He will raise us up!

Come, and let us return to the LORD; for He has torn, but He will heal us; He has stricken, but He will bind us up. After two days He will revive us; on the third day He will raise us up, that we may live in His sight. Hosea 6:1-2

Take a moment to think about these verses. Though Hosea was speaking to the people of Israel at the time, these verses are also prophetic regarding Jesus sacrifice. Think about the reason Jesus came to earth in the flesh to live among men, so that we would return to the Lord. For He has torn, but He will heal us; we must remember that these people were rebellious and idolaters yet they were the chosen of God. They were His special people however when they sinned against Him there were consequences for there sins. God always sent one of His prophets to warn these people, to give them a chance to repent before His judgment was issued upon them. The bible says that the Lord is slow to anger and great in mercy, so He always gave His people the opportunity to repent and correct their ways yet when they didn’t they usually fell into some kind of captivity. So they were torn from there land and heritage yet there were still those who were faithful to the Lord and the Lord would heal His people and restore them to their land when the repented. Jesus was also torn. His flesh was torn for our sake so that we would be healed. His heart was torn for us because we were lost and without hope yet He would heal our wounds and give us new hope. He has stricken but He will bind us up; praise God! Israel was stricken with affliction when she sinned against God but in His mercy He would send His prophets to exhort them and give them words of encouragement when they repented and He would bind them up. Jesus was also stricken with all of our infirmities, with all of our sin, with all of our hatred He was stricken so that He could bind us up to Himself. Glory to Jesus! After two days He will revive us; on the third day He will raise us up, that we may live in His sight. I don’t know about you but this part fills me with great joy and a tremendous love for our Lord who loved us first. When Jesus died on the cross, He was buried and in the tomb three days. During that time He went down to gates of hell and snatched the keys of death from the devil and on the third day He rose. After two days He will revive us – Jesus takes the keys of death from Satan and revives us because now He has overcome death! On the third day He will raise us up, that we may live in His sight. When He rose from the grave on the third day He was telling us that we too would be raised so that we could be with Him forever! Whether we rise from the grave or we are caught up in the twinkling of an eye without seeing death, one thing is for certain, we will live with Him for always!!! In His sight! That is a wonderful place to be. In God’s presence, in His sight, in His perfect will. Praise God! Jesus sacrificed everything He had for you and me. He left His throne in glory to walk among us, feel what we feel, hurt how we hurt, so that we cannot say “God you just don’t understand how I feel”. Yes He does!!! He experienced it all. He was tempted just like we are, He was betrayed just like we are betrayed by those we love and those we think are our friends, He felt pain just like we feel pain! He is the perfect mediator for us because He knows what it is to be human. He knows our frame and remembers that we are dust. We are in victory my brothers and sisters because Jesus has given it to us through His life, death and resurrection! Praise the Lord!!!

Eat and Speak

You shall speak My words to them, whether they hear or whether they refuse, for they are rebellious. But you, son of man, hear what I say to you. Do not be rebellious like that rebellious house; open your mouth and eat what I give you.” Ezekiel 2:7-8

