Category Archive

Revelations 1:5-6 says, through Christ we’re kings and priests. As a king, let’s look at the benefits.

How the king rejoices in your strength, O Lord! He shouts with joy because you give him victory. For you have given him his heart’s desire; you have withheld nothing he requested. Interlude You welcomed him back with success and prosperity. You placed a crown of finest gold on his head. He asked you to preserve his life, and you granted his request. The days of his life stretch on forever. Your victory brings him great honor, and you have clothed him with splendor and majesty. You have endowed him with eternal blessings and given him the joy of your presence.
Psalms 21:1‭-‬6 NLT

These are promises given to every born-again king. We have victory, granted desires, restoration, prosperity, everlasting life, and more. This is part of our inheritance.
Receive this and don’t let it go. Know that as a born-again child of God, you are a king and these are the benefits of royalty.

You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you!
Isaiah 26:3 NLT

When we keep our thoughts on God and all that He has promised and all that He’s already accomplished, we’ll remain in perfect peace.

The problem we have is when our thoughts are not on Him. When our thoughts are not on Him, we’ll experience depression, sadness, boredom, fear, worry, anxiety, and any other negative emotion out there. If we pay more attention to what’s going on in the world, what’s not happened in our lives yet, or negative events that have already occurred, peace can’t remain.

Let’s maintain our peace by focusing on God and what He’s promised. If we find ourselves going from one negative thought to another, we need to catch ourselves and think on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise (Phil 4:8).

Lord, you will grant us peace; all we have accomplished is really from you.
Isaiah 26:12 NLT

Some of us think all of our degrees, promotions, and accolades come from OUR intelligence, OUR discipline, who WE know, and who WE have helped. Some of us elevated ourselves onto a pedestal and totally eliminated God.

Let’s face it, any accomplishment and anything we’ve ever achieved came from God. It was God who gave us the intelligence to get all those degrees. It was God moving the heart of our superiors to grant us that promotion. It was God who gave us that gift or talent that’s being recognized by others. It was God who blessed us with the ability to do anything special.

Open up your mouth and give God glory for ALL HE has done.

You can be sure of this: The Lord set apart the godly for himself. The Lord will answer when I call to him.
Psalms 4:3 NLT

We, the godly, have an assurance that we belong to God and He answers us when we call. It’s not a possibility, but a guarantee.

He doesn’t set us apart and answer when we call because we’ve been so good and done so many good works. He sets us apart because He made a commitment to care for the ones who made a commitment to Christ.

Don’t second guess if God is really for you based on what you did or didn’t do. It’s not about us, but the works of Christ. He’s committed to those who are committed to Him. Whether you’ve been on your best behavior or just messed up last night, if you’ve made Jesus the Lord of your life, you belong to God and you’ll always have His undivided attention.

You are blessed because you believed that the Lord would do what he said.”
Luke 1:45

Blessed means empowered to prosper. When we believe the word of God, we become empowered to prosper.

Believing is half the battle when it comes to obtaining the promises of God. The devil will throw darts of doubt in our minds that will have us question if God’s word will come to pass. If God’s word says it, we must believe it.

The other half of the battle is acting on what we believe. If we believe what God said and act on what we believe through our confession or some other God-inspired instructions, we’ll have everything God wants us to have.

Let’s believe so we won’t miss out on our blessing.

In Grinding Part 1, we mentioned when people say they’re grinding, they’re usually working a lot and losing sleep. The only being who doesn’t need sleep is God.

Psalm 121:4 Behold, he that keepeth Israel Will neither slumber nor sleep.

If we’re up long hours “grinding” only getting around 4 hours of sleep, that can negatively impact our health. Studies say lack of sleep weakens our immune system.

We need to ask ourselves if God instructed us to do all of this or if we’re depending on ourselves to be wealthy and successful. The world says grinding is the key to our goals, but what does God’s word say about that? Proverbs 10:22 says the blessing of the LORD brings wealth, without painful toil for it.

This scripture doesn’t mean we don’t work. It means we work under the blessing. Under the blessing, we don’t have to “grind” like the rest of the world. We let God lead us on when and where we should work and let the blessing do the rest.

