--Psalm 51:10-- You probably know it. Like me, many of you have prayed it. "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and restore a right spirit within me". David prayed this prayer to God after the prophet Nathan confronted him about his affair with Bathsheba. David, the man who God Himself said was a man after His own heart, had heart issues. And we do too. What is in your heart? I mean, what's REALLY in your heart? Love, joy, and peace? Or is there some anger, jealousy, or bitterness? Are there unresolved issues and unforgiveness residing there? Has there been a hurt that you have been masking? Bring it to God today, and ask Him for a clean heart. Lay your cares before Him, and trade in your sorrows. Ask Him for more love and compassion instead. And then do whatever He says. Blessings! Jeremiah 17:9-10, Proverbs 4:23, Psalm 51:10
On Sunday, One Love Ministries gave our First Fruits offering. It was so exciting to see people honoring God with their best! We truly believe that when we give God our best early in the year, He will greatly bless the rest of it. There are many examples in the Bible of giving God the first fruits of harvest and of time and the person reaping the benefits. David is a great example for us to follow. He was a man after God’s own heart and he shows us in Psalm 63 that he sought God early and in doing so found great joy in fellowshipping with the Lord. Psalm 63:1-2 says, “O God, You are my God; early will I seekYou. My soul thirsts for you; my flesh longs for You in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water. So I have looked for You in the sanctuary to see Your power and Your glory.” David was in the wilderness of Judah when he wrote this psalm. His situation is a great reminder that we cannot let our circumstance sdictate what we do in our lives. Even when we feel like we are in a dry place,we can give God praise and find refreshing and renewal. “Because Your lovingkindness is better than life, My lips shall praise You. Thus I will bless You while I live; I will lift up my hands in Your name. My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness, and my mouth shall praise You with joyful lips. When I remember You on my bed, I meditate on You in the night watches. Because You have been my help, therefore in the shadow of Your wings I will rejoice. My soul follows close behind you; Your right hand upholds me.” (Psalm 63:3-8) I love how David gives God his best praise. He mediates on the Lord all through the night and then wakes up early to seek Him! Even in the midst of his wilderness, David knows that God will sustain him. He doesn’t look for other counsel, he goes directly to the Source first. I challenge you today to seek God before you do anything else. When you open your eyes in the morning, tell the Lord thank you! Set aside time to honor Him with the first part of your day and watch how He blesses the rest of it! Look at your life and see how you can give God the first and best part of yourself. I guarantee that, like David, your soul will be satisfied and your mouth filled with praise! Be blessed… It’s been so exciting to see how God has moved during this series of Positioning Ourselves to Prosper. Through the Word of God, people have been set free and delivered from misunderstanding, false teaching and condemnation. God wants us to be knowledgeable and wise. Hosea 4:6 reminds us that people perish from the lack of knowledge. So it is very important that we read and study the Bible and pray for wisdom and understanding that we might move forward in the things of God. One of the most important tenets in the Word is the principle of tithing. In order for us to position ourselves to prosper in every area of our lives, we must obey the Word and give back to God that which belongs to Him. Tithing is a principle that is carried out from the Old Testament with Abraham and Melchizedek to the New Testament early church of Acts and beyond. God, through the prophet Malachi, reminds us that we must “bring all the tithes into the storehouse (local church).” If we do that, He will “open up the windows of heaven and pour out such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it.” Malachi 3:10 God wants us to prosper! He doesn’t want to curse us if we do not pay our tithes but He does want us to follow and obey His word. After all, Galatians 3:13 tells us that “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.”) In order to walk in abundance and overflow, we have to honor the gift of income that God has given us. Strive to be in alignment with Psalms 1: 1-3. Delight yourself in God’s Law and meditate on it day and night. Be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither and whatever he does shall prosper.” Trust God with His 10% and watch Him abundantly bless your 90%! Come learn more about tithing and positioning yourself to prosper by visiting us at One Love! We are more than just a church…we are family!! Have you ever made a decision that you thought was right that turned out to be wrong? I believe we all have. Every day we are