If you’ve ever read the book of Ezekiel, you may have noticed that he has a unique style of writing. He is very detailed in his description of the visions he saw and how the Lord spoke to him and how the Lord spoke through him. Ezekiel was called to speak to the northern part of the nation of Israel or what was called in his time Israel. The nation of Israel had divided into two separate kingdoms after Solomon died so there was Israel to the north and there was Judah to the south. Jeremiah prophesied to Judah and Ezekiel prophesied to Israel probably around the same time.
If we look at these verses, they are very direct, and we can relate to them today because we also live in a rebellious, idolatrous nation. America has turned her back on God just as Israel did thousands of years ago. She has compromised her beliefs and her morals and adulterated herself with foreign gods. Money, power, and sex have become objects of desire so to speak and the results of these desires are greed, corruption, adultery, homosexuality, idolatry, and even murder. People have killed for money, power, and yes-even sex. These things become habitual, almost like second nature in the lives of those who pursue it. Such was the state of Israel during Ezekiel’s time. Some of the gods of the Canaanites and the foreign nations surrounding Israel required sexual acts as forms of worship and Israel had begun to worship these pagan gods. They had hardened their hearts to the One True God and put their trust in idols. They even had their own prophets who prophesied in the name of their pagan gods! God was angry with them, yet His mercy is from everlasting to everlasting so He would send out His prophets to warn the people.
When God calls Ezekiel to be a prophet, He warns him not to be “rebellious like that rebellious house” and goes on to tell him to open his mouth and “eat what I give you”. He was to eat God’s word! As I said Ezekiel is very detailed in his description of what he saw, spoke and did. God knew that Ezekiel would be obedient even when he protested. He was to speak God’s words whether they listened or not! Sounds familiar? Is there someone in your life or a few someone’s that God stirs you up to give them word and it seems to fall on deaf ears? God is telling you to speak anyway! Whether they listen or not you must speak what God puts in your mouth. Why? Because if you don’t, you will be held accountable if that person dies in his/her iniquity because you didn’t tell him what God told you to say. God told Ezekiel that he would be a watchman. Watchmen are those that stand on the wall of the city or in a watchtower and warn the people when danger is coming. If he did not speak when he was supposed to speak and a person perished, his blood would be on Ezekiel’s head, but if he spoke and the person perished in his sin then it is no longer Ezekiel’s responsibility. You see we are responsible for speaking what God tells us to speak to people whether they listen or not because when we speak they no longer have the excuse of saying “well nobody told me.” At times you get tired and frustrated of speaking to the same person or persons over and over and over and that person doesn’t get it or those people don’t get it and continue living a godless life. It is sad but your responsibility is to speak what God tells you to speak and the rest is between them and God. God is faithful and will continue to tug at a person’s heart but if the person is rebellious and continues in his ways and ignores God, he will perish and spend eternity in torment. God is not a toy to play with. You can’t pick Him up when you’re bored and when you got what you want or get tired of playing with Him you put Him down. No, No, No! God is saying in these last days that we cannot be like that rebellious house but eat what He gives us and speak what He tells us to speak.

Be Renewed Day by Day

Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal. 2 Corinthians 4:16-18

Paul suffered through many things on his missionary journeys to the different cities where he preached the gospel. In those days there was no such thing as cars, motorcycles, airplanes, phones, the Internet or email. No text messaging or instant messaging. These people walked, traveled on horses or camels, or traveled by boat. Their forms of long distance communication were letters that took weeks to reach one location from another depending on how far it was. So imagine Paul walking for days on end or on sea for weeks at a time; going through various storms on sea, and suffering heat, cold, rain and other weather hazards on foot. Not to mention that the different places he would travel to had their own dangers. There was the risk of the people not receiving him and stoning him, whipping him, or treating him in an otherwise inhuman way. He suffered physical sickness as well as physical abuse from those who did not want him in their cities. Yet in all this he reminds us that no matter what we suffer for the cause of taking the Gospel to the lost, the broken, and the hurting, it does not affect our inward man. No matter what the body goes through, weariness, sickness, fatigue, abuse, hunger, pain, it is only the outward man that feels these things and perishes. The inward man is being renewed daily through the Word of God, through the Holy Spirit, when we see the fruits of our labor.
We may not suffer the things Paul suffered to carry the Gospel to the Gentiles, but we do suffer because as human beings we feel loss, rejection, pain, and our spirits cry out daily for those that are lost. Yet Paul calls it a light affliction and when you look at it that is exactly what it is. None of us have suffered the things Jesus suffered to save us, so yes, it is a light affliction to be laughed at because you are faithful to God. It is a light affliction to be rejected by your family because you serve God. It is a light affliction when the enemy rises up against you when you try to evangelize a community for Christ. Yes it is but guess what people? It is only for a moment! Maybe not a 60 second moment but before you know it the trial is over, the opposition is gone, the giants are knocked down with their heads chopped off, and the mountains are moved because our light affliction is working for us an exceeding and eternal weight of glory!!
Why?? How can trials work bigger things and eternal glory for us?? Because we look at the things that are not seen, which means we see in the Spirit. We are not looking at the things that are seen because they are temporary. The house is temporary. The car is temporary. The job is temporary. The trial, opposition, giants and mountains are all temporary! They don’t last! But our mansions in heaven are eternal!! They last forever!! So our affliction is light and works for an exceeding and eternal weight of glory because our treasure is not on this earth!! Our treasure is in heaven and it does not perish! Oh brothers and sisters if we look with our spiritual eyes instead of our natural eyes we will see that everything we go through will work out for something greater in the end. Everything we go through brings us that much closer to eternity with Jesus! Praise the Lord! So when you are afflicted, remember that it is light and for a moment for the things we see and look forward to are eternal!

