Weeds of Discouragement

April 2, 2018 by 1 Comment

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Dear Child,

Do not be deceived for I and My Word are not mocked, whatever you sow, you will reap in due season, whether it be good fruit or evil fruit.

Do not wait until harvest time, the choice is made at sowing time. You know the principle well from your own garden, sow what you want to reap. Weeds from this fallen world may grow and try to choke the harvest, be consistent in tending your crop, take care of it, sow only in good soil where I am working. Do not let weeds of discouragement choke and zap the life from the crop. When you see a weed appear, pull it up from the root, don’t just pull the head off,  you must get to the root, that the crop will not be hindered but flourish!

Of all the weeds in the garden of your life, discouragement is the most destructive. Pull it up, and sprinkle your garden with a doze of faith. Weeds of discouragement belong to the family of doubt and cannot survive in a garden of faith.

Weeds of discouragement bear the fruit of low self- esteem, procrastination, depression, lack of focus, apathy, doubt and will eventually extinguish your passion, suffocate your faith, thereby strangle that precious crop.

Attend not only to your physical  flower garden but also the spiritual garden of your life, for the devil is like a roaring lion going about seeking whom he may devour. 

                                                                   Thus saith Papa

Galatians 6:9  And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.

Hebrews 12:3  For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.

Challenge: Are you feeding and pampering those weeds of discouragement or are you putting the ax to their root by encouraging yourself in the Lord?

 

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Purge the Sediment of My Life.

March 24, 2018 by Leave a Comment

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Dear Father,

Thank you for refining my life as you faithfully “pour me out” season to season, and love me enough, not to let me rest on my “lees”, but continually “pour me out” to rid my life of bitterness, that you may gain pleasure from my life. Help me be that vessel of honor, and to rely on You, and not on my works and treasures but only on my confidence in My relationship with You. My trust is in Your faithfulness, a rock that cannot be moved. Help me have spiritual insight to know the reason of the “pouring out” that I might know the bitterness you are purging, and even if I don’t see the “whys” may I just trust your workings is for my good.

Dear Child, 

Each time I “pour you out” you trust Me more, because your faith grows in that valley! Your faith in My sovereign working is more precious than gold.

Do not kick against My workings, yield, submit and rest in My workings, and you will find rest for your soul.

This is the rest you will enter into, relying on and trusting My workings, as you present yourself a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable in My sight.

Have a humble heart and quiet confidence.

                                                  Thus saith Papa

Jeremiah 48:11  Moab hath been at ease from his youth, and he hath settled on his lees, and hath not been emptied from vessel to vessel, neither hath he gone into captivity: therefore his taste remained in him, and his scent is not changed. 

The imagery of this verse needs explaining. In wine that is settling on its lees (that which settles during fermentation), stationary and still, the upper level becomes clear; but beneath is a bitter sediment that will muddy it again if shaken. Before the days of filters, to clear the wine it was emptied carefully from one vessel to another, but however skillfully this was done some of the lees would get across. So the process must be repeated again and again to rid it of its unwelcome taste. Moab, Israel’s natural cousins, had escaped that treatment; had not as Israel had, been sifted and purified through afflictions, with the result, God says, that her bitter taste still clung. There is thus value in God’s discipline of us, a little today and a little more tomorrow. The goal is a savor in us, a character that meets with His approval and delights His heart.

Moab remained in the old state because Moab was not purified through afflictions.

1Peter1:6-7 In this you rejoice, even if now for a little while you have had to suffer various trials, so that the genuineness of your faith, being more precious than gold that, though perishable, is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.

CHALLENGE: Even through the fiery furnace of trials as we see His hand pouring us out, may we understand that His loving purpose is to refine us rather than letting us rest on our “lees” and remain in our old fallen state

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Reflect This Holy Week

March 20, 2018 by Leave a Comment

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This coming week between Palm Sunday and Easter morning is known as Holy Week.

The most somber and reflective week on the church calendar. Perhaps the only time, during the year, that as believers we actually reflect on the awesome cost of our redemption.

