Tag: Christian Kinds of Stuffs

Hebrews 13:5 says that God’s presence is a guaranteed constant in your life. But I want you to know that you cannot evaluate God’s presence and His unmerited favor in your life based on your circumstances. To help you understand what this means, let’s look at the life of Joseph.

Joseph refused the advances made by Potiphar’s wife, and as the common saying goes, “Hell hath no fury as a woman scorned”! She maliciously accused Joseph of attempting to rape her, brandishing as “evidence” the garments Joseph had left in her hands when he fled from her. When Potiphar heard his wife telling her version of the story, his anger was aroused, and he seized Joseph, stripped him from the place of authority he had given him, and threw him into prison.

Just put yourself in Joseph’s shoes. What is happening here? It sounds all too familiar, doesn’t it? With the painful memory of his brothers casting him into the pit still fresh in his mind, here he is once again, thrown into a dungeon even though he was innocent.

Any average person would be bitter and angry with God! Most people would ask, “Where is God? Why had God brought him this far, only to abandon and forsake him? How could this happen? Where is the justice against this false accusation?”

But Joseph was no “average Joe”! He knew that the Lord would never leave him nor forsake him. Joseph considered not his circumstances but kept his focus on the presence of the Lord. Regardless of whether he was a common slave, an overseer in Potiphar’s house, or now a prisoner facing the prospect of life imprisonment for a crime he did not even commit, Joseph did not evaluate God’s unmerited favor in his life based on his circumstances.

Instead of getting bitter, he kept his hope in the Lord. Instead of throwing in the towel and giving up on God and life, he kept his confidence, knowing that all his success was wrapped up in the presence of the Lord.

And boy, did the Lord deliver him! I want you to read this for yourself to see what the Lord did for Joseph:

But the LORD was with Joseph and showed him mercy, and He gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison. And the keeper of the prison committed to Joseph’s hand all the prisoners who were in prison; whatever they did there, it was his doing. The keeper of the prison did not look into anything under Joseph’s authority because the LORD was with him, and whatever he did, the LORD made it prosper.

What does this tell you? If you bow to your circumstances and continue to be conscious of the Lord’s presence, you will rise to prominence wherever you are placed, whatever your environment. You will have favor with your bosses, and they will promote you to man-in-charge. And whatever you do will prosper!

As a father, it always pains me to see my children unwell. My firstborn daughter, Jessica, is all grown up now, but I remember how it broke my heart to see her bawling when she was suffering from viral fever as a baby.

I remember cradling her in my arms and praying over her as I paced around her room the whole night. I sponged her feverish body over and over again. As long as she was sick, I could not rest.

I wouldn’t say I liked the fever that was causing my baby to convulse in pain. I would have done anything to alleviate her discomfort. If I could have taken her rage in my own body so she would not have to go through the pain, I would have gladly done so.

What I feel when my children are unwell is only a microcosmic reflection of what our heavenly Father feels for us when we are unwell. He wants us brimming with health and life. He hates sicknesses and diseases because of what they do to us.

But the difference is this: He was able to take our sicknesses, and He put them on Jesus’ own body as He hung on the cross so that we would not have to suffer them. The Bible tells us: “He took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses” (Matt. 8:17).

Why did our Lord Jesus do that? Because He loves us so much. He could not rest until He had secured our salvation, our health, and our wholeness. Finally, when He had borne every sin, every disease, and every infirmity upon His own body, He cried, “It is finished!” (John 19:30) and rested.

The Bible shows us this clearly: God is a good God. He is our loving heavenly Father. I cannot understand why some teach that God sometimes uses sickness to teach us a lesson or that we need to “pray hard” for His healing.

Can you imagine any earthly father inflicting suffering on his child? Must you be persuaded to alleviate your child’s pain?

Even some people claim that it is sometimes God’s will for us to be sick. But when their children fall ill, they do everything within their power to ensure their children recover. If it were God’s will for us to be sick, seeking recovery would be deliberately trying to get out of God’s will!

My friend, reject anything that even remotely suggests that God uses sickness and suffering to teach us something. Our Father is full of grace and mercy and wants us to be healthy, provided for, and protected from every evil occurrence, sickness, and disease!

