I Am Prospering Everyday: Scripture Declarations & Prayer Prompts Journal

 

This is the first faith-based book that I've published at Amazon. I am blessed to have designed the cover myself. It's quite a milestone and I'm praising God for helping me to reach it! It is part text and part journal for you to write in. This is what I have to share about this Christian guidebook:  

You want reading the scriptures to make a difference in your life and you read the Bible everyday in order to be transformed. You are always seeking ways to understand what the ancient scriptures mean to you today and how you can allow them to change and renew you.

God's Holy Spirit is always helping you to discern and rightly divide the scriptures so that they make sense to you. This is how paraphrasing can help. We do it everyday when we read scriptures, ponder their meaning and ask God to open our understanding and give us revelation knowledge on the messages.

The 32 scripture declarations in this journal are taken from the King James Version of The Holy Bible. I have then included paraphrases of each one. This means that my understanding of each scripture, through my Bible studies and the guidance of the Holy Spirit, has been written in simple, modern-day, American language. It is the way that we read and understand the scriptures in order to apply them to our lives in a practical way.

As you read the scriptures and their paraphrases, you will find space after them to write your own understanding and prayers. With the prayer prompts that I've included, you can expand your prayers to Our Heavenly Father through writing out your thoughts.

Also included are blank, lined pages at the end of the book, under the title My Power Scriptures. The word My means you. This is where you can make a log of 20 of your favorite, most life-changing scriptures. One two-page chapter is set aside for each scripture.

I believe that God The Father, God The Son and God The Holy Spirit are one and separate in the help that they give to us. They never contradict each other and they each can be relied upon for specific things. The love of The Father caused him to choose to restore us to himself. Through the Son, he provided for that to be done through Christ's pure sacrifice. Through his Spirit he helps us to become more like him.

You will find me referring to each member of The Godhead in different places throughout this book but if it was not for the love of The Father, we would never be saved. It is he who provided for our eternal salvation. My prayer is that this scripture declaration and prayer prompt journal will aid you as you grow in the Lord. May Our Father bless you richly in every way, through his precious son, Jesus of Nazareth, The Christ, the only Savior of mankind.

Learn more here about I Am Prospering Everyday: Scripture Declarations & Prayer Prompts.

Available in hardcover and paperback.

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Listen To The Holy Spirit & The Bible

This morning at the Lakewood Church service, Lisa Osteen Comes said: 

If you don't know The Word, Satan will use that against you!

Many of the answers that you are seeking are in the Bible. Just open it up when you feel discouraged.

When I open up the Bible each morning, I feel like I am sitting with Jesus.

I feel that the Bible is the closest thing that we have to God on earth. I know we have the Holy Spirit and He is the presence of God in us. I can feel him but I can't touch him. I can touch the Bible.

Fall in love with the Bible. It will change your life. As you read, the Holy Spirit will help you to understand. Get a version that is easier for you to understand. The Holy Spirit will give you spiritual wisdom and insight.

What the Holy Spirit hears from the Father he will transmit to us. We sense the answer in our spirits and it's registered in our minds. Like a thought, something we need to know, something to pray for or an answer to a prayer. It's like an impression that you can't get away from and that you know did not come from you. A still, small voice.

The Apostle Paul describes God's voice as a perception. Everyone was saved on the ship during a hurricane because Paul listened.

Philip, the disciple, heard the voice of The Spirit that sent him to help the Ethiopian man in the chariot. Because Philip listened, he was able to explain the Gospel to him and he was saved and chose to be baptized on the spot.  

God's plans are higher than our plans. There were many times that God interrupted my plans and the outcome was much better than I could ever have imagined.

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For Of Him Through Him To Him Are All Things

For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things,

to whom be glory forever! 

Romans 11:36

Jesus Christ of Nazareth is worthy of our acknowledgement everyday of the sacrifice that he gave. He was obedient to the request of Our Father, to his own hurt. He gave his pure blood and his unblemished body for us. Because of his sacrifice, we can 

1. live whole lives here in this earth,
2. have a personal relationship with Our Father and talk to him directly,
3. walk through the Straight Gate and live in the Resurrection of Life.

