1 Corinthians 11:28-30, "But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. For he that eats and drinks unworthily, eats and drinks damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep."
Communion is the "mystical form" of the Tree of Life, hidden from the spiritually blind. Jesus said that if we partake unworthily (without understanding that He Himself is the Tree of Life), we are mere
Genesis 39:20,21 - "Joseph’s master took him and put him in prison, the place where the king’s prisoners were confined. But while Joseph was there in the prison, the LORD was with him;"
No twist or turn—not even abuse, slavery, slander or imprisonment—could hold back the fulfillment of God's destiny for Joseph's life. What people meant for evil, God used for good.
God has not forgotten you. Even when the opposite of your destiny seems to be happening, He is faithful. His promise
Genesis 1:27 - "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them."
When God made you in His likeness, He did not make you to look like Him. He made you to function like Him. That's what likeness literally means. When God created you, He made you to operate like Him.
If you are not functioning like God, you are "malfunctioning" because God wired and designed you to function like Him. How does God function? "Without faith it is
Galatians 6:9 - "Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up."
Believers get confused and sometimes disillusioned because Things in the spirit realm are often not predictable. They ask: How long do I need to pray to get a breakthrough? When will I step into greater increase and blessing? When will there be a shift in my family for the better? Where is my healing miracle?
The simple and unpopular answer is it's a test of
Jeremiah 20:9 - "...But His word was in my heart like a burning fire shut up in my bones; I was weary of holding it back, and I could not"
Like Jeremiah and Paul, you have been called before time to accomplish significant works for the Kingdom of God. The patriarchs of old had the same fears that we all have, but they pressed through it and changed the world.
God needs you to believe for the inheritance He has prepared for you. Your part is key in His unfolding plan to bring His
Psalm 118:5-6 "From my distress I called upon the Lord; the Lord answered me and set me in a large place. The Lord is for me; I will not fear; what can man do to me?"
We can unknowingly become attached to our own abilities, the world's structure, religious thinking, relationships, influence, gifts and responsibilities more than the ways of God. Sometimes in our life's journey we can see how our old attachments have held us in unbelief, fear, and a false sense of security.
God has a
John 10:10 - "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly."
He is working deep in your heart, He is working and rewiring your mind as you feast on His truth, and He is strengthening you for what is ahead. He is bringing you further into the abundant life that you have in fulfilling His purpose for your life.
1 Corinthians 2:9 - "But, as it is written, 'What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, w
1 Corinthians 3:9 - "For we are co-workers in God's service; you are God's field, God's building."
Some believers think faith is a one-way street. They believe in God and wait on God to do the work. They think belief is the only thing they need.
That person does nothing but sit still and procrastinates, waiting for God. "Well, I'll just pray about it." they use waiting on God as an excuse for their own lack of engagement. "If God means for me to have it, I'll have it," they reason.
Ecclesiastes 3:11 - "He has also set eternity in the hearts of men."
There is something within you that is being called by eternity. We live in time and space but time and space are connected to eternity, and God has put something into your heart that calls the unseen into the seen.
The vision God has put in your heart is "a piece of eternity" that He gave you to deliver in time and space -- that is, on the earth during your lifetime. God lives in eternity, yet He has specifical
Romans 10:17, it says, "So then faith comes by hearing and hearing, by the Word of God."
Christ gave us the gift of faith when we received Him. We must hear the Word of God. The best way to hear it is to say it out loud as we go throughout the day. Also, meditate on it and visualize ourselves in the Word. It is Christ's faith in us, not our own faith, that we take up and use.
"In Christ lives all the fullness of God" (Colossians 2:9) "and in Christ you have been brought to fullness
Colossians 1:27 - "To them, God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory."
The mystery is that Christ is in you. That is your hope of glory. This suggests, then, that our task is not to get Christ into us, but out of us. What God sees when He looks at you is Christ.
Jesus came to show us what Christ looks like when He takes on human form. But it is Christ that God's looking at. God sees Christ in
Ephesians 6:17 - "And the helmet of salvation..."
If your salvation is not worn tightly around your mind like a helmet, the enemy will come to chop the multiple blessings of your salvation right out of your theology. He will try to hack away at your foundation, telling you that healing, deliverance, preservation, and soundness of mind were not really part of Jesus' redemptive work on the Cross.
Many believers try to do the work of God without making it a personal goal to walk in th
Hebrews 13:5 - "He has said, 'I will never leave you nor forsake you.'”
