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THE “4 P’s” TO CONQUERING MONDAY (OR ANY DAY)…

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TGIM!!!!

So many times as Christians we love to proclaim, “I’m more than a conqueror”, but we find ourselves dreading Monday.

It’s not danger…or nakedness…or famine…or nakedness…or the sword…but Monday morning, the 2nd Day of the week.

Sometimes we might not even sleep well on SONday night thinking about…

The trouble,

Hardships,

Projects,

Debts,

Dead-end jobs,

Supervisors,

Managers,

Subordinates,

Customers,

Exams, D

Doctors visits,

Test results, etc., waiting for us on Monday morning.

Whatever may make Mondays cloudy and dreadful in our minds doesn’t diminish the fact that every Monday is a blessing from God.

We are blessed to have a family, a job, a business, or however God is sustaining you, and that no matter what we are going through…God IS sustaining you, and has equipped you to conquer anything that you encounter on Monday to His glory.

Don’t let your Monday become MOURNDAY!

Let me encourage you with what I call the 4 P’s to start any day. PRAYER, PASSAGES, PRAISE, and a PROCLAMATION.

  • PRAY to God first thing every morning, then let Him speak to you by reading some.
  • PASSAGES of scripture from His Word.
  • PRAISE Him for a few moments with with the fruit of your lips.
  • PROCLAIM Psalm 118:24 “This is the day the Lord has made; We will rejoice and be glad in it”!

Beginning every day with this devotion of the “The 4 P’s” before you eat, or check social media can not only equip you to conquer Monday, but each day of the week. So don’t wait until Friday to thank God…TGIM! Enjoy your Monday!! #TGIM

Romans 8:35-37 (NKJV)

35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 As it is written:

“For Your sake we are killed all day long;
We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”

37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.

Psalm 118:24  (NKJV)

24 This is the day the Lord has made;
We will rejoice and be glad in it.

MONDAY ENCOURAGEMENT: DON’T LET YOUR MONDAY BE ‘MOURNDAY’…

BE BLESSTIFIED!

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MAKE SURE THAT YOUR BATTLES ARE GOD’S BATTLES…

2 Chronicles 20:15 (ESV)

15 And he said, “Listen, all Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem and King Jehoshaphat: Thus says the Lord to you, ‘Do not be afraid and do not be dismayed at this great horde, for the battle is not yours but God’s.

ARE YOU IN A STRUGGLE? ARE YOU IN A BATTLE?
Whether your battle be physical, financial, relational, emotional, or social it’s also SPIRITUAL….”For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” Ephesians 6:12 (ESV). All battles are spiritual. And many times as we dig in we proclaim what Jahaziel proclaimed through the Spirit of God, “The battle isn’t  mine, it’s the Lord”. It’s good to put that level of faith and confidence in God, but that statement isn’t true for every battle.

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN DAVID AND SAUL
Saul and David provide the perfect example of this point. God anointed Saul after Israel asked for a king, rejecting God in 1 Samuel 8.  In 1 Samuel 15, Saul was rejected by God because of his disobedience. He was only partially obedient…he went, and fought and delivered the people from their enemy, but spared the best of the spoil after God had told him to destroy everything. Saul was seeking His own glory rather than God’s, proven by the fact that he set up a monument for himself in Chapter 15:12. Now notice that when David confronted the Philistines and Goliath in 1 Samuel 17, he told them that they have come not against him, but the armies of the Lord. David’s passion was not to bring glory to himself, but to honor the Lord God of Israel (1 Samuel 17:45).
David’s battle was for the Lord…Saul’s battle was for himself. Read 1 Samuel 15 for context and to see the scope of Saul’s sin that led him to be rejected as King, even after being anointed.
Saul was rejected…
David was accepted as a man after God’s on heart (Acts 13:22).

WHO ARE YOU FIGHTING FOR?
The same is true for us today. When we walk in God’s Spirit, His character, His will…our battles are His.
But when we’ve stepped out on our own…
When we go into situations without consulting God in prayer…
When we enter ungodly relationships… When we take jobs that force us to compromise our values…
When we put our own will before God’s… When we’re seeking our own glory rather than God’s (Psalm 115:1)…
When we defile our bodies through sex, bad diet, alcohol or substance abuse… When we’re narcissistic…those battles aren’t God’s – those battles are only ours.

