Women of Influence

Photo by Rowan Chestnut on Unsplash

One of the most ludicrous charges against the Bible and Christianity that I have heard is the charge that God and the Bible are somehow misogynistic and anti-woman. Let me tell you, I don’t know how people come to that conclusion. They must not be reading the same Bible that I am reading. More likely, the filters over their eyes are so thick that they’ve bought into Satan’s lies about who God is and how He sees us as women. God has a special place in His heart for women. We are a special part of His creation. We have a role to play that no one else can play.

You’ve probably had people point to the passages on submission to our husbands as evidence that the Bible views women as second-rate citizens. This is a complete misunderstanding of what God means by submission. My husband loves the quote from My Big Fat Greek Wedding: “Let me tell you something Toula; the man is the head, but the woman is the neck and she can turn the head any way she wants.” My husband loves to point out to other women the power that they have to influence their husbands. That’s because God created us to be influencers.

When God created man in Genesis, He calls His creation good, but He acknowledges that it is not good that man is alone. He makes woman to be a companion to man, and then He calls His creation “very good.” Women are a special creation of God. As such, He values women just as much as He values men, but women and men were not created to be the same. We don’t have the same purpose. Women were created to be influencers. There are plenty of examples all throughout Scripture of women influencing the situation both for good and for bad.

Consider this: why did Satan go to Eve with his temptation to eat the fruit? Why didn’t he go to Adam? After all, Adam was the representative head of the human race. It wasn’t Eve’s sin that resulted in their eyes being open, it was Adam’s sin. Satan went to Eve because he recognized her created purpose. As a relational being meant to respond to Adam, Eve was designed to hold influence. Satan knew that if he could get Eve to eat, she would go to Adam and convince him to do the same. That’s exactly what we see happen. Eve falls to the temptation. She eats the fruit, and then she offers the fruit to Adam. He is influenced by Eve to eat the fruit. He takes a bite, and then their eyes are open and they see their nakedness.

Look at the story of Abraham. God has promised Abraham that he will be the Father of Nations. He has promised a son, but that promise doesn’t come to fruition immediately. Sarah gets tired of waiting for God to fulfill His promise. She decides to help God out and convinces Abraham to take her servant Hagar as a wife and have a son through her. Rebecca convinces Jacob to deceive his father and take the blessing from Esau. Delilah convinces Samson to reveal the secret to his strength and then uses it to capture him. Herodias’s daughter uses her influence over King Herod to ask for the head of John the Baptist on a platter! Women have incredible power to influence.

And it’s not all for bad things. Abigail uses her influence on David. Abigail is married to Nabal. He’s an arrogant, uncaring man. As David is hiding from Saul, Nabal treats his men badly. As a result, David is ready to kill everyone in Nabal’s family. Until Abigail finds out, that is. Abigail is told by one of the servants that David is coming and about the insult Nabal has given. So Abigail comes up with a plan to divert David from his plan of retribution. She packs food as a gift for David and his men, and she goes to David to beg forgiveness and mercy. She assumes responsibility for her husband’s error, and she reminds David that when he is king he doesn’t want to be guilty of bloodshed. David relents. He changes his mind about avenging himself on Nabal. He acknowledges Abigails wisdom for keeping him from sinning by avenging himself, and he goes on his way. Later, when the Lord strikes Nabal dead, David even marries Abigail.

And finally, Mary uses her influence on Jesus. Of course, as his mother, Mary influenced all of Jesus’ upbringing, but the story I’m thinking of is the wedding at Cana. Jesus hasn’t yet begun his public ministry. He attends a wedding, and the hosts run out of wine. Mary goes to Jesus and lets him know that they have run out of wine. He says that his time hasn’t come and basically asks her what she expects him to do. Mary doesn’t answer him. Instead, she goes to the servants and directs them to do whatever Jesus says. Mary’s influence is at work. Her faith that Jesus can and will handle this problem releases the Father to authorize Jesus to perform a miracle, and He does. He turns water into wine. His first officially recorded miracle, and it served no purpose other than to provide pleasure and to save some people from embarrassment. It’s all done at the request of His mother.

As women, we are powerful influencers. We can use this God-given ability for good or for evil. The choice is ours. We can change the atmosphere of a room to evil with gossiping and complaining, or we can change it to good with a peaceful, faith-filled attitude. We affect the atmosphere in our homes and in our families. Who are the prayer warriors at your church? I guarantee the list of names is mostly grandmotherly figures with a rock-solid faith known for their intercessory abilities! God made us to be influencers. It’s part of our design. We need to do it God’s way!

