Walking In The Desert With The Lord

 Deuteronomy 2:7

For the Lord your God has blessed you in all the work of your hands. He knows your going through this great wilderness. These forty years the Lord your God has been with you. You have lacked nothing…

Are you wandering through the desert right now? 

You heard from the Lord, you are sure that you did, but nothing in your life seems any different from the day that God called you to your work in life. You are wondering, why is there such a large delay in your development?

God has a plan for you, but it will take some time to develop your character and your heart. He wants the best for you, but He knows that you need your character to be stretched and that  your heart needs to be cleansed. Experience is always the best teacher.

Are you a bible reader? Have you noticed that God uses ordinary people to do extraordinary things?. God allowed His chosen people, the Hebrews to walk and live in the desert for 40 years before He allowed them to live in the promised land. The Lord guided  Moses into the desert to live there for 40 years before he led the Hebrews from their captivity in Egypt. Joseph became the second most powerful ruler in Egypt. Before he was elevated to that position, God gave Joseph a dream and a purpose for his life that was not fulfilled until many years later when he was able to do the job that God had impressed into his heart.. 

Joseph was sold into slavery by his jealous brothers. He went to jail as an innocent person, convicted of a crime that he did not commit, and then one day his whole life changed. He became a powerful leader, second only to the Pharaoh in Egypt. It never says that Joseph became bitter for all of the trials and tribulations that he went through before God released him into his destiny. How did God keep Joseph from becoming a bitter man while dealing with all of his hardships?

When you follow the promptings of the Holy Spirit, the Lord will make a way out of no way for you. These years of development may be painful, and you may have days of longing for something else, but the Lord will never leave you or forsake you. Your happiness is important to God, but He has to put you through some times of hardship and testing to refine your character and to cleanse your heart and soul. God can do what we cannot do, we have no way of becoming better people without the Holy Spirit  living in our hearts.

It is Jesus living inside of us that guides our path. His love and compassion gives us the ability to live righteously in His presence. We will have peace and contentment in our hearts even in the worst of circumstances. 

How can you tell if a person is really a follower of Jesus Christ? Observe them when they are going through hard times. Do they insist on having their own way, or will they wait on the Lord for their deliverance?

Do they seem calm and even content in a situation that is destroying everyone else around them? Would you tell them about your own problems because you know that they will speak words of comfort to you and offer to pray with you?  You know you need someone who has been through some hard times and has survived it all. God will guide you to the right person to help you.

The secret is Jesus in your heart. Joseph had the Lord with him all of his life. He could not have been the great leader that was needed in that time and place if the Lord was not working through him. Moses became a great leader by living his life for God purposes. The Hebrews became the people of God, and their hardships in the desert taught them how to follow The Lord into the promised land to possess the land that was promised to them. You can become a true follower of Jesus Christ the day that you surrender your life to Him.

Is your life surrendered to Jesus Christ?  If not, you will never know the joy of living in His presence. If you have confessed Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, then you are being led into the wandering place to strengthen and develop your faith. God will never give you what you want until you are ready to receive it. 

Is there a desire in your heart that you know is not a part of God’s will for your life? You need to give him that desire, surrender it right now. The Lord knows what is best for you and for your family. He will never put you in a position where you will be destroyed by something that would destroy someone else. The people around you may never understand why you had to go through what you have been through, but your calling is not their calling, it is yours. Live for the Lord, and the Lord will live your life with you, and He will give you the best desires of your heart…

Prayer of Salvation - If you want Jesus to come into your heart, repeat this prayer:

Dear Jesus, I want to live for you. I repent of all of my sins and I surrender my life to you right now, please come into my heart. Thank you Lord Jesus for my salvation…AMEN

The Kingdom Of God Is All About Love

Matthew chapter 3:2

Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

 There is no greater kingdom than the Kingdom of God. There is no true place of peace except in the arms of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Chirst.

What powers the Kingdom of God? LOVE, that is it. Love is so powerful, that the devil and his demons run in terror from its presence. You may be confronted by evil spirits, or by people influenced by evil spirits, but if you stand in the Name of Jesus, those evil spirits will have to obey the power of His Name. This name has all the power and authority of the Godhead: The Father, The Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Why does God power the entire universe with His love? It is because God is love; love originates from the heart of God. That is who He is, and He will never act out of an abundance of hate. Hate does not exist in the presence of the Lord.

The devil and the Lord Jesus are polar opposites. If you want to live in the light, seek the God who created you. If you want to live only for yourself, then you will dwell in the darkness, and satan and his demons will have the right to  mess with your life  and to destroy you. Hate never engenders life, it will always bring death, and the death that I am referring to is spiritual death. Spirtual death leads to a place of suffering and darkness, forever separated from the God who created you. You need to face the fact that unchecked sin is a road to destruction.

