I LOVE YOU GOD

God, Your love is better than life

I see Your power and glory

I lift up my hands to YOU...

“You, GOD, are MY GOD,

EARNESTLY I SEEK YOU;

I THIRST for YOU,

My WHOLE BEING longs for YOU,

In a dry and parched land

Where there is no water.

I have seen YOU in the sanctuary (the holy place)

And BEHELD YOUR POWER and YOUR GLORY.

Because YOUR LOVE is BETTER THAN LIFE,

My LIPS will GLORIFY YOU.

I will PRAISE YOU as long as I live,

And IN YOUR NAME

I will LIFT UP MY HANDS.”

Psalm 63:1-4

Christ's Power Rests on Who

“I know a man IN CHRIST who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third HEAVEN. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know—God knows. And I know that this man—whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, but God knows—was CAUGHT UP to PARADISE and HEARD INEXPRESSIBLE THINGS that no one is permitted to tell. I will boast about a man like that, but I will not boast about myself, except about my weaknesses.” [1]

“He (CHRIST) said to me, ‘My GRACE is SUFFICIENT for YOU, for MY POWER is MADE PERFECT in WEAKNESS.’ Therefore I will BOAST all the more gladly about MY WEAKNESSES, so that CHRIST’s POWER may REST on ME.’” [2]

[1] 2 Corinthians 12:2-5
[2] 2 Corinthians 12:9

A Word for the One who Lives to Glorify God

“David became more and more powerful, because the Lord Almighty was with him.” [1]

“Day after day men came to help David, until he had a great army, like the army of God.” [2]

[1] 1 Chronicles 11:9
[2] 1 Chronicles 12:22

Pleasing Sacrifices to God

“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.” [1]

Living sacrifices for the Lord! Holy bodies acceptable to God!

The Old Testament standard for sacrificial animals offered to God was unblemished, unmaimed and without sickness.

“For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.” [2]

Not think more highly of ourselves than we should! A holy sacrifice! How?

There are two important words to ponder in Romans 12:1, 3. They are “mercies” and “grace.” God’s mercy and grace! Being sanctified for the Lord’s service is a work of the Holy Spirit. We can bring our body to the altar, but we need the Lord to bring the fire.
John the Baptist said of Jesus, “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” [3]

We can pray...

“Create in me a PURE HEART, O God, renew a STEDFAST SPIRIT within me. Do not cast me from Your PRESENCE. Do not take Your HOLY SPIRIT from me. Restore to me the JOY OF Your SALVATION. Grant me a WILLING SPIRIT, to sustain me.” [4]

And be assured that...

“The sacrifices of God are a BROKEN SPIRIT, a broken and a CONTRITE HEART—these, O God, You will not despise.” [5]

“Dear Heavenly Father, we need You to transform us from sinners to saints. We offer ourselves to You. Please bring the fire of Your Holy Spirit afresh upon us and transform us. Make us holy and pleasing sacrifices to You. In Jesus’ Name, we pray. Amen.”

[1] Romans 12:1
[2] Romans 12:3
[3] Matthew 3:11
[4] Psalm 51:10-12
[5] Psalm 51:17

Spiritual Warfare

Let us rely on God’s power to win the information war, “For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish stronghold.” [1]

Keeping Christ first in our thoughts and conversations: “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” [2]

Our weapons include faith in God’s promises, prayer, the testimony of Jesus, His atoning blood, the indwelling Holy Spirit, and the blessing of our Father’s abiding presence which gives us a peace that passes all understanding.

[1] 2 Corinthians 10:3-4
[2] 2 Corinthians 10:5

DIVINE DELIVERANCE

When the devil’s agents ridicule and threaten God’s people, it is time to PRAY.

“Hezekiah PRAYED to the Lord: ‘LORD, the GOD of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim, You ALONE are GOD over all the kingdoms of the earth. YOU have made HEAVEN and EARTH. GIVE EAR, LORD, and HEAR; OPEN YOUR EYES, LORD, and SEE; listen to the words Sennacherib has sent to r-i-d-i-c-u-l-e the living GOD. It is true, LORD, that the Assyrian kings have laid waste these nations and their lands. They have thrown their gods into the fire and destroyed them, for they were not gods but only wood and stone, fashioned by human hands. Now, Lord our God, DELIVER US from his hand, so that ALL the KINGDOMS of the earth may KNOW that You ALONE, LORD, are GOD.’”

