Your Lovingkindness is Better than Life

Psalms 63

O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water. 2 I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory. 3 Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you. 4 I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands. 5 My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods; with singing lips my mouth will praise you. 6 On my bed I remember you; I think of you through the watches of the night. 7 Because you are my help, I sing in the shadow of your wings. 8 My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me. 9 They who seek my life will be destroyed; they will go down to the depths of the earth. 10 They will be given over to the sword and become food for jackals. 11 But the king will rejoice in God; all who swear by God’s name will praise him, while the mouths of liars will be silenced.

Your Lovingkindness is Better than Life

               For us to truly know the Lord and the intimacy of His relationship is the most sustaining power I know.  We can go through some very hard and difficult places and it is the knowing of His presence and love that can sustain us.  His love and assurance is so great that we can come to the place of relinquishing our life if need be for His sake. 

               David had this revelation of God because he had been to the sanctuary. He is not just talking about a building or a physical place, he is talking about that meeting place with God where we begin to get a comprehension and revelation of His love and the truth of who He is in relationship to us.  It is in this place of revelation and comprehension of the love of God for us that the praise and worship flows out of us like water out of a saturated sponge.  His love is so great, so precious and so real that it is better than life itself.

It is usually in the in the valleys and the dry difficult places that we seek Him and come to know Him in faithfulness and loving-kindness.  How many times have there been in our lives when we have been unfaithful, yet He has proved Himself faithful, when we deserved chastisement, but instead He gave us grace and loving-kindness?  Perhaps this is what overwhelms us the most is that He has given us so much more than we could ever deserve or earn.  His loving kindness is better than life itself. 

When we come to the revelation of who we are in Christ, we, like David, find ourselves wrapped in the mantle of the anointing and love of the Lord.  He looked favorably upon us.  We can’t really say why.  It is not because we are so much more than anyone else and we certainly aren’t deserving, but by His grace we have found our way into the sanctuary of His presence.  There His glory, love and awe overwhelms us.  How could we not but praise Him and express the deep thanksgiving for that which He has placed within us.                

Some don’t know what I am really talking about, because you have not been there, but when you do come into His sanctuary, His majesty is so great it is a fearful thing and yet His loving-kindness is so gentle is cradles us like a child in its mother’s arms.  It was this place of fellowship and knowing of God that sustained and encouraged David when King Saul pursued his life. 

Many of us are facing or will face very difficult circumstances in this hour, but if you want real encouragement, peace and joy, even in this place, come into the sanctuary of His presence.  Worship Him in spirit and in truth and the pure out-crying of your heart and spirit will bring you there.  Draw near to Him and He will draw near to you.  You will find the grace to get you through and sustain you through every trial because His loving-kindness is better than life.

Blessings,

#kent

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Dare to Speak

Dare to Speak

Romans 15:18

For I will not dare to speak of any of those things which Christ hath not wrought by me, to make the Gentiles obedient, by word and deed,

How is the Lord working in you today?  What is He bringing forth in your life?   Do you know why He is working His ways in your life through various means and experiences?  As you think about these questions, think about what He wants to communicate through you as a result of the Holy Spirit working in your life.  This is why it is vital that each one of us has a personal relationship and experience going on daily with the Holy Spirit.  Our lives are being fashioned for a purpose and that purpose can only be truly realized as we walk in relationship with Christ.  While our churches and sources of spiritual teaching and instruction are good, they alone can’t work the experience of walking out a godly life through which the Holy Spirit is dealing with us and teaching us through our life experiences His ways and His truth. 

The point of what Paul is saying in this scripture today is that he didn’t just go and speak the things he had been taught in Bible school or read out of a lesson.  What he was teaching and speaking was coming out of spiritual revelation and experience of walking out the will of God in his life.  What he communicated to the saints was what God had wrought in him.  He was not giving regurgitated food, but he was giving fresh manna, made real through a personal walk and experience.  Each one of us, if we are walking with the Lord, are experiencing His personal dealings, corrections, revelations and spiritual realities in our lives.  It is these things that make up our testimony and give real life substance and meaning to what the Spirit is teaching us through the principles of His Word.  His Word is forever the foundation and the bedrock of what the Holy Spirit wants to make real and living to us.  As it is processed through each one of our personal experiences it becomes a living Word in us that we can communicate to others.  As each of us experience and process what God is working in us then we really have the right to share it with others.   Wasn’t this what Paul was sharing about concerning what He was teaching and the foundation He was building in the lives of others.  What God works in our lives I don’t believe He does for us alone.  Through our walk, experience and personal encounters with the dealings of the Lord, we then can be His expression to help and minister life to others.  Haven’t most of us been encouraged at one time or another when we were going through something and we may have felt like we were the only ones that experienced this and then someone came along that could personally relate with where we at through their similar type of experiences.  They offered comfort and encouragement to us through their personal identification with where we were at.

