Monday, June 30, 2008

A Talking Donkey

How many of us have had a talking donkey in our life. Or how many of us have ever heard a donkey talk? I think you will be surprised at the answer to that question. Let me explain.
One of the stories in the bible that amazes me of how people saw things in the early days is when the donkey talks to Balaam. Now I do not know about you, but if a donkey started talking to me, I would not argue with it, I would be too dumbfounded at the time. You need to read the story in Numbers. The part of the story I am referring to is when Balaam sets out on his donkey and an Angel of the Lord appears in front of the donkey with His sword drawn 3 times and 3 times the donkey turns away, and 3 times Balaam strikes his donkey. Then the Lord opens the donkey's mouth to speak.

Numbers 22 v 28-30.....Then the Lord opened the mouth of the donkey, and she said to Balaam, "What have I done to you, that you have struck me these three times?" And Balaam said to the donkey, "because you have abused me. I wish there were a sword in my hand, for now I would kill you!" So the donkey said to Balaam, "Am I not your donkey on which you have ridden, ever since I became yours, to this day? Was I ever disposed to do this to you?" And he said, "No."

Okay, let's stop right there for a minute. Does that not just blow you away that this guy is carrying on a conversation with a donkey? When the donkey opened her mouth and questioned me about striking her, I think I would have fell out. Who but God could cause a donkey to speak? So, I think I might have fell down and repented then. I don't know, let's keep reading.

Numbers 22 v 31-34....Then the Lord opened Balaam's eyes, and he saw the Angel of the Lord standing in the way with His drawn sword in His hand; and he bowed his head and fell flat on his face. And the Angel of the LORD said to him, "Why have you struck your donkey these three times? Behold, I have come out to stand against you, because your way is perverse before Me. The donkey saw Me and turned aside from Me, surely I would also have killed you by now, and let her live. And Balaam said to the Angel of the Lord, "I have sinned, for I did not know You stood in the way against me. Now therefore, if it displeases You, I will turn back."....

And there you have it. God knows our intentions when we try to be underhanded about something. When we try to go around the back door so to speak. You can not hide your intentions from God. And when you are doing something wrong and you know it, and that still small voice is trying to tell you don't do it, you had better listen. You see back then they did not have the Holy Spirit living within them to tell them right from wrong. So God had to use the mouth of a donkey to speak to them. To open their eyes so to say. Notice, Balaam said, (and I am paraphrasing here) I'm sorry Lord, I did not know that you were the one stopping the donkey. In other words, had I known you were watching I would have behaved differently. Isn't that true? Don't we sometimes respond to things differently when we know we are being watched? Well, my point is, God is always watching, so we should not have to have a donkey speak to us to tell us when we are doing wrong, we should be listening to our inner man, the Holy Spirit living within us. If our inner man is telling us not to do or say something, then we need to listen, in other words don't argue with the donkey. And we need to be sure that when we listen to God, it is God that we are listening to, and not question Him when He tells us to do something. Don't try to go around the back door to make something right that is wrong. That would be arguing with the donkey. You know what is right and what is wrong, so don't anger God and cause Him to send a donkey to speak to you, because you won't listen to the Holy Spirit. AMEN!

I hope this story helps us the next time we get ready to do something that is a little underhanded, we will stop and rethink what we are about to do or say and not do it. Amen!
Neta

Friday, June 27, 2008

We Are Heirs With No Fear

Being heirs with Christ, we have been given a Spirit of power, we are more than conquerors, we no longer have a spirit of fear and bondage.

Romans 8 v 15....For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, "Abba, Father"........

Notice how this scripture is written. The first time the word spirit is spelled out with a little s, because it is of no significance, fear is no longer relevant, fear has no hold on you any longer, because notice the next time the word spirit is spelled out, (Spirit) that is because it is the Holy Spirit the word is talking about, and He will intercede to the Father when we cry out for help. He will put the spirit of fear under our feet, we have the authority to step on the neck of fear and trample that spirit under our feet. AMEN!

Romans 8 v 16-17a....The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ.......

While reading in my bible, there was a word focus on the word adoption. We are adopted unto God through Christ Jesus.

