Lent- Week One Day 2

The scripture reading for today is Deuteronomy 8:3, He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna,which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.

Everything is in existence and held up by God’s Word. People need God’s Word to live a good life. We should be thankful for everything that exists! It is here because God spoke it into being. Study God’s Word to know His perfect will to be able to carry out His will in my life. This leads to a good life in His care. Thank you for this life on this earth with everything You created. Help me to keep studying and to be faithful to Your Word to uphold my life and help my family to be prosperous.

What I have gathered so far:

Day 1-  Get your thinking straight and be in God’s presence

Day 2- Be reading the Word and trust God

Trail to the Tree for today is Ram in the thicket. God provided a sacrifice right at the right moment, not early, not late, right on time. God provides for us right when we need it.

Today, live in trust, knowing He will see to it. ALL of it. Romans 8:32,

 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?

I will admit I have been fearful at night lately. I woke up the other night and realized my peace was gone. I got up at 3 am and felt drawn to read my book on prayer and one on faith. It helped me feel connected and I felt God’s presence. I have realized the importance of keeping devotion time and studying the Bible. It keeps me at peace. It reminds me God is here with me, it’s His world and He created me and won’t forsake me. He wouldn’t create everything and turn His back. He is present in every moment. The Bible reminds me I can trust Him to provide my every need. Thank you God for being here and providing for me.

A Story To Make You Believe In God

The Life of Pi is a movie about a boy’s journey to God. Now I know there are movie summaries out there stating things about the animals representing people and that’s exactly my point. They weren’t people! The movie is trying to get us to see the impossible! The investigators at the end make Pi tell a story that isn’t true, one that’s believable they say. This is the kind of synopsis it got in real life too! Just as the movie states, religion is darkness.

When Pi was a boy he stumbled into a church and saw Jesus on the cross. I think it was a priest who explained Jesus to Pi. His response was, what kind of love is that? Meaning who would love someone so much to die for them?

Then Pi is older and he finds himself in a bad storm on an ocean liner with his family. They all perish but Pi survives along with these animals in the life boat. It ends up just being Pi and the tiger though. While he is out at sea floating around in the ocean with this tiger, he learns something. Tending to the tiger gives him meaning and purpose. Shade becomes his greatest joy. He experienced God out there. God gave him provision with flying fish! He found an island that gave him some relief from the ocean but it was made known to him to get back out there if he wanted to be found.

When they hit land the tiger disappears into the jungle and is gone forever. Pi is just lying on the beach and watches the tiger disappear in the jungle. He feels sadness because him and the tiger had an experience together. They survived. He was connected to the tiger and now he was gone. All too soon though he is found by some people and taken to the hospital. I won’t go into detail about the movie itself, all the wonders and miracles because I don’t want to spoil it so I’m going to get to the main reason I’m writing about it.

What the Holy Spirit showed me through this movie is the stories in the Bible are viewed in the same way. They get tagged as being a metaphor for something when actually they are true and real! It seems unbelievable but it’s true! In the movie these investigators come to visit Pi in the hospital and they want the story of what happened to him. Pi tells them what actually happened, just as we see it in the film. Well, Pi’s version doesn’t line up with their reality. They wanted to hear THEIR TRUTH, not THE TRUTH. They thought Pi was crazy! Isn’t that how we are looked at, those who believe in the supernatural? They wanted a simple believable story without things they haven’t seen before. They asked Pi for the truth. Pi already told the truth but he then had to make up a story! So that they wouldn’t look like fools, they said! Pi had told the truth about the tiger, but they wanted a story THEY could believe, not the TRUTH!

This movie was a journey with God for this boy. He experienced God and no one would believe him. Has this happened to you? What happens to me is, I experience God and it seems like it doesn’t register with the other person. That’s because it has to be YOUR experience!

So it is with the Bible. The stories in the Bible seem “far fetched” and “out there” but that doesn’t make them false. God is bigger than us. His ways are higher than our ways as it says in the Bible! At the end of the movie we are asked to choose which story do we want to believe (prefer)?

I choose to believe the far fetched story! It’s miraculous and amazing! The amazing story is the TRUTH because God is amazing, He is everything wonderful! This story is like the ones in the Bible, they are unbelievable and yet they are true because God does do the impossible! He is God! Believe it! Why believe the ordinary and what makes sense to our natural minds when you can live above this world in the extraordinary, where God is! I choose to live above, put my thoughts on things above and unseen to be able to experience God, on earth! Your Kingdom Come to earth as it is in heaven! We can experience it here if we just open our minds and hearts and allow ourselves to be with Him! He is all around us, waiting for US to acknowledge HIM.

Just because we can’t figure it out by our natural mind doesn’t mean it isn’t there or true. God is there whether you believe it or not. I choose to believe! I know He is real because like Pi, I have experienced Him for myself. If you question the Bible or God, start searching to experience God. Mere knowledge does not compare to being filled with His Spirit and knowing by experience that He is God. Ephesians 3:19, and [that you may come] to know [practically, through personal experience] the love of Christ which far surpasses [mere] knowledge [without experience], that you may be filled up [throughout your being] to all the fullness of God [so that you may have the richest experience of God’s presence in your lives, completely filled and flooded with God Himself].

In the Bible it says when you search for Him like lost treasure, He will be found by you. Remember a pure heart sees God!

A little side note: At the time I watched this movie I had a blog called My Kaleidoscope is Jesus. At the end of the movie during the credits there were kaleidoscope images. I took this as a sign and when I told my husband my interpretation of the movie I felt God’s presence and began to cry. God wants us to know He is REAL and the Bible is CREDIBLE!

It’s The Sin I Hate!

