Attitudes that Nullify or Qualify

Psalms 30:7-12 LORD, by Your favor You have made my mountain stand strong; You hid Your face, and I was troubled. 8 I cried out to You, O LORD; And to the LORD I made supplication: 9 “What profit is there in my blood, When I go down to the pit? Will the dust praise You? Will it declare Your truth? 10 Hear, O LORD, and have mercy on me; LORD, be my helper!” 11 You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; You have put off my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness,12 To the end that my glory may sing praise to You and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give thanks to You forever.

Attitudes that Nullify or Qualify

There are times we come to some very hard places in our lives. Some of us have lived in those places for a very long time. We have no doubt cried out to God to remove our mountain, whatever form of adversity and trial it may take. I found it interesting that the Psalmist David says here, “Lord, you have made my mountain stand strong; you hid your face and I was troubled.” There is no doubt a lot of us that have been, and maybe still are, in this place. The question is, “have we viewed it as the Lord’s favor?” One thing God often does with us is that He puts us between a rock and a hard place. We find ourselves in such a pit that the only we have to look is up. Our resources dries up. Our strength fails. We are left with two choices: forsake our faith, as we mummer and complain, or encourage ourselves in our God and the power of His might. We see two examples in the Word. We see the children of Israel coming out of Egypt and led into a wilderness where there is no food and water. A great many of them choose to murmur and complain when they find themselves against the mountain of adversity. They want some one to blame for their trials and problems. They focus on death and what they left behind and how bleak the picture is before them. They are always looking at how big the problem is and not at how big their God is. On the other hand, we have someone like David. Here is a man who has seen and experienced the reality of God and yet finds himself seemingly forsaken as King Saul pursues him to take his life. I believe the reason David found such favor before the Lord is because he refused to allow his fears to be the giant that conquered him. He saw himself in God in the sense that he knew God would not deny or forsake Himself. He expresses the fact more than once that he became discouraged in his soul, but in his spirit he would rise up and say, “Bless the Lord, oh my soul. Forget not all of His benefits.” It is the favor of God that causes our mountain to stand strong. It is not that He may beat us down, it is so that He can build us up. Philippians 3:3 says, “For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.” Until we develop the eyes of the Spirit our fleshly mentality will keep us just going around and around our mountain. It is with the eyes of faith and by the Spirit that we will, in due season, go through the mountain and that mountain will be cast into the sea. Our mountain is our place of spiritual preparation and the place where God is honing us for a greater purpose. We have two choices: murmur and complain or praise and worship. Which do we think will bring us more quickly into the purposes and plan of God for our lives? Philippians 4:6 reminds us, “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; 7 and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” Our problems and our mountains aren’t always going to go away like we might like them too, but we are not alone in the trial. Enter into your God and His mighty promises. He will, in His time, turn your mourning into dancing. He will put off your sackcloth and clothe you with gladness. Encourage your soul today, “How great is our God.” He will never fail us or forsake us. “O LORD my God, I will give thanks to You forever!”

Blessings,

#kent

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A Time for every Purpose under Heaven

A Time for every Purpose under Heaven

Ecclesiastes 3:1
To every [thing there is] a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:

Our lives are made up of many seasons and one thing about life is that it never stays the same and time never stands still. Life is a dynamic that is always in motion, interacting with the lives around it. The one constant that we have is God’s Word and it doesn’t change, but it does contain wisdom and direction for our lives in whatever season and time we find ourselves in. There are times we feel like we have control over some of the things in our lives and others when we seem to have no control at all. But again, the one constant that we have is the Lord in our lives, who never leaves us or forsakes and is with us in good times and in the bad. He is the One through and with whom we travel every season of our life and desire to find His purpose. It is not always easy to know what God’s purpose is at times in our lives. We don’t always understand His hand, why He does or doesn’t do things the way we have prayed or hoped. We can only trust His heart, because we know that all of His ways are right and just and that His nature is love.
It is important that, just as God is with us in every season and purpose of our lives, we are there for one another, sharing each other’s life experiences and encouraging one another through the process. Sometimes we are the salt God has prepared to place in the wound of ones that are hurting. Sometimes we are there to share in the excitement and joy of a precious moment or happening. What God is working in each of us is that we are a people for all seasons, equipped and furnished unto every good work. Our preparation is through our own life experiences and learning to walk with the Lord through each one. Galatians 6:9-10 tells us, “And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all [men], especially unto them who are of the household of faith.” A lot of things come in there own good time which often isn’t as soon as we think it ought to be. The Lord exhorts us to just keep on in well doing towards others and especially our brethren and eventually we will see that we will reap what we sow.
As we move through the changing times and seasons of our lives learn to rest in the Lord in whatever place you are in, don’t get anxious or upset, but look to the Lord to teach you in that place. Ask Him what He wants to work in you. Trust Him and be faithful in both the hard and the easy places, in the good times and the bad. Don’t grow discouraged, defeated or weary in your well doing for the Lord is our portion and our blessing and as the Word says, “in due season we will reap, if we faint not.” Let us be there for one another encouraging and helping one another, sharing our life experiences together. For there is a time and a season for every purpose under heaven and the Lord is a part of them all. Let us trust and walk with Him through each one.

