First Fruits Offering:
As I was studying, this was something I came across that encouraged me about the meaning of the First Fruits offering. Every year Jay and I have seen God to amazing, life changing things. We attribute it to God blessing our first fruits offering. We pray and ask God to do things that are miraculous in our lives....specific things, and every year we see them coming to pass. Enjoy!
And now I bring the first fruits of the soil that you, O Lord, have given me. Duet 26:11.
First fruit offering was a celebration of the fact that Abraham was a wondering Aramean. God spoke to him. He settled in Egypt and became a great nation. They became slaves but God delivered them. The Lord brought them out of Egypt to the land flowing with milk and honey, and now I bring the first fruits of the soil to you.
My Take On What First Fruits Means......WE CELEBRATE WHAT THE LORD HAS DONE! HIS POWER AND HIS ABILITY GAVE US WHAT WE HAVE TODAY. WE ARE LIVING IN THE LAND AND PROSPERITY THAT CAME FROM HIS HAND, SO HE IS WORTHY OF OUR FIRSTS!
Sunday, April 29, 2012
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
How To Receive & Communicate with God
Following God is the greatest joy known to man. Following God is not keeping a system of rules and regulations like most of us can fall into so mistakingly interpreting it to be. Following God is a relationship with the Creator God. An intimate experience of getting to know the one who made us. Hearing His voice and being able to have Him speak to us in every day matters. What I have found is most of the time, the relationship with God consists of a confidence and underlying reception of God's complete acceptance of me. This is communicated to me from God by His Presence. That is it! The spiritual communication between my Spirit and the Spirit of God. The more I turn the eyes of my spirit to God, the more He is able to heighten my sense of who He is period.
What is the command?
How do we find rest?
Love in action and truth. This is how we set our hearts at rest in His Presence, whenever our hearts condemn us. 1 Jn. 3:19
Who condemns us?
Our hearts 1 Jn 3:19 (Notice, it isn't God)
How do we combat this?
Love in action and truth. 1 Jn 3:19
So how can we be close to God? Here are some keys....
How do I receive from and become close to God?
We receive anything we ask because we obey his commands and do what pleases him. 1 Jn 3:21
We receive anything we ask because we obey his commands and do what pleases him. 1 Jn 3:21
To love one another as he commands us. 1 Jn 3:23
What is love?
This is how we know what love is; Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. 1 Jn 3:16
Laying down your life here does not mean dying physically. This is a heart attitude of always laying down our own agendas for the agenda of Father God. His agenda is Loving People.
How do we find rest?
Love in action and truth. This is how we set our hearts at rest in His Presence, whenever our hearts condemn us. 1 Jn. 3:19
This is something that I can't live without, but I so often struggle to stay in. Self focus will take us immediately out of rest, but loving others is the avenue to live in rest.
Who condemns us?
Our hearts 1 Jn 3:19 (Notice, it isn't God)
How do we combat this?
Love in action and truth. 1 Jn 3:19
To me this is getting our eyes off of ourselves and being about others. Being about the work of Him, and He is always about others.
Monday, July 11, 2011
How to Inherit a Blessing
1 Peter 3:9 says "Do not repay evil for evil". This is interesting seeing as when someone treats us bad, we want to retaliate. Sometimes I have mental escapades of me being super woman and taking out the bad guy. Especially when someone has been mean to someone I love. But, I have to immediately repent, because I don't want to miss a promise of God, and I know blessings come from obedience. Check out the promise....
The rest of the verse says..."because to this you were called, so that you may inherit a blessing." See there it is....
If we repay evil to someone who mistreats us, we miss the blessing of God. Also, if we will step out of the way, God says "vengeance belongs to Him. I will repay, says the Lord." So next time someone treats you rudely or unfairly, let this motivate you to be kind. Push past the emotions of the moment and remember that you will inherit a blessing from God Almighty! Powerful and that is a good thing I don't want to miss.