When I became a mom I couldn’t figure out why I was getting angry when my children misbehaved or hurt one another. I never thought I had anger issues until I had kids! I tried to figure out why this was happening to me. Now that I have been in fellowship with Jesus, He has shined a light on the anger issue and it has changed the way I look at my kids and the way I handle situations that aren’t fun to deal with.

I had the revelation that when I get angry at them, it’s not the child that is angering me, it’s the SIN I hate! This is the same with God towards us. He always loves us but doesn’t always love what we do, think or say. Part of living in a godly way is renewing your mind with God’s Word everyday.

I don’t remember where I got this from, it’s in my notebook, but it says: It’s not enough just to believe the Bible, I must fill my mind and heart with it so that the Holy Spirit can transform me with the truth. We have to become doers of the Word.                                          Jesus pointed out that God’s blessing comes from obeying the truth, not just knowing it. John 13:13-17, You call Me Teacher and Lord, and you are right in doing so, for that is who I am. ¹⁴ So if I, the Lord and the Teacher, washed your feet, you ought to wash one another’s feet as well. ¹⁵ For I gave you [this as] an example, so that you should do [in turn] as I did to you. ¹⁶ I assure you and most solemnly say to you, a slave is not greater than his master, nor is one who is sent greater than the one who sent him. ¹⁷ If you know these things, you are blessed [happy and favored by God] if you put them into practice [and faithfully do them].  I use the Joyce Meyer Everyday Bible Amplified Version and in it she puts God’s Word into affirmations and confessions so you can speak it out loud over your life. We have to speak God’s Word out loud to see it manifest in our lives. When we do this it puts us in agreement with Him and it has to come to pass because God’s Word does not return to Him void. Isaiah 55:11, So will  My word be which goes out of My mouth;
It will not return to Me void (useless, without result),
Without accomplishing what I desire,
And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.

Remember words are empty without faith and belief. You have to believe what He says is true for you and your faith for Him to do it is what brings it to pass. We serve the same God as Abraham, Moses and all those in the Bible. That thought just amazes me! The Bible says God is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. He never changes, so we can trust Him. Hebrews 13:8, Jesus Christ is [eternally changeless, always] the same yesterday and today and forever. God will do for you what He did for those in the Bible. We are in the ” To Be Continued” part of His Story.

When I began to believe these truths I began to trust God and that is the beginning of your relationship with Him. When we begin to come away from our sin nature through our faith in Jesus Christ, God smiles on us. The sin is what separates us from Him, that’s why He hates it. When you put your faith in Jesus, He takes the sin away and we can have access to God and all His Grace and provision for our lives!

God’s Word Speaks Life!

 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh conveys no benefit [it is of no account]. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and life [providing eternal life]. John 6:63

Back in October 2010 I had a dream. This was shortly after I had my encounter with Jesus, I was going to a non denomination church. I was in church listening to the sermon when a woman spoke out saying,” It’s just words.” I said,” It’s not just words, it’s GOD’S WORD and it’s the TRUTH! His WORD speaks life! Live by His Word and you will live forever! ” Then she began singing Amazing Grace.

Do you know what empty words are?  In my opinion empty words are words with no love. Just as it says in First Corinthians 13:1-3, If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not ^[a]love [for others growing out of God’s love for me], then I have become only a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal [just an annoying distraction]. ² And if I have the gift of prophecy [and speak a new message from God to the people], and understand all mysteries, and [possess] all knowledge; and if I have all [sufficient] faith so that I can remove mountains, but do not have love [reaching out to others], I am nothing. ³ If I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body ^[b]to be burned, but do not have love, it does me no good at all. 

So many preachers today want to send the message but people aren’t hearing it because there is no LOVE! I left that church I mentioned above because I never felt wanted. I served in the church out of my love for Jesus. I cleaned. I felt more wanted and loved from the woman in charge of cleaning than I did the pastor! Then another church I went to I told the pastor, we are looking for love. His response was, aren’t we all? I went to another church also but none of them could hold me there. What’s missing from our churches today is REAL LOVE.  Real love is explained in  First Corinthians 13.  When I was filled with the Holy Spirit the Bible became a love letter to me from God. He only speaks with love, purpose and meaning. This is why we can trust what God says in the Bible. Ever notice that Jesus never said words to just hear Himself speak? He always had a purpose, a meaning, a teaching. He portrayed love with every word He spoke. I could feel His love in the Gospel of John, that’s how I got saved. When you get a revelation that God’s Word is written for YOU, and I mean that present tense because the Bible is the living word, you begin to live in the supernatural.

When I first began reading the promises of God, I wanted to believe them for myself. I started praying with God’s Word in my prayer and suddenly I felt a change in my spirit. Instead of saying a natural minded prayer like this: God, please supply some money, it’s getting low and you know we have to eat, please send some money, Amen. Your prayers become like this: God, it says in Your Word that I am more valuable to You than the sparrow and You will supply all my needs according to Your riches in Glory. I know I belong to You because I have faith in Jesus, I have received Your gift. You said not to worry and put You first and all these things shall be added unto me. So, thank you God, for supplying my need and I know You are working already to answer my prayer because in Your Word it says that You hear the prayers of the righteous. I am one of the righteous through Your son Jesus Christ. Amen.  With God’s Word infused in your prayers they become powerful. You can feel the difference in your soul because you know you are agreeing with what God says. Our agreement and faith in Him is what activates it. It also says in the Bible that we can not please God without faith. Hebrews 11:6,[ But without faith it is impossible to [walk with God and] please Him, for whoever comes [near] to God must [necessarily] believe that God exists and that He rewards those who [earnestly and diligently] seek Him. ]  But Jesus looked at them and said, “With people [as far as it depends on them] it is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” Matthew 19:26.  When God finds people that are thinking His Word, speaking His Word and doing His Word, life becomes supernatural!