Seven Ways To Influence Things for Good:

  1. Know the Word of God. By knowing the Word, we not only know the will of God, but we have the truth that brings freedom to us. The world needs us to be free and to exercise our ability to influence the world on behalf of God’s freedom (John 8:31-32).
  2. Know the Holy Spirit. We need to be led by the Spirit. It’s His divine appointments that maximize our ability to influence the world around us. He wants to pour out His love and concern and kindness on all people and draw those who are unrepentant to repentance. The Bible says it is the kindness of God that draws men to repentance (Romans 2:4), and that kindness can be displayed in us as we walk by the direction of the Holy Spirit. Romans 8:14 says that those who are led by the Spirit are the children of God.
  3. Walk in love. John 13:34-35 says that those around us will know we are the disciples of Jesus by our love for one another. When we walk in love, we put God on display to the world around us because God is love.
  4. Set your hearts on purity. In the sermon on the mount, Jesus told his followers that the pure in heart were blessed because they would see God. Don’t you want to be known as a woman who sees God? What kind of influence could you have on the world around you if you were known as a person who sees God?
  5. Be self-controlled. 2 Peter 1: 5-8 says: “For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Self control is part of the process of knowing God. It will keep us from being ineffective. Self control brings us to maturity in Christ.
  6. Do not faint in the day of adversity. Proverbs 24:10 says that if we faint in the day of adversity, our strength is small. But we are not women of small strength. We serve a big God! The joy of the Lord is our strength. We have great faith and great tenacity. It’s up to us to hang on by faith and persevere through the tough times until we see the miracle God has waiting for us!
  7. Be steadfast. 1 Corinthians 15:58 says: “Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.” Working in ministry and laboring for the Lord positions us to hear from Him. When we put our roots down deep into the word of God, when we build our life upon the rock of Jesus Christ, we are steadfast. We are a shelter in the storms of the world. We are not ruled by our emotions. We are ruled by faith!

God made us to be an influence on the world around us! He values us as His daughters. We are his beloved bride. We are beautiful to Him. It doesn’t matter what the world says to us or what our thoughts say to us or what our feelings say to us. Our life should be grounded in His Word. It’s up to us to hold every thought captive unto Christ. Our identity in Christ is important. Our freedom in Christ is important. We can influence the world for Christ or for our own selfish gain. We mold the future through our children. It’s time we recognize our importance to the Kingdom of God, embrace the truth of who God says we are, and begin influencing the world for good!

He Clothes the Grass

Photo by Liana Mikah on Unsplash

Matthew 6:30

If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith?

As humans, we are worriers. We worry about how we will pay our bills. We worry about providing for our families. We worry about a lot of things. Sometimes we worry and pray. Sometimes we just worry. But worry is the opposite of faith. Worry says that we don’t trust God to keep His Word. Worry says that maybe God isn’t big enough to meet our problems. Worry says that it all depends on us.

How silly! God is more than able to meet our needs. God is more than able to take care of things without our help. There is nothing too big for God to handle. Sometimes, however, it’s easier to trust Him with big thing than it is to trust Him with the little things. God cares enough about the details to make sure those are taken care of as well.

Jesus reminds us that God cared enough about the fields to make the wildflowers as their clothes. If God cares about details like this that don’t matter to most of us, how much do you think He cares about the details that matter to you? Where is your faith? In your own ability? Or in a big God who loves you unconditionally and is ready, willing, and able to provide for all the details of your life?

Father, I thank you that you love me. I thank you that you are El-Shaddai, our God who is more than enough. There is no aspect of my life too small for you to notice, and there is no aspect of my life too big for you to handle. You care about it all, and you are just waiting for me to bring my needs to you and receive by faith the things you have promised. I hand my cares to you today, Lord. Thank you for providing for all of my needs. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Effective Prayers

Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

We all want to pray effective prayers. We want to see our prayers answered and to receive what it is we ask for. But how do we get there? How do we pray effective prayers that God answers? Well, the answer is both simple and difficult. The simple part is to pray effective prayers is to pray faith-filled prayers that align with the will of God. The difficult part is to recognize our authority in Christ and to position ourselves to receive the answers to our prayers. Both parts require us to understand the authority and position we have been given in Christ and to put that understanding into practice.

The thing that amazed the Jewish religious leaders about Jesus was his level of authority. When he was 12 years old, Jesus traveled with Mary and Joseph to Jerusalem. If you remember the story, Mary and Joseph leave Jerusalem after the Passover celebration and realize that Jesus is not with them. They return to Jerusalem to look for him and find him in the temple courts. Luke 2:47 says that everyone who heard Jesus was amazed at this understanding and his answers. When Jesus begins his public ministry and delivers the sermon on the mount, Matthew 7:28-29 says, “When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law.”

Authority is an incredibly important concept for us to grasp. It was a concept that the entire nation of Israel struggled with in regards to Christ. In Luke 7:1-10, we find the story of the Roman centurion who approaches Jesus for healing on behalf of his servant. He tells Jesus that there is no need for Jesus to come to his servant but only to speak the word. The centurion indicates that he knows this is the case because he understands the authority of Jesus. Jesus responds by healing the servant and saying he had not seen such faith in all of Israel! Jesus could perform the miracles that he did because he had the authority of the Father. As the Son of God, Jesus had full access to all the power of God the Father and could use it on His behalf.

In Luke 10:19, Jesus said: “I have given you power (authority) to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power (physical ability) of the enemy; nothing will (in any way) harm you.” As disciples of Jesus, we have been given his authority. We can operate with his power and on his behalf. That’s why Jesus told his disciples in John 14:12-14 that “whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.” When we ask for things in Jesus’ name, we are asking for them under the authority Jesus has given us. That is why Jesus said he will do it. It isn’t about us. It isn’t about our works or our righteousness. It is about Jesus’ position of authority in the kingdom and his delegation of that authority to us as his disciples.

