Receiving God’s Best

 You have to have a holy dissatisfaction with mediocrity before you can experience all that God has for you. It doesn’t happen accidentally or automatically. If you don’t pursue it, you won’t get it.

Everything in our fallen world naturally goes from good to bad. Things don’t get better without effort. We have to seek to find, knock to get the door opened, and ask before we receive (Matt. 7:7).  Most people are shooting at nothing and hitting it every time.

Jeremiah 29:11 says,

“I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end [hope and a future, New International Version (brackets mine).

When the Lord spoke to Jeremiah to write these words, Israel was devastated. The city of Jerusalem had been destroyed, and many people had been taken captive to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar. Thoughts of peace were probably the last thing on their minds.

But Jeremiah went on to say in verses 12-13,

“Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.”

I’ve had people tell me they prayed and believed God but that nothing happened. These scriptures promise otherwise. So, who’s right? I choose to believe God is true.  We have to reach a point where we won’t live with anything less than God’s best.

That attitude is missing in the lives of far too many Christians.  There is such a fear that someone might be disappointed and, therefore, condemned that many ministers have been teaching people to settle for less and avoid the disappointment.

I am not trying to condemn anyone. We have all been raised in and influenced by an ungodly culture. And nobody learns how to receive God’s best overnight. It’s a process, but we need to begin moving in that direction. I haven’t arrived there either, but I have left and am on my way. 

I have told this story before, but it is such a good illustration that I want to share it with you again. A man came forward for prayer in one of my meetings. He told me he had a terrible pain in his neck and couldn’t sleep as a result. He continued, “I’ve got a back problem, my sciatic nerve causes pain down my entire leg and into my foot, I also have neuropathy…” and on and on he continued.

Then he said, “But if God could just heal the pain in my neck, I could live with the rest.”  I’m not sure God could pull that off.”

The guy just looked at me for a minute, and then he replied, “That was pretty stupid, wasn’t it?” I agreed and then went on to tell him that he didn’t have to settle for less than complete healing—God’s best. “It’s that attitude that is keeping you from receiving your healing,” I said.

Christians ought to be walking in supernatural healing. They ought to be walking in financial prosperity. Most, however, are just as sick and broke as their unsaved neighbors.

 And when we do, we will know all things even as we are known (1 Cor. 13:12).  We will understand that the same power that raised Christ from the dead was resident within us all along (Eph. 1:18-20).

We will discover that we didn’t have to be sick, that we didn’t have to live broke, and that we didn’t have to be depressed and discouraged. We will realize that love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance were living inside us the whole time (Gal. 5:22-23).

 Jesus died to deliver us from this present evil world (Gal. 1:4), not just the one to come.

Moses lived under an inferior covenant compared to ours (2 Cor. 3:7-11). Jesus said John the Baptist was greater than Moses, yet the least New Testament saint is greater than John (Matt. 11:11). Therefore, if Moses was still strong at 120 with good eyesight (Deut. 34:7), why would we settle for less?

 If you don’t stir yourself up, you will settle to the bottom. The world isn’t going to encourage you toward God’s best, and most Christians aren’t either.

Sadly, religion is one of the strongest weapons Satan has to discourage people from believing for something more. Many churches believe that God doesn’t perform miracles today or, worse, that God is the one who wills for our lives to be in such a mess to break us. He sovereignly controls everything. That is not true.

 We don’t need God to heal us; by His stripes, we were healed (1 Pet. 2:24). That miraculous healing power is already IN us. We don’t need God to move; we need to believe what He has already done and learn how to receive.

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Be Still In God’s Presence

BE STILL IN MY PRESENCE,
even though countless tasks clamor for your attention.  Nothing is as important as spending time with Me.  While you wait in My Presence, I do My best work within you; transforming you by the renewing of you mind.  If you skimp on this time with Me, you may plunge headlong into the wrong activities, missing the richness of what I have planned for you.

