Monthly Archive

Number 14:24 But My servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit in him and has followed Me fully, I will bring into the land where he went, and his descendants shall inherit it.

We may be surrounded by people who don’t believe in God, don’t believe in God’s ability, and would rather handle things themselves. It’s during this time we need to adopt the spirit of Caleb.

When most of the people surrounding Caleb didn’t believe in God’s ability, Caleb believed God. Like Caleb, our belief gives us access to inherit the promises of God. Everything from our healing to wisdom at work is all received through our belief in God’s ability.

We may be the only one in our circle who believes God at a high level and that’s okay. When people see us with our inheritance, that will hopefully encourage them to put their trust, belief, and confidence in God.

2 Kings 5:9 Then Naaman went with his horses and chariot, and he stood at the door of Elisha’s house. 10 And Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, “Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored to you, and you shall be clean.” 11 But Naaman became furious, and went away and said, “Indeed, I said to myself, ‘He will surely come out to me, and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, and wave his hand over the place, and heal the leprosy.’

Naaman, commander of the army of Syria, had leprosy. His ultimate goal was to be healed of leprosy. He went to Elisha’s house with a preconceived idea of how he was going to be healed. When the process of his healing was revealed to him, he became furious. Elisha’s messenger (not even Elisha himself) told Naaman to dip seven times in some of the dirtiest water around. If it wasn’t for Naaman’s servants, Naaman would have missed his blessing because he was frustrated with the process.

Like Naaman, we all have some ultimate goal. We want our business to grow, our family to be made whole, or our finances to increase. We may have our own ideas of how God’s going to manifest these promises in our lives. What do we do when we don’t like the process God has given us? Will we obey God even if it doesn’t make sense or seems beneath us, or will we risk missing our blessing by doing our own thing?

Don’t get so tied down to an idea of how God’s going to bless us because He may do something totally opposite. Trust His process. He’s way smarter than us and He’s already worked things out in our favor to reach our ultimate goal. Trust Him.

Isaiah 54:4 “Do not fear, for you will not be put to shame, And do not feel humiliated or ashamed, for you will not be disgraced. For you will forget the shame of your youth, And you will no longer remember the disgrace of your widowhood.

We’ve all done some foolish things in our past. The devil holds these things over our heads. Daily, he’ll remind us of what we did. He let’s us know we’re too dirty to be used by God, we’ll be unsuccessful because of our past, and we are unlovable.

Through God’s grace, we’re forgiven of all our sins (Colossians 1:13-14). Not only does God forgive our sins, He forgets our sins too (Hebrew 8:12). And as we can see above, God’s Word instructs us to forget about our foolish past.

We forget about our past by receiving God’s forgiveness every time the thought of our foolish past comes up in our minds. The thought of when we cheated on our spouse or the thought of when we got fired from our jobs will enter our minds. The moment that thought comes, we receive God’s forgiveness and set our minds on a successful future.

Whatever negative event that’s playing in our minds, forget about it and receive God’s forgiveness.

Hebrews 10:36 For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise:

We all want the promises of God. From our mortgage paid, to a new car, to healing in our bodies, we all have needs and desires we want from God.

There are two things that are a necessity to receive the promises of God. That’s faith and patience (or endurance).

A lot of us understand the concept of faith. Faith is believing God made this promise available to us. Endurance on the other hand is holding on to that belief for an extended period of time.

We can believe we’ve received a promise, have confessed that promise over our lives, have sown a financial seed and still haven’t received our promise yet. That’s when endurance needs to be employed.

From the time we pray to the manifestation of that promise could be 2 months, 2 years, or even longer. Why God seems to take so long varies. There could be fear in us He needs to uproot, there could be a maturing process so we won’t end up being spoiled brats, or there could be a simultaneous blessing in the works where He is positioning another believer to get blessed through our blessing. We may never know.

The main point is to remain consistent in our belief in God’s promises. Don’t let circumstances or delay stop your belief in God. Be willing to believe forever.

John 8:44 You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

Unfortunately, this next lie has ties with people in the church. The condemnation that some “church folks” have placed on people led people to believe they’re unloved by God.

