Thursday, December 20, 2012
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Are You Kidding Me
It's been awhile since I last communicated on my post. In fact, a long while. It's not been for any particular reason, I just haven't felt lead to write. I have been very busy with family, church, and work. Since writing last, I have accepted a position as a Sunday School teacher in our church working with ages 19 to 30. This has been a great joy for me. This age group probably faces more issues in life at this time than any other. To be able to share God's word with them I count as a privilege.
In the last few days it was brought to my attention some astonishing facts about blogs. My sister who writes a blog had recently figured out through managing her blog that you could see how many times her blog had been clicked on and also from where. What she found out was simply amazing. Just because someone doesn't join your blog or comment, doesn't mean they didn't stop and read it. What she found out was that there were many people looking at her blog and from all around the world.
When I felt the Lord leading me to create a blog, I knew there was great significance in it. I didn't fully understand His purpose but knew He wanted it done. We many times try to figure out what God is doing and can get stuck not doing anything at all. We all know that it is impossible for us to figure out God, but yet we try. We make Him human like us. Remember, His thoughts are not our thoughts and His ways are not our ways. God has never told us that we must understand why. He has told us to just trust Him and follow. After having the conversation with my sister a lot of the questions of why, after a long period of time, have started to come together. First, I would like to say that what we understand comes directly from God and He reveals Himself to us as He chooses. He is perfect in all His ways and knows what we need and when. He continues to lead us into our spiritual maturity at His perfect pace.
We all have this internal desire to serve God and to do things for Him. But I have found out over the years that there is really nothing that I can do for God. In reality, God wants to use us to glorify Himself and touch others so they might come to know Him.God wants it to always be about Him and never about us. What can we do for people verses what God can to do for them? In that light it really is clear. Now, going back to the blog, look at how many people God can touch in an instant by moving us to be used by Him to speak. He literally can speak to and have access to millions at a touch of a key instantly. Understanding this will put chills all over you. Technology is a wonderful thing. We all can think of many instances where it has been used for bad, just like everything else in the world. But when God takes something that He has created and uses it, it will always be great. Reaching people for Jesus can now take on a whole new meaning. Mission work can now be accomplished in your study sitting at your desk. We are quickly becoming a paperless world. Almost every person and every entity operates heavily from the computer.
Think with me for just a minute, there is a woman in Russia right now who is being dealt with by the Holy Spirit, who is troubled greatly. She is searching desperately for answers. She opens up her computer and starts searching and types in a particular phrase and because it has one of your key words you listed in your blog, up appears your blog on her listings. Her searching for any answer decides to click on your blog which leads her to your message. Which by the way was inspired from God by the Holy Spirit from you to her. And instantly, she is hearing from our Father who touches her heart and comforts her. He challenges her to come to closer to Him. Hallelujah!!! This person never joins your blog nor does she leave any comments. You have no idea who she is, yet because of God's all knowing and His perfect work, He ministers to her by using you. Not for your glory, but for His. This is what God is all about. Don't you ever think for one minute that you are not significant to God. You are His child. Each and every one of us significant and used by God. You might not know how or why or when, but does that really matter? Just knowing that God Almighty and His power is in control of you is enough. Leave it up to God and know that it's good.
You might be asking how this woman in Russia can find this message. Your blog has in itself the ability to turn our English language and translate it into her Russian language. You see we are linked throughout the world together. I found out that my blog has been searched thousands of times from Russia,France,Netherlands,Germany,United Kingdom,Canada,China,India, and Latvia. Now I am not only being used in Home Missions, but now I am involved in World Missions. Praise the Lord for His love and care for us. Not only that, I know that my page was viewed by certain browsers such as, Internet Explorer,Chrome,Fire Fox,Opera,Safari,Jakarta Commons, and Java. The operating systems that were used was Windows,iPad, and Macintosh.
So, I want to finish this article with this, don't try to figure God out. Just listen and follow. You have no idea what He is up to. Just know that it is all good. Now, if this can't motivate you and get you excited knowing that God is in control and has a plan for you and taking full responsibility to fulfill it, then ask God to give you a jolt and wake you up. He wants you to relax and enjoy this life He has given you. Worship and praise Him all the day long. May we pray and thank God for all that He does for us and accept all that He is going to do. People need the Lord, share Him with all.
May God bless you always,
Stan
In the last few days it was brought to my attention some astonishing facts about blogs. My sister who writes a blog had recently figured out through managing her blog that you could see how many times her blog had been clicked on and also from where. What she found out was simply amazing. Just because someone doesn't join your blog or comment, doesn't mean they didn't stop and read it. What she found out was that there were many people looking at her blog and from all around the world.