Jesus tells his disciples in John 16:23-24 that “in that day, you will no longer ask (as in the sense of asking for a favor) me anything. Very truly I tell you, my Father will give me whatever you ask (as in the sense of demanding as a right with authority; demanding as an inheritance) in my name. Until now you have not asked (demanded as a right with authority) anything in my name. Ask (demand as a right with authority) and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.” Before Jesus delegated his authority to us, we could only ask God for things as if we were asking for a favor. Now that we are a part of the body of Christ, we are adopted into God’s family. We possess the authority that Jesus gave us. We possess the resurrection power of Jesus. Now, we can demand as a right of inheritance those things which God has already promised us through Christ.

There are many promises in the Bible available to us as believers, but how many of those promises are we actually experiencing in our every day life? If we aren’t experience those promises every day, there is a disconnect between the reality of our life and the Word of God. We know that God can not lie, so the disconnect is not on God’s end of the equation. God does not withhold any good thing from us. Instead, the disconnect must lie on our end of the equation. In order to see our prayers answered we must see it, believe it, and receive it.

We must see it. We have to have a picture from God about the promises we are trying to claim. We need to see them as reality in our lives. We do this with the eyes of our faith. Hebrews 11 is a list of those who received the promises of God through faith. They saw the promises as completed long before they saw the promises come to pass in their lives.

We must believe it. We have to believe the picture of that promise from God. We have to have a firm understanding of what it is that God is promising us. We have to trust that God’s Word is true. We have to believe that God is able to do what He has said He will do. We have to believe that God is willing to do what He has said He will do.

We must receive it. We need to understand our position of authority in Christ and stand on that to receive the answer to our prayers. It’s this part that is the most difficult for us. We can fall into the trap of thinking we are unworthy for God to answer our prayers, but answers are not based on our ability. They aren’t based on our righteousness. We don’t have righteousness apart from Christ. All our righteousness is as filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6). The answers are based on the righteousness of Christ. It’s all his power and his authority, and those are guaranteed!

Likewise, we can fall into the trap of faithless prayers. These prayers seem contrite on the surface. They ask God “if it be His will” to do such and such for us. Yes, it’s important to approach God in humility. It’s also important to approach God with reverence and respect, but Jesus commanded things to happen. Peter, when he approached the crippled man by the Gate Beautiful, likewise didn’t pray “God, heal this man if it be your will.” He commanded. It’s easy for us to separate ourselves from apostles and think that those men had something we don’t have, but really they are no different than us. We have the same authority that they had. If we lack anything, it’s a proper understanding of our authority and identity in Christ.

We can also refuse to receive. This is especially seen in areas of our life where we have linked our identity with something that isn’t God’s best. When Jesus approached the man at the Pool of Bethsaida he asked him if he wanted to be healed. That’s because this man had been sick for 38 years. His sickness could have been so linked to his sense of identity that he refused to receive. How often do we read promises in the Bible and believe that they are for someone else, but not for us? We say things like, “Oh, that’s just the way I am” or things to that effect, but who we are is completely defined by who God says we are. God is the ultimate source of truth, and He should be the ultimate source of our identity as well.

So if you want to pray more effective prayers, take a lesson from Paul. When Paul prayed for the believers, he always prayed that they be given revelation and knowledge of who God is and of what they have as an inheritance in Him. When we begin to understand our position of authority in Christ, when we begin to renew our mind so that our thoughts line up with God’s thoughts, we will not only know the good and perfect will of God (Romans 12:2), but we will also know how to pray commanding prayers….effective prayers….prayers full of faith that enable us to receive everything we ask in Jesus’ name.

Life In a Body

Photo by Rosie Fraser on Unsplash

The body is a miraculous organism. It’s form and function are simply incredible. Scientists and researchers have spent decades trying to understand the inner functioning of the body’s various systems. Every year, new discoveries are being made about how the body works. I find this stuff simply fascinating. I also love how the inspired word of God uses the body as a metaphor for the church. The more I learn about how the body works and what it does, the more insight I gain into how the church is supposed to function. There are some great books out there that link this kind of research together like those by Dr. Paul Brand.

1 Corinthians 12:12-27 gives us the metaphor linking our physical bodies and the church: “Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many. Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.

We often look at the passage and talk about the need for unity within our church body or the need to make sure we are each using our gifts to build up our local church body. We may even use it to encourage those who feel their gifts aren’t special enough to be used or to preach against feelings of jealousy or the need to compare ourselves to others within the church body as a whole, but how often do we focus on the words I put in bold? How often do we think about “having equal concern for each other?” In fact, we often gloss over the admonition that “if one part suffers, every part suffers with it.” We’re fine with rejoicing with others, but suffering is something different. None of us wants to suffer. It’s not a pleasant feeling, but it is a universal one and how we approach that in the body of Christ is important.

When your physical body is injured, mechanisms take place to transmit the pain sensation to the brain. Nerve receptors identify the sensation of pain and pass it along to the brain to deal with. At the same time, your immune system and cardiovascular system trigger an inflammatory response that begins the process of healing at the same time that you are registering that something has happened to your body. Pain is a pretty complex process involving a lot of working parts in the body. Pain signals the body that something is wrong, maybe even dangerously wrong. It clues us in to addressing the root cause of the pain in order to remedy the situation. Continuous pain can cause damage in our bodies all on its own.