Greek word for adoption is huiothesia...huios meaning son, and thesis meaning placement.
It is a legal term that in this context indicates that believers have been given the full privileges of sonship in God's family. Concurrent with this placement into sonship, God places the Spirit of His Son into our hearts so that we become, in effect, His natural born children. As such, we are not just "adopted" (in the sense the word now conveys) but genuinely "begotten" by God, God makes children of men into children of God. Opposite than what He did with Jesus. Jesus being the son of God, became Son of Man.

So the next time the world tries to throw something at you, and cause fear to rise up in you, stop and remember that you are a Son of God and there is no such thing as fear in you. You just cry out to your Father and He will give you the strength and the power to trample that fear under your feet. HALLELUJAH! You have the rights to the Kingdom, you are of Royalty, you are God's child and when you get this into your spirit the Spirit Man (the Holy Spirit within you) will rise up in you and the enemy will have to bow down to God and can not harm you.

Now wouldn't you rather walk through life knowing that God is on your side and you are protected from the enemy instead of walking in fear from the things of this world, the things that are happening all around you. Don't you want to say like that song, "you can't touch this". Because in fact when you have the Holy Spirit living inside of you and you have faith in God's word then you can say, "you can't touch this" and say it with confidence. AMEN!

Neta

Thursday, June 26, 2008

Shake The Dust

Jesus tells us when we are sharing the good news with someone and they harden their hearts against it and will not hear it, we are to shake them off like the dust from our feet and move on. We do not cease to pray for these, we just can not hang out with them.

Matt. 10 v 14....and whoever will not receive you nor hear your words, when you depart from that house or city, shake off the dust from your feet.....

It is very important for us to watch over our Spirit Man and what we feed into ourselves. We can not hang around with corruption for too long, or the corruption (sin) will start to overflow on to us. You see what we feed our spirits has to come out at some time. So when you are around someone who curses all the time, you will begin to pick up that language and the next thing you know you are slipping out curse words yourself. Or another example, is when you are around someone who is negative and only has woe me things to say, you will begin to talk and think the same way. Sometimes you have to hurt some feelings by removing yourself from these type of people, in order to keep your own spiritual health. These people may be friends and family members, but the word of God says to keep watch over our hearts (which is our soil) so that the works of iniquity can not defile us. In other words be careful of what kind of seeds get deposited into your soil (your heart). AMEN

Sometimes it is hard to cut ourselves off from our friends and family but Jesus Himself, says that this will happen in some cases.

Luke 12 v 53...".father will be divided against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother in law against daughter in law and daughter in law against her mother in law."....

This does not mean that you have free reign to separate yourself from your family, this is just saying that if these people cause you to sin or are harmful to your spirit man then you may have to love them from afar. You may have to stick to limited communication. Now, I know there are some that will say the word says to honor your father and your mother, and you would be correct, but to honor does not mean to be in their presence. You can honor them without being in their presence.

So let us all keep a watch over our mouths and our hearts and keep His word first in our hearts, our minds and our souls and all other things will come into place. AMEN!
Neta

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Don't Bite

While reading our devotional the other day, something stuck with me about how when Jesus was tempted by the devil in the wilderness, He never took the bait. When Satan would quote a scripture to Jesus, but out of the wrong context, Jesus would say "it is written", and He would not fall prey to Satan's ploy to destroy His faith in His Father's word.

For example in Genesis when the serpent (who was evil in disguise) tricked Eve into eating the apple by making her think that maybe Adam had not heard God right and maybe it was ok to eat the apple. In other words he put doubt in her mind and in her heart. So you see, she took the bait, she bit, where Jesus did not bite, because He knew the word, and He would not let the devil trick Him out of His faith. His faith level was where it needed to be, so that He did not take the bait. In other words, he didn't bite.

Genesis 3 v 2-4.....and the woman said to the serpent, "we may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, 'You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die'. Then the serpent said to the woman, "You shall not surely die, for God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."........

Eve bit! For lack of knowledge.

Matthew 4 v 1-4...Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry. Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, "If you are the Son of God, command these stones become bread." But He answered and said, "It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God."......

Jesus didn't bite! Because He knew the word of God. You see He could've turn the stones into bread to prove the devil wrong, but He didn't need to, He had enough faith to know that God was going to take care of Him, and the devil was just trying to make Him doubt.