I created this design to praise The Lamb of God for what he has done. He paid the entire price and destroyed what Satan did, forever!

If you like this design, you can see 68 products that it is on. Enhance your environment and wardrobe with anything from pillows to t-shirts to mugs. 

Find them at my Redbubble shop, Draw Nigh To Hope.

Bearing Our Crosses For Jesus

We who are growing in Christ are called to suffer with him because we are heirs to the throne and joint heirs with the Savior. What does it mean to suffer with Christ? It is not a concept that our fleshly being readily accepts. The word suffer does not denote fun and pleasure. 

To suffer with Christ means that, through the experiences that God allows into our lives, we are able to identify with what Christ felt. Even more important is that we are able to perceive, through difficult experiences, that Christ knows how we are feeling. Why is this important? Because it sets us up for spiritual riches in the New Heaven and the New Earth and for the best rewards. 

It sets us up to rule with Christ. Even though this is at the end of time, it is what those who love Christ are living for. No matter how attached we become to this world, no matter how immersed we have to become in it to survive and thrive, we are always living for Christ's return to claim us. 

Our Father allows trying experiences into our lives so that we can better relate to what Jesus did for us. You have heard it said that Only what's done for Christ will last. It is not only about accepting Jesus as Savior, but also about being able to relate to his obedience to the Father at his own hurt. Since all that Jesus did was for us at Father God's request, it is the Father's will that we experience a little of what Christ did. 

While none of us have been called to be crucified on a cross, God allows symbolic crosses, in the way of highly-challenging experiences, into our lives. These experiences can be somewhat minor or devastating.  He wants us to bear the experiences on behalf of his beloved and obedient Son. Through developing a personal perception of what Christ endured, we become one with him. Not only does this please Our Father but it comforts us to know that we are understanding more about what the Lamb of God suffered.

Does your flesh want to fight with someone to show them that they can't do you that way? Let them do it. Jesus had to let the soldiers do him that way. We don't even know the extent of all that he had to suffer, for it was much more than what has been revealed to us in the Bible.

Is someone trying to take something away from you that they are not entitled to and your fleshly spirit rises up to fight for it? Let them take it. Jesus had to let them take his garments from him and  divide them, and so much more did he have to allow them to take.

Do you feel alone in your trials, as if the whole world is against you and winning? Accept your feelings and continue on in fellowship with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, for you are not alone. Jesus felt the hatred of so very many who were against him and he had to endure as Our Father allowed them to continue with their evil plans against him.

You don't want them to feel like they are winning against you so you want to fight them? Let them think they are winning. Jesus had to be unfairly judged and convicted. Every step of the way of his suffering he had to let them all think they were winning. He had to let them think they were winning as he suffered and died on the cross. 

You want to speak up for yourself and argue with them? Don't be deceived by your flesh. Don't become enraged and allow sickness to come upon you because of what God is allowing them to do. Jesus did not open his mouth when he was mistreated and unfairly charged, judged and sentenced. He had to allow himself to be quiet. Most of all, he had to suffer allowing them to have their way with him, as if they were in control. 

When our spirits rise up in a fleshly attitude against him/her/them, whoever is afflicting and maligning us, we must submit to the circumstances that God has allowed to come upon us. In this way, we choose to crucify the flesh and walk in the spirit, understanding that we are submitting not to them but to Our Heavenly Father. It takes bowing in humiliation, like Christ did. It never feels good but obedience to The Most High God is not founded in the feelings of the flesh. Bowing in humiliation and submitting to God is based in knowledge, acceptance and yielding. It is an informed decision.

We know when God is doing this special work in us because the Holy Spirit opens our eyes and ears to what is happening. The Holy Spirit does not do the work for us however, because we would not learn and grow in that way. We have to do the work of cutting our flesh off from what it wants to do, denying it and crucifying it. This causes us to suffer because we can't have our way, our fleshly way. 

