believe the object of any temptation is always to get us to DO something. Satan’s temptations are not necessarily designed to make us do something sinful, but they are designed to cause us to ACT IN OUR OWN ENERGY. For example, when some event causes us to feel anger begin to well up within us, we need to STEP BACK from it at once; acknowledge it to the LORD then and there and ask Holy Spirit to bring PEACE and LOVE into our heart. Then WITHOUT A SOUND, WITHOUT A STRUGGLE, TRUST HIM TO DO THIS. I have TRIED TO CONTROL myself in this kind of situation. I have prayed on the way to work and have asked the LORD to reign in my heart. I have repeatedly said, “LORD, I submit ALL areas of my life to You.” Then, as soon as I walk in the door to the office chaos breaks out and all my good intentions fly out the window! I pray again the next day and the next and as I look back, I see that I have become more peaceful in situations (Mark 4: 26-29; see Exodus33: 21-23). Thank You, LORD!

As soon as we step out from the cover of Christ into the realm of the flesh, Satan has gained the victory over us. So where does our help come from? Galatians 5: 16, 17 says the fight with the flesh IS NOT OURS but Holy Spirit’s and it is to be He, not we, who meets and deals with it. The result is that we may not do the things that we would. If we live in the Spirit, if we walk by faith in the risen Christ, we can truly “stand aside” while Holy Spirit gains new victories over the flesh every day. Our victory lies in HIDING IN CHRIST (Psalm 27: 5, 6; Galatians 5: 1) and in relying upon Holy Spirit within us to overcome our fleshy lusts with His own new desires (Romans 8: 26). The cross has been given to procure salvation for us; the Spirit has been given to produce salvation in us. Hallelujah, you can choose to rest in Him and say, “I can do everything through Him who gives me strength” (Philippians 4: 13).

The Lord reminds YOU to…
“Live with Me in my secret place; rest in My shadow. For I am your fortress, your deliverer, and your shield. I have broken Satan’s yoke, and burst your bonds asunder. In repentance and rest is your salvation and in quietness and trust is your strength. Take the keys to the kingdom, open the door, and come in. It is there you find all you need; all provision. I am the answer to your every appeal. Call the name, JESUS! Watch circumstances and feelings change. Live up to My vision of you, through Christ.”

Leave a Comment

Posted in Uncategorized

Posted by: dailywordofdestiny | August 7, 2013

HIDDEN IN JESUS


“I call upon You, O God, for You will answer me; give ear to me and hear my prayer. Show the wonder of Your great love, You who save by Your right hand those who take refuge in You from their foes. Keep me as the apple of Your eye; hide me in the shadow of Your wings from the wicked who assail me, from my mortal enemies who surround me. But my eyes are fixed on You, O Sovereign LORD; in You I take refuge – do not give me over to death. Keep me from the snares they have laid for me, from the traps set by evildoers. Let the wicked fall into their own nets, while I pass by in safety. Rescue me from my enemies, O LORD, for I hide myself in you.” (Psalm 17: 6-9; 141: 8-10; 143:9)

My dream began in a day of “usual activity” (Matthew 24: 36-44). I remember saying goodbye to my sons as they left for school and I noted in the background that people were getting into their cars heading for work. Then, as dreams go, I found myself standing on a water-front dock and there were many workers around who were busy loading and unloading several moored cargo ships. I walked over to the edge of the pier and looked over the wide expanse of the ocean water and then quickly turned away, shivering as I headed towards home. For some reason, I looked upward into the sky and I saw a huge, hollow, circular shaft beginning to emerge from between the clouds. I remember thinking it was like an old movie where a UFO would send down a beam to suck up the people. Then I saw a wide, curved blade-like surface begin to form at the end of the shaft and I recognized that what was coming through the clouds was, in fact, a HUGE ANCHOR. It seemed to me that it was very old. It was a dull black and it had some rusty areas on it. At the same time, the anchor arm looked like shining, sharp steel. The anchor filled the sky and people were beginning to look up and shout for others to look; all wondering what it was and what it meant.

As I looked, I noted that the anchor was slowly moving to the left and then it would swing to the right; as a pendulum. A sickening feeling rose up inside me when I noticed that with each swing in either direction there was a “rachet-like noise” and the anchor was dropping a little closer to the earth’s surface. Even though I was in a specific place in the dream I KNEW that it had global meaning as well. I KNEW instantly that when the anchor hit the earth, it would actually cut the earth in two and that the cut would be longitudinal, beginning in the North and following through to the South.

Then I was standing with some other people closer to my home and we were watching as the anchor came closer to the earth’s surface. It seemed that it was about 20-30 feet from hitting when a woman (Sylvia) standing beside me said, “I’m going down there to get a closer look.” I said, “No, don’t go because it’s going to hit and if you’re not in a safe place it’ll kill you.” She just ran off and was standing on the dock looking up at the anchor. Suddenly, I was looking through her eyes at the broad base of the anchor’s arm. I saw thousands of faces looking through the anchor’s base at me. I was wondering who they were and why they were inside the anchor just as the anchor hit the earth.

