Power of Two Thumbs UP!

Key Scripture: “ And God said, “I will make all my goodness pass before you.”  Exodus 33:19

Power Point:

I love thinking about how good God is. In fact, as I was thinking about it this morning, I realized that He is for us exactly what He offers to us. He IS the perfect complement of all the fruit of the Spirit and the gifts of the Spirit. When we are led by Him, we can experience all His goodness passing before us all the time.

He has all the gifts of the Spirit all the time- all that you could ever need whenever you need them.  He is completely wise all the time, a healer all the time, and a worker of miracles. He knows everything He needs to know-all the time. He knows the future and speaks it out, He never doubts His ability to do anything. If you combine the gifts and the fruit of the Spirit, you can see that He is loving and kind, gentle and patient, full of peace, joy, self-control faithful to the nth degree and, of course, good, good, good!

Wow! What a thought! The truth that all those things are as near to me as I allow them to be. I never have to wake up without Someone so wonderful in my life or go to sleep without the presence of all those things as close as my next breath. That’s a powerful, life changing thought. And it’s a thought I intend to keep thinking. It’s a thought that I need to let sink down into the deepest part of my consciousness so that I never forget who He really is and all that Jesus was and all that Holy Spirit is. I love Holy Spirit because He reminds me of  all that Jesus died to give me all the time. I love Jesus because He brought my heavenly Father into my life and demonstrated how uniquely wonderful He is. It doesn’t get any better than that does it?

God never has an unkind thought because He is always kind, to every single person.

He never limits His love by unforgiveness because He always forgives everybody everything. I am really grateful for that!

He always helps anyone who asks because He is the ultimate Helper. He has an answer for every question and a supply for every need.

He comforts His children and dries their tears. He tells them all His secrets and He gives them the same Power to live their lives in the same way that Jesus did, fruitful and gifted.

He defines "supercalifragilisticexpialidocious"! He is absolutely Perfect; perfectly loving and perfectly good. And because of that we can trust Him to do and to be exactly who He’s said He will be and do for us in every imaginable situation. He goes way beyond the limits of what anyone can ask or think. I think that rates a “two thumbs up” don’t you?

Power Thought:

If anyone asks you what God is like today you can say, “He’s supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!” And mean it. I'd say thats "two thumbs UP!"

Power of Getting Two Cents Worth

Key Scripture:  “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things.” John 14:26

Power Point:

There’s an old saying, “Putting in your two cents worth”. It means that someone wants to offer you advice, or perhaps you want to offer advice to someone else. Since pennies are not worth a whole lot, I guess you could say you “get what you pay for”. Do you ever find yourself in a tough situation and you can’t seem to figure your way out? What do you do first? Do you call your friends? Do you call the doctor? Do you grab a book with a title that promises to answer your question? Sometimes people will give you “free advice”. Again, you get what you pay for.

Years ago, there was a dire and difficult situation in my life. I knew enough not to tell everyone the issue because it really concerned someone else. However I did have three close friends that I asked to pray for us. One of them was eager to “give her two cents worth”.  And she did. It was awful advice! It was the direct opposite of what God had said in His word. Fortunately, we didn’t take it because God had a better idea.

The funny thing is, that she found herself in a similar situation a few years later, and I gave her the same bad advice. Why? Well, we were both looking at what we could “see” and not what God saw. We forgot that He could do the impossible. And ultimately He did.

I’ve heard people pour out a lot of advice to someone who is in a tough place but their advice may encourage someone to stay where they are, to blame the “other guy” or to look at the “what is” as if it’s what will always be.

Beloved, we have to be really careful about that don’t we?  We have to be so sure that we take that situation before the Lord first. I’m pretty sure Holy Spirit has the perfect solution to our problem. After all, He’s omniscient. I think that means He knows everything. I have been guilty at times of thinking I know everything but I have come to the great realization that I don’t and He does.

So, maybe when you have a life question that needs an answer you could ask God to put in His “two cents worth “. Trust me, you’ll get more than you paid for, because actually you’ll be getting what He has already paid for, the power of heavenly wisdom available to you 24x7 for the rest of your life. Now that’s worth the price, it's pure gold!

Power Thought:

If we abide in His Word, we shall know the truth and it will make us free. Indeed!

Power of Fullness In Dry Places

Key Scripture:  “I will satisfy your soul in drought.” Isaiah 58:11

Power Point;

Isaiah says that even when its dry as a desert in my life, my heavenly Father will satisfy my soul.  The word “satisfy” means He will "make me as full as I want to be." Have you ever come off the mountain with God and run smack into a dry place? God promises that even in that dry and dusty place, He will fill your soul full. When you are ”full”, Satan will do his best to empty you.  When the power is working, he’ll do his best to make it stop.

We’ve forgotten that much of the New Testament is about fighting, standing, holding your ground, and possessing your land, all while wearing your Dad’s armor.  I think that means that we’re not supposed to accept defeat in those battles. We are to fight back!  If you don’t live suited up with God’s armor you’re allowing yourself to become vulnerable to those nasty little skirmishes. If you’re not armed with His power than you probably are looking at dry, dry, dry. That‘s one of the really important reasons to meet daily with the Lord and get His view on things and let him equip you for the day.

