“Beloved, refuse to lament over what has already been done or become a victim of the past. Nothing you do will change it or make it better, but you can let it go and launch yourself into this new day that is filled with possibilities and opportunities to know Me better and to understand My kingdom with greater clarity. This is a day to forgive and be forgiven, says the Lord. Draw near to Me!” Marsha Burns (9/11/2012)

When I re-read this, the word that came to my mind was ‘distractions’. Anything that causes us to lose focus on our race is right where the accuser wants us. If he can get us focused on wrong things long enough, he can keep us from being harvesters of souls. Anything that deliberately keeps us focused on what ‘he’ did or what ‘she’ said, keeps us from hearing what God says!

Our heart should be crying out, “Holy Spirit, teach me how to forgive, how to stay on track.”  We can’t afford to walk in unforgiveness and allow bitterness to set in. My dear friend, that is pride! Get rid of it! Its ruining your life and stunting your growth. Every moment you refuse to forgive and walk in love, you are holding yourself back from the blessings God wants to heap on you and your family.

Unforgiveness is the poison you drink while wishing the other person will be harmed. Lets bring life (God) to every situation today by letting go of the cup of bitter hurt and misery. Walking down the road to forgiveness is sometimes the longest road to travel, but in order to get to our destination, it’s the one we must take. 

Father, I forgive them because you forgave me. I have no right to hold this against them.  We’re all your children and we answer to You for how we treat one another. I choose to let it go into your very capable hands. I will be a reflection of your love with nothing standing in the way. Search my heart, Lord, and see if there be any wicked way in me. It’s in Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.

Now, retrain your brain to think on good things by praying for that person. When you speak blessings over them, then the healing process has begun!

Have you ever tasted something and just needed more? Like that flavor that soon became your favorite flavor. The first batch of peanut butter cookies hot off the cookie sheet. You stuff the gooey mess into your mouth quickly panting because it’s burning your tongue but you don’t care cause it’s tasty! Or how about putting a scoop of vanilla ice-cream on it with a drizzle of hot fudge. I may just have to do some baking today.

Open your mouth and taste, open your eyes and see—how good God is.  Blessed are you who run to him. Psalm 34:8 Message

That’s how I’m feeling about the Lord this morning. When I think about His goodness and all that He’s done for me, I have an overwhelming feeling of deep and lasting satisfaction that can’t be described with mere words on a page. Excuse me while I take a moment to tell Him how much I love Him.

Oh God, my God, how awesome are the works of Your hands. Your promises are bookmarked in my mind and I’m constantly speaking them out-loud. In Your presence is fullness of joy and at your right hand are pleasures forevermore. Who would want to live without you? Where would I be if you hadn’t loved me? Your Word is always alive and powerfully at work in me. It gives life to my flesh and strength to my bones.

Your Word is a light to my feet and you show me which road to take. I won’t be afraid because you are with me. If you see me going off the path, you quickly pull be back with your staff. You care so much for me that you’ve prepared everything I will ever need for my journey. I know I will arrive safely at my destination because I’m under your watchful eye.

“If you’ll hold on to me for dear life,” says God, “I’ll get you out of any trouble. I’ll give you the best of care if you’ll only get to know and trust me. Call me and I’ll answer, be at your side in bad times; I’ll rescue you, then throw you a party. I’ll give you a long life, give you a long drink of salvation!” Psalm 91:14-16 Message

Here’s a bit of trivia for your day; Did you know that a macadamia nut tree takes 15 years to bear but then produces a harvest 5 times in a season? Crazy isn’t it! I was wondering how many people have cut the tree down before they knew this?

The next day, as he left Bethany, Jesus was feeling hungry.  He noticed a leafy fig tree in the distance, so he walked over to see if there was any fruit on it, but there was none—only leaves (for it wasn’t yet the season for bearing figs).  Jesus spoke to the fig tree, saying, “No one will ever eat fruit from you again!” And the disciples overheard him. Mark 11:12-14 TPT

As I was meditating on this passage, I heard the Lord say, “I cursed the tree because it didn’t respond to the hunger in me.  The tree knew me for I created it. Because it failed to respond to my need, it would never bear fruit again for anyone. You too were created to bear fruit for me in response to my presence.”