We suffer as Christ did as we submit to and obey God in these unfair circumstances. This is bearing symbolic crosses for Christ and suffering with him. God has promised to take care of us when we submit to him and let them think that they are having their way. 

Bless The Lord Oh My Soul!

Bless the Lord, O my soul;

And all that is within me, bless His holy name!

Bless the Lord, O my soul,

And forget not all His benefits: 

Who forgives all your iniquities,

Who heals all your diseases, 

Who redeems your life from destruction, 

Who crowns you with loving kindness and tender mercies,

Who satisfies your mouth with good things,

So that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

The Lord executes righteousness

And justice for all who are oppressed.

He made known His ways to Moses,

His acts to the children of Israel.

The Lord is merciful and gracious,

Slow to anger, and abounding in mercy.

He will not always strive with us,

Nor will He keep His anger forever.

He has not dealt with us according to our sins,

Nor punished us according to our iniquities.

For as the heavens are high above the earth,

So great is His mercy toward those who fear Him;

As far as the east is from the west,

So far has He removed our transgressions from us.

As a father pities his children,

So the Lord pities those who fear Him.

For He knows our frame;

He remembers that we are dust.

As for man, his days are like grass;

As a flower of the field, so he flourishes.

For the wind passes over it, and it is gone,

And its place remembers it no more.

But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting

On those who fear Him,

And His righteousness to children’s children,

To such as keep His covenant,

And to those who remember His commandments to do them.

The Lord has established His throne in heaven,

And His kingdom rules over all.

Psalm 103

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Is There Anything That We Cannot Do For Christ?

We can do nothing without Christ.

We can do all things through Christ.

Our lives are hid in God through Christ.

He who does not know Christ does not know the Father.

Christ is the Resurrection and the Life.

Through Christ is the only way that man can come to the Father.

His pure shed blood and his unblemished, broken body restored us to the Father.

God The Father loved us so much that he sent his Son Jesus Christ into the world to die for us, so that whoever chooses to believe in him should live forever with him.

Because Jesus lives, those who have accepted him as Savior will be resurrected into life and the resurrection into death, the second death, will have no power over us.

Jesus Christ of Nazareth saves us for God The Father.

God's Holy Spirit draws us to himself. 

God forgives us, through Jesus, for what was not our fault.

Even while mankind did not care, could not care and hated the light of truth, because we're all born into this world into darkness, God sent his precious son, Jesus, to be betrayed, unfairly charged, judged, convicted, ridiculed, struck, spit upon, beaten, scourged, burdened, subjected to all manner of insults and degradation of which all of it we were not told, nailed to a criminals' cross and tormented while upon that cross. 

Most of all, Jesus was denied a way out when he asked his Father three times as he prayed and sweated blood in the Garden of Gethsemane. He felt intense, paralyzing fear, like you and I feel at times.  

Most of all, God, the loving Father, separated himself completely from his dear and precious Son for a period of time while he hung and suffered on that hideous Cross. 

Jesus The Christ, the Bright and Morning Star, the Lamb of God, the Beginning and the End, was changed forever...for us. 

Is there anything that we cannot do for Christ should our Father ask us?  

Happy Easter! He Arose!

HAPPY EASTER! 

We who believe celebrate Our Lord & Savior Jesus Christ's resurrection from the dead. 

He's at the right hand of Our Father God praying for us till He returns for us. 

Because HE LIVES, we will live also. 

He IS the Resurrection and the Life!

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Images Credit: Google

Happy Wednesday: The Lord And Success

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him and he shall direct your paths. (Psalm 3:5-6)

Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in him and he shall bring it to pass. (Psalm 37:5)

Commit your works to the Lord and your thoughts will be established. (Proverbs 16:3)

These scriptures tell us that success is from the Lord. What kind of success? The success that also stores up riches in Heaven. There is a type of success that we can generate through the flesh, through carnal thinking, through the way of the world. 

