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Dancing in the Dark

Over and over in Genesis when God is creating, the scripture says “And evening and morning were the first (second… sixth…) day.” Notice night always comes before day. Our God who declares the end from the beginning goes to work in the evening of our lives when it is darkest, when everything looks dead and hopeless, when you feel like giving up. That’s when He suddenly speaks into the night and commands, “Let there be light!”

We all must go through night seasons in life. That’s a fact. And it is crucial that you put your effort into enduring difficult times in faith, rather than circumventing them. Otherwise, you just might miss your miracle.

A womb for the miraculous

Start seeing the darkness that surrounds you as a womb for the miraculous, and an incubator for the incredible. Suddenly, in one day, God can resurrect the very thing you thought was dead forever and prosper it as never before. But you must be willing to lay it down in faith. 

In Numbers 17:1-8, God commanded the heads of the twelve tribes of Israel to lay down their rods before Him. Each of them was carrying around a dead stick which represented their will, their abilities and their human power. But once he laid it down, in the course of one night, Aaron’s rod budded blossomed and bore fruit. A miracle!

When God gets hold of the dead thing you lay down—the bad relationship, the rebellious kids, the lost job, the uncertain future—your crisis becomes the crucible for God’s creative power.  

Endure the night

Not only must we endure our own night season, we must let others go through theirs as well. When we try to rescue our children or loved ones from problems over and over instead of letting them go through them, we only prolong their time in the fire. 

If you cut a butterfly free from its cocoon it will die because it didn’t get the strength it gains in the struggle while breaking out. When you take away a person’s struggle, you kill the character, the discipline, the humility, etc. that would have developed in the process. That’s why Jesus rebuked Peter for trying to dissuade Him from going to the cross and why He called Judas friend. Jesus knew He had to endure the night to obtain our salvation.

So what do we do while we’re waiting for daybreak? Declare what you want to see happen. Speak light into the darkness just like God did. He has already given you the word. Now He is saying, “You speak it!” 

Declare truth til daybreak

Say, “I am a tither and God is opening up the windows of heaven and pouring me out a blessing so great I can’t contain it all.” 

Say, “Healing is the children’s bread and by Jesus Christ’s stripes I am healed of  ________!”

Say, “My household is saved because a sanctified wife makes a sanctified husband and children.”

Don’t moan and groan. Endure joyfully. Say what God says and start to praise Him even in the dark. Dance and shout as you visualize your miracle coming to pass. Then get ready. Once you get a vision, day is about to come.   …

The Esau Syndrome

Esau, the first born, came in from hunting and said to his brother Jacob who was cooking pottage, “Quick, let me have some of that red stew! I’m famished!” Jacob replied, “First sell me your birthright.” Esau said, “Look, I am about to die. What good is the birthright to me?” So he swore an oath, selling his birthright to Jacob for a bowl of stew. The Bible summarizes this heated exchange with one cold statement: “So Esau despised his birthright” (Gen. 25:34).

Position, Privilege and Power

As the firstborn and heir to his father’s fortune, Esau was to come into Position, Privilege and Power. That was his birthright. However, he wasn’t willing to wait.

Every day the enemy tempts us to compromise future blessings to meet an immediate emotional need. How often we Christians fall prey to the Esau Syndrome! How often we sell our place of Position, Privilege and Power to meet a carnal craving, a lustful appetite! Yet, only God satisfies.

Just like Esau, we reason, “What good is my birthright? I’m hungry now! Why wait? I need someone to love me now!” We see an opportunity to get what we think God wants to give us…but our way. So we close our eyes and leap into sin, emptiness and spiritual death, trying to meet our need instead of relying on God. Thus, the Esau Syndrome has crippled the body of Christ and made us dysfunctional.

No Shortcut to God’s Best

In God’s house there are no elevators, only steps. You must go through the steps He ordains in order to inherit the blessings He has prepared.

I know so many Christians who have promises from God, but they are not willing to allow God to take them on His journey in order to receive them. How sad that is! They end up losing everything for a pot of beans. 

It’s like the weight lifter who wants the bulging muscles, so he takes steroids. He looks good on the outside, but inside his body is being destroyed.

Exodus 13:17 says that God led the children of Israel “not in the way of the Philistines.” There was a way to the promised land that was quicker, but in the shortcut, they would have dealt with the lusts of the flesh and they might have gone back to Egypt and into bondage. 

Stop Selling Your Birthright

God is re-training us to trust Him rather than ourselves. He wants us to be led by His Spirit and not by our emotions. 

Church, stop living out of your soul. Stop selling your birthright. Any time you try to be self-sufficient rather than God-sufficient, you go right back into bondage like before. Allow God to take you on the journey that will mature you. Don’t fall for the devil’s counterfeit. No shortcut will produce a Christ-like result in your life.