The Kingdom of God manifests in the earth realm as a state of mind and a changed heart. The Holy Spirit comes to live inside every person who accepts Jesus Christ into their hearts. The process of becoming more like Jesus Christ is to allow the word of God and His love to change your mind and your character.

Those who believe in the Lord learn to live righteously in this life and to purify their hearts and minds with the word of God. They are protected by His Love and His Grace, while the devil and his demons tries to destroy our world with hate, pride, and fear.

What can you do to help the world if you become a citizen of the Kingdom of God? First, place your life,  all your hopes and  dreams at the feet of Jesus Christ.  Live for the Lord and not for yourself. Secondly, learn what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ by studying the word of God. The word brings life to those who love the Lord. And Thirdly, obey the promptings of the Holy Spirit and seek the will of the Lord for your life. Because of His love for you, you will be able to live your life for Him. Whatever you have been called to do, it will be enough, because the Lord Jesus has equipped you to do that calling.

When the people of God live their lives for Jesus Christ, everyone else will see the love of the Lord expressed through the actions of the church. The unbelievers will then have no doubt about God’s love for them. Live for the Lord, and be at peace in his presence…

Prayer of Salvation

If you would like to be a citizen of the Kingdom of God, pray this prayer of salvation:

Dear Lord Jesus, I want to know what real love is. I surrender my life to you, I give you all that I am. Please, come into my heart. I repent of all of my sins... AMEN

Prayer of Hope

 Romans 15:13

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Lord God, I pray for the peace of Jerusalem, I pray for hope to spring eternally from the hearts of your people. Your people are the ones who believe in your Son, Jesus Christ. I pray that all that believe in you Jesus receive wisdom to interpret your word in the right way, according to the original meaning that you placed upon them when they were written down by your servants, the prophets.  I pray for deliverance from the evil influence that the devil and his demons have displayed in every area of our culture and our world.

I pray that your people will have a strong desire to read and understand your word, and for them to have a close and personal relationship with your Son, Jesus. This is the only way that they will truly understand His Grace and Mercy over their lives, and to know how much He loves them. 

Lord, I pray that your people rely more and more upon the guidance of the Holy Spirit.  I pray that they will seek His guidance for everyday problems, as well as the big problems, trials and tribulations of everyday life.

My Lord, help them to see the bigger picture,  that what they go through now will bring victory and Glory to your Name. We need to be encouraged by what we gain by being in your kingdom. We need to know that you are always here for us, and that we can give all of our pain, sufferings, fears and anxieties to you, now and forevermore…

Lord, I pray that you will help us settle in our hearts that everything we cannot fix belongs to you.  If we are offended by what others say and do, we will never show those people the love of Christ that exists in our hearts from the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. We must choose not to be offended, and then allow the Holy Spirit to heal our hearts. We must let go of the need for revenge. It is your will that we be humble in your presence,  and to learn how to forgive ourselves and other people.

 These offenders do not know you God, so we must rely on your Grace and Mercy. We are the ones who should act  with kindness and compassion in every circumstance, because we are the only ones who can usher in the presence of God in every situation that You allow in our lives.

Help us Lord to live with your love in our hearts, let your peace reside in every place that we live, work and play.. The joy of the Lord is our strength, so let us be happy and content in your presence. 

Lord, I pray that your people have a strong desire to live for you, to put Your will first in their hearts. I pray for the Fear of God to manifest in all of our lives, so that we may live Holy lives dedicated to You.

 I pray that all believers will have a strong sense of what is right and what is wrong, so that they will have the strength and the authority to bring down strong delusions that try to manifest in our lives and in our communities.

I pray that your people understand that they are citizens of the Kingdom of God, and that our citizenship should be our primary concern - how we live, how we act, how we vote, and how we work should always come from following the One Who Saved Us.  What does the bible say about how we should live our lives? We need to pursue that knowledge and then live it out because of our love for our Lord Jesus Christ.

I pray for those who are suffering in the darkness of oppression and despair that a light be shined into their hearts and that they will come to know the real God that made them and accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. I pray for those who live in the darkness and that thrive in the darkness be reconciled to the God that made them. You alone God can accomplish this.

I pay that hope springs into the hearts of every man, woman and child in the whole world, that everyone comes to the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, who was born long ago in a little town called Bethlehem, our God dressed in human flesh, who came to show us what God was like and to save us from all of our sins. I pray that His love would pour generously upon every land, nation and island, and that His love will change all of their hearts forevermore.