It’s all about our dependence on God. If we’re grinding like the world, we’re more dependent on ourselves than God and that can lead to exhaustion and an early death. Depend on God rather than self.

Zechariah 4:6 Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.

When we hear the term or people say they’re grinding, that usually means they have more than one source of income, they’re working long hours, and/or they’re working more than 5 days a week. Society pats them on the back because they see them working hard to provide for their family or accomplish a goal.

God wants us to rely on Him. If God instructs us to work long hours or have two jobs, that’s one thing. However, if we’re doing all these things in our own efforts, that’s another thing. 

If we’re relying on ourselves to get ahead, what’s the point of God being around? How can we use our faith? Or, are we only calling God when we’re exhausted?

It may be in our best interests to rest, but we have a commitment to work. That lack of rest may impact our health or other responsibilities.

Grinding sounds great to certain people, but be sure it’s God who’s leading you to grind.

What’s your Jericho walk?

One of the most illogical stories in the Bible is the Israelites walking around the Jericho wall to take the city. They had trained men ready to fight, but God told them to walk around the city for 7 days. How dumb is that? Although they were possibly confused and probably were wondering if Joshua heard God correctly, they obeyed. And without losing a single person in the battle, they were able to take the city.

What illogical thing has God told you to do? Is it consistently giving (financially) to the Kingdom of God in order to become debt free? Is it getting off social media in order to obtain a husband or wife? Is it downsizing to start a business or a ministry?

Whatever the thing is, do it. It may not make sense now, but as we trust Him and obey, we’ll obtain our desired outcome. Trust Him.

You and your fighting men should march around the town once a day for six days. Seven priests will walk ahead of the Ark, each carrying a ram’s horn. On the seventh day you are to march around the town seven times, with the priests blowing the horns. When you hear the priests give one long blast on the rams’ horns, have all the people shout as loud as they can. Then the walls of the town will collapse, and the people can charge straight into the town.”
Joshua 6:3‭-‬5 NLT

For I want you to understand what really matters, so that you may live pure and blameless lives until the day of Christ’s return. May you always be filled with the fruit of your salvation—the righteous character produced in your life by Jesus Christ—for this will bring much glory and praise to God.
Philippians 1:10‭-‬11 NLT

People often feel like something is missing in their lives. They’ll say if they only had a husband or wife or children they would be happy. If they only had a house they would be complete. If they only had a better career they would be fulfilled.

All of these things are nice, but they’re missing the key ingredient. Fulfillment doesn’t come from things. Fulfillment comes from a continuously developing relationship with God through Jesus Christ.

When we put Jesus at the center of our lives and focus our attention on doing what the Father specifically asks of us, we’ll be fulfilled.

Thoughts will come that will make us think that these external things are what we need to be fulfilled, but that’s not true. We should rebuke those thoughts as quickly as they come. True fulfillment comes from God. When that’s settled in our minds, we’ll maintain our peace, joy, and contentment.

We pleaded with you, encouraged you, and urged you to live your lives in a way that God would consider worthy. For he called you to share in his Kingdom and glory.
1 Thessalonians 2:12 NLT

As born-again believers, we know what’s right and wrong. The Holy Spirit lives inside of us and we’ll get a conviction when we’re doing or about to do something that displeases God or is not in our best interests.

We can ignore the Holy Spirit and keep doing what we feel like doing or change our ways. If we continue to ignore the Holy Spirit, our soul will get callus and we’ll begin to justify why it’s okay to go against the word of God. That leads to natural consequences like, being emotionally hurt, divorced, sick, or broke.

When God instructs us to live a certain way, He’s not trying to ruin our fun. He knows what’s best for us and He knows what we need. Walk in a manner that’s pleasing to the Lord to bring Him honor and so that we can enjoy this life.

1 Thessalonians 2:13 NLT Therefore, we never stop thanking God that when you received his message from us, you didn’t think of our words as mere human ideas. You accepted what we said as the very word of God—which, of course, it is. And this word continues to work in you who believe.

How do we really know if the Holy Bible is actually the word of God and not a person’s opinion? This has been a question that’s been asked for years. The answer is, we don’t know.

