How to be 80% Happier

November 19, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Dear Child,

If you appreciated all My blessings in your life, your heart would overflow with joy! Giving thanks causes you to be reminded of what you are grateful for and this gives you a fresh appreciation.

If you are thankful for My blessings, you will enjoy them, if you take them for granted they will not give you joy, for they will be like a discarded gift.

Enjoy life, it’s My greatest gift, when you enjoy life you have a thankful heart, a thankful heart is pleasing in My sight!

                                               Thus saith Papa

But let all those that put their trust in thee rejoice: let them ever shout for joy, because thou defendest them: let them also that love thy name be joyful in thee.(Psalm 5:11)

A modern day psychology book, “The Law of Life” states ” We are not made happy by what we acquire but by what we appreciate!”A survey in the book revealed that we usually take for granted 80% of the blessings in our lives, therefore we are only 20% as happy as we could be!  Consequently the degree to which we are thankful determines our happiness.

What has robbed us of our joy especially as Christians? May I suggest a lack of gratitude?

Do you take your blessings for granted or with gratitude?

Since we are only made happy by what we appreciate, why should we wonder, what happened to our joy, when we begin to take the blessings in our lives for granted. Therefore if we want more joy in our lives we need to appreciate more that which the Lord has provided for us. Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: (Psalm 103:2)

When we cry unto the Lord, “Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation;” (Psalm 51:12) we are really crying out for a grateful heart! A complaining heart soon becomes a heart drowning in self-pity that will quench your joy. The fruit of thankfulness is joy and joy results in spiritual strength. …neither be ye sorry; for the joy of the LORD is your strength. (Neh.8:10)

We bless and please the Lord when we are thankful!

 I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify him with thanksgiving. This also shall please the LORD better than an ox or bullock that hath horns and hoofs.(Psalm 69:30)

CHALLENGE: Be thankful lest the enemy steals the joy of the abundant life.                      

“How can I say thanks for all the things that you have done for me,

Things so undeserved yet you gave to prove your love for me,

The voices of a thousand angels could not express my gratitude,

All that I am or ever hope to be, I owe it all to thee.

To God be the glory for the things He has done.” / Andre Crouch

Read more in my book “Developing a Secret History with God” in chapter nine Pressing into His Presence

Available from Amazon/ Barnes&Noble/ Kindle/ Nook/ Ibooks/ Lulu or a bookstore near you.

 

 

 

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The Sword of Forgiveness

November 14, 2012 by Leave a Comment

 

Dear Father,

Teach me daily to deal with offenses, in a way that will cause growth in my life and also in a way that will be pleasing to You.

Dear Child,

Offenses will always be dealt with, one way or another. Whether you think they are left hanging and undealt with or not.

They will either be a trap and stunt growth

                           OR

They will be an opportunity to freedom and maturity.

Your response to the offense IS your dealing with the offense.

Even if you don’t respond outwardly, your response will have a powerful effect on the heart.

Whether stored in the heart!

                    OR

Set free and forgiven!

Offenses not forgiven will be stored in the heart and will hold you captive as chains that tighten with each unforgiven offense.

                                                   Thus saith Papa

Luke 17:1-4  Then said he unto the disciples, It is impossible but that offenses will come: but woe unto him, through whom they come! Take heed to yourselves: If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive him. And if he trespass against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to thee, saying, I repent; thou shalt forgive him.

Mat 24:10  And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another.

Since we are warned that offenses will increase in the last days in the above chapter, we need to mature spiritually and learn to biblically respond to these offenses.

Down in the basement of our hearts, just like junk in our physical basement, is junk that is cluttering our emotional life. Experiences from the past that we’d rather shut away in our sub-conscience rather than bring them to the light and deal with them, because most of them are hoarded there because of our choice not to forgive. We are keeping ourselves prisoners to those experiences but a decluttered emotional life brings freedom. When we decide to declutter our hearts  and forgive we are saying “ I no longer give you the power to control who I am, how I think or how I’ll behave”.

An absence of forgiveness is equivalent to staying behind prison bars of buried hurt. 

 “FORGIVENESS is a MIGHTY SWORD that will cut you free”….Broadway Show- Jane Eyre

CHALLENGE: What cords of past hurts and offenses are entangled in your emotional being, robbing your spiritual life of the breathe of freedom? Set yourself free today from those cords of the past with the SWORD of FORGIVENESS. Name them one by one as you sever them from your being that you might be able to walk to freedom from the past!


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Presenting Ourselves as Living Sacrifices

November 5, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Dear Papa,

Help me to understand “laying down my all” on the altar, that I may walk in Your power and might. As I offer my life as a living sacrifice, I want it to be holy and acceptable to You, that the fire from heaven may fall, for only then will I know that my sacrifice is acceptable to You. Help me that it might be a sweet savor to You, Papa.