“That night the angel of the Lord went out and put to death a 185,000 in the Assyrian camp. When the people got up the next morning—there were all the dead bodies! So Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp and withdrew. He returned to Nineveh and stayed there. One day, while he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisrok, his sons Adrammelek and Sharezer killed him with the sword, and they escaped to the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon his son succeeded him as king.”

2 Kings 19:15-19, 35-37

Be Reconciled To God

“HE (Christ) died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but FOR HIM who died for them and was raised again. Therefore, if anyone is IN CHRIST, the new creation has come: the old has gone, the NEW IS HERE!

We IMPLORE you on CHRIST’S behalf: be RECONCILED to GOD.

GOD made HIM (Christ) who had no sin to be sin for us, so that IN HIM we might become the RIGHTEOUSNESS of GOD.”

2 Corinthians 5:15, 17, 20-21

Elijah, Elisha, Jesus & the Church

I see in Elijah and Elisha a type of Jesus and the Church. When Elisha knew that the Lord was going to take Elijah up to heaven in a whirlwind, he stuck by his side. [1] This is what the disciples did. They stayed with Jesus until He was taken up into heaven.

When Elijah said to Elisha, “’Ask! What may I do for you, before I am taken away from you?’

Elisha said, ‘Please let a double portion of your spirit be upon me.’” [2]

When Elijah was taken up to heaven by chariot and horses of fire, Elisha was there. Elijah’s mantle fell to him. He picked it up and immediately was anointed of God to do a miracle. He parted the Jordan River. The sons of the prophets who saw this miracle declared, “The spirit of Elijah rests on Elisha.” [3] This is what after Jesus ascended to heaven. Ten days after His ascension into heaven the Spirit of Jesus fell on the disciples and on all in the upper room and they were filled and indwelt by His Spirit. This is the day the Christian Church was born – the Day of Pentecost.

Elisha received a double portion of the Spirit of Elijah. If you count the miracles of Elijah, there are seven. If you count the miracles of Elisha, there are fourteen. The last miracle of Elisha happened after he was dead. Men placed a dead man in his tomb, and when the dead man contacted Elisha’s bones, he came back to life. [4]

Jesus said to His disciples before His ascension into heaven, “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father.” [5] The Church has done greater works because after Jesus went to heaven, He gave His Spirit to Christians so that we can continue His ministry here on earth. Miracles have been done by Christians through the centuries since Christ ascended into heaven, and these miracles are continuing until today.

The stops at Bethel, Jericho and Jordan by Elijah on his rapture day have special meaning.

Bethel means “House of God.” Bethel is where the Lord appeared to Abraham, and then later to Jacob.

Jericho is where the walls of a seemingly invincible city collapsed after Joshua and the people of Israel marched around that city for seven days. By the way, Joshua is the Hebrew pronunciation of Jesus, and the name means “the Lord saves.” This story represents the lasts days, when after the seven angels sound their trumpets, the kingdoms of this world will collapse before the Lord.

Jordan is where John the Baptist announced the coming of the Messiah and it is where Jesus was baptized. It is also where the voice of God the Father was heard from heaven declaring that Jesus is His Son, and it is where the Holy Spirit descended on Jesus in the form of a dove.

The Bible points to Jesus Christ as the Savior of the world. In the end, He wins.

[1] 2 Kings 2:1-6
[2] 2 Kings 2:9
[3] 2 Kings 2:10-15
[4] 2 Kings 13:21
[5] John 14:12

He Raises The Dead

God raises the dead and He can raise you up from whatever situation that you are in that seems beyond resolution.

“Now it happened after these things that the son of the woman who owned the house became sick. And his sickness was so serious that there was no breath left in him. So she said to Elijah, ‘What have I to do with you, O man of God? Have you come to me to bring my sin to remembrance, and to kill my son?’ And he said to her, ‘Give me your son.’ So he took him out of her arms and carried him to the upper room where he was staying and laid him on his own bed. Then he cried out to the Lord and said, ‘O LORD my GOD, have You also brought tragedy on the widow with whom I lodge, by killing her son?’ And he stretched himself out on the child three times, and CRIED OUT to the LORD and said, ‘O LORD MY GOD, I PRAY, let this CHILD’S SOUL COME BACK to HIM.’ Then the LORD HEARD the VOICE of Elijah; and the SOUL of the CHILD CAME BACK to him, and HE REVIVED. And Elijah took the child and brought him down from the upper room into the house and gave him to his mother. And Elijah said, ‘SEE, YOUR SON LIVES!’ Then the woman said to Elijah, ‘Now by this I know that you are a man of GOD, and that the WORD of the LORD in your mouth is the TRUTH.’”

1 Kings 18:17-24