There’s no evidence to confirm the bible is the written word of God. That’s why there’s faith. Faith is believing without actual proof or evidence.

We have faith in other texts. All those scientific theories, school textbooks, and articles we take at face value. We don’t question it or do the research ourselves to confirm what they’re saying is true. We’ll just believe it. But when it comes to the bible, we have 1001 questions about its validity. We can believe other people’s text to be true, why not believe the bible as true?

2 Timothy 3:16 says, all scripture is given by inspiration of God. God inspired people to write His word. We either believe this or we don’t. For best results, believe the word of God.

1 Thessalonians 2:4 NLT For we speak as messengers approved by God to be entrusted with the Good News. Our purpose is to please God, not people. He alone examines the motives of our hearts.

People pleasing is something that sneaks up on us. We think we don’t care about what people may say or think about us, but a lot of times we do.

If we don’t care about what people think about us, we’ll unapologetically praise God, witness the gospel to everyone, and represent Jesus to the fullest.

If we don’t care about what people think about us, we’ll focus our attention on pleasing God instead of compromising. We’ll make sure we don’t engage in sin with others for their acceptance. We’ll make sure we don’t stay in relationships that God is telling us to leave.

People’s approval is not our goal. Let’s keep the mindset of pleasing God, not people.

You know how badly we had been treated at Philippi just before we came to you and how much we suffered there. Yet our God gave us the courage to declare his Good News to you boldly, in spite of great opposition.
1 Thessalonians 2:2 NLT

Our commission from Jesus Christ is to go out and preach the gospel to everyone (Mark 16:15). It takes boldness to preach the gospel.

Some people may disassociate themselves from us. People may laugh at us. Some may even curse us out.
We must be bold enough to be okay with their rejection. They’re not rejecting us. Unfortunately, they’re rejecting Christ. Although they may reject Christ now, we must continue to believe that our words are a seed that will hopefully lead them to accepting Christ.

This is one of the few things God requires of us in the New Covenant. Let’s remove our reputation, our feelings, and our status out of the way and boldly preach Christ to everyone (waiters, salespeople, Amazon delivery people, relatives, co-workers, and more).

“I treat people kindly. I don’t bother anybody. I help when I can. I’m a good person. I don’t know why this happened to me.”

Some of us think our good deeds can keep us from facing difficulties. We may blame God because we think our good efforts should have awarded us protection from God. That’s not how this works.

No matter how good we think we are, we’ll all experience difficulties. On top of that, there’s a real devil who likes no one and He wants to see us all suffer and be destroyed (John 10:10).

Like getting tackled is a part of football, difficulties are a part of life. How we handle these difficulties determines the source and the strength of our foundation. If our foundation is in our good efforts, it won’t last because we’ll always feel like it’s unfair when we go through difficulties. But, if our source is in Christ, it will turn that tragedy into a triumph and the more we rely on Christ to get us through, the stronger our foundation becomes.

Let your roots grow down into Him, and let your lives be built on Him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness.
Colossians 2:7 NLT

Romans 10:9 If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by openly declaring your faith that you are saved.

There’s only one thing we need to do to be and remain saved. We must believe that Jesus is Lord. Saying Jesus is Lord means, He is the One who sacrificed Himself for our sins and He reigns in our lives.

SALVATION is not going to church, reading our bibles cover to cover once a month, or keeping the Mosaic law. These things are good and beneficial, but they don’t make or keep us saved. SALVATION is not not listening to secular music, not enjoying ourselves, and not wearing makeup.

We are 100% saved when we’re listening to secular music, watching TV, playing games, wearing makeup, and not reading our bibles. God sees our belief (not works) in the sacrifice of Jesus and counts it as righteous.

1 Peter 2:4 NLT You are coming to Christ, who is the living cornerstone of God’s temple. He was rejected by people, but he was chosen by God for great honor.

If anyone knows anything about being rejected, it’s Jesus. Unfortunately, He’s still being rejected today. Although He was rejected, He overcame rejection and fulfilled His purpose in the earth.

