Are You Doing What You Need To Do?!

There are things we must do on a daily basis to keep ourselves in a place where God can actively bless us, and to keep ourselves away from all that is unlike Him, and those things that would drag us down spiritually.

Attacks will come our way. Were it not for the preserving grace of God, none of us would make it. Clearly, we are preserved, protected, and kept by the power of God.

BUT ARE YOU DOING EVERYTHING YOU SHOULD BE DOING TO STAY SAFE IN GOD'S PROTECTION AND SECURE IN HIS BLESSINGS? Many people just complain and live in defeat. Always tired. Always under attack. Always struggling. Always doubting. Always speaking negative words. These same people never push. Never go the extra step. Never visualize absolute victory in their mind. Never speak positive, life-filled, victorious words. They never make the most of God given opportunities. Never fully USE their God given talents. These are the folks that BLAME God and others for their defeat. They blame everyone and everything for their dreams not coming true.

The hard cold truth is that defeat is often nobody's fault but your own. Look at your days. Have you been doing what you need to do?! Have you been seeking God in each task and in each day?! Sadly, most of His children do not.

Well if you are not doing your part you have no-one to blame except YOURSELF! Every day you must take a look at your day and determine in your heart, your mind, and your daily planner, what you will do to accomplish your goals that day and then submit those goals to God to help you push through and achieve them.

Every day, when you go to sleep, you must look at the day that is ending and check your daily planner and determine whether you made the most of your God given day and opportunities. You must ask yourself if you did what you needed to do that day!

If the answer is no, ask God why, and listen to His honest answers. Are you lazy? Tired? Feeling defeated by fear, lack of faith? Whatever it is bring it to God and find a scripture to combat the emotions and thoughts that are trying to defeat you and make you unable to do what you need to do. Winning in the Lord takes work at first because it may seem odd to take each day apart and find scripture to fight with, but it is what the Bibke tells us to do. Ephesians 6 says 'put on the full armor of God so that you may be able to stand and fight and win.' The armor we are to put on daily is found in His word, your Bible.

We have promises from God to stand on to assure our victory. Armed with those promises is promotion, protection, providence, and provision. You cannot lose with the stuff we use. Memorize scripture and walk through your day and your planned daily goals speaking that scripture out loud. Anytime you feel defeated, discouraged, tired, distracted by friends or enemies or circumstances, speak that scripture out loud...and watch God move your spirit in line with His spirit and let the supernatural take you over. There is victory here, immediate, sure, victory when you act in total faith and reliance on God to help you do what you need to do each day! We know that as it says in Romans 8:39 "Nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord." Since we KNOW this, the first opportunity we must make the most of is the opportunity to understand how much He is willing to do to help us win and to help us get through our daily list of goals, so that we can sleep at night knowing that we did what we needed to do today.

1) Time with Him to Pray and Learn some scripture. Learn a verse every day, memorize it, so that you can use God's word as your weapons of warfare to fight the enemy's daily attacks and to claim your daily victories.

2) Make a list of your daily goals. Write a list to plot your small daily steps toward your goals and dreams.

3) Pray over your daily list!

Proverbs 16:3 says 'Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and he will establish your plans.'

Ultimately know and remember that as it says in Psalm 16:8 '

I have set the Lord always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.' Now that's a promise you can stand on!!!

Starve Your Doubts

I LOVE this word. The significance of the Israelites struggles is extremely important for us to understand in our Christian walk. Egypt represents sin. The promised land represents a life lived in Godly blessing, peace, and abundance. The desert is the land of unbelief. How long you roam around in the desert is all about how much faith you have to trust God and get out quickly. The Israelites did not have much faith and so they kept creating more need to remain in the desert struggling to get to their Promised Land. Amazing, since the land was promised and if they could only have trusted God to honor His promise they would have probably passed through in 40 days and not 40 years. God is not man that He should lie.