Happy New Year!!!!

Rainbows in the Sky. What do they mean?

And God said: “This is the sign of the covenant which I make between Me and you, and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: I set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth. It shall be, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the rainbow shall be seen in the cloud; and I will remember My covenant which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. The rainbow shall be in the cloud, and I will look on it to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” And God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant which I have established between Me and all flesh that is on the earth.” Genesis 9:12-17

The people closest to me know that I love rainbows. It’s not just the colors or the brightness of it when it comes out right after a sun shower or a rainy day, or the almost majestic way it sits in the sky and seems to stretch so close that you can touch it that intrigues me. It’s what the rainbow stands for that leaves me in awe and the beauty of it is just a perk. Before I tell you what the rainbow stands for (for those of you who don’t know), I would like to share something with you.

On my blog page I have a layout with beautiful mountain scenery and a rainbow that crosses over the front of the mountains. I think its peaceful scenery describes God’s serenity. Well I was showing a friend of mine my page and she asked me about the rainbow and told me what it meant to the world. It so happens that to the world the rainbow is the symbol of gay pride. Needless to say I was beside myself when I heard that and told her what the bible says about the rainbow. When I think about it, it is just another way Satan has tried to take something that God has meant for good and twist it to associate it with something sinful, but he is a liar and the father of them and God is still on the throne and always will be.

The people of Noah’s time had turned their backs on God and were very wicked. The bible says that the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great and the intent of his heart was only evil, and He was sorry He had made man and grieved in His heart. (Gen. 7:5-6 paraphrased) God saw that there was a man who found grace in His eyes. That man was Noah. So the Lord spoke to Noah and had him build an ark for him, his family, and seven sets of every clean animal, bird, and creepy crawly thing on earth and one set of every unclean animal and bird. While Noah built the ark he preached to the people and told them to repent for judgment was coming but the people would not listen and thought Noah was crazy. The day came when God told Noah to take his family and the animals and to go into the ark. Once they did, the heavens opened up and it rained for forty days and forty nights, till there was nothing living left on the earth except for those in the ark. When the rains had stopped and the earth dried, Noah, his family, and the animals came out of the ark and Noah offered sacrifices to the Lord and the Lord when He smelled the sweet aroma said in His heart that would never again curse the ground for man’s sake. Henceforth the rainbow!!

The real meaning of the rainbow my dear friends is the “covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is in the earth.” It is the covenant that He made with Noah and every living creature with him to never again destroy all flesh with flood waters. The rainbow is the sign of promises! Whenever I see a rainbow, I am reminded that God is the God who keeps His word. He is the God of covenants or pacts. When God makes a covenant with you, you can be sure that whatever He promised will come to pass! Hallelujah!! When I see the rainbow, I am reminded of the promises God has made to me and mine and I am filled with gratitude and hope because I know that He keeps His word! Praise God!

My friend suggested that I write a devotional about the rainbow so that whoever comes across my page on the web will not get the wrong idea about me because of the rainbow. I am writing it to let everyone know the true meaning of the rainbow and what it means to me. The word says “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge” (Hosea 4:6), and I wanted everyone who comes across this page to know what it really means and that God is a promise keeper! He keeps His word and it never returns to Him void but fulfills the purpose for which He sends it.

