are you desperate enough?

At prayer school yesterday, I heard this in my spirit:
"Are you desperate enough?
It is not about being desperate for your own desires.
It is about being desperate for God's plans and will to be fulfilled for your life, for Him to bring to pass what HE wants for your life."

I quickly wrote it down in my diary as the words impacted me. In fact, a dear friend and i were briefly talking, just the day before, amongst other things, about whether we were desperate for our desires.

I had no immediate response then. I only knew that whatever desires i had could not overshadow my desire to fulfill God's plans for my life. I had learnt through the years, to continue believing that God's Word will ALWAYS be fulfilled. I had learnt to be joyful in ALL circumstances, even in the midst of trials, challenges and disappointment. I depended on His grace to help me live in order to impact lives around me.

I have seen some whose desires remain unfulfilled become bitter, resentful, ineffective, behaving as though God or the world owed them something. They became desperate, oblivious to God's abundant blessings, till they receive the fulfillment of their desires, often by their own effort, or give up in despair, wallowing in self-pity and the pain of disillusionment.

I prayed that i would never walk that path.

Now, I believe that God is showing me that it is okay to be desperate for His plans to be fulfilled in my life. This is a wonderful revelation to me: that His desire is to fulfill mine. When i know that our desires coincide, in a unity of purpose, it is okay to be desperate for my desire to be fulfilled.

It had always been my prayer that I will know His will, and that my will is to do His. I had always submitted my own desires to Him. Now my Lord is saying that His will is to fulfill my desire. So be desperate for its fulfillment!

Wow! Isn't that a tremendous demonstration of the love my God has for me??!!

Happy Niu Year

Psalm 92:10
You have exalted my horn like that of a wild ox; fine oils have been poured upon me.

Prov 14:4
Where there are no oxen, the manger is empty, but from the strength of an ox comes an abundant harvest.

Happy Year Of The Ox to one and all.

standing firm on His promises

This encouraged me greatly in my journey of faith... I know it and am exercising patience, and this spoke volumes to my spirit. :D

"Faith opens the door to God's promises for us, and patience keeps it open until that promise is fulfilled. So put patience to work and the Bible guarantees we will receive our reward. Some people never receive answers from God because they quit too soon. About the time the answer is ready to reach them, they lose patience and quit trusting God. We always want the easy way out, but we need to stay in there and not quit when the going gets rough.

Patience is not only the ability to wait, but also the ability to have a good attitude while waiting. Waiting is part of life that cannot be avoided. We spend a great deal of our lives waiting; if we don't learn to do it patiently, we will be quite miserable. God is patient with us, and we are to imitate Him. To make our patience strong, we should practise patience in everyday situations. Every time we do, patience will grow stronger, just like a muscle.

Patience is consistent endurance. When we walk in patience, we remain consistent all the way through situations, no matter what comes along. We're not up and down like yo-yos; instead, we base everything on God's Word. We don't get up in the morning and ask ourselves how we are. We get up in the morning, open our Bibles, and tell ourselves how we are according to the Word!"

patience

"Patience is a spiritual force which undergirds your faith and causes you to be constant through the trial."
- Charles Capps

patience being perfected

"But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing."
James 1:4 (NKJV)

my passion

i want those around me to know who my God is and what He can do through me.

Real Faith (George Muller)

HEBREWS 11:1-3
"Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear."

"What is faith? In the simplest manner in which I am able to express it, I answer: Faith is the assurance that the thing which God has said in His Word is true, and that God will act according to what He has said in His Word. This assurance, this reliance on God's Word, this confidence is faith.

No impressions are to be taken in connection with faith. Impressions have neither one thing nor the other to do with faith. Faith has to do with the Word of God. It is not impressions, strong or weak, which will make any difference. We have to do with the written Word and not ourselves or our impressions.

Probabilities are not to be taken into account. Many people are willing to believe regarding those things that seem probable to them. Faith has nothing to do with probabilities. The province of faith begins where probabilities cease and sight and sense fail. A great many of God's children are cast down and lament their want of faith. They write to me and say that they have no impressions, no feeling, they see no probability that the thing they wish will come to pass. Appearances are not to be taken into account.