Remember Saul, God never promised to fight the battles that exclude Him UNLESS we truly repent. When we repent, our motives change, we regret our bad decisions…then our battles become the Lords.

BRING GOD BACK INTO THE FIGHT!

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BE BLESSTIFIED!

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WHEN SOMEONE ASKS YOU TO EXPLAIN HOW GOD IS REAL…

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John 6:30  (NKJV)

30 Therefore they said to Him, “What sign will You perform then, that we may see it and believe You? What work will You do?

The Pharisees, Scribes, and skeptics continually asked Jesus for a sign, while totally ignoring all of the miracles that He performed.

The fact is that they had signs all around them and refused to see them, in fact they couldn’t see them because their hearts were hard.

The story is the same today.

People say that they don’t believe in God because they can’t see Him. People want an EXPLANATION FOR GOD. They want physical evidence of God.

Jesus told Nicodemus…

John 3:8  (NKJV)

8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

People feel they don’t need an explanation for the wind because even though they can’t see it, we see evidence of the world reacting to its presence (trees swaying etc.) and we can feel it.

No one has to explain the wind.

Wow, then why can’t they accept the same for God? Unbelievers want an explanation.

Well…

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 Godhead, so that they are without excuse,

God proves Himself not only through everything He created, but the remarkable order of His creation. Nature…life…the universe in all its splendor is evidence of God, but man wants to attribute it to some random act.

In fact, it takes the same amount of faith in the wisdom of man to believe that the sun is 93 million miles away, with no way to actually measure or prove it, as it does to believe that God is real based on the bible.

Just as the Pharisees, some people can’t believe because their hearts are hard, as implied by…

1 Corinthians 2:13-14  (NKJV)

13 These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy[a] Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. 14 But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

Think about this. The internet is ‘everywhere’, and transmits enormous amounts of information and knowledge. You can be on your laptop, smartphone, tablet, television and be ‘on’ the same internet. You can be at home, work, Tennessee, Europe or in orbit, and it’s the same internet. The internet is almost ‘everywhere at the same time’ and accessible when you’re connected. Sounds a lot like God doesn’t it? If people can believe in and accept an almost ‘omnipresent’, created by humans, they should be able to believe in and omnipresent, omniscient (all-knowing) who created us.

Can you see the internet? No.

Can you feel the internet? No.

Can you touch the internet? No.

Can you smell the internet? No.

Can you hear the internet? No.

Be bold in your belief in God the Father of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, because atheists and agnostics are bold in their stance.

So, when someone asks you to explain how God is real, simply respond…

“With all of the evidence around us, explain to me that He’s not”.

BE BLESSTIFIED!

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MAKE SURE THAT YOUR BATTLES ARE GOD’S BATTLES…

2 Chronicles 20:15 (ESV)

15 And he said, “Listen, all Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem and King Jehoshaphat: Thus says the Lord to you, ‘Do not be afraid and do not be dismayed at this great horde, for the battle is not yours but God’s.

ARE YOU IN A STRUGGLE? ARE YOU IN A BATTLE?
Whether your battle be physical, financial, relational, emotional, or social it’s also SPIRITUAL….”For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” Ephesians 6:12 (ESV). All battles are spiritual. And many times as we dig in we proclaim what Jahaziel proclaimed through the Spirit of God, “The battle isn’t  mine, it’s the Lord”. It’s good to put that level of faith and confidence in God, but that statement isn’t true for every battle.

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN DAVID AND SAUL
Saul and David provide the perfect example of this point. God anointed Saul after Israel asked for a king, rejecting God in 1 Samuel 8.  In 1 Samuel 15, Saul was rejected by God because of his disobedience. He was only partially obedient…he went, and fought and delivered the people from their enemy, but spared the best of the spoil after God had told him to destroy everything. Saul was seeking His own glory rather than God’s, proven by the fact that he set up a monument for himself in Chapter 15:12. Now notice that when David confronted the Philistines and Goliath in 1 Samuel 17, he told them that they have come not against him, but the armies of the Lord. David’s passion was not to bring glory to himself, but to honor the Lord God of Israel (1 Samuel 17:45).
David’s battle was for the Lord…Saul’s battle was for himself. Read 1 Samuel 15 for context and to see the scope of Saul’s sin that led him to be rejected as King, even after being anointed.
Saul was rejected…
David was accepted as a man after God’s on heart (Acts 13:22).