ANCHOR: Hebrew (zrowa, zroah) is the arm (as stretched out), force—arm; help, mighty power, shoulder strength. In Greek (agkura, agkale, agkos) it is a bend, “ache”; an arm (as curved). Youngblood’s Bible Dictionary defines it as a heavy object on a ship cast overboard to hold the vessel in a particular place (see Acts 27: 27-31; 39-41). Oxford’s dictionary describes it as (noun) a heavy metal weight used to moor ship to sea bottom or a balloon to ground; thing affording stability; (verb) secure with anchor; fix firmly. (Luke 1: 46-56; John 12: 37-41, Acts 27: 14-44; Hebrews 6: 18-20)

CUT: Hebrew (karath) to cut (off, down, or asunder); by impl. to destroy or consume; spec. to covenant (i.e. make an alliance or bargain, orig. by cutting flesh and passing between the pieces)…(Genesis 15: 12-21; Matthew 27: 45-54; Hebrews 7: 22-27). In Greek (ekek) origin (point where motion or action proceeds) from, out (of place, time, or cause; direct or remote), by (the means of) exceedingly, (+ abundantly above)… (Ephesians 3: 14-21). Oxford’s defines it (verb) penetrate or wound with sharp instrument; divide (into parts) with knife etc.; trim, detach part of, by cutting; (noun) act of cutting, division or wound made by cutting; stroke of knife, sword, whip, etc. (Hebrews 4: 9-12).

EARTH: Both Hebrew and Greek have nearly identical meanings so I chose to cite the Greek, (ghay) soil; by extension a region, or the solid part of the whole of the terrene globe (incl. the occupants in each application): country, earth (-ly), ground, land, world (Matthew 24: 13, 14; John 3: 16, 17).

NORTH: Throne of God (Ezekiel, Chapters 40-43) Hebrew (tsaphan) to hide (by covering over); to hoard or reserve; to protect, esteem, hide(-den age, self), keep secret (-ly, plan) (Psalm 31: 19-24; Psalm 91).

SOUTH Hebrew (negeb) to be parched; the south (from its drought) (Amos 8: 11-13; John 7: 37, 38).

I believe that this dream has endless interpretations and it is my prayer that it will call forth a “specific Word” from the LORD into your life and situation right NOW, in Jesus name. GLOBALLY, it is a Word from GOD reminding us that HE IS GOD and there IS judgment for not believing HE IS. No one can determine when “enough is enough”; I do know that there are many today who are NOT solidly hidden in the Anchor. I feel in my heart that there is a day of reckoning just around the corner; a time where lives and situations will never again be what they are now; however, this is TRUTH as we really only have this very MOMENT. The dream spoke of a “CUT from North to South”. I believe this means that in the darkest hour His GLORY will flow with tremendous power from His throne of Grace, Mercy, and Love to reach those in the world who are PARCHED (THIRSTY) for Him to give them “LIVING WATER”! I see a promise for a GREAT HARVEST in that I had the dream on September 23rd (Fall Equinox). The ANCHOR IS JESUS: … “HE (ONLY) is the WAY, the TRUTH, and the LIFE: no man shall come unto the Father, except through Him” (John 14: 6). We who are safely anchored in Him have eyes that see those around us who are lost. All the authority of JESUS CHRIST has been given to us to go and make disciples in all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and to teach them to obey everything that God has written in His WORD. He is anchored in us as we are to be in Him…always together until the end of the age (Matthew 28: 18-20).

I urge each of you to firmly anchor your whole life into Christ NOW! There is a song I love to sing and it speaks to “this very day and hour”…may each of you be blessed as you keep your eyes focused on JESUS! Hallelujah!

“Our HOPE is built on nothing less than JESUS’ blood and righteousness;
I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on JESUS’ name.
When darkness veils His lovely face, I rest on His unchanging GRACE;
In every high and stormy gale, my ANCHOR HOLDS within the veil.
His oath, His covenant, His blood support me in the whelming flood;
When all around my soul gives way, He then is all my HOPE and STAY.
When He SHALL COME with trumpet sound smile , O may I then IN HIM BE FOUND!
Dressed in His righteousness alone, faultless to stand before the throne!

Chorus…
IN CHRIST the SOLID ROCK, I stand: All other ground is SINKING SAND, all other ground is sinking sand. AMEN.”

6 Comments

Posted in Uncategorized

Posted by: dailywordofdestiny | July 21, 2013

LIFE IN THE SPIRIT: Part Four


Part Four

“And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you for ever; Even the Spirit of truth; Whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him: but ye know Him; for He DWELLETH with you, and shall be IN you…But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, Whom the Father will send in My name, He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you” (John 14: 16-27).

“As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, ‘Separate Me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.’ And when they had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on them, they sent them away. So they, being sent forth by the Holy Ghost, departed unto Seleucia; and from thence they sailed to Cyprus” (Acts 13: 2-4).

In my early seeking of the presence of Jesus, I noticed that there was a difference in the presentation of the Gospel. Some ministers and leaders just seemed to pour forth their love and VICTORY in Jesus through the messages. Others had no power at all; they spoke with no enthusiasm, or with forced enthusiasm, but the message was hum drum and I often had to fight to stay awake to the end of it. I wondered about this difference and at first attributed it to the personality of the individuals. However, as I studied the Word; I saw that the men and women with POWER in the ministry of their words and actions (in both the Old & New Testaments) had Holy Spirit involvement. HIS EVIDENCE was in their JOY, PRAISE, and THANKSGIVING! Oh hallelujah, how I LOVE HIS PRESENCE and the LIFE HE BRINGS WITH HIM…RESURRECTION LIFE!

