Walk.

      You can walk on water. Yes, you.  You may have already.  For example, you defied the odds and went to college when no one else in your family ever finished school and as a matter of fact they did all they could to keep you down. That was walking on water. Or...they never promoted women to partner-ship level in the company you work for. It had gotten to the point that you were beginning to believe it would never happen for you either. But you pushed past your doubts and kept putting your best foot forward daily and you got the position! That was walking on water. Some way, some how...you've done it.
      Walking on water means defying gravity by overcoming the things that weigh you down. It means doing the impractical. You have to step out and get your feet wet.  You must get out of your comfort zone and take steps that push the envelope of your mindset.  To walk on water you need faith.  You have to believe that God can empower you to do more than you have ever been able to do.  With his leading, you will be able to see beyond the apparent and create a new reality.  This also requires work. God will call you to the water, but it's up to you to take the steps he's directing you to take. You can't be stagnant. If the water you've been walking on is a puddle. It's time to step it up to a pond. If you've already mastered the pond, move on to a lake, then a river,  and then to an ocean. In other words, do something new in your life. Keep challenging yourself to do more and to be more.

      Yes, we can walk on water, but God didn't build us to walk on water by ourselves.  That is because if he did, we would keep on walking and would forget where we came from.  On our own power, we would eventually get lost or sinksink.  So to walk on water without peril, it is imperative that we stay connected with our creator.  God knows the ins and outs of all waters, so we need his wisdom to stay afloat.

      God wants us to defy the odds and do great things.  We are a reflection of his power and majesty.  So if you are feeling a nudge on the inside to get out of your box, pray to God for the wisdom to follow his lead. When you step out under his guidance, he will part the seas for you and sometimes he will just walk you right over them.

Scripture: John 14: 12-14

I tell you the truth, anyone who believes in me will do the same works that I have done, and even greater works, because I am going to be with the Father. You can ask for anything in my name, and I will do it, so that the Son can bring glory to the Father. Yes, ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.

Prayer:

Lord, compel and empower us to walk on water in our day to day lives. Help us to understand and operate in the truth that you have not give us a spirit of fear, but you have given us a spirit of power.  May all that we venture to do be done in honor and respect of you.

Fallen Angels

     He was the one who touched your life and brought you to the Lord.  Those fiery sermons and uplifting messages melted the ice cap on your hardened heart and awakened your spirituality.  You never missed a Sunday he preached.

     She was the person who wrote so eloquently and beautifully. Her words spoke directly into your situation and raised in you a desire to learn more about God.  Every book she had written, you read and displayed on your shelf with pride.  

     She had the voice of an angel and the way she sang often lulled you into a deeper connection with the Holy Spirit and moved you to tears. It was one of her songs that introduced you to Jesus and you accepted him as your savior right in your car.

     Then some how that person that brought you into the kingdom fell from grace.  They were found guilty of fornication, or adultery, or poor parenting, or got a divorce, or mismanagement of funds...whatever the case may be.  Of course that meant that nothing you experienced was real and the whole Jesus & God bit is a fraud...right? WRONG! 

     Sometimes we put too much stock in the messenger. We have to be careful not to allow admiration to slip into idolatry.   It is not the medium of the deliverance that holds the power, it is the source.  Any powerful Godly connection you experienced may have come through him/her, but it was not by him or her.  Only the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit have that power and they use people as a means to get the message out.  That person who you are so disappointed in was human all the time; never perfect, and never without sin.  Instead of being angry and disheartened, pray for him/her and be a catalyst in that individual's deliverance as he/she was for you.  We are supposed to help keep one another on the right track by being patient with one another and correcting one another out of a spirit of love.  This is the nature of God.  

   So remember, give the messenger your ear, but give God your heart.  Then you will not be disappointed.

Scripture:
I Timothy 2:1 
First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people,
Psalms 45:11 
He is Lord, and worship thou Him

Prayer:
Lord, thank you for your servants who lead us to you.  Let us be merciful with them and one another even as you are merciful.
      