That is a sobering thought right there. I love sitting with the Lord as He shows me things, but it always brings me to a place of reflection. Am I bearing fruit, Lord? How do I respond to Your presence? Are you satisfied with me? Does my love overflow onto others? Do others see You reflecting from me? Is my light evident?

There are many who have given up on a promise or perhaps a person simply because they haven’t seen anything happen. Please, please, please don’t give up! Respond to His presence regardless of what it looks like in the natural. Respond to His promises for He is forever faithful.

Hear the Word of the Lord. If you sow a seed and patiently wait for it to yield expecting the harvest, you will reap in abundance to the full till it overflows. Don’t burn the tree. Understand it’s season.

“Sandy, give attention to my words: tune your ear to my sayings. Don’t let them depart from your eyes; Keep them in the center most protected part of your heart; For they are life to you as you find them, and health to all your spirit, soul and body.” Proverbs 4:20-22 Sandy’s Version

A few years ago I got ahold of a series by Creflo Dollar entitled, “Are You In The Game”.  It’s all about winning the battle of your mind, how to fight your thoughts with the Word and I have to say it’s never left me. I began to personalize the Word of God because when things get personal, it means something. When I find myself in a battle, I’m now equipped to fight that battle even when my enemy isn’t always visible.

Have you ever been in an invisible warfare? It’s when the enemy tries to talk you out of a promise given. He puts symptoms on your body to convince you that healing really wasn’t for you. That God just loves some more then others. 

God says to tell others about Him and change the world around you and Satan tries to convince you that you can’t communicate, no one really understands you, people are just being nice. You stumble over your words and what you say doesn’t translate into English right. You begin to wonder if you’re actually having a stroke or losing your ability to speak.

I decided to stop talking until I could figure out what was going on, but when I thought that thought, I instantly recognized it was the devil and in my spirit I heard, “He’s trying to steal your words!” (Mark 4:15) This became my response; “You will not have my words, devil! For they are hidden and protected in the center of my heart where you can’t get to them. I know the truth and the truth sets me free!”

My friends, Satans goal is to shut you up. If that’s not happening in your life perhaps you should examine what’s coming out of your mouth. If there’s no warfare, there’s no treasure to steal. I’m thankful that I have the opportunity to stand from a place of victory and contend for what Jesus purchased for me. I hold up my shield of faith and quench every fiery dart hurled at the Word in me. No weapon formed me will prosper!

I pray for each of you who have treasure in you to protect; guard your heart and mind. Don’t cry out for yourself, cry out for others. God did not make you to be self-centered but to focus on Him and others. I link myself together with you and pray for you knowing that my Father will take care of me.

“Let the faith of God be in you! Listen to the truth I speak to you: If someone says to this mountain with great faith and having no doubt, ‘Mountain, be lifted up and thrown into the midst of the sea,’ and believes that what he says will happen, it will be done.  This is the reason I urge you to boldly believe for whatever you ask for in prayer—believe that you have received it and it will be yours. Mark 11:22-24

I was reminded this morning of when God saw the darkness and said, “Let there be light.” He didn’t keep saying how dark it was, no, He spoke what His intentions were and it happened. In the above verses, Jesus gave this example so that we would begin to see the possibilities of what we are able to create with our words.

Let me give you an example. Say you were hired to do a job that required a hammer but no hammer was given. Could you do your job? That would be ludicrous, right? In order to successfully complete the job you were hired for, you would need to have the tools to do the job and the knowledge of how to use those tools.

If you want your words to work, you must work the Word and you can’t work without knowledge. You can’t have faith in something you don’t know or understand. In order to work the Word, you must understand the One who wrote it and that everything He spoke had purpose and did what He commanded it do.

Remember when Satan had that conversation with Jesus in the wilderness while he was on his 40 day fast? It was to test His knowledge of the Word. He tried to trip Him up by twisting the words just a little bit but Jesus always corrected him with the words, “It is written…” He wasn’t just familiar with what His Father said, He knew it! He actually was the spoken Word of God.

The devil ain’t no dummy!  He tries to distort the Word and get you to buy it and take it home with you. But the Truth sets you free. Stop entertaining his distorted words and look in the book, find what it says in the Word and write it in your heart and mind.

