Urgent Prayers

You say you need something to happen in your life with urgency. So you go to God with your requests. Before long, you are wondering why does it seem that everything you prayed for is happening so fast that you can barely catch your breath. The reason is very simple, you and God were in a agreement with your prayer requests, so now you must do your part--put some pep in your step! But you say, "I'm not ready..." Remember God's time isn't on your time.

You see we put an urgency stamp on prayers that we aren't willing to run toward. We can't keep it up, we run out of breath after the first 50 yards. God is moving ahead and leaving us behind! If we don't run behind our Father like a child does in order to keep up, we might feel like daddy is leaving us behind.

Some of you wanted God to move on your behalf years ago and now it is your season and you are dragging your feet. Taking your sweet time about making phone calls, mailing documents, signing paperwork, and more! What's the hold up? You asked God to do things and now you aren't ready? "Well I don't know, I mean is this real...is God really in the plan? I have to be sure. Maybe I should wait on it." Your period of waiting may have long been over. A good way to know whether this is your time is when you start looking around to see everything you are currently doing is coming to an end. There is no more opportunities but the one in front of you. No more advisers to talk to and speak positively about your situation. There is no one who will take you by the hand anymore. It's just you, God and the plan.

Don't pray daily if you aren't really ready for what God has in store. You wanted a better life and you got it. You wanted a better man and you got him. You wanted a wife and you got her. You wanted a better job, a nicer home, and on and on. Now you got it, so what are you waiting for? You keep dragging your feet and before you know it, that blessing that is here today will be gone tomorrow. Run the race.

His Grace Doesn't Last Forever

I wonder if God ever gets tired of prayers where people are always asking for stuff. Well, I think I got my answer the other day when I turned on the radio station to hear a minister talk about greed and why you should be content with what you have.

It seems that those who cry, “Lord, Lord give me…” every chance they get are being judged these days. Things that once came quickly are trickling in or not at all. The believer is becoming disgruntled, acting like a two year old having a temper tantrum, “Why God? Why won’t you give me what I want?”

God is growing weary of us. As one minister put it, “His grace doesn’t last forever.” We that know better are testing God’s patience. We keep on doing things we know we shouldn’t. We blame the other person. We study others; rather than look at ourselves. We get easily offended when God calls us out on something. We take the messenger of God’s words and use them against him or her. We think that an attack on someone’s character or an attempt “to tell them like it is” will get them off our back.

Unfortunately, this kind of behavior will only make God act more swiftly on judging us. So I have learned, it is best to accept the truth no matter how bad it hurts and use what we learn for our benefit and to help others.

Scripture Reference:
You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.

Do What God Has Called You to Do

God will tell you at some point in your spiritual walk to do something for Him and you ought to be prepared to take instruction. However, what many believers will do is ask others for confirmation on what God wants them to do. This will get you into a lot of trouble with your maker especially if you are talking to the wrong people about what he has laid in your spirit to do! Remember the story of Jonah and the whale. Jonah tried to circumvent God's plans for his life, but it didn't work, did it?

Some of the things people will do when you share with them what God has called you to do are as follows. First, someone will ask you, “Are you sure God wants you to do that?” Another will say, “God wouldn’t tell you that. And still another will be indifferent to what you are telling them. Their lack of enthusiasm, negative response, or nonchalant mood might discourage you or cause you to question whether you heard from God or not.

I remember a time when I told family and friends about a 40 day fast that I knew without a shadow of a doubt God called me to. I had received confirmation first, by a word in my spirit, then an unanticipated biblical passage, and finally a radio broadcast that I just so happened to tune into one day. But, by the time those who seemed initially positive and impressed with my dedication to my faith got a chance to ponder with others, there seemed to be an all-out effort to get Nicky off her fast. “Why would God put her on a fast like that? Is she trying to kill herself?” some asked.

As I grew older in my walk with God, he used mentors to tell me: to be careful sharing what God wills me to do with others and to be cautious of "my" dreams, and don’t always feel a need to share everything that I had learned spiritually with others. My mentors reminded me of Joseph the dreamer in the Bible who shared the message he received from God in a dream with his brothers only to one day find himself in a pit due to his brothers’ jealousy. One of the greatest lessons to be learned from the biblical story is that although the enemy opposes what God has willed for you to do, God’s plans will not be stopped! As we know, despite all the challenges placed before Joseph, God’s plan was still accomplished.

