God, Touch Our Hearts

 God, Touch Our Hearts

Saul also went to his home at Gibeah, and with him went men of valor whose hearts God had touched. (1 Samuel 10:26)

Just think of what is being said in this verse. God touched them. Not a wife. Not a child. Not a parent. Not a counselor. But God. God touched them.

The One with infinite power in the universe. The One with infinite authority and infinite wisdom and infinite love and infinite goodness and infinite purity and infinite justice. That One touched their heart. 

How does the circumference of Jupiter touch the edge of a molecule? Let alone penetrate to its nucleus?

The touch of God is awesome not just because it is God who touches, but also because it is a touch. It is a real connection. That it involves the heart is awesome. That it involves God is awesome. And that it involves an actual touch is awesome. 

The valiant men were not just spoken to. They were not just swayed by a divine influence. They were not just seen and known. God, with infinite condescension, touched their heart. God was that close. And they were not consumed.

I love that touch. I want it more and more. For myself and for all of you. I pray that God would touch me anew with his glory and for this glory. I pray that he would touch us all. 

Oh, for the touch of God! If it comes with fire, so be it. If it comes with water, so be it. If it comes with wind, let it come, O God. If it comes with thunder and lightning, let us bow before it.

O Lord, come. Come that close. Burn and soak and blow and crash. Or still and small, come. Come all the way. Touch our hearts.

WHEN YOU PRAY FOR OTHERS!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

FRIDAY APRIL 18, 2025.

SUBJECT: WHEN YOU PRAY FOR OTHERS!

Memory verse: "So I sought for a man among them, who should make a wall, and stand in the gap before Me on behalf of the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none.”  (Ezekiel 22 vs 30.)

READ: Psalm 106 vs 23:

Therefore He said that He would destroy them, had not Moses his chosen stood before Him in the breach, to turn away His wrath, lest He destroy them. 

INTIMATION: 

Intercessory prayer is a never-ending opportunity to join God in His work, while at the same time, you have a chance to be transformed both in heart and circumstance. Not just a few are called to pray for others; we are all called to pray unceasingly for all of God's people. Are you wondering if praying for others makes a difference? Here are eight amazing things that happen when you pray for others: 

1. When we pray, we participate in God's work.

There are many people in our lives who need prayer. At times their needs are clear. Other times we may not know what to pray. Either way, when we pray for others, we join God in His work in their lives. 

If you are not sure what to pray, follow the exhortation of Apostle Paul to Timothy in First Timothy 2 vs 1 - 4: “Therefore I exhort first of all, that supplications, prayers, intercession and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” Being obedient in praying for others clears the way for God's work and will to be done.

2. When we pray for others we emulate Jesus.

In the book of Luke, we find Jesus praying often. He goes to His Father in prayer as His ministry begins. As we can see in Scripture, Jesus prayed for His disciples and about everything. By bringing petitions of prayer on behalf of others, we imitate our Savior. Jesus said to Peter, “And the Lord said, “Simon, Simon! Indeed, Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail, and when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren.” (Luke 22 vs 31 - 32.)

3. When we pray for others, we share in their  burdens. In Philippians 2 vs 3 - 4, the apostle Paul reminds us to put others above self, and to consider the needs of others more important than our own. Our nature is to do the opposite. Our first thought is to pray that our burdens be lifted or erased altogether. It is humility that allows us to pray for others earnestly. And by offering prayers for the relief of others and sharing their burdens, our burdens seem lighter. 

4. By praying for others, we join the ministry of reconciliation. The apostle Paul said that God reconciled the believers with Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given them the ministry of reconciliation, or working to help others know Jesus, embrace salvation, and God's love. (First Corinthians 5 vs 18). Our first tool is prayer. Praying for others puts us in the middle of God's work to bring everyone to Himself. By praying for others, we are ministers in the work of salvation, opening the gospel to those in our prayers. God wants everyone to be saved, and we are invited to be part of the work. (First Timothy 2 vs 3 - 4.)

5. When we pray for others, we learn to trust God. If we depend on our strength and abilities, we cannot accomplish God's will. Only through surrendering to God is He able to work through us to accomplish His desires in our prayers for others. When we offer intercessory prayers, pleading with God on behalf of loved ones and friends, we are trusting in His ability to answer, and He does. We are giving up our capabilities to answer and depend on God to keep His promise to answer our prayers.

6. When we pray for others, we are also changed. Prayer is not a matter of changing things externally, it’s one of working miracles in a person's inner nature. While we pray for others, we plead with God to intercede in their lives, perhaps to bring healing or strength in difficult times. But we are also opening our hearts for change. When we pray for others, we connect to the One who has the power to transform the hearts of others and bring change to their circumstances. And at the same time, it amends our hearts.