faced with hundreds of choices – what to put on in the morning? What to have for lunch? Which route to take home? These are all simple things that impact the course of our day. But what about other decisions in life? Don't we all want to make sure that our decisions line up with God’s will? Of course we do! Well what does the Word say? Proverbs 14:12 says “There is a way that seems right to a man but its end is the way of death.” We often try and make decisions that sound good to us without seeking God first. Or we make the decision and then go to God afterwards to try and validate what we have already done. But often times those choices do not turn out the way that we envisioned. We must seek God in everything we do so that we can be sure that we are not going against His word. In thinking about the topic of making decisions, I wanted a biblical example of how to approach an issue and then make the right decision. My research reminded me of Nehemiah. In the opening verses of Nehemiah 1, we find him asking about the conditions of the exiled Jews in Jerusalem. He learns that the people are bad off and so is the city. When he hears this, he cries for days and then he fasts and prays to God. What an awesome lesson for the body of Christ as many churches, including One Love, are in a time of fasting! If we are facing a difficult choice, our first step should be to seek the Lord’s face through fasting and prayer. And you will notice that he didn’t just say a cute little prayer and call it a day. No! He laid before the Lord for days. Nehemiah’s prayer is a great example of how we should address a choice before God. He acknowledges the awesomeness of God and then proceeds to acknowledge the sins of the people as well as his own. Then he reminds God of what He has promised and believes on it. Sometimes, we are faced with choices that we have no clue how to handle but if we will acknowledge God as the Lord of our lives and repent of our sins, God will answer. When Nehemiah goes before the king for approval to return to Jerusalem and restore his people in chapter 2; he continued to pray and the king grants his request to go. If you need restoration today or are facing a difficult decision, remember Romans 12:2 and "do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” If we will keep our minds on the Lord, our choices will begin to line up with His will and the outcomes will be blessed. Finally, God gives us thorough instructions through Solomon that we can stand on whenever we have to make decisions. He says, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths."(Proverbs 3:5, 6 NKJV) Now that's good advice! Be blessed... Often times, Satan blocks our vision with fear! Fear is his number one weapon and if he can get you to look at your situation and have no hope, he has won. That’s why when our situation looks impossible, we have to dig that much deeper into our faith and walk in it! Believe that God wouldn’t lead you to something that He won’t bring you through. Fear is False Evidence Appearing Real! That’s why you can’t put any weight on what you see with your natural eyes. Satan has stacked the deck and created a whole host of things that say you will die and not live, that you will be in poverty forever, that you will never get out of jail, that you will never get that job you want, that the doctor’s report is the deciding factor and it all sounds believable. Satan is the great deceiver but 2 Corinthians 5:17 reminds us that "we walk by faith and not by sight!" God is mighty! He knows the end from the beginning and has already worked it out. Even better than that, God is the same yesterday, today and forever (Heb. 13:8). He does not change! So if he raised Lazarus from the dead, caused the blind man to see, and gave the widow enough flour and oil to last through a severe famine, why wouldn’t he respond to your faith? He will! This week when you look at the situations that you are facing in your life, don’t dwell on what seems impossible, open your Word and walk in faith, believing that God has already worked it out! When the enemy comes against you, encourage yourself in the Lord and declare the Word! "I am more than a conqueror through Jesus Christ! (Rom. 8:37) The Lord has given His angels charge over me! (Psa. 91:11) No weapon formed against me shall prosper! (Isa. 54:17) I am a lender and not a borrower! I’m blessed coming in and going out!" (Deut. 28:12, 6) God has given you His Word to sustain you and fight for you…stand on it!! I guarantee you will WIN! As we remember and celebrate the dynamic vision of Dr. Martin Luther King, I am reminded of how important it is to see yourself in abundance even in the face of apparent lack! Dr. King had a dream of racial equality in America and the world but when he looked at the natural, it seemed impossible. But he still tirelessly sowed his time and his efforts into a dream that was not yet manifested. What an important lesson for us in the body of Christ. Even though the global economy is in an awful condition, we are not to focus our sight on that report. We are to remember Christ and how He came that we might have life and have it more abundantly (John 10:10). But in order to reap the benefits of that abundant life, we must continue to sow into the Kingdom of God. Genesis 8:22 says, “While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.”