Seek First The Kingdom of God and His Righteousness

  Psalm 16:11 You will show me the path of life; In Your presence  is  fullness of joy; At Your right hand  are  pleasures forevermore.   James 4:1 Where do wars and fights  come  from among you? Do  they  not  come  from your  desires for  pleasure that war in your members?   This morning Psalm 16:11 came up during a prayer meeting I attend through Zoom.  As we were praying for those countries that are at war the Holy Spirit brought James 4:1 to my mind.  What He showed me was that we war and fight with one another from our desire for earthly pleasures that will not last while God has pleasures that are forevermore that we can have in His presence.  His presence that everyone who is born again can have right now.  Pleasures that are not based upon our circumstances or abilities. Pleasures that we don’t have to earn or take from someone else. Why, because they are offered freely as a gift to all who will believe.   Do we not see the trick that the enemy continues to play on us?  We fig

  I can do nothing   One of the biggest traps and lies that I can fall into is thinking that I am enough and that I can do it or handle it.  This statement may seem to be wrong by many because of the self-empowerment slogans we hear from all around us is that tell us how we are enough, we can do it and we have the power. What we fail to see is that if we are enough and we have to power to do it then we have the ultimate responsibility for accomplishing everything in our lives. It doesn’t take living very long to realize that this is a lie.  There are things that come up in life that we don’t have the intelligence, talent, ability, power, or finances to handle.  Seriously if we are enough to handle it we would never fail.  Yet the truth, and comfort, is found in the last part of John 15:5 John 15:5 b. “for without Me you can do nothing.” Jesus statement here isn’t a narcissistic, ego driven put down. He is stating a fact and one that brings me great comfort. Comfort in that it reminds m

  Grace and Faith, Death and Life.  These really must be taken as pairs for if we only focus on one half of the pair we miss out on some very important things and we wind up in a ditch.     For us each half of the pair is dependent upon the other half.  Grace does US no good without faith, and what good is faith to us without grace?  Since the fall there is no life without death and to obtain life there has to be a death.  Sounds crazy right? Grace is manifested in Jesus dying on the cross for sin past, present and future? Correct?  This means all sin was forgiven at the cross from the beginning of time till the end of time. Correct?  So then why are there people in hell now and why are there people who are and will still go to hell and who will be cast into the lake of fire, which is the second death, to exist for eternity? Did God’s grace not apply for them?   The problem wasn’t God’s grace the problem was that they did not have or use faith to access it. To put it in an earthy conte

  Romans 10:9-15   If you are a Born-Again believer in Christ Romans 10:9-13 isn’t for YOU anymore.  “ that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. 11 For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.” 12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. 13 For “whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”’ It is for those who have not yet believed. Born-Again believer in Christ Romans 10:14-15,17 IS FOR YOU! 14 How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? 15 And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach

  2 Chronicles 7:14 if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.     This verse came up during a prayer meeting today and we were discussing what it is to humble ourselves.  Fasting and prayer where mentioned as ways we can humble ourselves but then Isaiah 58 came to mind. “Cry aloud, spare not; Lift up your voice like a trumpet; Tell My people their transgression, And the house of Jacob their sins. 2 Yet they seek Me daily, And delight to know My ways, As a nation that did righteousness, And did not forsake the ordinance of their God. They ask of Me the ordinances of justice; They take delight in approaching God. 3 ‘Why have we fasted,’ they say, ‘and You have not seen? Why have we afflicted our souls, and You take no notice?’ “In fact, in the day of your fast you find pleasure, And exploit all your laborers. 4 Indeed you fast for

  Romans is a book that teaches us about righteousness and how we actually obtain the righteousness of God.  Romans also teaches us a great deal about faith.  It is by grace that we are saved but we don’t receive that salvation without faith. God’s grace provided forgiveness of sin but that gift is only received through faith.  God’s grace is there for everyone, hence the term “but by the grace of God go I” is not a good term to use because it implies that God’s grace wasn’t there for someone else who did something bad or had something bad happen to them.  God’s grace is available to everyone the problem is that everyone doesn’t have faith in God to receive that grace.  Faith is so important for living the Christian life.  Faith is so important that there is actually a law of Faith. Romans 3:27-30  Where   is   boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No, but by the  law of faith .  { Andrew Wommack has a great teaching on this subject.  https://www.awmi.net/audio/audio-te