That is why it is so important for us to know the word of God and know what He says, and that is why we read it for ourselves so that the Holy Spirit can interpret for us what God is saying so that when the tempter comes against us and tries to tell us, well you know your family history, everybody in your family has had this, or you can't do that, it is too hard and that is just too much work, or well you know what the statistics say about that, according to statistics it will never work, and on and on and on and on. You better have the word of God in your heart to speak back at the tempter and rebuke the negative things they say. The tempter comes in all forms of disguises, he could come from one of your family members, or friends who think they are telling you what you need to hear, but you know that doesn't line up with God's word. Don't just have the word in your head, because Satan had the word in his head, but not in his heart. You see when the word is in your heart that is faith, because you believed it and stored it in your heart. When you memorize scripture in your head, and you do not mix them with faith and put them in your heart, then all you have is a box of useless words. AMEN!
Neta

490

Does anyone know what the number signifies? If you read the same devotional I do, then you probably knew right off where I was going with this. How many times in a day do you think you could actually sin against someone? Ok, now you are catching on. HA!

You know if you actually thought about it, I mean about every word you say to someone, every thought you have had today about this person or that person, how about looking at someone and thinking I wonder what she was thinking when she got dressed this morning, or is he trying to grow a beard or what? Or that hair style just does not become her, or she must really think she is something. You get the picture. Those are times during the day that you sin. Now I know you might think, oh that is not a sin, that is just an observation. Wrong! It is sin. Because if you are honest with yourself, you know you did not think it as just an observation, you thought it in a way of criticism. Now what about when you say, that is interesting when you are really thinking, yeh right! SIN! You see we sin all day long, and then when we go to God to repent for our sins for that day, we think wow, I was really good today, I did not bite off anybody's head, or say any curse words, or cheat on my test, etc. etc. Well, that is how we miss the boat. You see when we can not recognize that we are sinning, we are being deceived by the devil and before long, we will harden our hearts and we will not be able to hear from God. Because we are so stuck on our own thoughts and what we think about these sins, like for instance thinking they are of no consequence, then before long, even the bigger things we do will seem of no consequence until finally we are sin consumed.

We have to become responsible for our own sins. We have to humble ourselves and realize that we are not always right and the other person wrong. We have to recognize that everything is not all about us. We need to see that when we get easily offended we are in sin. Because the word says to walk in love is to not be easily offended. When we are easily offended we have fallen into the trap of being self centered and self righteous instead of being Christ centered and the righteousness of Christ. Now I know some who might not agree with this, because it steps on their toes too much, but hey, I promise it does not step on your toes any worse than it steps on mine. Sometimes, I have to quit writing these tid-bits long enough to go soak my feet and bandage them up because my whole foot gets smashed and not just my toes.

You see when I write these things it is usually because God is reprimanding me on my actions. I do not see when I first start writing this, that this is a word for me, no I think, Oh, I have this great tid-bit, this will do so and so some good today, and before I am finished, I am soaking my own feet. I am the so and so God intended this word for. God is so good about bringing me back to His word, and out of my own selfish world. AMEN! Am I talking to anybody out there today or is it just me that needed this word. Hallelujah, I am just thankful that God can yank me right when I am in wrong
thinking.

Matthew 18 v 21-22...Then Peter came to Him and said, "Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?" Jesus said to him, "I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.".........

So now, If I have offended anyone out there today, or this week, please forgive me as I forgive any who have offended me. Help me walk in the love of the Lord toward you by forgiving me my sins against you. I love you all. Pray for the healing in my feet.
Neta

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Don't Be Dry Bones

Are you dry bones? While reading in Ezekiel 37 this morning, God showed me there are alot of dry bones out in the world. In fact, there are a lot of dry bones in the churches. Dry bones are spiritually dead people. They do not know how to activate or choose not to activate their spirit man living within them. They keep Him under lock and key for fear of humility, embarrassment, dis-belief, and I am sure there are other reasons as well. Some are just sitting in the pews keeping the pews warm, some are actually very busy working in the churches, but they are still spiritually dead. No matter how the pastor tries to draw out their spirit man, they refuse to let go and be free in Christ with allowing the Holy Spirit to freely worship through them. They will not come out of their comfort zone, or worse even, the Holy Spirit isn't even present in them yet. Why is it so hard to do what the word of God tells us to do? Lift up holy hands and praise Him. Pray in the Spirit always.