God works things in our lives for a reason.  Draw from these life experiences as you use them to bear witness and give testimony of your faith.  They are valuable instruments that the Lord has put into our hands to convey life and blessing.  Through them we’re able to get under others and lift them up rather than speaking down to them through just condescending head knowledge.  The Pharisees and Sadducees were great at judging others with the law, but Jesus said they were ‘whited sepulchres full of dead men’s bones.’  They only knew how to use the Word to minister death and judgement, rather than life, encouragement and blessing.   This is the difference the Word makes in us when it comes alive through life experiences.   We are able to relate with people in humility and love because we experience similar things. 

God is making us the ministers of His life.  Use what He has revealed in you through the direction of the Holy Spirit to give life to others in your life’s path.  God often places us with others for a reason.  We are the instruments and vessels He wants to use to communicate life, blessing, exhortation and teaching into those that He brings to us.  Be sensitive in your spirit to how our God would want to use and speak through you a living Word into someone’s life and circumstance.  You and I are His expression.  The world around us can only truly know Him by what they see in us and actions speak louder than our words. 

Blessings,

#kent

Praying for Others

James 5:16

Confess [your] faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.

Praying for Others

               Something many of us may overlook is the need for body ministry and prayer.  As a functioning body of Christ our participation in the function of the body has relatively little to do with what we do in church and a whole lot more to do in our daily lives and relationships. 

               James brings forth the point that we are all about ministering and praying for one another.  We are one another’s confidants and encouragers.  The power of our ministry within the body of Christ is seen through prayer.  Christ gave the mandate to pray and believe with all confidence, because He has imparted His power and authority unto us.  In Luke 10:19 Jesus says, “Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.”  The body of Christ grows strong not because we are all individual islands struggling upon our own journey.  We grow strong because we have one another’s backs.  We should be able to rely upon one another, go to each other for prayer and council and encourage one another in the Lord.  We should be able to confess our sins to one another without the fear of judgement and condemnation, but knowing that we are all weak in our flesh and we reinforce one another in the fear and obedience to Christ. 

               Let us build those relationships with our brothers and sisters in Christ where we are a continual support and encouragement for one another.  We are a body, a family and functioning unit interlocked and inter-working with the other members of the body that in all things Christ is lifted up and the body of Christ is built up.  It is in our ministry to others that we receive our needs and our healing.  We all must continually be flowing and moving in His life and His truth, so that He can fill us with all that He is.  Each one of us walking in the Spirit, is an expression of the life and attributes of Christ.  He is among us, ministering to us and through us because we all manifest various aspects, gifts and abilities that He has imparted through us for ministry.  We are all ministers of His grace.  Be sensitive to your place in functioning and operating out of His life.  You are an essential and critical part of His body. 

Blessings,

#kent

God at Arm’s Distance

God at Arm’s Distance

Revelations 3:15-20

I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and [that] the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent. Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.

Did you ever have a relationship with a person where you really liked them, but you wanted to keep a little space with them, you really wanted the relationship on the terms of your comfort level?  Many of us have those kinds of relationships in our marriage where we love our husband or wife, but we want our own space to live our own life and do our own thing.  We want a relationship, but we want it at arm’s length, a place we can either pull away or be close, but not feel too confined.  Isn’t that very much like the relationship many of us have or have had with the Lord?  We believe in Christ, we love God, but we are afraid to get to close to Him.  We’re afraid He might let us down, or we’re afraid He might require too much of us, or we’re afraid we’ll have to give up the things we love and want to do.  Fear is the counterpart of faith.  Hebrews 11:6 says, “But without faith [it is] impossible to please [him]: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and [that] he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.”  Herein is contained a promise of God that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.  For a lot of us there is truth we would rather stay ignorant of or things we would rather not hear, because it requires of us accountability and we rather like things the way they are.  I know these things because I see so many of them in me.  I don’t always like it when somebody speaks the truth to me in areas where I am comfortable and don’t really want to change, yet I know that if I refuse to hear the truth and harden my heart, I am shutting out the Holy Spirit.  I am holding out my arm and saying to God, “don’t come any closer Lord, you are infringing upon my territory, my self will.”  Then I am reminded that I am not my own, He bought me with a price and my life belongs to Him completely and without reservation. 