I think the same is true of pain within the church. From time to time, each of us as individuals is going to feel pain. That pain might be physical. It might be emotional. It might be spiritual. Just as the cells within the body feel pain and need that pain to be transmitted to the brain to be handled, we as Christians need our pain to be transmitted to the head, which is Christ, in order to be dealt with. Sometimes, we can take that pain to Christ ourselves, but sometimes that pain is so overwhelming that we need help. We need the other members of our body to transmit the message for us and to help us with recovery and healing. Just as the cells of our physical bodies work together to handle pain, Christ’s body–the church–needs to work together to handle pain within the body of Christ.

Chronic pain in your physical body can have harmful effects. Chronic pain in the church body can do the same thing. When you have someone who is suffering or offended or irritated for a long time, they can cause strife and division within their local church body as they pass on the reason for their offense and their negative feelings to others. Dwelling on offense or pain caused by other members of the body isn’t healthy. Just as we want to be sure to address chronic pain in our physical bodies, we need to speak truth and healing to those with chronic offense and pain in our church bodies. We need to make sure those brothers and sisters receive the healing they need before they cause significant damage to the local church body.

When you go to a brother or sister in the Lord with pain, you can get a variety of responses. Some are better than others. You may get platitudes about how putting your trust in God will solve all your issues. I like to think of that as being offered “painkillers.” Painkillers may work in the short term to dull the pain, but they don’t actually address the root cause or facilitate any kind of healing. The long term use of painkillers has a negative impact on the body. You may get judgement about what you’ve done to cause your pain. This happened with Job. His friends were so convinced that his suffering was the result of his sin that they spent their time judging him in an attempt to comfort him. If you’ve ever experienced this response, you know it isn’t helpful and can do more harm than good. Sometimes, you get brothers and sisters willing to surround you, walk with you through your suffering, intercede on your behalf, and help begin the real process of healing. That’s the best response!

If you’ve been following my blog for a while, then you know that our family is in some significant spiritual warfare right now. We are suffering. Many times, we take this pain to the Lord directly, and He answers our prayers with His peace that passes understanding and His strength to keep pushing forward through this valley. Sometimes, however, the pain is just overwhelming and we struggle. This past week, a bunch of minor things hit me and just really overwhelmed me. My youngest son gave me his cold. I had a week without visits because the foster mom took the boys on vacation with her family so I only saw Inara. When I finally got a make-up visit with the boys there was a lot of misbehavior because they wanted attention and a bit of crying because they missed their foster mom. Those kinds of things generally result in a negative review by the foster workers because if your kids act out, even if you respond to that, they feel it’s “bad parenting” on your part. My husband was feeling the stress of all this foster care business along with stress at work, so that resulted in fighting between the two of us. I was struggling to feel God’s presence in my daily worship and Bible reading time. It just felt incredibly overwhelming!

At my Monday night Bible study, while trying to answer a question about religious duty versus true discipleship, I just burst into tears. I apologized and just said I had been struggling with everything. My sisters were quick to listen as I poured out all my heartache. The Bible study just stopped, and they surrounded me with prayers of intercession on my behalf. Suddenly, God’s presence was in that room. He was in those prayers being offered on my behalf. He was in the laying on of hands as these women did battle for me in the heavenlies. He even responded with a prophetic word to my situation. These lovely sisters did what a body should do. They recognized pain in a member and they rushed in to transmit that pain to the head (Jesus Christ) and to offer healing. They surrounded me. God gave me an overwhelming sense of peace and strength. I was able to renew my trust that He is not shaken by circumstances even when I am. I am so thankful to my sisters in Christ for their godly response to my pain and for the healing they offered me!

That’s what the body is for! It’s easy for us to remember to rejoice with those experiencing joy, but we also need to remember that we are to hurt with those who hurt. Let us surround them in prayer, lift them up to heaven, march them into the throne room, and help them find healing. Let us not forget our brothers and sisters who are not in our local body but are suffering in areas around the world where persecution in heavy. Let us not forget to lift them up with intercession before the Lord and to send them messages of comfort, healing, and strength in whatever way we can so that they know they are not alone.

Avoiding Unnecessary Detours

Photo by Jamie Street on Unsplash

Proverbs 3:5 (MSG)

“Trust God from the bottom of your heart; don’t try to figure out everything on your own. Listen for God’s voice in everything you do, everywhere you go; he’s the one who will keep you on track.“

Yesterday we talked about the importance of committing our ways to the Lord and giving Him final say over the direction of our lives. Today’s verse reminds us of the importance of following God. God can’t be figured out. If we could figure out the ways of God with our own finite minds, He wouldn’t be much of a God! The truth is that God’s thoughts are above our thoughts and His ways are above our ways. There’s no way we’re going to figure them out. We just can’t see that big!

So we need to trust in God. He has great plan for us. Plans to prosper us. He knows exactly what our purpose is and what path we should take. When we rely on God to point the way and we listen closely to the voice of the Holy Spirit, we can be sure that we are on the path of God’s will and His favor. It’s only when we go off on our own way that we end up with unexpected twists and turns that take us out of God’s will. That’s a place none of us want to be.

So before you find yourself on a dead end road, turn your life over to God. Trust in His plans for you. Listen for His direction. Ask for His wisdom. And seek to stay so close to Him that you can follow Him anywhere because you’re right behind Him, holding His hand every step of the way!

