Uncommon Love

Although God causes the sun to rise on the evil as well as the good, and although He waters the land belonging both to the righteous and the unrighteous, it does not mean that God approves of their evil or unrighteous behavior.

If unconverted people would really pay attention, they would recognize that the whole earth is actually full of the lovingkindness of the Lord (Psalm 33:5).

At times, evil people advance in this world quicker than the righteous, which seems totally unfair to us. As humans, we would take a totally different approach. We would zap our enemies and annihilate them.

Yet, God often makes sure that unbelievers experience the same joys and benefits from His love that Believers do. He draws them by His love, just as He drew us by His love, even while we were still sinners (Romans 5:8).

At times, we are frustrated by the sinner's blindness to the goodness of God, and we lament that they do not praise Him for His love and kindness (Psalm 107:8).

They know about God; yet, most of them reject Him or even accuse Him for everything that goes wrong in their life. Their foolish hearts get darker and darker in the midst of God's obvious wonders (Romans 1:21).

Nevertheless, God pours out His blessings on the unjust as well as the just (Matthew 5:45). Then, He calls us to mirror His love to our unsaved friends, relatives, associates and neighbors by laying our life down for them (Romans 5:7). 

Prayer:

Father God, give us the same mercy and grace toward sinners that You showed to us. Keep us from expressing the frustration we often feel towards their resistance to Your love. Help us not to judge them, but to accept them right where they are; knowing that You will convict them in your timing and way.

Remind us often that we are no better than the sinner, because the only difference is that we are already saved by Your grace. Let us lay down our life for them. Give us the chance to prove to them that our motivation for serving them is nothing more than Your love for them in us.

Thought for the Day:

God desires that we continually pray for the salvation of the sinner; and that we utilize every opportunity to take as many of them to heaven with us as will have the humility to surrender to God's love.

Answered Prayers

The blessing of intercessory prayer is that we can pray wherever we are and no matter what we are doing. God's Spirit prays through us, even for people we do not know. Family, friends, workmates, neighbors, church revival, the worldwide family of God and the unbelievers in every nation are all topics of our times of intercessory prayer.

Our persistent prayer, sometimes accompanied by fasting, actually makes a difference in our world. Tears are often the result of our fervent prayer, and they touch the heart of God (Psalm 56:8). Spirit-led prayers are the most affective, because if we pray in our own strength, legions of demons may attack us with doubt and discouragement. God's will is the key ingredient for answered prayers (1 John 5:14-15).

Through prayer, Born Again Believers, who are filled with God's Spirit, minister with holy boldness in areas where we have no natural abilities. We are delivered from relying on our flesh once we reach the place of totally resting in faith on our Father God. God's Spirit takes us beyond our gifts and callings to places where only Christ in us can accomplish the will of God (Colossians 1:27).

We learn to pray in the Spirit, affecting those areas where God is most interested in ministering. We do not pray with a flowery profundity of words, but only with fervent, effectual prayers (James 5:16). If we say we love God, yet do not love the least of those whom He died for, the Bible calls us a liar (1 John 4:20). God’s love allows us to pray for people, and to identify with them in their plight.

Prayer:

Father God, we know that You often refrain from affirmatively answering our prayers, because You have a higher purpose for the issues in our lives. You use them to allow patience to have her perfect work in us; and You use them for Your ultimate glory. Remind us to pray for our missionaries and fellow Believers in foreign countries and around the USA. We want our prayers to be strategic and effective through Your Spirit's direction.

Thought for the Day:

God often humbles us by not immediately answering our prayers, so that we take no glory in the future when He does answer them.

 

Beyond the Cross

At Salvation, God offers us an intimate relationship with Himself. He wants to work in and through us to affect the world around us. It is God’s consistency, the fact that He never changes, which makes Him extremely trustworthy (Numbers 23:19; Malachi 3:6). He never fails to be and to perform everything according to His Word. We can trust in His faithfulness. Our soul waits expectantly on the Lord (Psalm 62:5). No trial or circumstance can ever separate us from God’s presence.

Many people come to salvation through belief in Jesus, and then they camp around that fact for the rest of their life. They miss out on so much that is available to the child of God. They tend to live primarily through their body and soul - the mind, will and emotions. Yet, God is a Spirit (1 Samuel 16:7), and His Spirit dwells in us. We are thankful for Jesus’ sacrifice for us, but He also wants us to walk in the victory His death affords us, and to press on to the high calling of God in Christ (Philippians 3:14).

At our salvation, God converted our nature (2 Corinthians 5:17). It is now filled with His righteous and is truly holy (Ephesians 4:24). He fills our Born Again spirit with the Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ, and His Spirit conforms us to the image of Christ (1 John 4:17; 1 Corinthians 6:17; Romans 8:9; Galatians 4:6). As we walk in the Spirit, we no longer fulfill the desires of our fleshly, carnal nature (Galatians 5:16-25). Recognizing who we are in Christ causes us to stand apart from unbelievers.