Well, needless to say, I WANTED the INFILLING or BAPTISM of Holy Spirit. I KNEW that if I wanted to grow to be “like Jesus” I’d NEED more than what I had to contribute to the relationship. Scripture clearly says in Zechariah 4: 6, “Not by might, nor by power, BUT BY MY SPIRIT, saith the LORD of hosts.” To this end, I chose to go to a church that allowed Holy Spirit to move within the service and I went forward to be prayed for several times. I remember one “home meeting” in particular. Some of the older prayer warriors heard I had NOT YET RECEIVED the Baptism. Well, they circled about me and prayed with exuberance (mildly put)! They twisted my mouth this way and that; told me to let it flow up and out of me and they pushed my abdomen until something very nearly did flow up and out, BUT I DID NOT RECEIVE! Bless them; they were determined. I wondered at that time if there was something wrong with me or, maybe I wasn’t seeking Him in the right way.

One day a few months later, Holy Spirit did baptize me with His sweet presence. Again, there were no bells ringing or sparks flying. In the quietness of prayer; He came down upon me and I FELT HIM and it was with great JOY that I TRULY began speaking in spiritual songs, singing and making melody in my heart to the Lord; giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of my Lord Jesus Christ ( Ephesians 5: 18-21). I prayed for hours in my new prayer language. I was like an unstopped pipe and the words from within my spirit just flowed and flowed, outward and upward in praise and adoration for my Jesus! I am only one of thousands and thousands of people who have been and are being filled with the Holy Ghost.

We live in a day when the things that happened in the early Church are again happening in our midst, the fruits and the gifts of the Spirit are being restored to the Church as never before. Why? Because time is running out; Holy Spirit is about to leave. We are quickly coming to the end of this dispensation. Even as Jesus left; Holy Spirit is also going back to heaven again and He knows His time is short. He is literally working overtime and men and women, boys and girls are looking around and realizing SOMETHING IS TAKING place! Holy Spirit is not a new personality that just came upon the scene at Pentecost. He is the same One who came upon the Old Testament saints and prophets and gave them revelation. He alone is the ONE who reveals the deep truths of God – HOLY SPIRIT. He revealed truth to Apostle Paul in the New Testament and He is revealing God’s truth to you and to me today; as we allow Him.

The instrument Holy Spirit uses to convict and convert men and women is the WORD of God. “The seed is the Word of God” (Luke 8: 11). In order for the seed to germinate in the physical world, it must be alive. In the spiritual world the Word of God must be vitalized by Holy Spirit, otherwise it is barren. A spiritual revelation cannot be comprehended by natural understanding. Think back to before you gave your heart to Jesus. You could read the Bible or hear a sermon and it was just a bunch of words. But when you received Jesus as Lord, the Word of God started to have meaning and relevance to your life. Paul is a good example. He had very good understanding of what he spoke about (taught by Gamaliel). He was religious; a devoted Pharisee who knew the Bible and sincerely believed that the Christian movement was a danger to Judaism. BUT THEN he had a personal encounter with Jesus Christ and he became a “new man”. “And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in DEMONSTRATION OF THE SPIRIT AND OF POWER” (I Corinthians 2: 4).

The Baptism of Holy Spirit is OCCUPANCY of Almighty God; giving us new strength, divine strength, and Holy Ghost boldness. Jesus never intended to leave His Church POWERLESS, for to this end “Christ… loved the church, and gave Himself for it… that He might present it TO HIMSELF a GLORIOUS CHURCH” (Ephesians 5: 25-27). If you are a Christian and you have been born again, this second experience – the INFILLING of HOLY SPIRIT – is a vital part of your spiritual growth, and a blessed part of your inheritance in Christ. In Ephesians 5: 18, Paul gives us a command, “BE FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT.” The power and presence of Holy Spirit produces EMPOWERED NEW LIFE.

How can you be filled with the Spirit of God? TURN YOURSELF AND ALL YOU HAVE OVER TO JESUS. It is a surrender of YOU He desires, not just things. You CANNOT love fully or work fully when you have not totally surrendered your ‘self.’ When you surrender to Him completely, He will fill your vessel full. It is when you are full of Him that there will be OUTWARD manifestation of the power of Him who has filled you with Himself.

There is no greater power in the world than when the BLOOD of Christ and the POWER of Holy Spirit are linked together! It is so necessary for this very time in history and believers NEED and will need the power of Holy Spirit both now and in the not too distant future. The One who truly loves the Lord Jesus is Holy Spirit, and it is He who has poured “out in our hearts” the very “love of God” (Genesis 1: 2; John 16: 5-16; Romans 5: 1-5). Whenever Holy Spirit sees an opportunity to glorify JESUS through you, He will take your entire being and set you ablaze with glowing devotion to Jesus Christ (Acts 7: 55-60). Jesus was always consistent in His relationship to His Father and as Christians we are accountable for our relationship to the LIFE of the SON of God within us (His very Spirit) (Luke 14: 26-33).

