Ps 37:25-26 “Once I was young and now I am old. Yet I have never seen the godly forsaken, nor seen their children begging for bread. The godly always give generous loans to others and their children are a blessing.”

Thinking of this verse and seeing my girls, Stacy Gregory Holmes and Shannon Gregory, and the blessing they are to others, its just a testament to the Word of God. Being givers has many advantages, not just givers of money, but givers of ourselves. You can’t sow into the Kingdom and not reap back 100 fold in your lifetime.

I’m glad Walt and I instilled this virtue in our children. Being conscious of others needs over our own is just one way of giving generous loans. There’s more going on around us if we would just tune into it. One of the greatest tricks of the enemy is to get us so self focused in our sickness or need, that we lose sight of those around us who need what is in us. If that’s where you find yourself, it’s time to take a good long look around you and ask the Lord, “What can I do for you today?”

I’m thankful! I’m not perfect, but God takes my imperfections and covers them with the blood of his precious Son. He takes my many seeds and turns them to his advantage to build his Kingdom on the earth. To be a part of something so great is worth getting up every morning and getting His direction on my day. He will never leave me alone.

Thank you for your faithfulness, Lord. My life is yours, do with me as you please today. May I add value to the lives I touch and may YOU receive all the glory.

I Peter 2:21-25 Msg; This is the kind of life you’ve been invited into, the kind of life Christ lived. He suffered everything that came his way so you would know that it could be done, and also know how to do it, step-by-step.

I was speaking to my friend last night about signs, wonders and miracles, how close we are to seeing them manifested and the Holy Spirit gave me this verse: Deut 30:14-“But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your mind and in your heart, so that you can do it.”

We have the Word in us, we must speak it. His Word is alive, powerful, but kept in containers not made with hands, thats us! We must open our mouths and declare that blind eyes are open, deaf ears hear, dead rise. If we truly believe what we read, we will tell it and trust God to watch over his Word to do it.

If you had a disease with no cure and came to me, would you want my sympathy or the Word in me that heals? What brought the crowds to Jesus? I’m thinking, thinking, oh yeah, the WORD to heal. The Word to deliver. The same power that raised Christ from the dead is in us via the Holy Spirit. He doesn’t want to just live in us to make us feel good, He has a purpose, to give us power over all the power of the enemy. So in the words of Jesus: Go! Do! Look for those in need and meet that need!

Have you ever had a ‘wow’ moment? You know, something happens that’s totally unexpected that just blows your mind. Well, I feel like that is what God’s getting ready to do. He wants to wow us. If you’re at your lowest point, scraping the bottom of the barrel, needing a breakthrough miracle like never before in your life, you’re right at the place where God can wow you.

You see, if you were able to do it, you wouldn’t need the intervention of God so that’s why I say, He has you where He needs you to be, so that there’s no way on earth anyone will get glory but Him. Are you ready for some encouragement this morning?

II Kings 4 tells a story of a widow who was deep in debt and about to lose her boys. The prophet showed up and asked her, “What can I do to help you?” Elisha asked. “Tell me, what do you have in the house?” “Nothing at all, except a flask of olive oil,” she replied. So he instructs her to gather as many empty vessels as she can get, borrow from neighbors (who she probably owed already), shut yourself up in the house and begin to pour from your flask of oil until they’re all filled. So she did.

Verse 6 says, Now it came to pass, when the vessels were full, that she said to her son, “Bring me another vessel.” And he said to her, “There is not another vessel.” So the oil ceased. She obeyed and got paid. Not only was there enough to sustain them, she had enough to pay off all her debts.

What would have happened had she over thought the command? Reasoned out the impossibility of THAT ever happening. How many of us, because we just can’t ‘see’ how that could ever happen, have talked ourselves out of our greatest miracle? Listen, I firmly believe that if we would simply spend time in Gods presence, listen and obey even when it makes no sense, not only would we see breakthrough for us, but we’d position ourselves to be part of breakthrough for others. I have no problem looking foolish, acting foolish or being foolish if it will bring glory to His Kingdom. I’m ready for a wow day!