Father, I thank you that I don’t have to worry about my path in life. I don’t have to be anxious and concerned that I might take a wrong turn or go the wrong way. I can trust in you fully to get me where you want me to be. Father, help me to trust you with all my heart. Teach me to listen to your still small voice of direction. Give me guidance and direction every step of the way. Help me follow closely after you. I know if I do, I will always be in your will and experience your favor. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Commit Your Ways

Photo by Jacob Meves on Unsplash

Psalm 37: 3-6

“Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him and he will do this: He will make your righteous reward shine like the dawn, your vindication like the noonday sun.”

We all make plans. Failure to plan is planning to fail, right? But how often do we then take those plans and commit them to the Lord? The answer is probably not often. We make our plans, we go about our business, but if we don’t commit them to the Lord and trust Him to do what’s best for us we can get frustrated when our paths meet an unexpected detour. When God has His own plans for our life that we ignore, sometimes He steps in with huge detours to our carefully laid plans.

Jonah is a great example of this. He was a prophet of God, following the Lord, and until the call to go to Nineveh, he had been obedient to what God wanted him to do. Then came the call to go to Nineveh, and Jonah decided not to commit his way to the Lord anymore. He made his own plans. He went the opposite direction. But God is still God. No matter how far we run in the opposite direction, God still has the ability to stop us in our tracks. With Jonah, it was a reality check in the form of a large storm and then a big fish.

Rather than be married to our own plans for our life, we should commit our ways to the Lord. That means that we bring our desires and plans to God, but we ultimately hand them over to God. If He wants something else for us, if He wants to detour us on the road we have chosen for ourselves, we go along with it. Why? Because we know that God wants the best for us. Sometimes we can’t always see the ultimate best for us. We plan for good, but not always for best. God always plans for best. He knows the deepest desires of our heart and what will bring us ultimate happiness and satisfaction, and He knows the path that will get us there.

So commit your ways to the Lord. Let Him change your plans if He wants to. Let Him interrupt your walk with a detour of His own. It’s guaranteed to get you to best faster than your own way ever will!

Father, I thank you that you want the best for me. I thank you that you see all things. You know the deepest desires of my heart and what I truly need to get there. If my desires for my life are wrong, change them, Lord. If you want me on another path than the one I’ve planned for myself, interrupt me, Lord. I commit my ways to you. I trust in you to lead me on the best path for the best result for my life because you are God and you love me. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Confessions Of Faith

Photo by Glenn Carstens-Peters on Unsplash

We know our words have creative power. We also know that if we want to receive all the blessings that God has in store for us we have to receive them by faith. The best way to exercise our faith to receive is through confessions of faith. No, this is not name it and claim it theology. Just because exercising your faith requires confessions of faith to receive doesn’t mean you can claim whatever you want and believe that you receive it and it’s yours.

There have been lots of teachings that say that God wants to give you whatever you want. They manipulate the verses about speaking in faith and believing that you receive to make God out to be some kind of magic genie in a bottle who grants all your wishes. That’s not what we’re talking about here. God is not some magic genie in a bottle. You can’t just say some magic words or repeat some “guaranteed” prayer and expect to win the lottery or get a boat or a new car or whatever it is you’re “naming and claiming.” This kind of belief makes a mockery of the holiness and sovereignty of God. It’s completely unbiblical!

No, you can’t name and claim whatever takes your fancy, but you can stand on the promises of God’s Word and put them to work in your life. We know that God’s Word does not return void. He makes sure that His Word is fulfilled (Isaiah 55:11). So when we stand on the promises of God’s Word, we are in safe territory. We can speak those words by faith and activate them in our life because we know that what we ask is in accordance with His will and that confidence is what allows us to ask and receive (1 John 5:14-15).

You may be dubious about the idea of speaking out the promises of God in order to receive them by faith. After all, what’s the big deal about speaking it out? Can’t you just pray silently and have the same effect? Well, yes and no. Yes, you can pray silently, and God will hear you just the same. But God also told us to speak. When Jesus was talking to His disciples about faith He said, “Have faith in God. Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him.” (Mark 11: 22-24) Notice that Jesus didn’t say “whoever prays about his mountain.” He said, “whoever says to this mountain.” That’s what a confession of faith is. It’s speaking the promises of God to your problem.

It’s important that we hear things over and over again to truly remember them and believe them, so speaking the promises of God out loud over our situations is a big part of activating our faith. There’s a difference between possessing something and using something. My grandmother possessed three pressure cooker pots. She used none of them. The fact that she had the pressure cookers was great. If she ever needed to pressure cook something, the pot was right there ready to be used. But if she never used the pot, it did her no good to possess it. We possess faith. All of us do. The Bible says that God has given to each man the measure of faith (Romans 12:3), but just because we all possess the measure of faith doesn’t mean we all use our faith effectively.

2 Corinthians 4:13 says, “Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, “I believed, and so I spoke,” we also believe, and so we also speak.” Isn’t this how we were saved in the first place? We believed in our heart that Jesus was Lord and confessed with our mouth that God raised Him from the dead and we were saved (Romans 10: 9). Why, then, does it seem so far fetched to believe that this is the pattern to receive all the blessings offered to us in Christ the same way that we received the salvation offered to us in Christ?