We may have been rejected by parents, a sibling, a spouse, a boyfriend or girlfriend, but that doesn’t mean we can’t accomplish our purpose.

We overcome people’s rejection by magnifying God’s acceptance. When we know God loves us, He’s never going to leave us, He’s truly for us, and wants to make us happy, people’s acceptance becomes minor.

The pain of past rejections may still be there. We usually create walls in order to avoid being hurt again. However, when we give that pain to God, renew our minds with what His word says about us, and allow His love to heal our wounds, we can go through life without being guarded.

Let those pains go and receive God’s acceptance and fulfill purpose.

Psalm 71:14 But as for me, I will hope continually, And will praise Thee yet more and more.

There’s a gym enthusiast and motivational speaker named, C.T. Fletcher who says, “it’s still your set” when a person is tired from the workout, but they haven’t completed the workout. Fletcher will let a person recover, but he wants to see the person complete the workout.

When we’ve experienced heartache, drama, faith fights, and fatigue, we should adopt something similar to Fletcher to motivate ourselves to continue on. We can say, “it’s still glory to God.” Life may have hit us with sickness, lack of sleep, thoughts of worry, or temporary uncertainty. Regardless of what we’ve gone through, we should tell ourselves, the world, and the devil, “it’s still glory to God.”

That lets EVERYONE know, regardless of what we face, God will still get the glory.

Don’t let anything stop you from giving glory to God.

We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in His love. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them.
1 John 4:16 NLT

It’s important to trust in God’s love. When we know and trust in God’s love, we’ll experience all of His promises for us.

When we trust in the love of God, we know trouble is an opportunity for God to manifest His power. When trust in God’s love, we’ll believe sickness can’t remain in our bodies. When we trust in His love, we’ll believe all His word.

We’ll easily dismiss the promise or the statement of someone we don’t know or love. But when we know a person loves us, it’s easy to believe them.

Everything hinges from the love of God. Trust in His love and obtain all that He has for you.

Psalm 68:35 O God, You are awesome from Your sanctuary.
The God of Israel Himself gives strength and power to the people.
Blessed be God!

God’s goodness is so amazing until all we can say is, Sheesh!

Let’s look at His track record.
He sent His Son Jesus to be punished for our sins (Rom 3:25). He’s given us abundant life through Jesus (John 10:10). Jesus taught us how to use our God-given authority to operate in the earth (Matt. 4:1-11). He’s given us authority over the enemy Satan (Luke 10:19). He exchanged our poverty for His wealth (2 Cor. 8:9). He exchanged our sickness for health (Isaiah 53:5). He exchanged eternal death for eternal life (John 3:16). Our words have power (Prov. 18:21). Anything is possible if we believe in the finished works of Jesus (Matt. 19:26). He wants to give us the desires of our hearts (Mark 11:23-24). He’s given us His Holy Spirit to guide, reveal, and empower us (Acts 1:8; 1 Cor. 2:10; Rom. 8:14).

We get all of this by simply saying yes to Jesus. No work, effort, or sacrifices necessary. Sheesh!!!

Give Him the glory for all the wonderful things He’s done.

Romans 10:9 If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

When people read Romans 10:9, they think of making Jesus Lord over their lives from a broad, distant perspective. They usually don’t specify His Lordship down to each individual area of their lives.

He wants to be and should be Lord in our finances, our health, our relationships, our employment, in parenting our children. Everything. We shouldn’t say He’s Lord, but deny Him access to certain areas in our lives.

We shouldn’t make a move without His approval. It’s not because we’re incapable of making decisions. But, it’s because we’re honoring the One who saved us by including Him in all our affairs.

When we make an effort to include Him in everything we do, He provides successful results. Stop leaving your life to chance and let God be Lord.

Philippians 2:9-11 For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Listen to my voice in the morning, Lord. Each morning I bring my requests to you and wait expectantly.
Psalms 5:3 NLT

In the old covenant, where no one was 100% righteous, they still had an expectation for God to hear and answer their requests.

In this new covenant, all those who are born-again are righteous. Because of Jesus, we have right standing with God and 24 hour access to Him. 1 John 5:15 says, since we know he hears us when we make our requests, we also know that he will give us what we ask for.