Blessings,
#kent

When God is Silent and Understanding Fails (Part 2)

 When God is Silent and Understanding Fails

(Part 2) 

 

Job34:10-15

10 “So listen to me, you men of understanding. Far be it from God to do evil, from the Almighty to do wrong. 11 He repays a man for what he has done; he brings upon him what his conduct deserves. 12 It is unthinkable that God would do wrong, that the Almighty would pervert justice. 13 Who appointed him over the earth? Who put him in charge of the whole world? 14 If it were his intention and he withdrew his spirit and breath, 15 all mankind would perish together and man would return to the dust. 

 

Did Job deserve all of the calamity and misfortune that befell him? Was it a judgement from God for some hidden sin?  Job 1:1 begins by telling us about Job’s character and how he was viewed in the eyes of God, “There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name [was] Job; and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil.”  The judgements or afflictions that befell Job weren’t about his sin.  While we may not have all of Job’s integrity we are washed in the blood of Jesus and all of our sin is taken away, so when calamities befall us, is it always because of our sin?  We often automatically condemn ourselves when bad things happen and assume it’s God’s displeasure with us.  It may be His pleasure not to condemn us, but to do an inner working of grace and purification that is perfecting His holiness in us.  As God desires to bring us into a priestly ministry, there is purification and sanctification that brings one to the altar where all one is of themselves, is poured out.  Look for instance at the life of Paul.  In 2 Corinthians 4:7-12 Paul expresses His priestly ministry, “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. [We are] troubled on every side, yet not distressed; [we are] perplexed, but not in despair; Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. So then death worketh in us, but life in you.”  We have come in recent years to equate spirituality with prosperity and blessing.  Certainly we do serve a God that prospers and blesses us.  We can see that Job had been enjoying the fruits of prosperity and blessing at the hand of God for many years.  While we don’t deny His promises and His blessings, if we look we will see that there are inner blessings and workings of God that go far beyond the outward ones.  God is more concerned with the inner workings of our spiritual man than He is with our earthly comforts.  Spiritual overcomers are not raised up in the ease and comforts of life; they are raised up because they have experience and confidence in spiritual battles. They learn to stand in the test and overcome by the word of their testimony and the blood of the Lamb.  We see at the end of Job, that through his experience, Job has found God on a new level. What Job thought he knew of God and how he justified himself he realizes that there is so much more to God.  In Job 42:5-6 he says, “I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor [myself], and repent in dust and ashes.”  The more this life is consumed the more we realize our life is in Him and not of us.  Job 42:10 says, “And the LORD turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends: also the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before.”  It was Job’s friends that condemned him that God was displeased with and it was Job that God commanded to stand in the gap, sacrifice the animals for them and pray for their forgiveness.  There is that new and greater dimension of ministry that God is preparing a people for. Romans 8:18-19 tells us, “For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time [are] not worthy [to be compared] with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.”  Are we not these sons of God that creation is waiting for? Let us not faint in the process that God is taking us through to prepare us for the glory that shall be revealed.  God loves you, Christ ever lives to make intercession for you and He is perfecting that which concerns your faith.  …”What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we notreceive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips (Job 2:19).”  In Job 40:8 God asks, ““Would you discredit my justice? Would you condemn me to justify yourself?”” Hold fast and don’t give up when God is silent and you feel forsaken, “Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of [our] faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God (Hebrews 12:2).”

 

blessings,

kent

When God is Silent and Understanding Fails (Part 2)

When God is Silent and Understanding Fails
(Part 2)

Job34:10-15
10 “So listen to me, you men of understanding. Far be it from God to do evil, from the Almighty to do wrong. 11 He repays a man for what he has done; he brings upon him what his conduct deserves. 12 It is unthinkable that God would do wrong, that the Almighty would pervert justice. 13 Who appointed him over the earth? Who put him in charge of the whole world? 14 If it were his intention and he withdrew his spirit and breath, 15 all mankind would perish together and man would return to the dust.