I found that with every task God assigns me, as long as I keep my focus on him and ask him questions like, “What's next, Lord? What should I do? Should I wait on this or that?” and other similar questions when it comes to put what his will is for me, I move forward and am fulfilled by the end of the day. But, when I take my eyes off God’s plan, that’s when the enemy comes with all sorts of distractions. For example, before I know it, nothing gets done!

Keep your eyes on the Lord, but also pray that whatever plans of the enemy to keep you off your tasks will not be accomplished. Sometimes God will test us for a variety of reasons including whether or not we are about his business.

Spring Time with God on the Mind

How I had wished for months for the cold to go away!
How I would sit back and pray,
about the sleet, the hail, and the rain
behind four walls-- feeling like going insane!

My head would ache,
my heart would break,
from fussing and fighting,
he nor I saw a sun sighting.

Couldn’t wait for spring time, for arms of sunshine,
so I could begin to start to feel fine.

Laid down one night and had a dream
of a beautiful white flower that looked like cream.

A man would appear,
He had scared a deer.
carried no metal,
just a simple flower petal.

A return of happiness he brought
and many lessons to be taught.
Like a Lily in a valley,
with its fragrant blooms,
he had decorated the outside of many tombs.

He would remind me of the beauty that I possess, the beauty that I had long forgotten, I must confess.

So pull back the curtains, raise the blinds,
open a window and don’t ignore the signs!

I take a long whiff of the fresh morning air,
While thinking, “I’ll go to the neighborhood fair.”

I look up to see baby blue skies –
and inside my emotions start to arise.

Oh, how I appreciate living!
A renewed spirit for giving!

Look at the tall, green trees,
the waves of the seas!

The birds that sing,
The wind chimes that ring!

No more locked up in the house!
No more feeling like a mouse!

Once a short run here or there
to fill cupboards that were bare,
then back in bed to escape cold while
staring at an old vase with a dead Marigold.

Spring time has awaken me,
To the reality that many still don’t want to see,
that there is a God,
and He reigns over you and me!

Christ is Truth

Try talking to a liar. Allow truth to seep from your lips. It doesn't matter if the truth you're revealing concerns a relationship, employment, money, children, religion, or something else. Watch the liar's reaction. If you have ever experienced conversing with a liar then you know they hate it when you speak truth. Now put yourself in Jesus' shoes walking the earth conversing with liars who suspected him of being a liar. He provided miracles, signs and wonders to back up truth in all its forms, but still liars crucified him.

Jesus

We don't live like Jesus. We don't talk or walk like Jesus and some of us could care less about Jesus and what he did so long ago. But one thing most of us know especially if you have a personal relationship with Christ, is that he did/does exist. We also can conclude, just by all of the churches and bibles in this world, that he shook up people spiritually with what critics call, "lies" while others call, "truths" in a way that mere man could never compare.

For centuries, Jesus has been talked about long after his death and resurrection. It doesn't matter whether you believe in Jesus or not, his name will still be around when you die. So what exactly did this prophet, son of God, missionary, healer, and so much more really stand for anyway, and what makes him so special? In one word, I will answer, truth. He spoke and lived truth. There are many people who love truth even if they have a history of lying. Whether it comes in the form of word of mouth like a child-like story, a movie, in print, or over the Internet or radio, when a person is mature enough to have a reverence for truth, they love it! They desire to know the truth about someone's life, the truth about a business they are giving money to, the truth about a company they are working for, even the truth about a parent. However, liars hate truth! If truth inconvinces, hurts, exposes, or does anything that makes them feel less than happy, they want no parts of it and will work diligently to keep from anyone knowing the truth.

Think of how many people you have known over the years who may have spoken to you about Jesus, what was your reaction? Did you overreact, get an attitude, talk about the person badly, or feel defensive? If you did anything like this while adding an excuse to your reactions, then at that moment you had a problem with truth. Jesus represents truth! The words he spoke, while walking this earth, exposes liars in the past and presently. What liar do you know, including yourself in the past, wants to be exposed? This is why some will stay far away from those "strange, weird truth-loving" Christians, conspiracy theorists, wise grandmothers, bosses, or anyone else who speaks truth not only about the Bible but anything including our government!

If you have read the Bible in a way that challenged you to apply the holy scriptures to your life daily, you would see the lie that you are living. You would see the areas in your life where you are killing, stealing and destroying yourself, and others. You are your worst enemy--no need to blame the devil! Consider him an assistant. When we plant, water, and watch a lie grow, then we are no better than the devil! He will be more than happy to assist us with killing, stealing, and destroying ourselves and/or someone else. Think of the times a lie you told someone bothered you so much that you tried everything from drinking it away to walking away and still nothing seemed to work.

