A Reminder of Just How Blessed I Am

Bible Devotions

Psalm 37:1-11

King James Version (KJV)

37 Fret not thyself because of evildoers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity.

² For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb.

³ Trust in the Lord, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed.

⁴ Delight thyself also in the Lord: and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.

⁵ Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass.

⁶ And he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday.

⁷ Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him: fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass.

⁸ Cease from anger, and forsake wrath: fret not thyself in any wise to do evil.

⁹ For evildoers shall be cut off: but those that wait upon the Lord, they shall inherit the earth.

¹⁰ For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be: yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be.

¹¹ But the meek shall inherit the earth; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.

Last night hubby turned on a show I will never watch again.  It was called  “American Gangsters”.  I normally don’t like or watch shows like this, but this one particular episode caught my attention.  I have never seen such evil in my life and I never want to see it again!  Sadly, many don’t have that choice.  Chaos and horror have been their lives since their childhood.

People live on streets that are plagued with drugs, drug dealers, con artists, and violence of such propensity and horror I cannot even write it.  Children are born into this nightmare of destruction!  Women and children are victims to this nightmare of destruction! 

 As I sat and watched, horrified, I told my husband, “We literally live in a Mayberry!”  I thanked God I was born in “Mayberry” and that my life had been kept safe.  But not all have had this life I know as normal. 

I began to think of the children so coldly murdered as though their lives held no value.  The destruction due to greed I saw made me literally weep!  I wondered if those children had anyone who prayed for them and how any of them made it out either alive or without being caught up in a world of addiction and drugs.  I wondered if some of the nights God had awakened me to pray in the Spirit, along with intercessors all over this world, He had me praying for the safety and escape of innocent people who were about to be victimized.  I know from now on when I intercede, they will definitely be included!

I thought of David Wilkerson, who fearlessly took to the streets and ministered to gangs and drug dealers and won Nicky Cruze to the Lord!  What boldness from the Holy Spirit that took and what a miracle of God he survived to tell about it.

As I thought of these things and wept with feelings of helplessness to aid in this cold, hard reality of so many people’s lives God spoke to me.  I was a bit surprised at what He said, but it gave me a reality check in the Spirit!

God said, “Stop crying!  Pick up your sword of truth and your shield of faith and fight!  Nothing is too hard for me, and through prayer My hand can and will move!”  Now I would have thought God would have been proud of me for feeling such compassion and empathy!  I would have thought this would be a “Bless your sweet darlin’ heart” time!  But I am not the victim here!  Yes, He is pleased when we are moved with compassion, but when we begin to feel depression, helpless, and hopeless we are useless to God and anyone else!  He HAD to get me out of that so I could DO what WOULD make a difference!

Scriptures began to rise up in me when I wasn’t a shrinking daisy anymore.  The first one was “Fret not yourself over evildoers…”  Psalm 37.  Then He spoke the verse of the day to me   1 Corinthians 10:13…He has provided “a way of escape”!  Let me tell you that got me fired up! 

No, I can’t fight crime, greed, or any other evil thing on the streets of New York or anyplace else, but God can!  He will not, cannot ever be defeated!! 

This is a true story.  There was a town many years ago that was basically a “beer joint” town.  There was a small church there where just a few attended and they were women.  Their husbands were in the bars.  They began to pray and brought in an evangelist to hold a revival.  As the revival was taking place the Holy Spirit and the glory of God fell on that church and people who were headed to the bars began to walk through the door.  Many said it felt as if the church were a magnet and they couldn’t help but be drawn in.  The altars began to fill with people wanting to be saved and delivered from ungodly lifestyles.  These very people went on to evangelize this town.

As the revival continued, the bars literally became desolate of any customers!  The former customers were at the revival that lasted several months!   Even the owners and employees of the bar began to attend the revival and soon the bars were shut down and the ENTIRE town was saved and on fire for Jesus!

