I pray your day is what you expect it to be. I expect to be productive, full of wisdom and favor. I expect raises, bonuses and checks in the mail. I expect protection from my enemies. I expect to walk in healing and prosperity, that everything I put my hands to prospers.
There’s a song racing through my mind right now. One I sing often: I Expect A Miracle, everyday! God will make a way, out of no way! Just believe and receive it, God will perform it today, hey, hey! Just believe and receive it, God will perform it today.
Romans 8:18-21 MSG says; That’s why I don’t think there’s any comparison between the present hard times and the coming good times. The created world itself can hardly wait for what’s coming next. Everything in creation is being more or less held back. God reins it in until both creation and all the creatures are ready and can be released at the same moment into the glorious times ahead. Meanwhile, the joyful anticipation deepens.
I hope you’re expecting great things as well. You must change your expectations to change your outcome. Hope you have a great weekend enjoying the good things of the Lord.
I was reminded again today that God cannot direct your steps if you are not moving. Sometimes the voice of God is merely an impression, something that repeatedly comes in your purview. And as you take a step you get clear direction as to the next step. Rarely have I gotten a clear picture of the entire outcome until I took several steps in the direction God was leading me.
You see faith is built one step at a time. It’s not faith in your ability, but it’s faith in God’s ability.
In Psalm 37 the scripture says that the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord and he takes great delight in the plans He has for him. That in itself takes trust. You don’t know everything and if you did you could do it yourself. God wants you to trust in him!
If you knew ahead of time where you were going and what you were going to be doing you would formulate your own plan and get there your own way. That’s not how God works people! God wants you to rely on Him.
When God led Moses into the wilderness, he took one step after another until he ended at the Red Sea. Even though it looked like the end of it, God opened the Red Sea and made a way across. So what may look like you took the wrong way, just rest in the knowledge that God has a plan and a purpose for what you think might be a dead end.
My friend, if you are stuck in a place where you feel there’s no going forward or backward, this is the time to spend time with Him, seeking His face and enjoying His presence. Wait upon the Lord. Rest in His promises. He who began a good work in you is faithful to complete it.
For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Jeremiah 29:11
How do you know it’s God? I’ve asked this question and had it asked of me many, many times and this is what I’ve personally discovered. If it’s God, you can’t rationalize it, figure it out or make sense of it. It will be birthed through prayer and the Word and will come in a quiet moment with Him.
It will seem totally impossible and nothing you can do in yourself. It won’t be anything you’re ‘gifted’ for. It’s usually so far outside your comfort zone that you need a bus to get there and the countryside is scary. If you make the mistake of sharing it with anyone that is not ‘way out there in the faith zone’, they will laugh and tell you you’re crazy, God doesn’t work like that!
Don’t try to make it happen, Gods just letting you in on a part of His ginorous plan. Call it an advance warning that your life’s about to be flipped upside down in a big way. Think of yourself as Gideon; the least of all his family, totally unqualified but called to do something great that you won’t have to really do anything but walk in faith, believe and trust in a God that you can’t see.
Sounds easy, right? It’s all messed up! Over the span of time when you hear the call and the implementation of the plan, you will be on the most amazing journey of your life. You will get multiple prophetic words from various people you don’t know and who have no idea what God has told you. You will go through things and wonder if you heard right.
By the time you reach your destination, you’ll be bruised, busted and disgusted with a faith in God that you’ve never had before in your life. You will no longer care about what people think, what they say won’t faze you. You’ll have a resolve to keep your eyes on Jesus for as Paul said in Philippians 1:6 CEV “God is the one who began this good work in you, and I am certain that he won’t stop before it is complete on the day that Christ Jesus returns.”
Everything you go through is just part of the process, bringing you out of faith in you, to faith in God. Be of good cheer, my friend. You heard right! Don’t you worry bout a thing. Just don’t give that another thought. Suffice it to know that you’re a part of His plan. Make yourself available for any and all He has for you along the way. It’s part of the process to grow you into the person he needs you to be to accomplish his purpose.
“You’re thinking too small!” Thats what the Lord spoke to me as we drove home from church one Sunday. I asked for a point of reference and He directed me to look around me. So I looked all around me and again I heard, “You’re thinking too small!”
Even in seeing the natural realm, all that God created is enough to blow my mind. That same God was telling me I was thinking too small. Wait, there’s more? I asked that He open the eyes of my understanding and help me to see what he was trying to show me. Suddenly I knew it wasn’t what I saw in the natural that he was referring to, it was what I saw in the Spirit realm. Things I don’t yet see will be.
Isaiah 55:8-11 CEV says: “The Lord says: “My thoughts and my ways are not like yours. Just as the heavens are higher than the earth, my thoughts and my ways are higher than yours. Rain and snow fall from the sky. But they don’t return without watering the earth that produces seeds to plant and grain to eat. That’s how it is with my words. They don’t return to me without doing everything I send them to do.”