Leave a Comment

Posted in Uncategorized

Posted by: dailywordofdestiny | July 15, 2013

LIFE IN THE SPIRIT: Part 3

Part Three

“The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless; they heard the sound but did not see anyone. Saul got UP FROM THE GROUND, BUT when he opened his eyes he could see nothing. For three days he was blind, and did not eat or drink anything. But the LORD said to Ananias, ‘Go! This man is My CHOSEN INSTRUMENT TO CARRY MY NAME BEFORE THE GENTILES AND THEIR KINGS AND BEFORE THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL…’ Ananias went to the house and entered it. Placing his hands on Saul, he said, ‘Brother Saul, the LORD – JESUS, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here – has sent me so that you may see again and BE FILLED WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT.’ IMMEDIATELY, something LIKE SCALES FELL FROM SAUL’S EYES and he COULD SEE again. He got up and was baptized, and after taking some food, regained his strength. At once he began to preach in the synagogues that JESUS IS THE SON OF GOD” (Acts 9: 1-20).

“While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul took the road through the interior and arrived at Ephesus. There he found some disciples and asked them, ‘Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?’ They answered, ‘No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.’ So Paul asked, ‘Then what baptism did you receive?’ ‘John’s baptism,’ they replied. Paul said, ‘John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance.’ He told the people to believe in the one coming after him, that is, IN JESUS.’ On hearing this, they were baptized INTO the name of the Lord Jesus. When Paul placed his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came ON them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied” (Acts 19: 1-6).

“For you were once in darkness, but now you are LIGHT in the LORD. Live as children of LIGHT (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the LORD… for it is LIGHT that makes everything visible. That is why it is said: ‘Wake up, O sleeper, RISE from the dead, and Christ WILL SHINE ON YOU.’ Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. INSTEAD, BE FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT. Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. SING AND MAKE MUSIC IN YOUR HEART TO THE LORD, ALWAYS GIVING THANKS TO GOD THE FATHER FOR EVERYTHING, IN THE NAME OF THE LORD JESUS” (Ephesians 5: 8-20).

Last time I talked about my experience when I asked Jesus into my heart. How did I KNOW that I had been truly born again and was a new creature in Christ Jesus (2 Corinthians 5: 17, 18)? By the way my THINKING had changed (no longer wanting to say or hear swearing). As time passed, I had a new sense of values and a “different outlook” on life. The AMAZING thing about this is that I didn’t really notice the changes were occurring, but my friends and family did. After I had opened the first door to Jesus, I opened another door (reading His Word), and then another door (study of His Word), etc. As you continue to consecrate and walk in the light as Jesus is in the light, there comes a time in your spiritual GROWTH that you will look up and say, “None of self, but all of Thee, LORD!” It’s really just like caring for a newborn infant; if you don’t feed the baby, it doesn’t grow and if you feed the baby only soda, or water it will become weak and its growth will be affected. The Word of God is literally spiritual food for our spiritual growth, BUT there can be no growth until the person has been born again. And when there is SURRENDER TO CHRIST OF BODY, SOUL, AND SPIRIT, THEN THE PERSON IS ABLE TO RECEIVE THE GLORIOUS INFILLING OF HOLY SPIRIT!

It is the presenting of our body as a vessel for Holy Spirit to use in SERVICE for the glory of God. It is only when we surrender our selfish motives and desires, and surrender our will to Him, that we have no will of our own. We live to please Him; OBEYING Him in all things. Our body becomes the temple of Holy Spirit, a vessel filled with Holy Spirit, and He comes in and uses our mind, our tongue, our hands, and our body. Our will becomes not a will that is separate and apart from the will of God. We become so surrendered that we have one will and that will is the will of the Father. Holy Spirit now directs the Father’s will through our lives to touch the lives of those who do not know the message of HOPE.

The purpose of Pentecost (Acts 1: 7-15; Acts 2: 1-13, 14-21) was not to teach the disciples something, but to make them an incarnation of what they preached so they could literally become GOD’S MESSAGE IN THE FLESH… “But, ye shall RECEIVE POWER, after that the Holy Ghost is come UPON YOU: and ye shall be witnesses UNTO Me…” (Acts 1: 8). As the disciples tarried in the Upper Room, they RECEIVED NOTHING BY FAITH; it was by FAITH they went to the Upper Room. But while they were in the Upper Room, SOMETHING REALLY HAPPENED! Hallelujah! Was there an OUTWARD EVIDENCE of what happened in that room as there is when we are born again? Yes! As people notice the OUTWARD change in your character as the evidence you have been born again, there WILL be an outward evidence of the filling with Holy Spirit if you have the experience. A very good example is Peter. He was once a man afraid to admit he even knew Jesus, but he was changed into a man who came from the Upper Room and preached to thousands with FEARLESS BOLDNESS, “Repent, and be baptized everyone of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, AND YE SHALL RECEIVE THE GIFT OF THE HOLY GHOST” (Acts 2: 38). Peter did not accept the promise of Holy Spirit by faith. He accepted the Word of God by faith. He tarried and there were visible manifestations of the power of God. Then, when he walked out of the Upper Room, he KNEW HE HAD BEEN FILLED, and there is scriptural and Biblical evidence of His experience. It was Holy Spirit using him to PROCLAIM the GOSPEL with POWER!

I AM HOLY SPIRIT FILLED and I delight in His presence. I read and studied the Bible avidly in the first year of my NEW LIFE, but when I received the Baptism of Holy Spirit, it was THEN that the Scripture came ALIVE to me! Holy Spirit gave me and continues to give me INCREASING REVELATION, WISDOM, and KNOWLEDGE of His Word; truly He has made His Word a LIGHT unto my path! Hallelujah! My LOVE for the LORD has increased exponentially; I LIVE for Him alone, and I WILL DO anything He asks of me because I KNOW that WITHOUT HIM I CAN and I AM NOTHING! I KNOW that the church needs Him in the FULLNESS of HIS POWER in these last days. I KNOW that believers need Him in order to walk in DAILY VICTORY!