Who cleaned that town up?  Who brought life long changes to ones who had made fun of this small group of women for going to church and being Christians?  Who turned cold and hardened drunkards into sober deacons and elders?  GOD DID!  How did He do it?  Through the prayers of those women and the pastor!  Prayer unties the hands of God to act on your behalf and on the behalf of others!

No matter how great the obstacle you may face, dear reader, the Bible says God will give us feet that can run through a troop and leap over walls!  Our strength and help comes from the Lord!  He can do what you could never do!  All we have to do is ask in faith, stand on the Word, and praise because we know He is good for it!  Never, never, never underestimate the power of simple believing prayer!  It “avails” much and is “dynamic in its making”! 

Blessings to you as you take your shield of faith and the sword of the Spirit today!  Weild the Word of God and stand in faith and see your world change for the better!!  Blessings in abundance to you, precious reader!!   Juliana

 

Bible Verse of the Day-I Will Finish My Course

BIBLE VERSE OF THE DAY

But I count my life of no value to myself, so that I may finish my course and the ministry I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of God’s grace.        Acts 20:24 HCSB

How to Receive What You Need from God

BIBLE DEVOTIONS

One time at a conference, I had a group of children come up  on the stage to demonstrate a point. I gave each of them a gift, and each child  gladly took what I handed them without hesitation. Several of them excitedly  thanked me and a few even told me they love me.

These kids freely received my gifts. Not one of them said,  “I don’t deserve this. I haven’t been good this week, and I can’t take it.” And  none of them looked at me suspiciously, wondering why I gave them something.  They just received it with joy!

The same way these children received my gifts to them is the  way God wants us to receive from Him – freely and with joy. John 16:24 AMP says,  “…Ask and keep on asking and you will receive, so that your joy (gladness, delight)  may be full and complete.”

If you’re struggling with life, chances are you haven’t freely  received God’s gifts, such as His love, grace, mercy and forgiveness, so you  can have the life Jesus died to give you.

Getting  vs. Receiving

We tend to have a mentality of getting things, not receiving them. To get means “to obtain by struggle and effort.” If everything in life  is a struggle and effort, you won’t enjoy much of it and you’ll be frustrated a  lot. 

“  If you’re struggling with life, chances are you haven’t freely received God’s gift. ”

Getting things puts the burden on us because we have to  figure out how to manipulate circumstances to make them work out the way we  want them to. But the Bible talks about receiving,  not getting. We receive by faith, not through works. This is difficult for most  people because we’re taught in the world that we have to earn what we get.

But God is not for sale. We can’t buy, earn or deserve Him.  His gifts – forgiveness, mercy, grace, favor, salvation – are free. And we  could never do enough to earn them or deserve them. Jesus paid the price that  we could never pay to provide these gifts for us. We simply have to receive them!

The  Fur Coat Blessing

I used to have a religious attitude and believed that my  good works made me deserving of God’s goodness. This actually kept me from  receiving God’s blessings because I was trying to earn them. I was judgmental  and critical of others, too, and would get frustrated when someone who didn’t  seem deserving of it in my eyes was blessed.

I remember a long time ago I had a neighbor who was also a  friend, but I didn’t think she was as spiritual as me. She didn’t go to church  as much as I did; she didn’t pray as much as I did; she didn’t give as much as  I did. Well, at the time, I was praying for God to give me a fur coat. I wanted  one so badly. Then one day she came over with a huge box in her hands. She was  so excited! She said, “You won’t believe what God gave me!” She opened that box  and there was my fur coat! A woman we  both knew had just delivered it to her, saying God told her to give her the  coat.

Immediately, I was so angry and jealous. But I responded the  way a good Christian would, saying, “Praise the Lord! I’m so happy for you!” At  the same time I was thinking, God, You’ve  got to get her out of my house. How could You possibly give her that coat? It’s  not fair. What about me?!

My heart wasn’t right. My motives were selfish. God wanted  to bless me with His gifts, but I couldn’t receive them if I kept trying to earn  them or deserve them. I had to learn to just receive.