7. Praying for others glorifies God. When we practice intercessory prayer, we glorify the only One who can answer prayers. Our prayers display trust in God, our belief in Christ, and when prayers are answered, we praise Him for his faithfulness. Our prayers glorify God. Praying is not just a conversation, it’s is also praise for the work God will do through our prayers.

8. God answers when we pray for others.

As Christians, our prayers do not bounce off the ceiling or dissipate like fog. God hears when we pray for others, and He answers. The answer may not come quickly, nor may the reply be what we expected. Or, because God is gracious, we receive much more than we asked. Either way, God answers our prayers when we pray for others. Our prayers are powerful, and our loving God wants us to know through His answer to our plea that He has the power and authority to answer whatever we ask in accordance with His Will.

Prayer should not be regarded as a duty which must be performed, but rather as a privilege to be enjoyed, a rare delight that is always revealing some new beauty.

Prayer: Abba Father, endue me with the excellent spirit of prayer and supplication with thanksgiving in all things, and giving myself to praying for others, interceding in prayer for the benefit of others, and to the glory of Your name, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed. Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

I’m 

Embracing Jesus

 Embracing Jesus

This is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world — our faith. (1 John 5:3–4)

Notice: Loving God is not just keeping his commandments. It is having a kind of heart for God that means that commandment-keeping is not burdensome. That’s what John says. But then he puts that truth in terms of new birth and faith, rather than love. He says, without a break, “For” — that is, here’s why God’s commandments are not burdensome: “Everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world.” So, the new birth is what overcomes the worldly obstacles to keeping God’s commandments without burdensomeness. 

And finally he adds, “And this is the victory that has overcome the world — our faith.” So, the new birth overcomes the worldly obstacles to burden-free commandment-keeping, because the new birth gives rise to faith. So, the miracle of new birth creates faith, which embraces all that God is for us in Christ as supremely satisfying, which makes obedience to God more desirable than the temptations of the world. And that is what it means to love God. 

The eighteenth-century pastor and theologian Jonathan Edwards wrestled with this text and concluded, “Saving faith implies . . . love. . . . Our love to God enables us to overcome the difficulties that attend keeping God’s commands — which shows that love is the main thing in saving faith, the life and power of it, by which it produces great effects.”

I think Edwards is right and that numerous texts in the Bible support what he says. 

Another way to say it is that faith in Christ is not just assenting to what God is for us, but also embracing all that he is for us in Christ. “True faith embraces Christ in whatever ways the Scriptures hold him out to poor sinners” — that’s another quote from Edwards. This “embracing” is one kind of love to Christ — that kind that treasures him above all things. 

Therefore, there is no contradiction between 1 John 5:3, on the one hand, which says that our love for God enables us to keep his commandments, and verse 4, on the other hand, which says that our faith overcomes the obstacles of the world that keep us from obeying God’s commandments. Love for God and Christ is implicit in faith. 

John then defines the faith that obeys as “the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God” (1 John 5:5). This faith is “embracing” the present Jesus as the glorious divine person that he is: the Son of God. It is not simply assenting to the truth that Jesus is the Son of God, because the demons assent to that. “They cried out, ‘What have you to do with us, O Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the time?’” (Matthew 8:29). Believing that Jesus is the Son of God means “embracing” the significance of that truth — the value of the reality. It means being satisfied with Christ as the Son of God and all God is for us in him.

“Son of God” means that Jesus is the greatest person in the universe alongside his Father. Therefore, all he taught is true, and all he promised will stand firm, and all his soul-satisfying greatness will never change. 

Believing that he is the Son of God, therefore, includes banking on all this, and being satisfied with it.

YOUR PRAYER CAN CHANGE EVENTS!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

THURSDAY APRIL 17, 2025.

SUBJECT : YOUR PRAYER CAN CHANGE EVENTS!

Memory verse: "Therefore He said that He would destroy them, had not Moses His chosen one stood before Him in the breach, to turn away His wrath, lest He destroy them." (Psalm 106 vs 23.)

READ: Exodus  32 vs 9 - 14:

32:9: And the LORD said to Moses, "I have seen this people, and indeed it is a stiff-necked people!

32:10: Now therefore, let Me alone, that My wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them. And I will make of you a great nation."

32:11: Then Moses pleaded with the LORD his God, and said: "LORD, why does Your wrath burn hot against Your people whom You have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand?  

