Seek First The Kingdom of God and His Righteousness

  Hebrews 4:16 Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Couple of thoughts on this verse.  Many if not all of us live this in reverse. In our time of need we come boldly to the throne looking to obtain mercy and grace to help us.  There is no mention of coming and going. The invitation is to come and stay. Then from this place of abiding in His presence when the trouble comes we’ll have the mercy and grace to deal with it.  Being saved doesn’t put us in the intimate place automatically. If it did this verse wouldn’t have been written nor James 4:8 Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Salvation gives us access to come to the throne and to draw as close as we desire.  We often seek God’s Presence as away of obtaining things we have made goals of. Grace, mercy, anointing, healing, power, prosperit...

  The Presence, glory, face and ways of God For the last 5 or 6 weeks I have been on a journey that has become a quest that is transforming into this overwhelming desire to dwell/abide in the presence of the Father.  To live in His Presence and glory, to seek His face and to know His ways. I feel it in the depths of my being that there is a level of closeness, of intimacy with the Lord that I have yet not experienced but that I must not only experience but abide/dwell/inhabit/live in.   I begin, I think, to understand the depths of what Moses was expressing in Exodus 33:12-18.  These words are not just religious words but they are words that I believe come from the very depths of Moses soul. I believe that he is crying this out to the Lord because he knows that there is no other way for him to go on.  Then Moses said to the Lord, “See, You say to me, ‘Bring up this people.’ But You have not let me know whom You will send with me. Yet You...

 I recently listened to a mom speak about her teenage child who is in active addiction. This child goes missing often and wherever they go it is a rough place because when they come back they are all cut up. As this mother was speaking about this Mark 16:17a came to mind. “And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons;. “ I don’t believe that casting out demons is listed first by mistake. Deliverance is supposed to be a normal part of every believer’s life.  Did you know that 12 step groups are only about 1 percent effective in getting people out of addiction? How effective has anti poverty programs been?  What if we started seeing things that are going on around us differently? What if we saw addiction as a need for deliverance? What if we saw poverty as a need for deliverance? What if we started seeing the demonic strongholds for what they are started casting them out?  Hosea 4:6 mentions that God’s people are destroyed because...

  Acts 4:13   Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus.   I saw a clip from an interview with R.T. Kendall where he was asked this question, “After 70 years in ministry what would be your advice to a young R.T. Kendall?”  His answer was that though he himself has many degrees he would not recommend to young ministers to go to seminary.  He mentioned Acts 4:13. His recommendation was to do 2 things.  Pray a lot and know your Bible. He said that God wants us to know 2 things, His Word and His ways. He pointed out that how we know His ways or anyone’s ways is to spend time with them. This is not the first time that Acts 4:13 has jumped out to me. This time I ask myself the question do unbelievers know that I have been with Jesus?  The they that realized in Acts 4:13 wasn’t the church but unbelievers....

Psalm 91:1  He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High  Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.   Psalm 91 is a beautiful psalm. So many blessings and promises are contained in its 16 verses. My grandparents for years before they passed would read this psalm together. It is probably one of the most encouraging portions of scripture in the Bible.  Today the Holy Spirit brought my focus to the 1st verse and showed me that all the rest flows out from this. Without verse 1 you don’t have the rest. When we dwell in the secret place of the most High and abide in the shadow of the almighty how can we not be blessed? How can we not be protected? How can we not be victorious and healthy?  I saw several castles and towers in Ireland and have seen several forts here in the states that were built for the protection of the people. Thing is that they didn’t always work. Some of those I saw were also in ruins.  What are the things that people put their trust...

  Peace and Stillness Mark 4:36-40 Now when they had left the multitude, they took Him along in the boat as He was. And other little boats were also with Him. And a great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that it was already filling. But He was in the stern, asleep on a pillow. And they awoke Him and said to Him, “Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?” Then He arose and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace, be still!” And the wind ceased and there was a great calm. But He said to them, “Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith?” Notice exactly what Jesus did. First He is sleeping in the middle of a storm. A storm that has experienced fishermen who probably had experienced a storm or two in the life to become afraid. In the middle of this very bad storm what awakens Jesus isn’t the storm but the disciples. Next let us focus on what Jesus said to the sea. “Peace, be still” He spoke what He had and was living in. Think about it. I...