              So many of us, especially here in America, have been so blessed and we enjoy so many things and privileges that we have become fat and satisfied.  We are the Laodicean Church it speaks about hear in Revelation 3.  “We are rich, increased with goods and have need of nothing.”  In the natural that is true, but in the spirit it has left us “wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.”  We can’t serve two masters and when we choose to be rich in the things of the world we suffer spiritually. 

              Most of you who read this faithfully are those who are willing to hear the truth even when it is convicting and most who don’t may not want to read it because the Lord does deal with us in hard areas that we maybe rather not have to deal with.  The truth is we will have to deal with these issues either now, while there is still time for us to align ourselves with the will of God, or when it is too late, and we experience the displeasure of the Lord.  If there is one theme the Lord seems to be reiterating again and again through these writings it is that He is calling out a people for His Name, a people He wants to have relationship with and bring out of the common into the Most Holy Place.  He is calling us higher into Him.  The Lord is a consuming fire and as He draws us into His bosom and into His heart that fire is going to become hotter and hotter to our flesh till it consumes it more and more.  Will we welcome his embrace which means we will buy the gold of His nature tried in the fire and we will put on the white raiment and clothing of His righteousness?   Will we anoint our eyes with the salve of His Truth so that we might see by the Spirit and no longer by the flesh?  Will we receive the rebuke, the correction and chastening of the Lord that brings us to repentance because we have quit holding God at a distance, surrendered our whole heart and said, “Yes Lord, I want all of you no matter what the cost.”  Some of us need to make that commitment today in our lives.  Perhaps we had in the past, but have found ourselves again compromised with the world.   It was to the Church that Jesus said, “Behold I stand at the door and knock.  If any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.”  Jesus is calling out for us to come back into right relationship with Him, to sup with Him, to “eat of His flesh and drink of His blood” so that we might have life and have it more abundantly.  We can never give up anything in this life that the Lord requires of us but what it will result in so much more in Christ.  Instead of holding God at a distance open your arms and embrace Him with a full commitment of your love and devotion.  “To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches (Revelations 3:21-22).”

Blessings,

#kent

The Joy of His Fellowship

Psalms 5:11

But let all those that put their trust in thee rejoice: let them ever shout for joy, because thou defendest them: let them also that love thy name be joyful in thee.

The Joy of His Fellowship

              When you think back over your life what strikes you as the times when you had the greatest joy and contentment in your life?  For many of us has been the loving relationship that we have shared with our spouse or some special individual, but I don’t even know if that joy can exceed or compare to the joy of an intimate relationship with the Lord.  There is not greater joy than when we are in right fellowship with Jesus.  When I think of the times of greatest joy and fulfillment, I have to say they are in the Lord.  In those days when there is a constant dialogue with the Father and the Holy Spirit is just speaking little things into your heart that encourage you or just give you a new different revelation of Him.  It is such a joy to see the little miracles that He performs in our lives as we are fully trusting on Him and looking to Him for our every need.  That is why it is good that we don’t have everything.  We need to keep exercising our trust in Him.  Some of our poorest times were some of our richest times, because we had the privilege of seeing God’s ability working in our circumstances and His provision in our needs.  When we become prosperous and enjoy success, we often lose sight of the One who brought us where we are and who gave us the prosperity that we enjoy.  We begin to take ownership and pride in what we have accomplished rather than what the Lord has imparted through us and to us.   We tend to quit trusting in Him and looking more to our own devices and means.  He blesses us with all of His riches and wonderful gifts and then, ironically, we tend to have less and less time for Him because now we have to be focused on all that we have and all that we are still trying to get.  Meanwhile, in all of that we lose that most precious commodity and possession that we can have in life, the joy and fellowship of the Lord.  We have allowed that intimacy and fellowship we once enjoyed to become replaced by other things we think we want, but that usually only bring us into more bondage and obligation to care for them.  Somewhere in our travels through life we look back and we wonder where did it go, when did I lose it; that special relationship I had with Him?  It is not that we have forsaken our faith or that we don’t still love and trust the Lord, but it becomes like many of our marriages; we lose our first love. 

