The Kingdom of God is within those of us who love Jesus. It is a way of thinking which alters our thoughts which then directs how we behave. God's way of thinking is not immediately evident to us. We have to come to recognize it and learn to utilize it. Most of all, we have to see value in God's way of thinking and doing things in order to learn through his Holy Spirit.
***
YOUR GLORY STILL REIGNS
So much beauty is the nature
That you have created.
The devil was not able
To kill its glory,
Though cripple it did he.
Its inherent magnificence
I can still see.
He never had the power
To destroy.
Wreak havoc did he.
As long as I wake up
To sun rays,
As long as I can gaze
At waving tree branches,
As long as I can
Hear birds twitter
And see a sparkling creek
Tumble over rocks,
Your glory still reigns.
***
(c)Sandra Johnson/Draw Nigh To Hope
***
(c)Sandra Johnson/Draw Nigh To Hope
THE DEAR DELIVERER
Oh God, did you set up
My deliverance decades ago?
Oh Father, did you set the stars
To turn in my favor?
You always come through
No matter what the challenge
Or fear.
You help and deliver,
Free and clear.
To my heart and my soul,
You are dear.
***
(c)Sandra Johnson/Draw Nigh To Hope
Image: Google
EVERLASTING NATURE
I have beautiful mornings with you.
As I sit quietly and watch,
Nature abounds.
For you and nature are one.
You created the beauty of nature
And it is everlasting and eternal.
It comes from you
And never ends.
My love for nature will never end.
One day I will enjoy it upon
The shores and hills and fields
Of a pristine Heaven and earth,
The way you meant it to be.
Everlasting nature.
Everlasting God.
Everlasting joy.
***
(c)Sandra Johnson/Draw Nigh To Hope
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God bless!
Thank you, Dear Father, for your love, which is greater than anything that we are and anything that we have endured.
GOD AND SON AS ONE
How hard it must have been
For you to know, Lord,
That you were the Light Of The World
And To Walk Among Hatred And Blindness.
How hard it must have been
For you to live under
Being harassed and hated,
And to walk among
That determination to murder.
But you were determined
To enforce God's will.
Your Father, who gave you up
To a vicious world of dark haters,
Lived the horrific sacrifice through you
And with you.
I recently shared with someone, who is struggling with this, that it has helped me to realize that My God in Heaven is not like the father that I had here on earth. He is the Father that I wish I had always had, the Father that I should have had.
Thinking like this helps because it takes the focus off of the earthly father, who was never able to be the example of a perfect father. God in Heaven, the Father of Jesus Christ and my Heavenly Father, has come to me to fulfill all that I did not receive through my earthly father.
I am not with my Heavenly Father physically but that is coming at the end of time. I can't yet touch him and hug him, but one day soon I will be with him in my new, physical, glorified body.
For now, as I grow close to him spiritually, he fulfills all that I need in a father. Why call God father? He restores and repairs what was done, not done and what I did not receive from earthly parents.
My growing spiritual relationship with God The Father supersedes the physical needs of touch as I learn to crucify my flesh and bring my body under.
God The Son Cares and wants to help you. Won't you cast all of your cares upon him?
God The Holy Spirit comforts and will guide you to a safe place in your spirit and emotions. Won't you receive him?
Choose faith in God through the sacrifice of his Dear Son Jesus and come alive in his Holy Spirit. Hopelessness and discouragement are no match for power from on High!
People ask Christians to pray for them when tragedy, fear, trauma and other challenges strike. They have not given God the time of day (and we remember when we hadn't) and they desperately want something for nothing.
We have mercy on them because the Love of God is shed abroad in our hearts. We also remember how it felt to be in that selfish and fearful frame of mind. We remember when we wanted something for nothing.
While Our Father will listen to and sometimes honor our requests on their behalf, the best and most effective way to experience results from God is through building a personal relationship with him through Jesus Christ.
It is faith that moves God, not desperation, piggy-backing on others prayers and attempted exploitation. That sounds brutal but the truth can be brutal.
The Word is also quick, powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword. It is piercing even to the dividing asunder of the soul and the spirit and of the joints and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. (Hebrews 4:12) That is brutal. The Word tells us the truth about the human condition.
The Word also shares that what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul. What does it profit a person to always receive answers to prayers prayed on their behalf when they don't know God for themselves? Their end is coming, maybe sooner than they think, and their end is perdition.
We should also pray that Our Father sends his Holy Spirit to bear upon them so that they come into the knowledge of the truth. Let us also pray that God gives them a hunger and thirst for righteousness that they might live in the Resurrection of Life.
Our prayers should also include the request that The Father of Lights will open up an opportunity for us to share Jesus Christ with them.
~ God's got the jump on what your enemies are trying to do. Consult him. Listen to him. Do what he says and you'll have the jump on them too. ~
Those of us who are saved can remember when we did not want to accept Jesus Christ as our Savior. We felt that we had to quit this, stop that and cease things. Most of those fears stem from religion. Man has turned God and the Gospel of Jesus Christ into religions. Religion binds us. The way that many Christians promote religion hinders God.
God's purpose frees us. He is not a religion, nor is His Son or His Holy Spirit. They are. God is and he wants the best for us. He loves us. He simply wants us to come into the knowledge of the truth.
God wants us to receive a power and understanding that we never knew existed. Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil and he was obedient to Our Father. All that Jesus did was for us because the Father said so. The works of the devil are to deceive, cheat, mislead, blind and keep the lights out.
Jesus said that he came into the world as a light so that whoever believes in him will not have to live in darkness. (John 12:46). The love of God takes us out of darkness and ignorance and brings us into his marvelous light. We can then understand and receive from him all that pertains to life and godliness. (II Peter 1:3)
When we understand and accept that God always wants to give to us, it helps us to be more obedient to the guidance of his Holy Spirit. There is nothing there to steal from us and to make our lives miserable. It's all about the revelation of light.
Waiting on God means that when opportunities appear and we make a faithful effort to take advantage of them, then they slip away just as we touch them with our fingertips, we let them go.
Waiting on God means that when doors open and we make faithful efforts to take advantage of them and walk through, and they close just as our feet touch the threshold, we walk away.
When what looks like blessings begin to not materialize, we don't ramp up our efforts and begin to strain, stress and pressure ourselves to obtain, retain and make them happen. We abandon them and wait on Our Father.
These experiences are his way of helping us to become sensitive to his Holy Spirit's guidance. We are learning to tell the difference between the Spirit's movement and our efforts. God will impress upon us when we need to push forward. We have to learn to detect when we are determined to push forward but God has not led us to.
The difference between the prompting of the Spirit and what we are inclined to do is unmistakable. What we are inclined to do we can easily adopt as the Spirit. We have to be taught by God to not mistake our desires for the Spirit's leading. There's a fine line between them but Our Father is teaching us to recognize it.
Wait on him.
God said let there be light and there was light. Genesis 1:3
Our Father is light and in him is no darkness at all. I John 1:5
Those who trust him and have accepted His Dear Son Jesus as their Savior will live in the light of The One True God forever and ever. Revelations 21:23
Happy Sunday!
