Today stop and review your schedule with the Lord. Make sure you are clear with Him regarding His expectations of how you spend your time. If necessary, make adjustments now, while changes are expected.
Listen, don’t necessarily hear something, just listen.
Have a gentle week.
“We love Him, because He first loved us.” (I John 4:19)
The initial expression of love is always HIS, He loves us, and this love that is directed our way, working in us, becomes the cause of our loving Him in return.
Love unexpressed is love unfulfilled, unsatisfied. Therefore God has brought forth this whole creation upon which He can express His love. “For Thy pleasure they are and were created.” (Rev. 4:11).
Furthermore, it requires an even greater expression of love when the object of that love is ever so unlovely, unholy, unclean. Hence the introduction of evil to form the bleak background against which the ultimate of His love can be portrayed. It was while we were yet sinners that this expression came to us, for “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son…” (John 3:16). Jesus is a manifestation of the Father’s heart of love, sent to us when we were so very unlovely, rebellious, and selfish.
Though this Divine love, so sacrificial in nature, so freely given, is ours to receive, it remains unsatisfied until it can be returned. Love shared, but if one-sided, one sharing and the other doing all the receiving, this does not bring happiness. Not that love requires a return or a reward for loving, but it rests in the happiness of the beloved, and to receive love selfishly, is to remain unhappy, thus the giver realizes that his love has failed to make the loved one happy. But when that loved one begins to return that love because it is out of a heart overflowing with joy and love, it brings joy and happiness to the heart of the initial lover.
When we are so completely transformed by His love to us, and so filled with that love that we must express it back to Him again, then He knows that His creation is happy with His expression to us-ward, and receiving that which now flows from us to Him, He shall be satisfied as well. Love expresses and returned is love fulfilled. He truly is worthy of our love.
This week remember that your emotions do not reflect or represent reality. To overcome them, you will learn how to take them into account yet ignore them. When the time comes to face your fears, do so boldly! This is not “acting” but choosing to behave according to your true fearless spirit identity rather than your soulical attributes.
Try it!
Overcome your challenges this week!
Amos and Tithing to Idols (Amos 3:12-4:7)
3:12Thus says the Lord: “As a shepherd takes from the mouth of a lion Two legs or a piece of an ear, So shall the children of Israel be taken out Who dwell in Samaria—In the corner of a bed and on the edge of a couch! 13Hear and testify against the house of Jacob,” Says the Lord God, the God of hosts, 14″That in the day I punish Israel for their transgressions, I will also visit destruction on the altars of Bethel; And the horns of the altar shall be cut off And fall to the ground. 15I will destroy the winter house along with the summer house; The houses of ivory shall perish, And the great houses shall have an end,” says the Lord.
4:1Hear this word, you cows of Bashan, who are on the mountain of Samaria, Who oppress the poor, Who crush the needy, Who say to your husbands, “Bring wine, let us drink!” 2The Lord God has sworn by His holiness: “Behold, the days shall come upon you When He will take you away with fishhooks, And your posterity with fishhooks. 3You will go out through broken walls, Each one straight ahead of her, And you will be cast into Harmon,” Says the Lord.
4″Come to Bethel and transgress, At Gilgal multiply transgression; Bring your sacrifices every morning, Your tithes every three days. 5Offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving with leaven, Proclaim and announce the freewill offerings; For this you love, You children of Israel!” Says the Lord God.
6″Also I gave you cleanness of teeth in all your cities. And lack of bread in all your places; Yet you have not returned to Me,” Says the Lord. 7″I also withheld rain from you, When there were still three months to the harvest. I made it rain on one city, I withheld rain from another city. One part was rained upon, And where it did not rain the part withered.”
The prophet Amos, speaking for God, lists tithing and sacrifice to idols (at Bethel and Gilgal) as one of their crimes against Him. Clearly, it was not just tithing that was important.
Soulical warfare refers specifically to us humans, and must be fought with weapons more powerful than the field of battle; we can’t use soulical weapons to fight soulical battles. The soulical battles involve overcoming the world, the flesh and the devil in our individual lives. These enemies can only be overcome through spiritual weapons made available through dependence on God.
As a leader you will have to learn not only how to accept criticism but honor and praise as well. Start now and learn to say Thank You when you receive credit for a job well done. There is a world of difference between Receiving Credit and Taking Credit. To refuse recognition is to hide what Father has decided to make plain.
Things are getting busier and busier. Because you’ve developed the habit of hearing God, and testing what you hear, it’s okay to focus on what is at hand and be comfortable with relaxing your routine. Be wise, though, and sensitive to the slightest prompting from the Lord to get your attention. He may speak to you even more clearly, more profoundly even though you are busiest. Then return to your quiet routine, checking with Him regarding any changes.
Overcome with quietness and vigor.
Have a great week!
“If we believe no, yet He abideth faithful: He cannot deny Himself.” (II Timothy 2:13)
“For what if some did not believe? Shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect?” (Romans 3:3)
Certainly, we recognize that faith is a necessity in the life of a believer, for “without faith it is impossible to please Him: for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him”, (Heb. 11:6). But whether we believe God, or do not believe, that does not change God’s character. He is still the God, Victor over all. Were it possible for our unbelieving attitudes to have an effect upon God’s operations, then unbelief, not faith, would be the stronger. If, in our unbelief, we “limit the Holy One of Israel”, we do bring a restriction into our own lives, which God will then have to deal with. Paul once wrote, “Our mouth is open unto you, our heart is enlarged. Ye are not straightened in us, but ye are straightened in your own bowels”, (II Cor. 6:11-12). We become bound in ourselves, but God is not bound by us. His purpose shall be accomplished.
But, praise God, it is, as we do believe, open up our heart to trust and rely upon Him, that His victory begins to work in us in an experimental way. God was all-victorious before the ages of sin and selfhood began. He knew what was going to happen, for He planned that it should happen, and He has always been in total control, restraining what He did not purpose to use, and causing what He did purpose to use. But He not only is God of the past, He is God of the present, “by Him all things consist”, (Col. 1:17). The word “consist” coming from the Greek word meaning “to put and hold together”. Things can only fall apart to the extent He plans for them to fall apart, for He holds all the boundaries, holding together all things, working out His plan in perfect order. And, obviously, He is God of all our future, so that ultimately all things will have been worked together into our good, and for His praise. Past, present, future – forever He is God!
It’s time to make that decision. You’ve been feeling like you need more information, that circumstances aren’t perfect. But this is one of the many times when regardless whether you feel ready or not, the time to decide has come. The Lord says you have enough information for the decision at hand.
Decide, and move forward.
Have a great week!