When I felt the Lord leading me to create a blog, I knew there was great significance in it. I didn't fully understand His purpose but knew He wanted it done. We many times try to figure out what God is doing and can get stuck not doing anything at all. We all know that it is impossible for us to figure out God, but yet we try. We make Him human like us. Remember, His thoughts are not our thoughts and His ways are not our ways. God has never told us that we must understand why. He has told us to just trust Him and follow. After having the conversation with my sister a lot of the questions of why, after a long period of time, have started to come together. First, I would like to say that what we understand comes directly from God and He reveals Himself to us as He chooses. He is perfect in all His ways and knows what we need and when. He continues to lead us into our spiritual maturity at His perfect pace.
We all have this internal desire to serve God and to do things for Him. But I have found out over the years that there is really nothing that I can do for God. In reality, God wants to use us to glorify Himself and touch others so they might come to know Him.God wants it to always be about Him and never about us. What can we do for people verses what God can to do for them? In that light it really is clear. Now, going back to the blog, look at how many people God can touch in an instant by moving us to be used by Him to speak. He literally can speak to and have access to millions at a touch of a key instantly. Understanding this will put chills all over you. Technology is a wonderful thing. We all can think of many instances where it has been used for bad, just like everything else in the world. But when God takes something that He has created and uses it, it will always be great. Reaching people for Jesus can now take on a whole new meaning. Mission work can now be accomplished in your study sitting at your desk. We are quickly becoming a paperless world. Almost every person and every entity operates heavily from the computer.
Think with me for just a minute, there is a woman in Russia right now who is being dealt with by the Holy Spirit, who is troubled greatly. She is searching desperately for answers. She opens up her computer and starts searching and types in a particular phrase and because it has one of your key words you listed in your blog, up appears your blog on her listings. Her searching for any answer decides to click on your blog which leads her to your message. Which by the way was inspired from God by the Holy Spirit from you to her. And instantly, she is hearing from our Father who touches her heart and comforts her. He challenges her to come to closer to Him. Hallelujah!!! This person never joins your blog nor does she leave any comments. You have no idea who she is, yet because of God's all knowing and His perfect work, He ministers to her by using you. Not for your glory, but for His. This is what God is all about. Don't you ever think for one minute that you are not significant to God. You are His child. Each and every one of us significant and used by God. You might not know how or why or when, but does that really matter? Just knowing that God Almighty and His power is in control of you is enough. Leave it up to God and know that it's good.
You might be asking how this woman in Russia can find this message. Your blog has in itself the ability to turn our English language and translate it into her Russian language. You see we are linked throughout the world together. I found out that my blog has been searched thousands of times from Russia,France,Netherlands,Germany,United Kingdom,Canada,China,India, and Latvia. Now I am not only being used in Home Missions, but now I am involved in World Missions. Praise the Lord for His love and care for us. Not only that, I know that my page was viewed by certain browsers such as, Internet Explorer,Chrome,Fire Fox,Opera,Safari,Jakarta Commons, and Java. The operating systems that were used was Windows,iPad, and Macintosh.
So, I want to finish this article with this, don't try to figure God out. Just listen and follow. You have no idea what He is up to. Just know that it is all good. Now, if this can't motivate you and get you excited knowing that God is in control and has a plan for you and taking full responsibility to fulfill it, then ask God to give you a jolt and wake you up. He wants you to relax and enjoy this life He has given you. Worship and praise Him all the day long. May we pray and thank God for all that He does for us and accept all that He is going to do. People need the Lord, share Him with all.
May God bless you always,
Stan
Monday, July 19, 2010
Experiencing God's Leadership
For some time now we have been discussing many subjects that are fascinating to me. Things like, is God really in control ? Does God depend on us for His plan to work in our life ? Does God provide us every ounce of what we need at all times ?
We have been talking about the subject of believing. I think for some of us we think that God has placed it in our hands for us to believe. Sometimes we can forget the simple things that are put before us to see the truth. God has requested that we deny our self on many occasions throughout the word. For me to think that God has left it up to me to believe would put me in direct conflict of this truth. If it takes my ability to believe, then God can only have power in my life if I allow Him. I want you to understand that I am talking about a person who has come to know Jesus as their personal Saviour. Those of us who have become a child of God have a different source that leads us. God has taken on the entire responsibility of turning each of us into what He desires. He has a masterful plan for each of us that He will accomplish.
This brings me to the title of this blog, experiencing God's leadership. I don't ever want to make light of studying God's word, but there is a lot more to what God does in our life through studying His word than just studying His word. For many of us, we have become scholars in being able to recite God's word, yet there seems to be very little power in it. We spend much time trying to convince those around us including our self that we have power in His word. We can become troubled when we stand on the truth and speak the truth, but see very little results. I have come to the conclusion that having the knowledge of God without experiencing God is somewhat of a futile exercise of our minds trying to convince us to believe. It can become troublesome and tiresome trying to keep our self where we think God wants us to be.