1 Peter 1: 18-19 18 Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:

Surely we should all ask God, especially during this holy week, to take us back to the place where we first believed, to the foot of the cross. To the place where we can identify with his sufferings that we might be partakers of His resurrection. 1Peter 4:13

He was betrayed, humiliated, spat upon, mocked, abandoned, not believed, wept in the Garden in prayer until he sweat blood, denied, lashed until He was almost dead, nailed to a cross He had to carry, forsaken by His Father because He became sin for us, yet while hanging in excruciating pain between heaven and earth, He could cry out “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do!”

Isa.53: 2 -10 For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken. And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin.

The level of our meditative reflection during this holy week, will determine and intensify the fullness of our joy come Sunday morning when the stone was rolled away to reveal an empty tomb. Joy unspeakable and full of glory!

He is risen! He is risen indeed!

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An Interesting Link Between Two Great Evangelists

March 10, 2018 by Leave a Comment


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 Saint Patrick was an evangelical preacher and is often said to be a man of One Book! He never appeals to the authority of any creed, ecclesiastical leader or council, but in his writings, few as they are, he quotes from 113 scriptures. It has been commented that from his constant emphasis on the Bible, that Patrick sounded like a 5th century Billy Graham, “ The Bible says, the Bible says.”

It is interesting to note here that Billy Graham is of Scotch Irish descent and his ancestors came from County Down and County Antrim in Northern Ireland where Patrick built his first church.

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Have You Left Your First Love?

March 10, 2018 by Leave a Comment

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  Dear Child,

 It is a higher calling to minister unto to me ! than to minister unto the world! It requires much more dedication, more sacrifice and more separation from the world. You must leave the ¹Outer Court to minister to me, at the ³Candlestick the place of anointing, at the ³Table of Shewbread the place of fellowship with me, and at the ³Golden Altar the place to offer your sacrifice of praise!

Then when you leave the ²Holy Place to be a witness in the ¹Outer Court, you take with you my anointing, my fellowship and the fragrance of your sacrifice of praise!

You are now redeeming your time by spending it with me, because now your ministry to the world will be so much more fruitful. You know my heart by fellowshipping with me, and are now working in the world where you see me working. Be the hands and feet of my workings. Working in the world without knowing where I am working is working in the flesh and will cause sweat and will not bear fruit that is everlasting. Sow seed only where you see me plow the ground  and then it will take root and grow.

The more time you spend with me in secret, the more the anointing, discernment of my will and fragrance there will be from your life! Many work in the ¹Outer Court to be seen of man and for the praise of man, instead of just to please me. When the praise of man and approval of man doesn’t come, they become burned out, but they that wait upon and serve me and do it as only unto me, shall renew their strength, for their joy is full, because they rejoice in pleasing me.

Burn out also comes where man, not discerning my heart for they haven’t spent time with me, try to sow seed  where I have not plowed and prepared hearts, by drawing them unto me! Child, know my heart, work only where I am working, work only the fields I send you to.

                                                                  Thus Saith Papa

¹The Outer Court of the Tabernacle is a type of the world where we minister to others.

²The Holy Place is a type of the church where we minister to the Lord.

³The Candlestick, Table of Shewbread and Altar of Incense were the pieces of furniture in the Holy Place where the believer ministers unto the Lord.

Col. 3:23 And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men;

Eph. 6:6-7  Not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart; With good will doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men:

CHALLENGE: If all our labor is out of a desire to please God who is our Audience of One, that desire will be the guard of the motivation of our hearts. Take a moment to reflect on the source of your motivation.

For further study see Chapter Two “Intimacy through the tabernacle” in my book “Developing a Secret History with God”

This Book and accompanying Study Guide will revolutionize your quiet time with God. Available now at Amazon/ Barnes & Noble/ Walmart/Kindle Nook / Ibooks/ Lulu/ Rhema Publications/ Cl France or a bookstore near you.

 

 

 

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