  3 times a day   Daniel 6:10 Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went home. And in his upper room, with his windows open toward Jerusalem, he knelt down on his knees three times that day, and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as was his custom since early days.   Quick context for this verse for those not familiar.  Men who were jealous of Daniel and his position in the kingdom had tricked king Darius into making a law that for thirty days people could only pray to the king or else be thrown into the lion’s den.     Key points from this verse.  Regardless of the law Daniel stayed devoted to the Lord.  Daniel didn’t start praying 3 times a day because of this law.  This was his custom since his early days.  He prayed 3 times a day in obedience to God’s Word.  Psalm 55:17 “Evening and morning and at noon I will pray, and cry aloud, And He shall hear my voice.” (this would have been the 9 th , 3 rd  and 6 th  hours of the day or 3pm, 12pm, 9am).  It is also signific

  A thought on communion. The definition for communion is Fellowship; intercourse between two persons or more; interchange of transactions, or offices; a state of giving and receiving; agreement; concord. Sadly, like so many things, the church has lost sight of what communion is and instead has been watered it down to a religious tradition that we hurry through like it is an afterthought. Just from simply looking at the definition of the word this is something that should be serious and not be done in a rush. When Jesus instituted this it was from a part of the passover feast. I picture a lot more time being involved especially after His death and resurrection. The memories and the contemplation of what the elements represented. There is so much more that can said but I will pause here. Blessings

  120 Years Genesis 6:3 And the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.” From Genesis 6:3 we see that God limits the life span of humanity to 120 years. Why do we settle for living for less than this? Deuteronomy 34:7 sums up Moses life as follows: Moses was one hundred and twenty years old when he died. His eyes were not dim nor his natural vigor diminished. Why can’t we have the same, especially if we are in Christ? Could it be that we lack vision for living this long the Bible says in Proverbs 29:18 Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he? Is it that we only have vision for a much shorter life and so we succumb to death earlier than we could if we just had a longer vision? We have all heard of people who die shortly after retirement. Many speculate this is because they didn’t have anything left to give them purpose for living. Could it be the

  The IF.   From what I have observed there is a great lack of understanding or just plain misunderstanding of this simple 2 letter word, if, when it comes to God and His working in our lives. When it comes to if it is very much a powerful word that we must properly understand so that we can receive all that God has for us as His people.   The first thing we must understand about if is that the if is never on God’s part.  He has already done His part. His will is clear and established and in Jesus it is finished.  The believer’s mindset and prayers should never be “if God…..” because there is no “if God”.  To pray “God if it is Your will” prayers is to declare ignorance of God’s Word or unbelief in what God’s Word says.  The good news is that we don’t have to stay in ignorance or unbelief.  We can dig into His Word and be changed. Before praying a what if prayer would it not be more effective to search God’s Word, find out what His will is on the matter and just come into alignment wit

  An Honest Confession   Philippians 1:6 being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete  it  until the day of Jesus Christ;   I have a confession to share with you.  Many times, in my life, and something that I still battle from time to time, I have taken the mindset that I could make happen in my life what only God could accomplish.  God would put something into my heart and I would accept it, get excited about it and start to run with it but at some point, I would get this attitude of “OK God, I got it from here” and then try to accomplish it by my strength. Guess how that turned out EVERY SINGLE TIME?  Yes, every single time there was failure.  How could it end any differently?  Me and my abilities doesn’t equal God and His abilities, EVER!  Honestly it is the height of arrogance, and ignorance, that I ever thought that I could complete something that I couldn’t even start.  It was God who started it, He was the One who put those things in

  The Arrogance of the Sin Hierarchy     In my Christian journey I have seen, and been guilty at times, of putting people’s sins in to a hierarchy.  In this hierarchy we classify sins from minor to major based upon our judgements of what is minor or major.  From this we place value upon people, their lives, and testimonies  If God doesn’t use a hierarchy, why do we?   Romans 5:12 Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned—   We tend to forget that the sin that Adam committed was disobedience in eating fruit from a tree God said not to.  It wasn’t murder, sexual, addiction related, lying, cheating, blasphemy.  He ate some fruit, that’s it. From that one act sin and death and all its offspring of sickness, illness, poverty, and every evil vile thing.   Jesus’s death, burial and resurrection was to pay the price for the root of sin and hence all sin.  If there had been no other sin committed by huma