In these next few verses I hope that the Holy Spirit can capture our spirit and lead us into a place of peace and confidence that we have never experienced before. As I look back over my life there has been many things take place. At best, I was always trying to figure out what for and why? Because of what God has allowed me to see and experience, I now know that God intends for us to become what He designed each of us for. You see, God never gives up. Who He is, will always be. What He desires, will always happen. God truly knows what is best for each of us and will see to it that we understand it. Over the years I have made much money. More than most. I had a problem though, I did not respect what money was or who's it was. Money really had no value to me. I usually could always make a boat load of it any time I wanted to. Therefor, I spent it foolishly on anything I desired to have. Not only that, I justified it by abusing God's word to make it alright. Over the years God tried to assist me in being able to see what He felt about money and how He wanted to use it. Instead, in each trial I would fall prey to my on desires. Each time I did, I would fall further and further behind. I found myself constantly playing catch up just trying to get even. Then it got even worse, it wasn't just trying to play catch up, it was just trying to survive. Until one day, I looked around and I could not believe where I was at financially. I had gotten to the point that I couldn't even afford to put gas in my car to get around in. I was scrounging around counting my loose change just to come up with $5.00 for gas. It got worse. I didn't have enough money for food for my family. We started eating all kinds of things just for nourishment. I couldn't pay our rent for us live in a small house. Was close to being thrown out on the street several times with no place to go. Let me explain this a little better. You have seen people's belongings and furniture out on the side of the road, that is where we were at.
Now, lets get to the good stuff. God intended for me to understand what His money is all about and whose money it was and what He wanted me to do with it. God had no intention of allowing me and my family to fail, but He did intend for His desire to be understood. Now, because of what He allowed me to experience, His word provided power that I had never known before. I am convinced that we must experience God and not just know Him. This experience comes from our Father only. He allows us to be in certain situations so that we can experience His truth in a way that is impossible by only reading His word.
Here is some more good stuff. Once our Father has taught us the lesson He wants us to learn, those struggles in that particular area will go away and no longer hinder us the way it used to. He has brought us out of it's ability to do so. He has given us victory in that particular battle. On to the next one until He eliminates each and every one of them. When these things approach us, don't be dismayed, remember that God is busy about trying to assist us in providing us a victory. He will prevail and in the end, it will all be worth it. God wants us to understand that we can count on Him and to never count on ourselves for anything. That includes believing. God will supply us the strength to believe, IT'S HIS THAT HE SUPPLIES, NOT OURS. We can count on Him to get the job done.
I finish with this, the most important event that will take place in any of our lives, will be the decision to accept Jesus as our personal Saviour. From that point on God takes over and becomes our leader and Master. He becomes our Father eternally. And we can have confidence in it because it is sustained in the work and accomplishment of what Jesus did for us. God is not counting on you and me to hold onto what He provided us in Jesus. He let Jesus do it all. Praise the Lord!!! Let every day be an exciting one full of experiencing God in His greatness, knowing that God is on the job at all times watching out over yours and my well being. We cannot fail, not because of our ability, but because of what and who Jesus is!!! Our Father will see us through. You can count on it.
God is great and perfect,
Stan
We have been talking about the subject of believing. I think for some of us we think that God has placed it in our hands for us to believe. Sometimes we can forget the simple things that are put before us to see the truth. God has requested that we deny our self on many occasions throughout the word. For me to think that God has left it up to me to believe would put me in direct conflict of this truth. If it takes my ability to believe, then God can only have power in my life if I allow Him. I want you to understand that I am talking about a person who has come to know Jesus as their personal Saviour. Those of us who have become a child of God have a different source that leads us. God has taken on the entire responsibility of turning each of us into what He desires. He has a masterful plan for each of us that He will accomplish.
This brings me to the title of this blog, experiencing God's leadership. I don't ever want to make light of studying God's word, but there is a lot more to what God does in our life through studying His word than just studying His word. For many of us, we have become scholars in being able to recite God's word, yet there seems to be very little power in it. We spend much time trying to convince those around us including our self that we have power in His word. We can become troubled when we stand on the truth and speak the truth, but see very little results. I have come to the conclusion that having the knowledge of God without experiencing God is somewhat of a futile exercise of our minds trying to convince us to believe. It can become troublesome and tiresome trying to keep our self where we think God wants us to be.