1 Tim 2 v 8...I desire therefor that the men pray everywhere lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting...
Ps. 63 v 4....Thus I will bless You while I live; I will lift up my hands in Your name.....
Ps 141 v 2...Let my prayer be set before You as incense, The lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice....
The lifting up of hands is a form of prayer to the Lord.

Ephes. 6 v 18....Praying always in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perserverance and supplication for all the saints....
Jude 20....But you beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit.....

Now I am not saying that everyone in church should be speaking in tongues, for how would those who are not accustom understand what is going on? But you are to pray in the Holy Spirit when you are praying to God. There is so much argument over this, and I do not understand how someone can argue with the word of God. Don't just read part of the scriptures that tell you about praying in tongues, and pick out the part you agree with, read the entire passage, so that you can understand what Paul is saying when he speaks on tongues. Don't be quick to pick and choose, and harden your heart to the rest. I think you will be surprised that there is a beautiful prayer language in you just waiting to be heard by God.

We say as Christians that we believe every word of the Bible is God Breathed. Yet some of us still want to pick and choose. Well, just do then like someone told me once, just tear out all the pages of the bible that has things you don't believe written on them, and see what kind of bible you are left with. Amen!

Ezek. 37 v 1-4...The hand of the LORD came upon me and brought me out in the Spirit of the LORD and set me down in the midst of the valley; and it was full of bones. Then He caused me to pass by them all around, and behold, there were very many in the open valley; and indeed they were very dry. And He said to me, "Son of man, can these bones live?" So I answered, "O LORD God, You know." Again He said to me, "Prophesy to these bones, and say to them, 'O dry bones, hear the word of the LORD! Thus says the Lord God to these bones: "Surely I will cause breath to enter into you, and you shall live.....

I for one am thankful for the Holy Spirit living within me, and freeing me up to praise God the way He deserves to be praised, with no holding back but just giving it all up to Him. AMEN!
I will continue to lift my hands to my Father, so that He can lift me up, I don't want Him to feel as if He has to stoop over and pick me up all the time, but that He sees me lifting my praise to Him freely, unashamedly and not just always in need, but in glorifying Him in all things giving Him praise and thanksgiving. But I do not think this is just talking about being dry in the spirit but also in your worship just all around. You see, some people are just going through the motions and may have not ever even been saved. There are alot of unsaved people working in the churches today in important roles, the time has come if this is you, please humble yourself before the Lord and ask His forgiveness, and accept Him publicly, so that you may experience the full joy of the Lord and His blessings in your life. AMEN!

"Father, do not let me ever do anything for show, but only out of reverence and respect for you. AMEN!" Please do not quench the fire of the Holy Spirit living within you, don't just be a pile of dry bones.
Neta

Some Things Need Repeating

We are ambassadors of Christ Jesus. Our ministry is to reconcile the world to Christ Jesus, not imputing people their sins, but as God did for us through Christ Jesus, we are to do the same for the world. We are to forgive them their sins as Jesus does, and we are to love them into the fold. We were not sent out to judge the world, but to plead to the world as if God Himself was begging them to receive Christ and be forgiven and start a new life as a new creation in Jesus.

2 Cor. 5 v 18-20...Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us; we implore you on Chirst's behalf, be reconciled to God.....

We do not need to preach hell fire and brimstone at the lost, they already know all about it. In other words they know how they are living, and they know when they have done wrong. We are to show them that they can receive forgiveness, and be loved beyond their imaginations by the one who died for all sins and took their sins as well as ours upon that cross on his body.

2 Cor. 5 v 21...For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him...

Sometimes we forget too quickly what we were like before we came to know Christ as our savior, and we look down at these sinners. We need to be good stewards of the word and walk in love toward all of our fellow men, regardless of their walk at the time we meet them.

2 Cor. 5 v 16-17...Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer....

In other words we do not know Christ as man any longer, but now as our Lord and Savior, who forgave us our sins and saved us from ourselves and the way we were living.

Just as we are told that we will be held accountable for every idle word, it is the same for our thoughts as well. Our thoughts are words unspoken out loud, but they are still spoken to the Lord, for He knows our every thought. So just because you are looking at that beggar on the street and not saying out loud what you think, God sees into the deep recesses of your heart and knows exactly what you are thinking about one of His. You see, Christ Jesus died for everyone on the face of this earth, not just the saved people like you and me, but everyone, and when they repent and come to Him, He will receive them just like He received you. He is no respector of man.