 

Do not seek Me primarily for what I can give you.  remember that I ,the Giver, am infinitely greater than any gift I might impart to you.  Though I delight in blessings My children, I am deeply grieved when My blessings become idols in their hearts.  Anything can be an idol if it distracts you from Me as your First Love.  When I am the ultimate Desire of your heart, you are safe from the danger of idolatry.  As you wait in My Presence, enjoy the greatest gift of all: Christ in you, the hope of Glory!

 

Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.  Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is –his good, pleasing and perfect will.   Romans 12:2

 

“Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love.”  Revelation 2:4

 

To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.  Colossians 1:27

 

Better Way To Pray

I was interceding, or so I thought, pleading with God on the behalf of others. What could possibly be wrong with that? As I learned later, a lot.

 If you aren’t getting the results you know the Lord wants you to have, maybe it’s time to consider a better way to pray. I’m not saying that anyone who doesn’t pray as I do is “of the devil.” I wasn’t “of the devil” in the way I used to pray. I loved God with all my heart, and the Lord loved me. But the results weren’t there.

 He is no longer imputing or holding our sins against us.

“God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation” (2 Cor. 5:19).

We are NOW reconciled to God through Jesus. That means we are in harmony and are friendly with God right now. He isn’t mad; He’s not even in a bad mood. The war between God and man is over.That’s what the angels proclaimed at the birth of Jesus.

Luke 2:14 says,

“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.”

These angels weren’t saying that peace would reign on earth and that wars between people would cease. That certainly hasn’t happened. They were proclaiming the end of war between God and man. Jesus paid a price that was infinitely greater than the sins of the whole human race.

God’s wrath and justice have been satisfied. His mercy extends to all people. He loves the world, not just the church, but the whole world. He paid for all sin.

The Scriptures say in 1 John 2:2,

“And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.”

In the Old Testament, God’s judgment was poured out on both individuals and nations. In the New Testament,  We no longer get what we deserve; we get what Jesus paid the price for, if we will only believe.

Before I understood this, I would say, “If God doesn’t judge America, He will have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah.” Now I say, “If God judges America, He will have to apologize to Jesus.” Understanding what Jesus did completely changes our perspective.

 A mediator is one who seeks to reconcile, or make peace between, two opposing parties. In the Old Testament, man had not yet been reconciled to God through Jesus. The people needed a mediator, someone to intercede with God on their behalf. That is where we find people like Abraham and Moses pleading with God.

In Genesis 18:23-25, Abraham interceded with God on behalf of Sodom and Gomorrah:

“Abraham drew near, and said, Wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked? Peradventure there be fifty righteous within the city: wilt thou also destroy and not spare the place for the fifty righteous that are therein? That be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked: and that the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far from thee: Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?”

In fact, Abraham actually negotiated with God until He agreed not to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah for the sake of ten righteous people. But there weren’t ten righteous people in the whole city, and only some of Lot’s family survived. A similar account is recorded in Exodus 32:9-12 and 14. Here God was furious with the people, and Moses interceded for them:

“The LORD said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people: Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them: and I will make of thee a great nation. And Moses besought the LORD his God, and said, LORD, why doth thy wrath wax hot against thy people, which thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power, and with a mighty hand? Wherefore should the Egyptians speak, and say, For mischief did he bring them out, to slay them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from thy fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against thy people…And the LORD repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people.”

Moses actually told God, “Repent!” What nerve! What’s more amazing is that God repented. From these and other stories in the Old Testament,  Just as I did decades ago, they believe we must plead with God to save the lost, to withhold His wrath from those He is ready to judge, and to be merciful to those whose needs He is unwilling to meet because of their unworthiness.

, but it is what’s being taught in many churches today. It ignores the fact that Jesus is now seated at the right hand of the Father (Heb. 10:12), ever making intercession for us (Heb. 7:25). If Moses or Abraham could persuade God, don’t you think Jesus could do at least as well?

In 1 Timothy 2:5, we read,

“For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.”

 needed to stand between God the Father and mankind. ;it’s been atoned for, and we are now the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. That is how God sees us. If we understand that, it will change the way we pray.