We have a God who wants us to run to Him. And the moment we do, He has promised that He will answer us. Not “might,” or “perhaps,” but a definite “will.”

And He does not stop at merely assuring us that He will answer us. He goes on record for all eternity, saying, “I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him and honor him.”

Do you know why we can assure that He will answer us when we call on Him? It’s because of the divine exchange that took place at the cross, where our Lord Jesus cried out, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Matt. 27:46).

He was forsaken—left helpless, totally abandoned, and deserted—so that today, we can have the confidence that our heavenly Father will never leave us nor forsake us (Heb. 13:5). What a Savior!

Don’t you feel so loved and so cherished by our Lord?

And He made it so easy for us to receive His promises—our part is to call upon Him and let Him be our God. Whatever you may be going through today, call upon Him right now, and He will deliver and honor you!

Whenever I am troubled, I tell the Lord, “Lord, I am worried about this situation, but I place it in Your nail-pierced hands right now. I surrender into Your hands all my worries, concerns, and cares in this area.”

Then, I receive His peace, and when the enemy tries to fire new arrows of fear into my heart and mind, I remind myself that the situation is already in the Lord’s hands. I remind myself of His promise that He will deliver me!

Are you living with panic attacks, fear, and chronic anxiety? Don’t allow the devil to cripple you with all kinds of negative mental pictures or by replaying all the worst-case scenarios in your head.

Call out to your Savior, Jesus Christ! He wants you to cast “all your care upon Him, for He cares for you” (1 Pet. 5:7). You are not a sheep without a Shepherd, so stop trying to carry all your cares upon your shoulders.

Whether it is a physical symptom, a financial challenge, or a family situation that you are anxious about, call upon Him and allow His peace to supernaturally guard your heart in every area that you are troubled (Phil. 4:6–7).

Do you know what the opposite of speaking well is? It is to curse. When our Lord cursed the fig tree, what did He say? Did He say, “I curse you, fig tree”? No, He simply said, “Let no one eat fruit from you ever again” (Mark 11:14). And the next day, when they passed by the fig tree again, Peter said, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree which You cursed has withered away” (Mark 11:21).

Jesus never used the word curse when He spoke to the fig tree, but He also did not correct Peter because he was right—the negative words spoken were tantamount to a curse. Oh, I hope you got that! Many times people don’t realize that they are unintentionally cursing themselves and the people around them with the constant flow of negative words that they speak about themselves and others. Words of defeat, anger, bitterness and complaint are toxic. Change your words, and change your life. Flush out the negative words in your life with the words of God’s grace, love, and power!

And take note that when Jesus spoke to the fig tree, it did not wither away instantly. This was because when our Lord spoke to the fig tree, it first dried up at its very roots before death reached the leaves. So don’t be discouraged when you speak to your challenge and nothing seems to be happening. Believe that you are speaking directly to the root of the problem and that the outward manifestation of your faith is on its way!

I received this wonderful testimony from sister Lorraine, who resides in Darby, England. It shows you the power of praying or speaking, and how change begins from the very first day you speak:

My son and his wife have been married for ten years and were trying desperately for a baby with no success. Six years ago, they began undergoing in-vitro fertilization (IVF) treatments and have had at least seven unsuccessful treatments.

Last March, my sister gave me a copy of your devotional and the entry for March 19 was about pleading the blood of the Lamb of God over all that is ours and our families. The verse in the devotional was Exodus 12:13—“And when I see the blood, I will pass over you; and the plague shall not be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.” And you shared that what the nine plagues could not do, the blood did.

I was thrilled when I read this. So I prayed for my son and my daughter-in-law, pleading the blood of Jesus over their situation, and I was just so excited because I knew that something had happened in the spirit. A few weeks after I prayed, my son called to say that his wife was pregnant. I told him that I wasn’t surprised, as I had prayed for both of them recently. So what six years of medical treatment could not do, the blood of Jesus did! We all celebrated and were so thrilled.

A few Sundays later, our son called to say that she was exactly eight weeks pregnant. And it was exactly eight weeks from the day I prayed. Hallelujah!

Whatever you may be believing God for, I want to encourage you to open your mouth to speak His Word. Pray to your Abba and proclaim the blood of our Lord Jesus over your situation! The presence of blood means that there has already been a death. It signifies that payment has already been made.