Next time the devil comes to convince you healing isn’t for you, pull out Isaiah 54:5 and remind him that Jesus took the stripes on His body for my healing. Next time the devil comes to tell you that prosperity isn’t for you, answer him with 3 John 1:2 and Deuteronomy 29:9 which says I will prosper in all things and be in health, just as my soul prospers.

Stop changing what you believe based on your circumstances. Send Satan packing and tell him to take his lies with him.  Stop enforcing what you see in the natural realm and be an enforcer of the Word of God.

I’ve been hearing in my spirit this question being asked by so many, “Will God use me?” and I feel I need to respond emphatically, “YES!” What may surprise you is just how He’s going to use you.

Often we have a pre-conceived idea of what that will look like. Having a large ministry, writing a best selling book, working on some remote mission field, these are all wonderful callings, but what if none of the above is what God has in mind for you? Will you still offer Him your all? Will you still go? Will you still do?

I believe the highest calling in the world is the one Jesus gave us in John 15:17; “So this is my parting command: Love one another deeply!” If we don’t have this one down, we will never be able to do any of the others. Perhaps that’s what God is waiting on. Have you learned to love one another?

Everyone needs to be loved, not just a passing pat on the shoulder kind, but a deeply moved by your need kind. When we begin to see others through that filter, perhaps doors of opportunities would open for more. This kind of love is the same love the Father has for us. It is willing to die for us even though we don’t deserve it and didn’t earn it.

Let me ask you a very important question, have you learned to love? Do you love the abuser? The murderer? The husband who cheated? The narcissist? The gossip at work that hurt your feelings? Do you love the boss who passed you over for promotion? Impossible? Not if you’ve learned to love.

Before promotion comes true tests of character. The bible clearly states that God is Love and 1 John 4:8 says that the one who doesn’t love has yet to know God, for God is love. There is no way on Gods green earth that God can use anyone who doesn’t know His love because that’s what it’s all about.

There are so many people attempting to be used of God but haven’t learned this extremely important lesson. You cannot represent what you do not know. There are too many out there who think it’s all about them and haven’t allowed the love of God to transform them. I am still learning this. When I begin to see others through Gods eyes, I will have learned to love.

Father, reveal Yourself to me. Wrap me up in those big arms of grace that I may know You in all of Your fullness and glory. I want to love like You. The love that transformed me from a hopeless, helpless, lonely and desperate loser into a daughter who looks like her Father.  I can’t control others, but I can bowl them over with love so that they too are healed, transformed and delivered as You’ve done for me. It’s in Jesus’ name always, Amen.

I think sometimes we look at God and think He’s a Genie in a bottle that will give us what we wish for when we’re in a pinch. We use prayer as a wish list to make our lives a little bit sweeter. Instead of relationship with God, He’s simply becomes someone we claim to know and blame when things don’t go our way.

But the nature of God is love and the requirements to obtain that love is even simpler. If you’d like to know how, keep reading please.

God has done everything He will ever do for you. You heard me right! There are no new prayers to be prayed, He made provision for everything you will ever need. Yes, I said ever. When Jesus died and rose again the work was done. He forgave your past, present and future sins-you don’t have to keep asking!

When Jesus was beaten, by His stripes you were healed. That is past tense-meaning what’s done is done and doesn’t need to be re-done. Our job is simply to believe. You may be thinking, wait, that doesn’t sound right! It’s too easy! There must be a catch, something we have to do. But my friend, it really is that simple. The only thing you’re required to do is believe.

Acts 16:31 says it like this; “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.” That word ‘saved’ is defined wholeness, nothing missing or broken. It’s not just saved from sin, it’s from disease, poverty and anything else that was under the curse. Jesus did it all and it’s for you and your household.

Stop waiting for God to do something else for you. Once you believe and receive what Jesus did for you, it’s a total game changer! You’re now a child of God and entitled to everything He purchased for you. That means direct access to God at any time, day or night. He provides you with peace, joy and love like you’ve never felt before in your entire life.