In these next few verses I hope that the Holy Spirit can capture our spirit and lead us into a place of peace and confidence that we have never experienced before. As I look back over my life there has been many things take place. At best, I was always trying to figure out what for and why? Because of what God has allowed me to see and experience, I now know that God intends for us to become what He designed each of us for. You see, God never gives up. Who He is, will always be. What He desires, will always happen. God truly knows what is best for each of us and will see to it that we understand it. Over the years I have made much money. More than most. I had a problem though, I did not respect what money was or who's it was. Money really had no value to me. I usually could always make a boat load of it any time I wanted to. Therefor, I spent it foolishly on anything I desired to have. Not only that, I justified it by abusing God's word to make it alright. Over the years God tried to assist me in being able to see what He felt about money and how He wanted to use it. Instead, in each trial I would fall prey to my on desires. Each time I did, I would fall further and further behind. I found myself constantly playing catch up just trying to get even. Then it got even worse, it wasn't just trying to play catch up, it was just trying to survive. Until one day, I looked around and I could not believe where I was at financially. I had gotten to the point that I couldn't even afford to put gas in my car to get around in. I was scrounging around counting my loose change just to come up with $5.00 for gas. It got worse. I didn't have enough money for food for my family. We started eating all kinds of things just for nourishment. I couldn't pay our rent for us live in a small house. Was close to being thrown out on the street several times with no place to go. Let me explain this a little better. You have seen people's belongings and furniture out on the side of the road, that is where we were at.
Now, lets get to the good stuff. God intended for me to understand what His money is all about and whose money it was and what He wanted me to do with it. God had no intention of allowing me and my family to fail, but He did intend for His desire to be understood. Now, because of what He allowed me to experience, His word provided power that I had never known before. I am convinced that we must experience God and not just know Him. This experience comes from our Father only. He allows us to be in certain situations so that we can experience His truth in a way that is impossible by only reading His word.
Here is some more good stuff. Once our Father has taught us the lesson He wants us to learn, those struggles in that particular area will go away and no longer hinder us the way it used to. He has brought us out of it's ability to do so. He has given us victory in that particular battle. On to the next one until He eliminates each and every one of them. When these things approach us, don't be dismayed, remember that God is busy about trying to assist us in providing us a victory. He will prevail and in the end, it will all be worth it. God wants us to understand that we can count on Him and to never count on ourselves for anything. That includes believing. God will supply us the strength to believe, IT'S HIS THAT HE SUPPLIES, NOT OURS. We can count on Him to get the job done.
I finish with this, the most important event that will take place in any of our lives, will be the decision to accept Jesus as our personal Saviour. From that point on God takes over and becomes our leader and Master. He becomes our Father eternally. And we can have confidence in it because it is sustained in the work and accomplishment of what Jesus did for us. God is not counting on you and me to hold onto what He provided us in Jesus. He let Jesus do it all. Praise the Lord!!! Let every day be an exciting one full of experiencing God in His greatness, knowing that God is on the job at all times watching out over yours and my well being. We cannot fail, not because of our ability, but because of what and who Jesus is!!! Our Father will see us through. You can count on it.
God is great and perfect,
Stan
Monday, June 28, 2010
God's Unconditional Love
I know that I have written on this subject before, but the Holy Spirit has placed it back on my heart again. God's love is absolutely the most remarkable thing in all creation. When we really see the depth of His love it can almost be mind boggling. For us to get a true picture of who our Father is, we must be able to see this love. Praise His name for His guidance in revealing His love to us. You know as well as me, that we will never see the total depth and greatness of who He is, but seeing Him develop it in our lives is incredible.
Go back to the beginning with me when man sinned. It could have been over right there, but instead, our Father loved us so much that He overlooked what we had chose to do and provided us all a sacrifice to pay our penalty of of that decision. That's unconditional love. God put no expectations on us but took it upon Himself to give us what we needed. In enters His Son, Jesus Christ!! Because of His great love for us Jesus was able to go to the cross and sacrifice His life for us. There was no condition on our part for Him to do that, it was a enormous display of who our God is. There is no other that was capable of doing what He did, He was it.
If we look at our love, most of us would see a different kind of love. There is usually some kind of condition for our love to work properly. The biggest difference in our love verses God's love would involve one little word, judgement. You see we have this innate trait inside of us that always wants to judge. For most of us, we have become so good at hiding or justifying our judgement, we don't even realize we are!! Think about all our relationships, starting out with the ones at the top working our way down to the smallest. How do we respond to all those around us? Think hard and clear. Look at how we talk to each other and what our thoughts are about each other. Do we find ourselves thinking about the things people have done are doing to us. Is the way we feel parallel to how they treat and talk to us. Do we find ourselves getting upset when someone is mean to us? Does the hurt they cause us control our responses to them? Do we compare where we are to where they are, spiritually speaking. Is it easy for us to see what they are doing wrong or need to correct verses seeing our self? Do we have a tendency to take the scripture and hold against each other and use it for our benefit? Do we have a tendency to take the word and using it as a judging tool against each other?