If you’re struggling, though, don’t worry. The Galatians struggled as well. They had received their salvation and begun serving the Lord, but some trouble makers came in to stir up trouble in the church by insisting that the church needed to demonstrate their obedience to certain requirements of God’s law. Paul found out about the struggle and admonished them by saying:

“You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. 2 I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by believing what you heard? 3 Are you so foolish? After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh? 4 Have you experienced so much in vain—if it really was in vain? 5 So again I ask, does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you by the works of the law, or by your believing what you heard?

Galatians 3:1-5

Sometimes we do the same thing. We might not be struggling with issues like kosher dietary laws or circumcision, but we can all fall into the trap of relying on works to earn favor with God. How many times have you thought, “I’ve been reading my Bible everyday, so God will answer this prayer”? Or “Maybe if I go to church more or tithe more or pray more, God will do this for me”? It’s an easy trap to fall into. We get stuck in the mindset that we have to be perfect for God to bless us or that God has some cosmic accounting system where He figures up all the things we’ve done right against all the things we’ve done wrong in order to determine whether or not we receive something from Him.

But that’s not biblical either! We don’t earn our salvation. We are saved by grace through faith and not through our works (Ephesians 2:8). If that’s how we receive the biggest blessing God has for us–our salvation–why do we think we have to do something different to receive the other blessings of God: blessings like healing, provision, wisdom, etc. God is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8). Since God doesn’t change, the laws governing His kingdom don’t change either. If we attain the blessing of salvation by a confession of faith, we attain all God’s blessing by the same means.

Ephesians 1:3 tells us that God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing. They are ready and waiting for us to receive them. Isaiah 30:18 tells us that the Lord earnestly waits to be gracious to us. He is ready and waiting to bless us. There’s no cosmic accounting sheet set aside to determine our worth. What holds us back from receiving is the fact that we aren’t using the faith we possess.

So look at the areas of your life where you need God’s blessing. Search the Scriptures to find the verses of promise that related to that area of your life. What has God promised in relation to your need? Then begin to speak that Word in agreement with God. Activate your faith by making a confession of faith in agreement with the promises God has already given you. You’ll begin to see a change as you position yourself to receive by faith the things that God has already given you. It may take time for it to manifest in the physical realm, but it will happen because God’s Word is true and does not return void.

Dry Bones

Photo by Fred Pixlab on Unsplash

The Lord sees things that we don’t see. I know that seems pretty elementary. I mean we all know this, but we don’t all believe it. We say things like “God’s ways are not our ways” or “God sees things we can not see,” but inside we still want to be able to understand God. We still think that He should see things the way we see them, do things the way we want them done, and give us what we’re asking for. We still struggle with the fact that God runs an upside-down kingdom where to be the leader you have to serve and to have victory means to completely surrender.

Sometimes it seems like the dry seasons of our life are never-ending. That’s how the nation of Israel felt during the time of Ezekiel. The nation had been torn apart after the death of Solomon and had split into two nations: Israel, which included 10 of the 12 tribes, and Judah, which included the tribe of Judah and the tribe of Benjamin. Israel was defeated by the Assyrians and scattered around the world. Now, it was Judah’s turn. First, members of the royal family and the ruling elite were taken to Babylon. Then, Babylon eventually overthrew Jerusalem. Only a remnant was left.

Ezekiel was a priest. He had trained to serve in the temple, but he was taken to Babylon along with others like Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. These young men served God faithfully while in captivity. They probably questioned God’s purpose in all of this. I’m sure Ezekiel did. After all, what use is a priestly inheritance when there is no temple? But God sees what we do not see, and He gifted Ezekiel as a prophet. Two of Ezekiel’s prophecies are quite famous. Most people have at least heard reference to the “wheel within a wheel” and “the valley of dry bones.” There are even songs about the latter.

I’d like to take a look at this latter prophecy, the Valley of Dry Bones found in Ezekiel 37: 1-14.

**Again, my disclaimer about interpreting books of prophecy applies here. Unless God has said the prophecy has been fulfilled or has declared the full meaning of prophecy, we can’t give definitive answers on the meaning. God is the one speaking through the prophet, and so He is the only one who can declare for certain the meaning and fulfillment of prophetic utterance.**

“The hand of the Lord was on me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. 2 He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. “

So Ezekiel is in prayer, probably. He is taken by the Spirit of the Lord to a valley. There’s lots of debate on whether Ezekiel was actually taken to a valley full of bones or whether this was a vision. I don’t really think it matters. Either way, it’s a pretty gruesome picture. Here Ezekiel is in a valley full of bones. Now, Ezekiel is a priest. He isn’t supposed to touch the dead. Touching the dead makes him unfit for service in the temple. It makes him unclean unless the body belongs to a close relative, and here he is in a valley full of nothing but the bones of the dead. Can you imagine? And God is leading him back and forth among the bones. I imagine it was probably extremely uncomfortable for Ezekiel to be in such close proximity to the dead. He must have been wondering what God was doing here.

The other thing to note here is that the bones are very dry. It takes several years for a body to decompose, although that time is faster when unburied, and it takes a bit after that for the bones themselves to dry out. These aren’t recently dead people. They have been dead for a while. Everything that had the potential for life is gone from them. There is no marrow in them anymore, no cells that produce blood cells of any kind. They are thoroughly and completely dead. They are dry. They are turning to dust.