Matt. 12 v 36...But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgement...

Ps 94 v 11....The Lord knows the thoughts of man, that they are futile....

Romans 2 v 11....for there is no partiality with God....

Today as we go out into the world, and we are surrounded by the lost, let us not look at them as lost, but as someone who needs a good word today, an uplifting word, a truth to get them on the right road to salvation, the road that leads to Jesus, and lets do it with love in our hearts and not judgement. AMEN!

Neta

Loving While Under Stress

We can walk around praising the Lord, and singing songs to Him, but then let someone offend us, or take too long to handle our problem and we want to get in the flesh. You know what I am talking about. ie...say you made reservations for something or somewhere for a really busy time of year, and this place or thing you reserved is so popular that everyone else made reservations also. Well, when you get there you find the person who made your reservations did not complete the job, they forgot to hit the enter key at the end of the transaction so your reservations were actually never made, or completed. So now, they are all sold out, they have no more of what you wanted. I mean really no more. Zilch! Nadda! No More! Get the picture. What is your first reaction and how do you respond? Remember there is no where else to go because everyone is all booked up. What is your reaction? Be Honest! I have to tell you, I can not think of one person I know that would not get in their flesh and become angry. I am just being honest. I know alot of people, and I have witnessed how they respond to similar situations, and I can honestly say I do not know even one that would not get in their flesh. Now there are a very small few, that would quickly repent, and apologize and rethink their response, but they would still first get upset and in the flesh. This is the human nature part of us. This is the worldly part of us. The question is, how long are you going to argue with that person, how long are you going to complain about this incident, how long before you repent and realize you are acting contrary to the way God says you are to act?

Here is where we get into trouble. We stay in that spirit of sin for too long. We keep re-hashing it over and over until we work ourselves up again. This is where addicts get in trouble. They stay in the will of the evil one wanting that next fix instead of in the will of God. Why, because the will of the evil is too easy, and the will of God to do what is right is not always easy. In fact sometimes, it is very challenging. But when you build your faith, and you keep your spirit under the word all the time and on a constant basis, you will find the will of God is the easier road and can only bring about good.

James 1 vs 2-6....My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind....

James 1 v 12-15....Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him. Let no one say when he is tempted, "I am tempted by God," for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He, Himself tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is full grown, brings forth death....

You see we can not blame our behavior on anyone but ourselves. What is in a man's heart, so is he. Prov. 23 v 7a...for as he thinks in his heart, so is he... What comes out of our mouth is what is in our heart in the first place. Matt. 12 v 34b...for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks... We do not like to think that, but sometimes, according to some of the ways we act or things we say, that is the truth of it. When we deliberately try to go against the grain, or rub a person the wrong way, do things we know will irritate them, then we are in sin against God, because we are deliberately dis-obeying the one thing, He told us was most important, to love Him with all of our mind, body and souls, and to walk in love toward our neighbor. If we are not walking in love toward our neighbor, then we are not loving God with all of our mind, body and soul. WOW! 1 John 4 v 20-21....If someone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also....

So for all of us, that think we love God so much, let us see how much you really love Him when your reservations get cancelled. Will you look for who to blame, or will you praise God that just maybe He had a reason to keep you out of this place. And let Him bless you with something even better. Sort of like, when everyone told David, Goliath was too big for him to go against, and he said, he is too big for me to miss. That is how I want to be, positive in every situation praising and thanking God for everything, and that is the type of people I want in my circle of friends. Amen! Ask God everyday to not let anything that would not be pleasing to His ears pass from your lips or enter into your thoughts. AMEN!
Neta

Statistics

As a child of God you are not just another statistic. AMEN! You are highly favored by God, and He says that harm shall not come near you. I have really just recently grabbed ahold of this scripture.

Ps 91 v 7....A thousand may fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand; But it shall not come near you...

Do you see what the word of God is saying? Just because the statistics say that this many have fell victim to this or that, does not mean you will. In fact the word says you will not. The word says it shall not come near you. Vs. 10...No evil shall befall you, nor shall any plague come near your dwelling; for He shall give His angels charge over you, to keep you in ALL your ways....

So don't start focusing on statistics when something tries to come against you, focus on the word of God and what He has to say about it. His word is truth. HALLELUJAH!! He shall deliver you from your circumstances. AMEN

Neta