Don't Be Afraid

Fear strikes us in so many ways.  We leave our homes, secure the locks, and activate the alarm because we fear our belongings will be stolen.  We carry mace, knives, or loaded weapons, because we fear we will be attacked.  We put up fronts and pretend we are someone other than ourselves, because we fear we won't be accepted.  We develop prejudices and preconceived judgments against others, because we fear those who are different.  There are talents that we have and ideas that God has given us that we don't pursue because we fear they will be rejected or they will fail.  We even hide our Christianity and pad our evangelism, because we are afraid others will think that we are too holy or strange. Fearfulness is wicked and giving in to it is dangerous.  That is not to say that we will never feel fear.  God knows that we are human and that we live in an imperfect world.  He acknowledges that fears will come.  He just doesn't want us to let fear take us over.  God has our back and there isn't anything God can't handle. So stay strong, pray long, and don't be afraid.

Scriptures:
Psalms 27:13 The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life, of whom shall I be afraid?...Though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall, not fear

2 Chronicles 32:7,8 Be strong and courageous, be not afraid or dismayed...with us is the Lord our God to help us, and to fight our battles

Prayer:
God, if you are for us, who can be against us?  Help us to live above and beyond our fears.

You A Drinker?

Are you a drinker?  When you're happy, you drink.  When you're mad, you drink.  When you're frustrated, you pour it up for that too.  You drink to remember.  You drink to forget.  You drink to get over things and you drink to get through things.  Well consider this.  Noah was a man who had a good relationship with God.  God spoke to him and he listened to God.  His relationship with God was so good, in fact, that when God flooded the earth he only spared Noah and his family. After the flood, Noah grew a vineyard. He drank the wine from it and got drunk.  I don't know if it was Noah's first time being drunk or if it was even his intention to get drunk.  But I do know the Bible says he was passed out drunk, so he must have had a few.  While Noah was passed out, his youngest son disrespected him. Noah spoke a curse over his youngest son's youngest son due to the disrespect.  He spoke a blessing over his other sons.  Both the curse and the blessings came to past.  So Noah maintained his effectiveness and God still heard from him.  The thing about Noah is that more than anything, Noah was about God's business.  In the Biblical account of Noah, it is apparent that Noah lived for God not for drinking. So if you are a drinker, can you say the same?  If we ran the stats on the time spent in your day to day life would the percentages weigh heavier with God or with drinking? What about effectiveness? Has drinking taken you forward in your life or backward? Whatever the case, know this. God loves a drinker.  God is more than willing to do for a drinker. But God will only do for a drinker, what a drinker will allow God to do.  If your drink has become your saviour, God will leave it to you and your drink to work through the issues in your life. It won't end well. If you're reading this and you feel like drinking has overtaken you and you can't seem to overcome the desire no matter how you try.  Tell God that.  Tell him that right now you want your drinks more than you want him, but you choose him anyway. Tell him you need his help. God will make you stronger than your drink.

Scripture:

Psalm 46:1 (NLT) God is our refuge and strength, always ready to help in times of trouble.

2 Corinthians 12:9 And he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness."

Prayer:

Lord, give us the wisdom to turn to you when we are overwhelmed with disappointment. You are our rock and our fortress.

All Shook Up

You're all shook up.  Anger, frustration, and irritation are welling up inside of you and if you open your mouth, even a little bit, more than what you bargained for is going to come rushing out.  So don't say a word.  Hold your peace.  Get whatever has you discontented off of your chest by praying to God about it first.  Talk to him. Cry to him.  Tell him everything that is on your mind and then...shh...listen.  The presence of his gentle spirit will calm you.  God is flowing over in wisdom and he wants to pour over into us.  He may answer your concern with scripture from the Bible.  He may lead a friend to call you who will give you the answer you seek.  He may not say anything until you have settled down and you are ready to receive what he has to say.  Whatever he does, if you give the issue over to him, he will renew your peace of mind.  I have found experienced talking to God about a situation that I am up and in arms about and before I have completed my tete a' tete with the Lord, the situation is resolved.  It's not always that easy, but one thing is for sure.  When we need a shoulder to cry on, no one has a shoulder more willing and able to carry our burdens than the Lord.