We’ve all missed the mark. People will use these missed marks to bring guilt and shame on others. The devil will use this guilt, shame, and condemnation and have us thinking God doesn’t love us. He’ll lie and say, “How can God love someone who’s done_______?” Or, he’ll lie and say, “You’ve gone too far and done too much to return back to God’s love.” These are lies.

Romans 8:38-39 says, nothing can separate us from the love of God. Nothing we can ever do can stop God’s love for us. We are and will always be loved by God.
Receive His love.

John 8:44 You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

Some of us have backgrounds where we were not esteemed by our parents. Some of us had classmates who were unkind. The devil uses our past to feed us another lie. That lie is we’re not enough.

He likes to tell us we’re not attractive enough to get a spouse or we’re not educated enough to get that job. Spiritually speaking, he’ll tell us we’re not holy enough to be used by God or we’re not righteous enough to get our prayers answered. Lies, lies, lies.

Colossians 2:10 says, we are complete in Him. Through Christ, we’re not missing anything. We’re wonderful, we’re talented, we’re intelligent, and we’re attractive. We’re everything God says we are. Don’t listen to the lies. We are enough.

John 8:44 You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

Another lie the devil likes to tell us is, we can’t make it. In life, we will face difficult situations. The devil likes to tell us we can’t make it through these situations. That’s a lie.

God told us throughout the scriptures we’re victorious, we’re more than conquerors, and we’re overcomers. Sometimes, we tend to forget about God’s Word when major problems are right in front of us. That’s why it’s so important to meditate on God’s Word, so that we’ll have God’s overcoming Word at the forefront of our minds.

Don’t listen to the “You can’t make it” lies of the devil and don’t try to figure it out on your own. Allow God and His Word to intervene to see you through.

John 8:44 You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

As we see, the devil is the father of lies. Everything he tells us is a lie. One of the lies he tells us is the insignificant lie.

God will give us instructions to advance the Kingdom of God or to be a blessing. He may tell us to serve somewhere at our church, volunteer at a shelter, or call someone to check on them from time to time. The devil will tell us what we’re doing is insignificant or not benefiting anyone. Like I said, everything the devil tells us is a lie.

We may not see the impact it has on someone’s life or in the Kingdom of God, but just know that it is. If God tells us to do something, it will have impact. The fact that the devil is telling us our actions are insignificant is proof that they’re impactful.

Continue to do what God called us to do and don’t believe the lies of Satan.

Acts 4:13 Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus.

When we spend time with God, there’s an anointing on our lives that goes beyond our education, our qualifications, and networking ability. We’ll view things differently, we’ll come up with new ideas, and we’ll inspire many. Our presence will bring peace to a room, joy in people’s hearts, and a hopeful outcome. Frankly put, the God on us will get on them.

When we spend time in God’s presence, people can sense a difference in us. When everyone is worried, we’re calm. When everyone is complaining, we’re keeping our mouths shut. When everyone is hopeless, we’re hopeful.

Some may become inquisitive about our peculiar nature. That’s when we have an opportunity to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ or tell them about our time with God.

Let’s differentiate ourselves by spending quality time with God.

Psalm 136:1 Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good, For His lovingkindness is everlasting.

We often hear the term “take advantage” in a negative context. Someone took advantage of my generosity or they took advantage of my love.

Some of us attempt to use this negative context with God’s grace, mercy, and forgiveness. We think taking advantage of God’s grace, mercy, and forgiveness is a bad thing. Some will say, don’t abuse God’s grace. In fact, that’s exactly what God wants us to do. He wants us to take advantage of these things because of the price that was paid. Unlike people, God’s benefits won’t run out based on how many times we use them. There’s not a “last time” with God. If we sin again and again and again, God’s benefits will still be available.

If someone payed $60 or more for us to eat at one of those fancy buffet places in Las Vegas, it would be unwise and insulting if we didn’t take advantage of all the options in front of us. It’s the same way with the benefits of Calvary.

Don’t insult God. Jesus paid an awesome price for us to receive grace, mercy, and forgiveness. Let’s use them to our advantage.

Hebrews 4:16 Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Genesis 12:4 So Abram departed as the Lord had spoken to him, and Lot went with him. And Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. 5 Then Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people whom they had acquired in Haran, and they departed to go to the land of Canaan. So they came to the land of Canaan. 6 Abram passed through the land to the place of Shechem, as far as the terebinth tree of Moreh. And the Canaanites were then in the land. 7 Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your descendants I will give this land.” And there he built an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him. 8And he moved from there to the mountain east of Bethel, and he pitched his tent with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; there he built an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the Lord.