Oh, it doesn’t mean you won’t have adversity. Trust me, your adversary the devil, he’s after you because he doesn’t want you to have what you’re entitled to. But read Ephesians 6 and learn what your weapons are and how to use them. Study like your life depends on it because it does! Ask the Holy Spirit of God to give you revelation on His Word so that you can understand His plan for you.

I’m here for you whenever you need a sister to encourage you. There are brothers and sisters all over the world who want to help you grow-up in your walk with God. Just remember this; in the Kingdom of God-believing is seeing-not the other way anymore. Welcome to the family! I love you!!!

So consider carefully how Jesus faced such intense opposition from sinners who opposed their own souls, so that you won’t become worn down and cave in under life’s pressures. After all, you have not yet reached the point of sweating blood in your opposition to sin.  And have you forgotten his encouraging words spoken to you as his children? He said,

Sometimes, when you’re going through an exceptionally hard trial, it’s good to remember what Jesus went through. The only ones who excepted him were those who needed what he provided, who were the first to turn on him and yell ‘crucify’ when given money by the religious leaders. Fickle people. And such were some of us!

When we don’t get what we want, we just give up, thinking that maybe God doesn’t love us as much as he does someone else. He calls us sons and daughters BECAUSE he loves us and as Paul said, he disciplines the ones he loves. So when things aren’t so perfect in your life, you need to yell out, “HE LOVES ME! I’M HIS OWN!” He’s only setting you on the right path so that you’ll be where he needs you when he returns to take you home.

Home sweet home. Lets keep in mind that where we are today is not our home, we’re merely leasing for a period of time. Someday, He will call out to us, “Lease is up! Time to move on!” Don’t be so comfortable with your surroundings that you lose sight of who’s you are and where you’re going. Lots wife looked back with longing and it turned into a salty statue. Lets keep our eyes longing for our prize; Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name.
Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget none of His benefits;
Who pardons all your iniquities,
Who heals all your diseases;
Who redeems your life from the pit,
Who crowns you with lovingkindness and compassion;
Who satisfies your years with good things,
So that your youth is renewed like the eagle. Psalm 103:1-5

Sometimes it’s easy to forget how good God’s been to you when you feel surrounded by nothing but loss, sorrow, gloom, doom and despair. David was surrounded by evil just as we are today, but it was a decision of his to constantly remind himself of the goodness and faithfulness of God.

So I began to write some of the same benefits this morning. There are those things we deem basic necessities like a home, car, furniture, food, electricity and running water. Not everyone has these things. I have lived without each one of these and I’m so grateful to have them.  How about a bank account? Or here are some promises of God that we forget at times, health, peace, joy, love of family, a great church, the simple freedom to worship at all. The list went on and on until I was overcome with awe at the abundant life I have.

To focus on the plenty instead of the lack changes everything. The battle wages around us but we remain stable in His arms. Perhaps that’s why I love to read the Psalms so much. David spoke of his enemies, but he always reminded himself to trust in a trustworthy and mighty God.

Where’s your focus today? You have a choice just as David did. You can focus on the lack of money or the money you have. You can look at it as a tiny seed that will produce much or you can look at it as not enough and blow it. You can focus on what you need or what you have. Be a whiner or a winner. Murmur and complain or be thankful and happy.

Lord, in my place of weakness and need, I ask again: Will you come and help me? I know I’m always in your thoughts. You are my true Savior and hero, so don’t delay to deliver me now, for you are my God. Psalm 40:17 TPT

So much in my heart this morning. Sometimes when we struggle with something that seems so huge, we tend to wrap ourselves around it so there’s no room in our hands for anything else. In my quiet place, I was reminded that I can’t hold on to His hand while mine are full. Hope this encourages someone today.

I hear the Lord saying to me, ‘Let go of whats in your hands and lift them to me. Don’t allow this thing to occupy the place only I have rights to. Give me access by praising me. Lift up my name! This is not the time to be weary but to rejoice. You weren’t meant to carry this load but I can’t pick it up until you lay it down.‘

Ok God, I hear you loud and clear. I lay it in Your capable hands and hear You say, ‘I’ve got this!‘ Now for the easy part, worshipping and loving on You. Now that my hands are empty I can hold Your hand as You lead me to our secret place. Such peace I’ve found in You. I love you Lord.