My friends, whenever you see a rainbow in the sky, remember the promises God has made over your life and be reassured that they will come to pass and you will rejoice on they day of their fulfillment.

Don't lose Heart

Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
2 Corinthians 4:16-18

“If you have run with the footmen, and they have wearied you, then how can you contend with horses? And if in the land of peace, in which you trusted, they wearied you, then how will you do in the floodplain of the Jordan?
Jeremiah 12:5

Of all the Apostles, Paul knew what it was to suffer for the cause of Christ. Of all the Prophets, Jeremiah is recorded to have cried and endured the most. Both of these men suffered horrible things to preach the word of God. Paul preached the Gospel to the Gentiles and suffered at the hands of his own people as well as the Gentiles. Jeremiah suffered at the hands of his people because He was the mouthpiece of God and the people did not want to hear what he had to say. Yet when you read these scriptures, you see that there is hope. How you might ask? Allow me to break it down for you.

In Jeremiah 12:5, God is speaking to Jeremiah concerning his suffering and weariness. Jeremiah was getting tired of the rebellion and violence of the Israelites who were worshiping false gods and did not want to heed the voice of the Lord. And he questions the Lord on how long will He endure the wickedness of these people. He asks God why doesn’t He just kill them and be done with them because they don’t have Him to think about. Pretty bold huh? Jeremiah knew that God had the power to knock these people off like flies, yet when God answers him, He shows His infinite mercy by asking Jeremiah (in my words): if you are tired of dealing with these people and they are still in their homeland, how will you deal with them, the enemy, and the things that will happen when they are in captivity? If you are weary of speaking the word and interceding during times of peace, when you thought all was well, then how will you manage when war rises up and it’s time for you to battle and stand in the gap? In other words God is saying if you can’t handle this (and I am not saying that it was easy), how will you manage the ministry that I want to put in your hands? When we complain we need to examine ourselves and remember that God backs up those whom He calls. When He called Jeremiah, He told him that He would always be with him, he would not be alone.

In the same way God uses Paul to encourage the Corinthians. Paul had been beaten, whipped, shipwrecked, and so close to death many times in journeys to preach the Gospel. He faced opposition on all sides, yet he tells these people that what we suffer is but a light affliction! Can you imagine being whipped one lash short of the death penalty and looking at it as a “light affliction”?? But Paul was a man who loved God and was sold out to Him to do whatever God wanted him to do and endure whatever he had to endure to get it done. Paul goes on to say that though the outward man perishes, the inward man is being renewed day by day. Praise the Lord!!! Though our physical bodies are tired and worn out, our brains are drained of thought and our emotions are weary from the battle, the inner man – our spirit man – the one that is born of the Spirit is renewed daily in Christ Jesus!! So why stress it? Every light affliction brings us to another level in glory. Everything that we go through brings ever closer to the Father as we draw near to Him in our afflictions. We are vulnerable and open to what God wants to do with us when we are afflicted or when we are in a trial. That is not to say that we should not seek God or that we don’t seek God when things are good, but there is something about pain that draws you closer to the Comforter, the One who can heal and restore you, the mender of broken hearts. We know that He provides our needs, He protects us, but when we draw near to God, He will draw near to us. That is why Paul says that the affliction that is but for a moment is working for us a far more exceeding glory because we are looking at the things of the spirit when we are looking at the things unseen because what we see is temporary. Praise God!

Lord helps us to endure our light afflictions like good soldiers and see the unseen that is eternal so that we will not lose heart. In Jesus name Amen!

Don't be Anxious!

Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6-7

Anxiety seems to plague the population these days. How many people do we know or have heard of who are suffering from anxiety, people who suffer panic attacks due to anxiety, people who are stressed out due to anxiety? Some are on medication and others are trying to cope with it, while others are oblivious to the reason for the tension in their bodies. The definition of the word anxious is: full of mental distress or uneasiness because of fear of danger or misfortune; greatly worried; solicitous: Her parents were anxious about her poor health. It is derived from the word angere which means to strangle, pain, distress. (www.dictionary.com)

Anxiety is a tool the enemy uses to cause you not to trust God. Jesus used a parable about seeds that were thrown in four different types of ground – the wayside, the stony ground, the thorns, and the good ground. When we become anxious, we forget the promises of God. We forget that God has promised to provide for our needs. We forget that we are children of the King and He is the owner of the silver and the gold. He is Jehovah Rafa our healer. He is Jehova Tsidkenu our righteousness. When we become anxious for our needs or anxious about our future, we become like the seed that was sown among the thorns, that the cares of this world choked its growth. When we become anxious our trust is no longer in God and it affects our health, our finances, our relationships.

Ahhh but when we trust in God and make our petitions known to Him through prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, we are guarded by His peace that surpasses all understanding! People may not understand how you can be so calm and your refrigerator is empty or your rent is overdue and you don’t have the money to pay it. They will not understand how you can keep it together when you have just been diagnosed with a terminal disease! The reason you can is because through prayer and supplication, you have made your request for healing known to God with thanksgiving and He has filled you with His peace because you trust Him! You have asked for provision with thanksgiving knowing that He is faithful and He will provide for you! This is the reason why you can be calm and you can keep it together when you are facing diverse circumstances. The God that you and I serve is very aware of our situations and when we come to Him and put all of our trust in Him, He will make a way where there is no way for us! Praise God!! Be anxious for NOTHING, but in EVERYTHING make your petitions known to God. He is never early, never late, but always ON TIME!! Glory to God!! Thank you Jesus for Your faithfulness and Your peace.

No Weapon Formed Against You

No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is of me, saith the LORD.
Isaiah 54:17


We all know this verse and most of us quote it frequently but usually we only quote the first part of the verse. What about the rest of it? This happens to be my brother’s favorite verse and one morning we were sitting at the table, having a conversation and he began to quote this verse but only the first part of it, and I quoted the rest and he said “there’s more to that verse?” He had not committed to memory the entire verse because he thought that was all of it. Sometimes we focus on part of a verse and not the whole verse because we see the promise in that part but the promise is actually in the whole verse. For example James 4:17, many focus on the part that says resist the devil and he will flee from you. But the first part says submit yourselves therefore to God, and then you read the promise. For this verse in particular, you can not resist the devil if you don’t first submit yourself to God. In Isaiah 54:17 the promise is no weapon formed against you shall prosper AND every tongue that shall rise against you in judgment you shall condemn. THIS is the heritage of the SERVANTS OF THE LORD, and their righteousness is of me, says the LORD. What is the promise? The promise is no weapon formed against you shall proper and every tongue that rises against you in judgment you shall condemn. So what’s the catch? You have to be a servant of the Lord! The heritage is for the servants of the Lord and their righteousness is of me. In other words He makes His servants righteous. It is a wonderful promise to know that when we serve the Lord, nothing that the devil tries to do to us will prosper! When he uses people to speak against us, to tear us down, to judge us wrongfully and criticize us, we shall condemn them! Why?? Because it is not us that they are speaking against but the Lord whom we serve, when they come against us with hostility and hatred for what we stand for, it is not us they come against but the Lord we serve. He fights the battle for us and with us. See, the devil hates the image of Christ in us. He hates us because we have something that he can never get back and that is a relationship with God the Father through His Son Jesus Christ. He knows that if Christ is in us and we are faithful, that nothing he throws at us can keep us down, but he won’t give up which is why we have to remain alert. Praise God for His mighty power, because He is like a powerful giant in front of us and at our side in battle. If you look at the last part of the verse, it says their righteousness is of me. We are not righteous by our own right but He makes us righteous through Him that saved us! He puts His righteousness on us and calls us His, this is the heritage of those who serve the Lord! Praise God!! Let us remember that no matter what comes against us that no weapon formed against us shall prosper and those that speak against us are not fighting us but are fighting God and we shall condemn them because woe to him that tries to harm any one of God’s little ones! His righteousness is our heritage. God is awesome!!