John 7:37-38 “…If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. 38 The one who believes in Me, as the scripture has said, will have streams of living water flow from deep within him.” ~CSB

Today I’m looking out the window and taking in the beautiful sights of waves rolling on top of the ocean. The smell of the salt water, the formations of seagulls in flight and the movement of the clouds as the wind pushes them in a beautiful ballet across the sky.

Nothing like watching the living movement of God’s creations. This is what we are keying in on today, ‘God’s Creations’. The bible says in John Chapter 1 that Jesus was with God and “…All things were created through Him…” That means you and I were created through him. That also means we have been created for a purpose. 

Hold on to this, because being created by God, we must know that He did this for a reason. His purpose for the kingdom was created in all of us. This means you must let go of all thoughts and visions that disagree with His purpose. Let go of not feeling worthy; let go of the devil telling you that you have nothing to live for; let go of thinking you are alone! 

You see we were created with a ‘void’ inside us. Because our relationship with God is not strong, we try our best to fill that void with what WE like. We try and fill it with bad relationships, material things, money, alcohol, or drugs. And when we don’t get these things, we get depressed and guide ourselves in the wrong directions.  

We try and fill it with all these things that will not last, instead of what God intended for us to fill it with, that will last. The bible describes this void as ‘thirst’. We drink our fleshly desires and are soon thirsting for more. When we go to the Word and allow Jesus to fill that void, we will never thirst again. 

We won’t seek those bad relationships because we have Jesus! We won’t crave the addictions to alcohol and drugs because we will have Jesus! We won’t feel like we are alone because God is always with us! He will never leave us nor forsake us!  He sacrificed His son so that we would all be included as heirs to the kingdom.  His Son! Jesus is all we need!

Just come to him, receive Him and he says we will, “…will have streams of living water flow from deep within…” We will never thirst again! To God be the glory! May God continue to bless and keep you in His peace as you journey in Jesus’ name.

​Amen

1 Peter 2:24 “He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree; so that, having died to sins, we might live for righteousness. By His wounds you have been healed.” ~CSB

A man hears a noise in the attic. It may be a rodent, or something may have fallen. Nevertheless, he goes up to see what it is. When he gets to his attic, he notices many old belongings. Some in boxes, other memorabilia scattered around. He realizes he has not been up here in a while. Some of the items bring back good memories. But there are others that bring back memories of the past the man has tried to forget.

Now let me propose a change of perspective. Let us allow that man’s attic to represent our minds. And that noise is the devil.  Every now and then the enemy will make a noise in our minds that will make us revisit old things. These things bring back memories. Now when the devil is involved these memories will only bring back those that will help him in his mission to take us away from Christ.

​Some of these memories will take us places we forgot about and were living confident in being the individuals we are. Some of us were trying to forget these times in our lives. But when the enemy made his noise, it brought those back. This caused an affect in us in a negative way. Why is that?

It is because we have grown in Christ. Our spirits are stronger because our relationship with God is stronger. The enemy’s intention is to make you question your status as an heir to the One True King. Question your status as a child of the One True God. And our flesh begins to eat away at our heart and mind attempting to make us feel guilty about being accountable for our past.

First things first. It is true, we are accountable. And we owe a debt for the many things we have done. But know that it is a debt we can never pay. God knows that. This is why He made it possible for us to still have a chance to be with Him in paradise.  In John 3:16 it says that He loves us so much that, “…He gave His One and Only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.”

Jesus paid that debt for us. It’s like we are in a spiritual ‘line’ everyday, waiting to pay for something that is beyond our budget.  And when we get to the counter, His voice says to the cashier, “Don’t worry, I’ve taken care of it!” How amazing is that!

So, let’s not allow that ‘noise in the attic’ to dictate who we are or aren’t. By Christ’s wounds we have been healed and forgiven. Being children of God, we need to take those old bad memories, dust them off and packaged them into the testimony of how God brought us through those times. Because of those memories in our minds, God will allow testimonies of our troubles of YESTERDAY; help someone who’s going through those same issues TODAY.  And our testimony, (mixed with God’s love and Word), may just save their lives!

May God continue to keep and bless you as you journey in the name of Jesus!

Amen

Ezekiel 1:28 “The appearance of the brilliant light all around was like that of a rainbow in a cloud on a rainy day. This was the appearance of the likeness of the Lord’s glory. When I saw it, I fell face down and heard a voice speaking.” ~CSB

The Lord’s voice. I was raised on stories in the bible where God talked directly to His messenger. For instance, in Genesis 12:1 “The Lord told Abram, “Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father’s family, and go to the Land that I will show you.” ~NLT The Lord spoke directly to Abram and in response Abram listened and followed the orders of God.  Because of His obedience, the foundation for all gentiles was set for us to be grafted in as children of God.

Another story I was raised on; when the Lord told Samuel in 1 Samuel 16:12-13 “...This is the one; anoint him.” So as David stood there among his brothers, Samuel took the flask of olive he had brought and anointed David…”  Because of this David became a great King whose descendant would be our Savior. 

But today, does God talk to us? The answer is yes. But our relationship with him must be strong. We must visit with the Lord every day. Don’t allow yourself set boundaries on how you do this. In other words, don’t say, “I’m going to spend an hour with the Lord every day.” When you do this, you begin looking on your calendars, and gauging your schedules to see when you would ‘have the time.’ Before you know it, you do not, because, you don’t have that ‘hour’ in the day.

Just wake up in the morning with a prayer of thanksgiving. For simply waking you up that morning. For the blessings you have at that moment. Allow yourself five or ten minutes to review a scripture or two. To spiritually chew on as you journey through your day. This will build strength in your spirit. You will need this so that your spirit will become stronger than your flesh.  This will help you keep your flesh at bay during those times of temptation.

Before you know it, your relationship with the Father will become very strong and genuine. You will be able to see what you have never seen before. You will be able to hear what you have never heard before. You begin to hear His voice. And because your spirit is stronger, you will be able to receive directions from the same voice that guided Abram.  The same voice that gave Samuel direction.

That same voice will then allow you to see, in this dark and rude world, “…The appearance of the brilliant light all around…”  God’s glory will be like, “…that of a rainbow in a cloud on a rainy day.” The text continues to say that this appearance will be “…the likeness of the Lord’s glory…” Tony Evans says in his Commentary, “The only appropriate response to the glory of God is worship and obedience. This position opens the door for God to speak to us personally.”

The text continues, “When I saw it, I fell face down and heard a voice speaking.” Give our spiritual selves the chance to hear God by having that strong, determined spiritual relationship with God. This is the only way we will be able to hear from Him and receive the guidance we need to receive His promises here on Earth.

May God bless and keep you in His grace through His Son, Jesus,

​Amen