Monthly Archives: January 2022

“The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace.” Numbers 6:24-26

All too often we have a tendency to think, “I blew it.  Again.  God is probably so tired of me and my mistakes that He’s going to throw me out.” No!  Read what God did with the Israelites in the book of Numbers.

The Israelites started complaining a mere three days into their wilderness journey.  And here they had just left Egypt healthy and wealthy, free and whole!

What did the Israelites complain about?  Well, first they complained that there was no food.  So, God sent manna from Heaven.  Then they got tired of the manna and asked for meat.  So, what did God do?  He sent them meat!  And do you remember how they repaid God?  They made a golden calf…and worshiped it!

But do you know what?  God still stuck with them.  He gave them His special presence at night, the pillar of fire, and His special presence by day, the pillar of cloud.  The pillars not only showed them His presence, but it also led and protected them.

God sticks with us.  His Holy Spirit presence sticks with us.  God saw the failures of His children, the Israelites, but He didn’t give up on them.  And God sees your failures, but He doesn’t give up on you.

Maybe you feel you are a failure in your walk with Christ; you’ve blown it and you feel like you’re going to keep blowing it.  Maybe you’re in an addiction.  I don’t know.  But I do know that Jesus came to set the captives free, and it doesn’t happen by your self-efforts.  It happens by the cross—the redemption of the cross.

Jesus, I declare that You are full of mercy and grace in my time of need.  Thank You for never giving up on me!

Before they call I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear.  Isaiah 65:24

We read in Numbers 22-24 that Balak, king of Moab, was afraid of the Israelites, whose reputation had spread throughout the land as a powerful nation blessed by God.

So Balak summoned Balaam, “Now come and put a curse on these people, because they are too powerful for me.  Perhaps then I will be able to defeat them and drive them out of the land.  For I know that whoever you bless is blessed, and whoever you curse is cursed” (Numbers 22:6).

Balaam discovered, however, that he could not curse God’s people.  Every time he tried to prophesy evil, he prophesied good.

Finally, he said to the king of Moab, “I don’t know what to do.  I can only speak what God puts in my mouth; I can’t curse what God has blessed.” Isn’t that wonderful!  And just think, Jesus took the curse for us so that we’d be blessed!  You can’t curse what’s been taken to the Cross!

God is so good to His people.  The Israelites probably didn’t even know that this battle was occurring.  They were probably just going about their business without any clue that the king of Moab was trying to put a curse on them.

Isaiah 65:24 says that before we even know what to pray for, God already has an answer for us.  How many times has God protected us, sent us angelic protection and like the Israelites, we were not even aware of it?

Dear Heavenly Father, You say in Your Word that angels move at Your command.  We take hold of Your Word, and we ask that angels will help carry it out.  We take hold of the promise that You protect us, watch over us, and neither sleep nor slumber.  In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

“I sought the Lord, and He heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.” (Psalm 34:4 NKJV)

God’s will is to deliver us from fear.  When I was pregnant with Sarah, my son caught the measles.  The doctor and everyone was frightened.  They thought that I would catch them and that, through this disease, my unborn baby would be deformed.

I sought the Lord about it.  I knew that God had given me this baby supernaturally.  He had caused me to be pregnant even though the doctors had said that it could never happen.  I knew that if God could give me a baby, He could also keep my baby healthy.  I did not get the measles.  Sarah was not harmed, and she leads a very normal, healthy life.  It was only as I sought God that I was set free from fear.

Fear can be just like a pit of quicksand.  The more you struggle in it, the deeper you sink.  But once we realize that fear can be avoided and bypassed, then God is free to work His supernatural wonders in our lives.  When you find yourself caught in the “quicksand” of fear, stretch out your hand to God and let Him pull you free!

Dear Heavenly Father,

Help us today to see You and recognize that fear comes from the devil.  We will resist fear, in Jesus’s name, and be set free.

Amen.