Have we not yet come to realize that, unless God meets our need, we will be left hungry and thirsty? Have we not hit enough dead ends to know that God has to bring it to pass? It takes a mature Christian to say no to the lusts of our flesh and yes to Jesus. Let’s be disciplined. Let it not be said of us, “So they despised their birthright.”…

Begin at the end.

What would you like your friends say about you when you die? That you were a person who loved God and loved people… that you were compassionate, always putting the needs of others before your own? Of course, you do!  Unfortunately, for some of us that won’t be the case because we never planned the end from the beginning!

You see, when a Hollywood producer makes a movie, he or she always has the end in mind before they start production. They design the different segments of the movie, making sure they all lead to the desired ending. If one of the segments doesn’t fit the ending they planned, they pull it out and create one that does fit.

If you and I want our lives to have a great ending, we must likewise plan the different segments of our lives to produce the desired result.

Pay now and play later

I like to say it this way: If we pay now, we can play later. But that’s the opposite of what most people do! Good planning calls for great discipline and keeping the end well in sight. Like a movie producer, you and I get to control each act and dictate how it ends.

The key to a good ending is sticking to the script: the Word of God. Jesus is the Author and Finisher of our faith; He is also the Director of our life, as the Apostle Paul tells us in Hebrews 12:2.

An illustration

I heard a story of an old man who sat on a park bench every afternoon, reading the newspaper. One day a young man sat next to him and, after a few minutes, leaned over to the older gentleman and said, “Sir I’m sorry to interrupt you, but do you have the time?” After a long pause, the old man turned, said “No” and went on reading the paper.

The stunned young man interrupted him and said, “Sir, you have on a watch and I don’t understand why you would say ‘no’ to my request. Did I not ask you politely, or did I offend you in some way?”

The old man said, “Son, you seem like a very nice young man. If I told you the time, we may have gotten into a conversation. Then I might have come to like you and invited you to my house for dinner. When you came over, because you are a handsome young man, my single daughter, who is beautiful, probably would have been attracted to you and you to her. You’d ask her out and there would be a good chance that you would ask her to marry you. Well, I don’t want my daughter to marry somebody who can’t afford a watch.”

Keep the perfect ending in mind

Now that’s a little radical, but the truth is this: You’ll never reach your desired end unless you begin and arrange the rest of your life’s journey with the end in mind. God showed Jeremiah as a young man what his life’s journey was to look like, and Jeremiah kept that vision before him. Surely, our destiny can also be fulfilled if we keep our end goal in mind at all times.

Think about how you would like your obituary to read and the legacy you want your family to continue. Will the unfolding of your life’s script bring glory to God? Take the time today and plan your ending. Then begin at the end!…

Does a habit have you?

Everyone has habits, both good and bad. A habit is a behavior acquired by frequent repetition. An addiction, on the other hand, is a compulsive dependence on an object, an action or a feeling, resulting in major life problems.

Good habits reflect God’s character and strengthen our character. Bad habits lead us astray, drag us down and affect our lives in negative ways.

Scripture uses words like bondage, slavery and stronghold to describe what it means to be a prisoner of sin.  Maybe you aren’t enslaved to something as destructive as drugs or alcohol, but you may be held captive to some seemingly harmless activity or attitude.  “….For a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him, (2 Peter 2:19b, NIV).”

Heart attitudes like anger, criticism, greed and prejudice can be just as damaging as hard-core addictions to drugs, pornography, gambling and eating disorders. Only when our habits move from pleasurable to painful, do we desire and maybe even get ready for change.

The first step

The first step is to acknowledge what’s fueling your negative habit. God created us with a desire for a loving, personal relationship with Him, one in which He meets all our deepest needs. Bad habits and addictions develop when we attempt to meet our God-given needs for love, security and significance through an unhealthy dependence on people, things and activities. With the help of the enemy, wrong thinking takes root in us and things become idols that take the place of God.

Satan uses shame and condemnation to keep us in bondage. He makes us think that God is fed-up and disgusted with us, so we won’t turn to Him for help.

No condemnation

In John chapter 8, when a woman caught in adultery was brought before Jesus, He didn’t condemn her. He showed her that even her would-be executioners weren’t without sin. He simply said, “Go and sin no more.”

As her sin lay bare before the Lord, I believe something supernatural happened in her heart. She sensed His love, forgiveness and acceptance and was set free from the lies she believed. No longer defined by her behavior, she received a new beginning. Get the picture?

Stop throwing stones at yourself and turn to Jesus, and keep turning every minute of every day. God brings conviction which brings repentance, rooted in right thinking and the power to change—not condemnation.

From bondage to freedom

How do we move from bondage to freedom? It takes faith and trust. Believe that God has not condemned you for your bad behavior. Trust His love for you, and the truth of His word. His truth sets you free!

Will power alone ultimately brings failure. But, if your desire is to surrender to God and let Him change you, you’ll find incredible peace, power and freedom.