Once the LORD was glorified in His ascension, Holy Spirit came into the world (John 16: 7-15) and He has been here ever since (INDWELLING all who believe). We have to RECEIVE the revealed truth that He is here and when we welcome Holy Spirit into our lives WE ARE RECEIVING REVIVING LIFE FROM OUR ASCENDED LORD! It is not the Baptism of Holy Spirit that changes people; but the POWER OF THE ASCENDED CHRIST COMING INTO OUR LIVES through His Spirit! The baptism of HOLY SPIRIT IS NOT an experience apart from Jesus Christ, HE IS EVIDENCE HERE ON EARTH OF THE ASCENDED CHRIST and HE IS NEEDED BY THE CHURCH NOW AS NEVER BEFORE!

“Wherefore he saith, ‘AWAKE thou that sleepest, ARISE from the dead,’ and CHRIST SHALL GIVE THEE LIGHT. See that you walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, REDEEMING THE TIME, because the days are evil.” (Ephesians 5: 14-16)

Leave a Comment

Posted in Uncategorized

Posted by: dailywordofdestiny | July 7, 2013

LIFE IN THE SPIRIT: Part Two


“Do You Know Jesus”

“And Jesus, when He was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon Him: And lo a voice from heaven, saying, ‘This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.’ Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil” (Matthew 3: 16, 17- 4: 1).

“Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send Him unto you… Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth: for He shall not speak of Himself; but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak: and He will show you things to come. He shall glorify Me: for He shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you…” (John 16: 7-16).

“And, behold, I send the promise of My Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high” (Luke 24: 44- 53).

“And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting… And they were ALL FILLED WITH THE HOLY GHOST, and began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance…” (Acts 2: 1-24).

I feel we must begin at the beginning, for to have understanding and revelation of God’s Word, you MUST BE BORN AGAIN (John 3: 3-7). SALVATION, receiving Jesus as LORD of our life BY FAITH, is God’s greatest gift to mankind; “That in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His GRACE (unmerited favor) in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are ye saved THROUGH FAITH; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast” (Ephesians 2: 8, 9).

When one is “born again”, his/her testimony will often be “look what the Lord has done for me; He saved me from eternal death, He delivered me from my life of drugs, He brought joy into my life, He healed my illness, etc.” It can also be a time when the “new believer” feels no different and questions whether anything of significance has even happened. The key component in our salvation though, is not FEELING DIFFERENT as much as a CHANGE OF MIND and HEART. Before I gave my life to Christ, I used to swear, a lot. I remember the night I went to my knees before the LORD and asked Him to TRULY save me; to give me “new life in Him”. There were no rockets blazing when I rose from my knees; in fact I felt ZIP. As I got ready for bed that night I remember thinking, “Nothing has changed; I am not forgiven.” The next morning was no different; my thoughts centered on, “This is so stupid, I don’t feel anything. I am just the same.” Later that afternoon I was in the kitchen getting supper ready. My teenage son walked in and said something to me and when I responded to his question, he turned and said, “J___C___!” It was like he had run his fingernails across a black board; it set my nerves on fire. In a heartbeat, I turned and said, “Do NOT EVER use the LORD’S name in vain in this house again!” I was so HAPPY…I KNEW I was saved; the LORD showed me in that instant that I was forever changed! Hallelujah!

Jesus & Pharisee dinner I think the disciples early days with Jesus really illustrate how our walk begins. We recognize Him and accept by faith that He is the Messiah. We look expectantly to all the many VICTORIES we will have because of our “relationship” with the soon-to-be King of the Jews, right? Everything in our life; all situations, all problems, all worries, ALL are FIXED because we have a “new beginning”. Bills will be paid, addictions gone, there will be a new job with great benefits, all the family members will be fixed, there will be love and appreciation for the pastor (rabbi) and all the church (synagogue) members have become lovable and part of “the family”. God is good and He’s going to make everything bright and shiny, right? Furthermore, you KNOW that in Jesus you have every good thing, you have faith to move mountains, all things are possible, there is continual joy bubbling up like a perpetual fountain within you, there is peace over your life, there are blessings falling on you and around you, the enemy trembles at your prayers, AND, you see results from your prayers. You are daily LIVING IN HEAVENLY PLACES AS A JOINT HEIR WITH JESUS; THE ENEMY IS UNDER YOUR FEET… RIGHT? smile Well PRAISE THE LORD if you are at this place! However, it was not the reality of what the disciples experienced in the beginning, it’s not what I saw in my early life, or even what I experience at times in this season.

I think that the greatest spiritual blessing we receive is when we come to the knowledge that in and of “ourselves” we are nothing (John 15: 5). Until we get there, our LORD is powerless. He can do nothing for us as long as we think we are sufficient in and of ourselves. The Spirit of God has set a great many people free from their sin, YET, they are experiencing NO FULLNESS in their lives – no true sense of freedom or victory. The kind of “religious life” we see around the world today is entirely different from the vigorous holiness of the life of Jesus Christ. We are to be in the world but NOT OF IT; to be separated INTERNALLY, not externally (John 17: 15, 16). The disciples walked with Jesus for about three years; and believed (by FAITH) He was the Messiah. We are responsible for our conscious life (CONSECRATION…dedicated to God’s service) and our life is to be regarded as a “temple”. Holy Spirit looks after the unconscious part in us (SANCTIFICATION…set apart from sin and being made holy).

