Power Of Rainbows

Key Scripture:  “ The rainbow shall be in the cloud and I will look on it to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.”  Genesis 9:16

Power Point:

     Recently, I saw this picture on Facebook.  I couldn’t stop looking at how extraordinary it was.  Of course the picture speaks for itself, as the storm was drawing the colors from the rainbow, the rainbow remained unchanged. It remained full of color.

I guess the reason that this spoke to me was that I have always looked at rainbows as a symbol of God’s promises to me.  What this storm was trying to do was to rob the rainbow of its power for color and life.  That’s what storms always try to do isn’t it?  They want to drain the color from our faces, the dreams from our hearts, and the promises of power from our faith.

If you look carefully, you will notice that nothing has diminished the rainbow.  It is still there in all its glory. But the storm is now being consumed with the colors of the rainbow. The storm is being transformed, not the rainbow.

     Since I have earned my graduate degree in surviving the storms of life, this gives me great hope.  What do I see?  Glad you asked!

I see that God’s promises always maintain their life and their color. They never fade.

I see that God’s promises change the atmosphere of any storm that comes against us. 

I see that the storm may initially look more powerful, but the rainbow remains intact.

I see that God always sees the rainbow. It’s been placed between heaven and earth forever.  Whenever God looks at earth, He sees the glorious beauty of the covenant promise He has made with us.

I see that if we choose to see the rainbow over our lives, we will continually be reminded of the covenant promises of our Father.  No storm is bigger than God’s promises to us is it?

No problem is bigger than God’s promises to us is it?

   

     Like Abraham, we need to know what God has promised us, and then we need to stop the storms from draining the color from them. We need to follow Him to find the pot of gold at the end.

      If you’re feeling a little pale today, look up Beloved. There’s a whole sky full of promises for you from the One who loves you so very much. Reach up and pull them down.
Your atmosphere will change color-and so will you!

Power Thought:

Keep going for the pot of gold.

Copyright © 2014, Suzanne Roberts, Unpublished Work

Power Of Staying At Your Post

Key Scripture:  “Why are you here, Elijah?” I Kings 19:13

Power Point:

     Elijah had a very powerful reputation.  When he SPOKE something, God DID something.  In 1 Kings 17, you can read the story of Elijah  and King Ahab, and his very nasty wife, Jezebel. Elijah goes to the people and to the prophets, and says, “How long are you going to be wishy-washy about God?”  (Suzanne Translation). He offers them a chance to have a challenge between Baal and the real God. Not surprisingly, Baal doesn't shows up. Elijah stirs the pot a little:

“Perhaps your god is busy, or he is meditating “Maybe if you cry louder, he will hear you and come. They cried louder. There was no voice, no one answered and no one paid attention."  I guess Baal was on vacation.

     Ultimately of course, Elijah calls on Jehovah.  And of course, there are lots of fire works and the people turn back to Jehovah.  It is an extraordinary story of God showing up for His servants.

Extraordinary. Amazing. God used Elijah to turn a nation to Him and He honored his faith.

     Then comes the most stunning turn around in Biblical history.  Jezebel decides she’s had enough of Elijah. Elijah hears that she is going to have him killed. Elijah leaves his post. He is depressed. He is afraid. He is discouraged.

      God finds him in the place he has run to, and says, “What are you doing here Elijah?”  Now that’s a question I don’t want to hear from God.  How about you?

      I’ve had times when I’ve moved away from my post haven’t you?

Then finally, one day, I wake up and hear God saying, ‘What are you doing here Suzanne?  You’re supposed to be there! That’s where My purposes are for you. Are you ready to move back to the place of My power and blessing?”

     In the Garden, (Luke 22:40)  Jesus gave the disciples one command:  “Stay here and pray that you may not enter into temptation”.  They fell asleep at their post. Twice. We all know what happened next. Poor Peter. Would he have betrayed Jesus if he had stayed at his post?
     The truth is Beloved, there is a reason why God has placed us where we are. There’s a reason why He cautions us to be alert and not be missing in action. His calling on our life is for our good and the good of His kingdom.  He’s got a plan. And He's given you His command. It may not make sense to you but it makes perfect sense to Him.

     One of the things that I treasure most about Jesus is that He stayed at His post.  He stayed in the Garden until He had the victory in His spirit that would help Him complete His mission.  He stayed on the Cross even though it was hell at its best.  He completed His calling. He finished his job.

     Today He is still at His post.  Where is that, you might ask?  Seated above all power and authority and every name that is named so that He can pray for you.  When you are AWOL, HE prays for you. When you fall asleep at your post, He prays for you.

     He stays connected to the Holy Spirit in you and prays for your deliverance, and for your strength. He's praying right now for your honor to be upheld, your body to be healed, and your dreams to be fulfilled.  He never leaves His post.

Isn’t that a great thought?

No matter where I’ve run, He knows where I am.  No matter how difficult my circumstances, He knows where I am.  No matter how much evil is surrounding me, He overcomes it in prayer.

      Right now, there are probably angels that He has sent, moving into position around you, ready to carry out the Word of His power in your life.

Where are you Beloved?

Get back to your post.

Power Thought:

Wherever God has placed you, it's a place you are supposed to be for Him to finish His work. Stay there until the job is done.

Copyright © 2014, Suzanne Roberts, Unpublished Work

Power Of Real Faith

Key Scripture: "And now to the God who is able to do, exceedingly abundantly beyond all that you ask or even think."  Ephesians 3:20

"We walk by faith, not by sight."  2 Corinthians 5:17

Power Point:

Are you praying what you SEE?