It’s my capacity to create that I wasn’t thinking. I was made in the image and likeness of God and I need to think like God does and not allow the smallness of my natural view to stunt me from all God has for me.
Like Elisha, I need to see the fiery angel chariots on the hills of deliverance rather than the natural enemies that surround me. I need to see my debt canceled, my body whole, all my needs met with plenty more to put in store. I need to expand my thinking to be more like my Father’s, that nothing is impossible for me, because Christ is in me!
Father, I trade my eye sight for yours. I trade my vantage point for yours. You are indeed higher and mightier than anything that I face in the natural. Everything I need is in your Word and I will focus on what is in your realm and not mine.
I trade my words for your Words, for they are life and health to me. Others may not understand me, but I seek to please you by becoming more and more like you each day. You’ve called me to come up higher, to leave the world behind, so I come. Into your arms, I come. Into your Word, I come. Into your deep and everlasting love, I come. In your grace I will make my home. Make me more like you.
“The good man from his inner good treasure flings forth good things, and the evil man out of his inner evil storehouse flings forth evil things. But I tell you, on the day of judgment men will have to give account for every idle (inoperative, nonworking) word they speak. For by your words you will be justified and acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned and sentenced.” Matthew 12:35-37 Amplified
I recently heard a message on this and thought I’d share my take on it. If you have a bank account, the only thing you can put in it is money, right? You keep putting money in, you can keep taking money out. You can’t take love out of a bank account. You can’t take food out of a bank account. You can take money out and buy food, but you can only take out what you have put in.
Well, anyone who puts good things in their heart and mind will be able to withdraw good things and speak into others out of that treasure, but if you have deposited nothing into the account, you can’t withdraw from my account, her account or his account without having access to it. Am I right?
Ok, when we accepted Jesus as Lord of our lives, He gave us access to everything in His account and it’s accessed through His Word by speaking it and trusting in the Word, knowing that it absolutely cannot return empty but does what it’s sent forth to do. That’s right. His Word is our withdrawal slip. He’s provided everything we need for life and godliness and it’s all in the account of His Word.
We can’t be speaking things opposite of Gods Word and expect to receive what was purchased for us by the blood of His Son. We can’t be loose lipped and say whatever we feel like saying and think there are not consequences, namely, getting what we speak. From the very beginning of time, God spoke and created. We were made in His image and likeness and yet we think we won’t get what we say?
I remember as a child getting my mouth washed out with soap for speaking an untruth or lie. It was to teach me that there are consequences to the things I say. Some of us need our mouths washed out with soap! We need to wash out our minds (by washing it with the Word Eph 5:26) and cast down thoughts that are contrary to the Word (II Corinth 2:5) so that we can begin to trust in the only one who has never broken His promises to us. It’s never too late to begin to make right deposits based on faith, not feelings.
So here’s what I’ve learned through it all: Leave all your cares and anxieties at the feet of the Lord, and measureless grace will strengthen you. Psalm 55:22 TPT
And just what is grace? That would be the undeserved or unmerited favor of God. It’s basically something you can’t earn, but something He gives. And David states that it will strengthen you. Well I don’t know about you, but I could use some of that today!
Not long ago, Walt went into the hospital to check on a mass they found located in his pancreas. It was totally unexpected, and by the time we got an appointment to get it checked out, he had developed croup, which threw him into congestive heart failure which also affected his liver and kidneys. Three short days after being admitted to the hospital, I was told that I needed to check into Hospice, as they didn’t think he would recover.
That night, I went home and cried all night long. I felt as if someone had punched me in the gut. I suppose looking back, I was in shock. I mean, who wouldn’t be? I grieved all night, but just before dawn I said, “Father, You’ve give me 45 years with this gift of a husband. I’m thankful. Whatever Your plan is, I release Him into it. I can’t change Your plans, or even hope to change Your mind. Thank You for the grace to get me through this. I’m not giving up or giving in, I’m giving him over to You. You’re the only one I trust with this husband of mine.”
Just before dawn, I heard the Lord speak, “Get up, take your tablet into his room, shut the door and worship me.” So I did. I did it through my tears. I did it because He asked. I just worshipped. It wasn’t long before nurses came in, commenting on how that song had brought them through a trial. One nurse came in and sat at the end of her shift, pulled up a stool and took my hand and asked me about our marriage. I ended up encouraging her in her relationship.
The next day, I went up and Walt was sitting up in bed, awake, aware and changed. The doctors were all encouraged and couldn’t believe the what a difference a day made. Two weeks in the hospital, two more weeks in rehab and he came home. Off most of his meds, weakened by the ordeal, but stronger each day.
We just received the lab report on the endoscopy they did on his pancreas. It was a benign cyst, nothing more we need to do.
Guess who’s thankful? Me! Why, because as I surrendered my tenuous hold on trying to control an uncontrollable situation, I discovered that that was all He wanted.
Do you remember the old hymn, “Leave it there, leave it there, take your burdens to the Lord and leave it there. If you’ll trust and never doubt, He will surely bring you out. Take your burdens to the Lord and leave it there.”