I am convinced we can get caught up in what we understand about scripture and destroy the very purpose God left it for us. God doesn't take the word to use against us, He gave it to increase us in knowing Him. Love overcomes all!! Instead of us getting caught up in all the THINGS, the easiest thing for us to do is LOVE!! I don't care who it is, or what they have done, LOVE!! Unconditionally LOVE!! One of the quickest places to look and see our short comings is in our relationships with our spouses. Think about all the quarrels and arguments we have been in with each other. Has it not been because of what we feel has been done to us? We have been mistreated and it's not fair. So, to make things even out, or for it to be fair, they should receive back at least some form of treatment they have given out. (conditional LOVE)!! Not only do we do that with our spouses, but we do it with all those around us. It's not right for them to get away with treating people that way and they need to be taught a lesson. It's for their on good.(justifying why we do it). It sounds good it's just not right. Go back and think about our Father, if He had taken that same approach none of us would ever been saved.
Now, I think this is where the problem is. We haven't come to the point of allowing God to operate His love in us, instead we still operate out of our conditional love. Here is some great news, all hope is not lost, God is busy about revealing to us our conditional love and replacing it with His unconditional love. I am convinced that God isn't sitting still doing nothing. He is very busy turning us into exactly what He created us for. God hasn't saved us and then put us out here in a position that we can't succeed. He personally has taken the responsibility to change us and correct us. He is perfect in all that He does and you can be assured that you are part of what He is doing. Praise His name!! God has that perfect ability to reveal to us who we are and then remove it from us. Praise the Lord!! God is busy about showing us how we can't have any confidence in our love and then directs us to His. There is true JOY in His love. It sets us free. All of us. His love is easy and there are no requirements for us to receive it!! He gives it freely to all. When God does the work of bringing us to surrender who we are and trust totally in who He is, then He can glorify Himself through us. God can be seen instead of us. His ability flows through us and works perfectly. There is no struggle when He is in control. The struggle is during this development period where God is turning us into what He wants us to be. Don't become faint of heart during these trying times, instead get excited and know God is moving in your life. His great training is taking place in these times. Never allow Satan to fool you and cause you to start judging yourself, causing you to feel useless, instead direct him straight to Jesus and tell him to take it up with Him. This is not a battle between flesh and blood, but a spiritual battle that can never won by Satan. When we can come to grips with our inability to fight Satan by our self and realize that it's not our battle, we are well on our way to being able to live in this great victory that Jesus has already won for us!!
I close with this, the greatest witness we all have is for God's unconditional LOVE to be displayed continually with all we are in contact with. Never allow our conditional LOVE to react through us. Be still and know that He is God. Be patient and wait upon the Lord. Be slow to speak and quick to listen. When we slow down and listen to our Father, He will always give us the proper response. And it usually will never be what we would typically do or say. He is great and the only God!!
God loves you and me,
Stan
Go back to the beginning with me when man sinned. It could have been over right there, but instead, our Father loved us so much that He overlooked what we had chose to do and provided us all a sacrifice to pay our penalty of of that decision. That's unconditional love. God put no expectations on us but took it upon Himself to give us what we needed. In enters His Son, Jesus Christ!! Because of His great love for us Jesus was able to go to the cross and sacrifice His life for us. There was no condition on our part for Him to do that, it was a enormous display of who our God is. There is no other that was capable of doing what He did, He was it.
If we look at our love, most of us would see a different kind of love. There is usually some kind of condition for our love to work properly. The biggest difference in our love verses God's love would involve one little word, judgement. You see we have this innate trait inside of us that always wants to judge. For most of us, we have become so good at hiding or justifying our judgement, we don't even realize we are!! Think about all our relationships, starting out with the ones at the top working our way down to the smallest. How do we respond to all those around us? Think hard and clear. Look at how we talk to each other and what our thoughts are about each other. Do we find ourselves thinking about the things people have done are doing to us. Is the way we feel parallel to how they treat and talk to us. Do we find ourselves getting upset when someone is mean to us? Does the hurt they cause us control our responses to them? Do we compare where we are to where they are, spiritually speaking. Is it easy for us to see what they are doing wrong or need to correct verses seeing our self? Do we have a tendency to take the scripture and hold against each other and use it for our benefit? Do we have a tendency to take the word and using it as a judging tool against each other?
I am convinced we can get caught up in what we understand about scripture and destroy the very purpose God left it for us. God doesn't take the word to use against us, He gave it to increase us in knowing Him. Love overcomes all!! Instead of us getting caught up in all the THINGS, the easiest thing for us to do is LOVE!! I don't care who it is, or what they have done, LOVE!! Unconditionally LOVE!! One of the quickest places to look and see our short comings is in our relationships with our spouses. Think about all the quarrels and arguments we have been in with each other. Has it not been because of what we feel has been done to us? We have been mistreated and it's not fair. So, to make things even out, or for it to be fair, they should receive back at least some form of treatment they have given out. (conditional LOVE)!! Not only do we do that with our spouses, but we do it with all those around us. It's not right for them to get away with treating people that way and they need to be taught a lesson. It's for their on good.(justifying why we do it). It sounds good it's just not right. Go back and think about our Father, if He had taken that same approach none of us would ever been saved.
