Dear Lord, thank You for this day! Thank You for a day of rest, a day of reading & processing while being home with my family. Thank You for all of the blessings You’ve given us and for leading, guiding and directing our family to not live in fear by trusting in You. I ask that Your Holy Spirit burns within me as I share what’s happened in my life over this last week. I ask that everything I share and everything that happens yet today be glorifying to You! Thank You Lord for our time together, for pursuing me but never forcing me. I submit to You everything that I am, everything within me, I give it all to You. I ask that You show me how to love what You love and to hate what You hate and to give me the knowledge, wisdom and discernment to know the difference. I ask for Your knowledge, wisdom and discernment to make the right decisions for everyone involved. I ask that You place a hedge of protection around each and every one of my friends, family members, acquaintances and anyone you allow to be led to this online journal that I fully believe You are helping me to share with the world. I ask that You remove and destroy the enemies within them and all around them and that if they haven’t found a relationship with You yet, that they will be made aware of Your desire for a relationship with each and everyone of Your people. I thank You for Your gift of Jesus, for redeeming Your people Lord. I thank You Lord for Your Word, for Your truth, for Your map that has been given to us. Your map given to us to be aware of the minefields of this world and how we can avoid at least some of them if we choose to follow and trust You. Thank You Lord, praise You Lord, bless You Lord! In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
My faith is not without doubt. I believe the statement from Nelson Mandela applies, regarding courage; “Courage is not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it.” I personally am in the process of learning and at this time I believe faith is not the absence of doubt, but the triumph over it. And just to make sure I was giving credit where credit was due, I came across this quote from J.D. Greear, a man I currently do not know much about but I believe his quote is worth sharing here; “Faith is not the absence of doubt; it is continuing to follow Jesus in the midst of doubt.” Last week I prayed for God to show me the validity of the Bible and of Jesus. I claimed the power of the keys to the Kingdom, I claimed scripture like those who seek shall find, knock and the door will be opened and I shall know the truth and the truth will set me free. And then I went along the rest of my week forgetting about that prayer and still searching for truth and at the end of the week I started crying realizing all the wild ways He answered my prayer this last week. It started on Tuesday, my 1st day back to work for the week when a fellow believing co-worker shared with me a link to the sermon from a guest speaker at her church the previous weekend. I had heard this pastor before and was excited to hear what she had shared this time. Pastor Charlotte Gambill proceeded to tell me (felt like she was speaking directly to me) that the Word of God is like manna, is the manna not enough? She proceeded to tell about a time when the Israelites didn’t think the manna was enough and complained to Moses that they wanted meat. God gave them what they asked for but it didn’t end well for the people and “while the meat was yet between their teeth, before it was consumed, the anger of the Lord was kindled against the people, and the Lord struck down the people with a very great plague. Therefore the name of that place was called Kibroth-hattaavah, because there they buried the people who had the craving.” Numbers 11:33-34 ESV. Charlotte continued on that the name Kibroth-hattaavah means “graves of craving.” The following day I was sharing with another believing co-worker some of my daughter’s revelations from her spiritual journal and he thought I was embellishing, so with my daughters permission I asked my wife to take a few pictures so he could see it in her own handwriting and there was a new one I hadn’t seen yet; “The Bible is like the ultimate map of truth, guiding us to the one true way.” He was blown away and said it’s funny that I’d share that because just that morning he had started watching a sermon from Tony Evans that discussed that very subject. He shared that sermon with me and I watched it and it was really good. Tony Evan’s sermon made me think about the Bible and the stories throughout and reminded me that as my wife and I are going through the Bible together we will pause and say something along the lines of, “oh no, here we go again, this isn’t going to please God, they’re going to kindle God’s wrath, this isn’t going to end well for them.” At the same time, we have this map of what to do and what not to do and know how the stories are going to end because we know the character of God that the Bible reveals to us, but we don’t always recognize how our decisions aren’t going to end well for us in the moment but only as we look back and reflect, maybe. Believe or not, I believe there were several other times where I received answers and confirmations for the prayer I prayed last week, asking the questions about the Bible and Jesus but these are the highlights. The last one I’ll share is that I woke up earlier than normal yesterday and felt like I was supposed to read John 17, I started to read John 17 but wanted more context so I went back to John 15 and ending up reading through to the end of John before going to church. John 17:17 hit me hard and as I was getting ready for church and reflecting on what I had read, that is when it hit me as I went through my last week and all the wild and crazy “coincidences” I experienced. I could remember my prayer and my questions and just stood there with an overwhelming sense of love. He wants me to ask questions, He wants a relationship with me, He wants me to expect nothing but His grace and mercy, which are enough but at the same time I believe that He wants me to notice everything, to be still and know that He is God. I often go back to what Francis Chan said that has stuck with me; “While we may never fully understand God, we should never limit Him to what He can teach us about Himself.” Thank You, Lord! Praise You, Lord! Bless You, Lord! Come and join the army of your creator, the Master Creator, the King of the universe, the Maker of Heaven and earth! Join the army of the God who wants a relationship with you, yes you. Stop believing the lies you tell yourself, you are better than you think you are and He wants you to know that. Help us destroy the kingdom of the enemy, the thief who comes to steal, kill and destroy and help us free the slaves, those who truly want to be free! -A fellow warrior in God’s army.
“Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth” -John 17:17 ESV
Our Father, in Heaven, Your Name is mighty and holy. We ask that Your Kingdom come and that Your will be done Lord, here on earth, the same as it is in Heaven. Give us today our daily bread (Your Word) and forgive us of our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. Lead us away from any temptations and deliver us from the evil one. For Your Kingdom is powerful and glorious forever and ever. Amen. -The Lord’s prayer (paraphrased)
Destroying the kingdom of satan with the Holy Spirit 