It’s been a hard 2 years, but we’re still married, still here, still encouraging others and most of all, we’ve increased greatly in our trust in His promises. Regardless if it makes sense or not, regardless of what it looks like in the natural.
“My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:8-9
I’ve always been a positive person, but even at my best, I don’t come close to how God thinks. The only way I can come close is to know Him, speak His Word and believe His Word. I challenge you as my mentor challenged me: Constantly familiarize you with His Word!
Belly up to the table of the Lord and feast on His Word until you’re so full it spills over into your home, your job, your world. Only the hungry will taste and be full.
As you sit this morning in the presence of the Lord remember this; what you prepare in the kitchen causes hunger in those around you. You emit a fragrance that draws the world to Jesus.
Father, may that fragrance be sweet in my life today. May I help affect change around me by being like You. It’s in Jesus name I pray, amen.
“You thrill me, Lord, with all you have done for me! I sing for joy because of what you have done.” Psalms 92:4
David sure did love the Lord. He lived in a perpetual state of worship and thankfulness, even when he cried out for help or bashed his enemies, he always remembered the faithfulness of God.
We could learn a lot from David, you and I. To apply the love and devotion to the same God who called him, “The apple of my eye, a man after my heart.” I really want to chase God like that, to tell Him, “You thrill me, Lord! You take my breath away every time I think of You and speak Your name.”
If I want Gods attention, I must commune with Him daily and be thankful. I’d rather recount Gods goodness than think that this problem will never go away. Like David, I will grab a piece of paper and start writing down things God has done for me. Before I’m done, I’ll be shouting out, “YOU THRILL ME, LORD, WITH ALL YOU HAVE DONE FOR ME!”
Remember this as you go through your weekend: Psalms 121:7-8 “The Lord keeps you from all harm and watches over your life. The Lord keeps watch over you as you come and go, both now and forever.”
Have you ever been in a battle that you just knew you weren’t going to win? The fear, frustration and anger at the unfairness of it all comes over you like a flood. All the accusations, all the drama, all the pain is overwhelming, isn’t it?
It’s almost worse when we watch our spouse or children be wrongfully accused. It makes me want to go all ‘postal’ on the attacker!
I was thinking that it must have been how the Father felt when he watched his Son be wrongfully accused, spit on, then suddenly I realized that’s not how He felt at all. He knew the end result. It was a part of a bigger plan that He saw outside of time.
Isaiah 26: 3-4 gives us the key, “You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You. Trust in the Lord forever, for in YAH, the Lord, is everlasting strength.” There it is, the place of perfect peace is a place of trust.
Have you ever done the ‘trust fall’? You know, when you fall backward into the arms of people who catch you? Yeah, me neither! Well, that’s what God is asking us to do; do the trust fall. Fall into His arms of love and trust Him. He knows how it’s going to turn out.
Do you trust Him? Even when it looks really bad? Even when you have to stand there and take all that, do you trust Him? When you get fired, do you trust him? When you lose your house, do you trust Him? When it looks like they’ve won, do you trust Him? I believe that when things are at their worst, the rescue looks the best. When things are at their lowest, the arm of the Lord is outstretched.
Remember when Elisha was surrounded by the army and he wasn’t stressed a bit by it, but his servant was freaking out? Elisha asked the Lord to open his eyes and he saw the chariots of the Lord surrounding them. The battle isn’t ours, it’s Gods. Stop trying to fight this battle, rest in His peace and presence and trust in the Lord. When you are in the secret place of the Most High God (Ps 91), thats when He will show you His salvation.
It’s a habit we all must develop if we’re to be a light in this very dark world. Find your hiding place and stay there till the storm passes. Trust that He’s big enough to take care of this and you.
The Lord says, “I will rescue those who love me. I will protect those who trust in my name. When they call on me, I will answer; I will be with them in trouble. I will rescue and honor them. I will reward them with a long life and give them my salvation.” Psalms 91:14-16 NLT
Do you love the Lord? He will rescue you! Do you trust the Lord? He will protect you! Have you called on Him? He will answer you! Are you in trouble? He will be with you to rescue & treat you as his most prized possession.
Long life is yours, not just enough! He will show you His salvation. What does He save you from? Not just sin, but from lack, sickness, disease, trouble, fear, your enemies, worry, distress, did I mention EVERYTHING? He is your rock, your fortress, deliverer, shelter and the mighty God who saves. There is none like Him in all the earth, but lets not stop there.
There is none like Him in the heavens, the galaxies or the earth. No problem is too big for Him, no mountain to high, no valley too low. So awesome in greatness and power yet He cares so much about us that He never even misses our worship. He scoops it up and smiles.
He would do anything for you. Oh wait, did I mention how much He loves you? Just think on this for the day! Especially when things go contrary to what we’re believing for. God is not deaf! He has a plan and He’s working in your situations right now. You just have to trust Him.
remnantposts by sandy gregory 