              God show us again how to recapture the fervent passion and joy we had in our first love.  Help us to turn our backs on the weights and sins that so easily encumber us, stumble us and have robbed us of our joy with YOU!  Help us to find again the elements of our love that made our time together so sweet and memorable.  Help us to revisit and possess again that joy.  We tend to lose it with You and in our marriages and other human relationships as well.  It was that joy that made life so rich and so worth living.  Bring us back to that joy of when You were everything and fellowship was so sweet. 

Blessings,

#kent

A Letter to My Son

A Letter to My Son

Proverbs 1:8

Listen, my son, to your father’s instruction and do not forsake your mother’s teaching.

              My son, do you know how much I love you?  Do you know how I prayed for you even when you were in your mother’s womb and each day since?  A father’s heart is to see his son grow up and be even more than he could ever be.  He wants the best for him.  He wants him to prosper and know the joys and richness of life.  More than anything else, a father who loves the Lord will desire his son to grow up to embrace his own faith in Christ.  A father of faith desires to birth that faith and relationship with Christ into his son. 

              Why is that so important?  The father knows that in Christ are the issues of life, health, wealth and eternal salvation.  If a father can impart to his son how rich he will be through a committed relationship with Christ then he will have left a legacy that he can be proud of.  Your mother and I will have fulfilled one of the primary purposes for our being together.  Malachi 2:15 says, “And did not God make [you and your wife] one [flesh]? Did not One make you and preserve your spirit alive? And why [did God make you two] one?  Because He sought a godly offspring [from your union]. Therefore take heed to yourselves, and let no one deal treacherously and be faithless to the wife of his youth.”  While Christian parents desire to live a godly example and be a light of salvation to others, there is no other soul more precious to them than you. 

              As a son grows up and matures he sees the parents he once perceived as so good with their faults and shortcomings.  As a son grows into puberty and adolescence he often becomes quite full on himself and defiant and resentful of his parents.  A father has had a few short years to try and instill the principles of life and godliness into his son.  He has disciplined him to try and teach him responsibility, integrity and character.  He knows he has made more mistakes than he would ever like to admit, but he prays that somehow, in spite of his shortcomings and failures God, by His grace, will make Himself so real to his son and that his son might now choose to make his parent’s faith his own. 

              As fathers we are often far less than perfect, but if this father doesn’t know anything else and if he doesn’t possess any other significant talents or abilities, the one thing that he does know and is fully committed to is that Christ is the answer to life.  He prays that if His son gets nothing else from him, that he will get that.  For a godly parent, there is no greater gift or reward than to see one’s children choosing the path of righteousness and walking in it.  There are no richer moments than when we see them instilling and teaching their children the ways and the love of the Lord. 

              My son, I leave you with these words of instruction from Proverbs 4:20-27, “My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings. Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart For they [are] life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh. Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it [are] the issues of life. Put away from thee a froward mouth, and perverse lips put far from thee. Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee. Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established Turn not to the right hand nor to the left: remove thy foot from evil.”  My son, I love you and only desire for you the richness and goodness of God’s grace and love.

Blessings,

#kent

A Day with the Lord

A Day with the Lord

 

1 Corinthians 1:9

God [is] faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.

 

 

 

The sun strikes the peaks with pinkish hue,

As I rise to start my day with You.

Soft, back lit clouds streak across the eastern sky,

As the day dawns and You are nigh.

 

With sleepy eyes I step out into the newborn day,

With praise and worship, I begin to pray.

Lord You are faithful, good and so kind,

You are the treasure I seek and the wisdom I find.

 

In the fresh clean morning air,

I step out and sense You are there.

A dove coos nearby as Holy Spirit says I’m here.

A fragrant breeze passes saying God is near.

 

Outward signs remind me of our inward chat,

A dialogue where we can talk about this and that,

Where God listens intently as I pray,

And I so want to hear what He has to say.