It was appropriate for Abraham and Moses to pray as they did because God’s wrath had not yet been appeased through Jesus. Today, under the New Covenant, if people try to mediate in that way, they are actually antichrist—against Christ. They are saying that Jesus was not enough and are not esteeming what Christ has done.  I know these words are strong, but they are the truth.

Satan is behind much of the wrong teaching on “prayer.” Consider how crafty his plan is and the fruit it produces. He has convinced believers to stay in their closets, taking the place of Jesus in intercession. They spend hours pleading with God to turn from His wrath, to pour out His Spirit, and to meet the needs of the people.

Meanwhile, families, coworkers, and neighbors are going to hell and dying from disease. The Bible doesn’t say that salvation comes through intercession, but by the foolishness of preaching (1 Cor. 1:21). And we are not told to pray for the sick, but to heal the sick (Matt. 10:8) by commanding healing into their broken bodies.

 We believe He can save, heal, and deliver but that He is waiting on us to shape up and earn it. The truth is, we don’t deserve it, and we will never be good enough. Because of Jesus, all that God has is ours. That’s good news. We no longer need to beg or plead; we need to exercise the authority He has given us and receive His blessings.

This blessed me I wanted to share

Healing Is The Children’s Bread

I wanted to share this article by Andrew Wommack. Powerful message.

Jesus said unto her, Let the children first be
filled: for it is not meet to take the children’s bread, and to cast it unto the dogs.

Mark 7:27

This was a strong statement that Jesus made to a woman that came to ask Him to heal her daughter. Jesus was telling her that she had no right to ask for healing, since she wasn’t Jewish. Wisely and remarkably, this woman humbled herself and pleaded for mercy instead of trying to demand her rights. She didn’t have any rights. And when Jesus had mercy on her, she returned home to find her daughter healed. It’s that simple. She received based on Jesus, not on what she deserved.

Many of you may wonder, If God heals today, then where is it? How do I get it manifest? You believe it works, but you don’t know how. Maybe you’ve seen someone stand and not get healed. Or maybe you have stood for your own healing and have not seen it manifest. Whichever it is, your faith has been shaken as a result. Well, I want you to know that God wants you well. And I want to share with you how it works.

One of the things you have to be convinced of before you even approach this is that healing is in Christ’s atonement. Look at what it says here in 1 Peter, talking about Jesus:

Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.

1 Peter 2:24

Notice how it says Jesus took stripes for your healing! It’s yours! It’s one of the things Jesus bought for you through His sacrifice! And this verse says, “Ye were healed” (emphasis mine)—past tense. This is such a clear statement that I wonder how any Christian could not believe that. But I’ve learned that many people don’t let the Bible get in the way of their theology. Even some who believe God can heal don’t believe He will or has already healed. They say things like, “Well, God heals but not all the time. Sometimes it’s not His will.” But it’s hard to argue with a past-tense statement like that of 1 Peter 2:24.

It’s taken from a prophecy Isaiah gave in Isaiah 53, which says,

But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.

Isaiah 53:5

Some people try to make this mean Jesus only took stripes for our spiritual healing. Well, he did suffer for our spiritual health, but let’s look at how the prophecy was fulfilled, in Matthew 8:

When the even was come, they brought unto him many that were possessed with devils: and he cast out the spirits with his word, and healed all that were sick: [17] That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias [Isaiah] the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses.

Matthew 8:16-17, brackets mine

This makes it clear that Jesus suffered for your healing! It belongs to you.

Healing is the children’s bread. It’s your portion. It’s what God has given to you. If you’re a Christian, healing belongs to you! If you just meditate on the implications of this for a while, it’d go a long way in seeing healing manifest. You’d just realize, I don’t have to be sick. That’s exactly right.

