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Breaking Down God’s Communication

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John 16:13

[13] Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.

Literally and Spiritually via the bible and through seeking him! I think about hearing the phrase into “all truth”, and it makes me to consider that there will not be any moments where I am feeling lost!

The spirit of truth will provide you with guidance, and will not lie to you. It will not leave you comfortless, or without peace of mind. Sometimes we feel like that we are left without hope, but we are not! Do not be deceived! People will deceive you, but God will not!

Luke 21:33-36

[33] Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away.
[34] And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares.
[35] For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth.
[36] Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.

The word of God will speak to every circumstance, and it will instruct you and help you to grow in areas that you are weak in!

It’s important to know that our decisions only line up if we know God personally. If the condition of the relationship is right also, in other words when we are right, we are in operation of the mind of Christ!

And when the body of Christ is in proper operation, people get help the way that God intended it to be in the beginning!

Romans 8:35

[35] Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

God speaks through the details of your life; i.e. your trials and circumstances: the things that we know the best of course!

This is hard to say, but if we feel like we are getting the short end of the stick in life, then maybe it’s time we get back to basics and begin to take focus off me (flesh), read his word more, be around people in God’s will, have a strong spiritual environment, and  begin to focus more on God!

We must know and realize that our trials have their place, and they should not be the thing that rules our lives! God should be!

Proverbs 1:10

[10] My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not.

Say what?!? Some things must begin to change! Consent thou not! In other words, don’t feel like you have to be like everybody else! God has raised up a standard in you to be something different; an example if you will, that will lead others to Christ!

Proverbs 4:13-15

[13] Take fast hold of instruction; let her not go: keep her; for she is thy life.
[14] Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not in the way of evil men.
[15] Avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it, and pass away.

Let the instruction not go! If we do anything, do not let go of the things that God speaks to you, the guidance, steps and words that are given to you are the only life to you that will keep you through the dark times and storms of your life!

The Message Of Haggai

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Haggai “was a man of one paramount idea — build the Temple!” (Homer Hailey).

His primary focus and heart’s desire was to see the temple restored, as well as the worship of God to return. I thought about this so much when I was going over this small set of verses. There are so many parts we read of about broken temples in the bible, and when I read those, I think of MY temple; not the one which was built by hand, but the one that my soul lives in.

I begin to think about how that as we come to God and we are saved, he cleans up and wipes away our sins and we are forgiven, which is wonderful and without it, where would we be? Let’s take this further though. Think about how each and every day that we walk around our houses and see all of these things that need to be taken care of outside, and yet with our lack of energy and willpower, those things continually get put off time after time until the effects of the neglect begin to show in a way that we can see.

With my spiritual temple, it’s all in the same. I walk around each and every day of my life with the power and ability to clean up my own little messes in prayer, and yet with no willpower do nothing. I know that sometimes it’s hard to find that motivation to get up off of our couch and get to work on cleaning house, but it’s double the difficulty when you begin to talk about what dwells inside the hearts of you and I. The pains and sufferings that we face are by no means easy, and it takes a lot of work and upkeep to prevail on the maintenance of that, and yet, we continue to neglect. So wherein lies that motivation when we cannot find it? To me, I have found that we can encourage ourselves, yes. I can get down in prayer and get a hold of God to the point where it feels like that angels are all around me. It’s wonderful. But when your life is to the point where you can’t get the first word out, what then?

A lot of Christians today are standing there in their non-spiritual perspectives, looking at their ruined spiritual temple, and just walking away from it.

Let’s read some now.

Haggai 1:4-8

[4] Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your cieled houses, and this house lie waste?
[5] Now therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts; Consider your ways.
[6] Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes.
[7] Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Consider your ways.
[8] Go up to the mountain, and bring wood, and build the house; and I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified, saith the LORD.

The people had become discouraged, and as a result of that, forgetful and neglectful of God. And truthfully, this behavior is quite common with the people of today; nothing has really changed with that. Their priorities were skewed; they were only considering themselves and not God in the grand scheme, building their own houses, and not His. People are out in the world trying to just take care of themselves and be of no help to others. But when we reach that point of no return in our discouragement, it takes that lending loving hand of a neighbor to lift us up. You see, the message of Haggai was very well received and effective.

And wouldn’t you know that one of the reasons that it was effective was Haggai’s dependency on the Word of God! Man, if we can but only grasp this. We can pick ourselves up sometimes, but it takes more than one person to build a house, let alone repair a broken one. Being able to depend on each other more will allow the body of Christ to grow more and more, and our inner spiritual temples will flourish along with the Temple of the church.

A lot of people might cringe at this idea, and that’s okay, but sometimes I sit in the most elaborate beautiful churches that I can see with my eyes and yet see the spiritual discernment in ruin. People need help. They need led, and they need the truth. I have came short so many times in my life, but what I do know that the only thing that has got be back on the path for God was the word of truth.

Haggai appeals to God as his authority over 26 times in the course of 38 verses! Let’s read some more:

Haggai 2:7-9, 17-19

[7] And I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory, saith the LORD of hosts.
[8] The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the LORD of hosts.
[9] The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former, saith the LORD of hosts: and in this place will I give peace, saith the LORD of hosts.

[17] I smote you with blasting and with mildew and with hail in all the labours of your hands; yet ye turned not to me, saith the LORD.
[18] Consider now from this day and upward, from the four and twentieth day of the ninth month, even from the day that the foundation of the LORD’s temple was laid, consider it.
[19] Is the seed yet in the barn? yea, as yet the vine, and the fig tree, and the pomegranate, and the olive tree, hath not brought forth: from this day will I bless you.