Father, in my lack and insufficiency, I bring my vessel to You. I ask that You fill me with Your Holy Spirit so that I may be positioned to be a deliverer for someone else. More of You, less of me. May the signs, wonders and miracles be seen through my life, my hands. May I carry out the great commission today and be more focused on You than me. It’s in Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.

Which do you believe you are? Powerful or powerless? If you’re a believer in Jesus Christ and have received the Holy Spirit who he sent to you, you are powerful. But you can have all the power in you and not know how to use it and it will do you no good.

When you pay your power bill, the electric company gives you the power you need in your home to operate all your appliances and lights, but if you don’t plug in your appliances, they won’t work. Why? Because you’ve not accessed that power. If you want your lights on in your bedroom, you have to flip the switch to turn on the light. You can’t walk into the room and call the power company, asking them to turn on your light. They’ve done their job. Power is in your home, you just have to use it.

We have also been given power when the Holy Ghost came on us, we just need to flip the switch, to plug into that power. How do we do that? Well, let’s read the Word and find out. Mark 16:15-18; And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.  He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.  And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues;  they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”

That’s pretty plain. So as believers, why aren’t we laying hands on the sick? Fear? Unbelief? If we truly believe in the power that lies inside of us, we wouldn’t hesitate! When we see a person in pain, blind or lame, we would simply walk up to them and ask them, “Do you want to be well?” Then proceed to lay hands on them in obedience to that Word.

There’s nothing wrong with the power, God’s already provided that! The problem is in flipping the switch. We must believe that He is, and that He is the rewarder of them who diligently seek Him. He’s not going to tell us to do something and leave us hanging. The power is in our words, it’s in agreeing with His Word. It’s in knowing who we belong to and that we’re made in His image and likeness. We represent Jesus in the earth. His sacrifice made available everything we’ll ever need in life, we just have to use it.

Father, I thank You for the power You’ve given me. Help me to use it, daily. May the sacrifice of Your son not be wasted, but used daily in my everyday lives. Power over sickness and disease, power over debt, power over all the power of the enemy. It’s in Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.

If you want to stop repeating what you’ve always done, you must filter what you focus on. If your focus is on what you’re going through and it consumes your time and attention, than what you’re going through will never stop.

Focus on Jesus, glance at the problem. That is what the Holy Spirit showed me years ago, and trust me when I say, I didn’t get it right away. Today, as I read about the mass shootings going on and how much hate there is for police, I heard it again. Focus on Jesus, glance at the problem. WHY? Because when you’re consumed with the problem, the solution may be right in front of your face, but you’ll never see it because you’re not looking.

Moses took a whole lot of people out of Egypt and when they arrived at the Red Sea, that’s all they could see. They turned on Moses and asked if he had brought them out to die? But Moses chose to focus on God. He told him to raise his staff and the Sea split so that they all walked across on dry ground.

What problem are you facing today? Is it consuming your view? It doesn’t matter what it is, if it’s consuming your view, your time and attention, it’s too big! Since it’s too big and you can’t handle it, deliver yourself or heal yourself, why not look to God and ask Him to take care of it for you? Why not? What do you have to lose?

What you’re doing now isn’t working, so let’s try this; Focus on Jesus! He set the example by only doing what He saw the Father do. John 5:19, Then Jesus answered and said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner.”

So Jesus was only able to do what He did because He watched and listened to the Father. If we are to do greater things than He did, we must also keep our focus on Him and not allow the ways of the world and the things of the world to draw our focus off Him. He warned us that these things would happen, but said we are not to be like the world, we are to be love and allow the light in us to dispel the darkness.