Scripture:

John 14:27 Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

Prayer:

Lord your word says to call on you and you will show us great and unsearchable things that we don't know.  When there are things that we have in our heart that we are trying to hash out or get through, give us the wisdom to rely on you for the perfect resolution. You also say to seek peace and pursue it.  Help us to seek and pursue our peace through you.

It Will Come Out...

     What are you watching? What are you listening to?  How does it affect your thinking?  Does it move you closer to God or steal you away from him.  Does it give you peace or snatch peace from your grasp.  There was a time when I was watching the news and seeing nothing but horrible reports everyday.  It got to the point that it became depressing and made me fretful.  The truth is that the newscasts usually report with a negative slant and for every negative report shown there were millions of good reports that went unnoticed.  So now I only watch news for the weather.

     The things we put in front of our eyes and in our minds can carry over into our spirits.  So we have to be careful of what we are taking in.  That's not saying that every song you listen to has to be a gospel song.  Nor does it mean that only 'churchy' television shows and movies are permissible.  And please don't get caught up in only developing relationships with fellow Christians.  Just keep all your interactions positive and try not to offend the Lord.  Your inner God will tell you what is okay and what is not.  If you get a gnawing feeling on the inside and you feel like something is just not right when you're doing something, then don't do it.  In short, be mindful of what you expose yourself to, because what you put in will surely come out.

Scripture:

Philippians 4: 8, 9 Finally, brothers, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. Those things which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you.

Prayer:
Lord, we don't have the spirit of the world. We have the spirit that is of you.  Help us make decisions that will keep the spirit you have given us protected.

Before You Get On

Are you in a situation?  The situation is dismal and there's nothing you can do to turn it around.  Life can sometimes flood us with problems.  Or sometimes life just throws us one problem, but that problem is so insurmountable that it begins to overtake everything around us.   I have bad news.  You could be dealing with something that you can't do anything about.   Not what you wanted to hear I know, but keep reading.  Good news follows.  In the Bible there were situations that were going to happen that could not be stopped.  The flood was one of them.  God's people had been so rebellious and evil was so great in the land, God decided to flood the earth.  Once God made that decision, there was no turning back.  It was going to happen.  For 40 days it would rain.  The earth was going to flood. Pretty much every living thing in the world was doomed to die.  God had a devout follower, though, named Noah. God forewarned Noah about what was going to happen. Though Noah knew tragedy was about to strike, he could not stop the flood from happening.  Still God gave Noah a plan for riding the flood out.  In fact, the plan was so detailed that Noah was able to build something no one had ever built to prepare for something no one had ever yet experienced.  That's awesome when you think about it. There would be a catastrophic flood.  Noah would inevitably be trapped in the midst of a horrifying situation.  People and things that had become important to Noah would be stripped away from him, painfully.  But this is what is awesome... Before the problem had ever arisen, before Noah ever stepped foot on the boat, before Noah lost everything;  God was already preparing Noah to overcome and to move forward in spite of it all.  God had Noah build a boat to get over the treacherous waters and God even instructed Noah to take his wife, his sons and their wives, and animals each with a mate along for the ride.  Though death would be all around Noah's boat and though life, as Noah once knew it, was about to be over; God had already placed the regenerators of the next phase of Noah's life right on the boat with him. The family he would lose: the regenerators were on the boat.  The sustenance that would not sustain through the flood, God already had regenerators on the boat.  God even had the plants already in the process of forming new buds before he allowed Noah to get off.  So when the floods ended and it was time for Noah to get off the boat, as soon as he stepped off he would instantly be breathing in new life.  So whatever catastrophe you face, know this.  God is with you.  He will never leave or forsake you.  If a phase of your life is coming to a painful close, understand that he already has a new beginning in the works.  He is amazing and he stands with those who stand for him. 

Prayer:  God, praise you. You are awesome. We pray you will help us to understand that your sovereignty and omnipotence are greater than any problem that is insurmountable for us.  Help us to see that nothing is too hard for you and that you never leave us or forsake us.

Scripture: 
Jeremiah 29:11  For I know the plans that I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.

Deuteronomy 31:8  The LORD is the one who goes ahead of you; He will be with you. He will not fail you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.