Beloved, the less time you spend with Him, the less equipped you will be. The thing is, God’s  promise to us is that we are filled, but its your choice, after all, to maintain that filling. You have as much of God as you will ever need.  It’s your choice what you believe about that and what you do with it

God says “I have no lack”, but I can lack if I choose to.

God says, “I am powerful”, but if I don’t grow in my knowledge of that I can become powerless. It’s my choice.

This last week was an opportunity to “practice what I write”. I found myself in the middle of my own “pity party”. I had begun the week with a fresh promise from the Lord and I was full of vim and vigor to see it fulfilled.  By the end of the week, I found myself covered over by the very thing I had been promised victory over. I could have stayed at my party, but it was a little lonely, so I decided to go back to the Truth of Who I know God is for me, and What He has promised to be for me in this particular situation and I began declaring that promise loudly for everyone to hear, (especially me.) That’s the way the battle works beloved, and unless you’re willing to fight for your promise, and to war for your soul to be satisfied, it won’t be.  It’s as simple as that. So today I’m off and running and my foundation is even stronger because of that skirmish. You see I know my God is good. I know that He keeps His word. And I know it’s my choice to believe that or not. That’s why when the desert places appear in my life, I run to Him and let Him fill me as full as I wanna be. Don't you think that's a good idea?

Power Thought:

With God there’s always more than enough to satisfy us. But it’s always our choice.

Power of Faith That Transforms

Key Scripture:  “For we live by believing not by seeing”. II Corinthians 5:7 NLT

Power Point:

I was thinking about Abraham this morning and how God calls him the “father of our faith”. If you go back to Abraham’s story its easy to realize why God said that. There was an important principle that I think we need to glean from his life. God just appeared on the scene one day and said, “Abram, I want you to leave everything you’ve known all these years, everything you’ve expected to inherit from your father, and go out “somewhere”. What? Yes, “somewhere”.

God promises him that he will be blessed in measures so large that he can’t even begin to understand it. He is asked to leave everything “logical”, everything that has made sense to him for 75 years and go beyond his human reasoning and simply trust God. This is the nugget I have gleaned from this story.  Abraham is being asked to walk not by what he sees but by what God sees. Let me expand that: “We are asked to walk not by what we can see but by what God see for us.” 

In our world today, we are very conditioned to be logical, and make careful plans for the next step.  We’re totally focused on the “what is”. What if we turned that around and made careful plans for what God’s plans for us; those above and beyond plans that bring all of His goodness and all of His blessings into our present and into our future? The thing we need to understand is that God’s plans are frequently “illogical”. They don’t make sense to our worldly minds but they don’t have to make sense in our transformed minds. Those transformed minds are the one who sees God as good, and trusts that His will for them is good, and His plans for them are good, good, GOOD!

Beloved, we are not called to be normal. We are called to be “out of the box”, “out of this world” and the perfect example of “supernaturally normal”. The ones who see what God sees are living proof of His goodness to His children.

How about you? Are you ready to get out of your box and let Him out of that box? Aren’t you ready for “normal” to become more supernaturally normal so that each day is an experience with heaven on earth in your life.  Of course you are! Ask Holy Spirit to help you today to “see what God sees for your life.” Ask Him to reveal the steps you need to take to get from “normal” to supernaturally normal.  Abraham left everything that was “normal” and embraced what God offered him. Are you ready to do that too? Are you ready to see your life as God sees it? Are you ready to "go" and "do what He tells you to do", even if it's not logical? When you really know that God is good, you'll have your bags packed and be ready to go. Come ON! 

May your blessings come in bunches today!

Power Thought:

We are not called to walk by what we see but by what God sees for us. Got it? Then you’ve got faith that transforms.

Power of the Lambs

Key Scripture: “…so it was when the Philistine arose and drew near to meet David, that David hurried and ran toward the army to meet him…So David prevailed.”  I Samuel 18:47,48

Power Point:

“Lambs with the faces of Lions.”

A friend recently sent me a video by Erik Luddy and he used this phrase. I loved it! And then I began to think about how Jesus said that He was sending us out (The gospel isn’t nearly as effective if you don’t go OUT and share it and live it. The next part of the assignment is the part that seems a bit scary. “as lambs in the midst of wolves”.

Whoa! If you think about it, God almost always sends sheep to wolves, shepherds to giants, 300 men to fight 3000, or one Man to take back the world. He’s just not worried about numbers or size, or impossibilities is He.? Maybe we shouldn’t be either.

I realize that David didn’t need any of the world’s armor to protect himself, He had God’s armor, the protection of His Name. He had the commission to go OUT and slay the giants because he had been prepared to do just that. If you listen closely to David, you’ll hear him say, “But I’ve slain the lions and the bears”.  What you don't hear but what I'm pretty sure he's thinking is  "So what’s the problem?"  When Saul offered David his own armor, he replied, “I haven’t tested them”.  He had tested the Name of God. He came well armed. He came with the Name of the Lord of hosts and he came in agreement with what God had told him, “He will deliver you into my hand.” Enough said. Even though the odds were stacked incredibly high (pardon the pun) against him, David  took God at His word and seconds later the giant lay dead on the ground. The rest of the enemy troops could no longer be found. They were fast runners.

