John 2:3 And when they ran out of wine, the mother of Jesus said to Him, “They have no wine.”

Have you raised your son or daughter in church, with prayers and setting the example of a Christian life?  When you child reached that certain age, did they go off into the world?

If so, I am sure you feel helpless.  Many things can go through your mind, the main one guilt and condemnation, which comes from the enemy.

Mary knew who her Son was.  Here she is telling Jesus that the wedding party had run out of wine.   Mary knew what He was capable of doing.  She knew her son was the Son of God.  Luke 1:35

When she mentions they have no wine, Jesus replied that his hour has not yet come.  But  if you continue reading, almost immediately Jesus turned the water into wine and  performed his first miracle.

So what happened? 

FAITH

It was Mary’s faith in her Son that caused the first miracle to occur in the Bible.

Guess what, you  know who your son or daughter is too.  We have a scriptural promise in Proverbs 22: 6 which says: Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.

Has the Lord given you a glimpse of what your child’s life will be like when they walk His path? If so, use that in your prayer time.  Remind the Lord and the enemy the call of God upon your child’s life.  Declare that they are redeemed and purchased with the blood of the lamb, and bound to the Kingdom of Heaven. 

What am I saying? 

FIGHT!

Your child  may taste the world, but eventually they will grow tired of it and return to their first love.  I have heard many a testimony of parents that never stop praying for their children, and rejoice when they renew their committment with the Lord.

With God, there is no age limit!

But what if your child has not been raised in the church?  Pray, and believe that they will come to know Jesus, and don’t stop praying.  The Lord will honor your prayer, and it is His desire that all come to know Him.

Acts 16:31 “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.”

Believe in Jesus, believe in His Son, and see your miracle come to pass.

May you be richly blessed this day.

In Genesis Chapter 2, we read how the Lord God planted a garden called Eden.  In that garden there were many trees that were pleasant to eat, such as the  The Tree of Life. The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil was also in the garden that God planted.  Later,  God took man and placed him  in the Garden of Eden to tend and to keep it.  There was only one directive the Lord gave him. He was to  eat of every tree including the Tree of Life, but to abstain from eating from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.

We all  know how the story went.  Adam and Eve sinned by eating  the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.  Their eyes were opened  and they realized that they were naked.  Because of their sin, God took them out of the Garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken.  Genesis 3:23

You may ask yourself, why did God ask Adam where he was?  Doesn’t God know everything? Of course God knows everything, but sometimes it’s those moments that we need to hear for ourselves and answer the question, where am I? 

Where Are You?

I have had to ask myself that question.  Where am I, what is it that I am to do next?  I have accomplished certain thing in my life, so where do I go from here? What areas in my life need improving?  What are my weak areas? Where am I with my goals and aspirations?  Where am I in hearing His voice clearly for guidance, and  am I  listening?

While Adam and Eve sinned by eating from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, we still have the Tree of Life at our disposal, and that tree being  Jesus.

Perhaps we have failed with our goals, aspirations, and maybe life just got the better of us and we let some people down.  But guess what, we are no longer under the law, for the letter kills but the spirit brings life.

While we may not know exactly where we are, God does know.  He knows that you have a hope and a future, and that He loves you so much that He sent His Son to be a ransom for our sin, and we can continue to partake of the Tree of Life fully, to establish and prosper us.  

Now that  you know where you are, walk forward with the confidence in the Lord to your next goal or aspiration.

May you be richly blessed this day.

Isaiah 6:8  Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying:“ Whom shall I send, And who will go for Us?” Then I said, “Here am I! Send me.”

How many of you have been guilty of procrastination?   I know that I have, and at times find myself falling into it.  Webster’s defines procrastination as  putting off or delaying, especially something requiring immediate attention.

If I procrastinate in certain areas of my life, how many times do I make the Lord wait?  How many times has the Holy Spirit  nudged me to do something, but excuses abound. 

• There’s no hurry
• I can do that later
• There’s time
• I don’t have the right materials

Yet I procrastinate. 

Wait, I have  better excuses.