Our Born Again spirit is totally sanctified. We are a prisoner of no one, but Christ (Romans 6:18). We realize that He will work everything out for the good of those who love Him and who are called into His purposeful service (Romans 8:28). His divine peace and joy give us victory over every adversary and circumstance, and this allows us to reflect the image of God to the world around us. We live for His glory and honor, out of the abundance of His power within us.

Prayer:

Father God, under the encouragement of Your promises, we exhibit Your divine nature (2 Peter 1:4). We see the calm in the coming storm (Psalm 107:29), and focus on Your purpose for us in it, rather than the stress of the situation itself. We view every situation as coming from You, and we know that Christ in us can do all things through us (1 Corinthians 3:6; Philippians 4:13). Your peace, which resides within us (Philippians 4:7), influences our actions and is displayed in our face and body language. We thank You for all You do for us each and every day.

Thought for the Day:

To know God more intimately, we wait on Him; we are still and listen; then we wait some more, if need be, until we hear His still, small voice. - Psalm 27:14; 1 Kings 19:11-13

Our Soul's Destination

Our life exists in a body. We eat, sleep, work and play using every facet of our body. Our body also contains our soul. The soul includes our mind, our will and our emotions. Also, we are all born with a spirit that is dead in sin. We keep this dead spirit throughout our lifetime, unless we are Born Again by the Spirit of God. Then we have a body, soul and spirit, which are all alive.

When we die, our body goes into the ground. However, our soul remains with our spirit. If our spirit is dead in sin, our spirit and soul go to hell. If our spirit is Born Again through repentance and submission to God, then our spirit and soul go to heaven to live with Jesus eternally. In eternity everyone receives an immortal body in which to dwell, either in heaven or in hell, and our soul and spirit are united with our new body at this time.

Jesus told us about the rich man and the beggar to illustrate the gulf between believers and unbelievers. The rich man dies. His human body goes into the grave, but his spirit and soul go to the torment of hell. His soul has the capacity to see, hear, smell, taste and feel just like his body did when he was alive. He cries out to Abraham to send the beggar from heaven to relieve his torment. However, there is a great gulf between them and it was too late for the rich man (Luke 16:19-31).


As we see here, the soul and spirit stay together. That is why Jesus told us not to be afraid of one who can kill our body, because they cannot touch our soul. However, unbelief will destroy both our body and our soul in hell (Matthew 10:8). That is why Jesus came to save us. Our immortal body will join our soul and spirit either in heavenly bliss or eternal torment. Jesus tells us that we can gain the whole world in our lifetime and end up losing our soul to hell (Matthew 16:26). Have you surrendered to God yet?


Every day, silently wait on God in a quiet place. He is our Rock, our salvation and our stronghold, and He is the only One who can keep us safe (Psalm 62:1-2). We worship God with our soul – our thoughts, choices and emotions. We exalt Him and glorify Him with our whole being. We praise Him and sing to Him in front of our friends, relatives, associates and neighbors (Psalm 57:5, 9-11, 66:16-20, 71:14-17). Day and night, we joyfully meditate on His multitude of blessings to us (Psalm 63:6-8).


Prayer:

Father God, please illuminate the truth of these words and draw everyone who reads them to understand our triune nature. Help them to see that eternity lasts forever. Our torment in hell and our pleasures in heaven will be increased because our spirit, soul and immortal body will experience them together. There is no escape from hell once we draw our last breath. May everyone who reads these words surrender to You today.

Thought for the Day:

All Born Again Believers have an eternal, spiritual connection and live on with our triune God throughout eternity, never experiencing the second death of the body and soul in hell.

Crippling Doubt

Doubt is such a common travesty among the Saints of God, starting with Adam and Eve. Take Abraham and Sarah for instance. They waited so long for their child, that they doubted God’s promise. They hatched an alternate plan to the Lord’s arrangement and Ishmael came as a result. They eventually had their own child, but their doubt produced a thorn in his side. To this day the Arab nations want to crucify the Jews (Genesis 17:15-21; Genesis 18:10-14).

John the Baptist, imprisoned and lacking in faith, doubted that the man Jesus was actually the Messiah. He sent two of his disciples to question Jesus. The Lord pointed to the miracles He performed and that He preached the gospel to the poor as proof that He was certainly the Messiah (Matthew 11:1-7).

Pilate was torn by doubt. He doubted Jesus’ story; yet, he also doubted the Jews accusations against Jesus. He finally made up his mind, declaring that he found no fault in Jesus. However, he was not a man who lived up to his convictions. He turned Jesus over to the Jews, so they could crucify Him (John 19:1-7).

Everyone knows about doubting Thomas. He was gone when Jesus appeared to His disciples after His resurrection. When Thomas heard the babbling excitement of his peers, he refused to believe their account. He wanted the proof of seeing Jesus with his own eyes before he would believe in the accounts of the resurrection. Jesus humored him and appeared in the room without even coming through the door. He calmed their fears and allowed Thomas to touch His wounds as proof that He lived again.