We all need to ask God for His love, forgiveness, mercy,  grace… Just say, “God, please bless me. I receive Your blessings in my life,  not because I’m good and have earned them, but because You are good!” Then your joy will be full.

SOURCE: joycemeyer.org

Bible Verse of the Day-Through Jesus, The World Might Be Saved

BIBLE VERSE OF THE DAY

For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.        John 3:17 KJV

BIBLE DEVOTIONS-Groanings in the Spirit, Part 2

BIBLE DEVOTIONS

Today we will continue to talk about what a “prayer burden” is and how “groanings in the Spirit” is so powerful it can bring the most dedicated agnostic to their knees!  That is exactly what the Holy Spirit brings when He prays through us…DUNAMIS POWER!  If you don’t know that Hebrew word it means “dynamic, dynamite“.  This “dunamis”  is what the verse means when it tells us…THE PRAYERS OF A RIGHTEOUS MAN AVAIL MUCH, DYNAMIC IN THEIR MAKING…is what one version says.  In other, words producing such great power that is so great it is compared to the power of dynamite!

If you have every watched a western movie and you see actors using dynamite to blow something up, you see them run for their lives once the fuse is lit!  Faith lights the fuse, and prayer brings the explosion the devil doesn’t want to be near to see!  Demons scatter when the righteous pray and the intent of people who are not born again is turned!  Glory to God! 

Well, let us get into this….grab your coffee and hunker down for an amazing ride in this lesson!  You are going to love it!  If anything is confusing, feel free to go back to Part 1, to hear the rest of this true story!

Finney said that the brother and he were praying, and the doctor’s wife was downstairs just wringing her hands.  The doctor had gone into his study angry and had shut the door.

Then after forty-five minutes of groaning, they quit groaning and started laughing.  You see, you should always continue to pray until you have a note of praise or victory.  You’ll either start laughing or start praising and singing.  Then you know you have the answer to whatever it is you’re praying about.

Finney related that he and his brother rejoiced and laughed for a while.  Then they got up from praying and went downstairs, and the woman asked Finney how the brother was doing.   Finney told her what had happened and asked her where the doctor was.  She told him he had gone into his study and locked the door and wouldn’t let her or anyone else in.

Finney went to the door and knocked.  There was no answer, so he called to the doctor.  He asked the doctor if he would open the door because he had word for him about his brother.  Finally, the doctor opened the door and asked Finney how his brother was doing. 

Finney stepped into the room and told the doctor that it was just as he had suspected; the brother had been praying for the doctor’s poor, lost soul and that Finney had joined him in prayer.  Finney told the doctor he was just as good as saved.

When he finished talking, the doctor dropped his head.  The doctor then looked up and Finney saw tears streaming down his face.  The doctor got down on his knees and asked Finney to pray with him.  The doctor told Finney he had been full of pride.  Then he accepted Jesus and was gloriously saved. 

Yes, there is a prayer of intercession for the lost;  prayers of travail and groanings.  It’s to be regretted we don’t know more about intercession and travail anymore.  But don’t be afraid to  yield to groanings and travail if the Holy Spirit leads you that way.  Of course, you can’t do these things in the flesh; they are accomplished in the Spirit, by the leading  and assistance of the Holy Spirit. 

Notice that Finney and the brother were groaning.  They could have also been speaking  with tongues and not understood that is what it was.   Finney speaks in other places about unutterable gushings coming out of his heart.  He would not have known what to call them.  But unutterable gushings could certainly describe tongues, too.

Why do I say that?  Because according to P. C. Nelson, the Greek reads “…with groanings that cannot be uttered in articulate speech” (Romans 8:26).  Articulate speech is your regular kind  of speech, that is, speech in your native tongue.

So praying with groanings too deep for articulate speech could also include praying in tongues is inarticulate speech.  That agrees with what Paul said.  Paul said that when he prayed in an unknown tongue, it was his spirit that was praying.  We read the Amplified translation of that verse, which says, “…my spirit (by the Holy Spirit within me) prays…” (1 Corinthians 14:14).

