Tuesday, September 29, 2009

I Ain’t Buying That!

There is a TV commercial that comes on like it is a news flash… a news
bulletin. In fact there are several now. I’m even told there is one that
comes on like it is coming from the President. But anyway, it comes on
like it is interrupting the scheduled program, and it actually says, “This
is an important message regarding your current home mortgage.” And it does
this because it wants you to stop whatever it is you are doing and pay
attention. And one of the commercials goes on to state that the government
has issued some new rates in mortgages that you need to take advantage of
right now. And all this time this woman is sitting behind a desk looking
the part of an actual news broadcaster and she is talking about getting a
mortgage. And in another of the commercials they pan over to a man as if
he is on ‘location’ somewhere and he goes on to talk about mortgage rates.
And he tells you that you must call this number on the bottom of your
screen right now in order to benefit. And from the first time I saw these
commercials they bothered me, because they actually made me stop and look,
only to realize that it was some sort of trick, some advertising gimmick.

Now these commercials have actually been coming on for over a year now.
And I shared this with my church, as the Holy Ghost began to reveal
something to me. What these commercials are doing, in the name of selling
mortgage mind you, is peddling fear. What this particular advertiser is
doing is taking what the “media” is talking about, what people have been
concerned with, and they are selling it. But the “it” that they are
selling, is fear. They may actually have a good mortgage loan system, but
what they are basing it on, more so, is the fear that people have that they
won’t be able to pay their mortgages. Anyway, you know what, I’m not
interested and I’m not buying it. Neither should you.

We have to know this, that God did not give us a spirit of fear, but of
love, power and a sound mind. So when fear comes, we need to reject it.
Worry comes, we need to reject it. Doubt, anxiety, all these things that
stem from fear, we need to send them back. Think about it for a moment,
when you fear, you cannot believe. You cannot have faith. And you cannot
please God because the Bible says that without faith it is impossible to
please God. I am sure we have heard many times, fear is the opposite of
faith. Fear is unbelief. But it yet works the same way as faith.
Whatever it is you will attract, good or bad. Job said the thing I feared
the most has come upon me.

In this time, what the media is saying so much is that we are in a
recession. (I’m not confessing that, because the kingdom of God is not in
a recession). And since the media is saying that, people are fearing not
having any money. And if you fear that, you are not believing God to be
your Provider. You are not believing His promise that He is your Source.
That like the psalmist said, I have NEVER seen the righteous forsaken or
His seed begging for bread. You find yourself doubting everything the Word
says. So you have to rebuke the fear. Advertisers are taking what the
media is talking about and using it to their advantage, based on fear.

There is a letter that we received some time ago and stamped on the outside
of the envelope was “info about your stimulus check, enclosed.” (I don’t
know anyone who has actually received a stimulus check, but that’s another
story). But anyway, I opened and inside, you know what it was they were
selling, fear. It said that I had to fill out this form (some type of
questionnaire) and send it in, in order to receive my stimulus check.
Fear. I’m not buying it and I’m not interested.

Then from time to time, we received notices from the gas company. And
printed boldly on the envelope it says, “Worrying about your heater going
out?” Uh, no, I am not worried. Whatever you are selling I don’t want it.
I am not buying it. Worry is fear. And I’m not interested.

We’ve received notices from the water sewage company saying, “Did you know
that you are responsible if your pipes break in the street in front of your
house?” No. But I know the devil is a liar. Fear. I’m not interested in
buying that one either.

You know, just today I struggled myself with believing what God said to me.
I had a dream and I was to share it with someone. And because I feared
that what God said would not happen for this person, I did not want to
share it. But, God! Once He showed me that fear was involved, I was able
to move on and to do what I was told. Sometime we allow fear to paralyze
us from being obedient to what WE KNOW God told us to do. And I almost
bought into the fear, which I have done too many times to count. Thank
God, He opened my eyes to it today, (the fear) and I returned it to its
“advertiser”, before the purchase went through. No fear here! I don’t
want it and I am not buying it.

We must be careful to see the fear in whatever form it comes and we must
not receive it. Fear of believing God at His Word can cause us not to
receive His promise. And that is whatever He has spoken to you, whatever
you know His Word says you can have. So many things in this world are
peddling fear. Trying to sell it to you. The advertisers pounce (who else
pounces but the enemy), but they pounce on whatever is going on at the
moment, the hot topic, hyped up by the media of course, and they put it in
a little package and they market it. To you. But if you look real
closely, the package says fear. And you need to reject it. If you don’t
want it then don’t buy it!

God is good and He’s real.

A servant of the Lord,
Sis. E

http://sis.e.home.comcast.net
http://www.ongoodground.org

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Shake It Off For Real

Bless the Lord!