32:12: Why should the Egyptians speak, and say, 'He brought them out to harm them, to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth'? Turn from Your fierce wrath, and relent from this harm to Your people.

32:13: Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, Your servants, to whom You swore by Your own self, and said to them, 'I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven; and all this land that I have spoken of I give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.'"

32:14: So the LORD relented from the harm which He said He would do to His people.

INTIMATION:

In response to fervent prayer God may change the course of our lives or His attitude toward us. Although we do things that deserve God's anger, we receive God's forgiveness from sin by asking Him in prayer for it. When we pray He is always willing to forgive us and restore us to Himself because His mercy endures forever. 

God is just, and there is no injustice with Him. He is also, a merciful God, and His mercy endures forever. These two natures of God came to the fore when the children of Israel angered Him. God was ready to punish them to remain consistent with His nature of justice. But when Moses interceded for the people, God relented in order to act consistently with His nature of being a merciful God. He changed His behavior to remain consistent with His nature.

This is one of the countless examples in the Bible of God's mercy. Although we deserve His anger, He is willing to forgive and restore us to Himself. We can receive God's forgiveness from sin by asking Him. Like Moses, we can intercede in prayer in any circumstances, and God may use us to bring the message of His mercy by forgiving others. In the passage we read today, God was ready to destroy the whole nation of Israel because of their sin, but Moses interceded and pleaded for mercy and God spared them. 

In Second Kings 20 vs 1 - 6, Hezekiah the king was sick and near death. God sent Isaiah the prophet to him telling him to set his house in order, for he shall surely die. Hezekiah prayed to the Lord and wept bitterly, reminding God how he has walked before Him in truth and with a loyal heart, and has done what is good in God's sight. God heard his prayer and saw his tears. Not only did God spare his life and added more fifteen years to him, He also healed him of his sickness and saved his city from the Assyrians. His faith and prayer changed the course of events. 

You too can make a difference, even if your faith puts you in the minority. Faith and prayer, if they are sincere and directed toward the one true God, can change any situation. Never hesitate to ask God for radical changes if you will honor Him with those changes. God has asked us to bring forth our strong reasons for whatever we ask Him in prayers. He is a just God, and ready to reason with us. He is also, ready to grant our prayers if our reasons are strong, convincing, good enough, and in consonance with His will:

"Come now, and let us reason together, says the LORD....."Present your case," says the LORD. "Bring forth your strong reasons," says the King of Jacob......"Put Me in remembrance; let us contend together; state your case, that you may be acquitted." (Isaiah 1 vs 18; 41 vs 21; 43 vs 26.)

Prayer: Abba Father, hear me O LORD, and attend to my cry. Let my prayer come to You with a sweet smelling aroma, pleasing to You, that You will give me an answer of peace. There is nothing impossible with nor difficult for You. You are the God that listens to the cry of Your children. Thank You Lord for You have heard me. To You be all the honor and glory for the great things You have done, is doing, and will do, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

Mercy for Today

 Mercy for Today

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. (Lamentations 3:22–23)

God’s mercies are new every morning because each day only has enough mercy in it for that day. God appoints every day’s troubles. And God appoints every day’s mercies. In the life of his children, they are perfectly appointed. Jesus said, “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble” (Matthew 6:34). Every day has its own trouble. Every day has its own mercies. Each is new every morning.

But we often tend to despair when we think that we may have to bear tomorrow’s load on today’s resources. God wants us to know: We won’t. Today’s mercies are for today’s troubles. Tomorrow’s mercies are for tomorrow’s troubles.

Sometimes we wonder if we will have the mercy to stand in terrible testing. Yes, we will. Peter says, “If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you” (1 Peter 4:14). When the reviling comes, the Spirit of glory comes. It happened for Stephen as he was being stoned. It will happen for you. When the Spirit and the glory are needed, they will come.

The manna in the wilderness was given one day at a time. There was no storing up. That is the way we must depend on God’s mercy. You do not receive today the strength to bear tomorrow’s burdens. You are given mercies today for today’s troubles. 

Tomorrow the mercies will be new. “God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord” (1 Corinthians 1:9).

FELLOWSHIP WITH THE GODHEAD!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

WEDNESDAY APRIL 16, 2025.

SUBJECT : FELLOWSHIP WITH THE GODHEAD!

Memory verse: "Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.” (John 8 vs 12.)

READ: First John 1 vs 3 - 7: 

1:3: That which we have seen and heard we declared to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. 

1:4: And these things we write to you that your joy may be full.

1:5: This is the message which we have heard from Him and declared to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.