In Memories Of My Mother

Happy birthday mommy I can’t express how much I miss you, I long for one of your hugs, your kisses which made whatever I was going through not important.  Your legacy of love lives on in me and my sisters,  your grandchildren are loving reminders of how you raised us to love and how it’s a wonderful experience to being mother’s. Mommy it feels like yesterday that we watched you cross over into the Kingdom. When we where caring for you in your last week, we felt God’s love so very close to us, His presence filled the house. Heaven and earth had came in one accordance, can’t explain all the very special visitation that my mother spoke of, I knowing that no one physically came to visit. On November 12, 2006 Sunday morning when you crossed over into the Kingdom of God, such a warm peace came over the house. There is a great difference when a child of God is going to be with their Savior it’s the most beautiful event to celebrate their graduation into the Kingdom. I don’t have to say RIP. .because you are forever in the Presence of Peace and Love..I miss you mommy so much, I will see you again, I am living my life in the way you taught me to live.

Let Thankfulness Temper All Your Thoughts

LET THANKFULNESS TEMPER ALL YOUR THOUGHTS.

  A thankful mind-set keeps you in touch with Me.  I hate it when My children grumble, casually despising My sovereignty.  Thankfulness is a safeguard against this deadly sin.  Furthermore, a grateful attitude becomes a grid through which you perceive life.  Gratitude enables you to see the Light of My Presence shining on all your circumstances.  Cultivate a thankful heart, for this glorifies Me and fills you with Joy.

 

And do not grumble, as some of them did–and were killed by the destroying angel.

       1 Corinthians 10:10

 

Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our “God is a consuming fire.”

                  Hebrews 12:28

 

There Is A Time

There IS A TIME
in your life when you must learn to let go: of loved ones, of possessions, of control.  In order to let go of something that is precious to you, you need to rest in My Presence, where you are complete.  Take time to bask in the Light of My Love.  As you relax more and more, your grasping hand gradually opens up, releasing your prized possession into My care.

 

You can feel secure, even in the midst of cataclysmic changes, through awareness of My continual Presence.  The One who never leaves you is the same One who never changes: I am the same yesterday, today, and forever.  As you release more and more things into My care, remember that I never let go of your hand.  Herein lies your security, which no one and no circumstance can take from you.

 

Blessed are those who have learned to acclaim you, who walk in the light of your presence,

O LORD.   Psalm 89:15

 

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Hebrews13:8

 

“For I am the Lord, your God, who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you.”    Isaiah 41:13

Rejoice

REJOICE AND BE THANKFUL! 

As you walk with Me through this day, practice trusting and thanking Me all along the way.  Trust is the channel through which My Peace flows into you.  Thankfulness lifts you up above your circumstances.

 

I do My greatest works through people  with grateful, trusting hearts.  Rather than planning and evaluating, practice trusting and thanking Me continually.  This is a paradigm shift that will revolutionize your life.

 

 Rejoice in the Lord always.  I will say it again; Rejoice!   Philippians4:4

 

Come, let us sing for joy in the LORD; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation.  Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song.     Psalm 95:1-2

 

Those who know your name will trust in you, for you, LORD, have never forsaken those who seek you.

Psalm 9:10

 

Food for thought

FAITH moves when you don’t know how,trust moves when you don’t understand,patients moves when you don’t know when &God moves when no one can

Trust

TRUST ME ONE DAY AT A TIME. 

This keeps you close to Me, responsive to My will.  Trust is not a natural response, especially for those who have been deeply wounded.  My Spirit within you is your resident Tutor, helping you in this supernatural endeavor.  Yield to His gently touch: be sensitive to His prompting.

 

Exert your will to trust Me in all circumstances.  Don’t let your need to understand distract you from My Presence. I will equip you to get through this day victoriously, as you live in deep dependence on Me. Tomorrow is busy worrying about itself; don’t get tangled up in its worry-web.  Trust Me one day at a time.

 

O LORD Almighty, blessed is the man who trusts in you.  Psalm 84:12

 

“Therefore do not worry abouttomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.  Each day has enough trouble of its own.”  Matthew 6:34