Amazing God

Kierra “Kiki” Sheard has a song out now called “Indescribable” and it has been playing over and over in my spirit since I woke up this morning.  The chorus says, “Indescribable, uncontainable, You place the stars in the sky and You know them by name. You are amazing, God. All powerful, untamable, awestruck we fall to our knees as we humbly proclaim, You are amazing, God!”  The whole song is a tribute to the awesome and amazing power of God. He is a great, big God that is capable of doing things that our natural mind cannot even comprehend. One of my favorite scriptures is Ephesians 3:20. “Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.” God wants His people to know that He is bigger than any circumstance, sickness, or personality.

We can often be heard speaking about God as great and awesome but when our circumstances arise, we fall back into what is wrong in our lives and cry out “Why me?!”  But God’s power is indescribable and uncontainable! In chapter 26 of Job, you find one of Job’s speeches to his friends and he beautifully describes God’s power. “God stretches the northern sky over empty space and hangs the earth on nothing.  He wraps the rain in his thick clouds, and the clouds don’t burst with the weight.  He covers the face of the moon, shrouding it with his clouds.  He created the horizon when he separated the waters; he set the boundary between day and night. (Job 26:7-10 NLT) He ends the chapter in verse 14 by saying, “These are just the beginning of all that He does, merely a whisper of His power. Who, then, can comprehend the thunder of His power?” (NLT) Take a moment and think about that.  God performed all of these enormous acts but we wonder if He can heal cancer.

Think about the creation. God spoke a word and plants came, waters ran, and light flashed. That’s a big God! Think about your body. Your brain tells you when to move and you move. You have a complicated system that works together so that you can function. God designed that. That’s a big God. Look at the depths of the ocean, filled with fish and plant life, and animals that most of us will never come close to seeing.  That’s a big God. He is amazing! The same way He designed and created all of those things, He can work out your situations and circumstances…if you let Him.

The book of Zephaniah is a short but power packed book. God’s people are once again in a mess of sin and idols. Judgment is at hand and God is angry. He is ready to take out Moab, Ammon, Philistia and the whole earth. This time He shows how He can use His power to destroy nations and idolatry and ultimately sin. But what I love about God is that even as He talks about the destruction He is going to bring to these sinful people, He still acknowledges the remnant of people that are doing the right thing and honoring Him. He shows one of the most awesome aspects of His power and that is the power to love and restore.  “For the Lord your God is living among you. He is a mighty savior. He will take delight in you with gladness. With his love, he will calm all your fears. He will rejoice over you with joyful songs.... On that day I will gather you together and bring you home again. I will give you a good name, a name of distinction, among all the nations of the earth, as I restore your fortunes before their very eyes. I, the Lord, have spoken!” (Zeph 3: 17, 20)

We must look to God as the one who has the power to do anything! His power can destroy the strongholds that are holding you bound and it can restore you and build you back up. His power can create divine opportunities in your life and can stop demonic activity that wants to steal your promises. God’s power can take what seems impossible and make it happen. Remember Paul and the thorn in his flesh. He begged for God to take it away but God said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.”(2Cor. 12:9 NLT) Isn’t that what makes God’s power so amazing? When it's hard for us to connect with the big instances of His power like the creation or the parting of the Red Sea , we can see Him lifting our head when we’ve been crying or sending a few extra dollars right when we needed it. That’s a big God! So I sing with a loud voice,” You are amazing, God!” 

AMEN

Journey to Faith

This morning I found myself in Judges 6 reading the story of Gideon. It’s a familiar story but one that really speaks to trusting God in your journey even when you don’t know where it’s leading you. The people of Israel are once again in a desperate situation for being evil and disobedient to the Lord. They are in terrible poverty because of the Midianites. The angel of the Lord appears to Gideon and tells him that God is with him. Gideon can’t understand how that could be possible because first of all, he looks at his people’s situation and has determined that God has abandoned them. Doesn’t that sound like us? We live how we want to and cut up and then the consequences come and we forget what we did wrong but blame God for leaving us.  That’s basically what Gideon is saying.