Sharing all of our plans with God first, however, puts us in a position to experience spiritual growth along with the success experience. To begin any journey with a spiritual mind is life and peace. Trusting God with our plans, desires and goals insures that we will not only advance but will be richly blessed when Jesus comes back. Most importantly, God The Father will be glorified along the way.

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Image Credit: LoveThisPic.com

Only By Faith In Christ

The Ten Commandments are a revelation and a guide only. They were not given to man for us to be able to perform flawlessly. They were given as a precursor, a forerunner to the arrival of Jesus Christ into the world. Those Commandments were also introduced into the world to show man that more is needed because the more that we try to perform those Commandments the worse it gets. Without the revelations in the Ten Commandments, none of us could ever see the truth about our condition and need. 

The one thing that all humans have in common, past, present and future, whether they have any faith or not, is that we all age and die off of this earth. No one can stop it. Though I have struggled as a Christian, though I have failed, though I still have times when I'm angry with God, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, Salvation, is the only theology or doctrine that addresses human death in a way that makes sense to me. I don't mean that it makes sense to my fleshly, mental or psychological understanding. I mean that of all of the world's beliefs, it is the only faith-based, divine belief that makes sense to me. 

Though we can study and learn about the things of God, the Kingdom of God that is given to anyone who wants to receive it is based on faith. This faith is in the revelation that God has given us about his Son. Those who love God through Jesus Christ are never able to make sense of many things in this worldly life. God has presented to us his answer and it is based in faith for as long as we are on this earth. Those who choose to believe in Christ's sacrifice continue daily to choose faith, no matter what is happening or not happening in their lives. Living in faith in The Son Of God can, however, make a difference in our lives. 

Life on this earth can never be perfect but God has a plan that he has asked us to believe in. He wants us to hold to the knowledge until we leave here. Because we do leave here in undeniable death, it ties me to the truth of God's revelation of his Son and all that it implies. God asks us to believe in the salvation of his Son until the end. Whether each of us are on this earth or have died on, there will be an end to all of this horror, though for some it seems unlikely. The spirits of each of us lives forever, with God or without God. Physical death is inevitable. Spiritual death is not. We leave here but we are not gone because the spirit man cannot die. Salvation insures that those who choose to believe will live with God, forever.

In Biblical history, there was a great devastation that happened in the spirit world. It affected every human, past, present and future, and separated our spirits from God. Because it was not our fault and through his love for us, he provided a way for us to choose restoration of our spirits to himself. He made it simple so that anyone who wants it can simply choose to receive it. Anyone can accept and say that he/she believes that Jesus Christ is their only Savior, the Son whom God sent into the world. That's all. 

We don't have to live a certain way. We don't have to do certain things. We don't have to stop doing things or start doing other things. We only need to choose to accept the truth of Salvation through Christ Jesus and mean it in our hearts. The good thing is that not only has God provided a way out of separation from him, he will also help us to accept the truth. He knows the hearts of every man and knows those who would like to believe and accept. He's a good God, the only wise God and the one true God. No one has ever lost out on a chance to accept Jesus as their Savior and never will. He's so very merciful and it is his desire that everyone should be saved.

I Timothy 2:4-7

Let The Old Man Die

Let's be obedient to God to our hurt. To the hurt of our flesh. Jesus was obedient to God to his hurt. What he endured for us was hurtful to the human part of him, as well as to the spiritual, divine part. His flesh shrunk from what he had to do. He came here to do it but he experienced dread, just like we do. 

He was so distressed that he asked his Father three times if it could be done some other way. Like the obedient Son that he is, he ended his supplication with Nevertheless, not my will but thy will be done. 

We are not even being asked to allow our bodies to be abused, scourged and nailed to a cross. We're only being asked to allow our old man to die. Daily.

Ephesians 4:22-24

Romans 6:6-12

II Corinthians 5:17-19

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