I can only speak for myself, but I think we’ve all experienced it. We have prayed to God…we have made a specific supplication…we have interceded for someone else. Then, sometimes immediately, sometimes shortly after and sometimes much later we see God answer that prayer…that supplication…that intercession, just as we asked.
Sometimes it’s exactly as we asked. While others it may not be exactly as we asked but, we can still clearly see it was an answer to our prayer.
Then it happens. That emotion that reveals our true level of faith. I’m not saying an absence of faith, but the true level of our faith. Our emotional response to God answering our prayer.
SURPRISE
Have you ever been surprised when God answers your prayer? Surprised when we already know what He promised…
John 14:13-14 (NKJV)
13 And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If you ask[a] anything in My name, I will do it.
Do we really believe Jesus’ promise when we pray? Now, I do know that sometimes God says “No”. For more on this read WHEN GOD USES THE ‘N-WORD’…
I do know that sometimes God answers in a manner that we totally don’t expect and I realize that even though we know that God CAN do it, we don’t know if He WILL do it.
But even at that, we should never be surprised. Be surprised if you hit the lottery. Be surprised if the team that’s the underdog wins…even be surprised if you get exactly what you want for your birthday, but we should never be surprised when God has already promised us what He will do.
Even if we know He can do it, but wonder if He will, what emotion should we feel when God answers our prayer?
AMAZEMENT
God wants you to be amazed. He wants to ‘blow your mind’. He wants to make you say, “Wow!” He wants to astound you and leave you in awe…because this is how God ‘helps our unbelief’.
Mark 9:23-24 (NKJV)
23 Jesus said to him, “If you can believe,[a] all things are possible to him who believes.” 24 Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!”
Surprise implies that we didn’t believe. Amazement implies that we do believe.
When God answers your prayers, be AMAZED, but never SURPRISED.
What color are the eyes of our all-seeing God? Hmmm. God is a Spirit. God exists out side of time and space, so what color are His eye’s?
Brown?
Blue?
Green?
Black?
NO!
God is invisible. He has no shape, so that means we can’t ‘see’ Him with our physical eyes.
1 Timothy 1:17
Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.
No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us.
Exodus 33:20
But He said, “You cannot see My face, for no man can see Me and live!”
The bible also let’s us know that Yeshua the Messiah (Jesus Christ) is the image of the invisible God.
Colossians 1:15
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.
So, how can we be created in HIS IMAGE?
We ‘look’ like God when we have His character and His attributes. We look like Him when we love like Him…Forgive like Him…Live like Him.
The Fruit of His Spirit are aspects of His character that we possess…
Galatians 5:22-23 (NKJV)
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.
So, what color are the eyes of our invisible, all-knowing, all-seeing God?
We all do it sometimes…smile when we don’t really feel like it.
Some people call it a ‘fake’ smile, and sometimes it is.
Emotional Labor the act of showing the appropriate behavior for a job, co-workers, customers or ‘superiors’, such as when a waiter or waitress smiles while encountering a very difficult or rude customer. Their expression doesn’t show how they really feel inside.
When we have faith in and trust God, we will display spiritual Emotional Labor. We may be heartbroken, discouraged, betrayed, broken, angry hurt or even healing, but we still manage to smile because of our confidence in God. We know all things are working together for our good (Roman’s 8:28).
Our feelings will not always align with our faith.
Job is a great example of smiling through pain…
Job 9:27 (NKJV)
If I say, ‘I will forget my complaint, I will put off my sad face and wear a smile.
When your faith let’s you smile through your pain, you aren’t hiding WHAT’S inside you, you’re revealing WHO’S inside you.
Have you ever been driving through the neighborhood, or stepped outside and the aromatic smell of food cooking on a grill gently floats into your nostrils? How many times have you caught that sweet-smelling aroma and said, “Mmmmmm, someone is grilling?” Hold that tought…
Now, consider this…Praise is so powerful! Sometimes if we aren’t careful, we can turn it into a ‘spiritual gimmick’ with phrases like, “When praises go up, then blessings come down”, “Get your praise on, ” or “Praise your way out!” I’m not saying these phrases are wrong, but praise, like anything else that pertains to God needs to always be handle with reverence.
The bible tells us that praise is beautiful.
Psalm 147 (NKJV)
147 Praise[a] the Lord! For it is good to sing praises to our God; For it is pleasant, and praise is beautiful.
But, look at this. The bible also tells us that praise is a sacrifice.
Hebrews 13:15-16 (NKJV)
15 Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, [a]giving thanks to His name. 16 But do not forget to do good and to share, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.
Praise is a sacrifice because we don’t always FEEL LIKE praising God, but it’s always appropriate to do so. That’s what makes it a sacrifice.