Now, I think this is where the problem is. We haven't come to the point of allowing God to operate His love in us, instead we still operate out of our conditional love. Here is some great news, all hope is not lost, God is busy about revealing to us our conditional love and replacing it with His unconditional love. I am convinced that God isn't sitting still doing nothing. He is very busy turning us into exactly what He created us for. God hasn't saved us and then put us out here in a position that we can't succeed. He personally has taken the responsibility to change us and correct us. He is perfect in all that He does and you can be assured that you are part of what He is doing. Praise His name!! God has that perfect ability to reveal to us who we are and then remove it from us. Praise the Lord!! God is busy about showing us how we can't have any confidence in our love and then directs us to His. There is true JOY in His love. It sets us free. All of us. His love is easy and there are no requirements for us to receive it!! He gives it freely to all. When God does the work of bringing us to surrender who we are and trust totally in who He is, then He can glorify Himself through us. God can be seen instead of us. His ability flows through us and works perfectly. There is no struggle when He is in control. The struggle is during this development period where God is turning us into what He wants us to be. Don't become faint of heart during these trying times, instead get excited and know God is moving in your life. His great training is taking place in these times. Never allow Satan to fool you and cause you to start judging yourself, causing you to feel useless, instead direct him straight to Jesus and tell him to take it up with Him. This is not a battle between flesh and blood, but a spiritual battle that can never won by Satan. When we can come to grips with our inability to fight Satan by our self and realize that it's not our battle, we are well on our way to being able to live in this great victory that Jesus has already won for us!!
I close with this, the greatest witness we all have is for God's unconditional LOVE to be displayed continually with all we are in contact with. Never allow our conditional LOVE to react through us. Be still and know that He is God. Be patient and wait upon the Lord. Be slow to speak and quick to listen. When we slow down and listen to our Father, He will always give us the proper response. And it usually will never be what we would typically do or say. He is great and the only God!!
God loves you and me,
Stan
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Down In The Hole
If you are one of God's children this title probably will mean something to you. All of us have been down in the hole at one time or another. For some of us we are down in the hole often. I want to describe for you how it operates in my life. The term used by many is " the ups and downs of life". We can be just going along moving through life with our every day things that go on and out of no where we fall in the hole. There seems to be a process that follows for the next few days and weeks of us trying to get out of the hole. We don't like it. It's always some kind of problem or issue we are faced with. As many times that God has brought us out of the hole, we seem to forget it the next time. Our emotions start immediately working us over and all our weaknesses are revealed again. Here's another thing, it seems like the hole is deeper this time than the last. In fact, we can get to the point that we think we aren't going to be able to get out this time.
There is a lot going on during these times that we might overlook. Our Father sends us people to the rescue for us. They come and stand with us and help in all the ways they can. But most of all, they just love us during this time. None of us knows what God is doing in our life during this, but in the end He always reveals it to us. I have said before, it's never fun going through these times, but in the end it's always worth going through. Our God is a great and mighty God. He is perfect in all things. He always knows what He is doing and it's always for our benefit. The growth He provides us during these times is phenomenal. He draws us closer and closer to Him. He develops our ability to have total confidence in who He is. He is perfecting that which He has created. Can we say, praise the Lord. I know it's tough while we are down in the hole, but when we come out, it's a beautiful thing! The Lord gives us great break through during these times. He leads us to trust in Him and know that we can.
There are many stories we can read in the bible where God's people were down in the hole. But in every case, God brings something great out of it. I personally want to thank my sister and brother for being there for me in this time in the hole. Both of you are instruments that God has and is using in my life. Thank you for continuing to encourage me in these times. I believe that God puts us together to help us get through these times. God provided me a break through this afternoon in a very long time in the hole. The excitement of it all causes me to thank Him and praise Him for all that He has done during this time. As I said earlier, the lessons God teaches us are not always enjoyable to go through, but they are always worth it!
When we find ourselves down in the hole, and there are all kinds of reasons we are in there, get as close as you can to those people that are close to God. Have them lift you up in prayer continually. He hears every word uttered. You might be so consumed with the hole that you can't find the words to pray, but those around you aren't in the hole and they can. The Holy Spirit will use those people to pray for you and victory will come forth. There is power in prayer. Whether we understand the magnitude of that or not, in those times find as many to pray for you as you can, it makes a difference. And remember this, God is always on the job watching out for us. He is bigger than any problem we face and He knows how to overcome it, and He will. Run from those who try to lead you astray, ex specially the master of it all, Satan. He is continually trying to fill our minds with his lies and deception. Don't listen! Stand firm in His word even if it doesn't look like it is going to come through, IT IS!! God always wins. He never loses. We are His children and He takes great pleasure in showing us how great He is. He wants us to know we can count on Him.