It was unbelief not giants that kept the Israelites from entering into their promise land. God never intended for the children of Israel to quit or settle. Their wavering faith caused an entire generation to die in the wilderness when God had promised to take them safely through.

A doubting mentality will always cause you to give up, surrender, and forsake the dreams and visions that God has birthed in your heart. How you comprehend and view your situation in the midst of challenges will determine your destiny. On two separate occasions the Bible declares that the children of Israel were willing to resign themselves to a life of slavery because they doubted God’s Word.

Our story begins when the Israelites were about to cross over the Red Sea. Reluctantly Pharaoh had agreed to let God’s people go. When the Israelites saw their enemy approaching, they reacted in fear. Satan’s goal is to cause you to DOUBT the power of God.

“And Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will accomplish for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall see again no more forever.”

Yes they were trapped; their backs were against the wall, the enemy was coming against them, and what they were seeing in the natural caused them to get amnesia in the spirit. Why is it when the storms, crisis and disappointments of life come, we forget what God’s already done to deliver us?

When God commanded Moses to send twelve spies into Canaan, it was a doubter’s mentality that caused the Israelites to renounce the promises of God a second time.

“But the men who had gone up with him said, ‘We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we.’” (Num 13:31 NKJ)

Once the Israelites saw the giants, they became discouraged. Satan will use discouragement to cause you to doubt the plan God has for your life. The enemy uses doubt and discouragement to “neutralize” and stop your actions. Discouragement is a tool the devil uses to “cut short” your vision. The devil wants to keep you from moving forward. When Satan desires to paralyze you, he uses doubt to cause you to “conform” to your present situation.
Did you know that how you view yourself in relation to your problems could change your whole future?

Remember that faith is confidence in the integrity of God. He is not man that He should lie. Today, I challenge you to feed your faith and starve your doubts.

Scriptures Of The Day: “And Moses said to the people, 'Do not be afraid. Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will accomplish for you today'" - Exodus 14:13

God also said, "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go." - Joshua 1:9

Does any of what God says about your life and your situation include doubting...especially doubt to the point of giving up, quitting, or getting discouraged in the work left to do?

Remember these promises to us. And know that what He says is true when He tells us in Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a sure future."

FEED your FAITH with scripture. STARVE your DOUBTS with scripture. KNOW God's WORD. Plant it in your heart that you may win! It's powerful stuff!!!

God Can Use YOU!

I awoke a week ago after a restless night filled with something more like crying out to God more than praying. I needed answers to a HUGE question. What the Lord gave me was this message: God Can Use You! I still had questions. God can use me where? here? how? when? Well, within 24 hours I was sent, released, assigned, if you will. Since then my goal is to continue to trust Him when your whole week, month, year, and plan get's re-assigned.

It absolutely thrills me when I think that the God of heaven can actually use me! It blows my mind that I can be an instrument to accomplish His will...just like the land on which abundant rain falls.

Faithful Christians are the tools God uses to do great things that have eternal value. He uses His followers as witnesses to the entire earth to tell everyone about Him and His love. When you stop to think about it, you and I can truly alter the course of history and the world!

Unfortunately, some people are not being used by God because they are either unwilling or unfaithful.

It is said that Leon Trotsky, who was a key part of the Communist revolution in Russia, actually attended a Sunday school class one day during a visit to America. But the teacher of the class was absent that morning, and did not bother to get a substitute. So no one taught the Bible that morning, and as far as anyone knows, Trotsky never attended church again.

What if someone had been faithful enough to show up that Sunday morning? It may have helped to alter history!

All that God asks of us is to make ourselves available to Him. Tell the Lord today that you want to faithfully serve Him, to be like the land in today's verse that is a blessing to others and is blessed by God as a result.

Who knows what wonderful things might happen when you are faithful to the Lord!

All that God asks is for you to make yourself available to Him!

Scripture Of The Day: "For land that has drunk the rain that often falls on it, and produces a crop useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God. But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned." - Hebrews 6:7-8