(AMP) As long as the earth remains, the principle of seed time and harvest will not stop. So if you continue to sow, you will continue to reap a harvest. I love the story of the widow of Zarephath in 1 Kings Chapter 17. It’s a story of faith and Kingdom thinking. She was in the midst of a drought and a famine and had determined that she and her son would eat their last meal and die. Elijah comes to her and asks her to make him a small cake from the last of her flour and oil. He assures her with a word from God that her flour and oil will not run out until it rains. The Bible says in Verse 15 that “she went away and did according to the word of Elijah; and she and he and her household ate for many days.” Look at God! Not only was she obedient to the word of the Lord but she sowed her last in the midst of famine and reaped a great harvest, a needed harvest. God is our ultimate source so we do not have to put our faith in what the media says or how the economy looks. We are Kingdom thinkers and believers so we will continue to sow, sow, sow! We will sow our time, our effort, and our tithes. If we do that, we will reap the benefits and position ourselves for prosperity and favor in 2012! What an awesome time to be in the kingdom of God! 2012 is a new year filled with opportunities, miracles and blessings. The question is will we be in the position to receive all that God has in store for us? God is willing and able to do so much in our lives if we will just come with an expectancy that He will do just what He has promised. Ephesians 3:20 reminds us that God is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we can ask or think. In order to reap from that Word, we need to be ready to receive the abundance! Jesus tells us exactly how to position ourselves to get what we need from Him. Matthew 17:24 - 26 tells us how tax officers came to Peter asking him whether Jesus paid taxes. Jesus talks to Peter about this and asks him whether a king collects taxes from his children or from his subjects. Peter answers that he collects from his subjects. Jesus recognizes that the tax men are trying to trip Him up so He tells them that they will pay the tax in order that they will not offend. Isn’t it awesome how Jesus will give you discernment into your situation so that you don’t make a wrong move and stumble or offend? In the NASB, verse 27 says “However, so that we do not offend them, go to the sea and throw in a hook, and take the first fish that comes up; and when you open its mouth, you will find a shekel. Take that and give it to them for you and Me.” Jesus gives Peter clear understanding and then sends him out to the lake… I’m sure that some of us would have looked at Jesus like he was crazy, mumbling the whole time “Why would I go to a fish to find money?” But the bible never makes mention of Peter questioning Jesus. If we are obedient to His Word, God will send your breakthrough through unexpected resources! Isn’t that awesome?! And notice how specific Jesus was! He told Peter to drop his line and take the first fish that he hooked and he would find a coin worth enough to pay not only His own tax but Peter’s as well. In order to position ourselves to prosper, we have to not only be obedient to His Word but expect that when we cast our net, the reward, the healing, the breakthrough, the joy, the peace, whatever we are seeking, will be waiting. And it will be enough to meet our needs. God is willing and able to do just what He promised; we just need to place ourselves in position to receive and prosper In the past, I have allowed life’s inevitable challenges or vicissitudes to distract me from the truth of God’s Word. Never again! From now on I choose to walk by FAITH. I am fearfully and wonderfully made through Christ and I have the “FAITH FACTOR”. The Word says if I believe in God through Christ, all things are possible. I believe my family is whole. I believe my finances shall be blessed. I believe I will walk in authority; I believe that my leaf will not wither and whatsoever I do shall prosper; I will walk with a kingdom approach to everyday problems. I believe my body is healed! I believe my needs are met! I believe I have more to give! I am aware that the statements above will not come as a result of passive wishes, but by an intentional effort to build my Faith on a daily basis. I will read scriptures on FAITH, I will challenge my FAITH, I will pray for more FAITH, and most of all, I will Walk by Faith!! It is because of this “FAITH FACTOR” that am fully persuaded that no weapon formed against me shall prosper and I am more than a conqueror through Jesus Christ!!! AMEN!! | Enjoy an inspirational word from our Pastor and First Lady. ArchivesMay 2012 Categories |
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