WHO ARE YOU FIGHTING FOR?
The same is true for us today. When we walk in God’s Spirit, His character, His will…our battles are His.
But when we’ve stepped out on our own…
When we go into situations without consulting God in prayer…
When we enter ungodly relationships… When we take jobs that force us to compromise our values…
When we put our own will before God’s… When we’re seeking our own glory rather than God’s (Psalm 115:1)…
When we defile our bodies through sex, bad diet, alcohol or substance abuse… When we’re narcissistic…those battles aren’t God’s – those battles are only ours.

Remember Saul, God never promised to fight the battles that exclude Him UNLESS we truly repent. When we repent, our motives change, we regret our bad decisions…then our battles become the Lords.

BRING GOD BACK INTO THE FIGHT!

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BE BLESSTIFIED!

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EXPLAINING GOD…

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John 6:30
So they asked him, “What sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do?”

The Pharisees, Scribes, and skeptics continually asked Jesus for a sign, when totally ignoring all of the miracles that He performed.

The fact is that they had signs all around them and refused to see them, in fact they couldn’t see them because their hearts were hard.

The story is the same today.

People say that they don’t believe in God because they can’t see Him. People want an EXPLANATION FOR GOD. They want physical evidence of God.

Jesus told Nicodemus…

John 3:8

 “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

People feel they don’t need an explanation for the wind because even though they can’t see it, we see evidence of the world reacting to its presence (trees swaying etc.) and we can feel it.

No one has to EXPLAIN THE WIND.

Wow…then why can’t they accept the same for God? Unbelievers want an EXPLANATION.

Well, Romans 1:20…

“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 Godhead, so that they are without excuse…”.

God proves Himself not only through everything He created, but the remarkable order of His creation. Nature…life…the universe in all its splendor is evidence of God, but man wants to attribute it to some random act.

In fact, it takes the same amount of faith in the wisdom of man to believe that the sun is 93 million miles away, with no way to actually measure or prove it, as it does to believe that God is real based on the bible.

Just as the Pharisees, some people can’t believe because their hearts are hard, as implied by…

1 Corinthians 2:13

“But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”

The internet is everywhere, and transmits enormous amounts of information and knowledge. You can be on your laptop, smart phone, tablet, television… and it’s the same internet. You can be at home, work, Tennessee, Europe or orbit…and it’s the same internet. The internet is everywhere at the same time and accessible – when you’re connected. Sounds like God doesn’t it? If people can believe in an ‘omnipresent’ internet, created by man, they should be able to believe in an omnipresent, omniscient (all-knowing) God who created man.

Can you see the internet? No.

Can you feel the internet? No.

Can you touch the internet? No.

Can you smell the internet? No.

Can you hear the internet? No.

Be bold in your belief in God the Father of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, because atheists and agnostics are bold in their stance. When someone asks you to EXPLAIN HOW GOD IS REAL, respond…WITH ALL THE EVIDENCE AROUND US, EXPLAIN TO ME THAT HE’S NOT.

BE BLESSTIFIED!

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CONQUERING MONDAY

TGIM!!!! So many times as Christians we love to proclaim, “I’m more than a conqueror”…but we find ourselves dreading Monday. It’s not danger…or nakedness…or famine…or nakedness…or the sword…but Monday morning. Sometimes we might not even sleep well on Sunday night thinking about the trouble, hardship, projects, debts, deadend jobs, supervisors, managers, subordinates, exams, doctors visits, test results, etc. waiting for us on Monday morning. Whatever may make Mondays cloudy and deadful in our minds doesn’t  diminish the fact that every Monday is a blessing from God. We are blessed to have a family, a job and that no matter what we are going through…God IS sustaining us, and has equipped us to conquer anything that we encounter on Monday to His glory.

Let me encourage you with what I call the 4 P’s to start any day. PRAYER, PASSAGES, PRAISE, and a PROCLAMATION.

  • PRAY to God first thing every morning, then let Him speak to you by reading some.
  • PASSAGES of scripture from His Word.
  • PRAISE Him for a few moments with with the fruit of your lips.
  • PROCLAIM Psalm 118:24 “This is the day the Lord has made; We will rejoice and be glad in it”!