When God told Abram to leave his country, He didn’t give him a destination. Abram was simply walking until God appeared and told Him to stop. Can you imagine what was going through Abram’s head? Can you imagine how many times he thought to himself “This is stupid?” This shows us the trust Abram had in God.

As we allow God to lead us, He may not always show us the big picture. He may have us take one step at a time. As we obey those steps, eventually, we’ll look up and be prospering in our purpose. But, it takes one step of obedience at a time.

Whether it be great or small, do the last thing God told you to do to position yourself to do the will of God.

1 Corinthians 13:8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.

Whatever situation we’re facing, apply or receive love.

If we’re facing a confrontational boss, an argumentative spouse, or a stubborn child apply God’s love towards them despite their behavior. Proverbs 25:22 and Luke 6:35 lets us know God will reward us for applying love to the situation.

If we’re facing financial struggles, dealing with depression, or struggling with our identity, receive God’s love knowing that He loves us enough to supply all our needs and increase our finances. Receive God’s love knowing that He’ll always be with us and His love can overcome depression, sadness, and solidify our identity.

It’s up to us to apply or receive God’s love. Just know, whenever it’s applied or received, it’s guaranteed in some way, shape, or form to be successful.

Proverbs 16:2 All a man’s ways are pure in his own eyes, but his motives are weighed by the LORD. 3 Commit your works to the LORD, and your plans will be achieved.

There are some who believe every task must be direct orders from God. Some won’t move unless they clearly hear the voice of God. There will be times where God gives us direct orders that we must follow to a “T” however, there are God-inspired plans and ideas that enter our minds. Sometimes, they seem like our own.

There’s nothing wrong with having plans and ideas just as long as we run those plans by God. For instance, we may have an idea to sell our house or invest in a certain stock. Our responsibility is to consult God about those ideas. He’ll tell us yes, no, or not now.

Just because an idea entered our minds doesn’t mean we have to squash it and just because it enters our minds doesn’t mean we have to immediately act on it. Present all plans and ideas to God, and let Him approve or deny them.

Proverbs 3:6 In all your ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct your paths.

1 Corinthians 11:24 and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.”

Communion is not a spooky religious time where we turn off the lights and have a serious attitude. It’s a time to reflect and celebrate the sacrifice that Jesus made.

We not only remember His physical sacrifice. We remember what His sacrifice did for us spiritually. His sacrifice made us righteous. His sacrifice freed us from all our sin. His sacrifice gave us victory over poverty, sickness, and death. His sacrifice released the blessing of Abraham on our lives.

We don’t need to wait on our church leaders to take communion. If we have a piece of bread and some water, in the comfort of our home we can take communion and reflect on what Jesus has done.

So when taking communion, reflect and celebrate the sacrifice of Jesus.

Lamentations 3:22 The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; His mercies never come to an end; 23 they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

When we’ve done something wrong and missed the mark with God, we believe punishment should be attached. We’re willing to accept the punishment. If we did the crime, we should do the time.

That’s not the case with God. God’s not punishing us. God is merciful. Mercy is where we deserve punishment, but don’t receive punishment. God’s not punishing us because all the punishment for every sin imaginable was placed on Jesus. He took our punishment for sin so we wouldn’t have to. There are natural consequences for our actions (i.e. rob a bank and we’ll go to jail), but it’s not God punishing us.

When we truly comprehend that there’s no punishment for our sins, it helps us appreciate Jesus a little bit more. Thank God for Jesus because it was He Who took our punishment for all our sins.

2 Corinthians 5:21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

God’s Word identifies every believer as the righteousness of God. Through Christ, every believer is righteous. It’s easy to say, we’re righteous or holy when we’ve been honoring God with our lifestyle, behavior, and attitude for a while. But it’s difficult to state our identity when we know we’ve missed the mark or when we know we haven’t been honoring God with our choices.