David pleaded with God for the child.  He fasted and spent the nights lying in sackcloth on the ground.  – (2 Samuel 12:16)

After David committed adultery with Bathsheba, she conceived a child and David had her husband Uriah killed.  The prophet Nathan told David: “Because by doing this you have shown utter contempt for the Lord, the son born to you will die” (2 Samuel 12:14).

David responded by beseeching God for the child and by fasting.  The Bible tells us that he laid on the ground, refusing to get up or even eat for seven days (see 2 Samuel 12:16-18).  On the seventh day, the child died, and it was only then that David arose, washed himself, changed his clothes, and went to the house of the Lord to worship God.  After he had worshiped, he returned home and ate.

Many people do everything they know to do when someone they love is sick—some may even go so far as to lie face down on the ground and refuse to move, because they are so consumed by their desire to intercede for the healing of their loved one.

There are times and situations in which fasting is a manifestation of a person’s earnestness before God to the exclusion of all other activities.  Nearly always this earnestness is born of a desire to know more clearly God’s plan and purposes and, if possible, to make a difference through prayer.  This certainly was true in the life of King David.

Jesus, I declare that I have an earnest desire to know God’s plans and purposes.  I know by Your example and that of King David that through prayer and fasting I can more clearly discern the will of God.

And He said to them, “To you it has been given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God; but to those who are outside, all things come in parables…” (Mark 4:11 NKJV)

I have found that God does not want His Word to be a mystery to us; He wants it to be a revealed truth.

When I find passages that I don’t understand in the Bible, I write a question mark beside them and ask the Father to reveal the answer to me.  If I’m patient, eventually God will give me a beautiful revelation.

Once I didn’t understand why God had not allowed Moses to enter the Promised Land.  I knew Moses had been disobedient when he hit the rock twice (see Numbers 20:11).  But if I had been Moses and was forced to listen to a bunch of complainers for forty years, I would have been tempted to hit the people instead of the rock!  So, I put a question mark by that verse and asked the Lord to give me a revelation.

The Lord said to me, ‘Moses DID get to enter the Promised Land!  Moses went in on the Mount of Transfiguration with Elijah and Jesus.’  I turned in my Bible to Mark 9 and there is was:

There he [Jesus] was transfigured before them…and there appeared before them Elijah and Moses, who were talking with Jesus.  (vv. 2, 4)

And the Lord said to me, “With whom would you rather enter the Promised Land—murmuring Jews or Jesus?”  And I thought, “You win, You win!”

Isn’t that awesome?!  We know the mysteries of God through revelation knowledge!

Dear Heavenly Father, open my eyes to behold wonders from Your Word today.  Give me hearing ears and seeing eyes to receive the revelations that You have for me.  In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

winter scene: road and forest with hoar-frost on trees

“Many sorrows shall be to the wicked; but he who trusts in the Lord, mercy shall surround him” (Psalm 32:10 NKJV)

Have you ever been to the grocery store to buy some sale item—only to find that the store had “run out” of it?  You had two choices:  go somewhere else or go home empty-handed.

When it comes to God’s mercy, He’ll never send you somewhere else and you’ll never go home empty handed—because His mercy will never “run out”!  The Word promises that His mercy will endure forever.

There have been times when I know that I failed God and missed the leading of His Spirit.  I have been openly rebellious to His Word, and yet I have claimed His mercy and found that it always surrounded me.  I was fenced in with His mercy, which never runs out.

Sometimes we say that our PATIENCE runs out.  But I want to assure you that God’s MERCY never runs out.  I’m not giving you an excuse for sin because God does not have “greasy grace.”  But when we repent and turn from our sin, He has mercy.  Remember, God’s mercy is all around you and never runs out.  Call upon God’s mercy today; it is always available to you.

Dear Heavenly Father,

We thank You today for Your mercy—the mercy that never runs out.  Your mercy endures forever.  Thank you that it is available to us during our times of need.

In Jesus’s Name,

Amen.