• God does not want me to do or say that
• I’m not qualified
• I’m not ready
• I need confirmation by at least ten people
• I don’t have room to hold meetings

Can you imagine God’s frustration with me?  I can.

Guess what.  God want’s you, yes you to carry out His work upon the earth.  He is calling His bride, and it is He that has placed that burning desire in your heart.

Jesus is coming back soon, very soon, and God needs us to do the work before His return.

So what set’s us apart from the rest?

We are mature Christians

We don’t drink milk any longer, but eat  meat.  God is the one that qualifies, and not man.  God knows you are ready, willing and able.  God gives us the courage to go forward, and it is He we put our trust in.  God has put our faith and trust in us, and we can go ahead and do what we have always wanted to do, for Him, and for us.  

Yes, there is personal satisfaction that comes with accomplishing something, and that encourages us and motivates us to go forward and do more.

Shake off that procrastination, and gear up and roar like that mighty lion and let His voice be heard throughout the earth.

May you be richly blessed!

Blue Tanager

Jeremiah 33:3 Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.

Today a bird flew into our window, just like the one in the picture.  It happens every so often. When that happens we rush to see if the bird will make it.  Fortunately this one did. He was knocked out for a bit then was able to fly away. As this happened I thought to myself, could there be a spiritual lesson in this?

Look before you fly, well that does not really apply to us, or could it?

Have you ever rushed into things, so excited for a new opportunity that you run straight for it and fall to the ground  because it was not of the Lord?  I have, and more than once!

One of the Lord’s promises  is  that we can call on Him, and He will show us great and mighty things that we do not know.  The bird did not know the window was there.  When I made my mistakes, I did not know that I was going to fail, but fail I did and gloriously.

When we make mistakes, we learn and grow from them.  They are beneficial to us, it’s a necessary part of our growth.  With our mistakes we gain wisdom and in turn can help others.  So mistakes are not all that bad.

Our windows

Before you see that next ”window”, take a moment and ask the Lord if this is the direction He would want you  on.  If you ask, He will tell you.  Also ask others to pray for you to help you make that right decision and avoid a detour.  Praise God for His grace, for when those mistakes happen in our life we are able to stand back up and continue our walk with Him.

May you be richly blessed.

As a believer, I have learned that trying something on my own strength does not work for me.    Instead, I have to trust the Holy Spirit to help me with what  I want to accomplish.

As I was making a mental list of goals and what I want to fulfill this year, I was surprised to see that I had already begun.  

Here is a partial list:

Pray more.     I have two journals for my prayer time.   One is my regular journal where I write out my prayers, petitions for myself and others, and write what I hear the Lord say. My second journal is my dream journal.  Since I  dream often, I found that I needed a separate notebook for my dreams.   At one point I had both prayer and dream journal in one notebook, but that did not work out.    Having them separate makes it easier when I need to look something up.

I enjoy  praying for people. I find great joy in hearing that their requests  have been answered, the ministries are growing, lives are being touched, and healings are taking place.   

Bible reading.   I read from the Old and New Testament, and  I also read a chapter of Proverbs a day. While reading, I ask for wisdom, insight and revelation.   

Write – A few years ago I began strong with the desire to write, during the course of life it was lost, and now the Lord has given it back to me.  I plan to write what He has called me to write. 

The believer wants to read the Bible more, pray more, hear the voice of the Lord, fellowship, be involved in church, but  these  are not possible on our own effort.   It takes the Holy Spirit to guide us and help us.  We know we need to do these things, and I have learned that to accomplish these tasks I had to ask for one thing.  Desire.

When we feel obligated to do something, then the passion is no longer there.  If I feel obligated to read my Bible, then what I read is not helping me much.  But if I have a desire to read, then the words become alive. 

Ask the Lord to give you a desire to fulfill your dreams, goals and to give you passion.  Doing it on your own strength may lead to failure, but with the help of the Holy Spirit you are destined to be fruitful.

May you have a blessed and wonderful New Year, and may this coming year draw you closer to the Lord.

I just started following a new writing blog that has greatly encouraged me.  For quite some time I have had a desire to write, but through life’s circumstances my desire for writing disappeared. It was not until I had some wonderful people pray for me and it was discovered that the enemy stole my gift!  Since he was found out, he had to return it and I am back writing again.