The question is—whether God has spoken it in His Word. And now, my beloved friends, you are in great need to ask yourselves whether you are in the habit of thus confiding, in your inmost soul, in what God has said, and whether you are in earnest in seeking to find whether the thing you want is in accordance with what He has said in His Word."

how faith is increased (George Muller)

This entry - another gem from George Muller - had been in my drafts folder for some time.

I had forgotten about it, but on reading it again, helped me to see God's heart in our journey of faith.

God delights to increase the faith of His children. Our faith, which is feeble at first, is developed and strengthened more and more by use. We ought, instead of wanting no trials before victory, no exercise for patience, to be willing to take them as a means. I say—and say it deliberately—trials, obstacles, difficulties, and sometimes defeats (ultimately we will overcome and have victory), are the very food of faith.

The Church of God is not aroused to see God as the beautiful and lovable One He is, and hence the littleness of blessedness. Oh, beloved brothers and sisters in Christ, seek to learn for yourselves, for I cannot tell you the blessedness! In the darkest moments I am able to confide in Him, for I know what a beautiful and kind and lovable Being He is, and, if it be the will of God to put us in the furnace, let Him do it, that so we may acquaint ourselves with Him as He will reveal Himself, and that we may know Him better. We come then to the conclusion that God is a lovable Being, and we are satisfied with Him, and say: "It is my Father, let Him do as He pleases."

When I first began to allow God to deal with me, relying on Him, taking Him at His word, and set out fifty years ago simply relying on Him for myself, family, taxes, traveling expenses and every other need, I rested on the simple promises I found in the sixth chapter of Matthew. I believed the Word, I rested on it and practiced it. I took God at His Word. A stranger, a foreigner in England, I knew seven languages and might have used them perhaps as a means of remunerative employment, but I had consecrated myself to labor for the Lord, I put my reliance in the God who has promised, and He has acted according to His Word. I've lacked nothing-nothing. I have had my trials and difficulties, and my purse empty, but my receipts have aggregated. I have received thousands and thousands of dollars, while the work has gone on these fifty-one years.

Then, with regard to my pastoral work; for the past fifty-one years I have had great difficulties, great trials and perplexities. There will always be difficulties, always trials. But God has sustained me out of them, and the work has gone on. Now, this is not, as some have said, because I am a man of great mental power, or endowed with energy and perseverance, these are not the reasons. It is because I have confided in God; because I have sought God, and He has cared for the Institution, which, under His direction, has one hundred schools, with masters and mistresses, and other departments of which I have told you before. I do not carry the burden.

And now in my sixty-seventh year, I have physical strength and mental vigor for as much work as when I was a young man in the university, studying and preparing Latin orations. I am just as vigorous as at that time. How comes this? Because in the last half-century of labor I've been able with the simplicity of a child, to rely upon God. I have had my trials, but I have laid hold upon God, and so it has come to pass that I have been sustained. It is not only permission, but positive command that He gives, to cast the burdens upon Him. Oh, let us do it!

My beloved brothers and sisters in Christ, Case thy burden upon the Lord and He shall sustain thee. Day by day I do it. This morning sixty matters in connection with the church of which I am pastor, I brought before the Lord, and thus it is, day by day I do it, and year by year; ten years, thirty years, forty years. Do not, however, expect to obtain full faith at once. All such things as jumping into full exercise of faith in such things I discountenance. I do not believe in it. I do not believe in it, I do not believe in it, and I wish you plainly to understand I do not believe in it. All such things go on in a natural way. The little I did obtain I did not obtain all at once. All this I say particularly, because letters come to me full of questions from those who seek to have their faith strengthened. Begin over again, staying your soul in the Word of God, and you will have an increase of your faith as you exercise it.

