Forgiveness Gives Us Power

It feels better to forgive than to be angry, frustrated and resentful. We who love God forgive because we can, not because we have to. Because of Our Lord and Savior's sacrifice, we can choose the power of the Holy Spirit in our everyday interactions. Forgiving is a powerful tool of the Holy Spirit and that power can be felt! 

They say that unforgiveness hurts us the most, but that truth is not enough for us to claim the power to forgive. We are used to hurting ourselves in subtle and non-subtle, covert and overt ways. Our society promotes and applauds it. The power to forgive at every turn comes through the fact that Jesus Christ has provided a way out for us.

~ Worry is the root of all unforgiveness. ~  

We don't have to bear the burden of unforgiveness as the only solution to hurts, afflictions and the wicked intentions of others. Forgiveness is the answer to the pain of worry, which is the root of all unforgiveness. We have an answer. That answer is that God truly knows, sees and hears all and it is going to be ok. 

~ Unforgiveness is seeking an answer to fix what we can never fix through our flesh. ~

We don't have to find an answer to what has happened to us. Forgiveness removes the burden from the shoulders of our minds to have to fix things. That is what unforgiveness is, seeking an answer to fix what we can never fix through our flesh.

Forgiveness gives us the power to rest and to move on, in a Godly direction, to other things.    

They Can't Stop Your Blessing

~ When your application is not approved or your request is not accepted, you don't have to be angry. You don't have to blame them. You either believe that no one can stop any blessings that God wants you to have, or you don't.  ~

You Are Here: Tired Of Praying & Weary VII

This morning was a morning when I did not feel like praying. How many of those mornings have you had lately? I felt so sluggish emotionally. So down. So weary. So hopeless. I made myself get on my knees, on my prayer pillow so my knees wouldn't hurt. 

I made myself thank God for all that he has done for me, the things of which I was unaware. I thanked him for what he is doing, the things of which I am unaware. We know in our hearts that Our Father is always working things out on our behalf, don't we?

Basically, I made myself repeat things that I believe, no matter how I feel. My prayer wasn't long and when I pray like this I feel so bad. I almost feel like my prayer is fake, except I know that it is not. It is the prayer of a devoted person who refuses to give up on God. 

You're tired of praying and weary and can't pray another day? 

1. Make yourself repeat truths that you believe. 
2. Confirmations which are not based on how you feel. 
3. Declarations that stand on the never-ending hope that springs alive in you.  
4. Scriptures that you have memorized and hid in your heart and have come to believe are true, because they have been engrafted in you. 

Fight for your prayer life! Don't let it die! It is your supersonic, personal line of communication to the Most High God, Our Beloved Father. Repeat, repeat, repeat what you know in your heart of hearts! The repetition will carry you through until you can pray unique, targeted prayers again. All are valuable to God and can be used by his Holy Spirit and by Jesus, Our Lord and Savior.  

Receive more inspiration through my prayer series:

You Are Here: Tired Of Praying & Weary I

You Are Here: Tired Of Praying & Weary II

You Are Here: Tired Of Praying & Weary III

You Are Here: Tired Of Praying & Weary IV

You Are Here: Tired Of Praying & Weary V

You Are Here: Tired Of Praying & Weary VI

Seeking To Know God?

All of us who believe speak some truth and understanding when sharing The Gospel. Mixed with that we also speak our opinions and preferences and promote them as Gospel. No one Christian or group of Christians are perfect in what they share with others. 

All non-Christians who are seeking The Gospel Truth ask questions about the practices of Christians. They want to know what does being a Christian mean. Christians all over the world, when they share the Gospel with others, make a big deal of many things that don't matter to God. This confuses those who are seeking.  

You can choose to read any religious book in the world, adopt and believe it. If you want to know what the only God that there is wants you to know, just start reading the Holy Bible, a little bit each day. You can get the King James Version, the New King James Version, the New International Version, the Revised English Version, or one of the other translations that you feel would be easier for you to understand. 

Go to a bookstore and flip through some to see what resonates with you. There are Bibles geared towards men and women and journal Bibles where you can write out your thoughts. There are also Bibles geared towards youth and teenagers if you are in that group.

In the 1st half of the Bible, the Old Testament, you will come to know God The Father. In the 2nd half, the New Testament, you will come to know God The Son, who is Jesus The Christ. 

God has direct knowledge and answers for you that you'll never be able to get from anyone else. Through his Spirit helping you, he will show you what the Bible is saying and how it all works together. God does care and he wants you to get the understanding that you are seeking. 

Get a Bible today and just take baby steps and start reading.