Holy Spirit continue to keep our eyes open to those around us who are in the hole and press upon us to pray the words you want us to pray. Lead us to rally together and around them in their time of need. Let us be encourager's to them in all things. Lead us not to give advice but to help assist them in trusting in the Lord. We don't know what the Father is doing, but we know He is perfect in all He does. Teach us to ride it out with them and in the end shouting praises to our great God for the victories He brings. There is great days in store for us all ahead. As God teaches us it just gets better and better. And brings us closer and closer to Him. I know this has been more of a personal testimony than any thing else, but I felt lead to say it.
Praise the Lord always,
Stan
There is a lot going on during these times that we might overlook. Our Father sends us people to the rescue for us. They come and stand with us and help in all the ways they can. But most of all, they just love us during this time. None of us knows what God is doing in our life during this, but in the end He always reveals it to us. I have said before, it's never fun going through these times, but in the end it's always worth going through. Our God is a great and mighty God. He is perfect in all things. He always knows what He is doing and it's always for our benefit. The growth He provides us during these times is phenomenal. He draws us closer and closer to Him. He develops our ability to have total confidence in who He is. He is perfecting that which He has created. Can we say, praise the Lord. I know it's tough while we are down in the hole, but when we come out, it's a beautiful thing! The Lord gives us great break through during these times. He leads us to trust in Him and know that we can.
There are many stories we can read in the bible where God's people were down in the hole. But in every case, God brings something great out of it. I personally want to thank my sister and brother for being there for me in this time in the hole. Both of you are instruments that God has and is using in my life. Thank you for continuing to encourage me in these times. I believe that God puts us together to help us get through these times. God provided me a break through this afternoon in a very long time in the hole. The excitement of it all causes me to thank Him and praise Him for all that He has done during this time. As I said earlier, the lessons God teaches us are not always enjoyable to go through, but they are always worth it!
When we find ourselves down in the hole, and there are all kinds of reasons we are in there, get as close as you can to those people that are close to God. Have them lift you up in prayer continually. He hears every word uttered. You might be so consumed with the hole that you can't find the words to pray, but those around you aren't in the hole and they can. The Holy Spirit will use those people to pray for you and victory will come forth. There is power in prayer. Whether we understand the magnitude of that or not, in those times find as many to pray for you as you can, it makes a difference. And remember this, God is always on the job watching out for us. He is bigger than any problem we face and He knows how to overcome it, and He will. Run from those who try to lead you astray, ex specially the master of it all, Satan. He is continually trying to fill our minds with his lies and deception. Don't listen! Stand firm in His word even if it doesn't look like it is going to come through, IT IS!! God always wins. He never loses. We are His children and He takes great pleasure in showing us how great He is. He wants us to know we can count on Him.
Holy Spirit continue to keep our eyes open to those around us who are in the hole and press upon us to pray the words you want us to pray. Lead us to rally together and around them in their time of need. Let us be encourager's to them in all things. Lead us not to give advice but to help assist them in trusting in the Lord. We don't know what the Father is doing, but we know He is perfect in all He does. Teach us to ride it out with them and in the end shouting praises to our great God for the victories He brings. There is great days in store for us all ahead. As God teaches us it just gets better and better. And brings us closer and closer to Him. I know this has been more of a personal testimony than any thing else, but I felt lead to say it.
Praise the Lord always,
Stan
Saturday, May 22, 2010
God's Misfits
Many of us today feel inadequate to be God's instrument that He uses because of our decisions we have made in the past. There are many reasons for this. It could be because we haven't really forgiven our self even though our Father has. Maybe it's because of how others think of us and the things they say about us. But really in most cases, it's Satan that tries to control us about what we have done, so our Father can't use us. Remember this, God will always win.
When we look back through the scripture we can find many that felt they were not adequate enough to be used by God. Many of our great saints we have studied for years, committed some huge sins, but yet God used them. Think with me for just a moment and lets look at a few of them.
The very first one we come across, was Moses. Moses killed a man in Egypt and spent forty years in the desert before going back and leading God's people.
Aaron cast gold into the fire and said that the golden calf just jumped out and they worshipped the golden calf. He later became the first High Priest.
King David was an adulterer and murderer yet God used him in a mighty way.
Jonah was disobedient on many occasions, but God sent him to Nineveh anyway and did a great work through him.
Peter denied God three times adamantly, still God used him.
But possibly one of the biggest was our brother Saul who was converted and became our Paul. We all know what he was doing before God moved in his life. He was killing and persecuting Christians. Yet God wrote almost the entire New Testament through him along with other great things.