One thing more. Some say, "Oh, I shall never have the gift of faith Mr. Muller has got." This is a mistake—it is the greatest error—there is not a particle of truth in it. My faith is the same kind of faith that all God's children have had. It is the same kind that Simon Peter had, and all Christians may obtain the like faith. My faith is their faith, though there may be more of it because my faith has been a little more developed by exercise than theirs; but their faith is precisely the faith I exercise, only, with regard to degree, mine may be more strongly exercised.

Now, my beloved brothers and sisters, begin in a little way. At first, I was able to trust the Lord for ten dollars, then for a hundred dollars, then for a thousand dollars, and now, with the greatest ease, I could trust Him for a million dollars, if there was occasion. But first, I should quietly, carefully, deliberately examine and see whether what I was trusting for, was something in accordance with His promises in His written Word.

Another quote from George Muller

"Faith ends where worry begins, and worry ends where faith begins."

An anecdote about George Muller

"One asked George Muller the secret to his service, and he replied, 'There was a day when I died.' and as he spoke he bent lower until he touched the floor. Continuing he added, 'Died to George Muller, to his opinions, preferences, tastes, and will. Died to the world, its approval or censure. Died to the approval or blame even of my brethren and friends. And since then studied only to show myself approved of God."

a quote from George Muller

"If the Lord fails me at this time, it will be the first time."

the impact of the word upon the soul (by george muller)

"I saw more clearly than ever that the first great and primary business to which I ought to attend every day was, to have my soul happy in the Lord.

The first thing to be concerned about was not how much I might serve the Lord, how I might glorify the Lord; but how I might get my soul into a happy state, and how my inner man might be nourished.

For I might seek to set the truth before the unconverted, I might seek to benefit believers, I might seek to relieve the distressed, I might in other ways seek to behave myself as it becomes a child of God in this world; and yet, not being happy in the Lord, and not being nourished and strengthened in my inner man day by day, all this might not be attended to in a right spirit.

Before this time my practice had been, at least for ten years previously, as an habitual thing to give myself to prayer, after having dressed myself in the morning. Now, I saw that the most important thing I had to do was to give myself to the reading of the word of God, and to meditation on it, that thus my heart might be comforted, encouraged, warned, reproved, instructed; and that thus, by means of the word of God, whilst meditating on it, my heart might be brought into experimental communion with the Lord.

I began therefore to meditate on the New Testament from the beginning, early in the morning.

The first thing I did, after having asked in a few words the Lord blessing upon his precious word, was, to begin to meditate on the word of God, searching as it were into every verse, to get blessing out of it; not for the sake of the public ministry of the word, not for the sake of preaching on what I had meditated upon, but for the sake of obtaining food for my own soul.

The result of this is, that there is always a good deal of confession, thanksgiving, supplication, or intercession mingled with my meditation, and that my inner man almost invariably is even sensibly nourished and strengthened, and that by breakfast time, with rare exceptions, I am in a peaceful if not happy state of heart. Thus also the Lord is pleased to communicate unto me that which, either very soon after or at a later time, I have found to become food for other believers, though it was not for the sake of the public ministry of the word that I gave myself to meditation, but for the profit of my own inner man.

The difference, then, between my former practice and my present one is this: Formerly, when I rose, I began to pray as soon as possible, and generally spent all my time till breakfast in prayer, or almost all the time.

At all events I almost invariably began with prayer, except when I felt my soul to be more than usually barren, in which case I read the word of God for food, or for refreshment, or for a revival and renewal of my inner man, before I gave myself to prayer. But what was the result? I often spent a quarter of an hour; or half an hour, or even an hour, on my knees, before being conscious to myself of having derived comfort, encouragement, humbling of soul, etc.; and often, after having suffered much from wandering of mind for the first ten minutes, or a quarter of an hour, or even half an hour; I only then began really to pray.

I scarcely ever suffer now in this way. For my heart being nourished by the truth, being brought into experimental fellowship with God, I speak to my Father and to my Friend about the things that he has brought before me in his precious word.

It often now astonishes me that I did not sooner see this point. In no book did I ever read about it. No public ministry ever brought the matter before me. No private intercourse with a brother stirred me up to this matter. And yet now, since God has taught me this point, it is as plain to me as anything, that the first thing the child of God has to do morning by morning is, to obtain food for his inner man.