Many times we talk to people about God, unsaved people, other Christians, those who have developed or are developing a real relationship with Christ, and for whatever reason the Word goes over their heads. They really don’t want to hear you, they don’t want to change, or stop whatever it is that they are doing, and in some form or another, they are telling you to talk to the hand. Jesus said if you enter into a town and they don’t receive you, shake the dust off your feet and keep on stepping. Move on. And we do, until the next time it happens, and the cycle is repeated. And then you find yourself at the point feeling sorry for yourself, saying, what is it? Why aren’t they listening to me? Why are they rejecting me?

I often ask myself and I have been most recently, which is probably why I am sharing this… but I ask why I just can’t shake the dust off, why do I keep coming back trying to share? What am I doing wrong, Lord? And God made me realize that sometimes our hearts just ache for people. We are aware of the lives that they are living, (especially those who don’t know Jesus), and they always seem to be so unhappy. And then there are some, Christians even, that always seem to be struggling with the same issues. Fear, commitment, faith, finances, and they don’t even realize they’re struggling, but you do. God allows you to see it. And your heart aches for them. And you pray for them and God gives you a Word to share, and you do, and it goes over their heads. I thought about Moses as many times as he went to Pharaoh with the Word that God told him to share and how many times he was rejected. And I know for me, it can get rather frustrating. To repeat the cycle, share the Word, be rejected, remember what the Scripture says and shaking the dust off, over and over and over again. And again you say why is this happening?

Sometimes it is disappointing when you constantly reach out to people in one way or another, and they continually reject whatever it is you are “selling.” Whatever you are trying to do for them, say to them, however you want to help them. You want to be a friend, you pray for them, you invite them places, and time and time again they tell you they have plans or something came up or they have to work, or they don’t know how or simply cannot do what you have asked of them. And for the most part, they don’t even try to cover it up. They just give you a flat out and what seems resounding “no.”

And your heart aches. Yearns, after once again repeating the cycle and getting the same result. And you want to give up; you want to shake the dust off. And you think maybe you should, but you don’t. You feel you have to continue to love them and show them the patience of God. Isn’t that what Jesus would do is what you tell yourself? But yet you share, they reject you and they continue to struggle with the same issues. You hear them continue to confess the same things, see them doing the same things, but yet refuse to make any changes. They allow the same things to “come up,” they give the same amount of money to church, they give the same amount of time to God they’ve always given, and even believe that they are doing God a favor in doing so, and nothing ever changes. But yet you continue on loving them. You keep inviting them here and there, to church, to lunch. You share the Word, you pray for them, give of yourself, and your time and energy and the cycle repeats itself and you find yourself hurting again. Because you didn’t shake the dust off. All you could think of is that they rejected you.

God reminded of a Word that Minister Jeff shared, “It’s Not For Everybody.” We have to realize that this Christian walk is not for everybody. Some of us just don’t want to give up the “lives” we have. Some of us don’t want God telling us what to do. We don’t want to forgive; we don’t want to give away “our” money, “our” time. Some things are simply more important to us than what Jesus has to offer. (I understand to a degree because I have been there before, but thank God for saving me and bringing me into the knowledge of His Word). Some of us don’t want to go to church every week, because it doesn’t take all that they think. Being a true Christian is not for everybody. Oh yeah, they’ll take Jesus as Savior, but the Lord thing, nah, that’s okay, they don’t want that.

And this is when God reminded of when the children of Israel asked for a king. Everybody else all around them had one. They said (and I am paraphrasing) “Samuel, all the other nations has a king, why can’t we have one? We want one, too.” God says do not covet… there is something to be said about wanting what other people have. But anyway the people told Samuel they wanted a king and Samuel was upset and he went to God and he told God that the people were rejecting him. And God said, don’t get it twisted, Samuel. “No. The people are not rejecting you, Samuel, they are rejecting Me.”(1 Samuel 8:6-8).

And this did it for me. That was why I could not shake the dust off. That is why we find ourselves there sometimes. We focus so much on us, what we are feeling, what we want, that we forget that it is not about us. It is not about our feelings; it is about the Word of God. And the Word says, shake the dust off and move on. And when we realize that as much as we may want people to get saved; as much as we may want people to get to the point where we “think” we are; that everything must be about God. As much as want people to rejoice in the goodness of God; to realize that everything they have comes from His hand. As much as we may want people to open up their mouths and to sing His praises; as much as we want people to receive the Word and to do it; as much as we want them to know God, to really know Him and have a relationship with Him; to be obedient to the authorities that He has placed in their lives; that no matter what else they want to do or feel, that it is not about what they want. As much as we want them to hear us we must realize that it is not about us. It is about God. Always about God. And they are not rejecting us, they are rejecting Him. And in doing that, they are rejecting all that comes with Him, peace, love, favor, wisdom, prosperity, abundant life.