Today we can stand upon the unshakable foundation of God’s promises because the Lamb of God was sacrificed at Calvary and His blood is on the doorposts of our lives. We can declare that no plague, no death, no punishment, no harm, no danger, no evil can come near our dwelling because the full payment for our sins has already been made by our Lord Jesus. What wonderful assurance and peace we can have today—all because of the complete and efficacious work of Jesus!

Today, I want you to reread the parable of the Father of the prodigal Son (Luke 15:11–32). As you read, keep in mind that this Son utterly rejected and completely humiliated and dishonored his Father, then only returned home when he remembered that even his Father’s hired servants had more food than he did! It was not Son’s love for His Father that made him journey home; it was his stomach. In his self-absorbed pride, he wanted to earn his keep as a hired servant rather than receive his Father’s provision by grace or unmerited favor.

God wants us to know that even when our motivations are wrong, even when we have a hidden (usually self-centered) plan and our intentions are not entirely pure, He still runs to us in our time of need. He showers His unmerited, undeserved, and unearned favor upon us.

Oh, how unsearchable are the depths of His love and grace toward us! It will never be about our love for God. It will always be about His magnificent love for us. The Bible makes this clear: “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10 KJV).

Some people think that fellowship with God can only be restored when you are perfectly contrite and confess all your sins perfectly. Yet we see in this parable that it was the Father who was the initiator, it was the Father who had missed his Son, who was already looking out for him, and who had already forgiven him.

Before the Son could utter a single word of his rehearsed apology, the Father had already run to him, embraced him, and welcomed him home. Can you see how it’s all about our Father’s heart of grace, forgiveness, and love? Our Father God swallows up all our imperfections, and true repentance comes because of His goodness.

Do I say “sorry” to God and confess my sins when I have fallen short and failed? Of course, I do. But I do it not to be forgiven because I know that I am already forgiven through Jesus’ finished work. The confession is out of the overflow of my heart because I have experienced His goodness and grace and because I know that as His Son, I am forever righteous through Jesus’ blood. It springs from being righteousness-conscious, not sin-conscious; from being forgiveness-conscious, not judgment-conscious. There is a massive difference.

If you understand this and begin practicing this, you will start experiencing new dimensions in your love walk with the Father. You will realize that your Daddy God is all about relationship and not religious protocol. He loves being with you. Under grace, He doesn’t demand perfection from you; He supplies ideal to you through the finished work of His Son, Jesus Christ.

So no matter how many mistakes you have made, don’t be afraid of Him. He loves you. Your Father is running toward you to embrace you!

Let me show you examples of how you can use the written Word to come against the enemy’s attacks.

Let’s say that while driving to work one morning, you hear some professor saying over the radio, “One in every five women will develop this disease by the age of forty.” That’s the time you must say, “It is written—‘Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler and the perilous pestilence” (Ps. 91:3).

If you do this, you are putting up a shield of faith, and you are releasing power as you declare that regardless of what the reports of the world say, your God shall deliver you from every deadly disease!

Here’s another example of when and how you can quote the written Word. Suppose, for some reason, and you are crippled by vivid images in your mind of yourself dying young and leaving your spouse and little ones to fend for themselves. Again, this is the time to speak the Word of God against those fears. Declare, “It is written—‘With long life I will satisfy him, and show him My salvation” (Ps. 91:16).

Maybe you might know of an acquaintance who was killed in a fatal accident. Now, you are fearful that the same thing might happen to you. My friend, the enemy has just shot you with a fiery dart. We do not know what the other person believed. We can only be responsible for our own beliefs and lives.

Perhaps your relatives or family members have died from the same illness, and the enemy is now attacking you with thoughts that you will also develop diabetes as your father and uncle did or die from the same heart condition they had.

My friend, if you have been entertaining thoughts like these, NOW is the time to rise and make this declaration: “A thousand may fall at my side and ten thousand at my right hand, but it shall NOT come near me” (Ps. 91:7)!

For something to happen at your right hand means that it has to be close to you. This means that even if something unfortunate happens to someone close to you, do not allow fear to hold you in its paralyzing grip. Speak forth the written Word of God!