Regardless of what we’ve done or where we are in life, it’s important to confirm our identity with the truth in God’s Word. If we don’t confirm our identity, the devil will attempt to confirm it with lies. He’ll tell us we’re a terrible person, God doesn’t love us, or we’ve missed our blessing. These are all lies.

Saying we’re righteous may be difficult, especially when we’re fresh off of missing the mark, but it’s who we are. Whatever we’ve done and however far we strayed, God loves us and we are His righteous children.

Psalm 50:15 and call on me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor me.”

Deliverance is still available with God. We don’t have to settle with where we are or accept our current situation. We can call on God and He will deliver us.

He may deliver us instantaneously. If we have an addiction, the taste for that addiction can leave immediately. It’s possible.

God may deliver us through a process. During this process, God will give us steps to take. As we obey His instructions, even if they seem illogical, we’ll reach our goal of deliverance. This may take some time so, be patient and trust the process.

God may deliver us using another person. God can call someone to use their power, their ability, and their influence to help us. He may have them speak encouraging words into our lives. He may have them give us wisdom. God may have them use their resources to deliver us. Don’t dismiss or discredit another person. God may be using them to deliver us from our situation.

We’re not stuck. If we want deliverance, deliverance is available with God.

2 Chronicles 20:20 Early in the morning they left for the Desert of Tekoa. As they set out, Jehoshaphat stood and said, “Listen to me, Judah and people of Jerusalem! Have faith in the LORD your God and you will be upheld; have faith in His prophets and you will be successful.”

There’s been an attack against the prophet or preachers of God. Satan has used people to attack their character, their integrity, and their legitimacy. There’s a thought that if we’re listening to preachers, we’re weak-minded or can’t think for ourselves. Some will tell us we’re fools for listening to these “crooked” preachers.

True men or women of God have our best interests at heart. They’re hearing the voice of God, studying the Word of God (in context), and speaking on the behalf of God. By listening and applying their teaching to our lives, we position ourselves to be successful.

Now, preachers are not perfect. They miss the mark and need grace like everyone else. But we don’t trust the preacher. We trust the God in the preacher. If what they’re telling us doesn’t align with the Word of God, we can dismiss that statement. If they continue to make questionable statements, we may need change who we’re listening to. That’s why it’s so important to know the Word for ourselves.

Let’s not hinder our success by lumping every preacher with those who publicly missed the mark. Have faith in the God-inspired word that comes from your man or woman of God.

Ephesians 5:20 Giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,

God has blessed us with a lot of things. He’s blessed some of us with a good job, a house, and children. Some of us experienced spectacular miracles in our lives. He allowed some of us to walk out of a horrific accident or He allowed us to get probation when we were destined for prison time.

With all the good things God has done in our lives, some of us only focus on the negative. We focus on what we don’t have or what could be better. We’ll haphazardly thank God for our house, but magnify the fact that we don’t have another bedroom. We’re happy we have a job, but we’re hyper-focused on wanting a higher salary.

Don’t be ungrateful. There’s nothing wrong with wanting more, but it’s a problem when wanting more consumes us to the point where we can’t recall what God has done or what He’s doing in our lives now. God’s always doing something good for us. We’ve just gotten numb to His goodness and we’re always looking for what’s next.

Let’s renew our minds to be grateful for all that God has done in our lives.

John 9:1 Now as Jesus passed by, He saw a man who was blind from birth. 2 And His disciples asked Him, saying, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” 3 Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him.

This man had a problem since his birth. The disciples wanted to know who sinned, he or his parents. Jesus responds, neither sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him.

We all have some problem we’ve dealt with since birth. Some were born with physical problems such as speech impediments, bone or muscular issues, deafness, etc. Some were born with sin tendencies like, alcohol addiction, depression, a judgmental spirit, etc. Some were born with natural problems such as, poverty, abusive parents, or a lack of support.

Regardless of the problems we were born with, if we submit to God, His works will be evident in our lives. We can see God’s works when a person who had a speech problem becomes a keynote speaker. We can see God’s hand on someone when the doctors told them they wouldn’t walk, but now, they’re running marathons. God’s works can be revealed in a person when the abuse was meant for evil, but God used it for His glory by having them share their overcoming story with others (Joyce Meyer).

Don’t let any problem from birth stop you from being all that God called you to be. Trust Him and watch any problem get turned around for our good.