When you fall don't waste your time trying to figure everything out. Your understanding will always be twisted when you are depressed and you will never see truth from that place.
Depression is the deception that comes from seeing the world from your perspective. Truth comes from seeing the world through Jesus' eyes where He sits at the right hand of the Father. Those who abide in His presence will say "the
Colossians 3:2,3 - "Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God."
If you think like the world thinks, you will act like the world acts. So control your thoughts bringing them into obedience to the Scriptures. Program your mind with the Word of God.
The Word is spirit and is life. Don't let Satan deceive you into sacrificing the glory of God in your life for a few moments of self-indulgence and sin. Re
Isaiah 54:2 - “Enlarge the place of your tent, and let the curtains of your habitations be stretched out; do not hold back; lengthen your ropes and strengthen your stakes."
When you don't think there is more to where you currently are in God's purpose for your life, you become limited. You think this right here -- all I see -- is it. This type of thinking keeps you from exploring and discovering. It keeps you from stretching yourself and dreaming about other possibilities.
Hebrews 4:16 - "So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most."
When we sin, we don't need to punish ourselves, because Jesus already took our punishment and He now offers us His mercy. He is extending his mercy to you right now, but you must believe it and receive it in order for it to benefit you.
Don't turn away because you know you don't deserve it. Receive it and let it make you
Philippians 3:16 - "I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus."
Paul spoke about the desire to attain. There is no standing still. We are renewed by the Spirit. We never get into a new place until we come out of the old one (Genesis 12:1-4).
We must see revelation of God's purpose for our life and learn about who we are in Christ and our right standing with God. We can never be satisfied to stay where we are spiritually, for the truth
James 3:17 - "But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy."
As we speak the tender mercies of the Word over a problem, our faith begins to rise up within us. We then release words of faith and plant seeds of power. These seeds then begin to grow up and become greater than the problems.
They begin to bear fruit -- fruit of deliverance, healing, miracles, love, joy, and peace. Soul
Proverbs 3:5 - "Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding."
Your self-nature is overactive, impulsive, and always striving for something just outside your reach. If you give up all those things that provoke your curiosity and set your mind spinning, you will have more than enough time to spend with God.
God, working within your spirit, produces a calm and faithful heart that the world cannot touch.
Pray within yourself all day long. Live in
James 4:4 -- "You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God."
When you fall out of love with God you have to find movies, you have to find sports, you have to find other worldly things.
James calls it spiritual adultery to sleep with these things all week because there is no true intimacy with the Holy Spirit.
The very point of the
2 Corinthians 5:17 - "All things have become new."
1 Corinthians 3:23 - "you are Christ's and Christ is God's."
God means for us to walk in this royal way. Jesus left us the responsibility of allowing Him to bring forth through us the greater works (John 14:12). If we do not step into God's purpose for our life, it is a tragedy.
God is waiting for us to act. Jesus lived a life of perfect activity. There is no standing still. "As He is, so are we in this world." (1 Jo
2 Corinthians 3:18 - "And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord's glory, are being transformed into His image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit."
Steady yourself and stand firm, open your arms and surrender to God's purpose for your life. Ready yourself to receive the weight of God's glory. No more will you be weeping and wailing over what has been lost. You will barely cast a glance at your own life as you rise up to walk in the new li
Hosea 2:16 - "'It will come about in that day,' declares the Lord, 'that you will call Me Ishi....'"
Ishi, in Hebrew, is a name which means, "my husband" and expresses the intimacy of a close relationship. You might be in a desert, but the desert doesn't have to be in you. Jesus said there are springs of water in you, "springing up into everlasting life."
The springs begin to well up, and praise and adoration flows out of you. Before you know it, the springs are watering everyth
1John 2:27 “But the anointing that you received from Him abides in you..."
We want a pure river flowing from our hearts. John, the revelator, spoke of a pure river, pure as crystal (Revelation 22:1). He spoke of how the river was flowing out of the throne and out of the Lamb.
The anointing flows from the heart of man, the anointing of God flows from you like a river. Jesus even told us that rivers of living water would flow from our innermost being (John 7:38). This is why it is
Genesis 12:1 - "The LORD had said to Abram, "Go from your country, your people and your father's household to the land I will show you."
God is calling us to boldly follow Him into the unknown. As we do, we will be brought into a whole new place! The very things that many Believers have been crying out and contending for (even for years at a time) are beginning to take shape.
Though transition can feel shaky, uncomfortable, and even messy at times, the Lord is calling us to embr