The apostle Paul even referred to the one-time sacrifice of our Lord and Savior Yeshua as a SWEET-SMELLING AROMA.
Ephesians 5:2 (NKJV)
2 And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.
The bible many times referred to the SMOKE produced by animal sacrifices as a SWEET-SMELLING AROMA: Leviticus 1:9, Leviticus 1:13, Leviticus 3:5, Leviticus 26: 31, Exodus 29:18.
Since Jesus offered Himself as a one-time sacrifice, we no longer need to offer up animal sacrifices, but we are expected to offer up the sacrifice of our praise.
When we do this with a sincere heart, our praise, as the apostle Paul so eloquently stated, is like an SWEET SMELLING AROMA in the nostrils of God.
So, it we don’t use praise as a means to ‘manipulate’ God to shower us with blessings, and with a sincere heart, offer up our praise as an intimate (or corporate) moment of worship, it will rise up to Him as a SWEET-SMELLING AROMA.
Make God sniff and say, “Mmmmm, someone is grilling!”
Have you ever noticed how Paul interacted with the people of Athens? He encountered people who did not believe in the God of our salvation. He took advantage of the opportunity to teach them about Yeshua, Christ Jesus.
He didn’t do as many Christians do today, allow his passion to confront them in anger and spiritual arrogance. He didn’t tell them how stupid, silly and foolish they were to believe as they did. He didn’t try to bully them into believing.
Paul reached out to them in respect and love, acknowledging that they sincerely believed in something, and he wanted to present to them the only Living God…
Of course there were some who mocked him, but others believed and wanted to hear more.
If Paul had approached them as many do today his message of salvation would not have been received by those who had a heart and mind to do so.
Do you know any spiritual bullies?
Have you ever encountered one?
Are you one?
We can’t force our faith on anyone.
We can’t allow our passion for Christ as an excuse to be self-righteous, spiritual bullies.
We must always reach out to others in love. Rather than convert sinners and those who believe in other ‘gods’ we will turn them off and confirm every negative impression they have of disciples of Christ.
Ask God each day for the anointing to share your faith and the wisdom to reach out in His Spirit of love.
This is not scientific or philosophical, but it is God breathed. And, there is some degree of randomness as it is for the most part stream of consciousness…
More and more people are falling into modern, popular culture pantheism. They are replacing God with ‘The Universe’.
“The universe will bring it to you.”
“The universe is on your side.”
“The universe will judge you.”
“The universe has heard you”
“The universe sees you”.
This doctrine is straight from the devil (who loves the fact that many don’t believe he exists).
In short, rather than acknowledging the one true, living and sovereign God, these people say everything is determined by the natural laws and natural order establishes and ‘maintained’ by ‘the universe’.
And, there are some who try to actually give the universe ‘consciousness’. However, they don’t even imply that God is the universe, but that the universe is God.
GOD IS NOT THE UNIVERSE, NOR VICE VERSA.
God created the universe..
Hebrews 11:3 (NKJV)
3 By faith we understand that the [a]worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.
Even Hebrews Chapter 3 says, “the worlds were framed”.
God is an eternal, invisible Spirit. Quite frankly, He is not an ‘old, bearded, grey-headed white dude’.
Colossians 1:15 (NKJV)
15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.
John 4:24 (NKJV)
24 God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”
Romans 1:20 (NKJV)
20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and [a]Godhead, so that they are without excuse,
Science contends that the universe had a beginning. God had no beginning. Yes the bible says, “In the beginning” for our benefit to reference when God began His relationship with our perception of reality and man, but an eternal God needed no beginning. It that was so, what happened before the beginning.
If the universe had to have a ‘beginning’, by what or whom did it begin?
The universe is not alive.
The universe doesn’t have a will.
Here’s the problem, science and our ability to learn and draw conclusions from what we learn is only as good as our ability to understand.
Even the brightest human minds are incapable of understanding the infinite deep knowledge of God, or even the universe.
In fact, I define science as our attempt to give a physical explanation to the spiritual.
Think about this, God is has not beginning and has no end. He cannot be created or destroyed. Sounds a lot like the Law of Thermodynamics…
This law states that energy can neither be created nor destroyed,
but can only be transformed or transferred from one form to another. sounds a lot like God doesn’t it?
Science looks for planets similar to earth that can sustain life, but God can create and sustain life that can live in -200 degrees below zero and breath methane gas if He so desired.
Science, philosophy and all this world’s knowledge will never be able to understand the mysteries of the universe, and definitely will never understand the wisdom of God…
Isaiah 55:8-9 (NKJV)
8 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. 9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts
People think there is no God because they feel earth is too small relative to the entire universe. But, if God chose to have life on a million planets, that would still be small relative to the entire universe. The fact is that ten million light years away, God is still God.