Are you a misfit? Do you have that THING that causes you to not do what you feel the Lord calling you to do? Coming from one who knows, GIVE UP. God is going to use you the way He wants to. We go through so many things because we won't follow. We can avoid many of those things by just surrendering. Never listen to Satan. He is the liar of all liars. He is a deceiver. God doesn't care what you have done. In fact, God has this way of using the most unlikely candidate for His mission. Why would God do this? Could it be because by picking you and me, those who see, know that it can't be you but has to be God. When God takes people who don't fit our definition of THE ONE, it becomes a miracle and God is glorified. Where if it had been done by one that we expect, we would tend to think of the one who did it instead of our Father.
Remember this, our God is the God of victory, not defeat. Jesus has overcome all our sin. We have been forgiven for every one we have committed and every one we will commit. We are not bond to anything. He has set us free and God can do anything He so chooses. Not only that, but He will supply everything we need to get it done. What God will do through us is not done in our self, but it is actually God Himself performing all that is said and done. We all have a message to tell. There are many who are out there that are going or have gone through the same as you. They need you to speak up and tell what God is doing and has done for you. God uses us all to share His great love He has for us. We are living in a very troubled time and most of us need to feel the freshness of our Father. The Holy Spirit is touching our hearts to share His word and work, that He is doing in our life.
I have spoken of a great movement that has begun and we will be participants in the days to come. Our God will not let us be broken. The fear that is before us, He is greater than. He will supply us all that we need. God's people need to hear this. Plus there are many that don't know our Jesus, that will come to Him in this time. God is rounding up all of us misfits and has a plan to use us for His glory. As He spoke to Peter and James, come follow me and I will teach you to be fishers of men. Mark these words down, you will have the opportunity to step out with the Lord and unite our hearts together for the same cause. It won't be a denominational move. It will be a spiritual movement that involves each of us lead by our Lord Jesus. Accept the call, deny yourself and take up His cross and follow.
Remember God does His greatest work through us MISFITS. He chooses us to do His work through. I look forward to seeing you in the near days standing side by side participating in this great work. Be praying now. Now is the time.
God be with us all,
Stan
When we look back through the scripture we can find many that felt they were not adequate enough to be used by God. Many of our great saints we have studied for years, committed some huge sins, but yet God used them. Think with me for just a moment and lets look at a few of them.
The very first one we come across, was Moses. Moses killed a man in Egypt and spent forty years in the desert before going back and leading God's people.
Aaron cast gold into the fire and said that the golden calf just jumped out and they worshipped the golden calf. He later became the first High Priest.
King David was an adulterer and murderer yet God used him in a mighty way.
Jonah was disobedient on many occasions, but God sent him to Nineveh anyway and did a great work through him.
Peter denied God three times adamantly, still God used him.
But possibly one of the biggest was our brother Saul who was converted and became our Paul. We all know what he was doing before God moved in his life. He was killing and persecuting Christians. Yet God wrote almost the entire New Testament through him along with other great things.
Are you a misfit? Do you have that THING that causes you to not do what you feel the Lord calling you to do? Coming from one who knows, GIVE UP. God is going to use you the way He wants to. We go through so many things because we won't follow. We can avoid many of those things by just surrendering. Never listen to Satan. He is the liar of all liars. He is a deceiver. God doesn't care what you have done. In fact, God has this way of using the most unlikely candidate for His mission. Why would God do this? Could it be because by picking you and me, those who see, know that it can't be you but has to be God. When God takes people who don't fit our definition of THE ONE, it becomes a miracle and God is glorified. Where if it had been done by one that we expect, we would tend to think of the one who did it instead of our Father.
Remember this, our God is the God of victory, not defeat. Jesus has overcome all our sin. We have been forgiven for every one we have committed and every one we will commit. We are not bond to anything. He has set us free and God can do anything He so chooses. Not only that, but He will supply everything we need to get it done. What God will do through us is not done in our self, but it is actually God Himself performing all that is said and done. We all have a message to tell. There are many who are out there that are going or have gone through the same as you. They need you to speak up and tell what God is doing and has done for you. God uses us all to share His great love He has for us. We are living in a very troubled time and most of us need to feel the freshness of our Father. The Holy Spirit is touching our hearts to share His word and work, that He is doing in our life.
I have spoken of a great movement that has begun and we will be participants in the days to come. Our God will not let us be broken. The fear that is before us, He is greater than. He will supply us all that we need. God's people need to hear this. Plus there are many that don't know our Jesus, that will come to Him in this time. God is rounding up all of us misfits and has a plan to use us for His glory. As He spoke to Peter and James, come follow me and I will teach you to be fishers of men. Mark these words down, you will have the opportunity to step out with the Lord and unite our hearts together for the same cause. It won't be a denominational move. It will be a spiritual movement that involves each of us lead by our Lord Jesus. Accept the call, deny yourself and take up His cross and follow.
Remember God does His greatest work through us MISFITS. He chooses us to do His work through. I look forward to seeing you in the near days standing side by side participating in this great work. Be praying now. Now is the time.
God be with us all,
Stan
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