Haggai was teaching that faithfulness and material blessings are directly connected, and that when a good work is awaiting its accomplishment, the time to do is now. Discouragement, however profound, is not an adequate reason for neglecting duties, even when they seem to be encompassed with difficulty. So just remember to build yourself up with the foundation of God, and you will not be moved by every little thing that comes by. And more than that, the spiritual temple that you begin to build within will be less about you and more about God. And as that begins to happen, you will see a wonderful transition in your life take place!

Where Is The Love?

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There are so many times when we find ourselves in complete disarray, and everything that we know changes. And only until we reach this place do we realize that we should have “known” better.  I want to use the opportunity that I have here to speak on something that have been trying to understand and gain a better understanding on.

I remember when I was a child growing up in church. I remember hearing the people have joy in their voices and happiness on their faces. It made being at church a fun and joyous experience, and it captivated me. It was so clear and easy for me to see that the people that were happy were in possession of something that brought good things in their heart that made them want to share that joy with others.

I miss those days so much. I remember them very vividly. There are so many memories of hearing grown men turn humble in front of large crowds, giving their hearts testimony for everyone to know just how good that God was to them. I remember even hearing some of the women of God shouting will all their heart, sometimes in joy, and more often in faith for things to come.

I remember the songs that I used to hear. Some of them I still try to sing today, but I could never compare to hearing songs like “Consider The Lillies” and “Two Coats”. Oh how those songs used to bring such an uplifting to me, and now how they are counted so little. People are searching for the newest songs, the newest things to try and replicate a feeling that we used to know old so well.

There are many of you out there probably reeling at some of these points, and I hope that you are. I hope that this is starting to get you to wonder how in the world this ties to a positive devotional.

To be honest, we go out into the churches of today and find that the humbleness, faithfulness, and true established desire of the people is going out. I know that it is not intentional for it to dwindle away, but everyone cannot question what we see; it is what it is. More than anything, I hear people wanting to issue complaints about how bad things are where they go, wanting to relocate in hopes of finding a place to feel like that they belong.

People get offended, upset with each other, and want to settle nothing. We want to just write someone off and go on, or do whatever we must to get them to go. Rather than address anything, things go unresolved and it’s just one more reason why we can’t worship the way we use to anymore. And if enough of this happens in one place, you then soon see the doors close up, literally and spiritually.

At this point, it is really hard to find a certain place to begin, but I think I have a pretty good idea of what to ask first.

So where is the love of God that is supposed to dwell within us? Well, it is easy to say “of course I have love”, but it’s completely different when push comes to shove. It’s easy to say that we love everyone, but turn away from someone that stands in need right in front of us. It’s easy to say that we love God and would do anything for him, and yet, we sit idly by in church services where we know good and well that people need help and encouragement. The bible talks about how without charity that most of what we can even do means nothing. Why are we forgetting this principle? We can preach the best, sing the prettiest, look the holiest, and yet, without that true love of God running our lives, it really bears no benefit to anyone or ourselves.

I believe that we should begin to start being in active practice of love. That means having all the qualities and virtues of it. Things like mercy, compassion, forgiveness, charitable, selflessness, are a MUST. That means being welcoming to those that you love and those you don’t know. That means opening your heart to those you favor, as well as those that you don’t. Most importantly, we are held accountable for our actions, so if we so chose to just blow off being obedient in this area, all that I can tell you is that we are what we eat.

This concept is hard to grasp, but if learned and used in the best spiritual capacity, is the most powerful way of not only leading people to Christ, but keeping people from ever feeling like that they do not fit in. We want you to know that we at Heart of Grace love you very much, and encourage you to be the best that you can everywhere that you are. Public or private, friend or foe, church or not, be the loving person that God has called you to be. Make it your goal to never let one person feel out of place. Remember, as the bible speaks on, greater is the joy when we find the one and leave the 99. And we only understand that joy when we do it. And we will only do it with love.

What To Do Now? Let’s Blurb!

It’s good to be writing to you all tonight. I am here to write a little “blurb” about what I have learned the past few days.

I have learned that it is never easy to be able to try and figure things out on your own. Trying to do this only leaves me to my own thoughts and understanding, and as obvious as it seems now, it’s hard to see in the moment. I hope that as I face my future valleys that I can remember the moments on the mountain, and to know that it took something to take me there: my Lord and my Savior!

I have also learned that without faith being in every instance of every trial, that the trial will run its course with no divine intervention. We start with faith the size of a grain of a mustard seed, and yet, that is only the beginning of it. That faith is meant to grow, meant to be cultivated, to be encouraged to something even bigger than our mind can contain. For without it, we can never grow to bear anything that will be of help to ourselves and to others.

Another important piece that I have obtained is the realization that people need each other. It is simply more convenient to think that everyone is okay, so we never bear the burdens of heavy hearts. It is simply easier to think “it’s someone else’s problem”. It’s so sad, but so true. I’m here to tell you that I am changing my frame of mind, and to realize that people need me. People need that anointing that God has placed in my life. For on my own, I am nothing, but God through me, I can do all things.

And finally, I will close with the thanks and gratitude to anyone and everyone out there that is supporting us in this ministry. We have had some things try and come to slow us down, but we are not stopping for anything! We are continuing forward, aspiring for the mark and high calling that we have read about! God bless you all!