Have You Died Today?

We are living in a world that is abnormally concerned with self. Everything is about my plans, my successes, my failures, my life. Even when we go to church, we are often concerned about what God can do for me and not others. We’ve been conditioned by the world to think of ourselves first. Think about some of the shows that you’ve seen on TV. A lot of them work on the theme of chasing something so that you can be happy or successful, whether it’s money or a man/woman, or weight loss. The ultimate goal is fulfilling self. The problem with that goal is that it goes against all that Jesus taught us in His ministry. We are to die to self every day of our lives.

Whoa, Ebony! What are you saying to us? I know that God wants me to have the desires of my heart and be happy. Yes He does! Absolutely He does…but did you make note of the whole verse? Psalms 37:4 says “Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart”. Did he say delight in your happiness? Delight in your money? Delight in fame? Nope! He said delight yourself in the Lord! Delight means to give pleasure to or be pleasing to; to hold spellbound. Doesn’t that sound like God wants you so wrapped up in Him first before He focuses on giving you what you want? Okay, okay…so maybe you don’t think that’s a very clear example.

Galatians 2:20 in The Message Bible says, “Indeed, I have been crucified with Christ. My ego is no longer central. It is no longer important that I appear righteous before you or have your good opinion, and I am no longer driven to impress God. Christ lives in me. The life you see me living is not "mine," but it is lived by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” It’s time for us to stop living for ourselves. If Christ lives in us, our life is not our own so our first thought cannot be what is going to please us. It has to be would this be pleasing to God. When Christ died on the cross, He died to self. He SUFFERED, I mean really suffered, for our sins. He could have gotten down off that cross and called legions of angels to come and help Him but He said what God has sent me to do is more important than any plan that I could have.  He isn’t even asking us to hang on a cross, He’s just asking us to kill that part of us, our flesh, that wants to control everything. Let Him be in control.

This is a daily struggle for me but my prayer is always, God I submit my will to you. It’s my daily prayer because I was the queen of trying to fix things on my own. Then when I had messed everything up, I was running to God for Him to get me out of it. Clearly, not the way to go! So I have to say, God, I die to myself today. You take control of my life, my plans, my ideas because there is nothing that I could think of that could come close to You.  I had to make Isaiah 55: 8-9 one of my life verses, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD.  “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”  It reminds me of my place in the grand scheme of things.

So here is the final thing, Luke 9:23 and it’s something that a lot of us as Christians do not want to hear. “And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.”  If you are going to follow Jesus, you have to do it. Kyle Idleman, in his book, Not a Fan, talks about how this verse is the difference between being a fan of Jesus and a follower. It’s not comfortable for us to deny ourselves. We want to live the good life!  But Luke 9:24 tells that “Whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it.”

And that’s the key, though you are dying to yourself, you are gaining a way better life! One that is eternal and secure. No temporary highs here…just joy everlasting and unsurpassed peace.

So my question for you is….Have you died today?

Be blessed…

Where are you going?

In recent days, I‘ve been hearing a lot of teaching on Heaven and Hell. God has been calling for repentance and He’s been calling for holiness. He ultimately wants everyone to go to Heaven but the fact of the matter is everyone is not going. There will be deacons, preachers, sweet little old ladies, teenagers, mothers, and fathers going to Hell. The question of the day for all of us is, if you died right now, where would you go? And we have to realize that this is reality. Death can come to any one of us at any time. We have no idea. We also don’t know when Jesus is coming back. The Bible says that no man knows the day nor the hour. It could be in 5 minutes, 5 days, 5 years – we don’t know! The key is to be ready NOW!

Let’s think about this! You’re living your life and having a good time. You go to church on Sundays and maybe to bible study but your life outside of the church is filled with sin. Are you in right standing with God? Will you make it to heaven because you went to church and bible study even though you just had a few” outside things” that you participated in? Jesus in Matthew 7:21-23 makes it pretty clear and I am using the Message Bible because I want everyone to understand. "Knowing the correct password—saying 'Master, Master,' for instance— isn't going to get you anywhere with me. What is required is serious obedience—doing what my Father wills. I can see it now—at the Final Judgment thousands strutting up to me and saying, 'Master, we preached the Message, we bashed the demons, our God-sponsored projects had everyone talking.' And do you know what I am going to say? 'You missed the boat. All you did was use me to make yourselves important. You don't impress me one bit. You're out of here.'