As the outward man is not fit for work for any length of time except we take food, and as this is one of the first things we do in the morning, so it should be with the inner man. We should take food for that, as every one must allow. Now what is the food for the inner man? Not prayer, but the word of God; and here again, not the simple reading of the word of God, so that it only passes through our minds, just as water runs through a pipe, but considering what we read, pondering over it, and applying it to our hearts. When we pray, we speak to God.

Now, prayer, in order to be continued for any length of time in any other than a formal manner, requires, generally speaking a measure of strength or godly desire, and the season, therefore, when this exercise of the soul can be most effectually performed is after the inner man has been nourished by meditation on the word of God, where we find our Father speaking to us, to encourage us, to comfort us, to instruct us, to humble us, to reprove us. We may therefore profitably meditate, with God's blessing, though we are ever so weak spiritually; nay, the weaker we are, the more we need meditation for the strengthening of our inner man. There is thus far less to be feared from wandering of mind than if we give ourselves to prayer without having had previously time for meditation.

I dwell so particularly on this point because of the immense spiritual profit and refreshment I am conscious of having derived from it myself, and I affectionately and solemnly beseech all my follow believers to ponder this matter. By the blessing of God I ascribe to this mode the help and strength which I have had from God to pass in peace through deeper trials, in various ways, than I had ever had before; and after having now above fourteen years tried this way, I can most fully, in the fear of God, recommend it. In addition to this I generally read, after family prayer, larger portions of the word of God, when I still pursue my practice of reading regularly onward in the Holy Scriptures, sometimes in the New Testament and sometimes in the Old, and for more than twenty-six years I have proved the blessedness of it. I take, also either then or at other parts of the day, time more especially for prayer.

How different, when the soul is refreshed and made happy early in the morning, from what it is when, without spiritual preparation, the service, the trials, and the temptations of the day come upon one!"

moses' staff

I've always been fascinated by the story of Moses' staff. It started when as a teen, i saw a dance to a song which had these words - throw down your rod...

(see entry on 19 Jan 2008 for the impact it had on my life and another instance God spoke to me through this story).

I just came across this on an online devotional... and am reminded of this story yet again... almost a year later

"So Moses took his wife and sons, put them on a donkey and started back to Egypt. And he took the staff of God in his hand" (Exod. 4:20).

When Moses was called by God from his forty years in the desert to lead the people out of Egypt, God first changed his paradigm about his shepherd's staff which represented his work life as a shepherd. God told him He was going to perform miracles through his staff (v17).

A shepherd was considered a very lowly profession by the Egyptians. Moses had a time of being set apart in the desert which separated him from all that he learned in Egypt.

We have to come to bring us to a place of willingness to lay down our vocations so that God can use them for His purposes. This surrendering and yielding prepares our heart for the new calling. God required Moses to lay down his staff in order for him to see it as something that had power. He had not viewed his work life as a shepherd as having any power.

God was instructing Moses to lay down that which represented his life and calling, so that He could transform it and raise it up for His purposes. Once Moses laid his staff down and then took it back up, a significant change took place. It was no longer his shepherd's staff; it was the "staff of God."

God's staff has power. After Moses' staff became God's, it was used as the instrument of deliverance and transformation for the people of God. It delivered people out of the slavery of Egypt through one of the most dramatic miracles of all time -- the parting of the Red Sea (see Ex. 14:16). Moses' staff transformed a people from slavery to freedom and was used to demonstrate his God-given authority.

How about you? Are you willing for God to use your "staff" to bring a people out of bondage?

Word for 2009

Jeremiah 29:11 (AMP)

For I know the thoughts and plans that I have for you, says the Lord, thoughts and plans for welfare and peace and not for evil, to give you hope in your final outcome.


Ezekial 36:26-28 (AMP)

A new heart will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you, and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
And I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you shall heed My ordinances and do them.
And you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and you shall be My people, and I will be your God.