     We have so many wonderful promises from Him that we only see in our spiritual hearts for the moment.  If you remember, Abraham had  been promised a son. Many years passed and there was no child for he and Sarah.  If we were able to be a fly on the wall in his prayer time, his prayers may have sounded a bit like this:

"Well, Father, it's been ten years now since You first promised me that I would be a father to many nations. So far, I only have one child and I don't know if You've noticed, but I am getting older and Sarah, well, there doesn't appear to be a lot of life left in those old bones. She's sad and that makes me sad. She's sorry that she laughed.  Did you know that people are laughing at me behind my back?  Are you aware that this is hard?  Did I hear you incorrectly?  Have You changed Your mind? Did I do something wrong?"

     Oh. Sorry. That actually sounds more like one of MY prayers than one of Abraham's prayers.

     Scripture says that "Abraham believed God".  He didn't waiver. I'm pretty sure that means that he didn't come running in to God's presence saying all the things that HE saw and none of what GOD saw and said.  Abraham is the Father of the Faith because when he prayed, he believed God. God heard faith from his lips.

     Remember when Abraham challenged God on Sodom and Gomorrah? Even Lot, (who left a "lot" to be desired in terms of righteousness), was saved by the audacity of Abraham's prayers.

     Abraham didn't consider his own body. He didn't get out of the shower in the morning, look at himself in the mirror and say, "OH NO!"  He didn't fix his eyes on himself, on the impossibilities that were patently obvious. He fixed His eyes on the One who was able to do exceedingly abundantly beyond all that he could think to ask.

     When Abraham died, the fruit of the sons of the nations was still unseen. He didn't SEE those sons in the natural but I'm pretty sure that as Isaac sat by his deathbed, they chatted about the all the sons to come. That is what faith does. It does not walk by what it does not see and it does not pray according to what it sees.

     Faith grabs hold of what God sees, and what God has promised.  It SEES the end from the beginning.  Faith may not see the next step on the path but it knows that step is there.

Faith trusts that God will put His foot down so that you can walk in His footsteps.

Faith doesn't pray problems. It doesn't fix its thoughts there. It captures the thoughts of God and holds them firmly in place. Captivated hearts are fixed and set in stone so that what GOD thinks is what fills the mind and heart.

Faith says that there is a problem but that God has promises. Faith sets its heart on the promises and the character of the One Who has promised.

Faith asks for God's wisdom.  
Faith expects answers. 
Faith doesn't take the easy way out by talking about what is going on in the natural. Faith talks about the goodness of God and the exceedingly abundant answers on the way.

Faith declares what God declares.  
Faith believes what God believes.

Faith sees what God sees.

Power Thought:

There is an exceedingly abundant answer in your future. Do you see what God sees there?

Copyright © 2014, Suzanne Roberts, Unpublished Work

Power Of Sweetness

 Key Scripture: “It is the kindness of God that causes us to think differently.” Romans 2:5

"wood, hay and stubble..." 1 Corinthians 3:12

Power Point:

     I’ve been so privileged to build some things for the Lord.  There have been some really good things. I was quite impressed!  Then one day, as I was leading a group of women into what I thought was a glorious understanding of the goodness of God, I discovered that I was hitting them over the head with my astounding revelations of His goodness. They were not receptive.  Why?  Because I hadn't laid the foundation in my own life for His kindness. I had skipped the part where I was supposed to be kind, be good, and be sweet. What I was doing was simply, wood, hay, and stubble.

There was division and frustration and finally one day I sat down and told the Lord that He simply needed to do something with them. They just weren't "getting it"! Quietly, as He is prone to do, (when I finally shut up), He spoke to my heart and said, “Suzanne, are you showing them what I’m really like or what you’re really like without My goodness? Ouch.  “Are you demonstrating my patient love, kindness and gentleness? Or are you trying to force it down their throats without applying it to your own heart first.” Busted. I was, in effect, saying, "Do what I say, not what I do!" I knew what I had read.  It made sense to my head but I hadn’t changed direction in my own heart.  Pride always blames someone else, doesn’t it?  God had been patient.  Now I could see that I needed to step back from that place of leadership until I learned what servant leadership was. I needed to cultivate an intimacy with Him that would cause others to want to be more like Him. From that place of intimacy, there should come a kindness, a bold kindness, a bolder gentleness and an even bolder patience.

       How much time do we spend pressing into that intimate place of His goodness?  We often run in for a quick charge of His power or a quick dose of patience and we don’t even smell the roses of His sweet aroma of His presence.

In addition to power, wouldn’t it be lovely to experience a double dose of His sweetness and kindness?  In addition to patience, wouldn’t a spoonful of His sweetness help the medicine go down? Isn't that what causes us to think differently?

     In America we are very devoted to power aren’t we? We’re obsessed with accomplishments and star-studded success.  I wonder if perhaps God doesn’t view much of that as wood, hay and stubble.  I wonder if He would be more impressed with the spirit of a man that has learned to live as a carrier of His nature; the love, the joy, the peace, the patience, kindness and gentleness. Our lives are to be living proof of the genuineness of His character and the sweet aroma of His presence.  We’re supposed to look different than the world. We’re supposed to BE different from the world. That’s how the words that we speak and the actions that we take are supposed to bring heaven to earth. We might bring words of correction but they are to be words flavored with the sweetness of God so that people will want to lick the spoon when we offer them holy medicine.

     It takes more than a quick trip to the Secret Place to let heaven invade your life.

Power Thought:

If we spent more time in His presence, absorbing, and abiding, we would never be able to get enough of sweetness of His nature.

Copyright (c) 2014, Suzanne Roberts, Unpublished Work.