If you’re feeling defeated, put down your stones and turn to Jesus. He loves you and He alone can give you the power to walk away from anything that holds you in bondage. Let go and take His hand!


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Jesus: Made in America

Whatever became of the Jesus we read about in the pages of the Bible? And who replaced Him with the modern American version?

Many still believe “Jesus is the way the truth and the life and there is no other way to the Father except by Him (John 14:6).” Yet many Christians have mistakenly embraced the heretical belief that God’s grace has done away with His laws.

Jesus Himself said, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them (Matthew 5:17).”

We’ve made grace a license to do whatever pleases us instead of the ability to do whatever pleases Him! Some seem to believe that, when we accept Jesus as Lord and Savior, there’s no need to repent since sin is no longer an issue.

Belief in these heretical doctrines results in acts like:

1) Marking, cutting and defiling our bodies with tattoos. The word clearly says it is an abomination to mark our bodies with tattoos like those who follow other gods. It also tells us our bodies are not our own; they are the temple of God.

2) Walking away from strong committed relationships because of offense, ignoring the mandate to resolve differences and to love one another as Christ loved us. Meanwhile, our love and honor for one another is proof to the world that the “Bible Jesus” is real and alive in us.

3) Failure to attend or commit to a local church and using our time, talent and treasure to help advance its God-given mission for our community. God hasn’t changed His mind about having a prosperous church. But we ask our church to serve us instead of serving others in the body to manifest God’s kingdom to our local community. So we come and go from local churches, shopping for the best deal to help us build our kingdom, instead of committing to build God’s.

4) Refusal to submit to godly authority and be spiritually fathered. Some see any spiritual authority as a hindrance to advancing their own agenda. Maybe one reason there are so few spiritual fathers today is the lack of sons and daughters willing to submit to godly authority. Please note: There are times when the “Bible Jesus” will say no and stop us from doing what feels and looks good to us.

What does Jesus say about all this?

The “Bible Jesus” says about His word: “Heaven and earth will pass away but my word will never pass away.” And in John 14:21: “He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.” First John 2:3 says, “Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments.”

There is no tension between God’s grace and His laws (His word). God’s grace (defined as His ability given to us to do His will) makes it possible to obey God’s commandments, not do away with them.

What a great deception Satan has sown! And he has covered it up by offering us an alternative Jesus. Don’t fall for that lie!


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How big is your God?

When the prophet Isaiah (6:1) saw the Lord high and lifted up and the train of His robe filling the temple, he gained fresh revelation of the awesome power and authority of God. He was overwhelmed by this vision of God! In Isaiah’s day, kings attached to their train the trains of kings they defeated in battle. The length of the train indicated the kings’s authority. Isaiah saw the one and only true God as a king with unlimited power and authority!

Our fears, frustrations, depression and hopelessness come from a lack of revelation of how big and awesome our God truly is. The God with whom we identify determines the amount of fear, stress, worry and hopelessness we experience. If we see God the way Isaiah did, opposition won’t discourage us.

We must never stop desiring deeper understanding of what God can do in and through our lives, because yesterday’s revelation won’t meet today’s challenges. Too many people are living on yesterday’s understanding and they’re filled with fear, anxiety and worry—a sure sign that the God they know is too small.

What God do you identify with? One who is able to do this, but not that? Remember, Isaiah was already God’s prophet before he received that new revelation. If he needed to be reminded of who God really is, how much more do we need a fresh download of revelation from heaven?

Here are some qualities you need to increase your view of the authority of God: 

1. Brokenness, demonstrated by meekness and humility. You can’t expect to get fresh revelation if you are prideful, self-righteous or unteachable. Isaiah was devastated by the death of the friend and king he served for 52 years. But through his devastation, he glimpsed the True King. Trauma or the removal of people we put before God often develops in us humility and brokenness.

2. A desire to know God more. Some people are satisfied with what they already know of God. They stop pursuing Him, but God only feeds the hungry. Ask God to give you a deeper hunger for more of Him. He’ll certainly answer that prayer because He wants to be known by you. Moses served God for many years, but when he cried out to know Him more, he experienced His presence to the point that God’s glory shone from his face!

3. Seeking Him with all your heart. People always say they love God with all their heart, but they’re deceived if God isn’t their main passion. Here’s the acid test: What do you do when no one is watching? Do you spend time just loving on Him? Is He the focus of your attention? Jeremiah 29:12-14 says, “Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you, says the Lord….” The key phrase is with all your heart. Plead with God to turn your heart to Him and no one else.

4. Acknowledgement that we have “unclean lips”. Isaiah knew his language revealed a lack of understanding of how big God really is. Change what you say to your mountain. Stop agreeing with your problems and stop complaining about what God isn’t doing in your life. God’s power is in His word! So, if your God is big enough, your words ought to reflect that. The greatness of your God…

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