There are moments when it can be challenging to fathom that a mere man walked this earth and saved the world. But as we know from the Bible, he wasn't a mere man--he had power and authority over mankind.

The T in Truth

We have seen many times in movies Jesus carrying the cross, you know that "T" in truth. Think for a moment about the cross, now see it as the letter "t" for truth. Now connect it with your life. Picture yourself walking with Jesus. If you are a truth seeker, truth lover, truth mover and shaker or even a part of a truth movement, you know that when you spread truth or help someone else, there are consequences to pay. It doesn't have to be just the gospel of Christ that you are spreading, you may want to help others know the truth about all sorts of people, places and things so that they aren't following the devil's many paths of destruction.

For far too long, many Christians have limited truth to just talking about the Bible as if their jobs of spreading truth stop there! The bible is the foundation that we need to stand for truth in whatever we do. It's time to wake up my fellow brother and sister in Christ! Someone or group has sold us lies--since we were children, in a variety of forms, which has affected every area of our lives from the personal choices that we make to date to what we choose to believe or not about Christ and the Bible.

It's time to start investigating and questioning things like, "Why do I make the choices I make? Who has been my influences over the years? What exactly do they stand for? Am I proud of the way I have been living internally and externally?"

Just about everything we watch on TV is a lie whether some truth appears in the storyline or not! If you should take the time to compare truths with lies in every program that you watch, the final result with many tv programs would be more lies than truths. For instance, how many times will you watch a sporting event and choose to believe that what you are watching is not in some cases a lie (ie. a televangelist's sermon, a reporter's breaking news, a refs bad call, or a player's real or faked injury to sway the outcome of a game.) There is too much money at stake to feed you the truth every time.

How many times will you watch the news to see that only part of the story is being told? You should ask yourself the next time you are watching the news, "What am I not being told and why? How many times will you hear a relative tell you a story about family history and not question it? How many times will you help your child with homework, but not bother to sit down to find out what lies his or her friends told him today?

Exposing Lies

You may have just exposed a co-worker, relative or friend's lie(s). You may have told them the truth about how you feel about a situation while hoping this person will tell the truth about how he or she feels, but instead a lie comes out. It hurts, doesn't it when someone lies? It also hurts sometimes when a person tells the truth too especially about yourself. You know you need to hear it, but you don't want to. Some people become defensive, they want to crucify the messenger. Isn't that what happened to Jesus? He carried the "t" in truth and with the same truth, liars crucified him. Some members of your own family may have already done this to you, because they can't handle the truth.

There is sometimes a price to pay for spreading, following, connecting or dare I say it, nailing truth (Jesus) to the cross. The sacrifice for truth is what turns people off. They believe it's just easier to tell a lie. Sure it is, for now, but lies always come back to haunt you, now don't they? Oftentimes truth is revealed after a relative or friend has died. Some Christians will lie about heaven and hell claiming that either one, the other or both don't exist while sticking to a falsehood of how "great, kind" or "wonderful" a person was now that he or she is dead.

Heaven

Jesus ascended to a place that some will simply not believe in nor talk about. It seems too good to be true. But it doesn't matter what we believe, there are thousands of documents of people and stories that were written long before we came into this world about a place called heaven. I am no fool, and will not argue whether it exists or doesn't. I just read what the word says about both heaven and hell and hope that there is a place in heaven for me after I'm dead.

Seek Truth

As a new believer, a backsliding one or someone who is just thinking about Christianity and what it all means, you have to study and know truth in ALL its forms not just in the Gospels which at times can be tainted--this is why you must go to God and ask for the Holy Spirit (See the Book of Acts.) It's not enough to just read the Bible, but you have to take it's principles and grow from them!

Question liars everywhere, from the salesman at the car dealership to a bad ref at a game. Teach your children truth, because they won't always get it in school, from a relative or from their peers. Talk to your partner about truth to see if he or she is serious about being in your life for the rest of your life. Ask relatives about the truth concerning family history. Most of all, search for truth in you!

Will you be popular in the end because you're a truth seeker? No. Will things stay the same in your life as you pursue truth? No. Will liars attack, hurt, abuse or run away from you? Yes.

In closing, I leave you with the following questions: What is the price you are willing to pay for truth? How much time are you willing to spend in truth? Are you even ready to accept and carry your cross of truth in all that you do? Consider the work that Christ did on the cross for you and me, now start doing something to help others know the truth in ALL its forms.