Monthly Archives: April 2020

When I was thirty-six years old, I found myself under tremendous pressure.  The devil whispered to me, “You are just like your father.  You look and act like him.  You are going to have a nervous breakdown just like he did.”

I began to agree, “Yes, I’m just like my father.  I’m probably going to have a nervous breakdown too.”  At that point, the Lord spoke to me and reminded me, “I am your Father.  You are just like Me, and I’ve never had a nervous breakdown.  Neither will you.”

The question is this: whose nature are you believing for?

Do you believe the die has been irrevocably cast, forcing you to be just like your earthly parents or grandparents?

Or do you believe you can choose to take after your heavenly Father?

“Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you” (John 14:27 NKJV)

In this scripture PEACE means “the act of living life at its best.”  Jesus gave us peace, a way to live life at its best—something that the world can never give.  This peace passes natural understanding.

I’ll never forget the night when my father had a heart attack.  The doctors worked on my father for several hours, but he finally passed away.

My mother was simply overwhelmed with grief.  But I experienced a wonderful, wonderful peace that flooded my heart.  I remember thinking several times in the night, “my father isn’t really dead.  It was just a bad dream.”  But when I would finally remember, “He really IS dead,” the peace of Jesus would fill my heart.  I knew, that my father was in heaven.

Once I asked the Lord about this unusual experience on the night of father’s death.  He told me, “I let you enter into a small portion of the glory in which your father is now walking.”

What is that special peace that God leaves with us?  An extension of the peace that exists in heaven.

Dear Heavenly Father,

We thank You today that we have the peace of Jesus.  It passes our understanding of circumstances and of ourselves.  It’s a peace that knows You rule and reign in our lives and that we can trust You. 

In Jesus’s Name,

Amen.

My soul is consumed with longing for your laws at all times (Psalm 119:20 NIV).

One of the best ways to find out what people are really like is to examine their deepest longings.  What do you want more than anything?  A new car?  A better job?  The psalmist of Psalm 119 wanted to feed upon God’s Word.

Once you have entered the world of God’s Law, you become filled with a longing to know more and more.  It is a bittersweet longing, because you become more aware of your own imperfections.  God’ forgiveness will become even more precious to you.  What a wonderful journey it is!

Spend more time in the Word, and the secrets of His covenant will be revealed, opening like the petals of a miraculous flower.  Let your soul be consumed with a longing for His truth.

What are you consumed with in this moment?

“For whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved”

Many people think that it’s difficult to be saved.  They say, “You mean, all I have to do is to call upon God?  That’s too easy—too simple.”  It IS simple to be saved—for one reason:  Jesus has done what is necessary.  It is not what we have done.  It has already been done.  We must simply believe that He has done it for us.

Today’s scripture can transform any life—if it is mixed with faith.  If we call upon the name of the Lord, repent of our sins, invite Jesus into our hearts, and confess it boldly with our mouths, the Bible says that we will be saved.  Jesus did it all.  He paid it all so that we might have it all.

Today, ask the Lord to lead you to someone who needs Him.  Ask God to open that person’s heart and show him how he can call upon the name of Jesus and receive the cleansing of Christ’s blood for all sins.  Let Jesus be acknowledged as the Lord of that person’s life.

Dear Heavenly Father, we thank You that every one of us is called to be a soul winner.  Each of us is called to be light wherever there is darkness.  Lead us to a hungry soul in Jesus’s Name.

Amen.