“But God faced him directly: "Go in this strength that is yours. Save Israel from Midian. Haven't I just sent you?" Gideon said to him, "Me, my master? How and with what could I ever save Israel? Look at me. My clan's the weakest in Manasseh and I'm the runt of the litter." God said to him, "I'll be with you. Believe me, you'll defeat Midian as one man."  (Judges 6:14-16, MSG) This one passage spoke volumes to me. We often get caught up in telling God what He is able to do with us. How many of us have been called to do something and told God that we were too “something” to do it. Maybe you said that you were too old or too young? Maybe it was too quiet or too shy? It’s so easy to say what we can’t do but God’s response is that He’ll be with you.  This is where our faith must kick in. God never leads us to something that He won’t bring us through. It’s often a test of our faith but if He says that He’s with you that’s all that is needed.

Yesterday, I watched an awesome clip of a sermon called “The I AM Factor” by Bishop Tudor Bismark on YouTube. He is encouraging people that whatever we speak about ourselves, the universe has to react because that’s who God is. So when you say “I am victorious!” Victory starts looking for you! Or if you say “I am frustrated!” Every frustrating situation and thing that can will come to bother you. God is the great I AM so we should believe what He says about us! It was inspiring and exciting and really revved up my spirit to make some declarations over my life. I encourage everyone to watch it! As I thought more about it in relation to my journey, the idea of transforming your life with faith really started speaking to me. It wasn’t necessarily a new idea because the topic of faith has come up many times in this blog. But as I combined faith with speaking life, it seemed like a revelation to me in that moment. Faith has to be the essence of “The I AM factor” because in order for you to declare positive, life affirming messages over yourself, you need to believe in a God that is able to make those things come to pass.

In obedience, Gideon does a series of actions that God instructs him to do, most times asking for God to show him a sign that it’s really Him. The more I read the story, the more I asked God if I should change my name to Gideon! You see God has encouraged me to do different things in my life and I would look at my own strength and say, “I can’t do that, Lord. If it’s really you, give me some confirmation!” Does that sound familiar? When I stand on my faith and do what He has told me to do, there is always a blessing. Gideon goes on to defeat the Midianites in stunning fashion with only 300 soldiers. The journey to the victory is the key - He has to fight some rough battles and face some people who don’t respect him. But through it all, He listens to the Lord’s instructions and obeys. In the end, he is victorious and there is peace in the land.

What has your journey taught you? What lessons can you see now that you couldn’t see before? Or if you are in the midst of a storm, what safe places have you found? Even as you look back on this past year, can you see how God has guided you? Psalm 32:8 says “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with My eye.” Each step on this journey is building your faith, showing you that the God of Gideon is still the same today. He can fight any battle you have and He doesn’t need 10,000 to do it. He can do it with your own strength and His protection. He can transform you from the runt to the giant!

Be encouraged…God is faithful and present.

Any Day Now

I try my best to not watch, listen or read anything before I write my blog entry. I want to hear clearly from the Lord without any influences. This is much easier when I write in the morning! Well, today, I wasn’t feeling well so I stayed home in the bed. When I got up, I was dragging. This was primarily because of the medicine I am taking but partially from a little pity party I was having. So I went against my normal routine and turned on Bishop Noel Jones. I felt like if I could make an exception for anyone it would be him and there was good cause! I listened to the whole sermon and he was inspiring as always but in the last 5 minutes he said a phrase that woke me up. ANY DAY NOW!  Now to some that might not mean anything but if you have been facing any type of trial or struggle in your life that should have made your spirit jump! I know it did for me. So today, we find ourselves in Galatians 6.

Bishop Jones was dealing primarily with verse 9. “And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.”(NKJV) True, that’s enough to make you shout, isn’t it? If we can just maintain ourselves through the storms that we face, we will reap a reward. It’s certainly not easy to do. Our flesh often wants to convince us to give up or act ugly. But the first part of verse 8 reminds us that “those who live only to satisfy their own sinful nature will harvest decay and death from that sinful nature.” We cannot afford to base our future on what our flesh wants us to do. We are waiting on our due season, our “any day now”, so we have to live according to the Spirit, for “those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit.”