In other words, praying with your spirit by the help of the Holy Spirit is prayer that is not coming out of your mind; it’s coming out of your spirit.  It may be prayer in a known tongue, that is unknown to you but known to man, or it may be prayer in an unknown tongue, understood only by God.  But it is prayer that is inspired and directed by the Holy Spirit. 

The Holy Spirit helps the believer to pray.  And He helps us to intercede for others.  However, the  Holy Spirit does NOT do the praying apart from the believer.  It is our responsibility to take the time to pray and intercede for others and to obey the gentle urgings of the Holy Spirit to do so.  As we yield to the Holy Spirit we pray in groanings according to the will of God. 

We can also pray in other tongues at will;  we do not need to wait for the Holy Spirit,  He will give us utterance according to the will of God.  That utterance may be in groanings or it may be in intercession in tongues, or it may be intercession in our understanding in our native language.

Well, that is the devotional for today, dear reader!  I hope it has helped you and you have gleaned from it!  I will see you soon.  May God’s richest blessings be yours in every area of your life!    Juliana

SOURCE:  REVEREND KENNETH E. HAGIN/BIBLE PRAYER STUDY COURSE

Bible Devotions-Groanings in the Spirit, Part 1

Bible Devotions

When I was a little girl, about the age of ten, what you are about to read happened to me.  One night as I was getting ready to go to bed a heaviness came upon me in such a way, words cannot describe.  I knew it was a “prayer burden”, but I thought God was upset with me about something.  I immediately knelt by my bed and began to cry out to God to forgive me for whatever it may have been.  No matter how much I prayed and cried out, it gave me no relief from this prayer burden.

The following Sunday, I went to the altar and began to pray and cry out, again.  It literally felt as though I had done something horrible and there was a heavy conviction for it.  I begged for God to tell me what I had done and to forgive me of it!  My mother was kneeling beside me and noticed my distress.  She asked me what was wrong.  I told her.  She called our pastor over and told him.  He prayed for a bit with me, but still there was NO release!  He then got up and sat on the edge of the platform. 

He prayed for about ten minutes and then motioned for my mother to bring me to him.  He told me (he was my uncle) “Baby, this is a prayer burden not for you, but for someone else.”  He then told me who it was.  It was someone I loved dearly who was not serving the Lord at the time.  I would love to say I understood it all, but to tell you the truth I never truly understood it until I read this section of Brother Hagin’s book! 

If you have experienced episodes of this before, this section will bring you great peace and comfort!  Now let’s dig into our study, today!

Groanings that come out of your spirit and escape your lips are the Spirit of God HELPING or assisting you in prayer.  There are some things that come out of your heart that can’t be expressed in words and are therefore, expressed by groanings too deep for articulate speech.

These groanings are inspired by the Holy Ghost.  They come from within you and escape your lips. Praying and groanings is one way of making intercession.  Remember, intercession is praying for another,  not for yourself.  An intercessor takes the place of ANOTHER.   

Charles Finney, who began his ministry as a Presbyterian and later became a Congregationalist, knew something about prayer and intercession.  He was known as a man who prayed down revivals.

Finney was once holding a revival meeting in a certain town.  In that town there was a leading doctor who had never gone to church.  The doctor’s wife, on the other hand, was a wonderful Christian leader.  The doctor claimed to be an infidel; he’d make fun of his wife and never go to church.

Finney was an educated man who was trained to be a lawyer.  This woman thought if her husband could talk to Finney, Finney would be able to help him.  So she kept insisting that Finney come to the house on one of his days off.  After much persuasion, Finney finally agreed to go to their home for a noon meal.

This doctor had a brother who was a farmer and a deeply spiritual man.  The brother would come and stay in their home and go to Finney’s meetings.  This farmer brother was staying there at the time Finney came to lunch.  Actually, the doctor was a little ashamed of his brother because his brother wasn’t educated.

At the time appointed, Finney went to this doctor’s house, and as the four of them were at the table, the woman asked Finney to pray.  Finney bowed his head and began to pray, but was checked in his spirit.  He stopped praying and said that the Lord wanted the farmer brother to pray.