1:6: If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness we lie and do not practice the truth.

1:7: But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.

INTIMATION:

The highest honor God has ever conferred upon us is to be joint-fellowshippers with Himself, with His Son, and with the Holy Spirit in carrying out His dream for redemption of the human race. Fellowship is the very mother of faith, the parent of joy, the source of victory; and He has called us individually into fellowship with His Son.

Jesus is the light of the world. He is the Creator of life, and His life brings light to humankind. In His light, we see ourselves as we really are (sinners in need of a Savior). If you have fellowship with Him—the true Light—you will have the light that helps you ovoid walking blindly and falling into sin. If you are walking in the light as He is in the light, He lights the path ahead of you so you can see how to live. 

Fellowship with the Godhead is in prayer, and meditation in His Word; in this, prayer becomes one of the sweetest privileges, and one of the greatest assets that we have as heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. Consequently, your joy is guaranteed to be full. In fellowship with Him you are not alone. Romans 8 vs 26 then can be a reality;  "Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered."

As a believer, you are not left to your own resources to cope with problems. Even when you don't know the right words to pray, the Holy Spirit prays with, and for you, and God answers. If the Holy Sprint is voicing the desires of the Father through your lips, those desires will be met and granted. With God helping you to pray, you don't need to be afraid to come before Him.

Light represents what is good, pure, true, holy, and reliable. Darkness represents what is sinful, and evil. The statement “God is Light” means that God is perfectly holy and true and that He alone can guide us out of the darkness of sin. Light is also related to truth, in that, light exposes whatever exists, whether it is good or bad. In the dark, good and evil look alike; in the light, they can be clearly distinguished.

Just as darkness cannot exist in the presence of light, sin cannot exist in the presence of a holy God. Our fellowship with the Godhead is the very heart reason for redemption.  Fellowship means sharing, equally bearing the burden, sharing in the victories. In First Corinthians 1 vs 9 the Bible says, "God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord." He has called us to share with His Son.  

Again,as a believer in fellowship with the Godhead, it is necessary for us to know the authority of the name of Jesus; not as a part of a creed or a doctrine, but to know it as an actual reality.  The Father has given us the power of attorney to use the name of Jesus, and that name has all authority in heaven and on earth, “Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given the name which is above every name, that at name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and those on earth, and those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2 vs 9 - 10). That makes us absolute masters of Satanic forces:

"In my name they shall cast out demons; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover (Mark 16 vs 17 - 18); “If you ask anything in My name, I will do it (John 14 vs 14); “Whatever you shall ask of the Father in My name He will give it you." (John 15 vs 16; 16 vs 23).

This is limitless. It is the limitlessness of the prayer life and it belongs to every child of God. Therefore, fellowship with the Godhead—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit—is the key of life that helps us walk in light in the world. You will never stumble but have the best of life, and consequently, receive the crown of glory—eternal life with Him.

Prayer: Abba Father, thank you very much for the privilege of sonship and for calling me into fellowship with You. In You there is no darkness but the light of life. Give me the grace never to fall out of fellowship with You, fully pleasing You, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of You, that I will be a son You will be pleased with, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

Don’t Be Like the Mule

 Be not like a horse or a mule, without understanding, which must be curbed with bit and bridle, or it will not stay near you. (Psalm 32:9)

Picture God’s people as a farmyard of all sorts of animals. God cares for his animals, he shows them where they need to go, and supplies a barn for their protection. 

But there is one beast on this animal farm that gives God an awful time, namely, the mule. He’s stupid and he’s stubborn and you can’t tell which comes first — stubbornness or stupidity.

Now the way God likes to get his animals into the barn for their food and shelter is by teaching them that they all have a personal name and then calling them by name. “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go” (Psalm 32:8).

But the mule will not respond to that sort of direction. He is without understanding. So God gets in his pick-up truck and goes out in the field, puts the bit and bridle in the mule’s mouth, hitches it to the truck, and drags him stiff-legged and snorting all the way into the barn.

That is not the way God wants his animals to come to him for blessing and protection. 

One of these days it is going to be too late for that mule. He’s going to get clobbered with hail and struck by lightning, and when he comes running, the barn door is going to be shut. 

Therefore, don’t be like the mule. “Be not like a horse or a mule, without understanding, which must be curbed with bit and bridle.” 

Instead, let everyone who is godly come to God in prayer at a time when he may be found (Psalm 32:6).

The way not to be a mule is to humble ourselves, to come to God in prayer, to confess our sins, and to accept, as needy little farmyard chicks, the direction of God into the barn of his protection and provision.