I could have stopped right there! The reassurance that any day now, I will see the manifestation of God’s promises to me was enough to bring me out of my pity party. But then I kept reading chapter 6 and something really struck me. Paul gives us some key advice on how to continue to maintain ourselves as we wait for our new season.  He reminds us of the cross! This is particularly important as we are in the week after Easter. Often times, we quickly forget what we have just celebrated but Paul gives us a road map of keeping the cross in the forefront of our minds. He says in verses 14 – 16, “As for me, may I never boast about anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of that cross, my interest in this world has been crucified, and the world’s interest in me has also died.  It doesn’t matter whether we have been circumcised or not. What counts is whether we have been transformed into a new creation.  May God’s peace and mercy be upon all who live by this principle; they are the new people of God.” (NLT)

My “any day now” is here because of the cross! Because of what Christ has done, I am a new person, transformed by His grace and His forgiveness and renewed by His sacrifice. Every day that I wake up, it is my due season because God has shown me grace and mercy to see another day. That’s why we cannot get tired of doing the right thing or worry about what the world thinks about us! We have to just keep our eyes on the Spirit and wait for our next harvest.  So when you start to get weary, and it looks like your storm will never end, think of verse 17. Paul says, “from now on, don’t let anyone trouble me with these things. For I bear on my body the scars that show I belong to Jesus.” (NLT)

God did not promise that our lives would be easy but He did promise to never leave or forsake us.  “So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up.” (NLT)

Be blessed and encouraged! AMEN

How much do I owe?

Earlier in the week, I received an email from a dear friend that referenced a great way to make Easter real to us as individuals. It was so profound that I asked my work prayer group to do it. It’s simple, really. You just write down your sins, recent or distant, on a piece of paper and then tape it to a cross. We had a tree in our prayer room so we hung the lists on the tree. This exercise is not about condemnation or going backwards but is a real reflection of the magnitude of what Christ did for us on Calvary. I looked at my sins alone and felt a deep appreciation that Jesus took on the punishment for what I did. Now multiply that by billions of people past and present.  Doesn’t that put your relationship with Christ into perspective?

2 Corinthians 5:14-15 says “The love of Christ controls us, because we know that One died for all, so all have died. Christ died for all so that those who live would not continue to live for themselves. He died for them and was raised from the dead so that they would live for him.” (NCV) That sums it up, doesn’t it?  Christ didn’t lay down his life just for us to say our sins have been forgiven and be satisfied with that. He died and was resurrected so that we would take it a step further. We cannot stop with a celebration that our sins are washed away. That’s a great thing but we are then supposed to live like Him. We are to represent His love for us and not de-value His sacrifice.

 When I looked at my list of sins and remembered what Christ had done, I had to acknowledge that there was no way I could repay Him EXCEPT to live a holy and acceptable life for Him. I owe Jesus Christ that much. How about you?

Let’s put this in modern terms. Say you are hiring a maid service to clean your house. When they get done, you check things out and then you pay them for the service that they have completed.  Now apply that same thought to your Christian walk. Is your daily life an acceptable payment for the finished work that Jesus did for you? Not sure? Examine yourself this week. Bitterness is a bounced check! A bad attitude is a decline! Unforgiveness is an insufficient funds charge! Fornication is a late payment! Christ went to the cross and suffered terribly. He could have gotten down at any point but He said no! Now it is our turn to say no. We can say no to everything that the enemy has attempted to burden us with. When you feel the weight of Hell on your shoulders, look to the cross and notice one thing. It’s EMPTY! Jesus Christ took your shame, guilt, sin, and fear and He defeated it. So you don’t let anything defeat you! Live your life so that what Christ did for you on Calvary’s tree is honored.

I pray that each of you are blessed beyond measure and that you take the time to reflect on the awesome and finished work of the cross! God bless…

AMEN