And it’s in the midst of this death that God asks a strange question:

3 He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?”

Now, I have to say that if God had asked me a question like this I would say an emphatic “No!” After all, these bones are dry. There is no life-giving potential in them anymore. They are done for, but Ezekiel has a history with the Lord. He has walked with the Lord for a while now. He has seen visions from the Lord before, and he gives a very different answer. To me, Ezekiel’s answer is full of faith.

I said, “Sovereign Lord, you alone know.”

Ezekiel isn’t willing to discount the ability of God. He doesn’t say “God, I’m sorry, but the idea of resurrecting these bones is completely ridiculous!” He sees a valley full of dry bones. He knows that these bones have not lived in a very long time. He knows that in the natural order of things, these bones won’t ever live again. BUT, he also knows the God he serves. He knows that this is the one true God. This is the God who created the heavens and the earth. If God speaks, things happen, and so Ezekiel answers with full faith in who God is. If God wants these bones to live, Ezekiel knows that that is exactly what they will do.

4 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! 5 This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. 6 I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’” 7 So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. 8 I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them.

So Ezekiel is commanded to prophesy to the bones. He is to speak the Word of the Lord to them. After all, God spoke creation into existence. The Word of God contains creative force. It contains life itself. So Ezekiel speaks in agreement with God’s Word. He speaks life over the bones. Notice, too, that God doesn’t just tell Ezekiel to speak haphazardly over these bones either. There’s an order to what God wants spoken: tendons, then flesh, then skin, then breath, then life. God always has an order to what He is doing. He always has a systematic process, and God is going to do this life-giving work from the inside out.

So Ezekiel begins speaking to the bones, and there was a noise and a rattling sound as the bones came together. Can you imagine how that must have sounded? How it must have looked? Can you imagine the thoughts that must have entered Ezekiel’s mind? These are bones that have been left out unburied after a great battle. The birds and scavenging animals have picked them clean. They’ve been carried all over the place and scattered as animals fed on the remains, and now they’re whipping back together, each bone to its own skeleton! And as if that weren’t enough, tendons and flesh began to form on the skeletons. That’s a pretty gruesome picture!

When you begin to partner with God and speak His Word of life over your own dead bones, there will be some noise. There will be some shaking. It will be chaotic for a moment and disconcerting. It may even be down right frightening because we all like to stay in our status quo comfort zone area of life. As a general rule, we don’t really like change. If we’ve been living in death for a while, it’s going to be a bit scary stepping out into the abundant life that God calls us to.

But notice that nowhere in the text does it say that Ezekiel wavered in his faith in God. Nowhere does it say that he allowed his fear to get the better of him or that his doubt over came him. Somehow Ezekiel kept it together while these bodies were being rebuilt from the inside out. This priest, completely out of his comfort zone, trusted God enough to wait to see what would ultimately come out of all this mess. And we need to have that kind of mindset too. Yes, in the midst of rebirth, things are going to look messy. They are going to look anything but good, but God isn’t finished yet. We can trust that God knows what He is doing. His finished work is going to make all this discomfort and fear seem small in comparison.

Notice another thing here. At the end of this section, Ezekiel is standing among a vast army of bodies. These bodies are fully formed, but they still lack life. Many times, we are like this as well. We are the walking dead, trying to do things in our own power without the spirit of God working. That’s one of the reasons many people apply this vision to the church in calls for revival. It takes more than just the operational components. It takes more than just adequate organization. It takes more than just the parts. We can have all those details in place and still lack life!

9 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Come, breath, from the four winds and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’” 10 So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army.

Now the bones are alive! The Spirit of God in the form of the wind has blown into the bodies. They are alive because the Spirit of God is inside them. Now, they are prepared. We get a glimpse of their purpose here as well: a vast army. When God brings us back to life with His Spirit, He intends for us to go to battle on His behalf. He intends for us to take on the enemy and gain back territory and expand the kingdom. We aren’t given rebirth and new life so that we can sit around and wait until some future heaven. We are given life so that we can expand the kingdom here and now.

11 Then he said to me: “Son of man, these bones are the people of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.’ 12 Therefore prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: My people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel. 13 Then you, my people, will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. 14 I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the Lord have spoken, and I have done it, declares the Lord.’”

This part is extremely important. As a general rule, most people stop reading at verse 10, but remember what I said earlier about books of prophecy? This is one place where God gives Ezekiel the meaning of this vision. This vision is about the people of Israel as a nation. God promises to restore them to life, to bring them back to the land He promised them, to put His spirit within them.

The cool thing about prophecy is that there are generally layers of fulfillment. Rabbis often consider this vision to have both a corporate, national level of fulfillment as well as an individual level of fulfillment. They see resurrection as both an individual thing and a corporate thing. This is one of the reasons that the Pharisees and Sadducees of Jesus’ time differed in their understanding of what happens to the soul at death. The Pharisees pointed to this vision as evidence of a resurrection of the dead at some future Messianic age. The Sadducees said the soul died with the body and that there was no such thing as a resurrection.