The brother began praying, but suddenly he just grabbed ahold of his stomach and started groaning, weeping, and crying.  He jumped up for the table and ran up the stairs to his bedroom.  Finney said he jumped up and followed him.

The doctor thought something was physically wrong with his brother, so he jumped up, too.  He reached the brother’s room before Finney.  As Finney started to go into the room, the doctor was coming out of the room to get his medical bag.  He said his  brother had some type of stomach cramps.

But Finney took the doctor by the arm and said, “Doctor, there’s nothing physically wrong with him.  Your brother has a spirit of travail and intercession.  He is praying and interceding for someone who is lost, and I think it is for your soul.”  The doctor jerked loose from Finney and said he didn’t believe in that.

The doctor left and Finney went into the bedroom and shut the door.  There the brother was just in an agony of prayer, in the Spirit.  Finney knelt down beside him, and he began to groan in the Spirit, too.

You see, you can help lift a spiritual load just like you can a physical load.  In other words, if someone else is groaning and interceding in the Spirit, as the Spirit wills, you can pick up that prayer burden and begin to groan and travail just as the other person is groaning and travailing. 

Finney began to feel part of the prayer burden coming off of him.  So for forty-five minutes they knelt and groaned in the Spirit in prayer.

I know from experience that when you’re interceding for someone whose soul is lost, it feels like your own soul is lost when it actually isn’t.  But because you are taking someone’s burden upon you, you actually feel on the inside as if you were lost.  Some people have had that burden and didn’t know what it was.  but that is intercession for a lost soul.  If you have a burden given to you by the Spirit of God, go ahead and groan and travail as the Spirit wills and pray it out.

We will continue and finish this section tomorrow.  This is such a rich teaching and so important to be educated in!  I hope you are enjoying the study as much as I am!  Blessings to you, precious reader!   Juliana

Christian Devotions-The Holy Spirit Helps Us Intercede

CHRISTIAN DEVOTIONS

I am so sorry, precious reader, I am late with the devotion today, but it is Sunshine’s BIRTHDAY!!  We had big plans, and I am just now able to get this up and running!  Let’s dig in, so grab your coffee/tea/soda/lemonade/whatever you like, and here we go!

We discussed in the last chapter how praying in tongues can enhance our prayer life and enable us to pray supernaturally as the Holy Spirit gives us utterance.

Now we will see how the Holy Spirit will help us as we intercede for others.  We can intercede with our understanding, as Abraham did, or we can intercede with out spirits in tongues or in groaning and travail.  But, we must keep in mind that intercession can only be accomplished by the leading and guiding of the Holy Spirit.

Let’s look in Romans 8 to gain insight on the Holy Spirit’s role as we intercede for others.

Romans 8:26

Amplified Bible (AMP)

²⁶ So too the [Holy] Spirit comes to our aid and bears us up in our weakness; for we do not know what prayer to offer nor how to offer it worthily as we ought, but the Spirit Himself goes to meet our supplication and pleads in our behalf with unspeakable yearnings and groanings too deep for utterance (in articulate speech).

Dr. P. C. Nelson, a Greek scholar, told me that the actual Greek reads, “…with groanings that cannot be uttered in articulate speech.”  Articulate speech means your regular kind of speech;  your native language.  Therefore, Romans 8:26 also includes praying in tongues and praying with groanings.  That agrees with what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 14:14.

1 Corinthians 14:14

Amplified Bible (AMP)

¹⁴ For if I pray in an [unknown] tongue, my spirit [by the ^[a]Holy Spirit within me] prays, but my mind is unproductive [it bears no fruit and helps nobody].

Can you see the connection between Romans 8:26 and 1 Corinthians 14:14?   In both of these verses, the Holy Spirit enables our spirit to pray apart from our understanding.

According to Romans 8:26, we don’t always know for what to pray as we ought.  We think we do sometimes, but we don’t.  We can’t possibly know in our natural mind everything we should pray about in every situation and circumstance.