Altogether, for the new covenant believer, because of Jesus, we are righteous, holy, have access to God, and can get any requests answered. How awesome is that?

Bring anything (relationship issues, financial struggles, problems, a good parking space, etc.) to God and expect Him to hear and answer every request.

Proverbs 3:4 Then you will find favor with both God and people, and you will earn a good reputation.

When we get born-again, we become righteous (have right standing with God – Romans 5:1-2). Because we’re righteous, favor is on our lives (Psalm 5:12).

In the old covenant, they had to earn their favor by keeping all the commandments. In the new covenant, we can experience favor by faith (acting on what we believe in the word of God).

When we know we have right standing with God by faith, we can expect favor in our lives. When we go into situations and believe something good is going to happen to us (faith), we’ll have what we believe.

We can expect to receive preferential treatment, promotion, and unusual mercy. People won’t understand why they’re helping us out, but it’s just “something” about us. That something is favor.

Favor is there for any born-again believer who is willing to believe for it.

1 John 4:17 And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect. So we will not be afraid on the day of judgment, but we can face him with confidence because we live like Jesus here in this world.

When we hear, “on the day of judgment” some of us get afraid. We think of a big God looking over our entire life judging us for whatever we’ve done wrong. That’s totally not the case.

2 Corinthians 5:17 says if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! When God sees believers, He sees us in Christ.

Judgment day is not a day where He looks at our works. If we did so many good things, we’re going to heaven, but if our bad things outweighs our good, we’re going to hell. No number of good things we do can make us righteous and send us to heaven (Ephesians 2:8-9). It’s only through Jesus that we’re righteous (Romans 3:22; 4:5).

Since we’re in Christ, we can and should be confident on judgment day. The only people who should be afraid are people who rejected Jesus as Lord all their lives. So, don’t look at judgment day as this big scary event, wondering if you’re going to hell or not. Be confident and know because of the sacrifice of Jesus and our acceptance of that sacrifice, we have no reason to fear.

Psalm 130:5 I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits, and in His word I put my hope.

They say, good things come to those who wait. That’s only partially true. Waiting alone doesn’t allow good things to come. It’s what we do while we wait that allows the good things to come.

For believers, while we wait, we maintain our belief for those good things. Circumstances will attempt to cause us to doubt that those good things will happen. But if we maintain our belief in God’s word for those good things, they will come to pass.

Another thing we can do while we wait is make positive confessions that align with God’s word. Our words have power to bring things to pass, so confessions while we wait is highly beneficial.

Finally, while we wait, we can be a blessing to others. Being a blessing is a seed. The seeds we sow towards others can provide a harvest for our good thing.

Waiting is not enough. What we do while we wait gives us the advantage towards our good things.

Jesus traded His righteousness for our sin. He traded His riches for our poverty. He gave us His peace for our chaos. He took our bad health and pain (emotional and physical) and gave us health. He gave us the blessing and took the curse that was on our lives. Jesus traded for our eternal death and gave us eternal life.

These don’t seem like fair trades. That’s because they’re not. But, He traded all of these things, and more, because He loves us. He made these trades so that we can have an abundant life now. We don’t have to wait until we get to heaven to experience the goodness of God. We can have a great life now.

So, if you need another reason to be grateful for Jesus, think about the trades He made and begin to thank Him.

2 Corinthians 5:21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Matthew 26:39 Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”

People have said, if it doesn’t make you happy, you shouldn’t be doing it. That’s not true. If that were the case, we all would still be destined for hell because Jesus wasn’t happy getting on that cross and being separated from the Father.

Happiness is an emotion. And our emotions shouldn’t be governing our lives. The Holy Spirit should be leading and guiding us to do God’s will.

Sometimes, what God requires of us doesn’t initially make us happy. He may tell us to leave our family and everything that’s familiar and go to a different state. That wouldn’t make most of us happy. He may tell us to take a job that requires us to take a pay cut. That’s not exciting. He may tell us to sell our house and move in something smaller.