In this blog post, the writer  challenges us to call ourselves ‘writers.”  That sparked something in me, and not only does God call us many wonderful things and His promises are true, it’s important that we call ourselves what  the Lord shows us and  yes, what we desire to be.

Besides writing, The Lord has also called me to preach, and that is something I already do.  So I thought, what else has the Lord called me to do and be?  Are the gifts and calling limited to just one or two  things, or many things?

What has He called you?  What is your desire?  It’s not what people label you but it’s what you label yourself that will make the biggest impact on others.

Are you a missionary, evangelist, exhorter?  What a about a prophet?  Maybe you have the gift of service, helps or administration and don’t feel qualified for the job.  Qualification begins from inside out. Trust me, that is how it starts, I have been there!  Once you “believe ”  that  the Lord has called you and has given you a gift, it will only be natural for you to  operate in that gift and then it will show on the outside.

Maybe you were like me, where the gift was gone, stolen. God gives life to the dead and calls those things that are not as though they are.  Reclaim what is yours, and begin walking out your gift today, not tomorrow but today.

May you be richly blessed this day!

In times of famine, you will have an abundance.

The Lord woke me up with those words a few days ago, it was about 4:30 a.m.  As I jumped out of bed, at first I was happy that I would have an abundance and began praying and praising the Lord.  But the more I thought about what I heard,  I realized that perhaps we are nearing  a time of famine, and maybe we are to do something about it.

I was then reminded about the story of Joseph, how the Lord gave him the interpretation of the dream Pharaoh had regarding the seven fine looking and fat cows, and another seven  ugly looking and gaunt cows.  Pharoah then  had a second dream  with seven heads of grain, plump and good,  and seven thin heads of grain that devoured the seven plump and good grains.  See Genesis 41.

The interpretation the Lord gave Joseph was that there would be seven years of abundance,  and seven years of famine.

In those first seven years, Joseph,  now appointed as Pharaohs right hand man, stored up enough grain in preparation for the famine that lied ahead.  When the famine hit, Egypt had enough grain stored for the people.

The end result:  Egypt did not suffer the consequence  which affected the other lands,  because they heeded the warning the Lord had given them through Joseph.

In all of this, are we to prepare for  a time of famine, or is the Lord giving me another message?  I believe we are to prepare for the worst, and hope for the best. It’s no secret that the economy worldwide is in shambles, held up artificially and could collapse at any time.  If  and when that happens, what comes next?   For me it would be hard to imagine since I have never experienced a depression, war or famine in my lifetime.

What I do know is that there will be famine, and it’s supported Biblically.  Like Joseph, we can prepare and store, seek His wisdom and guidance, and trust in Jesus.

May you be richly blessed this day.

The story of Elijah and Elijah is one that I never grow tired of reading or hearing about.  I love reading about Elisha’s devotion to Elijah, and his love for him.

Elisha being a prophet knew that the Lord was ready to take Elijah.  During this time, Elijah was asking Elisha to stay behind as he had to go to Bethel and then to Jericho, but he wouldn’t.   He responded that he would not leave him, and he kept true to his word.

Elisha  focus was to stay near Elijah. When Elijah asked him what he wanted, Elisha responded that he wanted a double portion of his Spirit.  His request would be  granted if Elisha was able to keep his eye on him, and on nothing else.

While the sons of the prophets stayed at a distance, Elisha was right by Elijah’s side.  Then it  happened.  The chariot of fire appeared with horses of fire, it separated Elijah and Elisha, and Elijah  went up by a whirlwind to heaven.  Elisha saw it and cried out, then saw him no more.   Elisha then took up Elijah mantle, and now the anointing rested upon Elisha.

This is a powerful  lesson we need  learn: stay focused on our vision, don’t be   distracted when “fire” comes near us, and never ever watch from a distance.  We are to keep our focus on God, his plan and his promises for our life,  lest the mantle fall and another takes it.

May all of us keep our focus on God,  appreciate the anointing and be willing to stand next to the fire to receive it.