Let not one person say that they never knew that there was a God, let every heart be pierced by the love of Jesus Christ. Let every man and woman know what the peace of God is like, so that they may make a decision, to live for God or for themselves. I pray that every person knows what it is like to be in the comforting presence of a loving and caring God.

Let no man be able to say that He never ever experienced a season of love while they lived on the earth. Let it be so,,,, In Jesus Name,  AMEN

Your Relief Is In Jesus Christ

Job chapter 27 1-5

  Job continued his speech.

This is my promise:   I promise to God, because he lives. He is still my God, although he has not been fair to me. And he is my provider, although he has caused me to suffer.   My promise will last for my whole life. My promise will continue while God allows me to breathe.  I shall always speak the truth. I promise not to lie.

     

 My friends, I could never agree with your speeches. I must prove that I am innocent. And I will continue until I die.  I have chosen to do the right things. And I will continue to do the right things. For my whole life, my conscience will not upset me.

Have you ever done something so difficult that you were not sure that you would accomplish your goal? How did you feel when you finished it? Were you happy or surprised when you realized that everything was done and that you were able to finish what you started? 

God is never surprised about the outcomes of His work. He always knows ahead of time what the outcome will be, and that is why He is able to succeed in everything that He does, but we cannot see every outcome in every situation. We must have faith that God knows what He is doing  when He asks us to do things that seem impossible or even foolish to us. God has no limitations, so we must never try to set our own limitations upon The Lord Jesus Christ and upon His word.

Job was quite certain that He was innocent of all the charges that his friends were speaking against him, and he had no way of proving his innocence to them. He realised that he had to depend upon the Lord because he knew that God was the only one who knew the truth.

He never gave up on God, because he knew that God would never give up on him. It is so easy to lose your faith when you focus upon the problem and not upon the solution. You may have a serious problem, and everyone around you may give you their view of why you are suffering, but the Lord will never put you in a situation that you cannot handle.

If the Lord allows suffering in your life, that is when you must keep praying  and stand firmly upon  His word. God has provided for all of your needs, but you must be willing to let Him do what you cannot do; His love, grace and mercy will be enough to help you survive…

Prayer From a Deep Place

Job Chapter 17: 1-2,6-7

My spirit suffers. My life is short. Soon, I must die.  Everybody insults me. And I watch their cruel actions.

 When people curse, they use my name. They spit at me. (That is, they splash me with water from their mouths.)  My eyes are weak because of my tears. My whole body seems as weak as a shadow...

 Going through a time of suffering does not mean that you are being punished because you did something that was bad. God allows suffering into our lives for a reason, and the reasons are usually not the same for everyone and in every situation. Your response to hardship will never be the same as my response to my own issues. You can ask the Lord why these things are happening to you and if there is a purpose for your suffering.

In the scriptures, Job was a good and faithful servant, He loved God and saw God as his friend. God blessed Job so much that He gave Job wealth and a huge family,  but it seems that he was the only one in his family that believed in God with all of his heart.

Job tried to cover his family with prayer and with sacrifices to God  on their behalf to cover their sins. Job’s careful devotion to God and his family made him a target by the devil. Job lost everything in a blink of an eye, and he suffered a lot because satan wanted to destroy him.  The Lord did not allow the devil to take his life,  but why did God allow the devil to do these things to Job?

You are right now asking, why God, why? You lost someone, or perhaps you lost a business. You are ill, and the doctors don’t know if they can save you. Your family abandoned you or you never had anyone truly love you. Are you rich or poor? It doesn’t matter, because pain and suffering comes to everyone’s door; evil never discriminates when it decides to wreak havoc upon the lives of all the people in this world.

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Many people live in a state of fear and despair in their hearts, yet they would never let you know what is truly going on in their lives. They pretend to be just fine, but if they were brave enough to confess what they are going through, they would tell you that money and power does nothing to calm the confusion and the anxiety that they live with every single day…

God allowed the devil to do what he did to Job  to demonstrate that Job would never turn away from the Lord. He wanted to show the devil that Job’s devotion to him was not based upon wealth or power. Job was a genuine son of God. When you believe in Jesus Christ, you show the world that you care about what God cares about, and that you are willing to  live your life for Him.

Living for God means that we will also be targeted by the devil and his demons, because of their hatred of the people of God. Really, no one is exempt from being targeted, believers and unbelievers alike. Those who believe only in themselves may not want to believe in God or the devil, but when trouble comes into their lives, they find out very quickly that they must change their worldview, or find a way outside of the grace and the compassion of the Lord to cope with their suffering and anxiety.