Jesus Fulfilled The Law Of Moses

Jesus Christ's sacrifice on the cross fulfilled the Law of Moses, so that we would not have to continue trying to do the Law that we could never fulfill. Doing the Law meant that we were always in a position to die in our sins. No matter how hard we tried to be good and do good, that's just the way that it was. 

Do you see how unfair that would have been, for us to die in the sin condition that we were born with because we ourselves could never fulfill the requirements to be forgiven of those sins? God is the Good Father and he provided for those unredeemable sins to be redeemed through the sacrifice of Christ Jesus, Our Lord. 

Sweet Smelling Savor To God

Daniel answered and said: 

Blessed be the name of God forever and ever, for wisdom and might are His.

And He changes the times and the seasons; He removes kings and raises up kings; He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding. 

He reveals deep and secret things; He knows what is in the darkness, and light dwells with Him. 

I thank You and praise You, O God of my fathers; you have given me wisdom and might, and have now made known to me what we asked of You.

Let us be like Daniel. Send up a sweet-smelling savor, a sweet incense of praise to Our Father today and everyday!

I Am Prospering Everyday: Scripture Declarations & Prayer Prompts Journal

 

This is the first faith-based book that I've published at Amazon. I am blessed to have designed the cover myself. It's quite a milestone and I'm praising God for helping me to reach it! It is part text and part journal for you to write in. This is what I have to share about this Christian guidebook:  

You want reading the scriptures to make a difference in your life and you read the Bible everyday in order to be transformed. You are always seeking ways to understand what the ancient scriptures mean to you today and how you can allow them to change and renew you.

God's Holy Spirit is always helping you to discern and rightly divide the scriptures so that they make sense to you. This is how paraphrasing can help. We do it everyday when we read scriptures, ponder their meaning and ask God to open our understanding and give us revelation knowledge on the messages.

The 32 scripture declarations in this journal are taken from the King James Version of The Holy Bible. I have then included paraphrases of each one. This means that my understanding of each scripture, through my Bible studies and the guidance of the Holy Spirit, has been written in simple, modern-day, American language. It is the way that we read and understand the scriptures in order to apply them to our lives in a practical way.

As you read the scriptures and their paraphrases, you will find space after them to write your own understanding and prayers. With the prayer prompts that I've included, you can expand your prayers to Our Heavenly Father through writing out your thoughts.

Also included are blank, lined pages at the end of the book, under the title My Power Scriptures. The word My means you. This is where you can make a log of 20 of your favorite, most life-changing scriptures. One two-page chapter is set aside for each scripture.

I believe that God The Father, God The Son and God The Holy Spirit are one and separate in the help that they give to us. They never contradict each other and they each can be relied upon for specific things. The love of The Father caused him to choose to restore us to himself. Through the Son, he provided for that to be done through Christ's pure sacrifice. Through his Spirit he helps us to become more like him.

You will find me referring to each member of The Godhead in different places throughout this book but if it was not for the love of The Father, we would never be saved. It is he who provided for our eternal salvation. My prayer is that this scripture declaration and prayer prompt journal will aid you as you grow in the Lord. May Our Father bless you richly in every way, through his precious son, Jesus of Nazareth, The Christ, the only Savior of mankind.

Learn more here about I Am Prospering Everyday: Scripture Declarations & Prayer Prompts.

Available in hardcover and paperback.

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Listen To The Holy Spirit & The Bible

This morning at the Lakewood Church service, Lisa Osteen Comes said: 

If you don't know The Word, Satan will use that against you!

Many of the answers that you are seeking are in the Bible. Just open it up when you feel discouraged.

When I open up the Bible each morning, I feel like I am sitting with Jesus.

I feel that the Bible is the closest thing that we have to God on earth. I know we have the Holy Spirit and He is the presence of God in us. I can feel him but I can't touch him. I can touch the Bible.

Fall in love with the Bible. It will change your life. As you read, the Holy Spirit will help you to understand. Get a version that is easier for you to understand. The Holy Spirit will give you spiritual wisdom and insight.

What the Holy Spirit hears from the Father he will transmit to us. We sense the answer in our spirits and it's registered in our minds. Like a thought, something we need to know, something to pray for or an answer to a prayer. It's like an impression that you can't get away from and that you know did not come from you. A still, small voice.

The Apostle Paul describes God's voice as a perception. Everyone was saved on the ship during a hurricane because Paul listened.

Philip, the disciple, heard the voice of The Spirit that sent him to help the Ethiopian man in the chariot. Because Philip listened, he was able to explain the Gospel to him and he was saved and chose to be baptized on the spot.  

God's plans are higher than our plans. There were many times that God interrupted my plans and the outcome was much better than I could ever have imagined.