It is ONLY WHEN WE GET HUNGRY AND THIRSTY SPIRITUALLY (Psalm 42; John7: 37-39) that we receive the gift of the essential NATURE of God; placed in and made effective in us by Holy Spirit. He IMPARTS to us the quickening LIFE of JESUS, making us truly ALIVE. In the first few months after I rededicated my LIFE to Jesus, I began reading His Word. It seemed that the more I read, the more I wanted to read. There would be many mornings I would get up at 4:00 A.M. to have 3 hours of studying His words while it was quiet and there was just Him and I together. It was an awesome time. I asked Him to give me SEVEN times ACCELERATION in His revelation and understanding because the enemy had taken so much of my life. God has honored that request and I give Him GLORY and PRAISE! He takes that which was “beyond” us and places it “within us”. Immediately, once the “beyond” has come “within,” it rises up to “the above,” and we are then truly lifted into the kingdom where Jesus lives and reigns, at the right hand of the Father (John 3: 5).

John 4: 13, 14 says, “Jesus answered and said unto her, ‘Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall NEVER THIRST; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.’ “

Leave a Comment

Posted in Uncategorized

Posted by: dailywordofdestiny | July 5, 2013

PREPARE YE THE WAY: Part One


“METASTASES” of SIN

“Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us: Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with unleavened bread of sincerity and truth” (1 Corinthians 5: 6-8). “Ye did run well; who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth? This persuasion cometh NOT of Him who calleth you. A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump” (Galatians 5: 7-9).

I have been actively seeking God for His direction and guidance in the writing of the upcoming weekly articles. He is faithful. Holy Spirit has quickened my spirit to look more closely at my “soul state” and to see how healthy it really is when it’s held up to the standard of His Word. It is not an easy thing to do; especially when you BELIEVE you are saved and ready to enter into heaven at any given moment. I KNOW I am saved by His grace, but He has been showing me that according to my life-style choices, I am NOT as “disease free” as I believed I was (Matthew 10: 26-28; Ephesians 5: 26, 27; 2 Peter 3: 14). In the not too distant past I would have covered this critical examination with my “fig-leaf excuse” labeled: “I’m a work in process.” That is true for all of us, but there are some things that just don’t change in God’s Word (from the beginning to the end: Leviticus 13: 1-3; Numbers 28: 1 – 29: 40; Song of Songs 4: 7; 1 Timothy 6: 13-16; Hebrews 9: 13, 14; 1 Peter 1: 17-19; Revelation 3: 4) and it has a way of revealing the holes in our leaf.

The Lord desires that all of us have a “disease free” body, soul, and spirit. For that to happen; He wrote clear guidelines that we are to follow each day. The more we compromise with the guidelines; the worse our health becomes. With most physical illness (an example is CANCER) body deterioration can take a few years to “show up.” In many cases, by the time the illness is recognized as a problem, it has already caused not just one organ system to fail, but it has also involved other organs as well (metastases). The key Scripture verses above speak to the issue of “leaven” in our spiritual lives. Think of leaven (sin) as a “cancer”; just a little dab of it can infect your WHOLE life and conduct. My “infected state” is like a MUTANT sin cell and wherever I go, the people my life touches will become infected by my disease. You may think I am stretching it; I am not! The enemy uses our individual compromise with sin to infect us. We carry it with us into the whole body (Luke 17: 1-3; 1 Corinthians 12: 21- 26) and it doesn’t take long before sin is so widespread it can become untreatable.

LEPROSY is a disease process all of us should study in depth. The Hebrew meaning is to scourge/ be stricken with leprosy and the Greek meaning is scaliness; to peel, a flake. Oxford’s dictionary defines it as a chronic, infectious disease of skin (flesh) and nerves causing mutilation and deformities. A LEPER is a person with leprosy; shunned on moral grounds. In the Old Testament lepers were to stand afar off remaining separated from society (Leviticus 13: 21, 45, 46; 14: 2). They were confined “outside the camp.”

The Hebrew meaning of SIN is HABITUAL sinfulness. The Oxford dictionary meaning is the CONSCIOUS ACT of breaking divine or moral law. I suggest that sin is like leprosy. As sin takes its grip in the BODY (of Christ) and it becomes a conscious habit of concession to immorality, you will see things like division and deformity in our “spiritual thinking and actions.” This disease called “compromise with sin” makes the Church as a WHOLE powerless and weak, and it then decays in the darkness of its own choices (Luke 11: 34, 35; John 1: 5; 3: 19, 20; 1 John 1: 5, 6). What clever deception; to fool even the elect (Matthew 24: 23-25).

A couple years ago, I was able to view the Grand Canyon for the first time. At the entrance to one of the points of interest, a lone coyote stood at the side of the road. As each car approached the coyote slowly walked to the edge of the road, out of the cover of the surrounding trees. When he heard a window roll down; he would continue to approach the car. I noticed that as the person in the car ahead of us opened their car door the coyote turned and ran back into the woods, but only a short distance away. As that car drove off and we approached, he came back into the open; waiting for a “tasty morsel” he hoped to get. I thought about sin and how it takes us out from under the protective cover of God and away from the protection that the greater “body/pack” can provide for us in times of trouble.