And when we get this in our spirit we will and we can shake the dust off and truly move on, realizing that we have done the will of the Lord.

Shake the dust off and keep on stepping.

God is real and He loves us!!!

A servant of the Lord,

Sis. E

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Don’t You Dare Steal God’s Glory!

We are all probably familiar with the story of Moses, who God chose to lead His people, the children of Israel, out of the wilderness. And we probably know that God performed some miracles through Moses before the eyes of the people and Pharaoh, when God was bringing them out of the land of Egypt. Then we know how the Israelites journeyed in the wilderness for what should have been 11 days, but ended up being 40 years. God had to work some “stuff” out of them before they could enter into the promise. Just like He has to do with us sometimes. We think something is taken a long time, or we are in a situation for what seems to be forever, but we are there because we are not learning a lesson that God is trying to teach us. Or we are refusing to let go of some “ideas” that we cannot bring into our promised land. God will not bring us into the promise until He delivers us from our problem.

Anyway, the Israelites journeyed for 40 years. And of course we’re all familiar with all the complaining the Israelites did as they were going through. SIDENOTE: Complaining does not help you when you are going through. It only extends your “growing” through. But anyway, the people complained and as the Scripture says, it displeased the Lord (Numbers 11:1). But one particular time, the people were in complaining mode and they said to Moses, “Why did you bring us out here in the wilderness to kill us and our children? We are thirsty and have no water, Moses. We would have been better off in Egypt (as slaves?).” Do you see why we shouldn’t complain… we don’t make any sense? It is far better to be thirsty than to be a slave.

So Moses (and Aaron, the Bible says) went to God and fell on his knees. And you can almost hear Moses prayer, “Lord, help us with these people. They are getting on my last nerve with all their complaining.” This is how we sound sometimes, but Moses had it right at first, because when we know we can’t deal with something we need to go to God and ask for His help. But anyway, God told Moses to speak to the rock and the rock will give water. But this is where Moses missed it. He allowed his frustration with the people to get to him. And we have to be careful not to allow people to control our emotions. Then we are giving them power over us. But Moses got so angry with the people that he went back to them and said, “Look here you rebels! Fine, you want some water, here!” (I am paraphrasing.) And he hit the rock out of anger. And the water came out. And because of that the Bible says Moses did not enter the Promised Land.

But God is saying this to me in that, when Moses did not do what God told him to do concerning the rock, which was speak to it, Moses robbed God of His glory. The Bible goes on to say that the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron and said, “Because you did not believe Me, to hallow Me, in the eyes of the children of Israel, you WILL NOT lead them into the promised land that I have given them.” God saw Moses’ action as a lack of respect for His Word. His direct order. Right out of His mouth. And because the Israelites did not see the splendor (the glory) of God, (Moses simply speaking to the rock, would have shown them God’s glory), but what they saw instead was Moses’ anger and probably thought that the water came out of the rock because of Moses’ anger, instead of God’s power, God was not glorified. God said to Moses, “How could you do that to Me, Moses in the sight of the Israelites? You robbed Me of My glory!”

Now God wants us to know this, every time He tells us to do something a certain way and we fail to do it, we rob Him of His glory. You can be certain that whatever it is He tells you to do, especially in the sight of others; He is going to use it somewhere along the line to get glory. He said, “the whole earth shall be filled with My glory.” How could that be if we do not show forth His glory? We are His vessels. And we must be careful not to rob Him of His glory.

Every time He tells you to sing that song, and ‘you’ choose to sing another because you’re not ‘feelin’ it, you rob God of His glory. Every time He tells you to give and you don’t, in the church or out of the church, you rob God of His glory. He was going to use that seed He asked of you that others might see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. But He can’t because you didn’t sow it, so you robbed Him of His glory. I hear God saying, “How dare you not hallow Me in the sight of the people?!”

Every time God tells us to do something, to forgive, to pray for somebody, to obey, or how about this one, to believe Him, we are not reverencing Him or His Word, in the sight of the people. It is not about you. It is not about us. It is about God.

When we become ill and refuse to walk in the healing promises of God (and I say refuse, because we know that by the stripes of Jesus we ARE healed, but we make other confessions that say otherwise, so we REFUSE to walk in His Word), we rob God of His glory. The manifestation of our healing right before our eyes and the eyes of others. But because they don’t see it, God is not glorified.

God Himself told Jesus I was glorified and I shall be glorified again. He said that He will not share His glory with anyone. And will not tolerate us robbing Him of it.

God will get His glory. It would be wise for us to just go along with the program and give it to Him.

God is good and He’s real. And I want Him to get the glory out of my life... willingly.

A servant of the Lord,
Sis. E

http://sis.e.home.comcast.net
http://www.ongoodground.org