Jesus chastised Thomas for his doubt and told him that those who believe without seeing are more blessed than those who believe only because they see proof with their own eyes (John 20:24-29). Unbelievers have this same problem. They refuse to believe because we cannot prove God to their human senses. How can anyone explain a spiritual concept with human terms? The two are in different leagues and the spiritual is much more profound than the earthly (Isaiah 55:8-9).

Jesus actually proved His resurrection by presenting Himself alive by many infallible proofs. Over 500 people saw him at one time and many heard Him during the forty days between His resurrection from the grave and ascension into heaven. He also hung out with His apostles, cooked for them, spoke about the kingdom of God and promised to send them the Holy Spirit to comfort and direct them after He returned to Heaven (1 Corinthians 15:5-8; Acts 1:3-4). However, people today even doubt the reality of their testimony.

Double minded people are unstable in all of their ways. They are like a wave driven by the sea and tossed by the wind. They live unbalanced lives and are plagued with doubts (James 1:5-8). God said that if anyone lacks wisdom, He would provide it liberally without reproach (James 1:5-7). We do not have to live in crippling doubt, when we can ask in faith and receive anything from the Lord that is in accorance with His will (John 14:13-14). He will help us with our unbelief, if we make the commitment to believe (Mark 9:24).

Prayer:

Lord God, you gave us the heavens, the earth, the sea and everything in them. You give us rain and fruitful seasons and the beauty of nature. You fill our hearts with gladness. You do all of this to prove Your existence (Romans 1:20; Acts 14:15-18). Yet, people persist in rejecting You and denying Your reality. Father, forgive them, because they are blinded by the god of this age (2 Corinthians 4:4). Please remove Satan’s deception from their lives and set them free to believe in Your majesty and power.

Thought for the Day:

God have mercy on those who doubt. – Jude 1:22

The Wisdom of Mankind

Read: John 3:16-18

“For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength.” -

1 Corinthians 1:25

When people attempt to understand the things of the Spirit with their human mind, they have no success. People without God’s Spirit dwelling within them do not accept the Truth that comes from God, because it sounds foolish to them. They cannot understand God’s Truths, because it is spiritually discerned and cannot be received by an unregenerate mind (1 Corinthians 2:14). Unbelievers look at the various points of the Gospel and ridicule it as ludicrous. It makes no sense to them at all. They think they are wise, but the Bible calls them fools (Psalm 14:1, 53:1).

These atheistic people divide the world, because they follow mere natural instincts and they do not have the Spirit of God within them (Jude 1:19). They say that if there is a God, He is an omnipotent being who is playing a game with humanity through an elaborate scheme, which to them does not make any sense at all. God designed the message of the cross this way. It is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God (1 Corinthians 1:18). What they fail to take into consideration is that their spirit is dead in sin. They cannot possibly understand the Gospel, because they cannot see it from its spiritual perspective. They are not willing to surrender their life to God.

They live by a worldly philosophy derived from a perception without Christ dwelling within them. Therefore, they cannot receive Jesus, because they are not looking for Him and they do not recognize Him or His work in the world. Only Born Again Believers know Him, because He lives in us through His resurrection from the dead and ascension into Heaven (John 14:7). We actually preach Christ crucified, and this is a stumbling block to Jews, as well as to every other culture, which foolishly cling to unbelief (1 Corinthians 1:23).

The Holy Spirit clearly states that even some people who were taught the Truth will abandon their beliefs and follow deceiving spirits (1 John 5:19). They consider the Gospel to be idiotic, and they are too smart to waste time with religion. These unbelievers are controlled by their sinful, unconverted nature. They do not have the Spirit of Christ, because they have not repented of their sins and they do not believe in Christ as their Savior. They do not belong to Christ. Their thinking does not come from heaven. It is secular, unspiritual and from the devil (James 3:15).

God is pleased through the foolishness of the Gospel of Christ to save those who choose to believe (1 Corinthians 1:21). We belong to Christ and live by His Spirit, because the Spirit of God lives in us (Romans 8:9). The Spirit of Truth came into the world at Pentecost, and He guides us into all truth even now. The Spirit will not speak about Himself, but He speaks only what He hears from the Father, and He even tells us about what is yet to come (John 16:13). Our Heavenly Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in Him for salvation shall have eternal life. He will raise us all up at the last day to live with Him in the New Heaven and the New Earth for eternity (John 6:40; Revelation 21:1). Unfortunately, unbelievers condemn themselves to spend eternity in the torments of hell (John 3:18).

Prayer:

Father God, those who obey Your commands live in You, and You live in them. And this is how we know that You live in us: We know it by the Spirit, which You gave us (1 John 3:24; John 8:47). We are from You, and whoever knows You will listen to Your Gospel message and repent and be saved. Whoever is not from You will not listen to us and will hard-heartedly reject Your Truth and believe Satan’s lie instead (1 John 4:6). We offer a prayer right now for our friends, relatives, associates and neighbors to come to a saving knowledge of Your existence and to personally experience Your love for them through Jesus Christ.

Thought for the Day:

“The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons.” - 1 Timothy 4:1