Do you want to hear that from Jesus when you go before God for judgment? Remember that God was sick of us! He was ready to throw in the towel on the world but instead He loved us so much that He sent Jesus. Now how do you think He feels that He sacrificed His ONLY Son and we treat the gift like garbage? Because that’s essentially what we are saying to God when we go do our own thing! Your sacrifice wasn’t worth it to me. It’s not worth my extra time, it’s not worth my weed, it’s not worth my obedience, it’s not worth my abstinence, it’s not worth my money. It’s not worth the game. It’s not worth my all. Can you imagine what that feels like to God? How would it feel to you if one of your loved ones said that to you? After you have given your all to them – they turn to you and say I found something better to do with my time than spend it with you?

I know that you probably wanted an uplifting word today and MY intent was to feed my own needs and give you one but this is what has come forth. It’s about obedience now! That’s what it comes down to – doing what God says to do! When you have the opportunity, read about Saul in 1 Samuel 15:22 - 31…he wanted to do what he wanted and he lost his kingdom. 1 Samuel 15:22 says obedience is better than sacrifice.  Time is short and there is no more time for games.  We have to stop picking and choosing what we want to follow in the Bible. No more rationalizing our sins to make it fit what we want to do. I was the queen of that! But I asked God to show me Ebony and He has.  

This is not just for the unsaved! Yes, God wants everyone to be saved but once that happens, He wants us to be obedient to His word! In order to make it into the kingdom, we have to live a life that is holy and acceptable to God. That doesn’t mean that you won’t sin because we all have and will again but we have to repent and live according to His Word. We have to stop using Romans 3:23 as a crutch! Yes we all have sinned and fallen short but now we move forward…we don’t stay there!

Time is short. Get in the word and do what it says. Then the next time the question is asked, if you died right now where would you go; you will be able to answer with a resounding voice…HEAVEN!

To God be the glory for the great things He has done!

AMEN

Overcomer!

Have you ever had a week where it felt like you were the top target on the devil’s hit list? Everything that could come at you does – people on the job acting crazy, money looks funny, sick in your body. You’re looking around, shaking your head, wondering why now? Because it always seems to happen when you have something to do, right? Of course, it does and do you know why? There is something that God wants you to do. He has an assignment on your life and it’s the devil’s main mission to stop you from accomplishing it.  If this is you right now, I want to encourage you! The devil is defeated and God is exalted!

All this morning, I have been hearing word that encourages us to keep going in the midst of a storm. You see, Satan has come to kill us and destroy our lives but Jesus came that we might have life and have it more abundantly. First, we have to recognize that the devil attacks to distract us from God’s purpose for our lives. It gives him great pleasure if we give up when faced with pain, lack, and hurt because they come from him. But it’s time to give the devil a black eye! He needs to know that like Job, we will endure all his attacks but we will not turn around, go back, or give up on God! I don’t know about you but He’s done too much for me to give up on Him.

Don’t look at your circumstances or your life with your natural eye. Look beyond the drama at the morning! The bible says “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning!” When it seems the darkest in your life, start praising God for the morning! Revelations 12 talks about the Great War when Michael throws Satan out of Heaven. Verse 11 of that chapter says “they overcame by the blood of the lamb and the word of their testimony.” In other words, no matter what the devil has planned for you, he cannot win against the blood of Jesus Christ and the words of your witness! You have so much power but the devil doesn’t want you to know it or remember it. That’s why we have to stay in the Word of God so that we can tell him where to go.