Did Job deserve all of the calamity and misfortune that befell him? Was it a judgement from God for some hidden sin? Job 1:1 begins by telling us about Job’s character and how he was viewed in the eyes of God, “There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name [was] Job; and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil.” The judgements or afflictions that befell Job weren’t about his sin. While we may not have all of Job’s integrity we are washed in the blood of Jesus and all of our sin is taken away, so when calamities befall us, is it always because of our sin? We often automatically condemn ourselves when bad things happen and assume it’s God’s displeasure with us. It may be His pleasure not to condemn us, but to do an inner working of grace and purification that is perfecting His holiness in us. As God desires to bring us into a priestly ministry, there is purification and sanctification that brings one to the altar where all one is of themselves, is poured out. Look for instance at the life of Paul. In 2 Corinthians 4:7-12 Paul expresses His priestly ministry, “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. [We are] troubled on every side, yet not distressed; [we are] perplexed, but not in despair; Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. So then death worketh in us, but life in you.” We have come in recent years to equate spirituality with prosperity and blessing. Certainly we do serve a God that prospers and blesses us. We can see that Job had been enjoying the fruits of prosperity and blessing at the hand of God for many years. While we don’t deny His promises and His blessings, if we look we will see that there are inner blessings and workings of God that go far beyond the outward ones. God is more concerned with the inner workings of our spiritual man than He is with our earthly comforts. Spiritual overcomers are not raised up in the ease and comforts of life; they are raised up because they have experience and confidence in spiritual battles. They learn to stand in the test and overcome by the word of their testimony and the blood of the Lamb. We see at the end of Job, that through his experience, Job has found God on a new level. What Job thought he knew of God and how he justified himself he realizes that there is so much more to God. In Job 42:5-6 he says, “I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor [myself], and repent in dust and ashes.” The more this life is consumed the more we realize our life is in Him and not of us. Job 42:10 says, “And the LORD turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends: also the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before.” It was Job’s friends that condemned him that God was displeased with and it was Job that God commanded to stand in the gap, sacrifice the animals for them and pray for their forgiveness. There is that new and greater dimension of ministry that God is preparing a people for. Romans 8:18-19 tells us, “For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time [are] not worthy [to be compared] with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.” Are we not these sons of God that creation is waiting for? Let us not faint in the process that God is taking us through to prepare us for the glory that shall be revealed. God loves you, Christ ever lives to make intercession for you and He is perfecting that which concerns your faith. …”What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips (Job 2:19).” In Job 40:8 God asks, “”Would you discredit my justice? Would you condemn me to justify yourself?”” Hold fast and don’t give up when God is silent and you feel forsaken, “Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of [our] faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God (Hebrews 12:2).”

Blessings,
kent

The Hard Places

The Hard Places

Genesis 18:14
Is any thing too hard for the LORD?…

Are you in a hard place today? Does an answer and a solution seem almost impossible? Then we must pose the same question that the Lord posed to Sarah, Abraham’s wife, who laughed when the Lord told Abraham that she would have a son in her old age. Sarah, being around ninety years old and her husband being older had a hard time believing even the Lord when He spoke this word to Abraham. “Is anything too hard for the Lord?”
There are times in our lives when we are in those hard places where the only place we have to look is up. Unfortunately, so many of us leave God as our last resource rather than our first. This is often why our situations go from bad to worse. The Lord wants our hearts to be submitted wholly to His will and purpose. It is often the hard places in our lives that bring us back to a place of humility and desperation for Him. There is no where else to turn, so we turn to Him. Sarah laughed because she didn’t see how even God could give her a child in her state of life and yet He did just as He said He would do. We have a bad habit of pretty much shutting God out of our lives when things are going well, but here we come running when things go south. While the Lord is so often gracious to help us in these times of need, it isn’t always, as we would expect it to be. The Lord is interested in something more eternal than our immediate crisis. Sometimes we don’t get the answers we think we want, because there are times God allows things to be torn down, so that He can do a new thing that could never happen if we continued on as we have been. “Nothing is too hard for God,”but then “His ways are not our ways,” so the results and answers to our cries in these hard places may be different than we had anticipated. We can never put God in a box and say He will do things a certain way, even if He did do them that way last time.
The hard places are the places we stand upon the Word of God and His promises. It is also a place where we must say, “not my will, but thy will be done.” The promises of God are for a purpose. They are not there to meet our every whim and desire they are given that we may be partakers of the divine nature; ” Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. (2 Peter 1:4).” Sometimes our hard places are the result of the corruption that is in the world and in us. God’s promises are to bring us out of that place and not to pacify and accept it. If God doesn’t seem to be meeting our cries for His help in those hard places maybe we need to step back and see why we might be there and what we need to do correct areas of our life that may have brought us to that place.
We are speaking in general terms, but that Holy Spirit wants to talk to some of us today. He wants us to know that nothing is too hard for Him, but what we see as deliverance may only result in our further destruction. How many times have we seen kids get themselves into dire straits, which were really the consequences of their actions? If we as parents always bailed them out, then the consequences never worked there intended purpose which was to bring correction and discipline to turn that person away from making more bad choices. That is why God doesn’t always rescue us. There may be lessons we need to learn first, there may be areas we need to seek the Lord about and areas we need to repent and ask forgiveness.
God is there for us in those hard places, but those hard places are there to do a greater work of grace in us. 1 Peter 4:12-19 puts our trials in perspective to what the will of the Lord is: “Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy. If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy [are ye]; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified. But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or [as] a thief, or [as] an evildoer, or as a busybody in other men’s matters. Yet if [any man suffer] as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf. For the time [is come] that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if [it] first [begin] at us, what shall the end [be] of them that obey not the gospel of God? And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear? Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls [to him] in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator.” Through your hard places, allow the Lord to have His perfect work in you. Hold fast to Him no matter how he chooses to answer. Job waited a long time to see His answer, but he never lost his confidence toward the Lord and we mustn’t either. God is faithful in His time and His way not ours. “Nothing is too hard for Him.”

Blessings,
kent