Why are you suffering? I don’t know, but I do know that the Lord is waiting for you to come to Him to find a solution to your problems. He wants you to come to Him sincerely, in faith and with no ulterior motives; just surrender your pain, your needs, and your heart to Jesus. If you want to know the Lord Jesus for yourself, this is the first step to victory in your life and reconciliation with the Lord.

Prayer of Salvation or Restoration:

Lord Jesus, I can't go on like this anymore. please help me, I surrender my heart and my life to you. please come into my life and restore my hope, my health, and my faith in you. I repent from my past ways, and give my life to you. Thank you Jesus for restoring my life and healing my soul....AMEN

Why Christmas Means So Much To Me

 Isaiah 7:14

"The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call his name Immanuel". This prophecy was fulfilled when the angel Gabriel visited Mary

It is not about the exact date or time of Jesus’s birth, it is not about the parties and the time off from work. It is not about the money to be spent to celebrate the holiday: it is all about Jesus!

Jesus is the reason for the season. As a child, I loved Christmas and new years celebrations because  I had time off from school, I would get presents, and I would visit with relatives that I would not see on the regular during the year. What I loved most was to see the laughter and the joy of the holidays, but ultimately these things are not why Christmas means so much to me.

I believe in the baby in the manger. I believe in His parents' joy for the birth of their child, who was born in the most humble of circumstances. I believe in the shepherd's joy as they beheld the baby Jesus, that they were amazed by the grace and mercy of God, who allowed them  to see their messiah and redeemer. They knew that God was not a respecter of persons because He allowed them to see the baby Jesus first, before those who had more power and higher status in their society.

I believe in the dream, the dream that God dreamed for His people, the savior that was promised throughout the scriptures, the one who would come to save all mankind, born to save all of us from our sins.

Salvation was the purpose for the birth of Jesus Christ, Love was the motivation for this blessed manifestation. Jesus is the only hope that we can hold onto, the only solution that makes sense in this dark and fearful world. No one will ever love you as much as the Lord Jesus, for He was willing to be born into the world, to be seen as a human, and to become the redeemer of all mankind.

That is Why Christmas will always be my favorite holiday, because it celebrates the love of God and the passion of His son, Jesus Christ. This is why we give gifts to each other, because Father God gave us the greatest gift of all time, His Son Jesus upon the cross.

Take the time to give something to someone or give some of your time and resources this holiday season, because you know that Jesus Christ  will never leave you nor forsake you, and His love will always set you free…

The Great Distractions

 Peter 5:8

Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour…

Be sober, which means to be alert to the devil's temptations and distractions. We have all been subjected to the vanity of power, wealth and greed. Everyone who is honest with themselves will admit that they have desired something that was not good for them to have. The real winners in life are those who choose to live for God rather than for themselves.

They are great distractions in the world, and I have come to understand just how powerful those distractions can be in my own life. Every addiction, every strong desire, every tempting smile from a handsome man or pretty woman could distract even the best of us to entertain what it would be like to pursue these things, completely outside the Providence and Grace of Jesus Christ.

What is the solution for distractions that would derail us from fulfilling our God given destinies? The love and grace of Jesus Christ. He is the only one who can help us with our weaknesses. He is the only one who understands fully what it's like to be tempted and tortured by trials and tribulations and yet still succeed wonderfully, defeating the darkness, the devil and his demons once and for all, because of His love and passion for you and me.

What is it like to believe that you have everything that you ever wanted and needed and yet still lose it all because of a deep and terrible destiny?  This is the judgment of every unbeliever who will never accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. Every soul that comes into the world has the choice to live for God or for their own desires,  to receive the gift of everlasting life, peace, joy and love, or to die away from the presence of God into the darkness, existing in fear, suffering, and self hatred forever and ever…

What are the great distractions in this world? Anything or anyone that would prevent you from accepting Jesus Christ as Lord and Savoir over your life. You know what it is that is keeping you from believing the truth. Those desires are stirring within you right now as you read these words. Has your life really been as fulfilling and as perfect as you have claimed it to be? 

Take time to listen to the word of God and then decide if Jesus’s peace, love and grace for you is worthy of your attention and praise. Does Jesus love you? What can you do to return that love and grace that He has for you?  The only thing that you can do is accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Personal Savior right now:

Prayer of salvation:

Dear Lord Jesus, I need you, please come into my heart right now. I am sorry for all of my sins, I give you my life and all of my hopes and dreams. I am willing to live for you. Thank you Lord Jesus, I believe that I am saved… HALLELUJAH!     AMEN