Strife Steals My Blessing
Where there is striving, there is no grace. Where I compete and war to be in control, there is no life of God. I started thinking about this in my marriage. When I bring strife into our home, whether it is controlling, seeking my own way, or demanding expectations on my mate, God can't bless me. I want to be blessed. I want prosperity. I want growth and multiplication and I know that strife will steal this from me. So the encouragement.....begin to ask God for Grace to honor your mate and love them. That is what I am doing. And know, it doesn't have to be about how you feel. It can be about obedience to God.
Thursday, June 23, 2011
The Power of Prayer & The Enemies Methods to Distract
Prayer is a powerful tool. It really moves things. Somehow connecting with God and bringing things to Him moves things spiritually. God often times gives us words of knowledge or discernment about people....things they have not shared with us, but God shows us and trusts to with. Why? Only so we can pray....1 Pe. 4:7 says, "Be clear minded & self controlled so that you can pray." This opened my eyes to why the enemy trys to keep us distracted and self focused. Because if we are, we can't pray. The enemy wants us to see prayer as insignificant. He wants us to think nothing is being accomplished through prayer, so we won't do it. This should be proof of how powerful it is. Just think of the times in the Bible when people prayed...things moved....
Joshua- the sun stood still.
David- defeated numerous nations after seeking the Lord
Elijah- defeated the profits of Baal
Jesus- conquered death & gained the power to allow Himself to die for us
So, to sum up, don't believe the lie that prayer doesn't work, and when you feel distracted and self consumed, recognize it as an attack to get you to not be about the Lord's Work.
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
The Power to Get Wealth
3/22/11
Then you say in your heart, My power and the might of my hand have gained me this wealth. And you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth, that He may establish His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day.
Duet 8:18
God’s covenant with us has a by-product of prosperity. He is giving us power to get wealth based out of a promise/covenant He made. Us prospering is God keeping His word to us. True prosperity only comes out of trusting God, and it requires a sacrifice (based out of trust) on the front side. Every time God is getting ready to prosper us, He is going to show/tell us to do something that seems a little scary, and like we are losing. He is going to put us in a place to trust him to open the door for Him to “give us power to get wealth”, and in doing that He is establishing His covenant. We don’t do it, He does it! He just manifests the covenant through us being willing to obey.
Main point- God Gives us power to get wealth.
Why? That he might establish his covenant.
What does it require of us? Complete trust even in the face of feeling there is no way we will make it (other than God saving us). It requires an action from us on the front side whatever that may be. In a short term, it requires obedience from us.
So is prosperity from God? Absolutely, and it is a by-product of walking in obedience to Him.
Does prosperity glorify God? Absolutely, and it is a means by which we see His covenant being established. He is establishing it.
So why do the wicked prosper? Anything gained by the hand of man can be taken by the hand of man. When God gives us the power to get wealth, it remains His wealth, His covenant, and He establishes it, therefore, man can not take it away and keeping it does not depend on how good we are, but how good God is. We just get to enjoy what came from Him.
Then you say in your heart, My power and the might of my hand have gained me this wealth. And you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth, that He may establish His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day.
Duet 8:18
God’s covenant with us has a by-product of prosperity. He is giving us power to get wealth based out of a promise/covenant He made. Us prospering is God keeping His word to us. True prosperity only comes out of trusting God, and it requires a sacrifice (based out of trust) on the front side. Every time God is getting ready to prosper us, He is going to show/tell us to do something that seems a little scary, and like we are losing. He is going to put us in a place to trust him to open the door for Him to “give us power to get wealth”, and in doing that He is establishing His covenant. We don’t do it, He does it! He just manifests the covenant through us being willing to obey.
Main point- God Gives us power to get wealth.
Why? That he might establish his covenant.
What does it require of us? Complete trust even in the face of feeling there is no way we will make it (other than God saving us). It requires an action from us on the front side whatever that may be. In a short term, it requires obedience from us.
So is prosperity from God? Absolutely, and it is a by-product of walking in obedience to Him.
Does prosperity glorify God? Absolutely, and it is a means by which we see His covenant being established. He is establishing it.
So why do the wicked prosper? Anything gained by the hand of man can be taken by the hand of man. When God gives us the power to get wealth, it remains His wealth, His covenant, and He establishes it, therefore, man can not take it away and keeping it does not depend on how good we are, but how good God is. We just get to enjoy what came from Him.
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