Dear Child,

Sacrifice has cost! Something must die! Self must die! The flesh must die!

Present your whole being on the altar and My fire will consume that which is of the old man, and that living sacrifice which remains will burn with power but not be consumed and will be a sweet savor to Me.

A living sacrifice doesn’t have to stay on the altar, as My Son didn’t have to stay on the cross, except by cords of love!

When you present yourself as a living sacrifice, it is only the motivation of love for Me that will keep you there. Regrets and ‘should haves’ will not secure you there. Good intentions will only slack the cords of love! Disobedience will break the cords of love!

Only obedience will keep you secure in My presence, and will be a sweet savor.

If you love me keep my commandments.

Obedience born out of love for Me is a sweet savor!

Obedience to Me will nourish the spirit and starve the flesh. Lose your soul life that you may have everlasting life in the spirit.  

                                                 Thus saith Papa

John 10:17-18  Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself.

Rom 12:1  I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

He was a willing sacrifice as He hung on the cross, He could have come down from the cross and saved Himself! Likewise, when we present ourselves as a living sacrifice, we could crawl off the altar, only a dead sacrifice doesn’t have a choice! A living sacrifice must be a WILLING sacrifice! A dead sacrifice has no choice!

As I reflected on the oxymoron of the words “living sacrifice” the Lord impressed the words of the following prayer on my heart. I pray these words will be your prayer as we conclude this week’s blog on “Presenting Ourselves as Living Sacrifices”.

CHALLENGE: Pray this prayer as a yielded vessel:

                              “ A living sacrifice,

                                Dying to self and alive to You.

                                In losing my life, I find it.

                                In dying I live,

                                A living sacrifice.

                                Consume that which is not of You

                                That You may fill me with that which is of You.

                                Salt the sacrifice

                                That I may thirst for more of You.” 

Excerpt from my book “Developing a Secret History with God” Page 80-85

Available from Amazon/ Barnes&Noble/ Kindle/ Nook/ Ibooks/ Lulu or a bookstore near you.


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Spiritual Battles

October 29, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Dear Child,

In order to overcome you must be active!

In order to win a victory, you must be active in a battle!

Yes, the battle is mine!

Yes, the battle was won at Calvary!

                  But

You must actively be seeking Me,

You must be actively be abiding in Me,

You must actively be yielding to My spirit.

You must actively be identifying with My death.

You must actively put on your armor,

Then you may actively claim the victory!

                                                Thus saith Papa

1 Cor 9:26  I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.

1 Tim 6:12  Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses.

 2 Timothy 2:3 Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.

All the above scriptures have the active not passive tense of the verbs! If we want to be mature and be spiritually fit we must actively exercise our spiritual muscles. We are all soldiers in the Lord’s army. Soldiers do not train and prepare in the heat of the battle. The training and preparation is done in the anticipation of war! The rumble of war in the heavenlies is already reverberating in the spiritual realm! Do we hear the call to battle!  Are we actively maturing in the Lord? Are we ready?

“Why should we await the Lord’s return in passive contemplation? It is spiritual fitness which makes us ready for His coming, and that demands an onward progress with Him now.” Watchman Nee

Challenge: Are we all talk and no action? Talk will not stretch, mature or strengthen our spiritual muscles. Many talk about exercising physically but we know that will not get us physically fit! Likewise only talking will not mature us in the faith, it also takes action! We need to enroll in God’s spiritual boot camp to prepare us for battle.

For further reading see my book “Developing a Secret History with God” Pages 25-30

Available from Amazon/ Barnes&Noble/ Kindle/ Nook/ Ibooks/ Lulu or a bookstore near you.


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“WHY’S” reverberate through the valleys of our lives

October 23, 2012 by 1 Comment

Dear Child,

I sift and purify you through afflictions, as I pour you out through season to season. I don’t leave you to settle on your *lees. I work situations in My sovereignty to stir you up lest you become  stagnant. Each trial purifies your faith a little more, that on that day it will not burn as hay and stubble but as pure gold! Rejoice in My workings, you are My child and I am teaching you.

                                  Thus saith Papa

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

Jer 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. – Watchman Nee

A loving parent will not leave a child to his own devices but train him that he might mature. Our heavenly Father is so good and patient, He “pours us out over and over again”, in other words, He allows us a chance to take the test over and over again until we pass!

God is not committed to our comfort He is committed to our growth! – Pastor Dale Everist

Challenge: When we can’t see His Plan 

                        Or we can’t feel His Hand

                        We have to trust His Heart

Jer 29:11  For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.


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