No matter the instructions, follow them. We may not be excited about following them, but our obedience will lead us to happiness, perseverance, and most importantly, glory to God.

Luke 8:3 NLT Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod’s business manager; Susanna; and many others who were contributing from their own resources to support Jesus and His disciples.

These people were contributing to Jesus’s ministry from their own resources. Some of us may say, “I would have given out of my resources if I were around during the time of Jesus…” But, would you???

Think about it. There were a lot of skeptical people when Jesus walked the earth. He didn’t glow as He walked around. He looked like an average person, but claimed to be the Son of God. They probably said, “If He’s the Son of God, He shouldn’t be taking our resources. It should fall from heaven.” Followers of Jesus didn’t know the details of what Jesus was planning to do for mankind, and yet they gave to His ministry. These people truly were giving out of a heart of love and gratitude.

We know the details of what Jesus accomplished for us. We know we’re free from the law and have been made right with God. We know He died on the cross for all our sins. We’re experiencing the abundant life now. With all of that, some of us are still reluctant to give.

Some are afraid that the preacher is taking their money for personal gain. Some have been deceived into thinking, “God understands my heart and situation so, I won’t give.”

God has been way too good for us to shortchange Him. If it was beneficial for Jesus to receive from His followers, surely we can give to God now. We can read about everything He’s done and what magnificent things He’s prepared for us. Based on this alone, we should cheerfully give, from our own resources, to the Kingdom of God. Don’t be greedy, give.

Lamentations 3:40 Instead, let us test and examine our ways. Let us turn back to the Lord.

It’s examination time. It’s time to look at every area of our lives to see if there are areas where we need to turn back to the Lord. Turning back to the Lord means, in that area, we do things God’s way. It’s a form of repentance (changing).

We may go to church, pray, read our bibles, but we’re not a giver. That’s an area where we need to turn back to the Lord. We turn back to God by trusting God with our money. We may do all the right things, but we know we heard God tell us to quit our jobs and go into full-time ministry. Turn back to God by following His voice and stepping out on faith. If your attitude needs improvement, turn back to the Lord where your attitude is concerned.

Whatever area we need to do things God’s way, let the Holy Spirit lead you to do things God’s way.

Lamentations 3:25 The Lord is good to those who depend on Him, to those who search for Him.

If you want to experience the goodness of the Lord, depend Him.

Don’t depend on Him only when you’ve tried all you know to or depend on Him whenever you’re at your lowest. Depend on Him from the start. Depend on Him when things are going well. Depend on Him for seemingly minor things like, when to arrive at work, what to wear, what exercises to do at the gym, and what to eat for dinner.

That’s the type of dependence that will cause us to see the goodness of the Lord. So, in major and minor moments, depend on God.

Psalm 30:5 For his anger lasts only a moment, but his favor lasts a lifetime; weeping may stay for the night, but rejoicing comes in the morning.

Psalm 145:8 The Lord is merciful and compassionate, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love.

When people read these verses about God’s anger, they become sin conscious. They think if we do something wrong, we’ll make God angry. They look at all the negative things in their lives and think God is punishing them because of sin.

Look at where all these scriptures about the Lord’s anger are found. These scriptures are in the old covenant. In the old covenant, God had every right to be angry and punish people because sin filled the earth. In the new covenant, we only read about the Lord’s anger towards the unrighteous (those who haven’t accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior).

We no longer see anything about God’s anger because Jesus paid the price for sin. Jesus took our punishment. The wrath of God, that was meant for mankind, was put on Jesus. We may sin, but that sin was paid for by Jesus. Without Him, the anger of God would still be flowing.

So, ultimately, God’s not angry because of Jesus. Thank God for Jesus.

Romans 5:9 And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God’s condemnation.

1 Thessalonians 5:9 For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,

Exodus 17:6 I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink.” So Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel.

Numbers 20:8 “Take the staff, and you and your brother Aaron gather the assembly together. Speak to that rock before their eyes and it will pour out its water. You will bring water out of the rock for the community so they and their livestock can drink.”

Initially, God told Moses to strike the rock for water. Later, He told Moses to speak to the rock for water. What can we learn from this? Yesterday’s instructions may not be today’s instructions.