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For Of Him Through Him To Him Are All Things

For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things,

to whom be glory forever! 

Romans 11:36

Jesus Christ of Nazareth is worthy of our acknowledgement everyday of the sacrifice that he gave. He was obedient to the request of Our Father, to his own hurt. He gave his pure blood and his unblemished body for us. Because of his sacrifice, we can 

1. live whole lives here in this earth,
2. have a personal relationship with Our Father and talk to him directly,
3. walk through the Straight Gate and live in the Resurrection of Life.

I created this design to praise The Lamb of God for what he has done. He paid the entire price and destroyed what Satan did, forever!

If you like this design, you can see 68 products that it is on. Enhance your environment and wardrobe with anything from pillows to t-shirts to mugs. 

Find them at my Redbubble shop, Draw Nigh To Hope.

Bearing Our Crosses For Jesus

We who are growing in Christ are called to suffer with him because we are heirs to the throne and joint heirs with the Savior. What does it mean to suffer with Christ? It is not a concept that our fleshly being readily accepts. The word suffer does not denote fun and pleasure. 

To suffer with Christ means that, through the experiences that God allows into our lives, we are able to identify with what Christ felt. Even more important is that we are able to perceive, through difficult experiences, that Christ knows how we are feeling. Why is this important? Because it sets us up for spiritual riches in the New Heaven and the New Earth and for the best rewards. 

It sets us up to rule with Christ. Even though this is at the end of time, it is what those who love Christ are living for. No matter how attached we become to this world, no matter how immersed we have to become in it to survive and thrive, we are always living for Christ's return to claim us. 

Our Father allows trying experiences into our lives so that we can better relate to what Jesus did for us. You have heard it said that Only what's done for Christ will last. It is not only about accepting Jesus as Savior, but also about being able to relate to his obedience to the Father at his own hurt. Since all that Jesus did was for us at Father God's request, it is the Father's will that we experience a little of what Christ did. 

While none of us have been called to be crucified on a cross, God allows symbolic crosses, in the way of highly-challenging experiences, into our lives. These experiences can be somewhat minor or devastating.  He wants us to bear the experiences on behalf of his beloved and obedient Son. Through developing a personal perception of what Christ endured, we become one with him. Not only does this please Our Father but it comforts us to know that we are understanding more about what the Lamb of God suffered.

Does your flesh want to fight with someone to show them that they can't do you that way? Let them do it. Jesus had to let the soldiers do him that way. We don't even know the extent of all that he had to suffer, for it was much more than what has been revealed to us in the Bible.

Is someone trying to take something away from you that they are not entitled to and your fleshly spirit rises up to fight for it? Let them take it. Jesus had to let them take his garments from him and  divide them, and so much more did he have to allow them to take.

Do you feel alone in your trials, as if the whole world is against you and winning? Accept your feelings and continue on in fellowship with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, for you are not alone. Jesus felt the hatred of so very many who were against him and he had to endure as Our Father allowed them to continue with their evil plans against him.

You don't want them to feel like they are winning against you so you want to fight them? Let them think they are winning. Jesus had to be unfairly judged and convicted. Every step of the way of his suffering he had to let them all think they were winning. He had to let them think they were winning as he suffered and died on the cross. 

You want to speak up for yourself and argue with them? Don't be deceived by your flesh. Don't become enraged and allow sickness to come upon you because of what God is allowing them to do. Jesus did not open his mouth when he was mistreated and unfairly charged, judged and sentenced. He had to allow himself to be quiet. Most of all, he had to suffer allowing them to have their way with him, as if they were in control. 

When our spirits rise up in a fleshly attitude against him/her/them, whoever is afflicting and maligning us, we must submit to the circumstances that God has allowed to come upon us. In this way, we choose to crucify the flesh and walk in the spirit, understanding that we are submitting not to them but to Our Heavenly Father. It takes bowing in humiliation, like Christ did. It never feels good but obedience to The Most High God is not founded in the feelings of the flesh. Bowing in humiliation and submitting to God is based in knowledge, acceptance and yielding. It is an informed decision.

We know when God is doing this special work in us because the Holy Spirit opens our eyes and ears to what is happening. The Holy Spirit does not do the work for us however, because we would not learn and grow in that way. We have to do the work of cutting our flesh off from what it wants to do, denying it and crucifying it. This causes us to suffer because we can't have our way, our fleshly way. 

We suffer as Christ did as we submit to and obey God in these unfair circumstances. This is bearing symbolic crosses for Christ and suffering with him. God has promised to take care of us when we submit to him and let them think that they are having their way.