There are teachers that say that this prophecy came to pass when the nation of Israel was established in 1948. They point to the Holocaust as the valley of dry bones and the establishment of Israel as an independent nation as God’s fulfillment of His promise of rebirth and return to the land. I’m not saying that that’s wrong. But there seems to be more to this because at the moment, Israel does not have all of the land God originally gave them, and I would say that they also do not necessarily have His Spirit living in them either. It seems there is another, future, layer of fulfillment still to come.

This is also why we need to be careful with Old Testament prophecy. The Bible tells us that all scripture is for us, but not all scripture is to us. Yes, we can apply this prophecy to our lives on an individual and a corporate basis because we are the spiritual children of Israel as the church, but ultimately we have to be careful to remember that God said this prophecy was specifically to the nation of Israel. That means total fulfillment of this prophecy has not happened until every detail has been accomplished in the literal nation of Israel itself.

So, then what do we do with this passage as the church? The consensus seems to be that we view these dry bones as ourselves. We were dead in our sins. We were past all hope of life. Until God…and then we were offered new birth through Christ, an infilling of God’s Spirit, and we became a new creation. We are called to prophecy to the dry bones of those around us who are still dead in their sins so that they, too, can experience the resurrection power of Jesus in their lives. But also, we can view these dry bones as the areas in our life that appear dead and beyond hope. We can offer those places in our life, in our hearts, in ourselves to God and trust that He can breathe new life into them. Because God is a God of life, nothing is impossible for Him. Nothing it too dead for Him to resurrect it and give it new life.

And we can pray for the ultimate fulfillment of this prophecy in the actual, physical nation of Israel. It is a wonderful promise of what God plans to do when Jesus returns. He will resurrect the nation of Israel from where they are scattered. He will restore them fully as a nation. He will fully restore their territory, and He will put His Spirit within them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0P4YdXz3LAI

Sea Sick

Photo by Oscar Keys on Unsplash

James 1:6 (TPT)

“Just make sure you ask empowered by confident faith without doubting that you will receive. For the ambivalent person believes one minute and doubts the next. Being undecided makes you become like the rough seas driven and tossed by the wind. You’re up one minute and tossed down the next.”

Have you ever spent time with an indecisive person? First they want one thing, but as soon as you go to do that they want another thing. They go first in one direction then in another. They can’t make up their mind, and you feel dragged back and forth as they try desperately to figure out what it is they want to do. It’s enough to make you sea sick!

That’s what James is talking about here. When we approach God, we do so with confident, calm assurance that He hears us. He may not give us exactly what we’ve asked for, but we know that He gives us exactly what we need. We know that if what we had in mind is not for us, God will replace it with something better. God is steady, calm, and dependable, and He desires that we also are steady, calm and dependable as we rely on Him.

When we go to God with doubt eating away at us, when we allow that doubt to change our minds back and forth and back and forth, we allow our circumstance to toss us all over the place. We can’t be calm, steady, or dependable if we’re focused on the circumstance around us. Instead, we have to go deeper with God. Below the surface of the ocean, there’s a layer that is calm and steady. It isn’t tossed about by the wind. No matter what is happening on the surface, in this deep level, everything is peaceful.

That’s God’s desire for our hearts as well. When we find our circumstances throwing us back and forth between faith and doubt, it’s our cue to go deeper with God–to remember who He is and what He has promised and to approach Him with calm assurance that’s firmly based in His word and not in our circumstance. When we approach God this way, we can be sure we are positioned to receive from Him what He has been waiting to give us.

Father, sometimes my life feels like waves on the surface of the sea. Nothing is going right, and I’m surrounded by chaos. I know in those times, I can find peace in you. I can go deeper with you and rely on your word, on your promise to me. I know your promises are an anchor in the storm. They keep me steady and calm no matter what is going on around me. So today, Father, I choose to go deeper. I am standing on the rock of your word. I’m approaching you in calm assurance that you hear me, that you love me, and that you want only the best for me. I’m ready to receive what you have for me, Father. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Pleasing God

Photo by Diana Simumpande on Unsplash

Hebrews 11:6

“And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”

What pleases God? It isn’t our works. All our works are like filthy rags to God. No, what God desires has always been relationship. God wants to have a relationship with us, but what kind of relationship can you have with someone if you think they’re out to get you? Or if you think they’re constantly judging you? What if you don’t think they really exist–like that person on the online dating app that you could swear is not a real person?

Chances are that you won’t have relationship with any of those people. Relationship requires some trust. You have to believe the person exists. Beyond that, you have to believe that they want relationship with you. You have to believe that they want good for you, at least most of the time, and that they accept and love you. That’s what we build relationships on.

It’s no different with God. In order to have a relationship with Him, we have to believe that He exists. Beyond that, we have to believe that He loves us and wants what’s good for us. In short, we have to believe that He wants a relationship with us. That belief forms the basis of faith. That’s why faith pleases God…because it’s the foundation of our relationship with Him.

Father, thank you that you are a loving God. You want a relationship with me. You aren’t hiding from me. You aren’t judging me. You aren’t just waiting to punish me. You want the best for me because you love me. You want me to have a relationship with you. Father, thank you for the opportunity to have a relationship. It’s not about what I can do. It’s about spending time with you as my Heavenly Father and having a close connection to you like I have with others in my life. Thank you for that beautiful gift of relationship with you. In Jesus’ name, Amen.