As humans, when we find something that works, we want to stick with it. That’s not always the case with God. He may give us a different method for the same outcome. If He’s Lord over our lives, it’s up to us to follow this new method.

For instance, if we had a cold last year, God may have told us to eat oranges, take vitamins, and rest. By following His instructions, our symptoms were mild and we got over it quickly. If we get a cold now, we shouldn’t automatically assume we should do the same thing. We should wait for God’s instructions. If He tells us to do the same thing, do it. If it’s something different, no matter how strange it seems, do it.

Whether it’s a business deal, disciplining a child, or preparing for an interview, let’s keep our ears open and follow the instructions from God.

In the first 20 verses of Lamentations 3, the writer mentions how terrible his situation has become. I am the one who has seen the afflictions that come from the rod of the Lord’s anger (Lamentations 3:1). My own people laugh at me. All day long they sing their mocking songs (Lamentations 3:14). The thought of my suffering and homelessness is bitter beyond words (Lamentations 3:19).

Despite all of the affliction, suffering, and mockery he’s facing, he makes a powerful statement in the next 4 verses.

Yet I still dare to hope when I remember this: The faithful love of the Lord never ends! His mercies never cease. Great is His faithfulness; His mercies begin afresh each morning. I say to myself, “The Lord is my inheritance; therefore, I will hope in him!” -Lamentations 3:21‭-‬24 NLT

When all hell seems to be coming against us, that’s when we need to stand flat-footed and trust in the Lord. Giving up ties God’s hands. We may have to trust God with tears in our eyes, but trust Him. We may have to believe in His word with pain in our bodies, but believe Him. We may not know how it’s going to happen, but rely on Him.

Don’t give up! Regardless of what you see and how you feel, place everything you have in God. This is the only time we should place all our eggs in one basket. Trust God!

If you’re saying “forgive me Lord” frequently and often throughout the day, you’re sin conscious. If you’re feeling guilty or unworthy of God’s blessings because of what you’ve done, you’re sin conscious. If you’re using the old excuse of needing to get yourself together before coming back to church or establishing a relationship with God, you’re sin conscious.

Sin consciousness is when we put our sins and all we’ve done wrong above the sacrifice for sins that was completed and made available to us by Christ.

Hebrews 9:26 Otherwise, Christ would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But now He has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of Himself.

We have a choice. We can choose to rehearse all the sins we’ve committed (great and small) that day or receive God’s forgiveness that was made available through the sacrifice of Jesus.

When we miss the mark, instantly receive the forgiveness that was made available to us and move on. God has forgiven and forgotten our sins, so why should we hold on to them? Sin consciousness negatively impacts our relationship with God, our effectiveness in the Kingdom, and the promises God has for us.

Receive God’s forgiveness through Jesus Christ, ask for help to not miss the mark from the Holy Spirit, and continue to live as if you’ve never done anything wrong.

Mark 11:22-24 (ESV) And Jesus answered them, “Have faith in God. Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.

Just a reminder, confessions still work. There’s still power in our words.

Whatever we see that’s not lining up with God’s word can be reversed with our words. It’s that simple. We don’t have to fast for so many days or read 10 books of the bible for it to work. It’s simply speaking faith-filled words at the situation.

Consistency is the key. When we hear ourselves speak the word of God over our situation, faith is being built (Rom. 10:17). As we continue on, our words have the power to change that situation.

Don’t think for a second that your words aren’t working. That’s what Satan wants us to believe. Our words are working for us or against us. Do yourselves a favor and speak life to have your words working in your favor.

We’ll hear an inspiring message that ignites our faith. From the time we heard it, we’re believing God for anything we’ve ever thought of. We’re believing for a house, spouse, divine health, car, business, etc. We’re quoting all the scriptures like, with God all things are possible, ask and it shall be given, the battle is the Lord’s (Matt. 19:26, Matt. 7:7, 1 Sam. 17:47).

After a month or so, our excitement simmers down. Certain things come up that eat at our faith. We may not see how our credit will get better to get that house. We may not know where the money is coming from. We may not know how things will change. And of course, delay.