 

Often it is quiet when I listen for Him

With patience in prayer, I seek Him again.

He doesn’t always respond like I think He should

But often He speaks in other ways than man normally would.

 

Sometimes it is in the day that He is speaking to me,

Even through my wife, a friend or someone I meet.

I must learn to listen and see with spiritual ears and eyes,

Or I’ll miss what He is saying as my life goes whizzing by.

 

God often speaks when we’ve ceased to pray,

He talks to us often in such little ways.

He gives us opportunities to respond in His love,

He allows those tests to see what our hearts are made of.

 

No, He doesn’t speak audibly to me,

But He is speaking in ways that are setting me free.

He is not constantly condemning my sin,

But He is teaching me the liberty of the righteousness in Him.

 

Let us always start our day with prayer and praise,

Let us bask in His love, rising above earthly haze.

Let us learn to carefully listen and look for Him.

Walking in the Spirit, is knowing our dearest Friend.

Kent Stuck

 

Blessings,

#kent

 

Appreciation

 

Appreciation

 

Colossians 3:15

And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful.

 

               One thing that is common in both God and man is that everybody likes to be appreciated.  We will go to great lengths sometimes for others if they have a grateful heart and are appreciative of our efforts.  It is important that we always appreciate the Lord.  It is this appreciation that keeps us mindful of Him and all of His wonderful attributes and the blessings we so richly enjoy from Him.  It is a dangerous thing for us to develop an ungrateful spirit.  That spirit shuts us off from people and causes us to only be caught up with ourselves. 

               We see that thankfulness and appreciation to the Lord are basic steps of etiquette to entering into His presence and fellowship.  Psalms 100:4 tells us, “Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, [and] into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, [and] bless his name.”  We can never appreciate the Lord too much and that heart of thankfulness and praise should be resident in us continually. Appreciation gives value to the one receiving it and it is an act of humility and respectfulness on the part of the one delivering it.

The lack of appreciation has far different results.  As many in the world were caught up in sin, it caused their hearts to become hardened toward God, as it can ours.  What was the result of their ungratefulness and lack of appreciation to the glorious God and Creator who authored our lives and gave us life?  Romans 1:18-32 gives the account of man’s ungratefulness and what results.  “The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.

21For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.

24Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.

26Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. 27In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.

28Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. 29They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.”

               Our ungratefulness and lack of appreciation causes a perverted and arrogant way of thinking and leads us to God’s wrath and judgement.  On the other hand, a truly grateful, thankful and appreciative heart can lead us into God’s very presence and the fullness of joy.  What does God command us to do?  Love Him with all of our hearts and love our neighbor as ourselves.  That means we truly need to appreciate the Lord and appreciate those that God places in our lives.  We might be amazed at the difference we would have in our relationships if we really became sensitive and attentive to appreciating those around us.  We all want to feel that the things we do are worthwhile and that we are valued.  We all want to be appreciated, even God.

Blessings,

#kent 

Joy Unspeakable

1 Peter 1:3-9
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you, 5who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. 6In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 8Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

Joy Unspeakable

Isn’t it amazingly awesome that this Truth, Jesus, that we possess, through faith, can bring such continual and inexpressible joy in your hearts, in spite of your circumstances? You know what protects and shelters that inexpressible joy? Our faith.
What God has promised and has given us is shielded through faith until it is fully revealed and made manifest. That is not dependent upon our lifetime or life lived upon the earth. We are eternally secure through faith and all that we are promised is secure as well.
This is why we can rejoice, even in the midst of all of our trials and tribulations upon the earth. These only come to enhance and intensify the flavor and aroma of our faith. While the enemy would use them to destroy us, as we trust in Jesus, we wax stronger. Our faith is strengthened as in our weakness we find His strength. In our losses, He is our greater provision. In our suffering He remains our hope and comfort.
Jesus is our joy unspeakable. Though we haven’t seen Him, yet, we so intensely and fervently love Him, because we know Him after the Spirit and not after the flesh. That faith fans the flames of our relationship and bond with Him. Our faith brings us through the fires of our trials and tribulations. It is proved genuine and refined by the fires it has passed through. Instead of discouragement and defeat we continue to stand, abounding in the joy of the Lord. Because we believe and because we can experience the power of the inner relationship we have, we are comforted and find our assurance.
Circumstances do not dictate our relationship with God. God is still the Lord of our circumstances, no matter how grim they may be. We don’t look at the doom and gloom of the world around us and get caught up in its terror, because we know the One who has written history and the future. He is the same One that is the author and the finisher of our faith. So today we will be encouraged! We will be exceedingly joyful, because our God reigns in the heavens, in the earth and most importantly to us, in our hearts!
If we are enduring trials and tribulations today, may those pains and pressures only drive us to worship and praise God more intensely. May they drive us deeper and more intimately into Him, who is that hiding place of our safety and our victory. The trials and tribulation of this life should only embed us deeper into our Papa. There, that shield of faith and confidence in Him shields us from the enemies’ darts and arrows. Papa covers us with the shadow of His wing, for He is our refuge and our fortress.
Let not doubt and fear overtake you. Remember your God, all of His mighty works and all of His unspeakable benefits. We are His children. What can man do to us, but drive us deeper into His presence? Let us remember and praise Him with unspeakable and resounding joy. Our God is the salvation of our souls and the Redeemer of all who call upon His name. Blessed be the Name of the Lord!!!
Blessings,
#kent

