God is our Creator and our Father. Our Heavenly Father should always hold center stage. With Him, all things are possible. Without Him, we are left to wander in the dark.
~ LISA BLAIR
YouVersion.Bible.com/Roger Coles
Psalms 47:1 tells us to shout to God with joyful praise. Why? God is our creator and Father. He is God Almighty. Our God is faithful. The God who sees. The Lord of Peace. He is our provider, a strong tower in times of trouble, and our healer. God loves us.
We should always be filled with great and good thoughts of God (biblestudytools.com). As Christians, we should want to put God first in all that you do. It is vital to recognize Him each morning and thank Him for a new day’s journey. We should go to Him if you need direction throughout the day to avoid unneeded pitfalls. We should praise Him for all He does. And, acknowledge Him for whoHe is and what He has done for us. Believe it or not, there is a miracle in every step we take, and every thought that comes to mind. God left nothing to chance when He created us.
God, our Father in Heaven should always be up front and first in our lives. He sacrificed His son for us, gives us new beginnings, Salvation, and Eternal Life. There is none other like Him.
Today is Good Friday, the day we recognize the death of Jesus at Calvary. Jesus was born blameless and suffered through our sin, and lack of humanity to save us from sin, provide us an avenue of redemption, and eternal life with the Father.
~ Lisa Blair
YouVersion.SundaySocial.tv @ Bible.com
The Crucifixion completed Christs’ assignment on earth. He was sent to preach the Gospel, redeem us, and give us eternal life. He now sits at the right hand of God. The Trinity is in place – The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
He left His Spirit to comfort and protect us. The Holy Spirit resides in us. Hallelujah! God is over us, around us, and in us.
”It is finished!” This is one of the 7 final words of Christ. They are referred to as words, but in fact, are statements He made while hanging on the Cross. The statements were made over a span of hours prior to His last breath, and can be found in the New Testament in the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
Visit this site to view the video explaining the Final Words.
Jesus humbled himself to the point of death to give us life. We should be able and willing to humble ourselves and, honestly, repent for our sins (stating what they are or were) and start anew (fresh). It is never too late, God forgives us when we repent, allowing us to move-on shackle free. Christ gave us the opportunity to rise above who we (presently) are. It is time to change our home location, we are in this world, but not of this world.
Go to a quiet place and speak to God, ask Him to forgive you. You choose the place. It could be in the midst of a train station, bar, standing on the corner in busy traffic. Just still yourself and pray. He will receive you wherever you are at the moment.
God never writes us off. He is here for us if we receive Him as our Lord and Savior, and open our hearts to His Will, His Way, and His life that He has prepared for us. We must return to innocence and reinvest our lives in Christ. New beginnings, new life. ~ LISA BLAIR
Sometimes we have to rethink our lives, our purpose through Christ and embrace the child in us longing for relationship through obedience and reconciliation. Children carry few regrets, are open and full of expectations of a bright future. The Lord shares that whatever is in the past is behind us and we are supposed to look forward into the life He has planned for us. Our chronological age is irrelevant. Regrets are behind us, leave them there. All we have is today and the time God gives us to walk down His path. We should make the most of it.
We are empowered to demolish Strongholds! Take action and create the change we want to see through prayer.
~ LISA BLAIR
2 Corinthians 10:4-5 sounds as if it was written for times such as this, and why not, it is a living document and is always relevant. It is timeless and is not bound by Greenwich Mean Time. Our battle is ongoing and will end when Christ returns, until that time we must fight.
4 The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. 2 Cor 10:4-5 NIV
Sam Storms (Commentary, Taking Everything Thought Captive For Christ, 2 Cor. 10:4-6) opens, “We live in an age of angry atheism; not simply a casual and indifferent disregard for the existence of God but a militant opposition to all things religious.”
These scriptural verses are packed with power. The key words of this study are ‘divine’ and ‘demolish.’
God gave us the power to demolish strongholds. This harkens back to Ephesians warning that we are in battle as long as we live on earth. Paul explained the battle in military terms identifying our power in terms of armor. We should not take this lightly. The novel, Tale of Cities expresses this as living in the best of times and the worst of times. Today, the best of times is governed by our advancements in technology, ecology, and medicine. The worst of times is governed by Satan’s stronghold on all things earthly, twisting truth, and redefining humanity to destroy the earth.