It’s during these times we need to maintain our faith, belief, and trust in God. This is not the time to look at our circumstances and believe what we see. We may not be on 10, but as quick as circumstances attack our faith, we should be building it back up. How? By reading and listening to the word, spending time in the presence of God, and making confessions of what we desire to see.

Don’t let circumstances rob you of the promises of God. Maintain your faith, trust, and confidence in God.

The seed on the rocky soil represents those who hear the message and immediately receive it with joy. But since they don’t have deep roots, they don’t last long. They fall away as soon as they have problems or are persecuted for believing God’s word.-Mark 4:16‭-‬17 NLT

1 Peter 5:7 (AMP) casting all your cares [all your anxieties, all your worries, and all your concerns, once and for all] on Him, for He cares about you [with deepest affection, and watches over you very carefully].

Whenever you get a scratchy throat or a runny nose, instead of trying to figure out where it came from or wonder if you have Covid, cast your cares to God and let Him perfect everything that concerns you.

Whenever you lose a job, instead of panicking on how you’re going to pay your bills and buy food, give that care to God and let Him handle it.

Whenever you’re tired, but you still have so much to do, give those cares to God and go get rest.

Whatever cares we may have, it does us no good to worry or fret. Give it to God and go to sleep. He’ll perfect everything that concerns us.

The Lord will perfect that which concerns me; Your mercy, O Lord, endures forever; Do not forsake the works of Your hands.
Psalms 138:8 NKJV

So don’t be misled, my dear brothers and sisters.
James 1:16 NLT

Satan is a great deciever. Through his deception, he has mislead people away from the truth in God’s word.

One misleading is thinking temptations come from God. We’ll all face temptations, but these temptations didn’t come from God. These temptations came from our own lustful desires. Just because we see a deceptive way to get more money, or we’re attracted to a person we’re not married to, we should stop saying God is testing me. Recognize that the temptation came from the devil, and rebuke the thought.

Another misleading from Satan are other doctrines that seem to come out annually. People are always being deceived into thinking that this doctrine or religion was the original and Christianity is just a cheap knock-off.

These misleading ideas can leave us confused and deceived. Don’t be misled. Let God’s word provide the truth.

Genesis 11:4 And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.

These are people who are trying to live independent from God and they’re trying to make a name for themselves.

God never intended for us to make a name for ourselves. Through our belief and obedience to the Holy Spirit, He’ll make our name great. In Genesis 12:2 (Amplified) it says, “And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you abundantly, And make your name great (exalted, distinguished); And you shall be a blessing [a source of great good to others].“

We don’t need to hustle, trying out one business venture after another, attempting to build our brand and legacy. If a brand is going to be built, it should be built by walking down the path God already cleared for us.

James 1:18 (NLT) He chose to give birth to us by giving us His true word. And we, out of all creation, became His prized possession.

We are God’s prized possessions. A prized possession is taken care of, cherished, and protected. No need to worry about what’s going to happen to us because we belong to Him.

We should never think we are less than, stupid, or ugly. We are God’s prized possessions and if He thinks we’re valuable, intelligent, and beautiful, we should too.

As prized possessions, we should be confident (not cocky). We should have the mindset that God has got our backs. We should trust that whatever He tells us to do is for our good. We should believe He desires to bless His prized possessions with good things.

Know who you are in Christ. No longer should we have low self-esteem, wonder if God’s going to answer our prayers, or how we’re going to make it. We are the prized possessions of the true and living God and He has our best interests at heart.

John 10:10 (NLT) The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.

Abundant life is what Jesus came and died for. Abundant life includes, but is not limited to materialistic things. Abundant living is also experiencing peace and joy in our families, health in our bodies, freedom from all fears, and rest.

What good is it to be a millionaire, but we don’t have peace in our minds? How is God glorified if fear and worry is running rampant in our lives? How are we to enjoy life if we’re dealing with sickness?

Abundant life is something that God promised. This promise must be received by faith. If there’s something in your life that’s not lining up with abundance (shortages, chaos, sickness, or insufficiency), cancel it and believe that you’ve received the abundance God desires for you.