Therefore, praying with our understanding sometimes falls far short of what we ought to do in this kind of praying.  We should pray as much as we know in our understanding, of course.  But, sometimes just praying a few words in general for others really just salves a person’s conscience.

Ephesians 1:3 says, ” Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.”

You can say what you want or desire and even quote scriptures, but when it come to prayer, many times, especially in praying for others, we don’t know what to pray for as we ought.  But, thank God, the Spirit helps our infirmities.  An infirmity is any weakness, which would include a lack of knowledge about how to pray.  He makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered in articulate speech.  (Romans 8:26)

Again, this scripture does not mean prayer is something  the Holy Ghost does apart from you.  That would make the Holy Ghost responsible for your prayer life, and He isn’t.  YOU are responsible for your own prayer life.

Notice also the Bible says in Romans 8:26 that the Holy Spirit HELPS the believer in prayer.  The Holy Ghost is not sent to actually do your praying for you.  He is sent to help you in every aspect of life and to help you in your prayer life as well.

Source: Kenneth E. Hagin/Bible Prayer Study Course

 

 

Christian Devotions-The Prayer of Intercession and the Prayer of Agreement

CHRISTIAN DEVOTIONS

I am very excited because we are turning down a new “lane” in prayer.  My husband and I have prayed the prayer of agreement for years! It is a powerful prayer and it brings quick results for us!  It is amazing to watch God  put in order exactly what we have prayed about after praying the prayer of agreement!  It is powerful and it works!

 We are going to be getting more in depth through Kenneth Hagin, Sr. “Prayer Study Course”.  You can order this book directly from RHEMA in Broken Arrow, OK.  I am so glad I did!  It is one of the best books I have ever read and I still refer back to it almost ten years after purchasing it.

Grab your coffee with me and let’s dig right in!

Let’s look at two other kinds of prayer in this chapter:  the prayer of intercession and the prayer of agreement.

First we’ll look at the prayer of intercession.  The word ‘intercede’ means to act between two parties with the thought of reconciling the two of them.  Therefore, the prayer of intercession is standing in the gap in prayer on behalf of another.  Normally, we intercede for the unsaved. 

God said something to Israel through the prophet Isaiah which shows that God desires His people to intercede on behalf of others. 

Isaiah 64:7

⁷ And there is none that calleth upon thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee: for thou hast hid thy face from us, and hast consumed us, because of our iniquities.

This verse implies that if someone had stirred himself up to pray and intercede and to call upon God, judgement on the nation of Israel could have been stayed or stopped!  Let’s look at a similar statement by Ezekiel.

Ezekiel 22:30

³⁰ And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none.

Do you realize what these verses are saying?  God looks for people of prayer to stand in the gap, to make up the hedge, and to intercede so that people’s lives can be spared.

Praise God for intercessors!!  I am going to stop there for today, but tomorrow we will be talking about Intercessory Prayer and how it is even found in the Old Testament!  Now, tongues are in the New Testament, but people prayed for others out of messes even in the Old Testament and delivered because of those prayers!  You are going to love this, precious reader!  What powerful prayer! 

Have a wonderful and blessed day in the Lord, today!  I will see you soon!!  Oh, KIM COMES BACK TODAY…PRAISE THE LORD!!    Juliana

Christian Devotions-Praying in Tongues Is Unselfish Prayer

CHRISTIAN DEVOTIONS

 

Today’s Christian Devotion is our continued study of “Praying with Tongues” by Reverend Kenneth E. Hagin.  Grab your coffee and let’s dig right in!

There are representatives in other countries who we need to back up in prayer.  Our praying does not need to be so self-centered.  Sometimes the extent of our praying is for our families.  Some churches pray only for the local church; those people’s prayers are selfish.  We should be interested in everyone everywhere.  We need a worldwide vision.

I believe we should be interested in our local church, and, certainly, we should be praying for our own families.  But we should not pray only for our families and local church and neglect everything else!

