I am what it says I am, I can do what it says I can do!
November 6, 2015
I am what it says I am, I can do what it says I can do!
Joshua 1:6-9
“Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their forefathers to give them. 7 Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. 8 Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. 9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.”
The word and promise that the Lord gave Joshua so many years ago is as applicable today for us as it was for Him. The greatest limitations we have are our failure to see and believe God. “All things are possible to him that believes (Mark 9:23).” If we can see it, it is possible.
James 4:1-3 says, “1What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? 2You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. 3When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.” What we need is a heart, mind and soul that are in alignment and purpose with Him to whom we belong. In order for us to have good success we have to come out from under the darkness and lies that rob us of the truth and into all of the richness heaven holds for us. We are still conformed to the world in many ways of our thinking and reasoning. Our perspective is not often one of praying from the mind of the Spirit and the Word of God. Aren’t most of us caught up in our agendas rather than the Father’s? We are living this life, so we still need things to work our way; that is often the perspective from which we pray.
God is going to take us through battles, trials and testings to possess our land. We can not do it if our reliance is upon the natural man. That is why we meditate upon the Word day and night, so that we may have the mind of Christ. That is why the Word of God must not depart from our mouth, because it is our authority of truth that dispels the lies and darkness of the enemy. The spoken Word of God in our mouths drives the stakes and establishes the boundaries of our faith. Satan can not dwell in light, so light must flood our souls to dispel the deceitfulness of sin. We have the spiritual armory of God’s Word and its application to defeat our foes. 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 tells us, “3For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. 4The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”
God has told us, as He told Joshua, that there are great and mighty things that we are to do. There are enemies to conquer and victories to be won. There is a land to possess and promises that need fulfillment. 2 Peter 1: 2-4 makes this bold proclamation, “3His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 4Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.” Our God is calling us to be a people of divine nature. We are after the image of our Father; we are called to be the sons of God, a royal priesthood and a holy nation. Yet, we ignorantly and constantly cling to the attributes and thinking of this lower nature. It isn’t because God hasn’t provided the means for us or that Christ didn’t die to make it a reality. It is we ourselves, that fail to grasp the vision, the faith and make the commitment to possess the impossible through the power of God that makes all things possible to him that believes. Everything in my life has to come into alignment with God’s Word so that the higher principles and laws of the Kingdom of God may take affect in this natural realm. Your are what the Word of God says you are and you can do what the Word of God says you can do. Do we really believe that and will we fully act upon it?
Blessings,
#kent
Agenda for Today
May 1, 2015
Colosians 3:17
And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, [do] all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.
Agenda for Today
Lord, what is on Your agenda today?
Other thoughts invade my mind as I take time to pray.
I try to focus in on what Your will is for me,
But my mind is cluttered by all the mental imagery.
I find my thoughts on these rabbit trails,
Then I catch myself only to feel like I have failed.
Help me Lord, get my soul quiet before Your throne.
Help me give myself, that I may be all Your own.
Lord, what is Your agenda today?
Give me spiritual ears to hear what You have to say.
Order my steps and help me with the choices I make.
Help me loose myself in You and do all for Jesus sake.
Fill my thoughts and be in all I do,
Let my former distracting thoughts, now be thoughts of You.
Focus me in Your will and plan for me.
In all I do, let it be done as unto Thee.
You are the ark and the safety for my heart,
Help me find in You my every portion and needed part.
Be my everything, as You are meeting every need,
Let me live in Christ and humbly follow as You lead.
Kent Stuck
Blessings,
#kent
For God so Loved the World
June 5, 2013
For God so Loved the World
John 3:16 (Amplified)
For God so greatly loved and dearly prized the world that He [even] gave up His only begotten (unique) Son, so that whoever believes in (trusts in, clings to, relies on) Him shall not perish (come to destruction, be lost) but have eternal (everlasting) life.
When I see images of space with its vastness, huge nebulas, stars and galactic composition it just amazes me that in contrast to all of this we are but less than a speck of dust in the scope of it all. Yet, for some reason, the Awesome, Almighty God that created it all loves and delights in us. He even loves us beyond the scope of our understanding and if that were not enough, He gave His only begotten Son to die for our sins. I’m not sure the true depth of God’s love even begins to penetrate our consciousness. If it did, how could we be anything less than completely His, without question or reservation? God saw fit to create us with a quality that is uniquely Godlike, a will and a choice. In that sense He made us like little God’s with the ability and freedom to choose our destiny and to choose if we would accept Him or reject Him. Some have become so blind in their spiritual ignorance that they refuse to acknowledge God though He is staring them right in the face. All around us is His evidence. All of the intricacies and the balance we see in nature, physics and the order of the universe are hardly a series of the freaks of nature and happenstance. How can we be so naïve to deny that there is at least a greater intelligence that is behind all of this? The apostle Paul speaks about this in Romans 1:19-22, “19For that which is known about God is evident to them and made plain in their inner consciousness, because God [Himself] has shown it to them.
20For ever since the creation of the world His invisible nature and attributes, that is, His eternal power and divinity, have been made intelligible and clearly discernible in and through the things that have been made (His handiworks). So [men] are without excuse [altogether without any defense or justification],
21Because when they knew and recognized Him as God, they did not honor and glorify Him as God or give Him thanks. But instead they became futile and godless in their thinking [with vain imaginings, foolish reasoning, and stupid speculations] and their senseless minds were darkened.
22Claiming to be wise, they became fools [professing to be smart, they made simpletons of themselves].”
We have been given Jesus, the express image and revelation of the Father in our own form to communicate to us the love, the will and the heart of the Father. Jesus was the divine expression, not of God’s wrath or judgement, but rather of His tender love for humanity and His desire to give it His life and salvation. Nevertheless, God gave us the will to choose or reject Him. It is that rejection and selfishness that has produced a world so full of heartache, sickness, sin and death. Ironically, most of us want to turn around and blame God for humanities choices. “Yeah, but if He is really God He can fix it can’t He?” He did. Without taking away from the free moral agents that He created us to be, He sent Jesus to reconcile us back to Himself, but it is still based on our choices. God gave us elements of His nature and image that we alone have to take responsibility for. Unfortunately we have to live in a world where we have to also share in the consequences of those who don’t take responsibility or who choose to reject Christ.
Those of us who embrace Christ know by His Word that this age will have its season to either receive or reject God’s salvation. We also know that in the ages to come that the glory of Christ will be revealed and those that have loved Him will be revealed in glory with Him. The things of this earth must play out their divine appointment till the end of the age when Christ is revealed and satan is dealt with in finality. The reckoning will come, accounts must be paid, all things will be weighed and that which has not been covered in the blood of Jesus will be found wanting.
Our Awesome, Almighty God has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness in Christ. When we reject of deny His gift of life and forgiveness, He doesn’t condemn us, we condemn ourselves, but it is in His righteous nature and responsibility to carry out just judgement. It is not in God’s will or design that any should perish, but He has given us a will also and He will not violate our choice if we have chosen to reject Him, the life and salvation that can be ours in Christ. It will not give Him pleasure to see us perish in our sin, but that is our choice.
Blessings,
kent