Beloved if you are facing a situation today where the odds are stacked incredibly high against you. If there’s a “giant” in your land, then remember this. You may be a lamb, and the wolves may be circling for the kill, but you are not alone. The Lion of Judah is padding by your side. He Himself is in you, and with you  to kill any enemies that come against you. As you believe that and go OUT, you will watch the giants fall with a very big thud!

He doesn’t send us out by ourselves. He doesn’t expect us to do the impossible by ourselves. He is with us, He will honor us and He will show up on our behalf. AND, He will lead us in His victory parade in Christ.

This might not be a bad time to start killing some of those giants that have been trespassing on your land don’t you think? The odds are stacked on your side. The Lion is on the prowl. The wolves had better run.

Power Thought:

At the end of the story of David, the giant killer, Saul comes to him and asks him, “Whose son are you, young man?” Whose “son” are you Beloved? “Sons” hurry up and run toward the giants, not away from them. Got your sling and your stones? Run!

Power of Enjoyment

Key Scripture: "As for the rich in this world, charge them not to be proud and arrogant and contemptuous of others, nor to set their hopes on uncertain riches, but on God, Who richly and ceaselessly provides us with everything for [our] enjoyment." I Timothy 6:17, Amplified

Power Point:

There is a nasty little lie that has been circulating since the Garden of Eden. You’ve probably heard it a million times and in fact, you may even have said it a time or two. It’s the belief that God gives us hard things to help us grow. The last time I checked, the word “Father” indicated someone who cared for, and loved, and gave good things to His children. If God did what we expected of Him in this area, He would be imprisoned for child abuse!

Adam and Eve had lived in the very center of the goodness of God and Satan still got them to question it. It’s his ace in the hole. It’s his weapon of choice. And it’s very effective. It works like this.  God opens up a promise to you and you get very excited as you begin to think about the possibilities it offers. And then Satan begins to whisper that it couldn’t possibly be true because the Christian life needs to be HARD! Beloved, God doesn’t make our life hard- WE do, when we believe that He is anything less than good.

Several years ago, I read John 10:10 for the ten millionth time and Holy Spirit opened it up for me for the first time.  It changed my life forever when I realized that Jesus had said He had come to give me an abundant life. It was the other guy who had come to steal, kill and destroy everything Jesus died to give me. If you were to take a piece of paper and draw a line down the middle and at the top on one side write “Steal, kill and destroy” and on the other write “Abundant Life”, where would that thing that’s the most troublesome in your life go-on the left or on the right? What about the biggest blessing in your life right now-right or left?

If you’ve been deceived into thinking that God does bad things to make you better, maybe you need to do this little exercise.  You see Beloved, when we realize where the “bad” is coming from we realize that we can fight back.  If God gives us cancer to teach us something, then everything Jesus did was against the will of God, because everywhere He went He healed everyone who came to Him. If God wants us to live in poverty, or in need, then why on earth does He promise to provide all our needs?

Paul said it so perfectly in I Timothy: “God who richly and ceaselessly provides us with everything for enjoyment.” In 2 Corinthians 9:8, he adds, “And God is able to make all things abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things would have an abundance for every good work.” Are you sensing a pattern here?

Wherever you’ve allowed yourself to believe that God will not be good to you, will not heal you, will not generously and lavishly provide for you, ask yourself if it passes the “Abundance vs. Steal, Kill and Destroy test.” Read the words in red in the Gospels and see exactly what Jesus said and did. Don’t take the lies of the enemy as truth. Don’t let him steal the “good” from the Good News. Otherwise it just becomes “news” doesn’t it?  It’s all there in black and white Beloved. He generously and ceaselessly gives you and me all things to enjoy.  So get on with it! Enjoy the things He offers and most of all, enjoy the goodness of who He is, for you, generously and ceaselessly.

Power Thought:

God never runs out of good things for us to enjoy. That’s called abundance.

Power of What Lies Ahead

New things lie ahead.

II Cor. 5:17

He makes all things new. 

Revelation 21:1

I saw a new heaven and a new earth.

Ephesians 4:24

Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy.

                                               Everything old will be new again.

              

Good and perfect gifts lie ahead.

James 1;17

Every good and perfect gift is from above and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no shadow of turning.

Matthew 7:11

How much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him?

                                          He generously gives us all things to enjoy.

Heaven lies ahead

Revelation 21:3,4

 I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, “Look, God’s home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them. He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.”

Revelation 21:6,7

I am the Alpha and the Omega. I will be his God and he shall be My son. There shall be no more curse, but the Throne of God and of the Lamb, shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him. They shall see His face and His name shall be on their foreheads. There shall be no more night nor light of the sun for the Lord God gives them light. And they shall reign forever and ever

Revelation 22:12

Surely, I am coming quickly. Amen.

                              Even so Come Lord Jesus!  That will be heaven on earth!