The more we choose NOT to follow God’s guidelines to a healthy spiritual, moral, and physical life (allowing compromise in our daily walk) the easier it becomes (a habit) to think we can live any way we want to. Like the coyote we begin seeking after a “tasty morsel” and we become fat and lazy (Isaiah 6: 9-11). We don’t see the danger ahead until one day; BANG, a heart attack or a bullet hits and we can’t escape death’s trap (Matthew 27: 3-5; Luke 22: 1-6).

God did not want His people absorbed into the world’s culture and environment. Society may pressure us, as believers, to conform to its way of life and thought, but yielding to that pressure will create confusion as to which side we should be on and also eliminate our effectiveness in serving God. I encourage you to be a “doer of the word, and not a hearer only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straight-way forgetteth what manner of man he was” (James 1: 22-24).

Leave a Comment

Posted in Uncategorized

Posted by: dailywordofdestiny | July 3, 2013

SONSHIP: Part Seven

“JESUS – Son of God, Son of Man”

” ‘Therefore the LORD himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name EMMANUEL’ (Isaiah 7: 14). Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the LORD by the prophet, saying, ‘Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, GOD WITH US’ ” (Matthew 1: 22, 23).

I believe this is the final message on Sonship and it culminates in the SON OF GOD! It is the seventh article and the number SEVEN is a symbol of “completion and perfection” and that is in JESUS.

Last week I mentioned the destiny and purpose found in a name. As you see in the name Jesus, God spoke the essence of Christ’s nature through the prophet Isaiah many years before His birth; He is GOD WITH US.. Even before Isaiah, God purposed and planned His “mystery” (restored fellowship between God and man); He (God) became flesh (1 Timothy 3: 16). He spoke it to the enemy in the Garden of Eden: “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her SEED; It shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise His heel.” (Genesis 3: 15; Psalm 110: 1; Mark 12: 35-37; Hebrews 10:13)

“Now to Abraham and his SEED were the promises made. He saith not, ‘and to seeds’ as of many; but as of ONE, ‘And to thy SEED, which is Christ’ “(Galatians 3: 16). Jesus said in John 12: 23, 24, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces MANY SEEDS.”

It is GOOD NEWS to know that all of us who have been reborn (John 3: 3-7) into Jesus Christ, are truly His seed; therefore, we share in the blessings given through Abraham (Galatians 3: 14-18; 26-29). Verse 14 says, “That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles, through JESUS CHRIST; that we might receive the PROMISE of the Spirit through FAITH.” Hallelujah!

In Genesis 12: 2, 3, is given the seven-fold blessing pronounced by God upon Abraham (and on us, the seed of Jesus; His Bride/Church): (1) “I WILL make thee a great nation, (2) and I WILL bless thee, (3) and make thy name great, (4) and thou shalt be a blessing: (5) And I WILL bless them that bless thee (6) and curse him that curseth thee, (7) and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.” WOW!!! What amazing promises of blessing through Jesus!

Christ Who Lives In Me IF I am crucified with Christ: I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me (Galatians 2: 20). Solomon, the wisest man ever known (2 Chronicles 1: 12) asked a question I am sure all of us have asked ourselves at various times; “But WILL God in very deed dwell with men on earth? Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain Thee; how much less this house which I have built” (2 Chronicles 6: 18)! We have two witnesses that give a resounding “YES!”

First, John tells us, “And the Word was made flesh, and dwealt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1: 14) Our second witness is Paul and he speaks of the indwelling presence of God in both 1 Corinthians 3: 16, 17 and in 2 Corinthians 6: 16-18. A child will often take on many of the characteristics of the parents; therefore, as we allow our hearts to be renewed by Holy Spirit who indwells us, our old nature is removed as the nature of Christ takes control (John 3: 30; Colossians 3: 8-14).

In this series I have named Joseph, David, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, Azariah as examples of some of God’s sons. “Sons/children of God” is not gender specific; there is another example I want to include here. Mary, the mother of Jesus magnifies the LORD in such a beautiful way in Luke 1: 46-55. Her words tie the Sonship messages together very well:

“And Mary said, ‘My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior. For He hath regarded the low estate of His handmaiden: for behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed. For He that is mighty hath done to me great things; and holy is His name. And His mercy is on them that fear Him from generation to generation. He hath shewed strength with His arm; He hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He hath put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low degree. He hath filled the hungry with good things; and the rich He has sent empty away. He hath helped His servant Israel, in remembrance of His mercy; as He spake to our fathers, to Abraham, and to His seed forever.”

I pray that as a son of Almighty God, you too will be willing to allow “”ALL” of your ‘self’ to fall to the ground and die. For as you became a seed of Jesus’, so shall your life produce many seeds and the fruit from those seeds will glorify Jesus and bring great honor to our heavenly Father. God bless each of us as we die daily to self and become all that God has purposed, in Jesus name!

Leave a Comment

Posted in Uncategorized

Posted by: dailywordofdestiny | June 29, 2013

SONSHIP: Part Six

“DANIEL, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah”

“And the king spake unto Ashpenaz the master of his eunuchs, that he should bring certain of the children of Israel, and of the king’s seed, and of the princes; Children in whom was no blemish, but well favored, and skilful in all wisdom, and cunning in knowledge and understanding science, and such as had ability in them to STAND in the king’s palace…Now among these were of the children of Judah, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah: Unto whom the prince of the eunuchs gave names: for he gave unto Daniel the name of Belteshazzar; and to Hananiah, of Shadrach; and to Mishael, of Meshach; and to Azariah, of Abednego. But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s meat…As for these FOUR children, God gave them knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom: and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams…And in all matters of wisdom and understanding, that the king enquired of them, he found them TEN times better than ALL the magicians and astrologers that were in all his realm” (Daniel 1: 3-20).