Some people are not concerned about others.  I can remember when in Pentecostal circles we were just after the saving of souls.  We didn’t care who they were, whether they came out of the denominationtional church or not, we just wanted to see souls saved and baptized in the Holy Ghost.  I am still that way.  I have never changed.

Also, there are many who always have the attitude in life, What am I going to get out of it?  That, too, is selfish and shows a lack of praying in the Spirit and walking in the light of His Word.

For example, once I was supposed to hold a meeting in a certain city, and six other churches were going to cooperate.  A man who was the manager of my meetings at the time set the meeting up.  We spent several hundred dollars on advertisement. Each of these churches was going to share the cost of the advertisement.   However, at the last minute, five out of the six churches backed out.  My manager asked these men why they were not going to participate in these citywide meetings.

The minister replied, “We have been thinking about it.  If we go over to that church meeting, some of our members may like it better over there and they might decide to stay.  So we are not going along with the meetings.”

My manager said to them, “Why, Brethren, what am I going to do?  I have told Brother Hagin that you were all cooperating and he has already spent all of this money advertising for the meetings.”

They said, “We can’t help that.  We are not going to support the meetings!”

My manager said, “Brother Hagin is going to think you are all liars.  If that is not lying, please tell me what it is.  If a man is selling an automobile, for example, and he said to you, “This automobile is perfectly all right.  I just drove it and it is just fine.  This has been my own personal car.”  Then if you buy it and find out it was not his own personal car and he didn’t know what he was talking about –that the automobile needed a lot of repair–wouldn’t you accuse that fellow of lying?”

They replied, “Yes.”

He said, “Well, that man didn’t lie about that car any more than you did about those meetings!”

But every one of those fellows backed out of the meeting anyway.  We went ahead and had a great meeting.  The house was full, and some of those ministers’ church members attended the meetings anyway.

We should never go to prayer with the attitude, What am I going to get out of it?  If we do that, whether we are a preacher of a layperson, we are wrong.  Those ministers could not have been doing very much praying in tongues and feeding on the Word.

We cannot spend our time praying in tongues and fellowshipping with God without the very love and nature of God permeating our being.  And the more we pray in tongues, the less selfish we will become and it will show up in our relationships with our fellow man.

As I said, tongues is the gateway into the supernatural in our Christian walk.  There are wonderful blessing in store for believers who receive the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues.  And once you have had that initial experience, you continue to keep tongues a flowing stream in your life.  To reach the potential we have in Christ for supernatural praying and supernatural living, we cannot neglect this precious gift of speaking in tongues. 

Thank you for stopping by, precious reader!  I trust you were mightily blessed!  Blessings in abundance!!   Juliana

Christian Devotions-Your Inside Answer to Outside Pressure!

CHRISTIAN DEVOTIONS

I know we have been talking about the Baptism in the Holy Spirit, and we will continue that vital subject tomorrow!  Today, God wants something different.  Praise God for the Holy Spirit, Who is our teacher, letting me know the subject has to veer for today!  Somebody needs this desperately and praise God it is going to go off in someone who needs immediate relief from outside pressures and stress!

I got a new bedroom suit for Mother’s Day.  It was delivered today, which means I had to clean out my old dresser and put what I wanted to keep in the new one.  As I began on one of the drawers my eyes fell to an old (October, 2011) “Believer’s Voice of Victory” magazine.  I had highlighted certain things that helped me during a rough spot in life.  As I read them, they became fresh again.  It is good to read the same scriptures over and over, confess the same things over and over, and hear things over and over!  It drills it into your soulish arena.  BUT, it should be inclusive not exclusive to what you are learning in God.  For instance, it would not be good if I only wrote on two subjects!  James warns us of this in the book of James.  He says if we do this we don’t mature!  You have to include the ENTIRE Bible not just bits and pieces of it.  I tell you this because I used to be under a minister that taught basically four subjects, and that was okay for my husband and me because we studied independently, also;  but, there were others that did not and they never grew up.  They ended up being some of the most immature believers I have ever known!  Stay in a balanced church with a balanced pastor!!!  I didn’t mean to include this but I know  this is necessary for someone!  Now, with that being said, let us move on!