Beginning every day with this devotion of the “The 4 P’s” before you eat, or check social media can not only equip you to conquer Monday, but each day of the week. So don’t wait until Friday to thank God…TGIM! Enjoy your Monday!! #TGIM

Romans:8:35,36

35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written:

“For your sake we face death all day long;

we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”

37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

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CONSISTENT

In Matthew 23, Jesus sharply rebukes and scolds the Scribes and Pharisees, the religious leaders, those who were supposed to set the example about being hypocrites. They were more than devout in some areas of their devotion to God, while totally ignoring others. But, did this behavior only reveal that what outwardly appeared to be devotion to God, was actually devotion to themselves, and their desire for authority, honor and glory?

Before we point a self-righteous finger at the Pharisees, let us examine ourselves.
We prove how and where we want God to move in our lives, and how and where we want to be close to Him in where we’re CONSISTENT with Him. For example, some people are CONSISTENT and faithful in giving because, when they’re honest with themselves, they want to continue being blessed financially, or don’t want anything to go wrong. Paying their tithes, firstfruits, or however they give has become nothing more than a BLESSING BILL that they pay just as they do their utilities, so they aren’t cut off. It’s not done out of love or concern for ministry, but self. Some of these same people are perfectly content not being CONSISTENT in READING and STUDYING to know God better. As much as God expects us to be faithful in giving, there are MANY MORE (weightier) scriptures about reading and studying His word, being loving and kind, being patient and longsuffering, exercising self-control and sharing our faith that we must be very careful not to be INCONSISTENT. It’s easy to be more faithful in our relationship with God when it comes to the areas of our lives we want Him to move the most. But, let us strive to be CONSISTENT that we are honoring Him in all areas of our lives.

We prove what’s important too us in things with which we’re CONSISTENT. Many Christians check their social media, emails, voice mails or messages first thing each morning, and off-and-on through out the day, but will claim they don’t have time to read, study or pray regularly and CONSISTENTLY. If we have time to see what the world has to say, then we have time to regularly fellowship with God, as He commanded us. Sometimes we will CONSISTENTLY talk about our favorite teams, celebrities, what’s going on in the world, but seldom share our faith. In regard giving while ignoring other areas that are just as important… in Matthew 23:23 Jesus told the leaders, ““Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone.” He chastised them for being faithful in some areas while ignoring others. He rebuked them for being CONSISTENT in some, while leaving some that are MORE IMPORTANT (weightier matters) undone.  Are there areas of your walk with God in which you’re consistent while ignoring others? Are you growing and thriving in some areas while withering away in others?

Brothers and sisters, let us strive to be consistent in all areas of our relationship with God…He demands it.

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IF THE DEVIL WAS BOLD ENOUGH TO CONFRONT JESUS…(WHEN THE PAWN CONFRONTED THE KING)

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WHEN THE PAWN CONFRONTED THE KING (MATTHEW 4:1-11)

Criminals, thugs and bullies typically like to prey on those who they view as weak.

But our adversary the devil is different. He isn’t overly concerned with the weak.  There’s no need for him put much effort into those who are weak in the faith because they are already ineffective in the Kingdom of God.

He wants to make the strong grow weaker…catch them…or provoke them into weak moments.

The devil launches his most vicious attacks on those who are strong in the faith…

Those who are intentional about pursuing their purpose…

Those who are bearing good fruit…

Those who are effective in the Kingdom of God.

Remember the devil had the nerve to approach Jesus, Yeshua, Himself in the wildersness.

If the devil was bold enough to confront Jesus in the wilderness (John 4:1-11), the Son of God, the Living Word that even spoke Him into existence, then you know he doesn’t have a problem attacking you.  The enemy loves to prey on the STRONG…so he can break them down and make them weaker and ineffective. The devil wants to derail you from you purpose. He wants you to think that God has abandoned you. He wants you to say, “Why try?” The devil knows the power you have through your faith, so he tries to crush you…emotionally, physically and spiritually. He wants to break your will.

Here’s the good news! God let’s us know in…

1 John 4:4 (NKJV)

“You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world”.

God has promised us power over the enemy.

He told us that if we resist the devil, he has no choice but to flee.

When it seems the devil’s attack is at its worse…know that God trusts His strongest soldiers with the most fierce battles.

Remember…

Ephesians 6: 10-18

10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. 11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. 12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. 13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. 14 Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15 and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. 16 In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; 17 and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, 18 praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints,

Be encouraged…

Stay strong…

God’s got you!

BE BLESSTIFIED!

 

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