We are in the worst of times because there is militant opposition to all things religious, and the best of times because there is an increasing number of people becoming Christians. We, Christians, have been given the responsibility to militarize ourselves, to put on the armor and demolish the strongholds of the evil one. God has given us the power to DEMOLISH STRONGHOLDS. We have DIVINE POWER. My question is why are we not using the power God has given us? I belong to a global organization, Bible Study Fellowship (BSF). Every member throughout the world collectively studies the same lesson, gaining understanding, wisdom, and knowledge about the Books of the Bible. It is important to mention here because it demonstrates that we can come into one accord if we choose. Just imagine if all Christians throughout the world held a common prayer vigil until we broke the spine of the evil one. We have the one tool that can change the tide of destruction but cannot come into one accord to accomplish this mission, God’s work.
Today, let us engage people in our sphere of influence to pick up the Sword of the Spirit and go to work. Change begins with one person. If each of us asks one other person to pray for peace and the strength to stand against the winds of political upheaval, social media, and inhumanity, we can begin to affect the change. We can use our divine power to counter the militant opposition to all things religious and demolish their strongholds on our global society.
Previous Posts on Similar Topics, this site and YoungChristianWarriors.com:
Be Strong in the Lord, 9/19/17
Fear Cannot Overwhelm Us, 3/21/19
2.2. Billion Christians Strong, 1/14/19
Demolishing Strongholds, 9/28/18
Greater than Kryptonite, 2/13/18
Liberation through Action, 4/17/18
Looking Back, Satan’s Web of Deception, Self Abuse, 8/29/18
Satan’s Cycles Our Experiences, 9/7/18
The Dark Times, 4/27/18
Today We Proclaim Change, /29/18
Prayers Break Through the Second Heaven, 9/4/18
Images – YouVersion. Bible.com. Roger Cole; Google.com
Scriptures – Biblegateway.com
Resources – Sam Storms Enjoying God. Samstorms.com; Biblegateway.com
God changes us by pruning away the dead sprouts and leaves.
~ LISA BLAIR
I heard a great sermon a few Sunday ago, it was food for thought. The sermon focused on “the God who never changes is always working to change us into His likeness.” What does that mean you may ask? Well, according to Pastor Steve Hage, when we receive Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we enter into a new relationship with our stuff, you know the secular things we cherish, our humanness prone to sin, and our ways of thinking and acting. Our salvation is the new beginning, but it is only the beginning. The things we brought with us must be removed. There was an innocence that was lost after the Fall. We regain that innocence when we accept Christ as our Lord and Savior. The Lord will continue to prune those parts of us that do not reflect His image. Generally, the pruning takes place in the valley of challenges where the devil can do his work under the veil of shadows and darkness. Most of us think and have been taught that darkness is the absence of light, not so in this context. Darkness is the absence of the knowledge of God and our inability to stand on His Word.
For many Christians the absence is not the void of not knowing, it is the process of not applying what we know, it is doubting instead of standing in faith. The truth is, mountain top experiences do not cause us to evaluate how we reached the mountain top. It is sunny, bright and warm. It is not until we find ourselves spiraling down, and in some cases landing in the muck and the mire of the cavern before we begin to question what is happening to us. Why do we spiral down, at times it is of no fault of our own, or we may have made mistakes (man-made errors), and still other times, Satan asks God for His permission to sift each of us. In Job 1:9-11, God gave Satan permission to sift Job. In Luke 22:31 Jesus was reported to having said, “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat.” Satan asked God’s permission to sift Job and Peter, and he asks God to give him the authority to examine you and me as well.
God allows us to be sifted to prune away disobedience, sin, selfishness, pride, anger and self- righteousness to name a few of our human traits. He gave us free-will to make our own decisions but will use them to exert His will over our lives. The Providence of God means He wisely directs and permits all that happens in His creation. “God does not override our will, but He does direct circumstances to accomplish His will.” (BSF lesson 23, People of the Promised Land).
“We can trust God’s good purposes even when we do not understand what He is doing. Living by faith gives God’s children joy and brings Him glory. We must trust Him to show us all we need to know. Only God knows His infinite purposes for everything that happens. God leads his children by His Word and His Spirit and other good gifts-our parents, natural abilities and good desires. “We do not need to look for signs to know what to do. Knowing our heavenly Father is in control is more than enough for us.”
Our Father never changes, but He works to change us into His likeness. This process is most evident when we topple from the mountain top into the valley, or on our way back up to the mountain top. Like Peter, God has a plan for our lives. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and know that His ways are not our ways, but His ways are always part of His plan for our lives.
Lisa’s Daily Inspirations 