I read the New York Times bestseller “Unbroken” by  Laura Hillenbrand.  In this book, which is a true story, SPOILER ALERT,  Louis Zamperini, was shot down while serving in World War II.  Only three of the men on the fighter plane survived.  Louis, along with the pilot who survived, had injuries but the third survivor came out unscathed!  They were in a lifeboat for months and in that time Louis and his pilot began to heal and mend!  The odd thing was, the man who sustained no injuries began to deteriorate in his health.  Louis noticed this and began to question why.  The reason was, Louis and his pilot buddy had hope of being rescued, but the third survivor lost all hope and when he did he literally began to physically die!

What you have on the inside of you will either empower you or it will kill you! When Jesus is on the inside and you let His thoughts become your thoughts, then life comes to you mentally, emotionally, and physically!!   Satan comes with words of disappointment, rejection, discouragement, and hopelessness to suck the “ZOE” life of God right out of you!  If you think thoughts of “My life has always been one failure after another, I have never had anything but one disappointment after another, and why would it change now?” that is the devil talking to you!  Jesus didn’t say that is what your life would consist of.  Yes, He said there would be definite trouble, but to cheer up for He had OVERCOME THE WORLD FOR YOU!  You must be pretty important if Jesus would leave heaven to overcome adversity JUST FOR YOU!  I don’t see any world leaders knocking on my door to tell me they are here to give me a KINGDOM, but Jesus sure came knocking!!  And, glory to God, I answered!!  Is there any higher power on the earth or in the supernatural that is stronger than Jesus?  NO!!  If He is for you, and He is, who can be against you??  Don’t even think about who, you will sit there the rest of your life because there is NO ONE!  Let me save you some time, precious heart!  Ken Copeland said in this magazine…

 Never forget this: Once you truly see that the very Spirit and power of Jesus resides on the inside of you, nothing—no amount of debt, no disease, no problem of any kind—-will be able to defeat you.  When your inner image of the Jesus who lives in you becomes bigger than your image of the problems around you, you’ll conquer any challenge the devil brings your way.

So get to work on that inner image.  Begin to look inside yourself and say: “I am the righteousness of God.  I have fellowship with my heavenly Father.  I do walk with Him hand in hand and Jesus Christ is my blood brother.  Through Him I have an eternal blood covenant with Almighty God.”

The answer to everything is inside you right now.  Everything you’ll ever need is in your spirit.  All the money…all the health…all the strength…all the wisdom…all of it is in you because that’s where Jesus is! 

2 Corinthians 4:7

Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)

Treasure in Clay Jars

⁷ Now we have this treasure in clay jars, so that this extraordinary power may be from God and not from us.

⁸ We are pressured in every way but not crushed; we are perplexed but not in despair; ⁹ we are persecuted but not abandoned; we are struck down but not destroyed.

Paul fixed his attention, not on external circumstances, but on his inner man because that is where the excellency of God’s power is.  The Greek word for “perplexed” means “to be cornered by the circumstances”.  In other words, even when it looks like there is no way out, I can find a way out if I look on the inside.  I can see Jesus saying, “I’ll never leave you nor forsake you, even to the ends of the earth.”

You can handle anything if you will do these three things:

1.  Remember where the pressure is coming from.  (The OUTSIDE!!!)  And remember where your life force comes from.  (THE INSIDE!!!)

2.  Stop running on a spiritual deficit.  Take time to feed your inner man with The Word of God. 

3.  Focus on Jesus inside you until your inner picture of Him is bigger than the outside situations you’re facing.

If you’ll build up your spirit man in those three ways, when the pressure comes it won’t affect you like it used to.  Problems that once knocked you flat won’t even bother you anymore.

I hope the devotional today has helped you, precious reader!  I pray you are abundantly blessed in every area of your life!  God bless you today and always!   Juliana