Daniel and his three friends were teenagers (Daniel 16 years old) when they were taken from Jerusalem into captivity by the Babylonians in 605 B.C. Perhaps Daniel was a bit older than his three friends as he was the “designated spokesman” when they were addressed by Ashpenaz as well as at other times throughout their early years in Babylon. I wonder how these young teens felt as they were taken from their comfortable, protected lifestyle and homeland into a future that held many unknowns. I would feel FEAR and yet as I read about these young men, I do not see fear as being an issue for them. Maybe they felt a kind of EXCITEMENT in getting away from that very same protection; after all, at 12 years old they passed the rite of passage into manhood. Can you imagine how the parents felt as they watched their children being led away, perhaps never to be seen again? Can you not hear them crying out the names of their sons and daughters long after they caught their last glimpse of them?

I am always interested in a person’s name; who named them and why that name was chosen. In Canada, I worked with the Indian population. Historically, many of their names were given according to what the mother first saw in nature around her at the birth of her child. If the mother saw a deer walking in the trees at the time of delivery, the child’s name may have been, “Deer Walking in the Tree” and so on. Many Bible characters have their names and meanings listed in the concordance and I FULLY BELIEVE that their names were chosen for a “specific reason” by God (Matthew 16: 17, 18; Philippians 2: 9-11). I believe that every time your name is spoken it solidifies your DIVINE PURPOSE. Every time your name is called out; it calls forth your DIVINE DESTINY. Daniel, “God is Judge”; Hananiah, “Gift of the LORD”; Mishael, “Who is What God Is”; and Azariah, “Whom Jehovah Helps”. Isn’t that interesting? Their names almost tell the story written about them in the book of Daniel. smile

I find it equally as interesting that the enemy wants to RE-NAME people. I am sure it is with the intent to steal, kill, and destroy (John 10: 10) our destiny and purpose. He always has a “counterfeit” to the TRUTH of God’s Word and it is wise to remember this. Daniel was renamed Belteshazzar (Prince of Bel); Hananiah was renamed Shadrach (Command of Aku); Mishael was renamed Meshach (Who is as Aku); and Azariah was renamed Abednego (Servant of Nebo). Bel was the chief Babylonian god, Aku was the moon god (fertility; reproduction), and Nebo the Babylonian god of literature, wisdom, and the arts.

Furnace As I was reading their story and praying about it, I thought about how much we aid the enemy in destroying the destiny and purpose of God in our own lives and in our children’s lives. For example, my name (Judy) means “Praised of the LORD” and TODAY, I fully BELIEVE that I AM PRAISED OF THE LORD! There was a time I didn’t. I always wanted to do my best but as I was growing up I often heard the words, “It’s okay, BUT you could do better.” So, I’d work very hard in doing better but it was always the same, “You could do better.” Pretty soon, I began to accept this phrase as part of me and I began feeling inadequate and unable to accomplish anything of worth. In fact, I felt unworthy and unacceptable most of the time. When you begin feeling that way; you begin doing things that reinforce the label you accept as yours. The enemy took my acceptance of this as an open door. He used circumstances and people around me to make me believe I was nothing. I quit going to church, I hung around with many other “unworthy people.” I was truly becoming someone else. I walked in this “identity” for many years. BUT THEN, one day God reached down from heaven and in His infinite LOVE He pulled me out of Satan’s death grip and set me into the solid foundation of JESUS, His WORD! Now, I KNOW WHO I AM IN HIM. I am Judy, “PRAISED OF THE LORD”! Hallelujah!

Does what you call yourself or your children make a difference? You bet it does. We left these four young men at the turn in the road, hearing their parents calling out their names; “Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah! G-D keep you, G-D bless you, may His face shine upon you.” (or similar). I can hear their daily prayers going forth as they call out their sons’ names. What about their PURPOSE and DESTINY in Babylon? Go to Daniel’s book and let’s look at part of God’s realized plan in the lives of THREE of these YOUNG MEN (Daniel 3: 13-30).

“Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up (vs. 16-18). And these three men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, fell down bound into the midst of the burning fiery furnace. THEN Nebuchadnezzar the king was astonied, and rose up in haste, and spake, and said unto his counselors, ‘Did not we cast three men bound into the midst of the fire?’ He answered and said, ‘Lo, I see FOUR men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; AND THE FORM OF THE FOURTH IS LIKE THE SON OF GOD (vs. 23-25). Then Nebuchadnezzar spake, and said, Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who hath sent his angel, and delivered his servants that trusted in him, and have changed the king’s word, and yielded their bodies, that they might not serve nor worship any god, except their own God (vs. 28)… there is NO OTHER GOD that can deliver after this sort” (vs. 29b).

Hananiah (Gift of the LORD), Mishael (Who is What God Is), and Azariah (Jehovah Helps) BELIEVED their GOD was real and ABLE. God called their names out before they were formed in the belly (Jeremiah 1: 4, 5). In their names He spoke His purpose and it was fulfilled in them, according to His plan!

2 Comments

Posted in Uncategorized

« Newer Posts - Older Posts »

Categories