And, just as you can’t see the internet, but can be ‘on’ the internet in your Tennessee, while millions of others are on the internet all around the world, while someone else is on the internet in space, God can be everywhere at the same time.
I’m saying all that to say this. God is alive and He is bigger than the universe. It takes just as much faith to believe in ‘the universe’ as it does to believe in God.
Just open your heart and believe.
1 Corinthians 1:25-31 (NKJV)
25 Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. 26 For [a]you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many [b]noble, are called.27 But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; 28 and the [c]base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, 29 that no flesh should glory in His presence. 30 But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification and redemption— 31 that, as it is written, “He who glories, let him glory in the Lord.”
Gods’ wisdom sometimes just makes me have to sit back and say, WOW!
Worship is an act of reverence, adoration or homage. It’s an act of humility. It’s acknowledging that someone or something is greater than you or has power over you.
God is constantly showing his power and judgements throughout the earth. The problem is that many people don’t attribute those events to the One and only true and living God, the Lord God of Israel from Everlasting to Everlasting.
Remember how the children of Israel placed the blood of an innocent lamb on the doorposts of their homes? This was an act of obedience and worship. If they didn’t do it, their firstborn would not have been spared, and if an Egyptian family had done the same thing, maybe their firstborn would have escaped the death angel.
Even when unbelievers ‘shelter in place’ or ‘social distance’ themselves during a pandemic, hide in the basement from the furiosity of a intense tornado, flee inland during a catastrophic hurricane or typhoon, or escape to higher ground during a ravaging flood…they are reacting to and unintentionally acknowledging God’s power, sovereignty and judgment by their actions. Hiding, running, escaping are all acts of humility towards something that is greater and more powerful.
In a busy world that’s becoming ‘smaller’ through technology. In a world that has an ever increasing number of people who claim or live like there is not God. God, the Father of our Lord and Savior Yeshua the Messiah (Jesus the Messiah) knows how to make everyone slow down or stop…and acknowledge Him.
Philippians 2:10-11 (NKJV)
10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, 11 and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
We all get overwhelmed sometimes. But sometimes we can feel beyond
overwhelmed. Have you ever felt like giving up? Even if you didn’t feel like
killing yourself, have you ever felt like giving up on…
Your hopes and dreams,
Your relationship,
Your health.
Your future.
There are some days you feel so low that it takes all you can do
to get out of bed.
Sometimes your superpower isn’t superhuman strength or the ability to fly, but just summoning enough strength to get out of bed.
You struggle through every day without abusing drugs, alcohol, or being irresponsible with your body, but you can really understand why people do so to numb themselves to the pain of their struggle.
Sometimes your superpower isn’t battling villains, but battling…
Depression,
Despair,
Regret,
Loneliness,
Grief,
Anger,
Your past.
If this has ever been you, stop and give God some praise. If it’s never
been you stop and thank God, and then whisper a little prayer for someone who
needs God’s superhuman strength to make through the day (or night).
2 Corinthians 12:9-10 (NKJV)
9 And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is madeperfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in myinfirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 Therefore I takepleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, indistresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
When it sometimes seems God is ‘TION’ing (shunning) you…
Isaiah 54:7-8 (NKJV)
7 “For a mere moment I have forsaken you, But with great mercies I will gather you. 8 With a little wrath I hid My face from you for a moment; But with everlasting kindness I will have mercy on you,” Says the Lord, your Redeemer.
On those days you may think God has turned His back on you.
Those days you think He is avoiding, ignoring or even rejecting you…
For the days you think God is ‘TION’ing (shunning) you…
Maybe He is trying to take you to a higher level of…
ConsecraTION and SactificaTION
Joshua 3:5 (NKJV)
5 And Joshua said to the people, “Sanctify yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you.”
So you can refocus your…
ConcentraTION…
Colossians 3:2 (NKJV)
2 Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.
Leaders, especially spiritual leaders , are very highly scrutinized and often criticized if they ‘don’t have it all together’. We can find ourselves expecting them to be near perfect. But, when we read our bibles, we find that many of God’s most anointed…those whom He gave great responsibility were lacking in many areas.
Moses and the Apostle Paul weren’t the greatest speakers.
Exodus 4:10 (NKJV)
10 Then Moses said to the Lord, “O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither before nor since You have spoken to Your servant; but I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.”
2 Corinthians 11:6 (NKJV)
6 Even though I am untrained in speech, yet I am not in knowledge. But we have been thoroughly manifested among you in all things.
Eli the anointed High Priest and Judge had corrupt, disobedient sons (1 Samuel 3).
BE BLESSTIFIED! 