Father, I thank you for watching over us and keeping us, whose minds are fixed on you. All these distractions are just that, and I can’t afford to lose sight of you, not for one minute. I don’t want to allow anything to cloud my vision of You. If I can’t look at others and see Your face, I will never see the good in them and the reason you gave Your son for them. Today, Lord, I choose to focus on You, Your love and Your ability to keep what I’ve committed to You. It’s in Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.

2 Corinthians 9:10-11, “Now may He who supplies seed to the sower, and bread for food, supply and multiply the seed you have sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness, while you are enriched in everything for all liberality, which causes thanksgiving through us to God.”

What causes thanksgiving through us to God? Increase. When do you give thanksgiving? When you receive the seed. It’s thanksgiving that gives the increase because God loves a cheerful giver (2 Corinthians 9:7).

So what happens when your seed isn’t enough? You sow more seed. Because what isn’t enough will soon produce more than enough. Need an example? Let’s go to Matthew 14 and look at the time Jesus asked the disciples to feed the multitude. All they could find was a 5 loaf, 2 fish dinner a young boy had brought with him. Look at verse 19; Then He (Jesus) commanded the multitudes to sit down on the grass. And He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, He blessed and broke and gave the loaves to the disciples; and the disciples gave to the multitudes.

Jesus gave thanks to the Father for the seed, blessed and multiplied it right there in front of their eyes. He took their ‘not enough’ and turned it into ‘more than enough’. Now you do remember that Jesus said we would do “greater things than this”, right? So if you apply this principle to your seed, giving thanks and blessing it, as you give it away or sow it into good soil, God WILL multiply it. The fertilizer to every seed is thanksgiving.

Father, thank you for always providing me with seed. I thank you that you are the God of more than enough. You take my little and make it big. You provide seed so that we can help others, not so that we alone will have enough. It’s always been about others and taking care of Your Kingdom. So Father, thank you! Thank you for what the blood of Jesus redeemed me from and the power and authority He gave because of it. I honor His sacrifice by doing what He said for me to do-give. He said give and it shall be given, for the measure I use to give will be used to bring back the blessing. I won’t use a spoon when I have a dump truck sitting in my yard.  Thank you for multiplication. Only You can do that kind of math. It’s in Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.

I John 4:7-12

“Dear friends, we should love each other, because love comes from God. Everyone who loves has become God’s child. And so everyone who loves knows God.  Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.  This is how God showed his love to us: He sent his only Son into the world to give us life through him.  True love is God’s love for us, not our love for God. He sent his Son as the way to take away our sins.

“That is how much God loved us, dear friends! So we also must love each other.  No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us. If we love each other, God’s love has reached its goal—it is made perfect in us.”

We are commanded to love. It not a suggestion that was based on a feeling, it was an order and a way of life. You don’t fall in love and fall out of love. Love is a choice and you must choose to walk in it every day. It’s not just to love nice people. It’s to love ALL people. Every race, every tribe, everyone.

John 3:16 says that God loved the whole world so much, that He gave His one and only son as a sacrifice so that the world, through Him might be saved. He didn’t just die for the ones who would love Him. He died for everyone. Short and tall, rich and poor, black and white, man and woman, He wanted everyone to have a chance to know Him and the love He has for them.

Once you believe in Him and receive His love, the only way the love in you will mature and grow is if you practice giving it away. The more you give, the more it flows through you, the more people are affected by the Love of God that is in you. You can’t even contain that kind of flow. It’s like a mighty rushing river that gives life to everything it touches.

It’s love that will change our world. It’s not a new president, world peace or anything else. Only love, given freely, will change the world and only if we, the body of Christ, so emanate that unconditional love that it changes those around each of us. The only miracle we need is the miracle of God’s transforming love.

Father, I want to show that kind of love. I fall short of it so many times. Please give me Your heart for people. You see us, fallen man, through the blood of Your own Son, that’s why You love us so. Give us a revival of love. May it freely flow through us today in our homes, our work places, our families, our friends and our enemies. It’s in Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.