  In my unpacking of all the Lord showed, gave and taught me during my trip I keep coming back to these 2 verses.   Matthew 6:33But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. John 15:5 “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.   For if I do anything else apart from what these verses instruct me to do I get out into my strength, my wisdom and my ability of provision which is not the place for me to be.  During this trip I saw and heard both the wonderful and the horrible.  I encountered things that from a natural perspective would make me run away and hide because there is no way I could add anything positive to keep what I experience going or to change the situation from the bad to the good.   If I see myself as anything more or less than a conduit, a branch, that He can move through and produce fruit through not only am I in trouble but those I come

  That dirty “C” word. Yes everyone I feel led to talk about that “C” word that is so offensive to so many. CORRECTION! Why do we dread not only receiving correction but giving correction when it is needed? If someone piloting a plane or a ship used applied our attitudes to receiving and giving correction there isn’t a plane or ship would ever make it to the intended destination. Being off just a fraction of a degree can mean missing the destination by miles. Proverbs 3:12 For whom the LORD loves He corrects, Just as a father the son in whom he delights. Proverbs 12:1 Whoever loves instruction loves knowledge, But he who hates correction is stupid. Proverbs 13:18 Poverty and shame will come to him who disdains correction, But he who regards a rebuke will be honored. Proverbs 15:5 A fool despises his father’s instruction, But he who receives correction is prudent. Proverbs 15:10 Harsh discipline is for him who forsakes the way, And he who hates correction will die. We see from these ver

 Thoughts from  Isaiah 10:27   From Isaiah 10:27 we get the popular, but erroneous, sayings in the church, “the anointing breaks the yoke.” This started from the KJV translation of this verse.  Most of the other English translations have translated it as the anointing oil or fat that breaks the yoke.  The Hebrew word used in this verse is semen, pronounced sheh’-men, which means grease, especially liquid (as from the olive, often perfumed; figuratively, richness:-anointing,xfat (things), x fruitful, oil (-ed) ointment, olive, pine. (Strong’s definition). In looking at every verse where semen is used in the Old Testament it is speaking of the oil or the fat itself and not the specific act of anointing.   Now with a proper understanding of what the verse we can see the real meaning and depth of what it is saying to us even now.  To help with this I have included the verse here from 3 different English translations.    Isaiah 10:27NKJ Version It shall come to pass in that day That his bur

  The Essence of the Kingdom     Recently I have been doing a deep dive into joy.  As I was searching the Bible to see all that it had to say on the subject of joy I came upon this verse, Romans 14:17 for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. My thoughts then went to Matthew 6:33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you In looking at both of these verses I see that, logically, what we need to be seeking first is righteousness, peace and Joy in the Holy Spirit.   Sadly, many today in the church are seeking after so much that is not the kingdom or trying by their efforts to produce a God’s kingdom here on earth through various means but really, they are building their own kingdoms. Luke 17:21, says, “nor will they say, ‘See here!’ or ‘See there!’ For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you.”  God’s kingdom is not an earthly kingdom that can be made to come about by

  Covet vs Content   The word covet isn’t a word that is that common in our daily, American, vocabulary but it is something that we American’s are very familiar with.  Just reading the definition of Covet, -To desire inordinately; to desire that which it is unlawful to obtain or possess; in a bad sense, basically describes the majority of American’s life. A really good synonym for covet is LUST.   Sadly, this goes for those in the church as well as those outside the church.  All we need do is look at James 4:1-3 and then look around us.  Doesn’t it explain a lot of what is going on in our world? Even though James 4:1-3 doesn’t use the word covet we can see that its definition applies here. James 4:1-3 “Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? 2 You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because

  Full and Less   During my time in the hospital the Lord showed me that I am lacking in Joy. As I meditated on this, I began to see some things. My definition of full and less weren’t God’s definitions.  To truly be full is not just to be at capacity but to be at capacity while it is flowing out at capacity. Anything short of that is less. Using these definitions if I am full of something it should be easy for people to use that as an identification of me. Question, how do we identify or label a person as joyful? Is it because we see a trickle of joy coming out every now and then or is it because we see joy flowing out of them in capacity? People identify us by what they see flowing out of us at capacity, good or bad.  This led me to some self-reflection and to this conclusion. I need to be more and more abiding in Jesus and Jesus in me. Each part of the fruit of the Spirit should be something people identify me by because I am full of the Spirit because I am abiding in Jesus. There s