Today, I want you to fix in your mind that no matter what the enemy tries to throw at you, you are MORE than a conqueror through Christ Jesus and NO weapon that’s formed against you shall prosper.  But WAIT… you need to know that there is something that you have to do! You need to be saved! In order for us to have all this power and victory, we have to give our lives to Christ and BELIVE! If you are already saved, make sure that you are a follower and not just a fan! Make sure that you are living a life that is holy and acceptable to God. He is so faithful to us, let’s be faithful to Him!

James 4:7-10 gives us a perfect lesson on how to be covered and protected from the devil.

So let God work his will in you. Yell a loud no to the Devil and watch him scamper. Say a quiet yes to God and he'll be there in no time. Quit dabbling in sin. Purify your inner life. Quit playing the field. Hit bottom, and cry your eyes out. The fun and games are over. Get serious, really serious. Get down on your knees before the Master; it's the only way you'll get on your feet.(The MSG)

If you didn't get anything else out of this, hear the words of Jesus Christ in John 16:33! "These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” Its already done!

Be blessed... I love you with the love of the Lord!

In the Middle

I wondered this week if I was getting it all wrong with this blog. The devil kept telling me over and over that I am not who God says that I am. He played on an old issue of mine – the need to be acknowledged. He tried to attack my mind and for a minute I started to give in to those thoughts. Nobody is reading it. Maybe I wasn’t hearing from God. Maybe I haven’t drawn as close to Him as I thought. Maybe, maybe, maybe…But even through the attack, my spirit kept crying out to God and contradicting what the enemy was saying. I made up in my mind that I was going to praise my way through. So whenever the enemy said something, I gave God the praise and glory! I rested in His Word and this morning, I felt the breakthrough!

I kept feeling an urgency to turn on the TV. The girls are usually watching The Wiggles or Mickey Mouse in the mornings so it was strange that Sanai wasn’t focused on the TV at all. So I turned it on and Joyce Meyers was saying turn to Romans 5:3. I did and I knew that word was for me! “There's more to come: We continue to shout our praise even when we're hemmed in with troubles, because we know how troubles can develop passionate patience in us, and how that patience in turn forges the tempered steel of virtue, keeping us alert for whatever God will do next. In alert expectancy such as this, we're never left feeling shortchanged. Quite the contrary—we can't round up enough containers to hold everything God generously pours into our lives through the Holy Spirit!” Romans 5:3-5 (The MSG)

Then I remembered that a couple of weeks ago, God sent me a word through a strong woman of God that I had to keep writing in season and out of season. I didn’t know how soon that would come up because at the time I felt great about writing. But isn’t it awesome how God will prepare you. He knows the end from the beginning so He won’t allow Satan to sneak up on you. The key is seeking God regularly so that you are open to receive the preparation. I had to remember that I am on assignment to share God's word and give Him glory so why wouldn't Satan want to stop me?

Remember the story of Job, God had to give Satan permission to “consider” him. And when Satan attacked him and killed all of his children, what did Job do? He fell to the ground and worshiped God! “Naked I came from my mother's womb, naked I'll return to the womb of the earth. God gives, God takes. God's name be ever blessed.” (Job 1:21) All of his children were dead but He blessed the name of God! How about you?

Are you in a storm right now? Have the circumstances in your life built up to the point where it’s hard to see around them? Praise your way through! In the middle of the storm, give God praise for the victory! You see, the enemy wants to keep you in a place of bondage. He wants you to give in to those circumstances and throw in the towel but the thing is, if you are saved, all Satan can do is want because Isaiah 53:5 says that the chastisement of our peace was upon Him. The Message Bible puts it this way, “He took the punishment, and that made us whole!”  Doesn’t that make you want to shout?! You don’t have to let the status of your bank account cause you to walk around with your head down. Your unsaved husband doesn’t have keep in you tears. Your crazy boss doesn’t have to raise your blood pressure.  Believe in your promise and not your reality! And give God praise for the promise!

My prayer for you today is that you would live and not die! That you remember that all things work together for the good of those who love the Lord and are called according to His purpose. Remembering that when you praise God in the midst of the storm, you are taking the power away from the enemy and giving God the glory! Thank you, God for the victory…Amen!