Psalm 138:8, The Lord will perfect that which concerns me; Your mercy and loving-kindness, O Lord, endure forever—forsake not the works of Your own hands.

What a beautiful thought this morning, that the Lord will perfect what concerns me. Listen to how dictionary.com defines the word perfect; exactly fitting the need in a certain situation or for a certain purpose: entirely without any flaws, defects, or shortcomings: accurate, exact, or correct in every detail.

Have you ever tried on a pair of shoes that were a ‘perfect fit’? It’s like walking on a cloud! You don’t even look at the price, you just take them up to the counter and buy them! Why? Because it’s like they were hand made just for your feet. Am I right?

That’s what God does. He custom fits us with mercy and loving-kindness. He isn’t a distant God! He gets involved to plan every detail so that we can enjoy life to the full, till it overflows. When He said He would never leave us or forsake us, He was adamant about it. He loves it when we rely on Him, trust in Him and turn our cares over to Him. He loves to surprise us with little things, and when we stop to thank Him, He lavishes more love on us that shows up in so many different ways.

He is perfect and so are His ways. So next time you’re tempted to worry, doubt, grumble or complain, remember that God is God! Unchangeable. He’s working it out so give it time. You may be on a deadline, but God is faithful. Get your expectation level up. Turn up your praise volume. Don’t think so small. Gods not poor, He’s rich and you are His heir.

Thank you Father for your constant care. You amaze me! With all the people in the world vying for Your attention, You never miss a word I speak. Your ear is always tuned into my voice and You especially work out every little detail of my day. I love that! I love being Your own special treasure, made by Your hand. How can I not trust in You? How can I not praise You? How can I not want to have relationship with You? You are my everything and all I am or will ever be, You knew before I was even made. Have a great day, Lord. I love you!

It is so easy to look around and focus on what we see in the natural, but so difficult to train ourselves to focus on what we see in the spiritual realm. To allow our spirit eyes to dominate our physical eyes, deepens our trust in God and His Word. We begin to see that everything unseen affects or changes everything that is seen.

If we only say what we see, we’re stating the obvious. But those who allow God to show them what can be, and speak it out, they are calling into existence. When the Spirit of God attaches to the creative words you speak, nothing will be impossible to those who believe. Jesus said it in Mark 11:22-23 Amp; “Have faith in God [constantly]. I assure you and most solemnly say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea!’ and does not doubt in his heart [in God’s unlimited power], but believes that what he says is going to take place, it will be done for him [in accordance with God’s will].”

2 Corinthians 4:13 says; Yet we have the same spirit of faith as he had, who wrote in Scripture, “I believed, therefore I spoke.” We also believe, therefore we also speak,

We must believe what we say. We can say things till we’re blue in the face, but unless we believe it, we won’t have it. I believe healing is the will of God because God made provision for it. All throughout the Word, He calls himself the God who heals. Because it is Gods will for me to walk in healing, when I take communion, I remind my body that the beating Jesus took on his back was so that I could walk in health. I thank him for complete healing, spirit, soul and body. I rejoice in His victory over death, hell and the grave. He didn’t do it for one or two, He did it for ALL who would believe on Him. I speak to my body, “Line up with the Word of God! You are His child and every promise belongs to you so walk in it!”

The enemy WILL come to try to steal the Word from your heart. He will NOT lay down gracefully and let you have what you believe. It’s called spiritual warfare for a reason. But the bible says to resist him and he will flee, or run away in terror. So while you’re resisting, praise God. Get on your crazy praise shoes and let him know you’re not going to let loose of your promises. Just like a child hanging on to their toy while you try to pry it from their hands!

Father, I thank you that Your Word is alive, powerful and productive. It produces what You sent it into the earth to do. You are my healer, provider and protector. I will not worry or fret about what happens around me because You are with me wherever I go. It’s by grace that You’ve saved me and it’s by grace that You’ve healed me. I believe I will trust in You. It’s in Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.