A Word from the Lord

A Word from the Lord

Romans 13:12

The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.

Leave this day the things of the earthly realm behind you. Look into the dawn of the New Day for from the East arises your salvation and from the West the sun is setting on the former things and the things of this time and place. Open your heart to me and I will fill it. Open your mouth to me and I will fill it. Open your hands to me and I will fill them. I will be your supply and your provision. All of your need is met in me. Lean not upon the arm of the flesh to feed and provide in your day of want. I am your Provider and the supplier of every need. Lean not upon your own understanding, but lean on the council of My Word, for it is the light unto your path and a lamp unto your feet. Take care that you walk in the light of the council of my Word. It is a sword to prove you, to divide and separate soul and spirit. Far too long my people have been a mixture and double-minded in their ways. Let your eye be single and your heart true to the calling that I have given you to walk in My ways and obey My commands, if you do this, then do you love Me. Far too long my people offer up the oblations of praise and worship, but their hearts are far from me. Outwardly they do their homage, but within their heart and their thoughts they entertain wickedness and impurity. I do not judge the outward man, but the inward man, the man of the heart. What value does a beautiful cup or vessel have if it is full of abominations and wickedness? The fire is sent to purify that which I have sanctified. It will burn with unquenchable thirst until there is no more left to feed its desire. Mercy and grace will wet and temper the steel of godliness in my people, lest they be consumed in judgement. My people shall turn to me from the least to the greatest and those that are mine shall gather beneath My wing. There I will shelter them from the storm. It is a time of pruning and separation so that those who would bear fruit may do so more abundantly and those that are dead upon the vine may be cut off and cast into the fire. What a man has sown and what he is now sowing will bear its fruit and he shall eat the fruit thereof either to life or to death. Take care how you plant into your life and into the lives of others. Clay pots hold divine life. Only as they are emptied are they perpetually filled. Stop holding the life till it becomes stagnant and putrified. Pour out that which I place within each one of you. It is only in giving that you truly receive. Release the life. You are not vessels for storage, you are the vessels of daily use to wash the feet of common people and make their way clean and sure. Some of you say, what do I have to give? Give your life, your service, and My love that abides within you. With Me there is never a lack of supply or increase. You are shallow, because your deeds are shallow. Become the vessel that is tipped over and poured out. If you sow sparingly you will reap sparingly. Revelation is coming, but it comes with a price. It must be received with humility and obedience. The revelation of the Most High is revealed in what you live and not in what you know. The revelation of Jesus Christ in you is revealed through a crucified life, laid upon the altar of obedience and service. Today is the day to seek Me and lay all else aside. I am your refuge, your hiding place, your mighty fortress, but you must truly know me to be hid in me. It is no longer about outward actions of religion and godliness, it is a day to know intimately my heart and come into the inner sanctuary of relationship and abiding that is only found in intimacy and relationship. Come quickly, for the days are getting short and times and seasons are at hand. Rouse you up out of your sleep and slumber and come away with me. I speak these things to you, because I love you. Let him who has an ear hear what the Spirit is speaking to the Church. It is the day for the Bride to prepare herself and make ready for her Groom. Take heed and act quickly.

Blessings,

#kent